Archive for January, 2011

Zack Greinke suffers from social anxiety. Sounds bad, doesn’t it? Let’s put it another way. Zack Greinke has social anxiety. Now we’re getting somewhere. It’s a little less ominous; a little less sky-is-falling. But I think we can do better. Zack Greinke lives with social anxiety. Yeah, that’s better. It sounds trivial to say it that way, but it almost feels like you have to. It feels like you have to remind the general public every now and again that a mental disorder doesn’t mean you belong in a padded room or in a therapist’s office five days a week. [...]

The Cubs and Rays have finalized a deal that sends Matt Garza to Chicago and a haul of prospects to Tampa.  Back around the winter meetings, the pair of young pitchers were both being discussed in trades and ended up compared to each other, both in terms of talent and in potential returns. Greinke had two years on his contract left and Garza had three years with the Rays, causing some to speculate that Garza may be an equal target to the 2009 Cy Young Award winner, or perhaps even a better acquisition.  Now that both pitchers have been traded, [...]

It’s a 24/7 grind where he’s always on call.  Being a certified agent with the MLBPA “has nothing to do with Jerry Maguire.” That’s the realism presented by Joshua Kusnick, the agent to two of the newest Royals, Lorenzo Cain and Jeremy Jeffress. His involvement with the Royals is the conjunction of a few chance meetings, a break here and there, and just like in real estate, location location location. “It’s difficult to get in,” he says.  ”I did some bird dog scouting for a team – nothing serious, just getting into the game.  Then the first guy I signed [...]

If this isn’t your first time stopping by Kings of Kauffman (and if it is, Welcome!), you might get the feeling something’s a bit different. I’m pleased to highlight our new site logo, located in the top left of your screen (unless you’re on Google Reader or another RSS service, in which case, thanks for the follow and I suggest you click the title of this posting to view the logo!) If you follow us on Twitter (@KingsofKauffman), you’ll notice the changes there, as well.  Additionally, we’ve added it to our Facebook page as well. We’re quite proud of it [...]

We’re about three weeks removed from the Zack Greinke trade and the Royals still don’t have any real inkling as to who might take the open spot in the pitching rotation. There are some potential in-house options – Austin mentioned Robinson  Tejeda, Joakim Soria (who’ll be the subject of these discussion until he retires I’m sure), and minor leaguers Danny Duffy, Mike Montgomery, Aaron Crow, Everett Teaford or John Lamb – as potential fits for the open spot.  Zach Miner, who signed a minor league contract, could be another option coming out of spring training. Recently, the Royals have been [...]

On the bright side, Brian Bannister has the mathematical chops to convert dollars to yen. Bannister agreed to a deal with the Tokyo Giants today for the 2011 season with an option for 2012.  Bannister was non-tendered in November and became a free agent.  With the Royals, he’d compiled a 5.13 ERA over 629 innings. There were some rumblings a team might take a shot at him as a swingman or emergency starter, but instead, Bannister’s heading to the land of the rising sun.  At 29 years old and with no true dominant pitch, he may find it difficult to [...]

Since I discussed the Spring Training roster battles for the infield on Monday, I’ll keep going and look at the much more debatable outfield. As Mike already analyzed the case of Mitch Maier versus Gregor Blanco, I won’t mention much about that battle other than saying I agree with Mike. I would initially go with Mitch unless the Royals run with five outfielders. But, I’ll get more into that later. Now that we know the non-roster invitees, you can also add those to the equation. However, just as none of the infield invitees other than Mike Moustakas are real candidates [...]

First thing’s first, I want to welcome another new writer to the staff at Kings of Kauffman.  Kevin Scobee has joined up with us on this magical mystery tour and I think his strong voice will resonate with you, our valued readers.  Kevin has written for ProRumors.com in the past, and,  like the rest of us here, is a long time suffering Royals fan…well I’ll let him tell you in his own words: I lived in Kansas City from day 1 to year 27 before moving to Orange County, Calif., and I’ve been a tortured Royals fan the whole way. [...]

Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook will be out later this month or in early February (and is a MUST own for the well-informed baseball fan – I still pick mine up at least once a day), and the Royals will own the obvious distinction of the top ranking among minor league systems. We knew that was coming back around July. But Jim Callis responded to an interesting question, and his answer was surprising. Not in a bad way but more in that “Wow. I…can’t believe I hadn’t noticed that before” way. First, the question itself: Let’s say the Royals system was [...]

We’ve discussed the future a lot as Royals fans.  The organization’s status and relevance is heavily dependent on the future – the talented prospects, the solid draft scouting and the strong player development.  Those kinds of things on the field are going to be most important to keeping fans around and watching, even those who have been the most loyal. Going into 2011, those fans who follow the team closely have an idea that it’s going to be rough.  But there’s hope.  There’s the future! We can talk endlessly about the potential of Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Wil Myers. [...]

The other day I linked to a story from the Kansas City Business Journal about plans to market the Royals in 2011.  After trading both David DeJesus and Zack Greinke this offseason, plus with hardly any realistic chance at playoff contention, the Royals might have difficulty featuring anybody for the upcoming season. Their choice is to focus on the stadium, then work their way into highlighting the prospects as they come up. That’s probably fine for now, but what other options could they try?

David Holtzman announced the Royals non-roster invitees to spring training and the list includes some exciting names.