Royals Review, a Kansas City Royals community

I was kicking around drafting a post on impending free agent Jeremy Affeldt based on his surprisingly good numbers this year (in a hitter's park), but Fangraphs beat me to it. Affeldt added a couple miles per hour to his fastball and curve, which resulted in a jump in his strikeout rate and drop in his walk rate without affecting his high groundball rate. While his past struggles might keep the price down, hard throwing lefty relievers who can get righties out tend to do well on the free agent market, so he will not come dirt cheap. But paying a high-leverage reliever mid-leverage reliever money could make for a nice bargain. Relief pitching is obviously not an immediate priority for the Royals, but if the Royals are not going to spend big elsewhere, this is the type of moderate deal that makes the team better without breaking the budget. Plus, adding bullpen depth would allow the Royals to move a reliever for help in a different area of need (which the free agent market likely overvalues).

• What if Mark Littell had thrown a different pitch to Chris Chambliss? • What if George Brett didn't have hemorrhoids? • What if John Schuerholz hadn't traded David Cone for Ed Hearn? • What if Schuerholz hadn't spent millions on Mark Davis? • What if the Royals had protected Jeff Conine in the expansion draft rather than David Howard? • What if they hadn't wasted their first-round draft pick on Colt Griffin?

Two former Jayhawks, Les Walrond (P - Phillies) and Travis Metcalf (3B - Rangers) were called up to the major leagues yesterday. Walrond pitched for the Royals briefly in 2003 and for the Cubs in 2006. The big left hander played first base at KU but was converted into a pitcher after he was drafted. Travis Metcalf has been up and down with the Rangers over the last two seasons. He looked good to make the opening day roster in Texas this spring before suffering a spring training injury. Coming into 2008 Metcalf held the all-time KU career homerun record with 29. Ryne Price and Erik Morrison both passed Metcalf this season. Price and Morrison are doing well after their first month of professional baseball. Morrison earned a quick promotion to High-A ball. and is now playing second base for the Bakersfield Blaze. Price is still in the Arizona Rookie League but doing very well at the plate.

Article from KC star, i'm sure most of you have read it or seen it already, but its still pretty cool. "He got off to a slow start and is only hitting .240 or something," Randa said. "But this kid has legitimate power. I think he’s going to have big-time power when he reaches the big leagues. He’s got 12 or so home runs there, and that is not a hitters’ park or a hitters’ league." Joe was not only impressed with Mike's hitting ability, but his attitude. "He’s got such a great attitude and knows he doesn’t have it all figured out yet," Randa said. "He really works hard at all phases. When I was up there, he kept taking ground ball and ground ball, and finally I had to shut him down." "I just said, ‘Dude, that’s enough for one day.’ But he doesn’t want to quit."