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]
Let's not kid ourselves about the $. The prob is there. Players are going to be jealous. The old system worked only because younger guys knew FA was approaching for them too. So a Moose or Cain tolerates turds like Alex + Ian clearing 15M+.
But those days are over. Only the elites will get the big $$. How does Todd Frazier really look Cespedes in the eyes knowing he got 17 and Cespedes got 125? The Union can only blame the owners so much, but these are COWORKERS [Reply]
Originally Posted by Chiefspants:
The revisionist history in this thread about the Gordo and Young signings has been pretty amazing.
At the time, the consensus was that the Royals got fair deals on both.
Just a FYI - I was vocal about moving on from Gordon. I didn't see the value of re-signing an aging OF. That said, I was okay with the 4/$72MM. I still don't have much heartburn over that deal.
Just too many examples of FA dropping massive turds and not producing. Just looking at the Colorado roster this AM, Ian Desmond's name came up. Signed a 5/70 deal last year, immediately farted out a -0.8 fWAR. Owners are tired of this.
Jordan Zimmerman of Det. 5/110. Is a 1 war guy no diff than Jake Junis who is free. Gotta make FA a benefit after 3 years not 6. The owners have to give in on that to avoid paying backend disaster-deals. Pick your poison [Reply]
Originally Posted by Prison Bitch:
Just too many examples of FA dropping massive turds and not producing. Just looking at the Colorado roster this AM, Ian Desmond's name came up. Signed a 5/70 deal last year, immediately farted out a -0.8 fWAR. Owners are tired of this.
Jordan Zimmerman of Det. 5/110. Is a 1 war guy no diff than Jake Junis who is free. Gotta make FA a benefit after 3 years not 6. The owners have to give in on that to avoid paying backend disaster-deals. Pick your poison
FA after 3 would make things interesting. Looking at Moose and Hoz's numbers after 2011, 2012, and 2013, Hoz probably would have gotten a good deal ( .302 with 17 HRs ). Moose on the other hand did not have great numbers after year 3. For him to have gotten a great deal, the team would have been paying for his potential. [Reply]
Cain after 2014. A super fielder and contact hitter. But he morphed into more power and less defense. He would've gotten paid bigly which would've ended or 2015 title chances . But there's too many moving parts to know this. Wade Davis doesn't sign a LT deal without getting paid for his arb years, same with Alex, on and on [Reply]
Letting them hit free agency after three years would basically end competitiveness for smaller market teams. They wouldn’t be able to keep any talent for long. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BigCatDaddy:
How about trashing the draft slot system also?
Would also be good.
All the recent changes have been pro-owner profit and anti-player compensation.
If the owners were going to do anything with the changes other than pocket the addition profits ... like, for instance, they were going to make the ballpark experience more affordable ... it would be OK.
But all these changes do is help really rich guys be even more rich. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ChiTown:
Just a FYI - I was vocal about moving on from Gordon. I didn't see the value of re-signing an aging OF. That said, I was okay with the 4/$72MM. I still don't have much heartburn over that deal.
Chris Young contract......meh
Oh, there definitely were some people again resigning him (I remember you specifically) - but some are arguing that the consensus at the time was that the Royals severely overpaid out of the gate. [Reply]
And the complaint was never that he would immediately suck. It was that the Royals were making a big commitment, it might affect the ability to keep Hosmer, Moustakas or Cain, and it might be bad on the back half/affect the ability to reload rather than rebuild.
Originally Posted by ChiTown:
Just a FYI - I was vocal about moving on from Gordon. I didn't see the value of re-signing an aging OF. That said, I was okay with the 4/$72MM. I still don't have much heartburn over that deal.
Chris Young contract......meh
I didn't like the Gordon deal, but I accepted it. I HATED bringing back Young. He played a role for us, but it was clearly time to move on. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DeepSouth:
FA after 3 would make things interesting. Looking at Moose and Hoz's numbers after 2011, 2012, and 2013, Hoz probably would have gotten a good deal ( .302 with 17 HRs ). Moose on the other hand did not have great numbers after year 3. For him to have gotten a great deal, the team would have been paying for his potential.
That's the problem with shortening the window into FA. Then you'll have owners saying a player hasn't proven himself yet. There are a lot of players that don't hit their stride until 26 or 27. You'll probably still end up with some bad contracts. It would also wreck the idea of bringing up a whole group of prospects together. Posted via Mobile Device [Reply]
