Ill always hate fat-ass because he nearly cost us a postseason berth with his awful season, and he possibly cost us a WS by being terrible again. When he mouthed his profanity during his 9th inning popout last night I thought: "why curse? You were expecting to actually contribute something?"

**** re-signing Aoki.

My guess?

He ends up somewhere that will platoon him/use him intelligently as part of its DH/1B rotation, on a much reduced contract (something like $3-5 million).

I think it's the right move for the Royals to walk away from him and spend the money elsewhere while gaining roster flexibility and likely not damaging the lineup. But it wouldn't surprise me a bit if he lands in a more hitter-friendly ballpark and puts up numbers that make some bitch about letting him go in the first place.

We need a RF and a DH who can not necessarily have power but who will get on base and get hits. Shields is gone. Ventura will be our ace. Zimmer might be ready by next year. Sign Ian Kennedy.

I'd actually be good with Aoki, Infante, and Butler being replaced.

If he wants to sign for $3-5 million to be our platoon guy who starts against all lefties, occasionally against some righties, and is our first bench bat as well as good depth...sure, ok. Maybe.

I don't think that's going to happen, though. Billy was a good Royal. I wish him nothing but luck down the road.

Infante isn't getting replaced. We need to hope he bounces back and is healthy next year.

I'm warming up to the idea of Gordon/Dyson/Cain as our every day lineup against right handed pitchers.

We need a good OF bat who dominates lefties.

We need to sign two guys. One who dominates lefties, and one who dominates righties. Maybe even three guys.

Butler and Shields are both gone no pt discussing them any longer. They'll pick up option/arb on the 3 relievers. So we know this.


What then? Top goal for me is doing whatever it takes to get out from under Infantes deal. Colon is perfectly ready, and he's young and cheap and hungry. We have to eat some of that contract but its more than worth it

Infante was probably at 60% towards the end of this season. He said his shoulder was really bad that he couldn't have any power because of it. It hurt everytime he swung

If we sign Kennedy, we should be the hands down favorite to win the central next year.

The only way Butler stays is if he settles for a lot less money. Royals may want to move on, as Billay is limited in what he can do defensively, and hasn't generated the kind of power or production we would expect at this point in his career. I was hoping he'd be our version of Jim Thome, but he just doesn't have the power to hit 30 plus homers on a consistent basis. Getting stronger in the outfield and rotating the DH position is what most teams do now. Shields is gone. Somebody will throw stupid money at him. Ventura was our big game pitcher, I think Shields was gassed in October, and just didn't have his usual stamina, velocity or control. He'll make a fine number four guy for the Dodgers, Yanks, Red Sox, etc. But I'll be very surprised if he signs here. He'll be like Santana was last year. He'll go somewhere for stupid money, eat a lot of innings and be a .500 pitcher or a little better. Time for the Royals to call up Zimmer and plug him in. I'd do everything possible to keep the three relievers together as a matched set. Hard to top that formula, it works.

How do you figure? Are you saying that Kennedy > Shields?

My list:

Let Butler go to a hitter-friendly park.

Sign a 4th OF and make a go of letting Dyson start every day.

Sign a part-time DH who will be fine with only starting about 90 games. (Salvy needs to DH at least 30 games) This could be Willingham.

Sign a SP to a 2-year deal, probably a #3/#4 guy for depth and insurance against injury or ineffectiveness.

Not necessarily but I would say the drop off is not that significant. With a whole off season to work and with Ventura and Duffy ready to anchor the rotation, I think one more good pitcher makes the rotation really formidable. I should also add we need to pick up a decent power bat as well.

White Sox and Indians don't scare me, Twins are the Twins and the Tigers are ready to be slaughtered into old guy with bad contract hell for a few years. True flash in a pan teams are rare, most teams with a run like this stay in contention a few years. We should have another ticket or two to the dance before everyone jumps ship for bigger market teams.

I would LOVE getting Willingham for 1 and 4-5. When healthy, he has legit pop and he takes tons of walks. He's perfect for this team. I'd love if he played 1 more year