Kurt Stillwell, a Forgotten Royals All-Star in 1988

by Freneau on Jul 11, 2011 7:04 PM EDT in Honoring & Remembering Former Kansas City Royals

After the 1987 season the Royals acquired Kurt Stillwell as part of the Danny Jackson trade. As a 23 year old SS, Stillwell was an All-Star in 1988 and the future looked bright. It didn't quite turn out that way.

As with Ellie Rodriguez in 1969, looking back, it's hard to see how Stillwell made the team. At the break, Stillwell was hitting .261/.337/.428. Or, in the numbers that matter in 1988, he had a .261 average, with 7 homers and 36 RBIs.

Cal Ripken was the starter for the AL that year, and a little oddly, three SSes were named as reserves. 1980s stalwart Alan Trammell was a backup, amdist a very good .311/.373/.464 season. The other reserve was Ozzie Guillen, an appearance even more baffling than Stillwell's. In 1988 Guillen hit an anemic .261/.294/.314 that probably had Dayton Moore drooling. And it isn't like he had a great first half either, he was hitting .263/.288/.302.

Stillwell played one inning of defense, coming on for PH George Brett for the bottom of the 9th.

Stillwell hit poorly in the second half of 1988, posting just a .231/.293/.344 line. And yes, even in the 1980s that was bad, good for just a 86 OPS+. Nevertheless, in terms of his overall body of work, 1988 would be Stillwell's best season as a Royal.

Year	Age	Tm	PA	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
1988	23	KCR	518	.251	.322	.399	.721	101
1989	24	KCR	516	.261	.325	.380	.705	99
1990	25	KCR	560	.249	.304	.352	.656	85
1991	26	KCR	428	.265	.322	.361	.683	89

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/11/2011.

Stillwell would leave the Royals as a free agent after the 1991 season. Stillwell was worth 2.6 WAR according to brWAR in '88, and would decline each of the next three years. By the time 1991 rolled around, he was just a 0.9 win player.

I remember Stillwell's place in Royals histroy because of the controversial Danny Jackson trade, but I had no idea he had been an All-Star. Now I do.

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Stillwell (or should I say Stilwell) was one of my favs on RBI Baseball 2

Of course back in the day I had no idea who Danny Jackson was, so that might have something to do with that.

by bluenm on Jul 11, 2011 7:14 PM EDT reply actions

Danny was also an All-Star in 88

but did not get in the game. Finished 2nd for the NL CY Young Award that year (won by Hershiser) and was 9th(!) in MVP voting. He also made the 94 AS squad and got “credit” for a blown save – facing 3 batters and allowing 3 hits.

Tension is the enemy. - Charlie Lau

by aHorseWithNoName on Jul 11, 2011 7:53 PM EDT reply actions

We must have the most terrible (i.e., undeserving) All-Stars in MLB history.

Rangers, Royals, Raiders, Knicks...the man loves a winner.

by self loather on Jul 11, 2011 8:00 PM EDT reply actions

Dude, Diamond King!

I was all excited about remembering this Kurt Stillwell card existed, then when I was google imaging it, I found out that someone on sbnation already beat me to the punch…

Sad panda…

by Tracer Bullet 82 on Jul 11, 2011 8:26 PM EDT reply actions

I was a pretty big Stillwell fan back in the day but even I had forgot he made an All-Star team.

by royallyspeaking on Jul 11, 2011 9:10 PM EDT reply actions

on twitter max told me that he was an injury replacement

by Freneau on Jul 11, 2011 10:56 PM EDT reply actions

Yea, I remember it well

Because it was the first All-Star I really followed and two of my favorite players were Alan Trammell and Kurt Stilwell. Ripken was the starter and Trammell was the reserve. Then Alan pulled a ribcage muscle a few days before the ASG (and IIRC, he as the only Tigers rep, meaning they didn’t have an All-Star in the game even though I believe they were in first place). So Ozzie Guillen was chosen to replace him, only he got hurt too. So they turned to Kurt Stilwell.

I remember the “controversy” was whether it should be Stilwell or Scott Fletcher. If there was the net at the time we’d have a big showdown with Lone Star Ball, but as it was, there was little sports talk at the time, and people turned to more frivolous things like politics and spending time with their families.

Here are the 1988 AL Shortstops, ranked by OPS+
Alan Trammell DET 137
Cal Ripken BAL 128
Jody Reed BOS 109 (only spent part time at SS)
Tony Fernandez 102 (had a poor first half – .686 OPS, which I guess kept him out of consideration)
Kurt Stilwell KCR 101
Scott Fletcher TEX 94
Greg Gagne MIN 88
Rey Quinones SEA 85
Walt Weiss OAK 81
Dick Schofield CAL 78
Ozzie Guillen CHW 71
Rafael Santana NYY 65
Jay Bell CLE 59

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Jul 12, 2011 9:29 AM EDT up reply actions

supposedly the Reds offered us a choice

Stillwell for Jackson or Larkin for Gubicza. Naturally, we made the right choice…again

The only measure of true success in the NFL is the Vince Lombardi trophy. Anything less is a rationalization.

by sm7600 on Jul 12, 2011 11:22 AM EDT reply actions

I think that's a myth

I suppose its possible, but when I did the write up for Stilwell in the countdown, all the rumors I could find were the Reds were offering us Stilwell or Jeff Treadway. Stilwell was a pretty hot commodity that winter and Larkin definitely seemed untouchable. I mean he was a local kid and the 4th overall pick in the draft – it would be like us trading Bubba Starling.

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Jul 12, 2011 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions

Joe Mauer's eyes are intoxicating

by Sweep_the_Leg on Jul 12, 2011 2:45 PM EDT reply actions

The best thing about Kurt Stillwell...

…was the Royals used his type-A (if you can believe it) compensation to select…Johnny Damon. Of course, with the pick in the first round as compensation for Stillwell the Royals picked also Jim Pittsley and later, Sherrard Clinkscales (sheesh).

6 picks later, He-Who-Can-Now-Be-Named-Cause-He-Ain’t-Gonna-Play-Anymore, Jason Kendall, was selected,which would have been great…then. Damon’s career WAR of 50.5 was only second to Derek Jeter’s 70.5 in the 1st round. With the 10th pick, the Royals took Tucker, who had the 8th best career WAR from the first round.

That was a big draft for the Royals and the first time I really got into the minors and my first BA subscription. Looking back on that draft, it wasn’t that bad, as they picked Jon Lieber (21.4 WAR) in the second. Helton (59.7 W) and Giambi (53.5 W) were taken later in that 2nd round, though. But hey, the Royals already had signed Wally Joyner thru ’95, and Vitiello and Hamelin in the pipeline, so who needed a 1st baseman, right?

If women only slept with nice guys...guys would only be nice. And they don't. And we're not.

by setupunchtag on Jul 12, 2011 3:03 PM EDT reply actions

'picked also' should obviously be, 'also picked'

If women only slept with nice guys...guys would only be nice. And they don't. And we're not.

by setupunchtag on Jul 12, 2011 3:04 PM EDT up reply actions

How does Stillwell compare to...

…Buddy Biancalana?

defensively i think Buddy was way better, but even with Kurts less than stellar numbers, i think he was actually an improvement for the offense over poor Buddy.

by DickHowser4ever on Jul 15, 2011 10:58 AM EDT reply actions