Archive for April, 2010

Eric Hosmer checks in at #7 on the 2010 Kings of Kauffman prospect list. Who: Eric John Hosmer DOB: 10/24/1989  Cooper City, Florida Position: 1B Height: 6’4″ Weight: 215 lbs Bats: Left Throws: Left Acquired: 2008 Draft (1st Round)

John Lamb checks in at #8 on the 2010 Kings of Kauffman prospect list. Who: John M. Lamb DOB: 7/10/1990 Laguna Hills, California Position: LHP Height: 6’3″ Weight: 195 Bats: Left Throws: Left Acquired: 2008 Draft (5th Round)

On the Level is a featured column by Mat Germain that appears every Tuesday on our MLB site Call to the Pen.  In today’s edition, David Lough was the featured Triple-A player.  I encourage everyone to head on over and read an unbiased take on one of our favorite Royals prospects.  While you are there look around and if you like what you see, please spread the word. In addition to directing you to the above, I wanted to drop a heads-up that after a nearly month long hiatus, I will be continuing the 2010 KoK prospect rankings.  Today #8 [...]

Thankfully, following a long, cold winter, the gods have blessed us with a new baseball season (and some spectacular weather for it, as well through most of the league). It’s early enough that there’s still the optimism of a clean slate, so how are the Royals doing so far? I went into detail about opening day already, but that’s just one of many gamedays. So here’s a quick review of the rest of the week’s action, along with a few morsels, stats, and observations, as well as things to look for in the coming weeks and months. 4/7: Luke Hochevar [...]

The first week of the season has come to a close and the Kansas City Royals are 2-4 with a -13 run differential.  Chris Getz looks like he is going to be a fun and intelligent player to watch.  Rick Ankiel is oozing with talent and serious potential even though he is on the wrong side of 30.  The starting rotation, outside of Gil’s start today, looks pretty solid so far. As Royals fans we’ve seen some bad bullpens in the last 15 seasons but this one just defies explanation.  The good news is that they cannot collectively pitch any [...]

Today I published my latest Draft Currents column over on Call to the Pen.  This week I looked at the 3rd round picks from 1995 to 2009 of all 30 MLB organizations.  Then I ranked the teams based on the value added by the best pick in terms of WAR.  For the Kansas City Royals, that player was LHP-Jeremy Affeldt from the 1997 draft. If you’d like to check out the entire column and see where the other teams ranked and who led the way for each of them, go ahead and check out Draft Currents: Rounding up the Thirds.

Anyone remember the old Wendy’s commercial from the 1980s asking, “Where’s the Beef?” While that slogan dealt with quarter pound hamburgers, my question is in reference to the lack of a slugger in the middle of the Royals’ lineup. Sure, Billy Butler has some pop and has the potential to crank out 30 HR’s (that is rather optimistic, really), but outside of ol’ Porkchop, who on the Royals current roster poses as a real threat to the opposing pitching staff? If you and I are thinking along the same lines, no one in particular comes to mind. Jose Guillen? Not [...]

I am way behind on the team’s transactions the last couple of weeks.  This is a relatively stripped down recap of the moves, but for posterity I thought I’d get all of this posted. Between March 16th and 21st, the team released 23 year old RHP-Jack Adams who pitched for the AZL Royals during 2009.  In 21.1 innings as a reliever he was 1-1 with a 1.69 ERA and 0.89 WHIP.  He struck out 21 while walking only 3.  Adams pitched for San Jose State University and was signed by the Royals as a non-drafted free agent last summer.  Also [...]

What follows is a press release from the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) an organization that Kings of Kauffman and yours truly is very proud to be a part of. ~~~~~ The World Series will have a familiar look in October, according to the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. For the first time, the membership of the BBA was polled for their preseason predictions, with the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies being the most common selections for World Series participants.  The Yankees received 36 votes to easily outpace Boston’s 18, while the Phillies’ 31 votes edged out St. Louis’s 24.  The [...]

In today’s ESPN SportsNation Chat, Jim Callis was asked, “who is the worst team in baseball?” His answer? The Royals. A simple question gets a simple answer but it kicked of this mini-rant in my head.  I had to write it out so it will stop bouncing around in there and let me focus on other things.  Here goes … I get that it is just one person’s opinion, but I value what Jim Callis thinks.  At the major league level, which is what I believe he was talking about, it’s hard to argue with his assessment.  All in all, [...]

Welcome to the 2010 Kings of Kauffman Season “Preview.”  In actuality it’s kind of a preview but it kind of isn’t and if you can follow that logic then you are off to a good start!   With three voices on staff we decided to each dissect the Royals opening day roster piece by piece and each provide our thoughts in relation to what Dayton and Trey have actually done.   Our hope was to get this published on Opening Day, but this project quickly evolved into a behemoth of an article and took some additional time to put together [...]

Here’s the bright side, above anything else — baseball season is officially upon us. Starting at that premise makes life better in general already. More specifically, though, Royals baseball is back, and another season of games like yesterday’s will continue the frustration of Kansas City baseball fans. If you’re on this blog, I’ll spare you the recap. You know what happened and the final score, but what I hope to bring to you in my game reactions this season is just a little bit more. So let’s kick it in gear and look at some little things in the ball [...]