We finally got back into the studio after last weekend’s All-Star festivities and put in 90 minutes of baseball discussion.

Curtis Kitchen (@curtiskitchen, CurtisKitchen.com) joined us to share his observations of Eric Hosmer and his recent struggles and the possible causess and solutions related to them.

We also talked with Marc Normandin (@Marc_Normandin, OverTheMonster.com) about the new book “The Hall of Nearly Great” which will be available for purchase on July 18. It covers players who didn’t quite hit Hall of Fame contention but were still notable and among the best in their time. You can learn more by listening to Marc discuss his piece in the book on former Royal Bret Saberhagen and also at the book’s site: HallofNearlyGreat.com.

After our guests, we caught up with the All-Star week and our thoughts on the Robinson Cano booing (and the media’s reaction to it), our memories of the weekend and what’s next for the Royals.

Don’t forget the Royalman Report is on every Sunday at 7 and catch our new show, The Kansas City Baseball Vault on ESPN 1510 AM Thursday’s at 6.

You can listen below or download the mp3 directly.

The Royalman Report is hosted by Troy “Royalman” Olsen with co-host Michael Engel and features Chris “Fake Ned Yost” Kamler and 610 Sports blogger Jeff Herr and airs  live Sundays at 7 p.m. central time at RoyalmanReport.com as well as on Livestream.com/RoyalmanReport.

Subscribe via the RSS feed and get updates when new episodes are uploaded.

Stuck in a cubicle, on a road trip, or using your smartphone?  Stitcher is a multi-platform radio app that’s available on Apple products, Droid, Blackberry and other phones.  Find us here on Stitcher.

You can also subscribe via iTunes: JUST CLICK HERE (and iPad, iPhone, iTouch users can get the Livestream app here to watch live or archived shows).

Follow the Royalman Report on Twitter.  While you’re at it, track down Kings of Kauffman on Twitter as well.

Bret Saberhagen. Incidentally, this was my favorite Topps card design growing up.

Saberhagen set the tone early, starting for the American League All-Stars and going three shutout innings in a game that didn’t see a score until the top of the 13^th.

1987 was Saberhagen’s first All-Star game as he started to build an impressive resume as a young starter for the Royals. He’d already won the Cy Young Award in 1985 and followed that up with a World Series MVP award as well. He’d add another All-Star appearance in 1990, another Cy Young Award in 1989 (as well as a Gold Glove) and threw a no-hitter in 1991.

In  the first half of 1987, Saberhagen pitched 149.2 innings, including 11 complete games (3 shutouts) in 18 starts. His ERA stood at 2.47 by the time the All-Star Game came around. With a 15-3 record, he was worthy of the starting spot in the exhibition.

Eric Davis lead off against Saberhagen with a groundout to short. Ryne Sandberg grounded out as well, this time to third. The only hit Saberhagen gave up was to Andre Dawson who doubled down the left field line, but was stranded after another groundout, this time by Mike Schmidt.

Not bad.

In the second inning, Will Clark led off with a pop out to first and Daryl Strawberry and Gary Carter both grounded out, Strawberry to second, Carter to shortstop.

By this point, Saberhagen and National League starter Mike Scott were going inning for inning and Saberhagen stepped to the mound with the game still scoreless. Ozzie Smith lined out to left and Scott was pulled for pinch-hitter Tony Gwynn who grounded out to short. Eric Davis grounded out for a second time against Saberhagen to end the inning and end Saberhagen’s outing.

The final line was three innings, one hit and seven ground outs.

Saberhagen’s final numbers looked fine, but he had rough patches the rest of the 1987 season. His first start after the break was rough. He made it through 3.1 innings against Cleveland on July 20, giving up six runs and he had more rough starts in the second half (2^nd half stats), finishing with a 3.36 ERA in 257 innings. He still had four complete games in the second half and added a shutout.

So I started looking back, year by year, at old All-Star games to see how the Royals have done in the past and I came up with ten notable performances. Five of those stand out as very good, but here, I want to glance at five that were solid, though maybe lacking in impact of the game or in Royals history. The All-Star Game is where some stars shine brighter and it’s always great to see your team’s representative(s) doing well on that stage.

1972 – Cookie Rojas

Rojas was coming off of an All-Star year in 1971 where he’d hit .300 and appeared in his first All-Star Game as a Royal. In 1972, he was a reserve and entered the game in the top of the eighth inning. Pinch-hitting for Rod Carew and with Carlton Fisk on first, Rojas homered to left to put the American League up 3-2.

He looked primed to be named the MVP of the game, but Wilbur Wood came in for the bottom of the ninth and gave up a tying run and the National League won in the bottom of the tenth.

Rojas went on to play in two more All-Star Games in 1973 and 1974 in the latter stages of his baseball career.

1990 – Bret Saberhagen

Bret Saberhagen.

Saberhagen was coming off of a Cy Young season in 1989 and made the All-Star team in 1990 with a 2.98 ERA in 121 innings.

He threw two perfect innings, facing Chris Sabo, Mike Scioscia and Barry Bonds in the first inning, striking out Scioscia. In his second inning of work, Saberhagen got flyouts from Shawon Dunston, Lenny Dykstra and Ryne Sandberg. In the following inning, Julio Franco drove in two to break a 0-0 tie and Saberhagen ended up being the pitcher of record and the first Royal to be named the winner of an All-Star Game.

The honor came with a price – Saberhagen made only three more starts in 1990 due to ligament damage in his right elbow. He made his first post-ASG start on July 15 but didn’t resurface until September.

1986 – Frank White

Frank White.

In 1986, the All-Star Game was in the Astrodome, and for the second time ever, featured a Royals manager as Dick Howser led the American League squad after winning the World Series in 1985.

George Brett was selected as a reserve, but due to injury didn’t play in the game.

That left White as the only Royal to represent the World Champion Royals. Earlier in the game, Lou Whitaker, the starting second baseman for the AL, had homered off of Dwight Gooden. White replaced him in the seventh inning and hit a homer of his own off of Mike Scott. White got another at bat in the ninth but flied out against Mike Krukow.

White was an All-Star five times, but 1986 was his final selection. The home run was his only hit as an All-Star in seven at bats.

2009 – Zack Greinke

Zack Greinke in the 2009 All-Star Game. Photo Credit: Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE

2009 was a special year. The Royals started out 18-11 and were three games up in the AL Central in early May. While that success eventually faded, Zack Greinke made every fifth day an event.

Greinke started the year by giving up just four earned runs in his first 60 innings pitched en route to one of the best pitching seasons in Royals history. As the All-Star Game approached, it looked like Greinke could be the game’s starter in St. Louis but Roy Halladay started instead.

Nonetheless, when Greinke’s turn came up, he flashed the same brilliance he’d shown in the regular season.

He only threw one inning, and it’s difficult to judge an All-Star Game performance on just one inning, but he started out by inducing a weak foul out from Raul Ibanez to third on the first pitch then striking out David Wright on a 1-2 pitch (looking) and finishing off a perfect inning by getting Shane Victorino on a 1-2 pitch on his own for a second strikeout.

Greinke of course went on to win the AL Cy Young Award after 229.1 innings with a 2.16 ERA.

1995 – Kevin Appier

Kevin Appier.

Despite being one of the best pitchers in the 1990s, this was Kevin Appier’s only All-Star selection. Despite surpassing a 100 ERA+ every year from 1990 to 1997, and being the best candidate for the 1993 Cy Young Award, Appier never got the recognition he deserved.

In 1995, he made his one shot count.

Appier had a 3.04 ERA in 121 innings going into the All-Star Game and came into the game after Randy Johnson started for the AL and dominated. In the third inning, he retired Barry Larkin, struck out Vinnie Castilla and finished off Craig Biggio, then continued into the fourth, mowing down Lenny Dykstra, Tony Gwynn and Barry Bonds. That’s four Hall of Famers (or deserving Hall of Famers) and two of the best of the early 90s in that group, and Appier cut them all down in order.

Every batter but Castilla grounded out, in Appier’s impressive showing.

Appier faded a bit as the season wore on, finishing with 201.1 innings and a 3.89 ERA, but he was still one of the best starters that year.

These are performances worth pointing out, but I’ve decided on five performances by Royals in the All-Star Game that stand out even better.

Let me give you an example.  I was recently looking at the Royals team history page and discovered something interesting.  If you review the column of “Top Players” you’ll see a number of recognizable names of athletes that contributed mightily to the success (or relative success) of each specific season.  You’ll find Alex Gordon, Amos Otis, Bret Saberhagen, Carlos Beltran, David Cone, Johnny Damon, Kevin Appier, Zack Greinke, John Mayberry, Dan Quisenberry, Willie Wilson, Joakim Soria, etc. and of course George Brett – a veritable who’s who of Royal’s history.  You’ll also see Jose Offerman, Mark Teahen and a couple other mild surprises.

This made me think…  What is, or what should be, the definition of the Top or Best player?  Baseball Reference defines the Top Player as the individual with the highest WAR (Wins Against Replacement) rating of any player on the team.  WAR is a tangible analysis that takes both offense and defense into account, but it doesn’t make any attempt to measure leadership or intangibles, and it seems to favor pitchers slightly in my opinion.

5 time All Star Mike Sweeney was never the best player on the Royals according to Baseball Reference (Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE)

Let me give you an example of the lack of leadership skills and intangibles in the WAR calculation.  Remember Mike Sweeney?  There is a lot of mixed opinion about Mike, and deservedly so, yet he put up some dynamite offensive numbers for a few years combined with the ability to hold his own at first base, and he was the undeniable leader of the Royals during his time as Captain.  Yet this 5 time All Star who hit .333 with 144 RBIs, 71 walks, and a league leading 15 HBPs in 2000, and a 2002 season that saw him hit .340, .563 slugging, and 148 OPS+ was never the “Top Player” for the Royals according to Baseball Reference and his WAR rating.  In 2002, that honor went to Paul Byrd.

What do you think of that?  Was Paul Byrd a more important piece of the puzzle for the Royals in 2002 than Mike Sweeney and his .340 batting average? (.340 is 2^nd only to George Brett’s .390 in 1980, and how would you like to have a .340 hitter on the Royals right now?)  In 2002, Paul Byrd was 17-11 with a 3.90 ERA and he led the league with 7 complete games – he was definitely a very valuable pitcher, but I don’t think his performance could be defined as “dominating.”  Paul Byrd appeared in 33 games.  Mike Sweeney played in 126 (less than a full season due to the beginning signs of his many recurring back issues), had the first straight steal of home by a Royal in over 20 years, was named to his 3^rd consecutive All-Star game, led the league in defensive assists by a 1^st baseman – and he was the Captain of the team.  But this wasn’t good enough to be the Royals “Top Player.”

Obviously, my definition of the best player on the team is going to differ from other fans, and from other experts as well.  My subjective definition simply asks, “Who was the player the Royals could least afford to do without?”  In 2002, I believe the answer has to be Mike Sweeney.

Before the 2012 season began, who did you think the Royals’ best player would be this season?  If you’re like most of the rest of us, you may have thought, or at least hoped, it would be Eric Hosmer.  If so, those hopes were dashed weeks ago as we’ve witnessed one of the most dramatic sophomore slumps in recent memory.  A few of you may have predicted Alex Gordon, or maybe Joakim Soria prior to his injury.  Predictions are based on hopes, and as a Royals fan you certainly know that hopes are often dashed.

If you said Billy Butler, you were pretty much on target.  (Although according to WAR rating, Alex Gordon is on top for the second year in a row – I don’t agree in 2012.)  However, I am hesitant to name a DH as the best player citing the same reservations many have for naming a pitcher as MVP.  And unless a Royals pitcher is completely and utterly dominating (see Steve Busby, Dennis Leonard, David Cone, Zach Greinke, or Bret Saberhagen) I have similar misgivings.

For 2013 we have several potential candidates for best player.  I’ll list my nominations below and include the odds that I think I’m right.  And, I’ll also acknowledge that there’s no possible way any reader will agree with me 100%.

Could Mike Moustakas become the best player on the Royals? (Credit: Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE)

Mike Moustakas:  The improvement Mike has shown from 2011 to 2012 has been nothing short of breathtaking.  He is much more comfortable at the plate this year, and in the field he doesn’t even look like the same player.  I believe Mike’s personality has many leadership qualities and he’s maturing into a presence that will almost certainly make him the best player on the team at some point in his career.  For 2013, I’d say the odds of Mike being the Royals best player, the guy they can least afford to do without, are about 3 to 1.

Eric Hosmer:  Although he hasn’t come close to fulfilling our expectations this year, Hosmer’s potential is so tantalizing that I have to put him near the top of the list.  I believe Eric is just a tweak or two away from “righting the ship” and getting back on track to becoming the offensive powerhouse we all know he can be.  His defense is still solid, but it may take a while for his personality to mature into a true clubhouse big dog.  I’ll put Hosmer’s odds of being the best player in 2013 at 5 to 1.

Alcides Escobar:  If you told me I could only watch one play from each Royals game, I would pick the inevitable web gem that Esky turns in virtually every night.  It is truly a thrill to watch Alcides display his otherworldly defensive skills while protecting the left side of the diamond.  I’ll go out on a limb and say that after watching him for less than two seasons he may not be the absolute best defensive shortstop I’ve ever seen, but I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone better than him.  Escober is hitting around .290 at a premium position and I believe the only thing that could potentially limit his ability to be a great club house leader are his English language skills.  Alcides is my dark horse candidate for best player in 2013 and he’s my favorite to watch play in 2012.  I’ll put his odds at 10-1.

Jeff Francoeur:  I believe Jeff is the closest thing the 2012 Royals have to a clubhouse leader and his rocket arm and intangibles are great.  Who’s the guy you see chest bumping his team mates every night and cheering them on with one of the most upbeat personalities in the majors?  It’s Frenchy.  Who else tosses baseballs wrapped in $100 bills and gets into hilarious mock disputes with opposing mascots?  Frenchy’s power numbers are way down this year and his average has dipped, so his on-field performance is not trending in the right direction which makes him a risky wager.  I also wouldn’t bet on Jeff being “da man” in 2013 due to the fact that he may not even play in a Royals uniform.   If he is still wearing Royals blue in 2013, I would put Francoeur’s odds at 15-1.

Wil Myers:  At some point in 2012, no matter how hard the Royals brass try to hold him back, he’ll force his way to Kansas City.  And he may light it up offensively when he arrives, but his defense still needs work and there’s almost no way anyone can be a true clubhouse leader in his first or second year.  Odds 30-1.

Billy Butler:  Great DH, one of the best in baseball.  But as I explained earlier, I just don’t think a DH can be the best player.  If a DH is your best player, then your team is in trouble.  Odds 30-1.

Jake Odorizzi:  See “Wil Myers.”  Odds 50-1.

Alex Gordon:  Gold Glove defensive left fielder who has been a disappointment at the plate this year.  He’s a solid contributor and I want him on my team, but he’s not a vocal clubhouse leader and has little chance to be the best player on the team in my rating system.  In 2013, I’d rate him at 50-1.

There are a few other players who have a shot at being the best player, but all of them have significant question marks either because they may not recover from injuries (Joakim Soria and Danny Duffy), they haven’t played in the majors long enough for us to get a good sense of their performance (Salvador Perez), or because Dayton Moore hasn’t traded for them yet or signed them as a free agent (Zach Greinke – hint, hint…)

And don’t get me started about relief pitchers.  Unless you are Mariano Rivera, Dan Quisenberry, or Joakim Soria in his prime, you can’t even be considered the Top Player on the team.  It would be the same as voting the field goal kicker as the top player on an NFL team – it’s not going to happen.

Could Yuniesky Betancourt be the best player? Haha, just kidding! Almost got you, didn't we? (Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE)

Yuniesky Betancourt:  I’ll just skip straight to the odds.  10,000,000,000 to 1.  I had to throw him in just for kicks.

The biggest reason we have difficulty selecting the potential top player is because the Royals are so young.  Most of the time I believe that’s a good thing and not a bad thing, but it causes them to be inconsistent as they go through the struggles of figuring out how to succeed in the big leagues, and most of them simply have not matured into the true leaders that they will hopefully one day become.

I still believe that we are two solid starting pitchers away from being a contending team and I’m holding on to hope that we find these hurlers somewhere, either in the farm system, through trades or free agency, before the start of the 2013 season.  When this happens, we’ll find our team playing in October, and this is the time when true clubhouse leadership emerges and performance on the field has a historical impact on your team and your legacy.   When we play in October, that’s when we’ll definitely learn who is the best player on this team.

We had a pretty fun show on Thursday, talking about the Royals solid road trip and their return home. We pitched the idea of the Melky Cabrera trade from the offseason and if it was a mistake or not – opinions were divided. Also we played a little trivia and gave away a suite pass to Saturday’s game against Oakland. Along with those updates, we checked in with a minor league and T-Bones update.

Then we brought in Rene Lachemann, former catcher for the Kansas City A’s and asked him about his time in Kansas City and just what made the A’s such a hotbed for future managers. Tony LaRussa, Tommy Lasorda, Lachemann and others went from the A’s to managing in their careers. He also gave us some info on Rockies prospects as he’s the hitting coach for their Triple A affiliate, the Colorado Sky Sox.

Our final guest was Andy from High Heat Stats to discuss building a Royals Mount Rushmore. He explained his approach to the project and covered the voting results and his thoughts about the players nominated. It was an interesting discussion since there are so many different ways to evaluate who to put on the mountain. I selected my four players earlier in the week.

We’ll be back next week with more discussion of Kansas City baseball, past, present and future on ESPN 1510 Thursday at 6 p.m. CST.

You can catch up on old episodes of the Kansas City Baseball Vault here on Kings of Kauffman. Episodes of the Royalman Report are available on the site as well.

Follow the Kansas City Baseball Vault on Twitter and Facebook for future programming updates. Also follow Kings of Kauffman for article updates, discussion and other information.

A project over at High Heat Stats has been taking this to another level, determining by vote which players are deserving of landing on a “Mount Rushmore” and commemorating their teams’ best. Recently, HHS put the Royals up for discussion. Voting has been open for a week and ends today.

I like this sort of thing because there are some obvious choices and some tough choices.

The criteria someone could use is entirely up to them. You can lean entirely on stats. You can look at overall impact. You can try to balance all of that with how they represent the franchise.

Here’s my Royals Mount Rushmore:

George Brett

This is the obvious first choice. The only reason someone might leave Brett off of their vote is because they’re looking to add a fringe candidate, knowing that Brett is a lock.

As the franchise’s best player, their only Hall 0f Famer and holder of multiple offensive accolades, Brett’s also a lifelong Royal and still involved with the team. He hits every criteria one could examine. He’s got the numbers, was always the key player in the lineup to stop and is recognized as a Royal by baseball fans and writers.

Frank White

White hasn’t fared as well in this poll as one might imagine. He was lagging at one point, but after more Kansas City folks saw the discussion, he’s landed within safe territory.

Frankly (no pun intended) there’s an argument that White fits all the criteria better than Brett. Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star said on the Royalman Report back in December that Brett could have been a star in Seattle, New York, Houston, anywhere. White could have only made it in Kansas City. He literally helped build Kauffman Stadium. He’s the most famous of Ewing Kauffman’s Baseball Academy graduates, winning eight Gold Gloves, playing in two World Series, and making five All Star teams. Without the opportunity, he probably wouldn’t have made it into the majors at all. After retiring, he helped coach in the Royals minor league system and stepped into the broadcast booth until his split with the team this past winter.

He’s also the only other player besides Brett with his number retired by the club.

Bret Saberhagen

Steve Busby and Dennis Leonard were among the best starters in Royals history, but to me, Saberhagen’s run as a Royal would be impressive for nearly any club.

A two-time Cy Young Award winner before the age of 26, Saberhagen was also the 1985 World Series MVP, a two-time All Star, a Gold Glove winner and threw a no-hitter in 1991. His 3.21 ERA as a Royal is the best of any starter in team history, as is his 1.134 WHIP (which leads all pitchers, regardless of role). He’s among the club leaders in complete games, innings and shutouts, but didn’t play for the Royals as long as some, like Leonard and Paul Splittorff.

That may be one way to keep Saberhagen off the mountain. He only played for the Royals until 1991, after which he was traded to the Mets (which still hurts to this day).

Saberhagen was among the best in the game while with the Royals and his resume makes him an easy choice for me for a third spot on Royals Mount Rushmore.

Here’s where it gets tricky. There are many good cases to be made. Amos Otis, Freddy Patek, Hal McRae, Willie Wilson, Mark Gubicza and others could be a fit. Even Bo Jackson or the vastly underrated Danny Tartabull could make it.

Part of my difficulty is that players like Otis, Busby and Leonard played in those dark ages when I knew Bert and Ernie better than any Royals. Some of these players were on the team until the mid-80s, but were past their prime. Royals baseball didn’t come to my hometown’s TV schedule until 1988 as I remember it, so I missed out on a lot of those who have since been inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame.

It comes down to two players for the last spot: Kevin Appier and Dan Quisenberry.

Kevin Appier

My favorite Royals pitcher of all time. I mimicked his pitching motion as closely as I could when I started pitching in summers – which is not advised to anyone wanting to try it.

Appier leads the Royals in WAR according to Baseball-Reference. He leads the franchise in strikeouts, is third in wins (despite trailing the next closest starter by more than 300 innings pitched as a Royal), and put up a 130 ERA+ as a Royal. He’s one of the most underrated pitchers of the 1990s and was robbed of the 1993 Cy Young Award after logging a better ERA (by three quarters of a run) and WHIP than both Jack McDowell and Randy Johnson, who ended up ahead of him in the voting.

Dan Quisenberry

Quiz was instrumental to the Royals success in the 1980s. His 2.55 ERA is the best mark by any Royals pitcher who qualifies (500 IP at least).

Quisenberry filled the role of the fireman as well as anyone during his stretch with Kansas City. He led the league in appearances three times. He led in saves five times. As a Royal, he finished in the top five in Cy Young voting five times. Also, he landed in the top eleven of MVP voting five times. Only Brett has more such finishes as a Royal.

A character in every sense of the word, Quisenberry’s great performance on the mound was mirrored with his involvement in the community, and the Royals recognize a player every offseason with the Dan Quisenberry Award for their outstanding achievements and service within their community.

That’s the clincher. Kevin Appier was a great pitcher for the Royals, but he doesn’t have an award named after him.

It’s only fitting that Quisenberry closes the discussion by landing on the last spot on the mountain.

That makes my Royals Mount Rushmore the quartet of George Brett, Frank White, Bret Saberhagen and Dan Quisenberry. There are many cases to be made for other players, but those are my four.

You can weigh in by voting today at High Heat Stats, and we’ll be discussing the final results on the Kansas City Baseball Vault Thursday night at 6 p.m. on ESPN 1510 AM.

Johnny Damon, symbol of Royals fan frustration. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Some were decrying these one-year deals, saying sarcastically that it was a real commitment to the future by signing guys to a contract for one year. Despite pleas from myself and others, the message wasn’t sinking in. Then, someone mentioned that these players would soon be Yankees if Kansas City doesn’t lock them up.

That got me to thinking – I couldn’t come up with an example off the top of my head of a big trade involving the Royals and Yankees. Some discussion on Twitter unearthed that the only two significant players to sign with New York immediately after leaving the Royals as free agents were Danny Tartabull (1992) and Chili Davis (1998). From there, I used Baseball-Reference’s handy team-to-team trade history tool to look at trades involving the Royals and Yankees. There have been seven. Total. The two biggest names involved were Lou Piniella (1973) and Fran Healy (1976). Of those two, Piniella had a higher career WAR, but Healy had more WAR as a Royal. Still, at the time of the trade, Healy’s 4.3 WAR (cumulative as a Royal) makes him the biggest producer the Royals have ever traded to the Yankees (and the player the Royals received was Larry Gura, who ended up in the Royals Hall of Fame.)

Well I couldn’t just stop at the Yankees, so below, you’ll find a table listing the most productive players the Royals have ever traded to each team in the big leagues. It’s pretty simple – the “Royals WAR” is the total WAR produced while that player was a Kansas City Royal. In some cases, I added a note of who the Royals received or other interesting trivia attached to the move. It’s an interesting – and sometimes painful – look at Royals trades of the past. I’ve also included additional trades of interest when necessary or in the case of a tie in Royals WAR.

*This is the WAR for their whole career, before, during and after being a Royal.

We can only imagine what could have been. Mandatory Credit: Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

What’s depressing to see is the parade of great players that the Royals have dealt off without getting much in return. In a couple of cases, you can see that the majority of a player’s WAR was accumulated as a Royal (like Mark Gubicza or Kevin Appier) which suggests that in those cases, the Royals got about all they could out of them, but along with that come the David Cones and Carlos Beltrans who are particularly painful. Cone was traded twice by the Royals and Kansas City received Ed Hearn and Chris Stynes to show for it.

Beltran is even worse because he was traded after many great seasons with the Royals, continued to improve and stands as the best player the Royals have ever traded. At the same time, after the trades of Jermaine Dye and Johnny Damon, he fits into the narrative of the small-market Royals and their inability to retain the talent they develop.

That’s where I think the bitterness and cynicism comes from when discussing the team with more casual, occasional followers of the team. Bret Saberhagen is another big name who continued to produce value in his post-Royals career as well as Damon (of course) and some like Brian McRae and Tom Burgmeier went on to productive careers as roleplayers.

The Royals rarely won a trade when trading their higher value players. When receiving “established” players, they either turned around and traded them away (Jefferies) or were getting them for one or two years (Gerald Perry, Dean Palmer) and a lot of the prospects received didn’t pan out beyond one summer of greatness (Mark Teahen, Angel Berroa).

So far Dayton Moore hasn’t had the worst track record in trades, but he’s not Cedric Tallis either. Tallis acquired John Mayberry, Cookie Rojas, Freddie Patek, Hal McRae and Amos Otis in trades for hardly anything. All five are in the Royals Hall of Fame.

Your move, Dayton.

Thanks for visiting Kings of Kauffman. You can stay current on all the Kings of Kauffman content and news by following us on Twitter, Facebook, or by way of our RSS feed.

Is Joakim Soria on the Trade Block? (AP Photo)

You’ve probably heard the news that some teams have inquired about the availability of Joakim Soria.  Most recently, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox have expressed an interest, there are rumors about the Angels, and there may be others we don’t know about.  It’s obvious the Royals are shopping him around and if you’re like me, you’re both excited and highly concerned about what the Royals might receive in return for him if they pull the trigger on a trade.

While Soria is not yet a candidate for the Hall of Fame, he is arguably one of the top ten Rule 5 draft picks of all-time, he owns career marks of 2.40 ERA / 181 ERA+, 9.7 K/9, 1.043 WHIP (these numbers aren’t from his best season, I’m talking about his entire five year major league career), he averages 37 saves per season, he is a two time All-Star and his name has appeared on Cy Young and MVP ballots.  In other words, he’s pretty stinkin’ good.  Would the Royals seriously consider trading a young, successful pitcher whose best days may still be ahead of him?  Believe it or not, there is precedent for the Royals to do just that. (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.

(more…)

My thoughts on Hochevar as the opening day starter boil down to this – he can’t be all that bad.  He’s not Runelvys Hernandez, at least.

And no, he’s not that bad.  Except that, yes, he IS that bad.  Historically speaking, that is.

(more…)

Bret Saberhagen, photo from BallStar Blog

I remember the important parts of that night with remarkable clarity.  It was cold, being December, and I was in that “close to winter break, but not quite there” part of the school year.

I had left the TV on in my bedroom in the basement before I’d went upstairs to the kitchen to fuss around and avoid bedtime. Walking back down the stairs, I heard the newscaster’s voice: “The Royals have traded pitcher Bret Saberhagen and infielder Bill Pecota to the Mets for Gregg Jefferies, Kevin McReynolds and Keith Miller.”

My little 11-year-old heart sank.

“Why would they do that?” I thought.
(more…)

Royals starters Danny Jackson and Charlie Leibrandt have combined for 15.2 innings and until Jack Clark’s RBI single with two outs in the ninth on 10/20, they’d given up a combined two runs and thrown 11 perfect innings.  And still the Royals are down two games.

So now what?

Now we call on Bret Saberhagen.  Ron Guidry’s fine and all, but Sabes should take the Cy Young over him.  But then, I keep hearing people say Don Mattingly will win MVP over George Brett, which is just ridiculous to even consider.

Anyway, let’s look at Game 3.
(more…)

(more…)

I’m still waiting on the “Catch a Foul Ball” part, but there’s time.

The reason I bring it up is because this Saturday, June 5th, I get to check off something I hadn’t figured I’d have a chance to ever do. Thanks to Sunflower Broadband in Lawrence, who held a “#1 Royals fan” contest, I’ll be throwing out the first pitch before the Tigers/Royals game.

It’s also Bret Saberhagen bobblehead night.

So if anyone wants to see a blogger embarrass themselves in front of 15-20 thousand, this is a good time to do it. I’m hoping like hell I don’t bury that thing.

Like that.

You can stay current on all the Kings of Kauffman content and news by following us on Twitter, Facebook, or by way of our RSS feed.