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Royals Rumblings - News for July 30, 2014

His name is Jake Odorizzi, but thinking about that trade is so hard.

By Max Rieper
Ed Zurga

Royals Rumblings - News for July 30, 2014

Andy McCullough explains some of the Royals reasoning behind the Danny Valencia trade.

"Moose has played very well," Moore told The Star in a telephone conversation. "We just felt we needed to add some depth to the middle infield. August is a very grueling month, a lot of baseball to be played. "As you know, it’s very hot in Kansas City. We just need to add some depth there to be able to spell Infante and Escobar from time to time. We felt it was a move that strengthened the depth of our roster."

Mike Petriello of Fangraphs points out that the James Shields trade was already bad for the Royals, but it may have gotten worse now that Jake Odorizzi has emerged as one of the better young pitchers in the game.

[P]erhaps it’s unfair to say that had the Royals kept Odorizzi, they’d have received the same value this year that they are getting from Shields. But it’s easy to look at the return for Tampa Bay and think that this is now an even better deal than it looked like back in 2012. Not only did they get Myers, still only 23, but all it really cost them was Davis and a 2013 of not having the value that Shields would have given them. For 2014, they’ve made up what they lost. For every year afterwards, when Shields was almost definitely going to be pitching in Boston or New York or wherever else anyway, they’re looking likely to come out massively ahead, even moreso than we originally thought..... And the Royals, who most likely aren’t making the playoffs with Shields on their roster, now have a future to look forward to without Shields or Myers or Odorizzi.

Even Sam Mellinger acknowledges that including Odorizzi in the deal was costly.

Nobody’s talked much about this, but the front office is catching a major break this year with Everyone’s Favorite Prospect Wil Myers hitting .227/.313/.354 and now on the disabled list. Whatever criticism the Royals have taken, if Myers was backing up his Rookie of the Year performance, well, it would be a bad look for a team now in need of a right-handed hitting right fielder.

But Odorizzi is coming on, too..... The batting average on balls in play (.238) indicates some luck, but the strikeouts indicate some swagger.

Not to depress you, but:

Jake Odorizzi: 3.80 ERA over 113 2/3 innings, 104 hits, 129 strikeouts and 42 walks.

James Shields: 3.58 ERA over 143 1/3 innings, 153 hits, 120 strikeouts and 29 walks.

The Royals are reportedly looking at Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon and Phillies pitcher A.J. Burnett, but probably can't afford the salary of either player.

Dave Cameron argues the Royals should be sellers, I've argued the Royals should be buyers, Tyler says the Royals should do something big, now David Hill at Kings of Kauffman says the Royals should stand pat.

Not to get too political, but the President is in town today, and its neat to see the Royals banner hanging proudly in the Press Secretary's office as he calls Kansas Citians to let them know they get to meet with POTUS.

Speaking of POTUS, he went to Arthur Bryant's and they RAN OUT OF COLE SLAW.

"Boom Yosted": the Sitcom.

A former pro baseball player "won" "The Bachelorette" due to being a gritty gamer close to the dirt.

The "Dumb Starbucks" episode of "Nathan For You" aired last night. Here are five Nathan Fielder pranks you should know.

Meanwhile, in Australia....

In honor of the Royals interest in Red Sox starter John Lackey, your song of the day is George Thorogood's "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer."

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