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]
It's so funny how we all fall so deeply in love with our backup catchers. You can stare at Cam's career OPS for an hour, and it's still gonna be 56 when you're done. [Reply]
This team is showing its close. They really need to figure out an upgrade in the of and reinforcement in the own, whether that exists in Omaha or elsewhere. [Reply]
Our old friend Jorge Lopez is available! Got ejected from the Mets game tonight, threw the team under the bus in the postgame and was DFA'ed within the hour. :-)
I asked Jorge Lopez if he regretted throwing his glove into the stands. Not only did he say no, he then called the Mets “the worst team in the whole f—cking MLB.”
This gem was posted on May 28, 2024 during the 5th inning of a game that ended with the possible lead/winning run at the plate in the top of the 9th. With one of the best players in MLB at the plate.
Originally Posted by BWILLIE:
This is what happens when you don't make any changes just because you are winning.
I post the quote to demonstrate that the quoted poster is an absolute bitch.
After the Royals lose 3 straight after winning 8 straight. Oh and that 3 game losing streak? Over. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
Our old friend Jorge Lopez is available! Got ejected from the Mets game tonight, threw the team under the bus in the postgame and was DFA'ed within the hour. :-)
I asked Jorge Lopez if he regretted throwing his glove into the stands. Not only did he say no, he then called the Mets “the worst team in the whole f—cking MLB.”
Seth Lugo of the @Royals is the second pitcher in the modern era to win each of his first six road starts of a season while also allowing 0/1 runs in each one.
The other is Greg Maddux, who did so in the first seven road starts of his Cy Young-winning season of 1995. pic.twitter.com/KTJYnFKZJJ
Seth Lugo of the @Royals is the second pitcher in the modern era to win each of his first six road starts of a season while also allowing 0/1 runs in each one.
The other is Greg Maddux, who did so in the first seven road starts of his Cy Young-winning season of 1995. pic.twitter.com/KTJYnFKZJJ
Lugo has been an absolute marvel. Anyone wanna do the work to find out the last time we had a pitcher who was 9-1? Without looking, I’d say maybe Appier in ‘95 or maybe Saberhagen in ‘87? For all I know, we may never have had a pitcher start the season 9-1.
But more than Lugo, to finally have a competent rotation is great. Hell, we’ve got one of the best rotations in the entire league, and that’s gonna keep us in the hunt all year. Nice knowing we have Lynch and Bubic perhaps waiting in the wings if anyone gets hurt and we won’t have a significant drop off.
If this continues, I’ll shoot my shot and say this will go down as the best rotation in KC history. [Reply]
My guess would have been David Cone in 94 when he won the Cy Young, but he went 8-1 and then lost to go 8-2. Appier started 11-2 in 95 but his second loss came much earlier too. Paul Byrd would have been my next guess when he had that good year in 02 but he started 8-2 as well. I wouldn't have guessed Greinke but he actually started 8-1 his Cy Young year then lost his next two decisions. You may have to go back to the 80s to find someone. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
My guess would have been David Cone in 94 when he won the Cy Young, but he went 8-1 and then lost to go 8-2. Appier started 11-2 in 95 but his second loss came much earlier too. Paul Byrd would have been my next guess when he had that good year in 02 but he started 8-2 as well. I wouldn't have guessed Greinke but he actually started 8-1 his Cy Young year then lost his next two decisions. You may have to go back to the 80s to find someone.
If it’s actually even happened before, it’s probably something like Roger Nelson in 1974 or Busby.
I distinctively remember Sabes had a very hot start in 1987. I guess I need to stop farting around and do some digging… [Reply]
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho:
It's rather subjective.
When they added framing to their C defensive calculations, it was enough to add19 WAR to Russell Martin's numbers while dropping 13 from Salvador Perez's number.
Just calculate that in strikes. How many strikes would one have to steal (at that point in Perez's career, it was only 8 seasons) to account for that many additional wins?
And how would you assign NEGATIVE value?
I've brought this up multiple times the last couple of years, but the value they assign to framing is fucking incredibly ludacris. The best frames in the league shouldn't get more than a couple of tenths of points of WAR for it.
There isn't really a way for them to quantify the value of framing, because there are soooo many variables that it would make it damn near impossible. You could go through statcast and look at all the balls that were called strikes instead, but that doesn't take into account the umpire and how do you verify if that specific umpire was going to call the pitch a ball or a strike anyways? What about strikes that are called balls even with a perfect framing catcher? How do you let that come into play?
Just too many variables and for a skill that probably equates to what, a couple of extra strikes at best? How in the hell do you justify that small miniscule value amounting to a 32 WAR swing between 2 players. Salvador Perez has a career fWAR of 17.1 in 11 years and Russell Martin had 19 fWAR added over 13 years just because of his framing?
Fangraphs is going to try and tell me that Martins framing is more valuable than everything Perez has done in his career? Perez having the 2nd highest CS% of any active player isn't near as impressive as Martin moving the ball to the middle of the plate when he catches?
It's insane that they keep pushing that bullshit. [Reply]
Originally Posted by GabyKeepsMeWarm:
Lugo has been an absolute marvel. Anyone wanna do the work to find out the last time we had a pitcher who was 9-1? Without looking, I’d say maybe Appier in ‘95 or maybe Saberhagen in ‘87? For all I know, we may never have had a pitcher start the season 9-1.
But more than Lugo, to finally have a competent rotation is great. Hell, we’ve got one of the best rotations in the entire league, and that’s gonna keep us in the hunt all year. Nice knowing we have Lynch and Bubic perhaps waiting in the wings if anyone gets hurt and we won’t have a significant drop off.
If this continues, I’ll shoot my shot and say this will go down as the best rotation in KC history.
I don't think weve had one. Greinke went 8-1 before going 8-2. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dlphg9:
I've brought this up multiple times the last couple of years, but the value they assign to framing is fucking incredibly ludacris. The best frames in the league shouldn't get more than a couple of tenths of points of WAR for it.
There isn't really a way for them to quantify the value of framing, because there are soooo many variables that it would make it damn near impossible. You could go through statcast and look at all the balls that were called strikes instead, but that doesn't take into account the umpire and how do you verify if that specific umpire was going to call the pitch a ball or a strike anyways? What about strikes that are called balls even with a perfect framing catcher? How do you let that come into play?
Just too many variables and for a skill that probably equates to what, a couple of extra strikes at best? How in the hell do you justify that small miniscule value amounting to a 32 WAR swing between 2 players. Salvador Perez has a career fWAR of 17.1 in 11 years and Russell Martin had 19 fWAR added over 13 years just because of his framing?
Fangraphs is going to try and tell me that Martins framing is more valuable than everything Perez has done in his career? Perez having the 2nd highest CS% of any active player isn't near as impressive as Martin moving the ball to the middle of the plate when he catches?
It's insane that they keep pushing that bullshit.
I think you’ve said more than I would ever want to say about framing.
It’s queer.
There isn’t a team in MLB who wouldn’t want
Salvador Perez as their catcher for the past 15 years.
The analytics move the goalposts all the time, and catchers keep getting fucked.
Salvy said around 2019 when he had TJ surgery, he wanted to be a HOFer.
He missed a year, destroyed the Covid season, but had vision problems.
Went on to hit 48 homers.
Salvy is playing jokes on us.
This dude is gonna GO until he can’t. And I think he’s got five to six years left of good stuff.
400 HR is possible. 2000 hits is possible.
And a couple more playoff appearances…
How can you not love and hope for the best with this man’s career? [Reply]
