*** Official 2019 Kansas City Royals Repository ***
 

Get the offseason thread out of here. It's on!

Opening day roster:

Catchers (2): Cam Gallagher, Martin Maldonado

Infielders (7): Hunter Dozier, Lucas Duda, Whit Merrifield, Adalberto Mondesi, Ryan O’Hearn, Chris Owings, Frank Schwindel

Outfielders (4): Alex Gordon, Terrance Gore, Billy Hamilton, Jorge Soler

Starting pitchers (3): Jakob Junis, Brad Keller, Jorge Lopez

Relief pitchers (9): Scott Barlow, Brad Boxberger, Jake Diekman, Chris Ellis, Tim Hill, Ian Kennedy, Kevin McCarthy, Wily Peralta, Kyle Zimmer

Injured list: Danny Duffy, Brian Flynn, Jesse Hahn, Salvador Perez

Suspended: Eric Skoglund

first, feels good

World Series champs!!

Here's to hoping Mondesi can become a star shortstop and help bring us to another World Series in a few years.

We have a bit of talent in the minors, seemingly more than on our majors, as the Omaha Storm Chasers beat the KC Royals 3 to 2. But there is some MLB level talent on our roster. We have a lot of speed, but as they say, you can't steal first base. I predict 66-96.

Their arrow is definitely pointing up.

In it to win it.

LOL. With that roster, not really.

73-89, the rotation will be a disaster... the lineup will be surprisingly better than expecting.

100 losses. Lets be real guys.

68-94

first page!!!!

We win the central this year

wins = low to mid 60's.

The roster is finally out.

Catchers (2): Cam Gallagher, Martin Maldonado

Infielders (7): Hunter Dozier, Lucas Duda, Whit Merrifield, Adalberto Mondesi, Ryan O’Hearn, Chris Owings, Frank Schwindel

Outfielders (4): Alex Gordon, Terrance Gore, Billy Hamilton, Jorge Soler

Starting pitchers (3): Jakob Junis, Brad Keller, Jorge Lopez

Relief pitchers (9): Scott Barlow, Brad Boxberger, Jake Diekman, Chris Ellis, Tim Hill, Ian Kennedy, Kevin McCarthy, Wily Peralta, Kyle Zimmer

Injured list: Danny Duffy, Brian Flynn, Jesse Hahn, Salvador Perez

Suspended: Eric Skoglund

Source: https://www.royalsreview.com/2019/3/...ing-day-roster

Bold prediction: This bullpen might not be that bad.

If Duffy is on the injured list, who is going to be in the rotation? There are two open spots, according to that roster.

Chris Owingetz?

Starting the season with Keller, Junis, and Lopez. They'll go through that rotation twice before letting another pitcher, Homer Bailey, start. Not sure what they do after that.

Royals don't need a 5 man until April 10th or sometime around there,

Scott Barlow is one, not sure who will be #5

is this on fox sports midwest or what?

Let’s do this...

And by do this, I mean see the young players in the majors progress and closely watch the performance of guysnin the minors.

Has the game been called yet?

The new Alcides. Ned is gonna trip over himself trying to get this guy into the lineup everyday.

Not that spring training means anything but Owings had decent batting stats this spring.

with 51 at bats,
Avg = .333
HR = 4
OPS = .815

The Royals have indicated Homer Bailey will be added as the 4th starter. Either Yost or DMoore indicated that either Duffy or Fillmyer would be added as the 5th depending on Duffy's health.

Danny Duffy, another horrendous contract given out. That timespan when large contracts were given out to Gordon, Duffy, and Kennedy is regrettable. It will be nice here in a few years when we hopefully double our yearly payout from the TV contract and these 3 are gone. Depending on the progression of the current youngsters in both the majors and minors we should have the flexibility and ammunition to make some key additions around 2021-2022.

I said trade Duffman after year 1 but nobody here agreed. The just love his cute and cuddly and goofy personality too much

The Royals signed Duffy to his extension coming off a nearly 4-win season, with a year to go before he hit free agency.

It was his second time in three years performing at that level. They took a risk on him and it has gone wrong so far. Had he balled out again in 17, they would have been looking at a much bigger deal or him walking.

In hindsight, it’s easy to look at it and say it’s a bad bet. In the moment, the Royals were still trying to win in 17. The extension occurred a week before Yordano Ventura’s death.

Had that not occurred, the Royals would have had the top two spots in their rotation set with homegrown guys at reasonable prices for the next half-decade.

It’s ironic. For decades, Royals fans complained about being cheap and not re-signing players. The Royals finally re-sign some stars or make some big spends, and things go sideways on every one.

You're right, it's not entirely fair to criticize the contract. By itself I would have just chalked it up to bad luck. My issue is with the three contracts as a whole. That's a lot of money tied up on three players whom haven't come even close to living up to the value of the contract.

Critiques of the Kennedy contract were immediate. I thought it would work out better, based on the way flyball pitchers had fared for KC in recent past. It obviously has been a huge disaster.

Criticizing that is fair.

Have to apply context to the other two deals, IMO. Gordon’s team with KC was shorter and lighter than predicted when FA opened, and shorter and lighter than what the White Sox offered. No one saw his 2016 dive off the cliff coming (maybe this year, the last of the deal, but not right away). He bottomed out the aging curve early.

Just said my piece on Duffy. They bet and lost on him (so far).

:spock:

WAR, I'm assuming

Ahhh, makes sense. He was 3.7 WAR in 2016.

Dayton needs to get off his ass and sign Kimbrel!!! Kuechel too!!!!! Why the **** not????

Went to the game tonight...remaining crowd was really getting pissed going needing to go through 4 pitchers in the 9th. Made me think how "interesting" it's going to be next year when pitchers have to go 3 batters. Bad bullpens are going to get demolished and embarassed.

It was pretty damned annoying watching Keller go seven strong only to have the bullpen come in and bumble**** up the ninth. Got the last out with the bases loaded, the dipshits.

A win is a win, but yeeesh. Close a game, FFS.

Good lord man you could find a flaw in a perfect sunset

Yes those contracts look bad; and I have at no point claimed to possess even adequate baseball knowledge; but come on man, I think most rational royals fans are well aware that this is most likely a lost season...

There's absolutely no reason to defecate all over any little spark of enthusiasm

31k opening day

Concern?

On a rainy day with an hour and 45 minute delay?

Nah.

WINNING RECORD

Tied for first place bitches!!

Wat

They are really going to do that?

One of the rules they are experimenting with, I think.

#solerpower

Dude it’s opening day. Those are normally all pre-sold far in advance of weather forecasts

Were they sold tickets and not used or unsold tickets?

Yes, sold

Is it not okay to discuss merit and context of contracts in a thread discussing the Royals?

Asking for a friend.

Not for me. Should be for the org. All it means is they've now spoiled the fan base with winning. The effect lasted a couple of years. It's worn off. They have to do better to rebuild faster and get back to competitive baseball quickly after a wave hits FA. There was a day when opening day was the best thing to look forward to in a season. The fan base has changed...they know that better baseball is in October. Good for us. Now DM and company need to get us back, stat and all will be fine again.

Gotcha. I thought that was the gate total. Still not a shock. Bad team and I think the loss of Salvy gut punched a lot of people. Still in the 5 year window of a championship. May still be hard for people to accept the rebuild/90 loss days.

I mean it doesn't concern me, but it should concern Glass and Moore. The home opener was always a guaranteed sell out for years. Even when we were in the decade of trash.

I haven't followed the Royals closely in the offseason. Is Boxberger the closer?

Where was O'Hearn? Is Lopez expected to get playing time in the near future?

There are some good explanations but honestly, 31k for Opening Day is awful news. This is the first time in my life (other than in 1995 right after the strike) that I heard ads for Opener on the radio. And they were advertising “upper and lower level” which the lower has NEVER had availability.


We had 15k season tix during much of Mr Ks era - he capped it at 15k to make sure Joe Shmoe could get out there too. It fell to 10k under Glass, and I assume it went back to 20k during our WS runs.


What does that mean? Simple - the Opener has never, ever, under any time frame, had avail until yesterday. That’s scary. Our market may not be able to support MLB.

You're a ****ing moron.

O Hearn sucks against lefties so he sat. Lopez is in the rotation and Boxberger was just a guy we threw out there because Diekman tried blowing it

I don't think I'm going to like this Diekmann fellow. He looks like a true piece of shit. I guess he had one good year in 2013. But he's from Nebraska so Royals fans will probably like him.

LMFAO @ the notion that KC may not be able to support an MLB team.

That’s so incredibly ****ing stupid.

The KC economy is at its highest point EVER, and civic pride is at an all-time high. This town supported its baseball team through one of the greatest recessions in history while the team was GOD AWFUL and you think low opening day numbers indicate a lack of support? The effects from the WS win go far beyond ticket sales. There are more kids in this region who are diehard Royals fans than there have ever been...merch sales, ad dollars (look at the big-name sponsors in the stadium now...the local companies are now national ones)...this all contributes to the team’s bottom line.

Weather 100% played a role in the empty seats on Thursday. And it will again on Saturday.

KC is doing a fine job supporting its three pro teams. Your fears are nonsensical.

It's Prison Bitch, don't let him troll you. Sometimes I think PB is Kevin Keitzman.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Reds?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Reds</a> have claimed off waivers from the Giants and optioned to Louisville RHP José López. LHP Brandon Finnegan has been designated for assignment. <a href="https://t.co/Z0ZPCj8oiJ">pic.twitter.com/Z0ZPCj8oiJ</a></p>&mdash; Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reds/status/1111328110786547712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Brandon Finnegan, Cody Reed, and John Lamb...

Great reminder of why prospects shouldn’t just be hoarded.

And why the idea of selling off your proven players for stars isn’t a sure-fire rebuilding kickstart and easy path to success.

Where's Dane worthless ass to have it shoved up saying that Cueto trade was a franchise killer. Worthless Hollywood ****.

This is completely false. I’ve been to 30 of them. There’s been nice weather for maybe 7-10. I’ve been to some real shit weather openers. Always full. No exceptions until yesterday.

The part everyone is forgetting about opening day is now it's in March. It's a week to 10 days earlier than it used to be, and the weather is way more up in the air.

This team was absolutely awful last year and still pulled the sixth highest ratings of any team in baseball.

Dumb post

For real, can someone explain why Dayton shouldn't just sign Kimbrel and/or Kuechel at this point? Best case, they help the team compete. Worst case, they get traded at the deadline for peanuts. Either way, they'd come cheap. Is there any downside whatsoever? Hello??????

The reason they haven’t signed is they’re not ‘cheap’. They haven’t been willing to take bargain contracts yet, like many of their contemporaries.

Besides, Dallas is done. No one should waste money on him. And as far as Kimbrel: why a 60 win team (which Royals are, best case scenario 70 wins) would want to spend $15 mil. per year on a closer, I have no idea. That’s not good value, even considering flipping him at deadline for prospect. Boxberger on the other hand, made a lot more sense for this team to take a flyer on.

Baseball is still a business. Glass isn’t gonna piss away $10 million for a single A prospect with some high upside, it’s just not happening. If the Royals were ‘close’ to winning and being competitive this might be a different discussion, but they’re not.

We just had 31k show up on opening day and you’re wanting big spending on FA?

Why would either one of those guys be cheap?

Why do you say that? He pitched more than 200 innings last year, and pitched well in the postseason.

A group of Kentucky fans at Crown Center (where they’re staying) are standing in front of the blue fountains taking photos.


Should we tell them?

Are we getting rained out today? Weather map doesn't look good right now.

FYI, here’s what a town not supporting a baseball team ACTUALLY looks like.

This is moments before the first pitch at the Marlins 2nd game of the season.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D23IuHWW...jpg&name=large

Not sure, but it's cold as balls and windy outside too.

Threw together some plots with Statcast data this morning, visualizing Keller's Opening Day performance. From what I have researched, it was about as Brad Keller game as there could possibly be.

All 92 pitches, colored by pitch type:
https://i.postimg.cc/VN9bvdcv/Screen...0-18-47-AM.png

All 92 pitches, colored by pitch speed:
https://i.postimg.cc/wjwjGLHh/Screen...0-38-33-AM.png

Overall, the White Sox played right into his hand- chasing after his low-stuff and getting fooled by his slider. A slider that he is consistent in his approach with, low and out of the zone:
https://i.postimg.cc/pTjgbMND/Screen...0-56-35-AM.png

Swinging strike rate was about what he averaged at last year, 8 swinging strikes out of 92 pitches. ~8.7% swinging strike rate compared to 9.0% flat for the year last year. 5 of these swinging strikes came against lefties and were chased out of the zone:
https://i.postimg.cc/LXh8zX1m/Screen...0-58-14-AM.png

Groundball rate was right there with his average last year as well, 10 of 18 batted balls against were groundballs, ~55.5% groundball rate compared to 54.4% for 2018. I usually don't fall in love with pitchers who rely on inducing-contact, but the thing that impressed me the most from Opening Day was Keller's ability to jam the White Sox inside with his heat, in addition to working LHBs away - yet in the strike zone - with his sinker/two-seamer (FT):
https://i.postimg.cc/0NdqbJ2z/Screen...1-12-22-AM.png

Still working out how to present this one visually that isn't a cluster****, but it shows some patterns to watch for that could be noteworthy going forward. The Sox had some good pitches to hit when Keller was behind in the count and not able to nibble on the edges and had to come into the zone with his fastball. When Keller was ahead, 0-1, 0-2, 1-2, he threw one pitch in the zone the entire game:
https://i.postimg.cc/nhK3bKhw/Screen...1-29-04-AM.png

Rain is suppose to stop around 2. Probably another delay but someone start up the GDT!! Looking at 2-0 baby and first place of the central!!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a> lineup vs. Giolito:<br><br>Merrifield 2B<br>Mondesi SS<br>Gordon LF<br>Soler RF<br>O’Hearn DH<br>Duda 1B<br>Owings 3B<br>Maldonado C<br>Hamilton CF<br>Lopez P</p>&mdash; David Lesky (@DBLesky) <a href="https://twitter.com/DBLesky/status/1112360484576129025?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Lucas Giolito is starting for the White Sox today. He allowed 26 stolen bases last year which was the most by anyone in baseball<br><br>Please let the Royals get on base today</p>&mdash; Cody Tapp (@codybtapp) <a href="https://twitter.com/codybtapp/status/1112337154259210240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

And it’s this lineup that’s the problem.

Owings should not play everyday at the expense of Dozier.

Pair it with Duda playing today, too, and it’s just a bad look for Moore and Yost.

Why do they feel that Owings needs to be in the lineup as much as possible?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Good morning. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a> playoff odds jumped 1.9% from yesterday according to PECOTA. Now at 12.5% to reach the postseason. PECOTA win total is 79.</p>&mdash; Craig Brown (@CraigBrown_BP) <a href="https://twitter.com/CraigBrown_BP/status/1112355130119200768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>