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
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(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
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Kelenic is the top prep bat, toolsy OF. Royals would be ecstatic to have shot at him.
1B Triston Casas, American Heritage HS (FL).
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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).
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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]
Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry:
Really poor team management :-)
We had a stars aligning moment that I'm grateful to have experienced. That doesn't negate the decades of Baird, Robinson, Pioli, King_Carl, and even DM has shown he is a bonehead from time to time. Although, for the most part his 12 years is forgiven for a WS title mixed in there. [Reply]
Originally Posted by fahrenheit:
We had a stars aligning moment that I'm grateful to have experienced. That doesn't negate the decades of Baird, Robinson, Pioli, King_Carl, and even DM has shown he is a bonehead from time to time. Although, for the most part his 12 years is forgiven for a WS title mixed in there.
Dayton has a 7 year window to redo “the process”, as far as I’m concerned. Those two WS trips bought him a lot of capital. If he can get them built back up to a WS caliber team by then, he has a lifetime pass here and probably a statue at some point. If they’re still stuck in a perpetual rebuild trying to figure out what to do, then he can GTFO at that point. [Reply]
Originally Posted by :
I elicited opinions from several scouts and executives this morning regarding Mondesi, and their responses have made the picture a little more complex, one of a talented but erratic performer with makeup issues. They agree Mondesi has premium physical ability. He’s a 70-grade runner who goes from base to base with breathtaking explosion and has the range to play in the middle of the diamond. He also has plus bat speed and puts a surprising charge into the ball despite his size.
But Mondesi is an aggressive free-swinger who doesn’t take great at-bats, and scouts have mixed opinions about his bat control and the way he incorporates the rest of his body into his swing. There’s concern about his bat translating to the majors at all, let alone in a way that compares to what Mondesi has done at Triple-A.
The term “makeup” might have different meanings from scout to scout. In Mondesi’s case, evaluators are concerned about his defensive consistency, especially as it pertains to throwing accuracy, and have seen him fail to execute routine plays. Others were not thrilled with what they saw from Mondesi as he worked back into playing shape following his PED suspension in Arizona, citing poor effort and on-field focus which they particularly disliked in an environment laden with young, impressionable teenagers./QUOTE]
Kansas City’s Mondesi situation is further complicated by the emergence of SS Nicky Lopez, who, after a strong showing in the Arizona Fall League, many scouts have projected as an eventual everyday shortstop. He’s probably two years away from reaching the majors, and it looks to me like the Escobar deal is a bridge to Lopez rather than Mondesi. Perhaps the solution here is a move to center field for Mondesi. His speed is more than sufficient there, but that would require a crash course in the minors, and Mondesi’s infield play doesn’t inspire confidence in his ability to learn and execute that quickly.
As a change-of-scenery reclamation project — which is an odd sentence fragment to write about a 22-year old — I think Mondesi is pretty interesting. ...
But if I’m running a team in that situation, I’m calling the Royals today to find out what it might take to acquire a rare talent who seems to have fallen out of favor with his parent org, even if that talent has some clear issues.
Dayton on Esky's role: "He'll play Shortstop. Mondy, although he had a breakout year in AAA, there's still some questions with durability. We need to see that but he'll get an opportunity to compete at second base again. If he doesn't win a job, he'll be back at AAA to develop."
Dayton on Esky's role: "He'll play Shortstop. Mondy, although he had a breakout year in AAA, there's still some questions with durability. We need to see that but he'll get an opportunity to compete at second base again. If he doesn't win a job, he'll be back at AAA to develop."
Dayton on Esky's role: "He'll play Shortstop. Mondy, although he had a breakout year in AAA, there's still some questions with durability. We need to see that but he'll get an opportunity to compete at second base again. If he doesn't win a job, he'll be back at AAA to develop."
Questions about durability? That's a weird response.
Sounds like he's slated to be a back up/utility guy, which wouldn't necessarily be horrible if he can hit a little.
We'll also likely have an opening at 3rd he could complete for. [Reply]
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho:
If they are confident they can convert Mondesi into an elite defensive CF, I can certainly live with that.
The Escobar deal being so small is totally fine. They wouldn't have been able to sign an "insurance" SS for much less than that.
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Or, if Nicky Lopez is the SS of the future, Escobar holds it down until Lopez arrives. Let Mondesi bat .300 in Omaha again to raise his trade value. [Reply]
I mean the question with Mondi is...well, it isn't a question... he can't fucking hit. But neither can Hercules. I guess if we are going to lose 100 games, I'd rather do it with Mondi learning at the big league level than the downside of Escobar's career. [Reply]
Originally Posted by nychief:
I mean the question with Mondi is...well, it isn't a question... he can't fucking hit. But neither can Hercules. I guess if we are going to lose 100 games, I'd rather do it with Mondi learning at the big league level than the downside of Escobar's career.
Way to early to make that distinction.
He has a tremendous tool set (bat speed, barrel control, hand-eye).
A few hundred ABs when he had been rushed to the major leagues too soon is not close to enough to make a call about.
George Brett had a sub-.600 OPS at a similar stage in his development. Thank the gods they didn't give up on him then. [Reply]
#Royals SP Nate Karns on his former Texas Tech pal Patrick Mahomes: "Dude. Stud. He's got a bazooka. Alex Smith better watch his back because he's coming..."
