Bo knows Hall of Fame?

Most Royals fans have probably seen the ballot by now. While there are a couple of names that stand out as fairly solid candidates, the 2013 Royals Hall of Fame ballot is also a sad commentary on a period of Royals baseball that was not so Hall of Fame-ish.

Yes. You saw it right. We’ve got Emil Brown, Jimmy Gobble, and even Runelvys “Fat Elvis” Hernandez! Yikes.

We do have some names like John Wathan, Bo Jackson, Darrell Porter, and Kevin Seitzer on the board. Al Fitzmorris, one of the original 1969ers, is there. Outfielders Al Cowens and Jermaine Dye, a more recent bright spot, is on the ballot. But are any of these guys HOF material? Hard to say.

I think the best way to do this, given the time of year, is via bracket. Time to go March Madness on the Royals HOF.

There are 10 candidates up for election this year, so we need to get creative. Let’s find the four most undeserving candidates and match them up in our two play-in games. This should be easy. Right off the bat, we can select Brown, Gobble, and Hernandez. Looking at everyone else, judging off time spent as a Royals player, their total WAR during that span (according to Baseball Reference) and their WAR per 162, it looks like the fourth person involved in the play-in games will be John Wathan.

Let’s pair them off and have the pitchers and hitters face each other. First we have the pitchers, Runelvys Hernandez vs. Jimmy Gobble. Hernandez pitched four seasons for the Royals and had a WAR of 3.3 during that stretch, while Gobble only managed a 1.1 WAR in six years. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Runelvys wins (something he rarely did as a pitcher).

The next battle features Emil Brown and fan fave John Wathan. Brown only spent three years in the Royals outfield, and had a 1.4 WAR. During his decade as a Royals player, Wathan managed a 3.7 WAR. At first glance, looks like a Wathan win. However, since Wathan had such an advantage on seasons played, we’ll look at WAR per 162. Brown managed a 1.1 WAR per 162 with Wathan posting a 1.4. Looks like team Wathan just knocked down a three at the buzzer.

With that settled, we’ll seed the bracket by total WAR as a Royals player. The matchups are as follows:

(1) Kevin Seitzer vs. (8) Runelvys Hernandez

(4) Al Cowens vs. (5) Jermaine Dye

(3) Al Fitzmorris vs. (6) Bo Jackson

(2) Darrell Porter vs. (7) John Wathan

The #1 seed, but is he good enough? Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

In the first game of the day, the top seeded Team Seitzer knocks off Hernandez easily, winning in blowout. Sadly, it’s the last we’ll see of the Fat Elvis team mascot in this tourney. His halftime show (which was actually just Hernandez doing a kung fu exhibition in a white sequined jumpsuit), was the highlight of this matchup.

The next game, dubbed “Battle of the Backstops”, saw Porter get out to a 12-point lead by halftime. However, Wathan’s experience as a player in KC (six more years than Porter) drew him within just a few points with less than two minutes left in the game. With momentum going his way, Wathan relied on his managerial experience (during five seasons as the Royals skipper, he had a .515 win percent) and coached his team to a one-point victory. Wathan could be the Cinderella story in 2013…

Al Cowens versus Jermaine Dye was a close one. Cowens boasts a 10.5 total WAR with the Royals and a 2.7 WAR/162, while Dye has a 9.5 total and 2.9 WAR/162. Hard to say who gets the edge here…they even played roughly the same amount of time in Royal Blue, with Cowens at six seasons and Dye with five. With less than a minute on the clock, Cowens relies on his 5 WAR from 1977 (the highest single season WAR for either player) and sinks two free throws to win the game. The four seed advances to face Seitzer in round two.

In the final game of round one, a tenacious Bo Jackson relies on raw athleticism to hang with Fitzmorris. Fitz has a 14.2 WAR from his eight seasons in KC, with a 3 WAR/162. Jackson, meanwhile, only played five years with the Royals for a 6.2 WAR and 2.5 WAR/162. But have you seen this guy play? Bo makes one amazing play after another…wowing the crowd, keeping them glued to their seats. Just as the game starts getting out of hand, though, there is a tragic turn of events. With Jackson out to a 15-point lead, he crumbles suddenly to the floor. A nasty looking fluke of an injury leaves the KC crowd silenced. It was about the most deflating thing you could ever imagine. Unable to go at 100%, Jackson faltered, allowing Fitzmorris to scratch his way back into the game and eventually pull out a win. “It’s a miracle,” said Fitzmorris. “Hallelujah.” 

At last, here we are…the Final Four. Seitzer, the top seed, takes on Al Cowens, while Fitzmorris is matched up against Cinderella nominee John Wathan. Once again, we see the top seed, Kevin Seitzer, roll to victory…his career average (as a Royal) of .294 and OBP of .380 proving too much for Cowens to overcome.  The second matchup sees Wathan taking it to Fitzmorris. Wathan is relentless in the second half, while Fitzy just seems to run out of steam in the end. Cinderella wins again.

After two hard fought rounds of HOF Madness, it all boils down to Seitzer and Wathan. Seitzer jumps out to an early lead, picking his spots and scoring at will. No big plays here…just chipping away, hitting the easy shots, taking what Wathan gives him. Wathan, however, tough as nails, knows how to run the floor. A gritty player with a mind for the game…he takes advantage of some poor defense from Setizer and eventually evens the score.

As regulation draws to a close, the score is knotted at 74. Needing 75% of the vote for induction, the players decline to play overtime, saying if they can’t earn induction in regulation, they don’t deserve enshrinement in the Hall. The most dynamic player on the ballot, they agree, is Jackson. Maybe, eventually, Bo can fight his way into the Hall of Fame. I mean, he just might be the most famous Royal of all…even more than Brett and White and Saberhagen. Surely he belongs? It’s just too damn bad about that injury…

The “Holy Grail” of baseball cards when I was about 12 years old…

A recent article Joe Posnaski wrote about baseball card collecting (and a Boog Powell card that kept him up at night) got me thinking back to the Bo Jackson frenzy of the late 1980’s/early 90’s. I remember hunting down his 1986 Topps Traded rookie card…which seemed to be elusive at the time, and was my “Boog Powell” that year.

I dug out my cards and took a trip down memory lane, thinking about some of the amazing things I’d seen Bo do in a Royals uniform, and I wondered what kind of baseball player he might’ve been had he not been injured. I looked at his stats with the Royals, trying to look for trends of improvement or regression, then decided to try and project what might’ve been had he just retired from football and avoided that career altering (basically career ending) injury. Could Bo have been a HOF baseball player?

Looking at 1987 through 1990 – his four full seasons with the Royals – it’s easy to see he was getting better. And he was just reaching his prime. Bo was 26 in 1989, which was his All-Star season…and he was even better at age 27, although he failed to make the All-Star team again in 1990.

Bo was a free swinger…and a BIG swinger, meaning he was always going to be a guy who struck out a lot. But his K% improved every year from 1987 through 1990, dropping from 36.4% down to 28.1%. His BB% also improved. It was at 6.9% in 1987, took a dip in 1988, and eventually landed at 9.6% in 1990.

His batting average, OBP, and SLG all got better along the way. In 1990, Bo had a .342 OBP and .523 SLG for an OPS of .866, which was up 61 points from his All-Star year. His OBP increased 15.5% from 1987 through 1990, and his batting average went up at the same clip (15.7%).

In addition to getting on base more, Bo saw his raw strength translate into more power at the plate. His HR per AB got better each season:

1987 – 1 HR every 18 AB
1988 – 1 HR every 17.56 AB
1989 – 1 HR every 16.09 AB
1990 – 1 HR every 14.46 AB

His biggest jumps in home runs came in 1989 and 1990. His total was lower in 1990, but he had 110 less AB. Had he reached 515 AB (his total in 1989), he would’ve been on pace to hit 36 homers that year, which is four more than he hit in ’89. It’s hard to say how much his power would have increased if he’d kept playing, but I’m guessing he would’ve had at least a couple of 40+ home run seasons.

Given the improvements he was making at the plate, and figuring in this scenario he’s only focusing on baseball starting with the 1991 season, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he might’ve improved a bit more (at least for another year or two),before leveling out.

I’m guessing he may have started a decline around the 1996 season, continuing through the end of his career…but who knows? Bo was a special case…we’d never seen anything like him before, and I don’t think we’ve seen anything like him since. But to be conservative, I’ll guess we would see father time catch up with him a bit around age 33, at which point his numbers would begin regressing. I’m also going to guess he may have retired around age 37, in the year 2000, tacking on another 10 years to his career.

Without laying out too much math…I’ll get down to some final numbers. If we take his entire career through 1990 (including his partial 1986) and get rid of his three post-injury seasons, we have 109 career home runs and 81 stolen bases. If we tack on the 1991 through 2000 seasons and make some assumptions, I project that Bo would’ve hit roughly 430-440 career HR. In addition to those power numbers, I figure he’d have stolen about 260 bases in his career.

So…440 HR/260 SB – probably not enough for the HOF (and I think it’s safe to say he wouldn’t have reached 3,000 hits). But, again, it’s hard to project what might have happened. I stayed conservative with my guesses. Bo might have slugged 50+ homers a time or two, we’ll never know. But with a couple of monster seasons, it’s not far fetched to project career totals of 500 HR/300 SB.

Had he not had the wear and tear of playing two professional sports, there’s no telling how dominant he might have become. We can assume he would have wound up putting up some damn impressive numbers though, and I’m betting the Steve Balboni HR record would belong to Bo Jackson. Regardless of his HOF potential…we can all agree that he was a world-class athlete. Too bad his career (in both sports) was cut so short.

Here is a great video featuring some memorable highlights – narrated by some of his baseball peers…

If you don’t know anything about the automobile market in 1985, there’s a good reason for that.  There was nothing to know.  Nobody collects cars built in the 80’s because they were stodgy, slow, and ugly.  The market was starved for something exciting, a vehicle that could rejuvenate the industry.  We all sat on the edge of our seats waiting for the reveal of the new S-Series, a vehicle that you don’t remember and probably have never heard of – for good reason.  Have you ever seen an S-Series model Saturn?  Yuck.  It turned out to be an uninspiring piece of plastic junk.

The huge un-recouped investment in the Saturn Corporation by General Motors and subsequent lack of creative and groundbreaking design dulled all the luster on this once eagerly awaited car company.  And as you know, Saturn is now long gone, relegated to the dust bin of history.

Eric Hosmer may not be as good as we hoped he would be (Credit: Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE)

It hurts me to even say this, but what if Eric Hosmer is the Royals’ Saturn Corporation?  The Royals of the past 20 years make a good comparison to the automotive industry of the 1980’s – underperforming, uninspiring, and underwhelming, with little hope of a turnaround.  The fan base has been desperate for any sign of hope and are willing to fall over themselves (me included) when even one prospect appears to have the slightest chance of becoming the next big thing.

We’ve set ourselves up for a potentially huge disappointment with Eric Hosmer.  When was the last time a prospect was so highly anticipated with an expectation that he could potentially turn the club around?  Zack Greinke might be the closest player, but I don’t think anyone expected Zack to elevate the entire team the way we believed Hosmer would impact the organization.

Hosmer was a #1 draft pick, the 3rd player selected in the 2008 draft.  He tore through minor league pitching like Bo Jackson through an Seattle Seahawk defensive backfield.  He carried himself like a veteran with one of the most magnificent and picturesque follow-through swings Royals fans have ever seen.  He had all the makings of a potential Superstar.  Many of us pinned our greatest hopes on him simply because we have been looking for light at the end of the tunnel for so long, even a spark would send us into a frenzy.

Our good looking young first baseman was ranked as the #8 overall prospect by Baseball America in 2011, batted .439 during his 26 game stint in AAA (that is not a misprint), and he impressed nearly everyone with his talent as he made his way toward the majors.  He debuted last year to oohs and ahhs, just the same as the Saturn S-Class did years ago.  But now that we bought our Hosmer sedan, drove him to work and parked him in our driveway every night for a few months, the bloom is beginning to come off the rose and we’re not quite as excited about him as we were a year ago.  I’m beginning to have just a tiny little bit of buyer’s remorse.

Royals fans have been making excuses for Hos for months now.  “He’s just in a sophomore slump, he’ll come out of it”, “as soon as he starts hitting to the opposite field, things will come together for him”, “he makes good contact, his hits are just finding a lot of gloves”, etc., etc.  We’re making excuses because we don’t want to admit that he may not be as good as we’ve hoped, because giving up on Hosmer is tantamount to giving up on the Royals.  Because we’re loyal true-blue fans, we keep waiting, and watching, and hoping for any sign that Hosmer’s bat will find its way again and reignite our passions the way our expectations of his future performance did a few months ago.  Because we love the Royals, this creates a situation where we CAN’T give up on Hosmer.

Let’s be realistic for a moment and say that other players have pulled out of worse sophomore slumps, although I can’t think of any right now.  Even on our own team, Alex Gordon took a few years to find his way and now he’s a strong contributor, although not a Superstar.  And this is really where the problem lies – Eric Hosmer can eventually be a good player, he might even be an All Star (someday, maybe), but because of our high expectations, he’ll end up as a stunning disappointment if he isn’t a Superstar.  Face it, if Hosmer were a newly premiering Fall Television Series, his ratings would have already forced the networks to pull him from the schedule.

So here’s what I think – the race for the 2012 pennant is over.  The winner hasn’t been decided yet, but there can be little doubt that one of the losers will be the Kansas City Royals.  We’re threatening the Twins for last place; Danny Duffy, Felipe Paulino, and Joakim Soria will be on the shelf until at least 2013 or later; and the season is more than half over.  Let’s start preparing for next year.  Let’s stop worrying about bruising Hosmer’s psyche and let’s send him to Omaha and let him earn his way back to the majors.  It’s worked for other players, including Alex Gordon, it certainly couldn’t hurt Hosmer.

Let Hosmer spend some quality time with the club’s hitting instructors and see if he can recapture some of the magic he experienced in 2011.  And while they’re at it, maybe they can coach him to stop that stupid swipe-grab he tries to make at first base every time there’s an errant throw.  I’m not sure if he is just putting on a show with this move, or if he honestly thinks it’s a proper way to play a short hop.  It looks very amateurish to me and he’s going to clown-suit himself eventually when one of these throws skips past him and down the right field line.  This technique has burned him at least once this season that I’ve personally witnessed, and will probably come back to bite him and the Royals some day when the game is on the line if he doesn’t stop it.

Eric Hosmer sends a ball over the outfield wall in Spring Training (Credit: Alan Barrington)

I remember sitting in the stands last Spring in Surprise Arizona, eager with anticipation for Eric Hosmer’s at bat.  I even snapped a picture of his flawless swing that resulted in a Cleveland Indian pitch being deposited over the Center Field wall – it was a thing of beauty.  But something happened to Hosmer between that day and the start of the regular season, and the result is that he’s lost his way and he can’t seem to find it again.  Let’s face the facts, and let’s treat him the way we would treat anyone we love – tell him the truth and send him to get help.  It’s either that, or we all need to admit that he may not be as good as we hoped he would be.

This video demonstrates his abilities nicely:

In 1987, Bo hit 22 homers. In 1988, he hit 25.

Bo knows baseball.

At the break in 1989, he had 21 already. He’d stolen 23 bases. Fans made him the top vote-getter. He was a phenom.

As if the legend wasn’t big enough, he built on it by his performance in the game. In the first inning, the National League had already scored twice and had runners on second and third with two outs. Pedro Guerrero hit a flair to left-center, but Bo tracked it down to end the inning.

Then he hit the second pitch from Rick Reuschel about three or four miles – okay not that far, but it was a blast to straight away center. Tony LaRussa had put him at leadoff to get the team started right away. Wade Boggs followed with a homer of his own and a memorable All-Star Game was underway. Vin Scully’s call was fantastic. “Bo Jackson says ‘Hello!’ … He almost hit that out of the state.” President Ronald Reagan was calling the first inning with Scully and suggested that Reagan could fly back to Washington on Bo’s blast.

Bo got another run home by grounding to shortstop with one out and runners on first and third, but he ran it out and kept the inning going while Ruben Sierra scored. Jackson then stole second, becoming the first player to homer and steal a base in an All-Star Game. The throw got away and he advanced to third (though he was stranded).

He singled in his third at bat but was again stranded and struck out in his final at bat (against Mark Davis in an interesting blending of Royals names).

Bo’s efforts helped lead the AL to a 5-3 win and Jackson was the first (and so far only) Royal to be the MVP of the All-Star Game.

After the break, Bo added 11 more homers and finished 1989 with 32 and looked a developing superstar. He added 28 homers in 1990, cut his strike outs and looked to be developing as a player.

Of course, the rest of the story is known by about everyone. Bo injured his hip playing in the NFL and ended up released by the Royals before the 1991 season. He only played 183 games from 1992 to 1994 and was never the same. He’s one of the biggest “what if” players in sports history.

#CountryBreakfast cleans up at the plate. Photo Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

That noise has diminished a bit in 2012, though. Butler is hitting homers now, and he’s surely headed for a career year in that department. He’s doing this while not changing his approach too much, though he’s striking out more (15.2% vs. 13.7% over his career) and walking less (7.9% vs. 8.8% for his career), but it’s not a drastic change. His overall line sits at .297/.365/.516.

He has 16 homers after one today, his third highest career total but only five off of his career high of 21. Last year, he hit 19 homers. There have been mentions online that Robinson Cano, captain of the American League’s Home Run Derby team might want to choose a Royal and that could easily be Butler. He’s tied for 11th in the AL in homers along with Miguel Cabrera, Trevor Plouffe and Josh Willingham. He’s hit more than Prince Fielder, Mark Teixeira, Paul Konerko and Albert Pujols.

He’s on the way to a great power year.

That got me thinking about past Royals hitters and homers. The franchise is often an easy target since Steve Balboni‘s team record of 36 homers in 1985 is the lowest of all current franchises. The park has a lot to do with that, but there have also been years where Mike Macfarlane, Mark Teahen or John Buck led the team in homers. Butler’s 16 would have been enough to lead the 1969 and 1971 Royals and would have tied him for the 2010 team lead. It’s only July 1.

I dug up a list of Royals players with more homers than Butler at their all-star break. While it’s a nice walk down memory lane, it also demonstrates Butler’s performance this year as one of the best in team history. Notably, Jermaine Dye‘s 2000 was the last time a hitter was voted onto the All-Star team when he launched 22 homers in the first half. Bo Jackson also started in 1989 (famously) after hitting more than 20 homers before the Midsummer Classic.

Interesting note: Balboni at the all-star break in 1985 had just 14 homers. He finished the year with his notorious 36. Gary Gaetti, the closest to catching Balboni, had 17 at the break but had only played in 62 games. He finished with 35.

Butler has a week before the all-star break and has a chance to put himself in the top five of this list.

How close will he get to Balboni? He’s been a good hitter later into the year in the past, so we might be seeing signs of the start of something great. He may just be getting started.

*Through Saturday June 30.

Bryce Harper laughs at Minor League pitching (Andrew Weber-US PRESSWIRE)

One of them will turn 20-years-old on August 3, the other will celebrate his 20^th birthday two months later on October 16.  One was the first pick in the 2010 draft, the other was the fifth pick in 2011.  Both players were selected by teams with basement dwelling recent histories but high hopes for the future.  Both of them are represented by super agent Scott Boras.

Bubba Starling and Bryce Harper grew up wowing fans and scouts alike at a young age with their prodigious home runs, playing against competition 2-3 years older.  Both are relatively humble kids with a strong work ethic and professional demeanor who are expected to make strong role models for the next generation of baseball fans.  Both are considered to be five tool players, freaks of nature with once-in-a-generation athleticism (well, maybe twice in a generation) and the ability to contribute mightily to dragging their respective clubs toward contention.

For all their similarities, comparing Bubba Starling and Bryce Harper is like comparing apples to oranges, or more accurately like comparing baseballs to footballs, basketballs, and more baseballs.  To begin, Bubba grew up on 20 acres in Gardner, KS and Bryce Harper grew up in the bright lights of Las Vegas.  Bryce’s father’s name is Ron.  Bubba’s father’s name is Jimbo.  (I’m not making that up.)  Bubba bats right handed, Bryce bats from the left.  (They both throw right handed.)  Bryce grew up eating, thinking, breathing, and playing baseball non-stop since he was three years old.  Bubba grew up in an athletically diverse and competitive family of cousins that all played 3 different sports, and played each sport very well.

As I’m sure you know, Bubba accepted a scholarship to play football AND baseball for the University of Nebraska.  If not for that $7.5 million signing bonus the Royals game him (the largest ever offered to a high school player), we might have watched Bubba in a red jersey last Fall tossing footballs around Lincoln, NE.  And oh by the way, he could dunk a basketball when he was in 8^th grade and averaged 28.3 points per game as a high school senior on the hardwood.  So, you could say Bubba had options when it came to deciding his future as a professional athlete.

Bubba’s baseball experience stems from playing for only two months out of each year, partially because it’s not generally realistic to throw a baseball outside between November and March in Kansas, and partially because he was too busy playing other sports during the baseball off season.

Bryce grew up in a warmer climate which afforded him more time to spend outside on a baseball field, and traveled all over the country participating in tournaments and winning more awards than you can carry in an F-350.  Bryce was named to the All American Travel Ball Select team as a 12, 13, and 14 year old, he was the TBS player of the year at 14, he was the Baseball America High School Player of the Year in 2009, the SWAC player of the year in 2010, the Golden Spikes award winner in 2010, plus the recipient of many additional accolades and trophies that would take another entire story just to list.

Both Bryce and Bubba can hit the ball a ton.  It’s been widely reported that Bubba has belted 500 foot home runs on more than one occasion.  Bryce’s high school coach says he hit a 570 foot blast while playing in the desert of Las Vegas.  Read that again – 570 feet.  Now read this – when he was 15-years-old!!

Bryce’s high school home run story seems just a tiny bit farfetched to me.  Baseball America says that “anything in the 500-foot range is genuinely historic.”  The computerized measuring system installed in the major leagues since 1982 has only recorded one, just one 500+ foot home run.  Cecil Fielder (you know, Price’s dad) hit a ball 502 feet in Milwaukee in 1991.  This is the last time anyone hit a 500 foot home run in the majors.  So, how could we possibly believe that Bryce Harper hit a ball 570 feet?

Now, having said that, full disclosure requires me to inform you that Bryce did touch the back wall of Tropicana Field during a Power Showcase home run derby, setting a stadium record with an officially measured 502 foot home run.  Although this blast was hit off a batting practice pitch, I suppose anything is possible, including maybe even a 570 foot dinger.

Bryce Harper’s pure focus on baseball has created a player who is major league ready, or nearly so, at just 19 years of age.  He’s well deserving of the moniker, “the Lebron James of baseball.”  The fact that there is some discussion about whether Harper might break Spring Training with the Washington Nationals seems incredible.  More than likely he’ll begin the season with the Syracuse Chiefs, he’ll destroy AAA pitching for a couple months, and then he’ll be called up sometime midseason.

It’s the rarest of talent that can play in the big leagues at 19.  Robin Yount played for the Brewers at 18-years-old in 1974, but it just doesn’t happen very often.  Even Bret Saberhagen had to wait until he was 20-years-old, and Eric Hosmer until after his 21^st birthday before receiving their promotions to Kansas City.

In my opinion, Bubba Starling has equal or greater athletic gifts than Bryce Harper, but his baseball talents are more raw and will require additional time to refine.  It might be more meaningful for us to compare Bubba to Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield who played both college baseball and basketball at the University of Minnesota, and then was drafted by the San Diego Padres, the Atlanta Hawks, and the Minnesota Vikings as well although he had never played a down of college football.   However, this still isn’t a perfect comparison because Winfield wasn’t drafted until he had graduated from college at 21 years of age, three years older than Bubba Starling when he was drafted.  But then again, the Padres did place him directly into the major leagues that same year where he hit .277 in 56 games, so the resulting age when he arrived in the bigs will likely be comparable to Bubba’s.

Another comparison could be between Bubba and multi-sport star Bo Jackson who played both football and baseball in college.  Bo’s baseball talents were considered to be less refined than his football skills when he was drafted (he was a Heisman Trophy winner), but his sheer otherworldly athleticism enabled him to jump to the majors after just 53 games of AA ball at the age of 23.  To the dismay of Royals fans, in 1987 Jackson decided to play football as a “hobby.”  This unfortunate decision ultimately resulted in a devastating hip injury that ruined what potentially could have been a career as a perennial All Star.

Maybe Joe Mauer would make a better measuring stick to compare with Bubba Starling.  Joe played football, basketball, and baseball for his high school team, just like Bubba.  He was drafted upon his high school graduation, just like Bubba.  He was the first pick in the 2001 draft while Bubba was the 1^st non-pitcher taken in the 2011 draft.

Mauer was the USA Today High School baseball player of the year in 2001, but because he grew up playing multiple sports, in a cold climate (St. Paul, MN) where he couldn’t practice baseball for several months of the year (sounds similar to Bubba, doesn’t it?), Joe’s baseball talents were not as well refined as someone like Bryce Harper.  Because of this, Joe ended up playing parts of 4 seasons in the minors.  When he debuted with the 2004 Twins at 21 years of age, in 35 games he blistered the ball at a .308 clip.  Since then, he’s led the league in hitting 3 times, he’s been an All Star 4 times,  he’s won 3 Gold Gloves, and he threw in an MVP season too just for good measure.  Refinement complete.

I’d like to think that we can expect a similar timetable for Bubba Starling’s development and hopefully similar results.  Bubba said as much to Ashley Marshall of MiLB.com last week when he indicated he expected to arrive in Kansas City within 3-4 years.  Unfortunately, Bubba signed too late last summer to obtain any significant professional experience in 2011 so it became somewhat of a lost year for his development track.  This seems to occur frequently with a large percentage of high caliber talent during the Scott Boras era.

Based on what we know of Starling’s skill sets and the track record of similarly talented athletes, I’m hopeful that we may see him as a September call-up in 2013 and possibly a mid-season promotion in 2014.  I don’t want to rush Bubba, but I’m a little anxious because as of today, we don’t know for sure what we have in Lorenzo Cain.  With only 181 major league at bats, MLB Radio Network’s Inside Pitch has already proclaimed Cain one of the most overrated players of 2012.  (I’m surprised they’ve even heard of him so I’m shocked they would say he was overrated.)  If “The Painkiller” performs well, then this should take the pressure off Bubba and allow him to develop at his own pace.  If not, then the Royals will either need to rush Starling along, or find another Melky Cabrera type player to sign for a year or two to hold his place.

I see nothing but high ceiling potential and a positively bright future for Bubba Starling in a Royals uniform.  That is, except for one hopefully remote possibility.  Let’s just pray he doesn’t ever decide to take up football as a hobby.

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Famous Amos Otis cookies

The offseason moment we’ve all been waiting for arrived last week – the announcement of the Royals promotions for the 2012 season.  Seriously, many of the Royals promotions are quite fun and some have become a Kansas City tradition.  There would be riots if the Royals ever gave up Buck Nights and Fireworks Fridays.

In the spirit of fun these marketing gimmicks are designed to create, I’d like to suggest a few more promotions for the Royals to consider in the future after the jump: (more…)

George Brett, even at 36 years old and still injury-prone as ever, put up a 123 OPS+ (though, of course, nobody really knew what OPS+ was back in those dark ages). Bret Saberhagen was winning his second Cy Young Award before his 26th birthday. And they had a not-so-secret weapon in Bo Jackson.

The Royals finished 92-70, their third-best record in franchise history. They also finished second behind eventual World Series champions, the Oakland Athletics.

The 1989 Royals record would have won the AL East and only the Chicago Cubs (and the A’s) had a better record in the majors than Kansas City that year. With Saberhagen, Mark Gubicza (who had finished third in Cy Young voting in 1988 and was an All-Star two years in a row) and youngster Tom Gordon, fresh off of a second place finish in the Rookie of the Year voting, the Royals felt like they were a few pieces short of making a serious run to dethrone Oakland. They also had the underrated Danny Tartabull, a promising closer of the future in Jeff Montgomery, and a catcher with some pop in Mike Macfarlane.

They entered that winter feeling like they needed to make a big move and that doing so would put them over the top.

Enter: Mark Davis.

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Steve "Bye Bye" Balboni

The man steps in, uniform tugging at the wrong contours of his body.  He’s ready to hit and as the pitch heads towards home plate, he flails at it, missing for strike one.  The pitcher winds again and delivers another pitch and again, this mustachioed slugger swings and misses.

On his third swing, however, he drives the ball up into a majestic arc that clears the fence – a home run!

In 1985, as part of a World Series winning team, Steve Balboni hit 36 blasts to set a Royals team record in a memorable season.

That record stands to this day.

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So yeah, I have a little football fever.  But baseball continues.

Then again, the Royals seem to have a little football fever too, as they signed former West Virginia quarterback and 44th overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft Pat White to a minor league contract yesterday.
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