Archive for November, 2011

Ya know, it’s sort of sad to see Melky Cabrera leave the nest. Tim Liotta, a contributor for the San Francisco Examiner wrote an article a few days ago on the trade. The gist of the article revolved around that less than exciting truth of the trade for San Francisco. “Eh, whatever, just another player with twenty homers”…The Royals, barely mentioned, find a spirited Johnathan Sanchez in their laps ready to fire on call. The west coast approach to this trade seems luke warm at best. Liotta expressed that San Francisco fans are indeed nodding their heads at the deal, but nobody is frantically excited about it. I [...]

When Royals prospect lists start to come out over the winter, Cheslor Cuthbert is highly likely to be listed among the first five ranked. Despite being very young, Cuthbert spent the year in A ball rather than rookie leagues and performed well during the first half, only to fall down a bit in the second. Considering I’d figured him for more rookie ball this season, a full year in Low A puts him ahead of the usual pattern. He turns 19 later this week. In 342 plate appearances, Cuthbert hit .267/.345/.397 with 22 extra base hits. He walked 10.5% of [...]

The Baseball Writers Association of America announced the winners of the Jackie Robinson Award on Monday afternoon. Eric Hosmer, the Royals best rookie in 2011, finished third behind winner Jeremy Hellickson of Tampa and Mark Trumbo of Los Angeles. There should be no outrage at Hellickson’s selection. After a better than 5/1 K/BB ratio over nearly 200 innings and a 2.95 ERA, Hellickson is more than deserving of the award. Where I think Royals fans are upset is the standing of Trumbo over Hosmer. In 21 more games Trumbo had more home runs and RBIs but Hosmer had a better [...]

In the latest Royalman Report, we looked at the Melky Cabrera/Jonathan Sanchez trade and its implications for 2012 and beyond. We also guessed at what moves may be next for the Royals (if any). We also covered what free agents might be options for the Royals and looked at trade targets. On top of that we discussed the possibility of moving Joakim Soria, the changing trade market as the offseason goes on and Royalman even said he’d welcome Zack Greinke back if it came to it. Breakthrough! Next week, we’ll have an interview with the newest Royal in the organization [...]

Best month of the season by far and sadly, the last one. The Royals had an astounding amount of young talent up at the big league level and before we knew it, the season was over. 15-10 Raised expectations for 2012. (as if we needed any help with that)

The last week was pretty eventful. The Royals traded Melky Cabrera for Jonathan Sanchez, and Kansas City celebrated Buck O’Neil. We’ll discuss both of those topics as well as other Royals speculation for the offseason and 2012. Lorenzo Cain and Bob McClure also figure to be part of the discussion tonight as well. We’ll probably touch on the Chiefs a bit as well, as a big opportunity slipped through their hands today. As always, we’ll have our chat room up during the broadcast for any questions and comments and whatever discussion arises. You can also call 1-816-394-9578 and leave a voicemail [...]

When most people watch a baseball game, they take for granted the fact that the Manager and his entire coaching staff are wearing the same uniform as their players. They have numbers, some of them even wear spikes and wristbands. Though they look like they haven’t done anything athletic in years, they are dressed as though they might need to join the game at a moment’s notice. It’s one of those things about baseball that I hope never changes. Think about it though. You don’t see football coaches dressed in full pads, wearing a helmet as they call in plays [...]

The big news of the week was the Jonathan Sanchez/Melky Cabrera deal: Gage Matthews helped pass the initial news along after the announcement. I felt like adding my two cents with a glance at Sanchez’s pitch selection and other stats. Brett Christie discussed Lorenzo Cain‘s opportunity in Kansas City in light of Melky Cabrera’s departure. That was the big headline of the week, but Bob McClure did an interview at FanGraphs that stirred up some discussion. Kevin Scobee, who has experience as a pitcher in college as well as a pitching coach, gave a strong rebuttal to a lot of [...]

After acquiring Jonathan Sanchez, the Royals are supposedly done going after front-line pitching talent. That’s according to Jayson Stark who passed on the word he’d heard from other teams who’ve talked with the Royals. A couple of days ago, that could may have been true. It may be true right this moment as well. At this point Dayton Moore may have no current aspiration to dig too deeply to find a starter via trade. That could remain his stance through the whole offseason, if the Royals were in a vacuum and the rest of the league remained unchanged. But today, [...]

“If Buck ever started to forget, I don’t think he’d last long,” our constant companion Negro Leagues Baseball Museum marketing director Bob Kendrick, would often say. “I think that’s the only thing that scares him. Dying doesn’t scare him. Forgetting does.” -Joe Posnanski from The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America Had he not left us after 94 full years, John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil would be turning 100 this Sunday, November 13. In celebration of a life that touched many players, baseball fans, Kansas Citians, historians and a multitude of complete strangers, Kansas City will spend [...]

Monday the Royals announced that they had traded outfielder Melky Cabrera to the San Francisco Giants for left-handed pitchers Jonathan Sanchez and Ryan Verdugo. This is a move that had to be made for two obvious reasons: The Royals need starting pitching and they had an unfamiliar log-jam in centerfield that needed to be sorted out. I think my colleagues have done a solid job of analyzing the deal from the perspective of what the Royals got in Sanchez and Verdugo. So, I’ll take a different approach and look at the underlying significance that the move entailed. The Royals decided to shop Cabrera at his [...]

Baseball, as a business, has started to get it. Over the past decade after the publicizing of Moneyball, statistics and the search for the objective center have been forced more to the forefront of the industry ideology. Organizations have embraced the intelligent, the educated, into their offices to make decisions based more heavily on logic and information, than gut feelings and luck. Some of the “old school” ways of doing things still exist, as they do have a place in front offices, but a better balance has been struck. Unfortunately for baseball however, that enlightenment to newer ideas and strategies [...]