Year Two of the Matt Quatraro tenure. Time to take a step up this year. Active in free agency and trades this offseason. A new look pitching rotation and bullpen. Will the young players take the leap up offensively? Bobby Witt extension? New stadium? Will Vinny recover from injury? Salvy taking aim at the Royals record book? Will Cole Ragans turn into the best Royals starting pitcher since Greinke 1.0?
Free Agents/Trades Acquisitions
Seth Lugo, SP
Michael Wacha, SP
Kyle Wright, SP
Hunter Renfroe, OF/DH
Will Smith, RP
Chris Stratton, RP
Nick Anderson, RP
Adam Frazier, 2B
Garrett Hampson, INF/OF
Matt Sauer, RP [Reply]
Originally Posted by Ocotillo:
Even if Shelton is full of shit, Skenes still had two innings to go. No manager in baseball would have sent him back out there.
He had a chance for another inning if he was through eight.
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho:
He has a lot of things that make him comparable to Asa Lacy... and Chris Sale.
College arm (both). Low slot lefty (Sale). Crazy K numbers (both). One year of production (Lacy). Injury/workload concerns (both).
Baseball America has the Royals taking Smith in today's mock.
6. Royals — Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas
I’ve oscillated between Hagen Smith and Bryce Rainer for the Royals in my last few mocks, but I’m going back to the college lefthander. Scouting director Brian Bridges aggressively targeted pitchers in his previous tenure with the Braves, and there’s a thought that the Royals as an organization value lefthanded pitching as much as anyone.
If Caglianone is available here, it’s difficult to see him getting beyond this pick. If both Caglianone and Smith are off the board—a scenario that seems unlikely to me—I would lean toward Rainer. This also could be another landing spot for Wetherholt if he is available, though I’m guessing all the other players I’ve mentioned would be ahead of him. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Ocotillo:
Baseball America has the Royals taking Smith in today's mock.
6. Royals — Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas
I’ve oscillated between Hagen Smith and Bryce Rainer for the Royals in my last few mocks, but I’m going back to the college lefthander. Scouting director Brian Bridges aggressively targeted pitchers in his previous tenure with the Braves, and there’s a thought that the Royals as an organization value lefthanded pitching as much as anyone.
If Caglianone is available here, it’s difficult to see him getting beyond this pick. If both Caglianone and Smith are off the board—a scenario that seems unlikely to me—I would lean toward Rainer. This also could be another landing spot for Wetherholt if he is available, though I’m guessing all the other players I’ve mentioned would be ahead of him.
I wouldn't hate that, but I generally think Kiley McDaniel at ESPN is a little more dialed-in. He has Chase Burns falling to KC at 6 and that sounds pretty awesome to me.
Originally Posted by :
Phils release 2B Whit Merrifield
Phillies released 2B Whit Merrifield.
Advice: Merrifield had a resurgence with the Blue Jays last year. He hit .272 with 11 home runs and 26 stolen bases and even made the all-star game. Merrifield struggled mightily with the Phillies this year, failing to capitalize on stretches where the club was without Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber. Even after getting an $8 million contract it’s no surprise that the team is moving on already. Merrifield hit .199 with three home runs and 11 RBI in 53 games with Philadelphia.
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho:
I wouldn't hate that, but I generally think Kiley McDaniel at ESPN is a little more dialed-in. He has Chase Burns falling to KC at 6 and that sounds pretty awesome to me.
Burns would be ideal. He has a much lower walk rate than Smith and has a better pitch mix with the curve and change to pair with wipe out slider. He also doesn't have a Tommy John surgery on his track record. [Reply]
Originally Posted by GeorgeZimZam:
Boring, gray, wet Sunday here, where Hurricane Beryl is starting to deliver rain and wind. Fortunately, it's landfall path has developed more to our northeast. I was wondering how the Royals record correlates to our GDTs, and used the Advanced Search and Excel to answer the question.
The standings are obviously just for the hell of it, and skewed by the vast differences in GDT started by frequent and not-as-frequent posters. Nevertheless, they are weighted first by Games Back (0.5 games each per advantage in the Win and Loss columns) rather than Winning Percentage (just as with MLB standings).
Just like the Royals themselves, GabyKeepsMeWarm and cmh6476 started out especially hot, but have racked up mostly Ls lately.
So here's hoping one of the holders of a winning streak in GDTs can start the GDT for an important weekend of Royals baseball vs the Red Sox, currently 1 game ahead of us for the last wild card spot.
And it would be a great way to go into the ASB, winning the series on the road. Game time 6:10 p.m. [Reply]
Ive said this several times, but God damn do I hate the fucking draft lottery. It's very easy to see who the worst teams are in MLB and the Royals were legit a bottom 2 team in the league last year and were awful the year before too. They got absolutely fucked by the lottery.
Last year we should have had a top 5 pick and should have gotten Walker Jenkins who is the #5 ranked prospect in all of baseball. This year we should have had the #2 pick and we'd have a shot at a legit difference maker.
Originally Posted by dlphg9:
Ive said this several times, but God damn do I hate the ****ing draft lottery. It's very easy to see who the worst teams are in MLB and the Royals were legit a bottom 2 team in the league last year and were awful the year before too. They got absolutely ****ed by the lottery.
Last year we should have had a top 5 pick and should have gotten Walker Jenkins who is the #5 ranked prospect in all of baseball. This year we should have had the #2 pick and we'd have a shot at a legit difference maker.
**** the lottery
I hate it too, but I can see why the MLBPA wanted it with so many teams tanking and not spending on free agents.
The crazy part about last year's top five is all five of those picks would have been picked ahead of all the players in the 2024 draft. That's shitty the Royals couldn't have landed one of those guys.
But I will say this, I feel like there's a major drop off after the first top 10 picks this year, so it's good to for the Royals to be at 6.
It's also one of those drafts where so many top 40 prospects have noticeable flaws and any team picking on the first day could eventually wind up with one of the top players. [Reply]
