Re: blowing the team up, I disagree with the idea of shipping out everyone. There are a lot of young players on this team with promise, particularly in the pitching staff. Singer MIGHT have been called up in June in a regular season, but Bubic would have spent the whole season in the minors. You're seeing some young guys you normally would not.

If by "blow it up" you mean ship out the move-able vets for what you can get, that's fine if you're talking Rosenthal, Holland, Kennedy (ha!), etc. But midseason is not the best time to trade controlled assets (teams aren't willing to part with prospects).

As far as trading vets, let's keep in mind that a decent portion of the Royals internet community would have jumped at the idea of trading Whit Merrifield for Nico Hoerner straight-up last year (I was not one of them) and the Cubs found that price to be too high.

And that dude... isn't that good (.211/.313/.246 slash ATM).

Trading good established players for prospects is no easy feat these days. It's hard to find a team that will tango. The group think and risk aversion gets teams to hoard prospects like never before.

As for Dayton Moore's track record on trades... when he has had large assets to move and has moved them, the return has been good.

They got a shit-ton for Zack Greinke. A future All-Star CF and 3 hitter on 2 pennant winners, long-term starter/fixture at SS, and pitching prospect capital that would later be used for another big move...

The Shields-Davis trade has also worked out tremendously well. Moore traded the RIGHT hitting prospect, and ended up giving up very little (Primarily Jake Odorizzi).

Flipping Jonathan Sanchez for Jeremy Guthrie was a good identification of a player who would play up in KC's park. Guthrie was a big part of their success as they drove to 2 World Series.

Wade Davis for Soler is solid, not great. Still think that one was light in return at the time.

Brad Keller was a great pickup via trade from the Reds for cash.

He got Will Smith in that Callaspo trade (who gave them a few good seasons and was valuable in picking up Aoki for 2014).

When he has traded low-value guys, he hasn't gotten huge returns. None of those lotto tickets has really panned out (though I still think Yohanse Morel is a guy to watch for the rotation a few years from now). He hasn't really made chicken salad out of chicken shit. But find me the GM who does that regularly.

He also doesn't have the glaring bomb. The worst thing he's really got is the 2017 trade with the Padres, and the Royals didn't even really give up much there. Strahm is a really good reliever who failed again as a starter.

Re: Mondesi, I really think the move with him is to move him to CF and start him in the minors next year to make the conversion. It will give him a chance to go get some confidence built back up and move him to a position that may take some stress off of him.
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If you'll recall, I wanted to ship everyone out before mid-2017 but obviously, that didn't happen.

The biggest question I have for the 2021 Royals is how can ownership retain this front office, coaching and scouting staff when they haven't had a winning record since 2015?

IMO, the situation over at the K is mimicking King Carl's final years with the Chiefs with bad drafts, poor scouting, lowering attendance and an awful onfield product.

How can John Sherman and his partners justify yet another year?
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I remember that, and we talked about it then. Based on the returns that were available for midseason rentals that year, I advocated that comp picks for Hosmer and Cain signing elsewhere as FA would be more valuable than any trade returns.

Those company picks turned into Jackson Kowar and Daniel Lynch, both top 75 prospects. They made the right call given what was available.

It’s easy to say “trade guys for prospects” but teams just don’t give up much prospect inventory for 1/3 season rentals any more.

I suspect Sherman and co. will see how things play out next year and possibly into the year after as Singer, Kowar, Lynch, Bubic round out the starting staff and Khalil Lee and Kyle Isbel slide into the OF and Bobby Witt claims a spot on the infield dirt.

Moore’s staff did not draft well from 2011-2015. They didn’t adjust to the change in draft slots and the inability to draft high or spend extra money to sign big talents that slipped.

They began adjusting that approach to the draft in 16 and have been much more successful. It’s still not the best developmental system (the Rays and Dodgers take the cake there) but it has made large strides.

I’m interested to see the 2021 Royals in action. I want to see Khalil Lee playing LF and potentially leading off. I want to see Kyle Isbel in the OF. I want to see how those young hitters blend with established, quality big league hitters like Whit Merrifield and Jorge Soler and Hunter Dozier and Salvador Perez. I want to see the rotation debuts of Lynch and Kowar and watch the young bullpen arms.

You say blow it up... I say let’s get some more of the promising youth here, keep good vets (who wouldn’t net as big of trade returns as people think/hope) and see what happens in 21 and 22.
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My apologies for not clarifying my comment. I didn't mean to imply that I was "right", just that I've been banging that drum for a long time, justified or not.

Definitely, which seems to be a new phenomena, for whatever reason.

So, you think he's going to wait? I mean, I guess that's fine and all but how in the world can he expect the fans to continue to support and engage a 100 loss team year after year?

That seems like a really difficult task, especially considering the rising cost of tickets and concessions.


His drafts have almost always been confusing, to say the least. I've never been a proponent of taking High School pitchers early in the draft because it's just so incredibly difficult to project 99% of the time.

Baseball is without a doubt, the toughest sport of all when it comes to drafting and developing young talent but Dayton Moore, for a large part of his tenure, has always made it more difficult that it should have been, IMO.

I'm interested in seeing what happens as well but I'll be completely honest when I say that watching a losing team, especially late into the season, becomes tiring, especially since there are about a million other options and viewing choices.

Again, my apologies for not clarifying but I wasn't advocating for them to "blow it up" this year in terms of the players.

IMO, Dayton Moore has been given far more time to build and rebuild this team that he would have been given in nearly any other city. And of course, had he been with the Mets or Giants or any number of large market teams, rightly or wrongly, he would have been shown the door a long, long time ago.

I guess the bottom line is this: Give me something different. It's enough already. I was as patient with Alex Smith as you are with the Royals but by January 2017, I'd had enough and said so here in CP, which is also when I first mentioned that if the Chiefs didn't draft a QB, I was done. Fortunately, they did draft a QB and it's same guy that I said I wanted in January 2017.

Now, it's time for the Royals to do the same. Move on and give the next guy a chance.
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ka ka ka ka ka kaMcBROOM
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Jesus Christ - that ball went 800 feet.
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McBroom has been legit at the plate. That was a bomb.
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You can blame John Mozelieck for that home run. He gave up on Luke Voit. The Yankees got rid of McBroom because of Voit.
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McBroom might as well play every day.
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He also traded Pham for Cabrera.

So ultimately there are a fair number of things Mozeliak has done to make things more difficult for this organization...
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How'd Staumont only have 3 walks on the season coming into this series?

He walked 2 guys in the tune-up vs. STL and has walked 3 in his last two appearances. I've seen the guy pitch a handful of times over the last 2 years and every time I'm in awe at his stuff and pretty confident his command will keep him from success.

Now he'll almost certainly get Molina to GIDP and then strike out whoever's behind him, but how is it this guy was razor sharp all year when there are two years of data points I've seen where he just cannot spot his fastball?
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Tangent - anybody watch James Karinchak pitch this season?

Most fun appearance in the game right now. Just an absolute savage out there. Amazing energy, ludicrous stuff and just appears to be enjoying the hell out of himself.

I know y'all see the Indians quite a bit - try to find a moment to watch him. Dude's a treasure.
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Mondesi sucks. Turn 2
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Dozier's shitty play is going to cost us the game.
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That was dominant by Rosenthal. Come in with the bases loaded and the game on the line and he strikes out the next two guys on 6 pitches.
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