*** Official 2018 Royals Offseason Repository ***

[duncan_idaho]

It's the end of the world as we know it... and we feel... fine?

2018 is a season of transition for the Royals, or at least it is at this point. Dayton Moore is back. Will he swing full into THE PROCESS 2.0? Or will he try to load up again and make some reload magic happen?

Pending Free Agents:
1B | Eric Hosmer | San Diego Padres, 8 years, $144 million ($5 million signing bonus; $20 million/year in Yrs 1-5; $13 million/year in Yrs 6-8 wth player opt out)

Spoiler!

(DI's Guess: Texas Rangers, 6, $118 million)

3B | Mike Moustaskas | Kansas City Royas, 1, $6.5 million

Spoiler!

(DI's Guess: Los Angeles Angels, 5, $98 million)

CF | Lorenzo Cain | Milwaukee Brewers, 5 years, $80 million

Spoiler!

(DI's Guess: San Francisco Giants, 4, $68 million)

RP | Mike Minor | Texas Rangers, 3, $28 million

Spoiler!

(DI's Guess: Los Angeles Angels, 3, $35 million+ $12 million team option

SP | Jason Vargas | New York Mets, 2, $16 million

Spoiler!

(DI's Guess: Baltimore Orioles, 2, $29 million)

SS | Alcides Escobar | Kansas City Royals, 1, $2.5 million

Spoiler!

(DI's Guess: San Diego Padres, 1, $6.5 million)

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

Comp picks explanation:

Spoiler!

In case I, picks would be #32, 33, and 34, if Alex Cobb of Rays signs for $50 million guaranteed.

Kansas City will likely have 5 of the top 40-45 picks in the draft, and the bonus pool money should rival that of the teams drafting 1-3 in the 2017 draft. This should give KC tremendous flexibility in acquiring talent that otherwise might slip or not be "signable."

2018 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.

[Sure-Oz]

Originally Posted by Al Bundy

It appears Royals former 1st round pick Ashe Russell has completely quit baseball.

That's the dude that totally lost his ability to pitch after messing with his delivery and lost all his velocity...the yips as someone stated here. Sucks cause he was supposed to be good. Only the Royals

[Mecca]

Just illustrates how awful Dayton Moore has been at drafting over the last several years.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Sure-Oz

That's the dude that totally lost his ability to pitch after messing with his delivery and lost all his velocity...the yips as someone stated here. Sucks cause he was supposed to be good. Only the Royals

Nah. Not only the Royals. Lots of teams in baseball have highly drafted players never amount to anything or contribute to a major league roster.

Even the Astros, a team that has universally recognized great front office, have glaring misses - Mark Appel instead of Kris Bryant, for example.

Originally Posted by Mecca

Just illustrates how awful Dayton Moore has been at drafting over the last several years.

His recent history is not good. They’re going to have to turn that around over the next few years. Macro view, his success rate is not bad... but if you shrink it to 2011-2016, it’s rough.

Some of that is bad luck, too. Starling was a known risk and doesn’t qualify, but Kyle Zimmer... no way to predict that other than the fact he was a pitcher, and pitchers break. A lot.

I’m encouraged by the past few drafts. Guys like Khalil Lee, Michael Gigliotti, Nicky Lopez, Richard Lovelady, Pratto, Melendez, Brewer Hicklen are players with slightly different profiles than they’ve focused on in the past (more advanced bats, but still toolsy guys).

[Mother****erJones]

Originally Posted by Mecca

Just illustrates how awful Dayton Moore has been at drafting over the last several years.

This is a big draft for him. Lot of picks between rounds 1 and 2.

[Mecca]

Personally after everything I've seen I'm not sure I would ever use a high pick on a pitcher. Bats seem to be safer unless you go for a risky one like say Starling.

I think my approach would be to stack my system with polished bats that can advance quickly and if it creates a logjam use them to trade for the pitching I need.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Mecca

Personally after everything I've seen I'm not sure I would ever use a high pick on a pitcher. Bats seem to be safer unless you go for a risky one like say Starling.

I think my approach would be to stack my system with polished bats that can advance quickly and if it creates a logjam use them to trade for the pitching I need.

The best bets are high school position players and college position players.

They had good success with the former early in Moore’s tenure (Moustakas, Hosmer, Myers) but had moved away from that spot in round 1 other than Starling.

College position players, the only time they went there early, really, was Colon. Who was a bust. (Dozier doesn’t count, really - they did that primarily to get a player who might work but who would sign low enough for them to draft Manaea).

That’s why I like the shift. They’re still drafting guys with tools, but now seem to value approach as well. I’ll take a guy with very good tools and a great approach over a guy with amazing tools and no approach, generally.

[siberian khatru]

Here's some trivia for you.

Four players in ML history have hit 3 home runs on Opening Day. Three of them -- George Bell, Dmitri Young and Matt Davidson -- did it against the Royals. The fourth, Tuffy Rhodes, once played in the Royals organization (88 games in Omaha).

[Canofbier]

Isn't it about time someone starts the new thread?

You know, the 2019 offseason repository?

[Iczer]

Are there any other MLB teams that are as bad at developing starting pitching?

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Iczer

Are there any other MLB teams that are as bad at developing starting pitching?

Everyone in Baseball, basically, is “bad” at developing starting pitching. It’s hard to do.

The Rays and Cardinals are probably the two best, and I don’t know what type of success rate you’d see even from those squads on turning picks into major league value.

I don’t think you’d seen even a passing grade average across Baseball in general, if considering 59 percent or below “failing.”

[lewdog]

I’d put Billay and Dane in charge of player scouting for the draft.

Their hindsight is 50/50.

[Bufkin]

Alex started out the game yesterday with a nice double and seemed to be getting decent contact on pitches. Not to mention he made a pretty awesome diving catch (albeit the diving part being a tad unnecessary).

Also, was it ever explained why a solid fielding center fielder swapped positions with arguably the best fielding left fielder of the last decade?

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Mecca

Just illustrates how awful Dayton Moore has been at drafting over the last several years.

This is exactly why Moore and the entire front office and staff should have been fired after last season to give the team a fresh start and reboot.

Moore's a mess. He says he's going young, cutting payroll, then goes out and signs a bunch of vets. The payroll was supposed to be cut to somewhere around $110 million while they rebuild the Farm, yet it's only $12 million less than last year's payroll. He says he's not interested in Moose, then signs him, only to publicly trash him.

I don't know why anyone in their right mind would think that he can rebuild the Royals into a contender whether he's given 4 years or 10 years.

I hope he proves me wrong but I highly doubt it.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by lewdog

I’d put Billay and Dane in charge of player scouting for the draft.

Their hindsight is 50/50.

I don't claim to be a baseball scout.

But as a former executive a $5 billion dollar entertainment corporation, I easily recognize mismanagement when I see it.

And the 100 loss season that I predicted in November still stands.

[tk13]

I don't think this organization has done a very good job of developing pitching, but the future outlook of this team is different if Yordano is still alive. Then they have two good pitchers in their 20s locked up at a team-friendly rate for years to come.

Pitching is such a tough thing to develop, you just don't see many teams do what the Mets did... and even then they haven't been able to keep all those young aces healthy and/or pitching efficiently.