Royals Review: FanPosts

KU-KSU Links: Battle for Mt. Sunflower!

2009-11-06T23:45:56Z

Thought some of you might be interested in these links:

Nobody gets out alive.

Royals ownership...how'd it happen?

2009-11-05T17:38:06Z

As a Royals fan since only 2001, I didn’t know much about the ownership of the Royals. I knew Ewing died and then a while later Glass bought them. Reading Glass’s bio, I’ve learned some other interesting thing.

After Ewing died, the Royals were run by a board of directors who made all the financial decisions. In 2000 they attempted to get a new owner. It came down to Miles Prentice who bid $120 million and David Glass who bid $96 million. Seems like an easy call, except David Glass (and his 3 kids, though I don’t know if they were there then) was on the Board of directors who chose the winning bid. Despite the lower bid, Glass was awarded the team and the rest is history.

Here’s an interview with Miles Prentice back in 2000 when he thought he had the team won. (By Rany Jaz no less)

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=301

Seems like he would have been a slightly better owner than Glass. At least his head was in the right spot.

To be fair, he was a minor league owner who was going to buy them with the help of other investors. Apparently MLB had a problem with this. I’m not sure the details, but it sounds like he got screwed over.

I would love to hear what anyone who was around then remembers or feels about the whole thing. Or just links to more information about it. Sounds like we got screwed on the deal but this was only after 5 minutes of research.

Royals trade Mark Teahen to the White Sox for 2B Chris Getz and 3B Josh Fields

2009-11-05T15:22:45Z

According to Bill Madden at the NY Daily News, our long national nightmare is now over. Mark Teahen has been traded.

Absolute lie? We shall see.

Teahen was dealt to our division foe, the Chicago White Sox in exchange for disappointing 2B Chris Getz and once promising 3B Josh Fields.

But who will host The Mark Teahen Show now?

Getz, 25, hit .261/.324/.347 in 415 PAs for the Sox in his rookie campaign. He was sensational on the basepaths, stealing 25 bases in 27 attempts. UZR had him at -5.8 last season.

Baseball-Reference: Chris Getz

Fields, a former standout QB at Oklahoma State, was once a promising player for the Sox who had fell out of favor. After posting a .788 OPS with 23 HR in 2007, he was demoted in favor of Joe Crede in 2008, and never seemed to regain his footing. This year he hit .222/.301/.347 with 7 HR 30 RBI in 268 PAs. He has a lifetime .302 OBA.

Baseball-Reference: Josh Fields

What does this mean for Alberto Callaspo? Alex Gordon? Why trade a good OBA guy for two guys that can't really get on base? All of these may be questions you are asking yourself.

Trust the process.

Rays Send Aki Iwamura to Pirates for Random Prospect

2009-11-03T23:12:21Z

Initially I really liked this deal for the Pirates, who during this season earned the benefit of the doubt in my mind. After learning that Iwamura was only under contract through 2010 however, I was less excited. As often gets said with deals like this, "well, the Pirates will probably trade him later," however, as Royals fans, we know that sometimes that doesn't happen.

Looks like Charlie at Bucs Dugout picked a bad day to get sick.

What's your take? (Relevant links after the jump.)

Cameron at Fangraphs takes a sorta anti-stathead position on this trade:

While rebuilding teams have to look towards the future, they also have to avoid the death spiral that can occur when a small revenue team fails to put a good product on the field, drives away the fan base, and in the process lowers future revenues. There is a financial cost to losing that is magnified when teams are uniformly awful, and that cost can inhibit a team’s growth potential in the long run. Developing a fan base is in many ways like developing a farm system – it requires a present term investment that theoretically returns greater future value.

[...]

The key is to be smart about what kinds of investments you make. Russ Branyan’s signing by the Mariners last year is a perfect example of the kind of short-term, low-cost, quality acquisition that rebuilding teams should be looking to make. What the Royals did in throwing money at Kyle Farnsworth, Mike Jacobs, and Willie Bloomquist is an example of this kind of thinking gone badly wrong.

Here's two more:

One Fan's Vision for the Royals

2009-11-02T16:40:48Z

I've had over a month off from the Royals now and have been mulling over some ideas. This is my vision for the Royals in the upcoming 2010 season. Bear with me if you're bored and/or interested in one fans ideal vision for his cherished franchise.

1B- Mike Jacobs / Billy Butler

Obviously Billy Butler is the man. He had a fantastic age 23 season with 50+ doubles. Its quite possible that a few of those doubles turn into homeruns and Billy will parlay his superb contact ability into a .315+ average. 2008 line 301/362/492 (UZR -6.24 2.5 WAR). 2010 prediction - 315/390/505, with him hopefully moving closer to average defensively. As for Mike Jacobs, he should be non tendered and Kila brought up in his spot on the 25 man roster.

2B - Alberto Callaspo

Given his minor league production, his offensive breakout this year wasn't as unexpected as some would have you think. However, as we all know his defense was atrocious, to the tune of a -7.8 UZR. So, some ideas.... With Billy being below average we need someone above average defensively to help cover some of the ground Billy can't. I move Callaspo to 3B where I believe he can be at least average defensively if not just a little better. If that doesn't work out, he can certainly be an atypical DH. He's under team control and cheap for the next few seasons, so he has value. So, with Callaspo moved off of 2B, who plays second? Betancourt could move to 2B, he might be average there. A healthy Aviles could likely play a slick 2B and if he could recapture even a decent portion of his 2008 offensive production then he could post a WAR between 2.5 to 3.5, which is incredibly useful. So, we can keep our fingers crossed for that because Aviles would be a cheap and potentially super productive in house option. Jeff Bianchi could potentially be ready mid season at SS/2B as well. Tug Hulett could also be useful, likely the pure definition of replacement level. A possible trade target could be the Phillies' Jason Donald who is said to project well above average defensively at 2B.

SS - Yuniesky Betancourt

Suck. Serious suck. This forum knows all about Betancourt's serious inadequacy. So, my vision clearly doesn't include Yuni. So where do you go from there? As previously said, Bianchi could be available midseason, but likely not. So what to do? Adam Everett is a free agent and would probably come cheap. Maybe one year for 1.5-2.5 million with a second year option. Even though his defense has declined somewhat in the last couple years, he would be eons better than what we currently have. An intriguing trade option could be to acquire Reid Brignac from the Devil Rays. Also, Jack Wilson has an 8.4 million club option with the M's and might be worth taking a look at if his option is declined. He's a longshot at best though, as he probably wants more dough than the Royals can stomach. He's probably one of the top two to three SS gloves in the game though.

3B - Alex Gordon / Mark Teahen

The most conservative and likely option is simply to move Callaspo to 3B. I have seriously soured on Alex Gordon. I'm not advocating cutting him or even trading him at this point while his value is at its lowest. In my estimation Alex Gordon seems to be an above average athlete so I propose that we move him to RF where his arm can remain an asset. With Teahen's precedent, moving Gordon to the OF isn't actually that drastic of a move. As for Teahen, I trade him for whatever young, high upside talent you can get, or simply non tender him. He's getting expensive, and isn't likely to be a part of a winning Royals team. He could still have good value in the NL or with a team with a glaring need at 3B. And to make my big splash in the offseason, I sign Adrian Beltre. With the depressed economy and his decreased power output, his contract demands will surely be much more reasonable than his currently expiring contract. My offer - $15 million, 3 year offer. With Teahen coming off the books and Olivo as well, in my plan we can afford this contract quite nicely. And we all know about Beltre's superb defensive reputation. This year he posted a 13.7 UZR, as well as a 2.3 WAR. While I know that is nothing to get super excited about, he did battle threw injuries much of the year. Over his last five or so seasons Beltre has averaged out to be about a 3 win player. Not too shabby. Chone Figgins would be another player to consider. What will he command on the market? I love the speed, and UZR rates him highly at 3B with a 14.5. He also posted a 5.9 WAR. So yeah he's coming off a career year. But at 31, with his athletic body he could age relatively well over the next few seasons compared to a lot of other players. He also walked 101 times last year so there's that too. He's basically THE PROTOTYPICAL lead off hitter.

C - Miguel Olivo/John Buck/Brayan Pena

Olivo had a good, albeit unusual offensive season. He is likely going to test free agency. He has a solid arm but well below solid ability at blocking balls. For what he's worth he will be too expensive for the Royals. In my humble opinion, John Buck should also go. Perhaps Buck is a better defender than Olivo slightly, but his impotent arm makes him otherwise ineffective behind the plate. His bat is slow and he is also racking up MLB experience so his 2010 paycheck will be considerably higher than what he is really worth. Therefore, Pena is promoted to the starting role and he will either sink or swim. I then promote either JR House or John Suomi for a cheap in house backup role. Unfortunately these moves are probably only a slightly better than replacement level, but what can you do? Great defensive catchers with above average offensive ability don't exactly grow on trees, so you do what you can with what you have and hope that you're drafting and developing good backstops in the minor leagues.

OF - David Dejesus/Coco Crisp/Mitch Maier/Josh Anderson/Jose Guillen/Mark Teahen

David Dejesus is what he is - an outstanding defensive LF and a pretty decent bat. His contract is good, so unless we get any really tempting offers you keep him. No brainer. I bring Coco back as well. Not on his option though. I buy him out and offer him an incentive laden 2 year deal. With his defensive ability and speed, and an average bat he is still very likely a 2.5-3 win player. I'll take that in CF. As far as RF, as stated before thats where I have moved Gordon. I dispose of Guillen somehow (in a perfect world), Teahen is traded, and Anderson and Maier come off the bench when necessary. This gives us a well above average defensive OF with Dejesus and Crisp. Certainly enough to compensate for your new league average RF in Alex Gordon. Defensively speaking at least.

So my main theme thus far is to do what we can to improve defensively, while giving our young talent a chance to improve offensively. This is nothing new, the Mariners did it last year and the Rays before them. It is now common knowledge that defensive ability is the new market inefficiency. It is also the cheapest and quickest way to improve your pitching as well. Pepper that approach along with a couple good free agent signings and you have a competitive team in the very winnable AL Central

Pitching staff

SP - Zack Greinke, Gil Meche, Luke Hochevar, Brian Bannister, Kyle Davies

RP- Joakim Soria, Juan Cruz, Roman Colon, John Bale, Kyle Farnsworth, Robinson Tejeda, Jamey Wright

Our top four pitchers will, barring injuries, get 180-200 IP next year. Zack is the man, and a healthy Gil Meche I think will rebound nicely. We will continue to find out what we have with Hochevar, and if he's failing at 100 IP or so, you move him to the pen for a change of scenery. Hopefully he harnesses his good stuff If Brian Bannister's trade value picks up at some point then you make the move, otherwise he's an okay 3-4 type pitcher. Kyle Davies' last chance is this upcoming year as he could be destined for the pen as well. If that is the case then we can certainly see if Tejeda really is onto something and give him a shot in the starting rotation. Free agents to consider - Philip Humber is listed as a minor league free agent. He's worth a flyer. Kelvim Escobar could be a good candidate. Justin Duchscher , Randy Wolf, Carl Pavano, Brad Penny and Brett Myers could all be very useful at the right price. Randy Wolf is especially attractive pitching form the left side. 2 years / 14 million?

As far as the relief core, Soria, Cruz and Tejeda are locks. Farnsworth is also unfortunately as well because of his contract. I predict Cruz to have a rebound year and Soria to be his useful brilliant self. Bale likely makes the team if he stays cheap and he can get LH's out. I say adios to Jamey Wright and Colon, promoting Carlos Rosa and Chris Hayes. And for another LH option I put Lenny DiNardo in the pen. DiNardo had a great year in the hitting friendly PCL striking out 127 and walking only 38. I don't know why he couldn't be a league average reliever. Aaron Crow could potentially pitch out of the bullpen later this year. Nothing earth shattering here, a few new roles and promotions, with no additional funding needed. I see a league average to slightly above average bullpen here. The only unusual thing I do with this bullpen is use Soria more. If he's not gonna start, we at least maximize the usage of our second best pitcher in a reasonable manner. Thats why I insert Soria into high leverage game situations and keep him on a 30-40 or so pitch count, seeing how far he can go whilst hoping for the Royals to notch another run or two. If he "closes" the game then fine, if not if he's used as a true fireman a la Dan Quisenberry. That way we squeeze out extra value by having him out there more often and pitching in the most important innings of close games. He gets 85-100 or so IP in my vision.

This is not a bad staff. With an improved defense I dare say that we are above average. I don't have a lot of numbers to throw at you but I hope my humble explanations support the case that we can make several minor moves and a couple free agent acquisitions and really improve this team. Our best bet is to do everything we can to improve anywhere we can defensively. In addition to that, we have to hope that another year of development for Butler, Gordon, and Callaspo reaps dividends for us offensively.

With all of this I am clearly being a realist. We're not a World Series caliber team. But ideally, we give ourselves a chance to compete in our own division efficiently. It lets us have another year of development in the minor leagues. Add in another good draft and we are slowly inching towards a very respectable farm system that David Glass utterly destroyed from the early 90's to mid 2000s. I also hire Hal McRae in some capacity as well for the final cherry on top.

I present now, your 2010 Kansas City Royals

1B - Billy Butler / Kila Kaaihue

2B- Mike Aviles / Willie Bloomquist / Alberto Callaspo

SS - Adam Everett / Mike Aviles / Yuniesky Betancourt

3B - Adrian Beltre / Alex Gordon

DH - Alberto Callaspo

C - Brayan Pena / JR House

LF - David Dejesus

CF - Coco Crisp / Josh Anderson / Mitch Maier

RF - Alex Gordon

SP - Zack Greinke

SP - Gil Meche

SP - Randy Wolf

SP - Luke Hochevar

SP - Brian Bannister

RH RP - Joakim Soria, Juan Cruz, Kyle Farnsworth, Carlos Rosa, Chris Hayes

LH RP - John Bale, Lenny DiNardo

Fearless prediction with this team in 2010

86-76

World Series Poll

2009-10-31T21:31:15Z

I don't remember seeing anything like this on RR, so here goes. Please vote on your feelings for the World Series. I don't think anyone could describe it as being compelling here in the Midwest, but I am interested in people's perspectives. Do they root for a team because of love or hate? Are they interested in this Series since it involves to East Coast teams who won't even cross overhead here in the Midwest? Am I at 75 words yet? Apparently not. Here goes:

Poll

Who do you want to win the World Series?

Offseason time

2009-10-31T06:01:15Z

Well it's off season time, and the royals have a lot of unanswered questions. Do I believe the royals can compete in 2010? Wow, i think it would be a long-shot, but because of how weak the division is going to be, i think we have a chance. The Indians are going through re building and are a ways away, the White Sox are aging quickly and have too many big contracts to be brought all back, the tigers have a descent rotation, but i believe they are on the downslope. The twins, on the other hand, should be a solid team. Their offense should be pretty legit, but they have a ton of needs in their starting rotation. Nick Blackburn as teams number 1 starter is screaming terrible starting pitching staff! With all that said, I'm still not completely convinced the Royals can compete. If they want to compete, they are going to have to do a few things.

1. Starting pitching. Greinke needs help. I'm wasn't pleased with Gil's pitching last season, but i hoping he gets back to old self. But after that, the pitching staff is open. I loved how Tejeda pitched at the end of the season, but that really does not mean a whole lot. He is going to compete for a spot, but I'm not sure he is going to get it. Banny, Davies, and Hoch are also question marks. Hoch showed some signs he could be a descent 3rd starter in this league, so i want to keep him. Banny and Davies need to be shopped around. I don't know what we could get for them, but they need to go. A guy i would love to see us go after is a guy like Brad Penny. He really struggled in Boston, but he looked really good in San Fran. Hopefully, we could sign him for a low year amount, but i wouldn't give him any more than a 3 year deal. Another guy that would be solid would be Kelvim Escobar. Not a Number 1 guy, but a solid pitcher.

2. Offense. We need bats!! I'm getting tired of Dayton getting all of these athletic outfielders with .230 batting averages. Their are guys out there we could get by trading Banny and/or Davies for. As much as i hate to say it, Teahan needs to be shopped around as well. He has good worth on the market because of how much he do. Before Coco was hurt, i liked what he was doing. By saying that, he needs to stay and remain the center fielder. Dejesus had a solid year once again, and he is a solid left fielder. The open need is right field. We need to get a big bat that can help Billy drive in runs. The other major question mark is second base. Callaspo is maybe the worst fielder of any of the starting second basemen in the majors. I liked what he did at the plate and he is a switch hitter, so he needs to stay and maybe be a DH if need be. Jose and Jacobs were terrible. i don't think they have much of any value, so if it were up to me, i would bite the bullet and release them. I would try to trade them though.

3. Bullpen. The Royals don't have the money to go out and get a top guy in the bullpen, but there are plenty of solid players out there that won't make us go bankrupt. I would also even check in triple A to get a cheap, solid pitcher.

Projected Lineup(this is if we want to try and compete next year, which is not what Dayton is about. He is very future-oriented. So the chances of this happening are slim to none.)

1. Crisp CF                                                                  1. Greinke
2. Orlando Hudson 2B                                              2. Meche
3. Butler 1B                                                                  3. Kelvim Escobar
4. Josh Willingham RF                                              4. Hoch
5. Dejesus LF                                                              5. Tejeda
6. Gordon 3B
7. Callaspo DH
8. Pena C
9. Aviles SS

Royals Attendance Analysis

2009-10-30T02:44:28Z

This analysis of the attendance patterns of the 2009 Kansas City Royals looks mainly at 2 things: Zack Greinke and promotions. I break down promotional giveaways and non-promo days, and the ZG starts are broken down as well into separate categories for promotional giveaways and non-promo starts. Attendance is also broken down by day, and then separated into promo and non-promo days. The averages for the days can be found at the bottom of the columns along with how many games there were in each category. Some interesting facts that can be gleaned from the chart follow the Google Spreadsheet that is embedded into the page.

Thanks to averagegatsby for inspiring me to look at this in a little more detail.

I honestly did not realize how many promos KC does. There were 41 promotional giveaways that I counted. Things like Buck Night, Fireworks Friday, T-shirt Tuesday, School Day at the K, Family Night w/ Postgame concert (though it was borderline), and anything being given away counted. What didn't count? Things like Royal Nite, College Night, the Fun Run, and Cinco de Mayo celebration as there was nothing being given away. So here comes the spreadsheet, notice that the main spreadsheet is not editable, but I have included a 2nd sheet that you may edit if you would like to do your own investigation. That being said, I wish I had more time to actually perform a multivariable regression analysis on this as the results would be more meaningful than just eyeballing the data.

If the Spreadsheet doesn't embed in the page (and it looks like it won't), you may view page 1 and edit page 2 at this address:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AiAOyJUntlZWdDFOa3FtWFRtdUUxd1BJRGJyT3dDdnc&hl=en

Promotional giveaway games = 41, Non-promotional giveaways = 39

Non Promo attendance over 30,000: 3 games - Day after the Home Opener, Saturday and Sunday Cardinals games

Promo Attendance under 20,000 - 7 out of 41 games: T-shirt Tuesday #1, July 4th, 2 times on a Sunday kids give away (7/19,8/9), 8/25 T-shirt Tuesday, Fri Sep 4 Buck Night (kids back in school), Wed Sep 23 Buck Night

Non-promo attendance under 20,000: 32 out of 39 games

Most successful strategy for attendance? Schedule the Cardinals for 162 games a year.

Friday and Saturday are always Giveaways (unless you don't count fireworks), except for the day after the Home Opener vs. Yankees, and vs. Cardinals. Obviously, those are 2 very popular teams here, plus the Yankees were the first team here this year, likely highly attended no matter what.

Having a Monday Buck Night on Memorial Day likely increased attendance somewhat as kids were out of school and it was the unofficial start of summer with the holiday. Only two other Mondays went above 20,000 and one was a Greinke start.

Average Greinke start brought in 24,706 while the average Royals game brought in 22,474. A difference of 2,232.

When a Greinke start intersected a promotion there were 28,968 present, and without a promotion there were just 18,619. A difference of 10,349.

Among non-promo days, Greinke starts outdrew non-Greinke starts by 1,540 on average

On promo days, Greinke starts outdrew non-Greinke starts by 2,150 on average

So, a promo combined with a Greinke start got an extra 590 tickets sold, though I would venture to guess if you throw out the Friday Buck Nights he pitched on all three times they occurred(37,857 average!), the numbers look a lot worse. In fact, if I were to do a multivariable regression analysis, I would guess that ZG starts won't stand out at all as the last home game of the year which was a cheerleading rally for Greinke outdrew a normal non-promo start for him by 10,102. With only 6 other non-promo starts that increases his value by 1443 per game with his final start, in what amounted to a curtain call for his Cy Young season. Factoring that in, it looks like Greinke does not increase attendance much at all (except for that game obviously), but if you take into account when he hit the cover of SI, it looks like there may be an upward trend from that point on or right before it (I'm too lazy to look up the date).

I wish I had time to do a proper multivariable regression analysis instead of "eyeballing" the data.

Feel free to draw your own conclusions and comparisons, and use the editable second page of the spreadsheet!

Royals Want Your Royals Related Graffiti

2009-10-28T21:40:19Z

The official Royals Twitter feed/page/whatever has invited Royals-related graffiti posts.

http://twitdraw.com/9s1rhv Tweet us your #Royals graffiti. We'll RT our favs. #twitdraw

It's actually kinda fun to use the little paint application and I've already tried one.

What do you got?

Plan Ahead and Save!

2009-10-28T19:16:07Z

Anyone else notice the weird ads showing up on RR for buying your burial plot early!

Someone must have picked up on our dark sense of humor and or willingness to leave this world and seen an opportunity.

Two for one!

Plan ahead and save!

I love life in 2009.

2010 Hitters/Fielders - Snapshot of the roster and salaries

2009-10-27T19:32:27Z

Similar to the 2010 Relievers post from several days ago, this is meant to present a snapshot of who remains on the roster, can we jettison some dead weight, and are there any holes to be filled? The particulars about how many batters the team keeps on the 25-man and how many infielders/outfielders/Teahen-Bloomquist-IF/OF hybrids are kept will have a factor in the final roster (please allow some leeway for fudged arbitration numbers, contract minimums for guys like Pena and Maier, and depending on how you allocate the cash contribution from the Mariners for Yuni). But, given what we know:

--Salaries adapted from Cot's, with some estimations made (nothing crazy); wOBA from Statcorner

Player/Bats/wOBA/2010 Salary

Catchers

1 Brayan Pena / S / 0.337 / 0.5 ?

2 Buck/Olivo/FA

John Buck / R / 0.338 / Arb4? 3.5

Miguel Olivo / R / 0.339 / mutual option 3.3

Outfielders

3 Jose Guillen / R / 0.317 / 12

4 David DeJesus / L / 0.347 / 4.7

5 Mitch Maier / L / 0.308 / 0.5 ?

6 Crisp/Anderson/AAA/FA

Coco Crisp / S / 0.323 / FA 3.5

Josh Anderson / L / 0.26 / 0.5 ?

Shane Costa

Infielders

7 Yuniesky Betancourt / R / 0.282 / 3.375

8 Billy Butler / R / 0.374 / 0.5 ?

9 Alex Gordon / L / 0.32 / Arb1 3

10 Mark Teahen / L / 0.334 / Arb3 4

11 Willie Bloomquist / R / 0.304 / 1.7

12 Alberto Callaspo / S / 0.358 / 0.5 ?

Mike Aviles / R / 0.217 / 0.5 ?

Mike Jacobs / L / 0.313 / Arb2 3.5

AAA

Luis Hernandez / S / 0.235 / 0.5 ?

Tug Hulett / L / 0.132 / 0.5 ?

Kila Ka'aihue / L / N/A / 0.5 ?

Mario Lisson / R / N/A / 0.5 ?

J.R. House

Ryan Shealy / L

Ryan Freel

That leaves us with 10 players that have existing contracts and are expected to make the roster for 2010 (assuming both Gordon and Teahen are offered arbitration), and the salary for these 10 is right around $30M.

This group of 10 is short a catcher (or is it short two catchers? can't wait to find out), which would cost around $3.5M if Buck or Olivo is retained--more if a FA is added, less if a AAA replacement is used. So that brings us to the question marks: Buck, Olivo, Crisp, Anderson, Aviles, and Jacobs.

The infield has plenty (too many, one might say) of players under contract, so my guess would be that the next priority is adding a second CF to accompany Maier. Crisp with a team-friendly contract based on incentives seems like a smart move, but Anderson as a cheap backup isn't the end of the world either (at least as we slog through 2010). A CF free agent or trade is a possibility, and as has been discussed at RR, there are some attractive under-used CFs around the league as possible trade targets.

Adding another C and CF probably costs at least $6 to $7M, though using cheaper players like Anderson could cost much less. This brings the salary total to about $37M, plus $41M for the pitchers, and the team is already right up against the $80M ceiling that we would expect Moore to be given.

This still leaves Jacobs, Aviles, and either Buck/Olivo up in the air--depending on how the bullpen shakes out, another fielder (or DH) may be added, which raises the question of whether Aviles makes the roster, whether Jacobs gets renewed or not, and whether the team carries three catchers with Buck/Olivo/Pena again.

Winter League Updates #2

2009-10-27T19:01:28Z

Today the Surprise Rafters face Steve Strasburg. This will be Stevies first outing since his "fall from grace" performance. 8 earned runs in three innings proves he is human. I am hoping that Mous and Bianchi can make it two bad starts in a row.

Check out the updated stats below: Why is it that both Duarte and Lisson look so good in the off season but when they get to the Royals farm teams they flopped like a dying fish. Bianchi is still having a pretty good fall season with the bat. It would be nice to see some more power from him. Hartsock and Sisk are putting up some good numbers and hopefully will be given a shot to make the Royals bullpen next season.

Kansas City Royals
	Regular season games only.

Individual Statistics As of: 10/27/2009 12:42 AM EDT

	BATTERS	CLUB	LEAGUE	AVG	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SO	BB	IBB	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	OPS	SF	HBP	GIDP
	Bianchi, Jeff	SUR	AFL	.313	8	32	5	10	2	1	0	6	5	4	0	1	0	.378	.438	.816	1	0	0
	Duarte, Jose	CAR	VWL	.364	15	44	12	16	1	0	0	5	7	9	0	3	0	.481	.386	.868	0	1	0
*	Dyson, Jarrod	SUR	AFL	.250	4	20	0	5	0	1	0	2	3	0	0	0	2	.250	.350	.600	0	0	1
	Lisson, Mario	CAR	VWL	.333	4	3	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	.600	.667	1.267	0	0	0
*	Moustakas, Mike	SUR	AFL	.242	8	33	6	8	3	0	1	9	6	1	0	1	0	.278	.424	.702	1	1	2
	Pina, Manuel	LAG	VWL	.375	4	8	1	3	2	0	0	1	2	1	1	0	1	.545	.625	1.170	0	2	0
*	Tupman, Matt	LIC	DWL	.188	5	16	2	3	0	0	0	1	2	2	0	0	0	.316	.188	.503	0	1	2

		PITCHERS	CLUB	LEAGUE	W	L	ERA	G	GS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	HB	SO	BB	WP	GIDP	WHIP	AVG
		Abreu, Juan	AGU	DWL	0	0	0.00	2	0	2.0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.00	.000
		Hartsock, Aaron	SUR	AFL	0	0	3.38	5	0	5.1	3	2	2	1	0	5	1	0	0	0.75	.158
		Nicoll, Chris	ORI	VWL	0	0	9.00	2	2	6.0	10	6	6	0	0	2	1	0	0	1.83	.400
	*	O'Connor, Michael	MAR	VWL	0	1	0.00	7	0	5.1	7	1	0	0	0	4	1	0	0	1.50	.304
		Paulino, Eduardo	LIC	DWL	0	0	0.00	3	0	1.1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.50	.333
	*	Rivas, Carlos	CAR	VWL	0	0	0.00	1	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.00	.000
	*	Rivas, Carlos	LAR	VWL	0	1	10.12	2	0	2.2	4	3	3	0	0	0	3	1	1	2.63	.444
T	*	Rivas, Carlos			0	1	5.79	4	0	4.2	4	3	3	0	0	2	3	1	1	1.50	.267
	*	Sisk, Brandon	SUR	AFL	0	0	1.80	4	0	5.0	3	1	1	0	1	3	4	0	2	1.40	.214
	*	Swaggerty, Ben	SUR	AFL	0	0	10.38	4	0	4.1	6	5	5	0	0	3	3	0	0	2.08	.400
		Wood, Blake	SUR	AFL	1	0	3.60	2	2	5.0	7	2	2	0	0	3	2	0	1	1.80	.368

Kansas City Royals
	Regular season games only.

Boring Off-Day Attempt at Fun Thread

2009-10-27T18:06:36Z

Let us see where this goes, if anywhere. Maybe everyone's already hibernating.

Who is your favorite Royal prospect of the decade? (Not sure what I mean by this question, but just answer it... we're off to a great start!)
The Royals ask you to design an alternate jersey or cap, telling you Selig has decreed that all teams do this. So what do you do?
Have you ever had any contact with present or former Royals in person? Any good stories? (Feel free to leave the names out if you wish.)
How many states have you lived in?
Who would you trust more for advice about your personal life: a baseball manager, a professor of medieval history, a cook, an actress.
You're hungry, you have $5 dollars, what do you do?

Television Anyone?

2009-10-26T05:56:47Z

Since we don't have any baseball to actually care about right now, let's discuss television.

It is clear that you Royals fans who frequent this site are big fans of "The Office" (if that ever needed to be clearer, we had our gratuitous Jenna Fischer bikini photo earlier this evening).

What other shows are y'all crazy about?

Is everyone pumped for the return of "Friday Night Lights" this week?

I've been floored by how "Curb Your Enthusiasm" has managed to somehow improve upon last season.

"Dexter" has been solid this season.

"Sons of Anarchy" has been good, but I have found myself amongst an apparently shrinking group of watchers who simply watch out of obligation rather than necessity.

"Bored to Death" has been a welcome addition to the Sunday docket.

"House" has been great thus far.

What are you guys (and gals) watching?

Zack Greinke Trade Completed???

2009-10-25T04:37:17Z

From 'Brew Crew Ball' SB nation site:

Rambling Al stumbled upon a great Zack Greinke rumor. Apparently, Zack is practically a Brewer right now, having been traded for JJ Hardy, Mat Gamel, Angel Salome, and Manny Parra. The Brewers and Royals are just waiting for the WS to end before it can go through.

Needless to say, this is unsubstantiated. I'm wondering where the Badger Blogger is on this story, though. Covering the Zack Greinke trade rumors the way the Zack Greinke trade rumors fear!

Surely this isn't true. This is absolutely crazy. I would think it would take a lot more than that shitty package. What do you guys think?

Poll

Obviously most of us (hopefully all of us) agree that Greinke should never be traded, but if he was what do you think about this package of player in return?

OT: Iowa State - 9 Nebraska - 7 in Lincoln...

2009-10-24T20:27:58Z

Okay, the Huskers did have 8 turnovers but the Cyclones were playing with a backup QB and a backup RB. Our Def. looked better than they ever have. I smell a bowl game in our future. Go Clones... we made some Husker fans cry today. 1977 was the last time we beat them in Lincoln. The victory scotch is flowing and I am headed to the neighbors for more. Go Clones..... Take that Gene Chizek... we now have won 5 games and you did that in two years. Auburn can have the likes of you and I hope they aren't planning on you staying there to long. Go Clones....

Why I want the Yankees to Win the World Series

2009-10-23T17:56:06Z

It is quite possible that my father would disown me if he were to ever hear me utter these words, but I want the Yankees to win the World Series this year.

Am I some sort of closet Yankees fan? No.

Do I have something against the Phillies and/or Angels? No.

Have I been seduced by A. Rod's inexplicable ability to succesfully play baseball for eight (!) consecutive games that happen to be in October? No. Well, yes, but that's not why.

My biggest problem with baseball currently is not umpiring/instant replay, it is not the use of PEDs by players, or the stats/scouts [false] dichotomy. My biggest problem with baseball currently is its inherently disadvantageous economic structures. If that is the case, why in the world would I root for the Yankees?

I am rooting for the Yankees this specific October because their economic behavior is borderline self-satire. After spending their way to the playoffs for a decade straight, the almighty Yankees missed out on the playoffs completely last year. To add insult to injury, they lost the division to a team with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball.

What was the Yankees' answer? To spend almost half a billion dollars on free agents. The result? Not only do the Yankees win the division, racking up the best record in baseball along the way, they do so by leapfrogging that same low payroll team that previously beat them out.

I am obviously frustrated by this economic injustice. However, I think the Yankees failing to win the world series would actually harm the movement towards a more equal economic playing field in baseball. "See, the Yankees spent a ton of money and still couldn't win the World Series! Nothing's wrong with baseball at all!"

Whereas if the Yankees, immediately following the first year in over ten years that they fail to make the playoffs (but still win a number of games that would make any Royals fan truly trust the Process), spend half a billion dollars on free agents and effectively buy a world series, I think that might cause enough outrage to build some momentum towards changing baseball's economic structures.

Obviously, a Yankee victory in the World Series will not be followed by the immediate instution of a salary cap, I'm not THAT idealistic.. But rather, in all of those offseason stories about the Yankees victory, how does their recent team additions/payroll NOT become a massive part of the story, if not THE story? I think the Yankees spending half a billion dollars to buy a World Series immediately following the year in which they do not make the playoffs will make people think long and hard about baseball's economics. Should the Yankees lose, it's all the ammunition that the apologists for baseball's economic structure need.

...or more likely, this is an intellectualized way of assuaging my fury at a seemingly imminent Yankees victory.

Winter Leagues Update... Royals

2009-10-23T04:02:05Z

We can all breathe a sigh of relief because Washington's number 1 pick in the draft is human. Strass pitched a terrible game giving up his first two homers this fall in one inning. Now we will see just how well he can come back and compete after a disasterous start. Wood pitched 4 innings of shutout ball tonight and Sisk followed that up with another scoreless inning in relief. Sisk and Hartsock shouldn't spend too much time in Omaha with the shape of our bullpen. Keep an eye on the Rangers rookie Moreland. He looks to be as good as Smoak if not better. Remember Smoak is the player we passed up to take Hosey (with glasses).

Here are the winter league stats so far for the Royals:

Individual Statistics As of: 10/22/2009 02:45 AM EDT
BATTERS CLUB LEAGUE AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB IBB SB CS OBP SLG OPS SF SAC HBP GIDP
Bianchi, Jeff SUR AFL .308 6 26 3 8 1 0 0 4 4 2 0 0 0 .357 .346 .703 0 0 0 0
Duarte, Jose CAR VWL .324 11 34 9 11 1 0 0 2 7 5 0 2 0 .425 .353 .778 0 0 1 0
Lisson, Mario CAR VWL .333 4 3 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 .600 .667 1.267 0 0 0 0
* Moustakas, Mike SUR AFL .333 5 21 4 7 3 0 1 9 3 0 0 1 0 .348 .619 .967 1 0 1 1
Pina, Manuel LAG VWL .400 4 10 1 4 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 .500 .700 1.200 0 0 2 0
* Tupman, Matt LIC DWL .100 3 10 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .182 .100 .282 0 0 0 2

PITCHERS CLUB LEAGUE W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV SVO IP H R ER HR HB SO BB IBB WP GIDP WHIP AVG
Abreu, Juan AGU DWL 0 0 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 .000
Hartsock, Aaron SUR AFL 0 0 2.70 3 0 0 0 0 0 3.1 2 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0.90 .167
Nicoll, Chris ORI VWL 0 0 2.25 1 1 0 0 0 0 4.0 4 1 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 1.25 .286
* O'Connor, Michael MAR VWL 0 1 0.00 5 0 0 0 0 0 4.1 6 1 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 0 1.62 .316
Paulino, Eduardo LIC DWL 0 0 0.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 1.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 .000
* Rivas, Carlos CAR VWL 0 0 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 .000
* Rivas, Carlos LAR VWL 0 1 10.12 2 0 0 0 0 0 2.2 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 0 1 1 2.63 .444
T * Rivas, Carlos 0 1 5.79 4 0 0 0 0 0 4.2 4 3 3 0 0 2 3 0 1 1 1.50 .267
* Sisk, Brandon SUR AFL 0 0 3.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 3.0 3 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1.33 .333
* Swaggerty, Ben SUR AFL 0 0 13.50 3 0 0 0 0 0 3.1 6 5 5 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 2.40 .500
Wood, Blake SUR AFL 1 0 9.00 1 1 0 0 0 0 2.0 3 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2.00 .375

Kansas City Royals
	Regular season games only.

	BATTERS	CLUB	LEAGUE	AVG	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SO	BB	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	OPS	SF	HBP	GIDP
	Bianchi, Jeff	SUR	AFL	.308	6	26	3	8	1	0	0	4	4	2	0	0	.357	.346	.703	0	0	0
	Duarte, Jose	CAR	VWL	.324	11	34	9	11	1	0	0	2	7	5	2	0	.425	.353	.778	0	1	0
	Lisson, Mario	CAR	VWL	.333	4	3	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	.600	.667	1.267	0	0	0
*	Moustakas, Mike	SUR	AFL	.333	5	21	4	7	3	0	1	9	3	0	1	0	.348	.619	.967	1	1	1
	Pina, Manuel	LAG	VWL	.400	4	10	1	4	1	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	.500	.700	1.200	0	2	0
*	Tupman, Matt	LIC	DWL	.100	3	10	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.182	.100	.282	0	0	2

		PITCHERS	CLUB	LEAGUE	W	L	ERA	G	GS	IP	H	R	ER	SO	BB	WP	GIDP	WHIP	AVG
		Abreu, Juan	AGU	DWL	0	0	0.00	1	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	.000
		Hartsock, Aaron	SUR	AFL	0	0	2.70	3	0	3.1	2	1	1	1	1	0	0	0.90	.167
		Nicoll, Chris	ORI	VWL	0	0	2.25	1	1	4.0	4	1	1	2	1	0	0	1.25	.286
	*	O'Connor, Michael	MAR	VWL	0	1	0.00	5	0	4.1	6	1	0	4	1	0	0	1.62	.316
		Paulino, Eduardo	LIC	DWL	0	0	0.00	2	0	1.1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	.000
	*	Rivas, Carlos	CAR	VWL	0	0	0.00	1	0	1.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.00	.000
	*	Rivas, Carlos	LAR	VWL	0	1	10.12	2	0	2.2	4	3	3	0	3	1	1	2.63	.444
T	*	Rivas, Carlos			0	1	5.79	4	0	4.2	4	3	3	2	3	1	1	1.50	.267
	*	Sisk, Brandon	SUR	AFL	0	0	3.00	2	0	3.0	3	1	1	1	1	0	1	1.33	.333
	*	Swaggerty, Ben	SUR	AFL	0	0	13.50	3	0	3.1	6	5	5	1	2	0	0	2.40	.500
		Wood, Blake	SUR	AFL	1	0	9.00	1	1	2.0	3	2	2	1	1	0	0	2.00	.375

‘AL is vastly superior to NL’ argument doesn’t make sense to me (Casey Casem, set me straight)

2009-10-22T17:25:37Z

Dear Casey Casem,

I don’t understand something and I was hoping you could dedicate a song to help me out. I don’t understand the ‘AL is better than the NL’ argument. It is very reminiscent, and is just as popular as, the famous “NFC-style football” argument of my childhood. Which I never understood. I’m technically on the clock at work so I’m not going to go rummaging around in football schedules from the 80’s and 90’s, but if I remember correctly, the format has always been that a given NFL team would play one entire division from the opposite league. At the time that was typically five games, or approximately a third of your schedule. In addition, there wasn’t any discernible (discernAble?...my Microsoft Word spellchecker recognizes both spellings…curious) differences between conferences—no rule differences or room for collective referee bias (like strike zone judgment). Maybe some NFL superfan out there will tell me that referees from each conference judge, say, pass-interference or intentional grounding differently, but with a third of teams’ games being mixed between leagues you’d have to think referee ‘style’ was homogenized.

Furthermore, both conferences have always drafted from the same pool of players (we’re getting to baseball in a second, bear with me). Okay, so, you have the same players, the same rules, not much room for referee bias, and at least 30% of team schedules mixing conferences. But that didn’t stop NFL commentators and my University of Iowa college roommate—who was from the Chicago area—from constantly squawking about ‘NFC-style-football.’ That spiel just wouldn’t die. It was something about aggressive (blitzing?) defense and smash-mouth running offenses. Correct me if I’m wrong, Gen-Xers, but the ‘NFC style’ was all about line-play and ball control. Best I can tell this myth was built on the Bears and the Giants and Emmitt Smith. And maybe the Redskins? Never mind that Walter Payton was quintessentially not a ball-control back, that the NFC featured the 49ers who were the least smash-mouth team of all time, that Troy Aikman’s down-field passing shared at least half the credit for the awesomeness of the Cowboys’ offense, and that Marty Schottenheimer was an AFC coach. Seriously, the ‘NFC-style’ was basically describing the Chiefs.

Today’s version of the ‘NFC-style’ spiel is ‘the AL is so much better than the NL, they might as well just separate the leagues and make the NL a farm system for the AL.’ Every time a player, particularly a pitcher (CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee) switches leagues and goes from being a very good AL pitcher to a dominant NL pitcher, everyone crows about AL dominance. KC Star reporters write absurd articles about how, if the Royals were in the NL, they would be competing for a playoff spot.

I’m not rejecting the ‘AL is way better than the NL’ argument out of hand, I’m just saying I haven’t yet seen an acceptable explanation for it. ‘AL pitchers are way better, as a group, than NL pitchers’, for example, isn’t much of an explanation. Because, if you think about it, it doesn’t make any sense. What you’re saying with that particular non-argument is, essentially “We are witnessing an incredible coincidence. It just so happens that sixteen teams, which all happen to be in the National League, have simultaneously fallen victim to the same deficiencies: none of them know how to scout pitching, and their minor league pitching development techniques happen to all be terrible. Conversely, fourteen teams in the AL all happen to scout and develop pitching very well.”

Now, maybe you could say league-wide rules or umpiring differences somehow have had an effect on how pitching talent develops. This argument would posit something like “smaller strike zones condition pitchers to throw more hittable pitches.” Now, that could be an interesting argument, but does it really speak to talent levels? I mean, couldn’t Jake Peavy just go through a transition period as he gets used to the new strike zone? In fact, wouldn’t that make Peavy a better pitcher in the AL, since he’s gotten used to working in such tight spaces?

Whatever rules or bias-based argument you might make to explain why pitching is worse in the NL…wouldn’t those same arguments necessarily imply that hitting is better? For example, the ‘pitchers in the NL are more hittable because they have a smaller strike zone argument’ would have to also say ‘hitters are better in the NL because they get more hittable pitches.’ Or maybe they’re worse because they get more hittable pitches and therefore never develop the ability to deal with pitches that are higher or lower in the strike zone? Is that what this is all about? I guess then they’d be worse when transitioning to the AL because suddenly they wouldn’t be seeing so many hittable pitches, maybe this was Holliday’s problem in Oakland.

But even if you made arguments like those, you couldn’t make the leap that baseball is somehow inferior in the NL, you’d simply be saying it’s played differently and there are awkward adjustments for players switching leagues. I’m starting to go in circles here, but you get my drift. Arguments for league-wide superiority talent-wise just make no sense to me.

So could you play “Lost In Emotion” by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam?

Sincerely,

Lost and Confused

2010 Starters/Relievers: Surprise, Surprise - not much changes

2009-10-21T18:09:51Z

As it stands, here are the pitchers for 2010. The analysis was to look at who remains, can we jettison some dead weight, and are there any holes to be filled. (Obviously there are some holes to be filled, just hopefully not by the likes of Sidney Ponson or Lamey Wrong.) --Salaries adapted from Cot's, with some estimations made (nothing crazy).

Starters / tRA / 2010 Salary

1. 1 Z. Greinke / 2.35 / 7.25

2. 2 G. Meche / 5.4 / 12

3. 3 B. Bannister / 4.13 / Arb3 2.5

4. 4 R. Tejeda / 3.37 / Arb2 2

5. 5/LR L. Hochevar / 5.42 / Arb 1.5 2009

6. 5/LR K. Davies / 5.91 / Arb3 2

Bullpen

7. CL J. Soria / 2.88 / 3

8. 8 K. Farnsworth / 3 / 4.5

9. 8 J. Cruz / 5.8 / 3.25

10. 7 C. Rosa / 4.78 / 0.5 ?

11. 7 J. Wright / 5.2 / FA 1

12. 6 D. Hughes / 4.63 / 0.5 ?

13. LR B. Chen / 6.035 / FA 0.75

AAA

14. A. Crow / N/A / 1.5

15. J. Bannister / N/A / 0.5 ?

16. L. DiNardo / 6.37 / FA 0.75

17. V. Marte / 7.28 / 0.5 ?

18. A. Lerew / 8.43 / 0.5 ?

19. D. Lowery / N/A / 0.5 ?

Release/DFA

20. J. Bale / 5.12 / Arb3 1.5

21. R. Colon / 5.29 / FA 0.6

22. H. Ramirez / 5.87 / ?

23. S. Ponson / 5.13 / ?

24. D. Waechter / 9.3 / Arb3 0.75

25. Y. Yabuta / 8.57 / 0.5 buyout

Starters $27M - I think the general consensus is that this group's not too shabby. My guess is that, unless one or more gets traded, we have Greinke, Meche, Bannister 1-2-3, with Tejeda, Hochevar, Davies battling for 4-5. My hope is that the odd man out goes to the 'pen, at the very least to be one of the long relievers/spot starters. I don't see a lot of holes to fill, and with some young arms coming up, the guys at the back-end of the rotation get a chance to prove themselves (before they get usurped by Crow et al). I was a bit surprised at how Meche's $12M stands out next to the other guys--it's been discussed before, but again I wonder if the pending old-age-decline means we should be looking to move him (I'm a fan of Meche in general, but he just might not be the cheap option the Royals need).

Relievers $14M - Since the starters are pretty much set, this is what I really wanted to get in to. Seems like Soria, Farnsworth, and Cruz are locks and will be the high-leverage portion of the pen (for better or worse), unless Cruz doesn't rebound or unless Tejeda doesn't make the starting rotation. I'm being a bit optimistic here in penciling Rosa into the pen, rather than a holdover such as Bale - he's cheaper and he has some upside. Same goes for Hughes, although this actually happening seems a bit less likely.

Now for the dead-weight portion. Wright is my presumptive middle-relief holdover, and this seems like an opportunity to get a young arm into the pen as a replacement. While I'm mostly OK with having Wright begin the season and eventually replacing Wright/Rosa/Hughes (whoever isn't getting it done) with an up-and-comer (Crow, Lowery, etc.), this means spending about $1M to sign Wright when he's essentially used as a space-filler. I'd really rather see DiNardo/Marte/Lerew/Lowery/cheap FA in Wright's spot to start the season, but that would be ignoring the love-fest between Treyton HillMoore and Lamey Wrong, so I'm not really holding out hope. For the last spot, which I would figure to be a long reliever, there aren't any sure-thing options. Chen seems like a good fit since he's cheap, can be a spot starter, and doesn't totally suck, but he's a +30-year-old space-filler. Rather see a younger guy get a chance to fill in there, but until Crow's ready, there aren't guys (besides DiNardo, also 30) who can be spot starters. So someone like Marte or Lerew or John Bannister could be there instead of Chen (or dare I suggest Chris Hayes), but it doesn't seem like this roster spot is going to make or break the 'pen.

All-in-all, not a lot has changed. Some starting pitchers need to show improved consistency, and the bullpen's fate rests on young arms and the Professor (and Juan Cruz needs to remember that he's actually supposed to be good). While the bullpen ~~wasn't good~~ was terrible last season, at least it wasn't expensive, and if (when) Farnsworth doesn't pan out (though he did have a good tRA/FIB this season), there's another $4 or 5 M to reinvest in young arms for the 'pen. Personally, I'd like to see Hoch and Crow throw out of the 'pen to some extent this season, mostly from a development standpoint since they would experience a different manner of approaching pitching (to shake things up for Hochevar and to ease Crow into the majors). The salaries seem about right for an $80M payroll team, with just over half being spent on pitching, though I could also see a higher percentage going to the bullpen in the coming seasons.