before free agency? Rare, and only against his recommendation.

Boras believes in getting to free agency to discover market value, thats it. There are many examples of Boras clients who get to free agency, find out what they are really worth, then give their home team a small discount to stay.

If a player switches to Boras during his free agency year, then he's gone, I've never heard one of those players staying.

Royals have 5 in Scout's top 100 prospect list, 4 in the top 54

17) Wil Myers
32) Mike Montgomery
41) Bubba Starling
54) Jake Odorizzi
94) Cheslor Cuthbert

In other news, Schaum (scroll way down) is speculating that Montgomery may give up on his curveball, in favor of a slider/cutter.

edit: this is one of those things that barely merits a mention since we tend to sign a zillion latin teens in the hopes that a few will pan out, but what the hell. This might be the first and last time you'll ever see the name Sandy Garces. We signed him today from the dominican. He was trying to make it as both a CF hitter and/or a pitcher. His bat wasn't working out, but he's got a curve and a 91 mph fastball, so the Royals decided to sign him as a lefty pitcher.

Does this mean he'll be in the pen in the big's?

no, not really. There's a lot of good starters that use a cut fastball or a slider instead of a curve.

His change better be plus, though, because everything can't be hard/hard. Or he'll get lit/lit.

His change was his best pitch this year, according to every scouting report I saw.

One of the speculated reasons for Montgomery's struggles this year was that he was forced to work backwards and throw his secondary stuff to set up his fastball. It worked really well with his change. Not so much with the curve.

With his arm slot, the slider might work out a little better.

Thanks. Didn't know this.

Glass IS looking to profit. His son even stated such several years ago. Making a profit comes before winning.

link?

Because I've seen where Glass said, many times, including to the union, that he's looking to break even.

Hey, Dan Glass says he's dedicated to total customer satisfaction!
http://www.dansglassinc.com/

Giavotella expects to be 100% by spring

Infielder set to accept George Brett Hitter of the Year Award

By Dick Kaegel / MLB.com | 01/08/12 6:51 PM EST

KANSAS CITY -- Second baseman Johnny Giavotella will be arriving for the Royals Awards Luncheon on Wednesday with some good news about his surgically-repaired right hip.

"I'll definitely be 100 percent by Spring Training," he said.

At least that's his forecast after getting a thumbs up recently from Dr. Marc Philippon, who performed the surgery to fix a slight labrum tear on Oct. 20 at Vail, Colo.

"It's feeling well, it's progressing every day. I'm starting to run, hit and throw, so everything is going as planned. I look forward to getting back on the field," Giavotella said. "I went back to the doctor about two weeks ago and he said everything has healed as far as the labrum and the bone. The main part of the rehab right now is getting more strength in the muscles around the surgical area and getting more flexibility."

Giavotella has been undergoing rehabilitation work at the Royals' complex in Surprise, Ariz. He'll travel to Kansas City for Wednesday's noon luncheon at the Overland Park (Kan.) Convention Center, where he'll receive the George Brett Award as the organization's top Minor League hitter of 2011. His .338 average, with 153 hits and 72 RBIs, earned him a promotion to the Royals on Aug. 5.

"I couldn't ask for a better year last year," Giavotella said. "I did very well in Triple-A and got two months under my belt in the big leagues, which was a tremendous experience for me that I think is going to help me even more this year."

Although Giavotella, who played 46 games for Kansas City and hit .247, is the leading candidate at second base, he'll be challenged by Chris Getz, who holds a defensive advantage. Yuniesky Betancourt, returning in a utility infield role, could be a wild-card candidate as he learns the nuances of second base.

"I'm going into Spring Training trying to earn a spot. I don't think anything is guaranteed," Giavotella said. "I'm going to go out there and do the best I can, and my mindset is that I'll go out there and earn it. Whoever gets the second base spot when the season opens up is going to have to earn it."

The young Royals finished the season strong, with a 15-10 record in September that included winning 11 of their last 16 games.

"We started to click toward the end of the season, and a lot of us rookies kind of got our feet under us, especially myself. Just kind of took a deep breath and settled down and started to play the game we always played, and wound up stringing together some wins toward the end of the year," Giavotella said.

He joins in the upswing of optimism about next season's Royals as their premier prospects from the Minor Leagues mix in the Majors.

"All of us rookies have been playing together for three or four years now, so we have all the confidence in the world when it comes to our abilities and what we can do," he said. "It's just of us getting the experience in the big leagues to shine through and become a consistent team heading forward."

On Wednesday, Giavotella will collect his trophy from the award's namesake, Brett, with whom he worked during Spring Training last year.

"I talked to George a decent amount, and anytime you get around him, you want to talk to him about hitting because he's so knowledgable. And the stories that he tells are second to none, so it's definitely fun to go out there and pick his brain and listen to what he has to say," Giavotella said.

Giavotella also will participate in the Royals Caravan, which begins this week.

Luncheon tickets can be purchased at www.royals.com/awards, or by calling 816-504-4040. Prices are $150 for individual tickets or $1,000 for a table of 10. General manager Dayton Moore, manager Ned Yost and other baseball operations officials will participate in a roundtable discussion hosted by broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre. Awards will go to:

Major League winners
• Alex Gordon, Les Milgram Player of the Year
• Bruce Chen, Bruce Rice Pitcher of the Year
• Eric Hosmer, Joe Burke Special Achievement Award


Minor League winners
• Mike Jirschele, Dick Howser Player Development Person of the Year
• Tim Melville, Mike Sweeney Award (recognizing a player who best represents the organization on and off the field)
• Anthony Seratelli, Willie Wilson Baserunner of the Year
• Lorenzo Cain, Frank White Defensive Player of the Year
• Kelvin Herrera, Paul Splittorff Pitcher of the Year
• Johnny Giavotella, George Brett Hitter of the Year
• Eric Edelstein, Matt Minker Award (recognizing an outstanding affiliate employee)


Other awards
• Lois Lakey, Dan Quisenberry Special Achievement Award (recognizing an outstanding member of the community)
• Orlando Estevez, Art Stewart Scout of the Year

Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Butler to be honored with Hutch Award

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 01/05/12 7:40 PM EST

Royals slugger Billy Butler will be honored with the 47th annual Hutch Award, recognizing the player who best exemplifies the honor, courage and dedication of former Major League player and manager Fred Hutchinson.

The award, given annually at an offseason luncheon in Hutchinson's hometown of Seattle, will be presented Feb. 1 at Safeco Field. Proceeds from the event will benefit early cancer detection research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. will be the keynote speaker at the Hutch Award luncheon.

It's a piece of national recognition for Butler, who has become one of the more respected hitters in the American League since his arrival in the big leagues in 2007. This past season, he overcame a slow start with a solid second half to finish with a .291 average along with 44 doubles, 19 home runs and a career-best 95 RBIs.

As the Royals head into 2012 looking for better fortunes, Butler stands as an established hitter and the centerpiece of an improved, young, talented lineup.

Off the field, Butler has been an even better example for young Major League players through his efforts to give back. A year after he arrived in the big leagues, Butler and his wife, Katie, established the Hit-It-A-Ton campaign to help provide food for needy families around Kansas City. More than $200,000 has been raised, providing for over 960 tons worth of food through two local food banks and a community kitchen.

Butler's on-field performance helps the off-field efforts thanks to the program. Each Butler home run results in a $250 donation, and each double is worth $125.


Those efforts were recognized by surviving Hutch Award winners, who chose Butler to receive this year's honor and join such greats as Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax, Carl Yastrzemski, Lou Brock and Willie McCovey. More recent winners include cancer survivor Jon Lester, former Royal Mark Teahen, Tim Hudson, Jamie Moyer and Craig Biggio.

As part of this year's honor, Butler will take time during his trip to Seattle to visit cancer research labs at the Hutchinson Center along with the Hutch School, a K-12 program serving cancer patients and their school-age family members.

For more information or to register for the Hutch Award Luncheon, visit www.fhcrc.org/hutchaward.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

As Royals fans, we had better hope that being profitable is part of the focus.

Let's think about what would happen if it weren't. What if Glass decided to boost the payroll to $125,000,000 for 5 years just to see if we could win, and it worked. Suddenly, attendance is way up, and so are merchandise sales and television ratings.

Glass would then evaluate everything and realize a few things.

1. It is possible for this franchise to win.

2. Revenues will increase with success.

3. Revenues aren't increasing to keep pace with expenditures.

4. A winning franchise could be extremely profitable in a bigger market.


We are much better off for many reasons by being a team that drafts well and figures out how to develop our minor league talent, even if that means shipping some of them for prospects when free agency hits.

Why haven't we signed Edwin Jackson yet?

HBD alnorth!