It’s been widely reported in prospect circles the Royals are spending 3-4 million on Pena. With the way the system is now, you can not get jumped for the best guys now, really. The deals for the top5-10 July 2 guys usually get sealed early.
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:-)
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Yea let’s move the best LF in the game to DH. Fucking retard
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Among the top 10 all-time Royals batters in WAR, he's 4th, and he's the best among all 10 of them, including George Brett, in "win probability added" in Royals postseason games.

Gordon 1.43 in 31 games
Brett 1.40 in 43 games

Among the top 10 Royals WAR players, only Carlos Beltran has a higher postseason WPA, but none of those games was as a Royal. Beltran, who was famously clutch for his postseason play, peaked at 2.88 WPA after 51 games, but now he's down to 2.26 after 65 games, having not fared too well lately.

Among Royals who are not among the top 10 in WAR, at least two players have notable postseason WPA as a Royal. Eric Hosmer has 2.22 in 31 games and Willie Mays Aikens has 1.49 in 12 games.

I just found out these numbers poking around on baseball-reference.com. There might be some other Royal batter with a notable amount of postseason WPA, so if someone else has a player in mind, they should look them up.

I will always have high regard for Gordon and Hosmer for how they conducted themselves at the plate in clutch situations, plus in other parts of the game. WPA doesn't capture mad dashes home in Game 5, like Hosmer's, and it gives credit to Hosmer for the great baserunning that Cain did while Hosmer was the batter of record. (In 31 Royals games, Cain and Moose have WPA totals of 0.31 and 0.18, respectively.) Still, it gives some idea of clutch postseason performers.

With Gordon's overall longevity and productivity and his great postseason play, he's definitely one of our top-5 most important position players, all-time.
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Turns out both Hosmer and Beltran are in the top-10 all-time for postseason WPA as a batter, and Wade Davis is in the top-10 all-time for postseason WPA as a pitcher. Of course, Hosmer has only played postseason games for the Royals, Beltran never played one as a Royal, and Davis is in-between. Davis played 20 of his 30 postseason games as a Royal, where he accumulated 2.03 WPA out of his overall total of 2.90.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...pitching.shtml
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My bad for going to the game again.
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Nicky Lopez draws his 2nd walk of the game, his 3-3 2-BB night pumps his OBP to .452. Chris Owings currently has a .457 OPS for the #Royals.

— Clint Scoles (@ClintScoles) May 9, 2019

Four-hit night for Bubba Starling. The average is up to .371 now.

— Tony Boone (@BooneOWH) May 9, 2019

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Another 8 combined K's between Pratto, Melendez, and Matias. Those three need to be demoted until they can pull their heads out of their collective asses.
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Theyll get called up in September. Just too much talent in front of them. Cant replace Hamilton's or Owings' productivity. They're just too good
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Lopez has very little left to show at Omaha. If it isn’t time to see him, the time is soon (June at the latest).

Starling is having the first sustained success at the plate he has experienced since 2015. I’m in no rush to get him to the majors. Giving him more time to make extra sure he can succeed at the MLB level with the bat is a prudent approach.

Worst thing that could happen is promoting Starling too soon and having it destroy the confidence he’s building up.
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I don't think they have much to lose with Starling at this point. It's either going to happen for him or it isn't and they need to move on.
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We can all have hope. Duda will be coming off the 10 day DL soon. His .174 batting average could turn this team around.
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The tools are still present and his defensive value is good enough that if he can be within 10-15 percent of league average at the plate, he’s a viable MLB starter in CF.

If he’s finding an offensive approach that works, I’ve got no trouble letting him really dial it in before he gets called up to the majors.

If letting him stay in Omaha through June helps with that, I have no issue with it. If Starling can be your starting CF and provide above-average defense and baserunning while hitting .260/.300/.400, thats one less piece to find over the next six years.
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I understand what you're saying with Starling. However, this actually began last year prior to his injury, so I see his "sustained success" as going back to last year. Plus, aren't we playing with house money on Starling at this point? He's not even in our top 30 prospects, yet he's playing like it at this point.

The only thing that makes sense for me on waiting is that he's out of options (or am I wrong about that?). Once on the 25, he has to stay...so that does make me at least cautious about when I would promote him. Ultimately, if the organization guys see that something has "clicked" for him going back to last year, then you trust your people and promote him. Do we have data on his BABIP at Omaha?
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I'm wondering...how do they justify re-activating him? He's useless to this team at this stage. He's a significant part of what was a poorly constructed roster.
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