2023 – A new beginning for the Royals. Matt Quatraro era begins. A year to see which of our young players will make up the core going forward. Can Bobby Witt Jr become a superstar SS or will go to the hot corner? Will Brady Singer take the next step forward? Will Salvy be Salvy? Will Big Vin or Pratto take first base? Will they find a position for MJ? Who else emerges from the youth movement? Not to mention the development of the new downtown stadium.
Free Agents/Trades Acquisitions
Jordan Lyles, RHP
Ryan Yarbrough, LHP
Josh Taylor, LHP
Aroldis Chapman, LHP
Top 10 Prospects from Baseball America
1. Gavin Cross, OF
2. Cayden Wallace, 3B
3. Drew Waters, OF
4. Ben Kudrna, RHP
5. Frank Mozzicato, LHP
6. Maikel Garcia, SS
7. Tyler Gentry, OF
8. Nick Loftin, OF/3B
9. Angel Zerpa, LHP
10. Carter Jensen, C [Reply]
Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry:
Who have the Royals lost in free agency because of money in the last decade? They kept Perez and Gordon. It's really only Hosmer and they dodged a bullet there because they offered the same amount money wise that San Diego did but Padres front loaded it and the Royals backloaded the contract. Cain was older going into free agency and injury risk, so it made no sense to resign him especially with his style of play.
Moose, Esky, Davis, Herrera, Holland.
It does seem that many of the can't miss prospects don't quite pan out.
So... I'm wrong again... What IS the problem? I was a fan of keeping Perez and not Gordon, who was a disappointment (based on the hype that he was the next Brett).
There's a lot of teams that aren't good; maybe a big part of it is the structure of the salaries, lack of revenue sharing and salary cap. Very hard for small market teams to compete year in and year out. [Reply]
Originally Posted by crayzkirk:
Moose, Esky, Davis, Herrera, Holland.
It does seem that many of the can't miss prospects don't quite pan out.
So... I'm wrong again... What IS the problem? I was a fan of keeping Perez and not Gordon, who was a disappointment (based on the hype that he was the next Brett).
There's a lot of teams that aren't good; maybe a big part of it is the structure of the salaries, lack of revenue sharing and salary cap. Very hard for small market teams to compete year in and year out.
My argument would be drafting. The MLB changed the rules to a point that it undercut the expansive inroads the Royals made in Latin America (leading them to sign Salvy, Yordano and Herrera). The Royals needed to adjust after losing that advantage, and they just… never did?
They also put a ton of trust in the specific scout that found Manaea and it led to a catastrophic series of busts.
Add in that GMDM successfully developed 2 starting pitchers in 16 years, and it made the drafts where he exclusively went all in on SP (Lynch, Kowar, Singer, Bubic, Bowlan and Lacy) uniquely disastrous (the jury’s still out - but it’s looking grim).
I’d argue that one of the best things that happened for GMDM was that the heat was so hot after 2014’s bad start that he had to abandon almost all of his boys club to hire a Major League staff with experience (Waka, Eiland, Sveum) and when that era ended, he immediately reloaded with his guys again. It’s going to take a while to start a truly new era after the 2018-2022 years in the organization. [Reply]
Originally Posted by crayzkirk:
I was a fan of keeping Perez and not Gordon, who was a disappointment (based on the hype that he was the next Brett).
Calling one of the best Royals of all time and one of the 2010's better overall MLB players a "disappointment" because he didn't live up to an absurd comparison made by a couple of media dipshits is an interesting way to make a point. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Chiefspants:
My argument would be drafting. The MLB changed the rules to a point that it undercut the expansive inroads the Royals made in Latin America (leading them to sign Salvy, Yordano and Herrera). The Royals needed to adjust after losing that advantage, and they just… never did?
They also put a ton of trust in the specific scout that found Manaea and it led to a catastrophic series of busts.
Add in that GMDM successfully developed 2 starting pitchers in 16 years, and it made the drafts where he exclusively went all in on SP (Lynch, Kowar, Singer, Bubic, Bowlan and Lacy) uniquely disastrous.
It's that and our hitting drafting profile is very limiting in what kind of players it produces. The Royals almost exclusively draft position players for speed and defense and just have to hope the power comes eventually. How many times have you heard a Royals prospect described as "if he could just hit a little bit he would be a great player". It's not surprising that the best hitters we developed are exclusively top draft picks because guys taken in the top 5 are usually 5 tool players anyway. That got us Moose Gordon and Hosmer, but even the royals will Royal and took limiting guys like Colon at times. You will never see an Adam Dunn come through the system because they would never draft that type of hitter. There's a reason it took us until 2017 to have a guy even break 36 home runs, which is embarrassing, especially in peak juice ball era. While we all know that Kaufman isn't a great HR park, somehow everyone else in pitchers parks are able to find power and for some reason we can't. This is the reason we can't. How we draft this year is going to be interesting. Do we take more guys with more raw power with less of a focus on defense? Can we draft anyone who profiles as a DH just because he might hit a ton and that's useful too? A change would do our system some good. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Why Not?:
Calling one of the best Royals of all time and one of the 2010's better overall MLB players a "disappointment" because he didn't live up to an absurd comparison made by a couple of media dipshits is an interesting way to make a point.
Okay, to clarify, I believe he didn't live up to the big contract that he was given after the World Series. After the collision with Moose and the injury, he didn't seem like the same player. There was a lot of pressure on him to be the next GB and he was one of the best outfielders ever. His last few years were pretty lackluster at the plate. [Reply]
Gordon really hit the wall physically after 2015. Unfortunate but not something I expected so soon.
For KC to compete, it all comes down to draft and development. They haven’t done a good enough job with that since the Hosmer-Moustakas wave of talent.
I was thinking today about something … I wonder if one of the reasons the Royals reacted so poorly to high school talent in the past ten years or so is that they’re still operating in “old days” scouting when kids weren’t getting as much specialized, polished pitching coaching in high school, and KC scouts keep projecting more velocity from guys who have already maxed themselves out. [Reply]
Originally Posted by crayzkirk:
Okay, to clarify, I believe he didn't live up to the big contract that he was given after the World Series. After the collision with Moose and the injury, he didn't seem like the same player. There was a lot of pressure on him to be the next GB and he was one of the best outfielders ever. His last few years were pretty lackluster at the plate.
