Archive for July, 2011

This week’s Royalman Report was Twitter-heavy, what with @fakenedyost in studio and Ross Martin (@pcbearcat), sports editor of the St. Joseph News- Press, joining on the phone. We discussed the trading deadline, Billy Butler’s recent hot streak, the birth of #CountryBreakfast and read submissions of Rejected Royals Promotions on the air.  We also briefly discussed Troy “Royalman” Olsen’s inclusion in Wednesday’s Blog Your Way to the K event (which our own Ryan Wood will participate in as well). If you listen to just one episode of the Royalman Report this year, make this the one! Ross’s full account of the birth [...]

When I look at the individuals who make up Royals fans, I see a separation of 3 groups. There are the individuals who observe/analyze/verbally abuse every move the Royals make 24/7…365 days a year. These are the true sons who will continue to follow the Royals through thick and thin. These are the fans who have suffered over these recent years of horrid play and questionable moves made by the front office. These are the fans who are never going away.

“I understand the premise, and I don’t totally disagree with some of the philosophy, but I think the philosophy has been so far overblown as far as its value…” – Mike Arbuckle, Senior Advisor to the General Manager In 2003 a book was published by the highly acclaimed – and the ridiculously talented – Michael Lewis that changed the way the mainstream looks at baseball and baseball philosophies. It wasn’t an entirely groundbreaking venture, a lot of the theories and practices discussed and highlighted throughout the text are the same ones that Earl Weaver trumpeted in the 1970s. But with [...]

  Not all trades are blockbusters. The Royals traded infielder Mike Aviles to the Boston Red Sox this afternoon for infielder Yamaico Navarro and minor league pitcher Kendal Volz. Aviles had struggled for most of 2011 with a few hot weeks.  He was sent to Omaha with the promotion of Mike Moustakas and hit well enough to return when Wilson Betemit was traded last week.  As a Royal, he hit .286/.317/.417 in 1218 plate appearances in the big leagues with the Royals while playing second base, shortstop and third base.  He was the Royals player of the year in 2008 [...]

Well, hello offense. It’s good to see you again. That strange, solid, thumping sound you hear is that of forged lumber smacking the crap out of leather baseballs. By the Royals. No, seriously. On Friday night, the Royals put together their most complete game of the 2011 season. Before we get back to the thumping, it was Jeff Francis who held his own, throwing a gem the likes of which the team envisioned when they signed him. He threw eight scoreless innings, giving up only four hits while striking out six – two of those in the 8th. For a [...]

Fangraphs has an early look at potential candidates for Comeback Player of the Year and it’s tough to argue against their choice of Jacoby Ellsbury considering the circumstances. What’s of interest for Royals fans is a mention of both Alex Gordon and Melky Cabrera.  Both have had exceptional seasons in 2011 basically from opening day to the present. It’s difficult for me to call it a comeback for Melky Cabrera.  I’ll admit, that I was dead wrong coming into this season, but he’s not exactly coming back to anything. When your production entering a season was pretty slight, you’re not [...]

Welcome to the end of another week and another edition of Fish on the Farm! I’ve spent the last two weekly columns focused on the Idaho Falls Chukars and I’m going to stick to that script once again. On July 16th I wrote extensively about Henry Moreno and Darian Sandford who were notable as they were the only two players on the Chukars roster that made the Royals organizational depth chart in Baseball America’s 2011 Prospect Handbook. Last week on the 23rd, I covered the 14 players who were new to the Royals organization and assigned to Idaho Falls. These players included [...]

As the July 31 trade deadline nears it appears the Royals might be content to stand pat and remain relatively inactive for the first time in several years. There are a few moves they will look to pursue, but there is a decent chance nothing gets done. I have a short list of moves that I would prefer to be made in order for the club to move forward with their youth movement. 1. Create space for Lorenzo Cain: The Royals’ most likely trade bait, Melky Cabrera and Jeff Francouer, could remain Royals according to the Kansas City Star’s Bob [...]

Two million dollars is a heck of a birthday gift. That’s what it took for the Royals to sign Dominican shortstop Adalberto Mondesi, the son of former big leaguer Raul Mondesi.  Although the international signing period began on July 2, Mondesi didn’t turn 16 until midnight Wednesday morning and was unable to sign.  The Royals were frontrunners to sign him after he spent time in their baseball academy in the Dominican Republic.

Little by little, the Royals are working their best young minor leaguers closer to the majors. Today, two potential impact players were promoted to Omaha. Salvador Perez, the prospective catcher of the future, has made it to Triple A at the ripe age of 21 years old.  Perez, considered an elite defensive talent, threw out 43 of 90 potential base stealers in Northwest Arkansas in 2011.  He has a career 43% success rate in the minors in limited would-be thieves. Kelvin Herrera, who was in the All-Star Futures game at the All-Star Break, has a 52/8 K/BB ratio in 50.2 [...]

With Royalman out emceeing the Dead Girl Derby on Sunday, it was up to mysef and Brian McGannon to hold down the Royalman Report fort. We discussed potential trades and the philosophy the Royals should take at the deadline this year and who might be shipped off. We also ranted about Chris Getz and gave Billy Butler some love. Click the embedded player below to listen to this week’s show or you can download the mp3 here. Our music this week was performed by local band “Seasons of Pain” and you can follow them on Twitter at @seasonsofpain. If you happen [...]

On June 1st, Dayton Moore and the Royals organization thought it would be a good idea to ship 26-year old C Luke May to Arizona for 19-year old RHP Andrea Pizziconi. At some point between the day of the trade and tonight (honestly it was quite a while ago) I came across the fact that Pizziconi was born in Anzio, Italy. That tidbit got me wondering if any other Italian-born players have spent time in the Royals organization. Thanks to Baseball Almanac, I was able to find a list of six Italian-born players who reached the major leagues. I’m not [...]