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Royals Rumblings - News for February 13, 2015
Rob Neyer looks back at the 2011 Baseball America Top 100 prospect list, which featured an insane nine Royals prospects.
Here are those nine guys who made the Top 100 list: Eric Hosmer, Wil Myers, Mike Moustakas, John Lamb, Mike Montgomery, Christian Colon, Danny Duffy, Chris Dwyer, Aaron Crow. I will pardon you for being underwhelmed. Here were the most valuable players on the Royals’ 2014 American League pennant winners, according to bWAR: Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain, Salvador Perez, Jarrod Dyson, Wade Davis, Danny Duffy, James Shields, Yordano Ventura, Kelvin Herrera. Did you notice those two lists have exactly one name in common? Yup, Danny Duffy is the sole survivor.
Does that mean that the Royals totally busted on prospects then?
The Royals’ system was ABSOLUTELY LOADED four years ago. Among the prospects who did not make Baseball America’s Top 100 list in 2011 were Ventura (No. 12 on list of Royals’ prospects), Perez (17!), Jarrod Dyson (20), and Kelvin Herrera (30) … along with future superstar closer Greg Holland, who wasn’t then ranked among the Royals’ 30 best prospects.,,,
My point isn’t that prospects don’t matter, or that the Royals’ crop four years wasn’t tremendous and didn’t play a huge role last season. My point is that it’s incredibly difficult to know which prospects will succeed and which will not.
MERRY ZIPSMAS EVERYONE!
Rough depth chart for the Kansas City Royals with projected WAR c/o @DSzymborski. Full post tomorrow at FanGraphs. pic.twitter.com/zC6dAkTc6R
— Carson Cistulli (@cistulli) February 13, 2015
The pennant is practically ours!
Royals great Jeff Montgomery talked to Darin Watson of Pine Tar Press about the trade that brought him to Kansas City.
The native Ohioan had grown up a Reds fan, then was drafted in the ninth round of the 1983 draft by his favorite team. He made his major league debut for them, playing for Cincinnati baseball icon Pete Rose. And then he was traded by them.
"I was excited to join a new team. But I was an NL guy, so I had only heard of a couple of the Royals. I didn’t even know who Frank White was!" Montgomery said. "So maybe I underestimated what the competition would be."
Clark Fosler looks at Royals minor league outfielder Paulo Orlando.
To be fair, Orlando was a raw, raw player when he became a professional. He has gone from striking out 28% of the time and walking just 3% of the time to a guy who struck out an acceptable 15.5% last season and walked at a 7% clip. He boasts a good BABIP throughout his career – no long enough to make you think it can’t all be luck, even in the minors.
Still, this is a right-handed hitting outfielder with good (really good) defense, good (not great) speed, some ability to do a smattering of the ‘little things’. However, he is twenty-nine with vanishing power and is three years removed from his last ‘look at me’ minor league campaign.
Stranger things have happened in baseball than for Paulo Orlando to enjoy major league success. Frankly, Mike Aviles was similarly stuck in the system and not really popping anyone’s eyes and had one great plus one decent season for the Royals. While I will take a shot or two or nine at the Royals’ organization, the fact that Orlando was given a 40 man roster spot at least indicates they see something of worth.
Dave Cameron of Fangraphs has his best transactions of the off-season and would you believe the Royals did not make the list?
The Royals have purchased the contract of pitcher Derek Gordon of the Kansas City T-Bones. You may know Derek's brother Alex. He plays left-field for the Royals.
The Indians will have some early weekday start times against the Royals, with some games starting at 5 p.m. Central Time.
James Shields says his decision came down to the Cubs or Padres.
MLB is considering changing the strike zone next year to boost offense.
In praise of Little League's greatest cheaters.
English football is still pretty racist.
This Montana lawmaker wants to ban yoga pants. And I thought this was America.
The rocket to save us all from solar storms has finally departed for deep space.
Not that many people were watching Jon Stewart anyway.
Why don't we have three-hour workdays yet?
Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner says Season Five will be amazeballs.
Margaret Lyons of Vulture found NBC's "The Slap" underwhelming but Willa Paskin of Slate wants networks to produce more prestige shows like it.
Your song of the day is Pete Droge with "If You Don't Love Me (I'll Kill Myself)."