No doubt. ChiefsandOs fan at the top of this list.

Markakis down!!!!

DeezNutz, alnorth, SPChief, thurman merman, duncan idaho, tk13... just off the top of my head.

Rany tweets from today:

"I don't mind swinging 3-0 when it's used judiciously. And by "judiciously", I mean "by someone other than Jeff Francoeur." about 7 hours ago

The Royals got out of it, but if Giavotella had made that error, a shuttle van would have driven on to the field to take him to Omaha. #Yuni about 7 hours ago

The A's are so impotent that Vinny Mazzaro, the #5 starter from Central Casting, can shut them out for 6 IP. But they beat Luke like a drum. about 7 hours ago

This might sound strange, but today's game is the final piece of evidence I need that Luke Hochevar is never going to work out in KC."

I love you, Rany. "Central Casting..." LMAO. And the last listed tweet...money.

I need to listen to Rany. I assume his station streams? When is he on?

He has regular spots on 810, and his appearances are always available via podcast. You should check out his latest discussion with Petro ("The Program"). Believe he appeared on Thurs/Fri. Talked draft and well worth the listen.

Call letters for search purposes?

Rany will be on at 9am tomorrow on 810

Yeah that doesn't work for me. Guess I'll try the podcast and search 810 Kansas City.

Rany is great and all, but Frenchy is there to park baseballs.

WHB.

Speaking of Rany, his draft preview is also up.

http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/

I know less than Rany, but my short list for the #5 pick would be the following:

1) Carlos Correa
2) Byron Buxton
3) Mark Appel
4) Kevin Gausman
5) Kyle Zimmer

Hudler was on during the 8am hour this morning. Absolutely blasted Yuni for his lazy defense yesterday. Said that he's noticed it from Yuni a lot. Glad to see someone isn't sugarcoating how much he sucks...

Related - anyone hear why Ned pulled Gio in the 8th yesterday? I can understand getting Moose in for late-game defense, but why not just pull Betancourt? Gio played great defense all day yesterday, and IMO, it only sets him back to be pulled after he played his ass off in the field. Yost is really starting to wear on me...

ROFL



"The only thing I’m certain of is that, when the draft begins at 6 PM CST, I’ll be riveted to every pick."


Can anyone really claim this about the MLB draft? Its hard to become riveted by the baseball draft because players dont make immediate impacts like they do in the NFL and NBA. Most of these guys you wont see for 3 years after they are drafted.




BTW, sounds like rany walked away and got some perspective in his life. Good for him. : )





"I’ve been writing about the Royals in a semi-regular capacity for nearly two decades. I wrote about the Royals on rec.sport.baseball in 1993. I wrote about them when we wrote the first Baseball Prospectus in 1996. I blogged about them with Rob Neyer in 1998. I started blogging about them here in 2008. And I’ve tried to write about them with the same passion all along, trying to ignore the reality that when I began, I was an 18-year-old in college with no responsibilites beyond myself, and now I’m nearly 37, with a 15-year-marriage, a mortgage, a practice, eight employees and four kids, and it’s time I finally get my priorities in order.


So I thank the Royals for giving me an excuse to get away. I never did turn on my Xbox, and I’m not even halfway through “The Hunger Games”. But I did catch up with the rest of my life. I’m going to try to do that more often going forward, and if this blog suffers, so be it. I’ll write when I can, but I reserve the right to step away for long periods of time without throwing a temper tantrum first."


http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/

100% applicable Rany tweet during the game, and I agree completely:

Rany Jazayerli ‏@jazayerli
The Royals got out of it, but if Giavotella had made that error, a shuttle van would have driven on to the field to take him to Omaha. #Yuni

I'll be watching the draft really closely.

Not only to see what the Royals do (which I will be paying attention to), but also to see how the draft shakes out with the new rules. It's a shakeup, and could make things really interesting.

I like both of the HS arms - McCullers and Giolito. They're both high-polish HS pitchers, not quite to the same level as Dylan Bundy, but they're guys who should move quicker than a lot of HS pitchers.

If you can get McCullers signed to a deal quickly, I think he can work out of short-season pretty much right away (which would put his arrival date, on an aggressive schedule, in late 2014).

But I think the BPA approach is the right one. Just take the best guy, with the knowledge they are excellent trade bait at a time the Royals likely will need it.

The obsession with Yuni Betancourt is astounding.

He's lazy.

He can't run.

He has no range.

He has good power for a middle infielder, but is otherwise a below-average hitter.

His glove is inconsistent (flubs a lot of easy plays)

He does have a strong throwing arm.

I thought that PERHAPS he could be a better fit playing 2B, where his range could play up (by playing deeper and having less ground to cover). He does turn the double-play fairly well, due to his arm strength. But otherwise, he's pretty bad there.

I don't get it. Yuni is everything Yost should hate in a player (according to what he looks for/likes). Gio is everything Yost loves. Just doesn't make sense.

Jerry Crasnick ‏@jcrasnick

#Reds have released LHP Jeff Francis at his request. He had an opt-out in his contract on June 1. Francis is now a free agent

Three game set starts tonight at home against the twinkies. They have actually been playing better, winning 5 of their last 6 so we need to make sure we jump on this series early with a victory tonight. Will Smith will be going for his second win.

Rex Hudler laying into someone reminds me of FogHorn Leghorn giving the chicken hawk the business.

LMAO

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/po...bubba-starling

Bubba Starling has yet to play a professional game. He's older than Bryce Harper. #Royals #Nationals
16 May 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite


Yes, I just quoted my own tweet.

Bubba Starling was the fifth pick in last year's draft. The Royals selected the multi-sport star from a Kansas high school ahead of polished college hitter Anthony Rendon (Nationals), high school pitcher Archie Bradley (Diamondbacks) and high school shortstop Francisco Lindor (Indians). A quarterback recruited to play at Nebraska, Starling received a $7.5 million bonus to forgo his college commitment.

Viewed as the best athlete in the draft, an outfielder with tape-measure power potential and plus-plus speed, the Royals were ecstatic to sign a kid who grew up rooting for the Royals. "The combination of speed, power, athleticism, the ability to play the field up the middle, we feel like he's got the makings of a star player in the major leagues," Royals assistant general manager J.J. Picollo said when the club signed Starling last August.

Right now, Starling has yet to play his first professional game as he's in extended spring training. Meanwhile, Bradley is dominating Class A hitters in the Midwest League, with just 14 hits allowed in 40 innings, and Lindor is hitting .322 with four home runs in the same league. (Rendon fractured his ankle in his second game and may miss the rest of the season.)

Back to the above tweet. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, who made the good point that Harper and Mike Trout have spoiled us by reaching the major leagues while still 19 years old. I pointed out that Jason Heyward and Giancarlo Stanton were just 20 when they debuted, but the larger point remains true: Most players -- even stars -- don't reach the majors until they're at least 22 or 23, sometimes older.

Still, Starling's age is an issue. Born Aug. 3, 1992, that made him an old high schooler -- nearly a year older than many of the kids he competed against. Now factor in that he didn't play last summer and won't play in an official professional game until rookie season begins in June and he'll be nearly 20 years old when he plays his first game. Even then, he'll be competing against many players born in 1994 or maybe even 1995 in the case of Latin American teenagers. Compare that to Lindor, who was born Nov. 14, 1993. He's 15 months younger than Starling and already playing well in low Class A, a league Starling may not play in until 2013. Starling is only a month younger than 2010 Orioles first-rounder Manny Machado, who is already holding his own in Double-A. As Rany Jazayerli wrote last fall in an important piece of research, "At least when it comes to high school hitters, young draft picks are a MASSIVE market inefficiency."

Certainly, Starling's raw tools are off the charts. Maybe he'll be a star; frankly, there's no way of judging that now until we start seeing him in games where they keep track of the numbers. But I'll say this: I would absolutely take Francisco Lindor over him right now.

* * * * *

I looked up the debut ages of all position players drafted in the top 10 from the 2001-10 drafts who have reached the major leagues. Here are the relevant guys:

Year Player Team School Debut age
2001 Joe Mauer Twins HS 21 years, 0 months
2001 Mark Teixeira Rangers College 23 years, 0 months
2002 B.J. Upton Rays HS 20 years, 0 months
2002 Prince Fielder Brewers HS 21 years, 1 month
2003 Delmon Young Rays HS 20 years, 11 months
2003 Rickie Weeks Brewers HS 21 years, 0 months
2003 Nick Markakis Orioles JC 22 years, 5 months
2005 Justin Upton Diamondbacks HS 20 years, 0 months
2005 Alex Gordon Royals College 23 years, 2 months
2005 Ryan Zimmerman Nationals College 21 years, 0 months
2005 Ryan Braun Brewers College 23 years, 6 months
2005 Troy Tulowitzki Rockies College 21 years, 10 months
2005 Cameron Maybin Tigers HS 20 years, 4 months
2006 Evan Longoria Rays College 22 years, 6 months
2006 Drew Stubbs Reds College 24 years, 10 months
2007 Mike Moustakas Royals HS 22 years, 9 months
2007 Matt Wieters Orioles College 23 years, 0 months
2008 Eric Hosmer Royals HS 21 years, 7 months
2008 Buster Posey Giants College 22 years, 6 months
2009 Dustin Ackley Mariners College 23 years, 4 months
2010 Bryce Harper Nationals JC 19 years, 6 monthsMike Moustakas was the oldest high schooler, debuting at 22 years and 9 months. If Starling is to match that, he'd debut in May of 2015. Certainly, if everything comes together for him and he proves as much baseball player as great athlete, he should accelerate quickly through the minors: 2012 in rookie ball, 2013 in low A/high A, 2014 in Double-A, 2015 in Triple-A/majors. I'm not saying that Starling won't be a star, just that his clock to stardom is delayed compared to the normal curve.

* * * *

The top prospect in the 2012 draft may be Georgia high school outfielder Byron Buxton (Keith Law has him No. 1 on his draft board. Here's a Baseball America feature on him. "This guy is better than (Pirates outfielder Andrew) McCutchen," a National League crosschecker said in the story. "He's probably the best player I've scouted." Buxton is compared to Starling for his athletic ability, but has more polished baseball skills. "I was a big Starling guy," a second National League crosschecker said. "There's not much separation for me."

Buxton was born Dec. 18, 1993, making him a more normal-aged high school kid, although not 17 when he'll be drafted like Machado or Lindor. When factoring in age, Puerto Rican shortstop Carlos Correa -- Keith has him No. 7 on his board -- becomes even more intriguing. His birthdate is Sept. 22, 1994, so he'll also be just 17 on draft day.

Great :facepalm: So Starling didn't play against kids his own age and is now playing against kids 2-3 years younger while his counterparts are already in the minors performing well.

So, how does everyone feel about Zimmer?

I know nothing about him.

Young, big upside. Velocity dipped down the stretch, reportedly due to a hamstring injury.

He's a great athlete who has a varied arsenal. Great strikeout numbers at USF against good comp. Has a classic pitcher's body.

Royals like his makeup (apparently better than Appel). Fastball runs into the high 90s, has sat at 95-96 through multiple starts. Good movement on the fastball. Curveball is a plus pitch, slider and change are potentially good/average MLB pitches.

BA had Zimmer at the top of its board.

Oh, and here's something you like... 104 K : 17 BB ratio. Also is a 10+ K/9 guy (work was done in 91.2 IP).

I brought this up in tonight's gamethread, but can anyone tell me what it is that Ned Yost does well as a manager? Are his good traits before/after games? His in-game management flat out sucks. Sometimes I wonder if he has any feel at all for what's going on throughout a game

Seems to be a common trend with our last couple managers. I have no idea why.

Cool stuff, New York Public Library pictures of baseball players from 1850 to 1900:
http://tinyurl.com/btw5ylb

He has really nice hair

Have we had a "holy crap Humberto Quintero is completely terrible and useless" rant lately? If not, please allow me.

Holy crap. Humberto Quintero is completely terrible and useless. I know he's just an injury replacement for Perez, and hopefully he will be gone as soon as Perez is back (however, I'm sure the Royals will send Pena down instead). I cannot for the life of me figure out why they ever thought it was a good idea to sign this turd in the first place. He has a career .268 OBP, which is completely unacceptable unless you have a ton of power and/or play great defense, neither of which remotely describes Humberto Quintero.

The man haphazardly tosses the ball to second base any time a runner is stealing. However, if you're on first base, watch the **** out, because Humberto's gonna try to pick you off every time. Mind you, he will never, ever, throw you out, but he'll damn sure remind you that he's keeping an eye on you. I don't have the official statistics with me, but I'm guessing he's roughly 0 for 126 on pickoff attempts this year.

Nice goatee, dumbass.

http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=...ng&w=350&h=254

He doesn't impress me much but he sure beats the **** outa Hillman.

I agree, but that doesn't really say much.

THIS.

I just don't feel like the guy is generally very bright - gives away far too many outs & runs for my taste. His in game "strategies" are probably strategies in name only.

I'm not saying I want a "tinker" like LaRussa, but having someone that showed some sense of urgency to win games through pitching changes and fundamental strategy would be nice.

Since your team lost 12 games to start the season, it'd be nice to show some intent to try and claw back to .500 by July.

Yeah, but with that Goatee alone, he's worth a roster spot, No? I mean, we are talking about the Royals, ya know.....

We need more Pena.

At least when we got up there to pinch hit he was hacking away.

I always bust up when JaQass pops out and yells something loudly in Spanish.

Idiot.

I think he is one of those guys that it is hard to get overly upset with because for one, as you said, he is a replacement, and also he does seem to genuinely care and try hard.

He does have a pretty good arm btw. The Royals are third in the majors and first in the AL with 21 caught stealing. Quintero is responsible for 12 of those playing a little over half the time.

Another thing that he's be doing recently is trying to throw out runners from his knees.

Stupid.

Don't be a hero, Q.

Great now Billy Don't Be a Hero is going to be in my head for hours.

:spock:

He's not simply "a replacement." If he was just a AAA callup it'd be no thing. But the Royals TRADED for this piece of shit. They traded a fairly legit relief prospect for Quintero and the even-worse Jason Bourgeois.

Humberto, don't be a dumbfug, don't be a fool with the ball.
Humberto, don't be a dumbfug, just throw it back to the pitcher once in a while.
And as he started to throw, we said Humberto, you are an asshole.
Humberto, don't be a dumbfug, just throw it 60'6".

Don't be a doofus

And this is why even when Salvy returns he will be kept as the backup.

Why do you hate me

I knew I should have been a catcher.

He is simply Perez's replacement due to the injury. Quintero is a guy who we had to acquire at the last minute to replace Perez and we only have on for one year. So a one year stop gap player brought in solely as a reaction to Perez's injury who will be a free agent after this season...sounds like a replacement to me. Tough to get any sort of catcher at the last second without giving up something. Also add in the fact that it was a relief pitcher that was traded, which makes up for arguably our strongest group of players in the big leagues.

Would you have rather gone into the season with Bryan Pena as the only catcher with big league experience? We had to do something and considering the circumstances I do not think it was too bad.

Also the point remains that you can complain about his throws but the stats say he has been one of the better catchers in the league at throwing guys out. He is tied for 6th in the majors not even playing full time. I too get frustrated by many of his plate appearances but how many teams have a backup/replacement catcher that is going to blow you away on offense? Probably zero.

nntawwt

Humberto doesn't bother me. He's a rent a player until Perez comes back. Twins stole on him with ease last night. Part of that is on the pitchers for not holding guys closer to the bags. I think Humberto is a classic AAAA player. Fringe major league guy. We really miss Perez and Cain both. Second half of the season could be interesting if all the other guys can stay healthy.

To my eye, Humberto is pretty awful at throwing guys out. His arm strength is alright, but he's not accurate. I think he's 6th in the league in that stat simply because he gets so many oppurtunties...I'd like to see what his percentage of successful throw-outs have been.

32% according to baseball-reference.com

I was actually curious of that as well but could not find that stat. All I know is that if/when Perez comes back and is healthy Quintero's hitting shannanigans at the plate will become much less painful. Why every pitch he sees is not low and away is a shock to me. He cannot lay off of it.

edit - see above post

They threw a stat up on crown vision last night saying Sombrero has the most pick offs of any catcher from 2010-current.

Oh, interesting. He's actually allowed the 2nd most stolen bases of any catcher in the AL, but he's also thrown out a lot of guys -- tied for the most in the AL.

I'm waiting for Q to throw behind the base-runner on first base with the bases loaded.

Throwing it into the right corner.

Clearing the bases.

It's going to. BE. AWESOME!

Yep. They just run on him a lot. He is complete shit at the plate.

So the league expected value for caught stealing from baseball-reference.com is 26% and Quintero's is at 32%. That is slightly better. Also that 32% doesn't take into account how big of a jump the runner got. But that is subjective and can't really be measure numerically.

Heh, Quintero also has the 2nd most errors of any AL catcher.

Yeah, me bringing it up and you adding to that...

It's bound to happen soon.

Then, people will know you and I are geniuses.

Do they run on the pitchers or the catcher though? I would suggest its about even. Yesterday Smith took forever to get to the plate and didn't seem to have a good pickoff move in the first place.

No matter how athletic Hud thinks he is, Prince Fielder shouldn't be swiping bags on you.

I doubt people will be as quick to run when Sal is back.

You guys can dog Quintero all you want.....but he's got a pretty good lookin' wife! http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-ge...unaNotte12.jpg

Spanktastic!

too fat/omaha

I've had better/the rest of CP

I think I am 0 for 3 on game threads. We need someone with some good mojo to start tonight's game thread.

For as shitty as Quintero has been--and don't get me wrong, he's been pretty ****ing bad--he seems to have come through with several key hits.

Sun meeting ass and stuff like that.

I probably missed this posted already so I apologize, but I saw some tweets that indicated that Starling was "called up" to Wilmington? Anybody know anything confirmed or more about it at least?

he was in extended spring training last i knew

Yeah, but I guess what I read indicated that he was moved to an actual team.

Anyone else hear about this?

Makes sense to put our best bats in the lineup.

Yeah. NL opponent strategy.

I like it.

Piccolo commented on this during the game as I was putting my son to bed. Anybody know what he said?

Put this in the draft thread too. Probably don't need it in both places but if some people aren't reading that it's here now too. Pretty neat vid.

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Cool. Thanks.

Will Myers prep.

Is that mom?


...damn

Looks like he comes from good stock.

Maybe.

I think its so they can keep Butler and Hos in the line up since they're playing in an NL park.

Hosmer glides in the outfield. Knowing the Royals I am surprised they didn't try this already.

Hmmm...Hosmer will probably have to go to Dick's Sporting Goods and buy a new glove.