Ahem...

Why the Royals sucked for many years.

Weird... I swore I read 4 players at #4.... well... fook me. Did he edit that?

That screenshot made me sick to my stomach.

Dumbest rule change in awhile.


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Colon
Stone Cold Jeff Austin
Mike Stodolka

Christ. I count five off that list that made an "impact" in the bigs. Grienke will be a fringe HoF'er, but that is a list of absolute failure, by and large.

Ask Albert Pujols if he'd rather be the 4th best player on an also-ran team that nobody gives a shit about in LA or if he'd rather still be "The Machine" in St. Louis where the goodwill he earned while destroying creation for a decade might actually inure to his benefit in his decline years.

There's something to be said for not chasing the biggest pile of money. Sometimes its the way to go - sometimes it isn't. The Royals fanbase has a pretty...uh....inflated view of Eric Hosmer and his slumps tend to be answered by a "hey, we still remember 2015!". If he goes to a big market club and is swinging at air for 3 months at a scant $22 million/season, they won't remember 2015 and frankly, his overwhelming 'bro-ness' will wear thin in a hurry.

He's the kind of guy that will almost certainly regret chasing the money, IMO. If the deals are even in the same vicinity, he'd be wise to stay in KC.

Though I still don't think KC would be wise to give him the deal.

Yep, you were right. Never would have got them.

I don't even remember a Mike Stodolka....

If the deal is more than what Belt/Myers received. It's a massive overpay.

Can you imagine if he gets a 6/120 deal and had his first major slump in a market like NY or LA? I have a feeling he'd be yearning to come back to KC (a city where his face literally inspired a haircut and where he's swarmed out in the public) pretty quickly.

I doubt a deal gets done, and it would be incredibly shortsighted if he was the recipient of the team's first 100m contract.

Trivia: What happened to Mike Stodolka?


1. Sales rep in Chicao
2. Suicide 2011
3. Teacher in LA
4. Lawyer in LA
5. Gunned down in robbery outside Wichita 2009

Lawyer

That was quick.


My trivia isn't fooling anyone anymore.

Can't compare his deal to Myers because Myers was 1st year arb eligible when he signed. You tend to get at least a 'free' year on market for those 3 arb seasons. Myers is getting $14 million over the next 3 seasons when he'd get at least $18 million per year over those 3 in an open market setting. If you conservatively peg that at $54 million over those 3 years, his $14 million represents a $40 million discount that Hosmer shouldn't be expected to offer because Hosmer's going to be a FA.

So Myers 'market' deal would be right at 6/$125 million, IMO. That would be the kind of number you can compare to Hosmer.

You could do a similar analysis with Belt as he signed 2 years prior to FA and before his real breakout in 2016 (though he had a nice 2015).

I agree that paying the guy what he'll likely command on the market is a bad idea, but I think you have to compare apples to apples. Comparing a FA contract to contracts signed during arb years isn't really a fair comparison.

All of this is correct, I should have clarified that it would be a massive overpay for the Royals. With the problems with his swing (that he hasn't addressed since his rookie season), and his declining defense (due to his lack of fundamentals - another issue that hasn't been addressed since his rookie year), giving him what the market would demand would be a massive risk for KC.

Of course, Hos could shorten his swing and work in Surprise for an offseason since his hands aren't quick enough to mask his defensive deficiencies anymore - something like that would easily justify that contract - but I'm not seeing it.