*** Official 2018 Royals Repository ***

[duncan_idaho]

The season is upon us, even if spring is not.

2018 MLB Draft Picks
#18
#33 - Compensation (Eric Hosmer)
#34 - Compensation (Lorenzo Cain)
#40 (Competitive Balance Round A)

018 Draft Names to Watch

RHP Kumar Rocker, N Oconnee HS, Georgia.

Spoiler!

Possibly goes top 10 but is a big, physical SP with ace potential. Moore and co. will be all over him if he slips a bit and could offer top 10 money at No. 16

OF Jarred Kelenic, Waukasha West HS, WI

Spoiler!

Kelenic is the top prep bat, toolsy OF. Royals would be ecstatic to have shot at him.

1B Triston Casas, American Heritage HS (FL).

Spoiler!

Tremendous raw power, best in HS bats. Royals typically like HS arms or HS bats with "special" tools. He qualifies.

RHP Carter Stewart, Eau de Gallie HS (Ga).

Spoiler!

Another big, physical specimen with huge upside. More likely to be available mid-first than Rocker.

ANY Any, Any (Any). Any current top projected pick who slides for injury concerns. Includes current top prospect prospect SP Brady Singer, U of Florida.

Current Prospects to Watch:

OF Seuly Matias - Huge tools. Hit 2 HR in Lexington (A) season opener.

1B Nick Pratto - Top pick in 17 has advanced approach and good glove; needs to start tapping into power in first full year in minors. Also at Lexington.

OF Michael Gigliotti - Good defender in CF, good OBP skills, plus baserunner. Next mainstay in CF for KC, IMO. Advanced college bat also starting at Lexington.

OF Khalil Lee - Probably has highest upside in Royals' system. Could hit 30 HR in majors, could steal 30 bases. Plus defensive ability in RF. Nice test at Wilmington this year.

3B Emmanuel Rivera - Really nice approach and good contact skills. Power is still developing. Also getting a good test at Wilmington.

SP Foster Griffin - Made nice strides in 2017. Needs to continue to progress in 2018. Could be a lefty version of Jakob Junis (good breaking ball that he can really manipulate, OK fastball, good command).

1B Samir Duenez - Duenez still is intriguing, hoping for a step forward in his power production this year at Northwest Arkansas, which would turn him into a legit prospect.

Others to keep an eye on:
SP Gerson Garabito (Wilmington), OF Marten Gasparini (Lexington), C MJ Melendez (Lexington), RP Tyler Zuber (lexington), RP Richard Lovelady (Omaha), SP Dan Tillo (Lexington), SS Nicky Lopez (NWA), SP Scott Blewett (NWA), OF Brewer Hicklen (Idaho Falls),

In general, Lexington and Wilmington are the most interesting spots to watch. Nice depth and a lot of interesting pieces at both.

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by tk13

If I'm reading this right Morel is 17 years old. Young pitcher. The other two guys seem like decent prospects. They aren't top guys like Robles or Soto, but I just don't think you're going to get that unless you trade someone with more control.

Soto has been smoking hot.

[Jerok]

I need to tell myself no one knows if these guys will be good, the internet is full of morons who act like they know who these guys will be in 5 years.

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

How do you all feel about the return you got for Herrera? Seems kind of anemic to me.

KC is trying to make this a great year in DC.

[SuperBowl4]

Fall from Grace in rapid motion. No soup 4 U

[carcosa]

Hope we get decent returns for Moose and Whit

[Prison Bitch]

What will Lucas Dud return?

[tk13]

One thing that hasn't been talked about much, but this trade deadline will be interesting to watch because so many teams are tanking.

The last couple years, the 2 wild cards has kept a bunch of teams in the race. This year there are so many teams who never had a chance. There looks like 5 teams who are already the playoff teams in the AL, unless you think the Tigers or Twins can catch Cleveland.

The National League looks a little more competitive, the NL West is wide open, but we still don't have a feel if the Braves or Phillies will make any big moves or just ride their prospects. This doesn't really feel like a normal year.

[OKchiefs]

That's just how it goes in KC. If we're buyers, it's a seller's market. If we're sellers, it's a buyer's market. If we have a top pick, nobody is worth the pick or they go right before we pick.

[duncan_idaho]

I’m still not nuts about this deal. Thoughts after gleaning some more and checking with a few guys:

I think the Royals are higher on both Gutierrez and Perkins than the current consensus on those players.

I get why they love Perkins. He’s very fast and an excellent defender. The bat will determine if he’s a 4th OF type or a legit starter. He does have a nice walk rate... so if he can continue to develop he hit tool, there’s a high ceiling there.

Best case for Perkins would be something like Dyson ... except without the platoon split. If he could provide that defense and 90 percent of the baserunning with the offensive profile Dyson has against RHP, that’s a star, and I think that’s what they’re banking on.

Gutierrez is also a Royals player. He’s a plus defender at 3B (and I have to wonder how he’d hold up at 2B, where his offensive profile would play up quite a bit). He can run. Good contact profile. Lots of tools.

Ultimately, the Royals kind of returned to their tools-driven focus. We’ll see if it works.

The lotto ticket pitcher is, like Elvis Luciano, pretty interesting. 17 and bumping up to 95, with room for more? Interesting.

I’d still rather have Kieboom or Antunes and think they might have been able to make that work straight up, but that’s me.

[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by OKchiefs

That's just how it goes in KC. If we're buyers, it's a seller's market. If we're sellers, it's a buyer's market. If we have a top pick, nobody is worth the pick or they go right before we pick.

If it's our pick in the draft, they'll go to commercial.

[tyton75]

I see the Braves as possible trade partners for Moose, and they have a pretty good farm. I don't think we would get the return we would like to get, but still; they could use an upgrade at third.

[Sure-Oz]

Anyone think Whit will get a better haul at least on paper then Herrera did? Even if it's 1 player, I feel like he has more value then moose right now

[Lex Luthor]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

The myth that won't die^

We were 7 games over and leading the WC by 1 game on the July 31 deadline last year. We brought in the PadrAIDS and collapsed, but there was plenty of good logic to go for it one more year with our core. They'd earned the right

Yep, a lot of people seem to completely forget that. The Royals weren't sellers last year, they were buyers. And it was the correct strategy.

[Lex Luthor]

Originally Posted by Titty Meat

That's quite a statement. Farm system is better, GM is better and manager is better. Buddy Bell is one of the worst all time managers in sports.

Trey Hillman was even worse. He destroyed Gil Meche's career because he wanted to prove that pitch counts don't matter.

[Sure-Oz]

Will be interesting to see if his last outing was just a bad day.

@Matt_Winkelman: Looking at it a bit deeper, I get why the Royals moved Herrera now, especially only getting maybe 75 cents on the dollar. Velocity and results have trended down each month