Year Two of the Matt Quatraro tenure. Time to take a step up this year. Active in free agency and trades this offseason. A new look pitching rotation and bullpen. Will the young players take the leap up offensively? Bobby Witt extension? New stadium? Will Vinny recover from injury? Salvy taking aim at the Royals record book? Will Cole Ragans turn into the best Royals starting pitcher since Greinke 1.0?
Free Agents/Trades Acquisitions
Seth Lugo, SP
Michael Wacha, SP
Kyle Wright, SP
Hunter Renfroe, OF/DH
Will Smith, RP
Chris Stratton, RP
Nick Anderson, RP
Adam Frazier, 2B
Garrett Hampson, INF/OF
Matt Sauer, RP [Reply]
Passan getting the Ohtani fans worked up this morning by not including him here. Good article though.
The two best players in baseball this season face off at Yankee Stadium tonight. And Aaron Judge and Bobby Witt Jr. are on the verge of doing something not seen in six-plus decades.
At ESPN+, the story of their unmatched excellence and mutual admiration: https://t.co/A8uw3UoZwO
Originally Posted by GabyKeepsMeWarm:
I really don’t think we have to worry much about not making the playoffs at this point, it’s just a matter of what spot we end up with.
Look at it this way, if 88 wins is the magic number, then Boston and Seattle would have to go 16-3 and 15-3 respectively. That’s just not happening. If 86 wins is the magic number, then it’s 14-5 and 13-5 respectively. More plausible, but still not very realistic.
I’d love to see us finally get lucky and go on our own hot streak and upend Cleveland for the division. Getting a week off could do wonders for this team. I think that might actually be more realistic than either Boston or Seattle sneaking in unless Minnesota collapses, which they could, as they’ve been prone to some streaky play all year.
Salvy joined us live in studio on #MLBCentral to discuss the importance of giving back, the connection he feels with the Kansas City community and much more. pic.twitter.com/kp5yiRvExV
Salvy joined us live in studio on #MLBCentral to discuss the importance of giving back, the connection he feels with the Kansas City community and much more. pic.twitter.com/kp5yiRvExV
Originally Posted by Ocotillo:
They are talking about the Witt Jr. vs. Judge MVP race on MLB Network Radio's Power Alley.
I think this MVP race this right there with Ted Williams vs. Joe DiMaggio in 1941 as one of the greatest ever.
Witt's been slumping for about 3 weeks now. In his last 15 games, he's hitting .228 with an OBP of .313. He's had an OPS under .600 the last 10 games. This race is pretty much over unless Witt gets RED HOT the last couple weeks.
Still a HELL of a year, but Judge pretty much has it locked up at this point. [Reply]
Originally Posted by TomBarndtsTwin:
Witt's been slumping for about 3 weeks now. In his last 15 games, he's hitting .228 with an OBP of .313. He's had an OPS under .600 the last 10 games. This race is pretty much over unless Witt gets RED HOT the last couple weeks.
Still a HELL of a year, but Judge pretty much has it locked up at this point.
While I do agree Judge is in front, Judge has tailed off of late too with his last home run coming on Aug. 25.
Fangraphs has Judge's WAR at 9.7, Witt is at 9.6.
I do think the modern day baseball writer is different from year's past and will consider Witt's positional value over Judge's sheer numbers.
I generally agree, Witt probably needs to go off these last three weeks and have the Royals seize the division down the stretch to overtake Judge. [Reply]
If the Yankees and Royals are both wild card teams, I think Witt has a good case still because the Royals were a 100-plus loss team in 2023 and he doesn't have much surrounding him. I the that argument that he carried the Royals will come into play, whereas Judge has Juan Soto as part of his supporting cast. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Ocotillo:
If the Yankees and Royals are both wild card teams, I think Witt has a good case still because the Royals were a 100-plus loss team in 2023 and he doesn't have much surrounding him. I the that argument that he carried the Royals will come into play, whereas Judge has Juan Soto as part of his supporting cast.
Yankees and Royals as WC teams is the exact scenario I would like to avoid cause it would likely mean going to NY for the WC for a best of 3. Don't want any part of that.
The Royals have obviously improved a LOT more this year, but I would argue as good as Witt has been, it's been more due to the starting pitching.
Judge clearly has the best companion is his lineup with Soto, but if not for a sucky injury recently the Royals would have had 3 100 RBI guys this year.
I'd like to see what Witt, Vinnie and Salvy could do it that little league park over a 81 game sample size.
But, right now, the Royals don't have enough quality LH bats in their lineup to beat the Yankees in NY consistently. Which sucks. [Reply]