FanPost

How far 12,000,000 could go



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This is my first FanPost so please forgive me if the formatting is terrible. The Kansas City Royals are supposedly strapped for cash (I don’t believe this) but it’s the belief that this year they do have some flexibility in their payroll. This post is not about how much they have in resources or how about they can acquire a big free agent pitcher. This post is how I believe that they can acquire three pitchers that have upside, limited risk, and would not be a financial strain on their budget. Will these additions alone make the Royals contenders? I don’t think so. However, I believe that we could insert all three of these players in the rotation and it would be vastly improved. With that being said here are the three players I would like for the Royals to add:

Jeff Francis: He’s provided seasons of 2.1, 2.6, and 1.8 WAR this past three seasons. That averages out 2.1 WAR per year. During those years he also made 19, 31, and 24 major league starts (this past year he also had 12 starts in the minors, so that’s two years in a row with 30+ starts) Also he pitched cumulative (minors and majors) 200 IP and he could easily be had for cheap. When he signed with the Royals two years ago he made 2,000,000 (per baseball reference) and I don’t see why it would cost more than that. I think he was one of the most excellent additions to the back of end of the rotation that Dayton Moore could make. His K’s increased along with his HR/9 rate. The move back to the AL and the K would likely decrease his K’s but also help out his HR/9.

Price: 2,000,000 or roughly Yuniesky Betancourt

2012 Stats: ERA 5.58, FIP 4.27, xFIP 4.07

Joe Blanton: Joe Blanton has been thrown around here a lot from what I can tell so this should come as no real surprise. He has an excellent K/9 at 7.82 and BB/9 of 1.6. In addition to that his xFIP from last year was 3.39 and WAR 2.4. From what I’ve gathered many think his price would come around 1 year 5 million dollars. That’s pretty good value for 2.4 WAR. He will also only be turn 32 this next season and made 30 starts last year.

Price: 5,000,000 or slightly more than Jonathan Broxton

2012 Stats: ERA 4.71, FIP 3.91, x FIP 3.39

Carlos Villanueva: This one is probably one of the pitchers I’m a little less versed about than many of the others. He has spent most of his career as a reliever while making many spot starts. He has 56 starts total for his career while having made 301 appearances. He has a nice career K rate of 7.82 and BB/9 rate of 3.14. Granted his K/9 has likely been helped by the fact that he has been a reliever for so much of his career. However, last year he made the most starts of his career (16), pitched a career high in innings (125.1), and posted his highest K rate ever (8.76). He did this while only walking 3.3 batters per nine innings and sported a nice 4.16 ERA and a sold xFIP of 4.09. Another reason he is attractive to me is because he gave up 1.65 HR/9, something that would likely be reduced pitching at the K and out of the AL East.

Price: 5,000,000 or slightly less than the first year Jeff Francouer’s extension

2012 Stats: ERA 4.16, FIP 4.71, x FIP 4.09

If the Royals add these three players your adding only 12 million dollars of guaranteed payroll for one year. That’s less than what we gave Bruce Chen and Jeff combined for this upcoming year. I would probably be willing to pay a little more for Blanton and probably add on options for these guys for second years. Like mentioned above none of them are very old and could have some cheap upside for more than one season. I believe adding these three players with such limited risk for one year gives us an opportunity to get lucky and compete. In addition, it gives us flexibility for the future and still allows us the opportunity to sign a top notch starter and improve 2b. Well there it is, my simple plan, feel free to rip it apart now ;)

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.