It's the end of the world as we know it... and we feel... fine?
2018 is a season of transition for the Royals, or at least it is at this point. Dayton Moore is back. Will he swing full into THE PROCESS 2.0? Or will he try to load up again and make some reload magic happen?
Pending Free Agents:
1B | Eric Hosmer | San Diego Padres, 8 years, $144 million ($5 million signing bonus; $20 million/year in Yrs 1-5; $13 million/year in Yrs 6-8 wth player opt out)
Spoiler!
(DI's Guess: Texas Rangers, 6, $118 million)
3B | Mike Moustaskas | Kansas City Royas, 1, $6.5 million
Spoiler!
(DI's Guess: Los Angeles Angels, 5, $98 million)
CF | Lorenzo Cain | Milwaukee Brewers, 5 years, $80 million
Spoiler!
(DI's Guess: San Francisco Giants, 4, $68 million)
RP | Mike Minor | Texas Rangers, 3, $28 million
Spoiler!
(DI's Guess: Los Angeles Angels, 3, $35 million+ $12 million team option
SP | Jason Vargas | New York Mets, 2, $16 million
Spoiler!
(DI's Guess: Baltimore Orioles, 2, $29 million)
SS | Alcides Escobar | Kansas City Royals, 1, $2.5 million
In case I, picks would be #32, 33, and 34, if Alex Cobb of Rays signs for $50 million guaranteed.
Kansas City will likely have 5 of the top 40-45 picks in the draft, and the bonus pool money should rival that of the teams drafting 1-3 in the 2017 draft. This should give KC tremendous flexibility in acquiring talent that otherwise might slip or not be "signable."
2018 Draft Names to Watch
RHP Kumar Rocker, N Oconnee HS, Georgia.
Spoiler!
Possibly goes top 10 but is a big, physical SP with ace potential. Moore and co. will be all over him if he slips a bit and could offer top 10 money at No. 16
OF Jarred Kelenic, Waukasha West HS, WI
Spoiler!
Kelenic is the top prep bat, toolsy OF. Royals would be ecstatic to have shot at him.
1B Triston Casas, American Heritage HS (FL).
Spoiler!
Tremendous raw power, best in HS bats. Royals typically like HS arms or HS bats with "special" tools. He qualifies.
RHP Carter Stewart, Eau de Gallie HS (Ga).
Spoiler!
Another big, physical specimen with huge upside. More likely to be available mid-first than Rocker.
ANY Any, Any (Any). Any current top projected pick who slides for injury concerns. Includes current top prospect prospect SP Brady Singer, U of Florida. [Reply]
@JoshVernier610: Ned’s surprisingly strong with technology, but he was admittedly hopped up on painkillers for a majority of the offseason due to a near-death experience. Some people made way too much out of this. https://twitter.com/royal_champions/...77547942875136
What??? People on CP overreacted before getting both sides of the story? I just don't believe it! [Reply]
MLB Pipeline released its new top 30 for the Royals. As I'm sure most of us suspected, the list shifted quite a bit for the Royals. And the shifting around highlights that there could be more talent than assumed (although not a single Royal was in the top 100).
The first 6 names are the reason to be optimistic - especially excited for Khalil Lee's potential. Those were pretty much the key names I was excited about. Don't be shocked if any of those 6 (particularly the top 5) enter a future top 100. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mother****erJones:
How long do you think it takes before KC is competing again? That’s now 3 rebuilding AL Central teams (Tigers, Royals and White Sox).
Originally Posted by MotherfuckerJones:
How long do you think it takes before KC is competing again? That’s now 3 rebuilding AL Central teams (Tigers, Royals and White Sox).
Going to be 2020/2021 I think, at the earliest.
They need to land some star talent in the upcoming two drafts to make that happen. They have some promising guys that could be solid to good regulars in the minors, guys like Nicky Lopez, Foster Griffin, Richard Lovelady, Michael Gigliotti... but no premium talents.
Only way it turns faster than that is if Soler and Mondesi hit their ultimate upsides. [Reply]
Originally Posted by OKchiefs:
5 years at a minimum.
Makes it hard when we depleted the farm system for a title (totally agree with what we did btw) and missed on several high round picks. We don't have shit in the minors. Hopefully we can have a few guys break out and get some luck in the draft this year. If not, we're going to have a long long time of sucking shit. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mother****erJones:
How long do you think it takes before KC is competing again? That’s now 3 rebuilding AL Central teams (Tigers, Royals and White Sox).
You know, it's hard to say with a team and a ball park like ours. I see NY and HOU being the odds-on favorites right now. Cleveland and Minny are definitely the favorites in the ALC going in anyway.
But the unique thing about the Royals is they can small ball their way to the post season. We've seen it happen twice. DM has made a mistake, imo, the last 2 years going for more power than small ball. Yes, we could use some more power. But you just let Moose go who was arguably your best power hitter. You let Morales walk the year before. So I don't know what that was about.
Right now you're going to have to have some guys step up a bit like Cutty, Dozier, Soler, Orlando. I think you got good power in Bonafacio and Perez. Gordon hopefully comes around a bit too on his numbers. Soler should offer some power as well.
But I think you're going to have to play to likes of Merrifield and Orlando and Escobar, which is small ball and a lot of gap-gap hitting with aggressive base running.
If we don't get back to being aggressive on the base paths then we stand no shot at anything for a long while. [Reply]
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho:
Going to be 2020/2021 I think, at the earliest.
They need to land some star talent in the upcoming two drafts to make that happen. They have some promising guys that could be solid to good regulars in the minors, guys like Nicky Lopez, Foster Griffin, Richard Lovelady, Michael Gigliotti... but no premium talents.
Only way it turns faster than that is if Soler and Mondesi hit their ultimate upsides.
If we can get something out of our rotation it could be sooner. We don't need mashers. We need contact hitters who can consistently get on base and move runners, etc. We need to get back to what won us the fucking WS and got us to another one. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dlphg9:
Makes it hard when we depleted the farm system for a title (totally agree with what we did btw) and missed on several high round picks. We don't have shit in the minors. Hopefully we can have a few guys break out and get some luck in the draft this year. If not, we're going to have a long long time of sucking shit.
Which player did we trade that hurt? Myers and Odorizzi? [Reply]
Originally Posted by petegz28:
If we can get something out of our rotation it could be sooner. We don't need mashers. We need contact hitters who can consistently get on base and move runners, etc. We need to get back to what won us the fucking WS and got us to another one.
With the ball juiced up like it is, putting the ball in play and having a lot of team speed has a lot less value.
I'm all for getting more guys who can get on base, though. [Reply]
