Had he entered professional baseball years earlier, he’d likely have been the Royals starting first baseman or designated hitter in 2005. As it happens, he’s risen up prospect lists while Kansas City has Billy Butler entrenched at DH and Eric Hosmer on the cusp of superstardom. Robinson, without any other positional options, is left out of the mix.

That’s a shame, because Robinson, since day one as a pro, has hit everything that’s come his way.

Clipped from: kingsofkauffman.com (share this clip)

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If you’ve read Moneyball, he’s a Billy Beane kind of player, and now, Beane can have him.  The Royals received minor leaguer Ethan Hollingsworth for him in a trade this afternoon after Kila was designated for assignment last week.

The Royals did well to get anything for a player they had no spot for any longer.

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• Young Guns – Ethan Evans
• Royalman Report 9/18/11 – Decently Decent with Guest Mike McCartney
• Counting Chickens - Kevin Scobee
• Flash Gordon – Gage Matthews
• Royals Free Kila Ka’aihue - Michael Engel
• Presence of Pitching - Brett Christie
• Apologizing to Melky Cabrera - Michael Engel
• Market Fresh: James Shields – Michael Engel
• Jeff Francoeur Has 20/20 Vision - Michael Engel
• Hit Parade – Ryan Wood

Problem: Kansas City needed to clear a spot on the 40 man roster to add Herrera.  On Wednesday, they made the decision to designate Kila Ka’aihue for assignment, giving them 10 days to trade or release him.

Thus ends a long and winding quest full of high expectations, internet campaigns, pre-season buzz and, ultimately, disappointment.

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The point is that September is full of hope. At the start of the month, there are another 25-30 games to play. Teams can manage to climb ten games in the standings with a hot streak and their opponents’ corresponding cold streaks. With the introduction of new call-ups from the minors, the balance changes slightly. The fresh blood mixes up the standard game plan for teams and the new variety (and hope) create a fresh experience for fans.

Kansas City is, of course, right in the middle of this influx of new blood.

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The Bad news: Northwest Arkansas and Kane County have been eliminated.

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In an interview with Rob White of the Omaha World-Herald, Kila Ka’aihue, now in Omaha after a dismal 2011 in Kansas City, stated that he was going to ditch the patient plate approach that he’s adopted on his way through the minors in favor of a more aggressive approach.

After getting hidden away in 2009 and being pushed out by Eric Hosmer this year, I guess he has to do something.

I can’t help but question the decision.

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Looking back it was probably too much to put on the kid. Heck, at the time it was probably too much to put on the kid. For someone that had never played a game above Double-A miracles and amazings were expected, and there was little room for error.

The story since that first at-bat strikeout has been well documented. Alex Gordon went from receiving a standing ovation in his first career plate appearance, to being the poster-child for a decade of failures and why this franchise hasn’t been able to turn it around in the last five. He is the ultimate polarizing Royal – you either love him, or hate him, there is no in between.

It seems more than a little odd, and perhaps a bit funny, that the fans of a franchise that has known little more than heartbreak and losing for nearly twenty seasons – or heck, nearly thirty – would allow themselves to head down that road again with another player in that can’t miss line towards superstardom, Eric Hosmer. (more…)

Kila Celebrates a Walkoff on April 1st (AP)

Admittedly, I’m just as excited as everyone else – I can’t wait to see what this guy has to offer.

But Friday night, as I watched his debut with great hope and anticipation, I couldn’t help but think about the other man involved in this story. Late this week there was another car, heading in the opposite direction on Interstate 29. And as Kila Ka’aihue drove north towards the lights of Omaha, the mood in that car had to have been one of disbelief, disappointment, and pain.

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I’m excited, you’re excited.  Royals fans all over are excited.

Attendance should be pretty strong tomorrow night to see his major league debut.  Think of how many eight-year-olds can say in twenty years that they were there for Eric Hosmer’s major league debut.  If this group of prospects leads us to the promised land, that’s going to be a special memory.

I went digging to find some other prominent Royals (and some who are just scary) to find out how their major league debuts went.  I stuck with hitters, as I figure there are opportunities later this year to examine pitchers’ debuts.  Also I only looked at a few players who made debuts as a Royal, so that knocked out Amos Otis and Cookie Rojas among others.

Hopefully, Hosmer’s debut goes as well as Mark Quinn‘s where he went 3-4 against the Angels, hitting two homers and driving in four.  Hopefully, Hosmer’s career fares better.

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Eric Hosmer, baseball player. (From David Holtzman - @HoltzyKC)

Not long after the Royals victory over Baltimore, the news broke.

Eric Hosmer, regarded by many as the top prospect in the top minor league system in the game, was purchased from Omaha, placed on the 40 man roster and will be starting tomorrow night against Oakland.

To make room on the 40 man roster, Jason Kendall was placed on the 60 day DL as he continues to recover from shoulder surgery.  Kila Ka’aihue was optioned to Omaha where he’ll work on salvaging something from 2011.

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After two weeks off for other commitments and travel and such, we were back in studio for a new installment of The Royalman Report.

In this episode, we wax ecstatic about the sweep of the Twins, bemoan the starting pitching struggles and talk quite a lot about Jeff Francoeur, Chris Getz, Mike Aviles and Kila Ka’aihue.  In the process, we added a feature segment called the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – you can probably guess what we cover there…

To listen to myself, Troy “Royalman” Olsen and Brian McGannon of Royals Kingdom, go to RoyalmanReport.com.  You can also download the episode on iTunes or directly as an mp3 here.

There’s also the option to listen on the embedded player below:

You can follow The Royalman Report on Twitter at @RoyalmanReport (simple, eh?) and visit the site for show updates.  Send any questions, comments or ideas for discussion there.  If you want to call in and leave a voicemail (that may be played on the air) call the Royalman Hotline at 1-816-394-9578.

We’ll be back next week live at 7 p.m. central time for more Royals discussion.

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

Nothing makes or breaks a team’s success like patience at the dish. The Royals have started the year winning series and games they weren’t supposed to win. The thing I find most pleasing about the Royals’ early success is their ability (for the most part) to wait on pitches they want to hit. And if they can’t find one they want to hit, they’ll gladly take a free pass to first. (They’re 6th in the MLB in walks so far this season)

Watching Billy Butler at the plate over the past few years has been one of my favorite things to do. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve voiced my opinions from the camp of doubters in the past. I questioned whether he would ever really be a power-hitting first baseman. Whether he would ever hit the amount of homers that  a guy who patrols the right side of the infield is generally “supposed” to have. (more…)

Davies followed up a seven strikeout, no walk night last Monday by scattering four hits over six innings and shut the last ten Rangers batters he faced.  Over the last two games, he’s walked just one and struck out ten in 12 innings and deserved a win both times.

Tonight, it was a rough third inning that did him in.

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After being the Texas League MVP in 2008 and a Triple A All-Star last season, he entered 2011 with the opportunity that had escaped him until last August – a full time spot in the big leagues.  Over the years, Kila’s been a mythic figure in the Royals farm system.  As the big league club struggled to get on base and struggled even more to hit the ball out of the park, this guy with a funny name was doing both at remarkable levels.

In 2008, he was doing well enough to inspire fans to call for his opportunity to come up.  In 2009, there was outcry that the Royals traded for Mike Jacobs to take a spot that was deservedly Ka’aihue’s.  In 2010, Twitter became the birthplace of the #FreeKila movement.  The day he finally made it to the big leagues outside of a September callup seemed like a shift to give younger players their shot.

He saw all of four plate appearances in May and was sent back to Omaha until August 2.

The Royals concerns have been his bat speed and maintaining his power against major league pitching every day.  So far, their concerns seem valid.  The new outcry, a year later, is to ship Kila off to the first team that’ll have him.  Send him to Omaha.  Cut him.

Am I disappointed? Of course.  I want Kila to show that his success in the minors wasn’t a fluke and that he can be a part of a successful Royals team.  His success just puts the Royals in an even better position as prospects continue their ascent to the majors.  Watching his struggles is frustrating, to be sure, but what’s more frustrating is the fickle turn against him.

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Of course, that’s where the Royals are now. While prospect discussions are always fun and can be interesting, the recent acclaim the system has generated have boosted prospect news to heralded status. Great sites like Greg Schaum’s Pine Tar Press have folks out at several minor league games to witness players’ performances and relay information to the Royals fanbase. It’s extremely helpful to hear this information and stay informed.

However, there’s an issue here as well. While I love hearing about the progress of the minor leaguers, it does put some occasionally unwarranted pressure on the big league club. When Royals players are struggling, there are calls for those players to be benched or demoted in favor of the minor leaguers that have been raking and could take their place. And that’s fed by all the reports about minor league progress.

Now, I’m not trying to bemoan prospect tracking. I love doing that and I would hate to lose that information. Instead, I’m trying to make a few points about being sensible with call-ups and demotions.

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Kila at the plate. (Minda Haas)

I love baseball movies. I think I’m not alone in that statement. And, of course, one of my all-time favorites is Major League. It’s one of the best sports comedies ever made and I’m pretty sure that’s not just hyperbole.

Anyway, besides the Wild Thing and Willie Mays Hayes, there’s a character in that movie that is always strangely endearing for all his bizarre quirks. I’m talking about Mr. Pedro Cerrano, the Cuban voodoo-practicing ballplayer that pioneered “hats for bats” and wanted to sacrifice a chicken before a game.

In watching the beginning of the 2011 Royals season, I’ve come to the realization that one of my favorite Royals to root for may just be Pedro Cerrano incarnate.

I’m speaking about Kila Ka’aihue.

Now, I obviously don’t mean this as a hint about his religious or superstitious nature. Instead, it’s about his batting prowess. And I’ll show you what I mean and why Kila’s having a hard time getting his season underway.

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The Royals look to take another series in this young season, traveling to Target Field to take on the despised Minnesota Twins.  Is it me, or are the Twins kind of like the haughty, arrogant characters often played by Greg Kinnear or Ted McGinley (who, coincidentally played a pompous manager of the same Twins in Major League: Back to the Minors) in almost every film or television role they get?  They walk in with their pitchers who don’t walk people and hitters who move runners over and solid defense.

Pssh.  Twins.  I say bring ‘em on!

To be honest, I’m mildly terrified of this starting rotation.  I feel like it might fall apart at any moment, and a Twins series is usually when these things happen.  Hopefully, Jeff Francis can keep his momentum going and Kyle Davies can figure something out.

The Royals should have opportunities – Brian Duensing isn’t exactly a world-beater, and Francisco Liriano is having command issues.  The newfound approach at the plate could net the Royals more walks than they usually seem to get against the Twins and more baserunners means more scoring chances.  It’s just up to the Royals to come through.

Some solid pitching wouldn’t hurt either.

In the spirit of providing a balanced preview of the series, so my second-place-Royals-homerism doesn’t run rampant, Wally Fish, Senior Editor at Puckett’s Pond and I are collaborating on this preview.  He was my predecessor here at Kings of Kauffman, so he’s one of the good Twins fans.  (He grew up in Minnesota – let’s cut him a bit of slack.  But just a bit.)

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My journalism professor always gave us two rules to live by: Don’t use a question in your headlines and don’t use a question to start your lede. They’re both the lazy-step-brother of journo-writing and it was taught to us that it showed the apathy of the writer towards his or her own story. But, I don’t care, I’m going to go ahead and break one of those rules anyway.

You see in breaking one of the hard-and-fast rules of Prof. Lofflin I’m not so much pointing to the negative side of writing, but opening my arms and saying “what the heck” to the Royals and their start to the 2011 season. It’s been excited, it’s been well played, and it’s shown the kind of progress in individual players that a growing organization needs in order to setup for future success.

In other words: What. The. Heck. (more…)

The bullpen held the lead for the last three innings and a team effort everywhere led to the win.

The key? Magglio Ordonez, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez went a combined 1 for 11.

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While I’m sad to see that college basketball is on it’s way out, I think that the trade of Bill Raftery’s voice for Denny Mathews’ play-by-play is one we can all appreciate. I love me some Denny and I’m sick of hearing Bill.

As the season began I was running spring training results over in my head, thinking of all the things that happened. There was Melky’s surprising consistency (keep it up and boost that trade value), Hosmer’s short, yet solid performance in his first big league spring training, and even the (fashionably) late appearance of Alex Gordon‘s bat.

All of these things are great, but something that interested me (and others I’m sure, it wasn’t exactly a secret) was the furious clip at which the Royals stole bases. In spring training they stole 55 bases in 75 attempts, giving them a 73% success rate. All of this was in 30 games. Now, I know it’s spring training and managers are having players try new things, show more aggression at the plate/on the basepaths, etc. I still don’t think that means we shouldn’t note that if the Royals could keep up the same rate of basestealing they’ve showed us in the spring, by the end of the regular season they’ll have stolen 297 bases giving them 1.83 stolen bases a game. (more…)

What will go overshadowed is a fantastic debut by Jeff Francis.

After the first two innings, Francis settled down, brushing off a Howie Kendrick homer to center in the first inning to go seven strong innings, walking none and wearing out the infield grass with grounder after grounder.

Robinson Tejeda and Joakim Soria added two scoreless while Soria got the win after Kila’s late-inning heroics.

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Treanor takes one for the team. (via David Holtzman on Twitter)

What a game, huh?

I watched Opening Day. Had I been in Kansas City, I would’ve gone. However, I had to settle for MLB.tv, which is fine for me.

I love Opening Day. It creates so many hopes while squashing so many others. It’s a truly decisive day for no other reason than it’s the first game of the year. Based on the fact that so many base so much on this initial game, though, I started thinking about judging the whole season through the eyes of this one game.

So, what would the 2011 season be like if it played out like Opening Day?
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Unfortunately, you can’t just transfer spring stats to the regular season.  A player who burns up Arizona in March has to keep it up in April.  And May.  And June, and so on.

But hypothetically, if you could just project seasonal production from spring stats, what might it look like for the Royals?

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Minor league pitchers found this out as he went to the plate in Double A and hit nearly everything out of the park.  A promotion to Triple A didn’t slow him down either.  he just kept chugging along, mashing everything in his path.

This hulking left-handed hitting first baseman had turned the minor leagues into his own personal batting cage.  Clearly he was ready for the show.

The Phillies, knowing this, brought Ryan Howard up shortly after and while he struggled a bit, he ended up becoming an MVP.

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Billy Butler is extended with club-friendly options, and at age 24 could be a batting leader in the American League for the duration of his contract.

Kila Ka’aihue hopes to build off a strong September, and so far in spring training he has two homers and if nothing else will get a shot to hit everyday.

Eric Hosmer has been the star of spring through the first batch of games and should be looking for a 3-5 month lease in Omaha if he hasn’t lined it up already.

And then there’s Clint Robinson, the lowest on the totem pole, but the second oldest of the group.  All he’s done is win the Triple Crown in the Texas League, get added to the 40 man roster, and through 10 at bats (standard sample size disclaimers apply) has four hits and five RBIs.

These four, none of which have turned 27 years old, can only occupy two spots in the lineup.  Even if somehow the Royals got creative and moved Hosmer to the outfield, Robinson’s still the odd man out.

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Billy Butler once looked like this.

Honestly, who can blame him? Part of why I loved playing the game was spending time in the field. Batting was great, sure, but it just wouldn’t have been the same if I weren’t heading out to right every half inning.

So, I’m okay with Billy’s desire to play the field. From a classic baseball standpoint, that’s half the fun of the game. First base was never a favorite of mine, but if that’s your position then you want to get out there and play. It’s completely understandable. When you think of the recent increase in focus on defense, then it’s even more important. If Billy doesn’t get out and play at first on a regular basis, he could lose some of his fielding ability and whatever defensive credibility he might have left. Given that over half of all MLB teams don’t use a DH, retaining his fielding ability is important for his future.

There are a lot of reasons for wanting to both hit and field. Anyone can see that. What I want to know is whether Billy’s offensive production at each spot suggests he would be useful as a full-time DH.
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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, to help you look forward to what to expect this spring, I thought I could take a look at some of the battles being waged for a big league roster spot. There’s a lot to look at around the field. Austin already ran down the starting pitching situation and Mike looked at the small quarrel between Mitch Maier and Gregor Blanco, so I want to take a gander at the infield situation.

By position number, the catchers are up first:

Catchers:
Candidates: Brayan Pena, Luke May, Manny Pina, Jason Kendall (injured)

Admittedly, this likely isn’t much of a competition. Kendall should be out for the whole of Spring Training and likely part of the beginning of the season. They might rush him a bit to get him some plate appearances before the season starts, but I would hope not. I went over that situation a while back, though, so I want to just briefly talk about the other three guys.
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In the interest of light-hearted prognostication, I think it might be fun to toss out some predictions for the 2011 season – some good, some bad – and perhaps have a little fun thinking about what awaits us this year.
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Now it seems every other Royals-related article focuses on one of two players: Billy Butler and Joakim Soria.  The reason?  Gauging their trade value.

Maybe I missed the announcement, but is the Glass family holding a fire sale?

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But come on, we knew that would be the case going into 2010. I think I’m among the more optimistic (at times) Royals fans out there, and I never gave us much of a chance to compete this year. There was an outside chance we might finish third in the division, but not much more than that. In our season preview on Kings of Kauffman back in April, Wally predicted a 68-94 finish, I predicted a 75-87 finish and Jon Twibell predicted the Royals to finish 67-95. So both Jon (who nailed it) and Wally (who was quite close) had a more realistic view going into the season.

And that’s fine. That’s what being a fan is, enjoying your team how you choose. I chose to hope for the best and the Royals let me down. I’m getting used to that.

Despite the poor record and another last place finish, there were bright spots. I’ll try to glance at a few of them now, and confine my focus to the major league roster, as the advancement of the minor leagues has been discussed enough for now (though I still enjoy it every time).
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Kila is free.

And he’s on a rampage.
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There’s still a week to go, so we’re not at the end of the road yet.

Though it may not be pretty.
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As spring training rolled along, Ka’aihue hit four homers and put up a 1.121 OPS and the cries got louder, going so far as to demand the release of Jose Guillen (who still leads the team in homers a month after his release) to open the DH spot for one of either Ka’aihue or Billy Butler.

While Ka’aihue led Triple A in OPS and made a habit of walking in every game, while the Royals banged out singles but walked at a below league average rate, the cause was picked up by Twitter and #FreeKila became a rallying cry.  Upon placing Rick Ankiel on the disabled list in May, it finally happened.  Kila was free!

Sort of.
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I have to admit, it’s not the worst idea for a rebuilding team in some cases.  If you’re a GM looking down the pipe and seeing your top prospects as High A stars not far from high school, you might have to consider it if you think your future is still a few years away from developing into a winner.  But at the same time, highly skilled players in their mid-20s don’t grow on trees,  and as they approach their peak years, they’re usually coveted.

So the question is, should the Royals explore trading Billy Butler?
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Why is this franchise so power starved?
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On the field, the results weren’t great, but the performance wasn’t awful.  Finishing off a west coast road trip, the Royals got swept by the Angels, and, with the Yankees waiting back in Kansas City, the week looked pretty bad.  Fortunately, Kansas City was able to salvage two wins out of the week, and except for the home run derby game on Saturday, the Royals had a shot at a couple more wins.  Still (and we shouldn’t be surprised), the Royals didn’t make the plays to make the difference.
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Taking his place on the roster is Philip Humber who was recalled from Omaha.  Humber was the third overall pick by the Mets in 2004 and was part of the trade that sent Johan Santana to the Mets.  In Omaha, he’d posted a 5-6 record with a 4.47 ERA, striking out 6.1 batters per nine innings and walking just 1.5 per nine in 118.2 innings pitched.
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Unfortunately, he’s up because Robinson Tejeda was placed on the disabled list with a right biceps tendon strain.

With the recent moves of veterans Scott Podsednik, Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth, the youth movement in KC is picking up.  Ka’aihue figures into that plan, but the Royals have been oddly reluctant to give him the opportunity.  With a keen batting eye and power from the left side of the plate, Ka’aihue’s waited mostly for the departure of Jose Guillen.  Perhaps a post-deadline trade involving waivers will give him his chance.

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Talk about mood swings…
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Earlier today, Rany Jazayerli tweeted that “sources” were telling him that Moustakas was headed to Triple A.  How likely would that scenario be?  Let’s dig deeper.
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Gordon is hitting .333/.454/.588 since being demoted to Omaha early in 2010 with 11 homers and 36 RBI in 52 games.  Ka’aihue has hit .307/.472/.572 with 14 homers and 50 RBI.

Gordon and Ka’aihue join a whole line of Royals prospects who have made their leagues’ All-Star rosters including Michael Montgomery, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers.

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The Royals are playing near .500 ball with Ned Yost at the helm (20-21 since taking over for Trey Hillman), so they’ve had a lot of these 3-3 weeks. Nobody expects this team to contend – yet – so hanging around .500 is fine, though also disappointing. Think of those “Lowered Expectations” parody ads on Mad TV. It’s kind of like that.
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Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer‘s fine seasons have earned them All-Star honors, but what other prospects will represent the Royals? Read on.
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Betemit was signed to a minor league contract before the season and has played all over the infield in Omaha, mostly at shortstop. The former prospect (#8 overall in Baseball America’s 2002 rankings) was hitting .265/.358/.407 in Omaha with 17 RBI.

Bullington joined the Royals on May 17 to add depth to the bullpen while Robinson Tejeda battled a minor calf injury. Kila Ka’aihue was optioned to make room for him at the time. Bullington gave up four runs in three innings during his brief trip in Kansas City, walking five in that span. He’ll likely return to the Omaha rotation and may be recalled if an injury occurs on the big league club.

Tejeda’s clearly recovered from his calf issue, as evidenced by his striking out the side against Colorado on Saturday.

Betemit is likely to serve as depth and defensive help while up with the club.

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