Daily Clips
October 13, 2017
LOCAL
Inbox: Will Perez move to first and when?
Beat reporter Jeffrey Flanagan answers questions from fans
October 12, 2017By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
The case for Hoz: How agent Scott Boras hopes to make Eric Hosmer $200M richer
October 12, 2017By Sam Mellinger/KC Star
Cubs sing Wade Davis’ praises after NLDS win: ‘He’s our MVP this year’
October 13, 2017By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
Ex-Royal Jonny Gomes raising funds, bringing huge military truck to help fire victims
October 12, 2017By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
How playing in Kauffman Stadium helps and hurts Lorenzo Cain
October 12, 2017By Lee Judge/KC Star
NATIONAL
3 teens at KC instructs may be worthy successors
October 12, 2017By Jim Callis/MLB.com
MLB TRANSACTIONS
October 13, 2017 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
Inbox: Will Perez move to first and when?
Beat reporter Jeffrey Flanagan answers questions from fans
October 12, 2017By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Soon after the World Series ends, a busy and significant offseason begins for the Royals as their free agents will declare .
Royals general manager Dayton Moore and his staff have been strategizing about this offseason for months, though Moore told MLB.com last week that he won't know his budget for 2018 until sometime in November.
But change is coming. We saw that when the Royals let go pitching coach Dave Eiland and bench coach Don Wakamatsu a day after the season ended. And even Moore admits he's not sure how many of his pending free agents, which including Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain, Jason Vargas, Melky Cabrera and Mike Minor (mutual option), he can keep.
@ABrandt42: Someone tell me why Salvy can’t play first base? We’ve seen that transition many times. Is there something in his game preventing that?
Answer: It's a legitimate question, especially if they lose Hosmer. Salvador Perez's transition to first base likely will happen someday, but as a perennial Gold Glove winner and arguably the best defensive catcher in the league, Perez is too valuable behind the plate right now. This will be especially true if the pitching staff, as expected, gets younger during the next two years.
@BaltuskaDavid: Do we have a good closer candidate in the minors? If not what do we do?
Answer: Probably not anyone who is ready by 2018. But the Royals do love the rapid progress of left-handed prospect Richard Lovelady (Royals' No. 24 prospect, per MLB Pipeline). Lovelady had a combined 1.62 ERA in 42 relief appearances between Class A and Double-A in 2017. He's got a plus-plus fastball and good breaking stuff. The best solution for the closer's role would be re-signing Minor, who was 6-for-6 in save chances when he got the role in mid-September. Funny how the entire back of the bullpen fell into place once Minor took over the closer's role. The problem is, every scout in baseball saw the same thing we did with Minor, and he will get paid.
@lorettasueross: What happens with Gore, since he'll be out of options?
Answer: Excellent question. Moore already has hinted he wants the 2018 roster to be younger and more athletic. That would make the case for keeping Terrance Gore on the 25-man roster rather than trading him. You can expect speedsters Paulo Orlando and Raul Mondesi on the roster as well. The Gore issue comes down to this: Do the Royals believe he can be anything more than a pinch-runner? (He did have a .321 OBP in Triple-A last year.) We'll find out next spring.
@DJSalmans17: Seems as if the Kennedy and Gordon contracts are a huge albatross to the salary cap.....is there any way around these 2 contracts?
Answer: There is no way to get out of the contracts, unless the players are traded, and even then the Royals would be asked to pay a majority of the finances. But several coaches, scouts and front-office folks believe Ian Kennedy will bounce back in 2018, and be more like the pitcher he was in his first year with the Royals (3.68 ERA, 195 2/3 innings). The thinking there is Kennedy never got over his hamstring pull early in the season and he is a leg-drive pitcher, so the injury hampered his season. As for Alex Gordon, manager Ned Yost loved what he saw from Gordon during a 20-game stretch in September when Gordon hit .317 with a .990 OPS (five doubles, four homers). Gordon began consciously driving the ball the opposite way then -- perhaps he'll do a Moustakas-type swing makeover this offseason.
@KCstreck87: How many of our core guys do you see us actually resigning? Realistically
Answer: Two at the most, I would think. As I have said since Spring Training, they will throw everything they got at keeping Hosmer because he is the perfect teammate, an ascending player, great in the community, and the ideal leader for the upcoming mini-rebuild. I think they have to try and keep Minor as well.
@pjkc55: Do you think Dayton Moore will remain GM?
Answer: We all have heard the rumors of Atlanta's interest in Moore. It seems unlikely that he would leave mainly because of his loyalty to David Glass and the people around him. But you can't read people's minds. He will do what's best for his family. And if he were to go, he would leave the Royals in better shape than he found them.
The case for Hoz: How agent Scott Boras hopes to make Eric Hosmer $200M richer
October 12, 2017By Sam Mellinger/KC Star
The three-ring binder will have graphs and numbers and quotes and comparisons that will make Eric Hosmer look like some cross between Ted Williams and the Pope. If it’s not done already, it will be soon, distributed by agent Scott Boras to the Royals and any other team interested in giving Homser many, many, many millions of dollars to play baseball.
These binders are famous in baseball circles. Boras’ binder for Alex Rodriguez reportedly compared him to Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Johnny Damon once said his binder made him feel like Ty Cobb.
So, Hosmer’s binder will note that he is a world champion, a Gold Glove winner, and that only five primary first basemen have a higher OPS over the last three years with at least 400 games played. Only three have more RBIs, and none of them played in worse offenses. Pretty standard stuff, really.
But one part that may surprise you is a metric on intangibles. That is not a typo.
Boras breaks it down into categories: clubhouse effect, media skills, community involvement, performance under psychological pressure, etc., to come up with a, well, a tangible measurement of something impossible to measure tangibly.
“That’s a new one to me,” said an American League executive. “I respect Scott. But that doesn’t mean our budget changes.”
Boras has built something like a fiefdom in pushing the boundaries of those budgets, though, and in Hosmer he may have his best test case for putting value on intangibles. His measurements are not new, but they could take on a greater role in negotiations for Hosmer.
A National League executive expected Boras to push for an eight-year contract worth $200 million. Those are big numbers, but Hosmer’s case is interesting.
He turns only 28 this month, and is coming off the best season of his life — career highs in batting, on-base percentage, slugging, runs, hits, home runs, walks and extra-base hits.
The biggest problem with free-agent contracts is typically a misjudgment or misunderstanding of how quickly a player will age, but Hosmer’s next contract will buy more peak years than most, and will be going to a man whose body, work habits and skill-set profile to age well.
With teams often looking at the last year (or two, if the deal is long enough) of free-agent contracts as the cost of winning the negotiation, Hosmer is well-positioned for this winter’s biggest payday.
And if the $25 million salary seems too high, consider that Chris Davis (also a Boras client) got seven years for $161 million ($23 million average) when he was two years older than Hosmer is now without the athleticism or defense, had an amphetamine suspension, and was one year removed from hitting .196.
Davis hit 47 homers in his walk year, but just 18 on the road away from tiny Camden Yards. And, in general, homers are being devalued while diverse skills are increasing in value.
Besides, baseball revenue is growing at about 10 percent per year, meaning a $23 million average salary for Davis two years ago is actually more than a $25 million average salary would be for Hosmer now. Assuming revenues continue on pace, a team’s ability to pay $20 million now will be the same as $30 million in five or six years.
Other free agents who signed for more than $20 million per season coming off inferior offensive production than Hosmer include Jason Heyward, Jacoby Ellsbury and Justin Upton.
The Royals have never had a free agent like this on the market. They traded Carlos Beltran, Johnny Damon and Zack Greinke before free agency. Alex Gordon’s market never went where Hosmer’s is expected to be. That the Yankees and Red Sox will be among the teams presumably looking for a first baseman only adds to the price.
Much of this is somewhat standard. Agents are supposed to promote their players, and teams are supposed to negotiate back.
But Boras’ case for Hosmer will be different in tone, if nothing else. Hosmer’s numbers are good enough, but Boras is expected to emphasize the intangible more than teams are accustomed to.
That encompasses everything from Hosmer’s work with Big Brothers Big Sisters to being one of the relative few who can reach all corners of clubhouses often divided between Americans and Spanish speakers.
That means a measurement on being a team spokesman, on finding a teaching moment with Yordano Ventura, on being the one to invite a city out for a drink, the triple in the Wild Card Game, and of course on the mad dash home in New York.
It may not work like Boras hopes, of course. The teams may listen and nod and say that’s nice, but we pay our first basemen to hit home runs.
But consider this. The Royals built their success, in large part, on intangibles. How much did they talk about clubhouse friendships, of bonds formed in the minor leagues, and of the joy they found in playing for each other?
For argument’s sake, let’s assume that was overstated, and that the parade happened because of athleticism and relief pitching more than anything else. But you can’t have watched the Royals’ rise without believing the other stuff had a part in it, too. The resiliency in the comebacks, the consistent performance in the biggest moments.
The Royals had a parade because of these things, the team welcoming in record attendance and interest.
Shouldn’t the players be rewarded, too?
Cubs sing Wade Davis’ praises after NLDS win: ‘He’s our MVP this year’
October 13, 2017By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
Here is a stat that likely will make Royals fans wince.
However, it speaks to the amazing performance by Cubs closer Wade Davis in Chicago’s 9-8 win over Washington in Game 5 of the National League Division Series on Thursday night.
Since 1973, just two pitchers have recorded seven or more outs to get a save in a winner-take-all playoff game:
Davis on Thursday and Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series.
“What he pulled out at the end of the game for us was second to none for a closer,” Cubs left fielder (and former Royal) Ben Zobrist said after Game 5. “He’s just got a big heart, a big guy, he comes up big in the clutch.”
Davis came on with two runners on and two outs in the seventh inning and struck out Ryan Zimmerman to protect a 9-7 lead. The Nationals got a run in the eighth against Davis, but he retired Washington in order in the ninth inning, including strikeouts of Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper to end the game and the series.
The Cubs acquired Davis from the Royals last winter for outfielder Jorge Soler, and he had 32 saves this season. Davis’ contributions were known throughout the Cubs organization.
“Wade Davis, he’s our MVP this year,” Cubs owner Tom Ricketts told reporters. “Without him, I don’t know where we are. And that wasn’t just tonight. It was all season.”
Davis also earned the eternal respect of his teammates.
Cubs left-hander Jon Lester told reporters he “blacked out,” and could only watch the final three outs on Thursday. He admitted he can’t watch postseason games from the dugout because of nerves, but took in the ninth inning.
There is one thing Lester does know about Davis, and he told Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times: “That’s a bad mother(expletive). That’s a bad sumbitch.”
I think Jules Winnfield should just give his wallet to Davis.
It wasn’t just the Cubs who were amazed by Davis on Thursday. Former teammate Kelvin Herrera tweeted: “Wow. 7-out save for Wade (flame emoji)”
Ex-Royal Jonny Gomes raising funds, bringing huge military truck to help fire victims
October 12, 2017By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
Jonny Gomes’ statistics with the Royals in 2015: 30 at-bats, 12 games, five hits, four RBIs, three walks, two doubles and one memorable speech.
When Gomes took the microphone at Union Station during the Royals’ World Series celebration, he gave a victory speech that made still makes many fans smile when they think about it.
Gomes’ baseball career ended after the 2015 season, but current players are rallying behind his latest cause: to help communities in northern California that have been ravaged by wildfires. Gomes grew up there and he has started a Go Fund Me page in the hopes of raising $1 million.
“I’ve played professional baseball around the globe but the 707 area code of Northern California is my home,” Gomes wrote on the Go Fund Me page. “My friends are there. My family is there. I grew up playing ball in the fields and streets of Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Sonoma, Napa and beyond. That’s why you see ‘707’ proudly displayed on my cleats. These people are my neighbors!
“Now I need you to help me give back to the thousands affected by this horrific catastrophe. Kids are without homes and schools. People have nothing but the clothes on their back. My hometown is a wasteland of ash and rubble. You and I are going to change that!”
Former Royal Christian Colon was one of the major-league players who tweeted a link to Gomes’ page.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser reported that Gomes is having his 2 1/2 -ton M35 military truck shipped to help move destroyed vehicles and help clear roads.
How playing in Kauffman Stadium helps and hurts Lorenzo Cain
October 12, 2017By Lee Judge/KC Star
Lorenzo Cain is 31 years old and on most days during a baseball season, if you ask him how his legs feel, he’ll say they’re tired. Lorenzo plays center field in spacious Kauffman Stadium and that’s a lot of ground to cover.
On a single hit toward right center, the left fielder gets a break; he’s supposed to run in and back up second base, but a lot of left fielders don’t set any land-speed records while doing so. Same thing on a single hit toward left center; the right fielder should come in and back up second base, but a lot of right fielders do that at a leisurely pace.
But the center fielder has to go full speed on both those plays.
He’ll either field the ball himself or be expected to back up the corner outfielder who does. And the outfielder who backs up the play might have to run further and harder than the outfielder who makes the play.
So if the pitcher gets the ball knocked all around the yard, Lorenzo feels like he spent the day doing a series of wind sprints in a park the size of Yellowstone.
Royals outfield coach Rusty Kuntz points out how often visiting center fielders take a day off when they come to Kansas City. They’ll run around Kauffman for a couple days, then need a break.
As usual, the Royals played 81 home games in 2017 and Lorenzo started 77 of them. That’s a lot of wear and tear on a guy whose legs are a big part of his game.
On April 13 of next year, Lorenzo will be 32 years old.
We’ve been looking at the Royals’ free-agent position players and should Lorenzo get multiple offers, the size of the park and the amount of ground he’ll be asked to cover could be a factor.
How playing in Kauffman Stadium helps Cain