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.
Current Prospects to Watch:
OF Seuly Matias - Huge tools. Hit 2 HR in Lexington (A) season opener.
1B Nick Pratto - Top pick in 17 has advanced approach and good glove; needs to start tapping into power in first full year in minors. Also at Lexington.
OF Michael Gigliotti - Good defender in CF, good OBP skills, plus baserunner. Next mainstay in CF for KC, IMO. Advanced college bat also starting at Lexington.
OF Khalil Lee - Probably has highest upside in Royals' system. Could hit 30 HR in majors, could steal 30 bases. Plus defensive ability in RF. Nice test at Wilmington this year.
3B Emmanuel Rivera - Really nice approach and good contact skills. Power is still developing. Also getting a good test at Wilmington.
SP Foster Griffin - Made nice strides in 2017. Needs to continue to progress in 2018. Could be a lefty version of Jakob Junis (good breaking ball that he can really manipulate, OK fastball, good command).
1B Samir Duenez - Duenez still is intriguing, hoping for a step forward in his power production this year at Northwest Arkansas, which would turn him into a legit prospect.
Others to keep an eye on:
SP Gerson Garabito (Wilmington), OF Marten Gasparini (Lexington), C MJ Melendez (Lexington), RP Tyler Zuber (lexington), RP Richard Lovelady (Omaha), SP Dan Tillo (Lexington), SS Nicky Lopez (NWA), SP Scott Blewett (NWA), OF Brewer Hicklen (Idaho Falls),
In general, Lexington and Wilmington are the most interesting spots to watch. Nice depth and a lot of interesting pieces at both. [Reply]
Originally Posted by TomBarndtsTwin:
I don't think anyone said anything about the Royals and Indians being 'similar'.
But you know what the Royals DO have in those 24 years that the Indians don't?
The Indians play well when the division is weak. If they played in any other division they wouldn’t win as many games. They are gutless and soft when it matters. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Prison Bitch:
Pratto has 91k already at A ball. 281 AB. Wow.
There is a lot of swing and miss going on at Lexington. Pratto especially is a little surprising in that regard, since his rep was as such a polished bat.
Definitely the biggest cause for pause and something to watch as those guys progress up the latter.
Matias especially. He has special power, and should be an above average base runner and fielder, too. If he can make better quality contact, he can be a real star. [Reply]
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho:
There is a lot of swing and miss going on at Lexington. Pratto especially is a little surprising in that regard, since his rep was as such a polished bat.
Definitely the biggest cause for pause and something to watch as those guys progress up the latter.
Matias especially. He has special power, and should be an above average base runner and fielder, too. If he can make better quality contact, he can be a real star.
Do you think it's a coaching issue there, and similar to the league wide trend of free swinging players? I know you question my concern about Matias, but I see someone like him as looking an awful lot like Joey Gallo. It appears Pratto isn't much better, but without the power. By my calculation Melendez also has a 32% SO rate. They all appear to have horrible plate discipline. So what's the deal? Is that just to be expected with 19 year olds in A ball? And should we expect to see them to repeat the same level next year until they can mature and learn some plate discipline? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bufkin:
His hitting has been a huge improvement from the last 2 years which while isn’t saying much, has been a pleasant surprise at times. His fielding has been platinum glove level quality which we have come to expect.
Yeah, well.... he's hitting around .245 which definitely is an improvement. I think "Huge Improvement" is a stretch. He's on pace to have less than 30 RBIs this year. He's got five dingers, but only seven extra base hits, and he's struck out 57 times. And of course, his contract....his contract....his freaking contract. [Reply]
Originally Posted by gblowfish:
Yeah, well.... he's hitting around .245 which definitely is an improvement. I think "Huge Improvement" is a stretch. He's on pace to have less than 30 RBIs this year. He's got five dingers, but only seven extra base hits, and he's struck out 57 times. And of course, his contract....his contract....his freaking contract.
Originally Posted by OKchiefs:
Do you think it's a coaching issue there, and similar to the league wide trend of free swinging players? I know you question my concern about Matias, but I see someone like him as looking an awful lot like Joey Gallo. It appears Pratto isn't much better, but without the power. By my calculation Melendez also has a 32% SO rate. They all appear to have horrible plate discipline. So what's the deal? Is that just to be expected with 19 year olds in A ball? And should we expect to see them to repeat the same level next year until they can mature and learn some plate discipline?
Combination of factors.
Age. Approach. Maybe coaching - or what they’re having them focus on.
It’s not just about plate discipline. You can have good plate discipline and still K a lot.
Melendez has a double digit walk rate if I’m remembering correctly. Pratto and Matias have average-ish walk rates.
The hard thing about stat scouting the minors is you don’t know what they’re having them work on day-to-day. Just like teams sometimes take a pitch away from a pitcher to develop other offerings, they sometimes will tell a hitter to do certain things with their approach to help develop other parts of their game.
Example: tell a guy he can’t swing at
Any first-pitch fastballs.
It’s something KC hasn’t been aggressive with on its hitting development in the past. Not sure of the organizational approach there now. [Reply]
I really hope we can find some talent in the IFA market, because we seem to have struck out on a lot of our signings there. Looking at the signings tracker on Baseball America nearly every other team has been a lot more active than us so far. I really hope we come through with some decent talent, because we obviously were limited the past 2 years due to signing Matias to such a large contract. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Prison Bitch:
Um, they've avg 85 wins this decade.
82 the decade prior.
92 the decade prior to that after moving to a new ballpark 1994.
10 playoff appearances in 24 years. We have 2. But yeah, very similar!
You should know better than to play this game. I can see right through you when you manipulate statistics. Yeah they have like 10 playoff appearances, and about six of them were right in a row at the beginning of that stretch as part of one of the best teams in recent baseball history. Then two of them were the last two years. There's about a 13 or 14 year stretch in there where they had two playoff appearances and one of those was a wild card game loss.
On top of that, they went 5 straight years without a winning record before Francona got there. And three of those were 90 loss seasons. No one would argue they've had more consistent success than the Royals but your argument was that they've never had a down cycle. [Reply]
And World Series aside, the Royals have actually still won more playoff series in the last 20 years than the Indians. Even if you add in their World Series teams before that, they barely eek us out. [Reply]
Cleveland's window is probably about to close in the next couple of years, and they simply aren't getting through Houston/Boston/NY in the AL. Their best chance was a couple of years ago, they aren't winning a championship. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
You should know better than to play this game. I can see right through you when you manipulate statistics. Yeah they have like 10 playoff appearances, and about six of them were right in a row at the beginning of that stretch as part of one of the best teams in recent baseball history. Then two of them were the last two years. There's about a 13 or 14 year stretch in there where they had two playoff appearances and one of those was a wild card game loss.
On top of that, they went 5 straight years without a winning record before Francona got there. And three of those were 90 loss seasons. No one would argue they've had more consistent success than the Royals but your argument was that they've never had a down cycle.
All Time Playoff Apperances
Indians 13, Royals 9
All Time Pennants
Indians 6, Royals 4
World Series Champions
Indians 2, Royals 2
And the Royals have done all of that since 1969 while the Indians started in 1901. [Reply]
Well, by what I can see we've screwed the pooch in the international signings. Most of the top picks are spoken for and we have maybe a single top 30 signing, despite having one of the largest pools. This is extremely disappointing after doing absolutely nothing in IFA the last 2 years.