Royals Review, a Kansas City Royals community

Overall: C- The Royals are a clear step ahead of the previous three teams, but still have an awful lot of work to do before they could ever be considered a legitimate World Series contender. Unfortunately, the moves the team has been making over the last year don’t inspire an awful lot of confidence that the team is going to make the necessary transition in philosophy, and filling out the roster with replacement level veterans is simply never going to work. With a smaller paryoll, they have to emulate the Cleveland/Oakland/Minnesota/Atlanta philosophies of getting big returns on small invetments, and right now, that’s just not happening in Kansas City. Suffice to say: Ouch.

Part of a cool, efficient, season preview series at Beyond the Box Score. Worth checking out, if for no other reason than to read R. J., a relatively "neutral party," re: the Royals (he's a Rays guy, and yes, from before last season), basically echo three things I beat into the ground this whole offseason. What are those three things? You'll have to read to find out...

Unfortunately, the ranking concerns which major leaguer was playing "most out of position this year." Actually, Guillen is tied for first with Pat Burrell.

This is an interesting article by Sky Kalkman at Beyond the Box Score. His idea is to understand defensive production on an RBI scale, "which even BBWAA members can understand." That's an excessive optimism, if you ask me, but commendable nonetheless. Kudos to you on your faith in your fellow humans, Sky Kalkman (and compliments on the killer name). I came across it a couple weeks back, but for various reasons held off posting it. Obviously, it doesn't have the season's final stats, but I'm sure things haven't changed dramatically. You can read the details for how he comes about doing it in the post. He is not recommending RBI as a way to evaluate players. Here are some notes of interest for those who follow the Royals, particularly given the well-documented defensive struggles of the team this year. No Royals are on the list of players who "gain" the most "RBI" from their fielding. On the list of those whose RBI are impacted most negatively by their defense: Alex Gordon: -23. The Smirk's defensive struggles have been much-discussed this year. UZR had him as the 3rd best defensive third baseman in the AL in 2007 (Gordon was at +4, Beltre +5, Inge +12). But the problems were real. Hopefully, he's at least somewhere between both seasons. I do think that Gordon will progress enough as a hitter that his bat will be an asset anywhere. Obviously, it would be best for the Royals if he could play 3rd. Ross Gload.: -23. OMG this disproves defensive statistics OMFG!!!111 Just kidding. Fortunately, defense at first doesn't matter that much and G-Load's bat totally carries him.* * Update by Pozterisk! To go along with Royals Review's acclaimed Andy Sisco and Mark Quinn Awards, I propose that Royals Review add a Gload Glove Award, given annually to the player whose primary reason for making the is ostensibly his great defense, but actually isn't good at that, or at the very least can’t possibly still be worth having around (let alone extending). Ross Gload would (naturally) win this year, although TPJ, from most reports, would have had a shot. In most organizations, and probably KC, too, the inevitable veteran catcher brought in will win (e.g., the Law of the Defensive Backup Catcher.), but every once in a while, an exceptional man like Ross Gload comes along and surprises us all. Thoughts? Jose Guillen: -24. Note that neither Adam Dunn nor Pat Burrell make the list. Bobby Abreu, whom Rany thinks the Royals should pursue, leads this list at -47. Kalkman also generates lists of players who, when defense is taken into consideration, are the most underrated and overrated by their RBI totals. On the underrated list: Mike 'Avilanche' Aviles. Was there ever any doubt? I realize that some people on here think that I "hate" Jose Guillen. He sometimes bugs me, but I think that I've also shown that I appreciate JoGui's (limited) offensive abilities and entertainment value. I do think the signing was a mistake. What really gets me going, however, is not JoGui himself but people defending his alleged "leadership," or who say that he's one of the Royals better players this season. Um, no, he's not even close. Every decent stat shows that he's been, at best, the 4th or 5th best hitter on the Royals, and maybe not even one of KC's top 10 players. But he leads the team in RBIs, so that must mean something! Sigh. Whatever. I'm not going to repeat the criticisms of RBI as a measure of offensive skill that go back to at least Branch Rickey. Most people do have at least an understanding of defense, though... With that said, the Royals can be proud that, when Kalkman posted this, one of their own did lead the majors in something. Tied in first (with Ryan Howard) among "MLB Players Most Overrated by their RBI Totals" is the Pride of Kansas City: 2008 All-Star Final Vote Candidate Jose Guillen.

Hello all. I'm on vacation again with a mystery wireless connection. I didn't want to take up a whole FanPost with this stuff, but I did want to update people on the Nicknaming situation (the link above is to my original post), as well as see where we wan to go with this. This is particularly relevant at the moment since Rany has finally come around and given a nickname to Butler. Congrats, I guess, to finally catching up, despite poo-pooing our own series. Shall we review the results so far? (If you weren't around or missed this whole thing, you might want to start by reading the original post linked above, then go through each of the following in order. 1) AVILANCHE. Mike Aviles, the subject of so much debate before his callup, was claimed by us long before the rest of KC got on the bandwagon. This is a good one, and it started here. 2) Hoagy Manwich, Team Baby Inspector. It's be initially witty, yet becomes less funny each time you hear it. "Hoagie/Hoagy/JoGui" won, and I think that's the base, but, as philofthenorth opined, the combination of several suggestions into "Hoagie Manwich, Team Baby Inspector" does sound like a Will Farrell or (shudder) Rob Schneider vehicle. And "Hoagie" is clever on many levels -- can be spelled without reference to Jose Guillen but still makes one think of him automatically, calls to mind his weight problems (and obliquely recalls "Manwich"), while also falling into/mocking the "A-Rod" boring nickname trend. 3) RamRam. This one is canonical, as I've heard that it's been used on broadcasts. It feels too easy, like we're running out of steam, but, hey, who am I to argue with the people? So that's where we're at. We've only got about two months before Rany does another one by fiat, and I admit that I don't know exactly where to take it next. I hope that people will use the comment space here to suggest 1) who to do next (that's what she said), and 2) nominate nicknames for the players that are left. Initially, I was hoping to do the bench players and "grinders" and avoid the "stars," and I still think that is more fun, in a way, but people can do what they want. Let's hear it! (And, yes, if people want to abandon this mission, I will resign myself to that, too.)