Royals Seeking A Catcher

It's nice to see Dayton going for defense and OBP, but 28 years old? Surely we can get more for Callaspo than a 28 year old rookie.....

yeah, that'd be nice. A guy on the Royals who walks more than he strikes out? Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

A 28-year old rookie? Wow, it really does suck to be a Royals fan. Sure, let's trade Callaspo for an unproven player. Sounds like a great plan. Thank God we have Getz to play 2nd now. Maybe we should see if anybody from the T-Bones is available.

In my opinion, sign Rod Barajas through the Free Agent market.

We can get something more useful for Callapso.
If to the Dodgers, I'm thinking George Sherill, but they wouldn't do that straight up. Ronald Belisario maybe. Juan Pierre or James McDonald as well.

That seems like a great deal for the Dodgers, since the team does not project Ellis as anything more than a backup in LA.

Grover, do you have any idea how bad Callapso is at defense? Not to even mention his speed. Unless we fix our defense in Center, Right, Third, Short, and Catcher, we really can't afford to keep him.

I didn't know Pierre made that much, so no for him. I wouldn't be totally upset for Ellis, but I think we can do better.

We got Getz, who isn't amazing but can start at Second. Defense is a much bigger problem for the club then Offense. Hell, replacing Olivo with someone who has an OBP and blocks balls already fixes a big part of the problem.

I'd be happy with Callapso, or without Callapso, depending on who we get. I still support signing Barajas or Zaun and trading callapso for a solid MR (Like McDonald, Belisario, Sherill), or we can look at other clubs.

First of all it's ok to have a defensive catcher. There are only a very few elite catchers in the league. You can assume risk at that position because most of the teams you play are in the same boat.

That being said, the title of this article should say: "Royals Seeking a Catcher, Right Fielder, Center Fielder, Shortstop, Third Baseman, Second Baseman, Three Starting Pitchers, and Bullpen Help."

That would be more accurate I think.

If they want to go on the cheap, they could probably acquire either Robinzon Diaz or pricier Doumit from Pittsburgh. In the past few trades that the Pirates have made, they seem to have taken very little in return for their players. They may also be able to swing a deal for LaRoche, putting a patch on the 3B issue as well. However, Diaz may end up with the Tigers by the end of November.

Torrealba is horrible and Doumit is a poor man's Olivo. I wouldn't mind trading for one of the Rangers catchers but the price would be high. There really isn't a whole lot of options out there. I agree with what the Royals are trying to do via trade, the free agent options are weak.

As a Dodger fan I would hate to see Ellis leave. Kid is nails defensively and seems to be starting to get it offensively. I have never been that enamored with Martin. Ellis seems to be expandable since May is starting to show he can handle the load. Id rather go internally with DeWitt to fill that void at 2nd. Haha to bad it would never happen but id like to snatch Greinke and Bannister. Pierre is slated to make 9 mill this year.
As a dodger fan it would be nice to see
Grienke Bannister
for
Martin Bills and Pierre n maybe Withrow to bad it would never happen.

Ha, yeah, trading Callaspo for a high OBP and good defensive catcher. Good luck with that!

If he wants good defense plus any offensive contribution, let alone OBP, he's going to have to part with more than Callaspo.

In the free agent market, according to the analysis, Zaun is the guy to go to if you are looking for OBP and defense, but from what I remember, the Rays got an option on him and are thinking of keeping him.

Out of the others listed, Kendall is the only other one who is good defensively. He would also be only a Type B comp, so no loss to Royals to sign him.

I would have said Molina, partly out of hope, but if Kendall is available for no comp and just a year older than Molina, he's the better choice if you consider everything other than money and years.

I have no idea what Kendall wants, but I do know that Molina wants multi-year and a raise over his $6M, last I heard. Kendall was paid $5M and didn't hit that well overall, so he probably isn't looking for a raise, just a starting job for the same money.

I had never heard of Alberto Callapso before today (or his cousin Manuel Elfoldo) so I looked him up. Aside from his 17 errors last season, it seems his fielding over the course of his brief career is only slightly below average. Good contact hitter, according to the stats. Granted he's not Orlando Hudson defensively, but he doesn't look as bad as some say either.

Regardless of how much upside Ellis has, he's most likely not going to be ready for a starting job next season, so the Royals are still going to need someone to fill that role. Why does it seem like there's such a hurry to get rid of Callaspo?

How about this, we keep Callaspo and put him at 3B, where he is (reportedly) much better at defense. Put Gordon in one OF corner, Fields in the other corner, DeJesus in CF, Getz at 2B and suddenly our defense is a lot better. And we keep the one guy on our team that walks more than he strikes out, hits near .300 and has good doubles power.

I've got a counter offer for you, Camron. How about Kershaw and Kemp for Callaspo?? See how ridiculous you sound?

Posted by: revive85 | November 09, 2009 at 10:50 AM

Obviously Greinke's got insane value, but Bannister's value is very minimal right now. An offer of Martin, Billingsley, Withrow (will be our top pitching prospect in 2010) along with Pierre (salary would be eaten, something like 14 of 18 mill I'd bet) isn't some ridiculous offer.

Martin had his worst MLB season after having 3 above average seasons in his first 3 MLB seasons, Billingsley is still a young stud SP, anyone who thinks different is a fool, Pierre still has value if most of his contract is eaten by the Dodgers, and Withrow has sick potential and is just 20 or 21 years old. It would take a couple more prospects from the Dodgers most likely in a deal like that, but don't go crazy and bring up Kershaw or Kemp in trade prosposals, that just aint cool, lol.

Yeah, it's absolutely ridiculous. You can have Bannister. Now let's stop the talk and get back to Callaspo.

Yeah, it's absolutely ridiculous. You can have Bannister. Now let's stop the talk and get back to Callaspo.

Posted by: Grover'sRoyals | November 09, 2009 at 11:07 AM

No, it's really not. I understand why you refuse to trade him, because I wouldn't trade Kershaw or Kemp for anyone, even if there is more value on the other end. But it wasn't some off the wall trade, it was on the way to a trade that could actually work, it just wasn't complete.

Ridiculous and a waste of time to discuss Greinke. He's locked up and going to win the Cy Young in a week. This post is about Callaspo.

Moving Greinke may be the only option the royals have to one day actually compete. The Royals could fill several holes and free up a little payroll. Dejesus needs to be considered as well. Getz, Gordon, Kila, Butler and Fields is a solid nucleus for the infield. The Royals need a catcher, power outfielders and pitchers galore. Greinke could net two major league ready arms think Bucholtz and Bowden plus a high ceiling A-ball guy and on to that a corner outfield and catching prospect. Dejesus could bring in an arm and solid ss prospect. I have no problem with moving Callapso as well. If the Royals wold just swallow their pride they could end up taking that division in two years. It will never happen tough because DM is an idiot and the fans seem to think Greinke wll win every game.

There's a really simple solution to this problem, but I'm sure the Royals won't do it. A few years back, Mitch Maier was converted from a catcher to an outfielder because at the time the Royals has lots of catching depth. So let's just convert him back to a catcher. He can be the backup to Brayan Pena. Then we re-sign Coco Crisp to play center field.

Landon Powell is a pretty good hitting/fielding catcher who is blocked by Kurt Suzuki in Oakland, perhaps he would be a fit in KC? Would be interesting to see what he'd be able to do with 400+ PAs in a year.

Folks, Ive watched or been to every Royals game this past year. Callaspo isnt the greatest defensive 2nd baseman in the world for sure, but hes not flat out horrible.

The guy hit 300 and hit his first homeruns in his career this year. Though the Royals need to improve their defense, why get rid of a guy that is hitting 300 and is a doubles machine?

Solution? Put him as a DH and Butler at 1st, where he was most of the season. Then put Getz at 2nd. Then when Butler needs a day off or needs to DH, heck, let Callaspo play 1st. But I wouldnt get rid of a .300 player just like that, because is defense wasnt all that great. There are solutions.

How often did the defense let Zack down? There are bad defensive plays that don't always show up as errors in the boxscore. Listen to Frank on TV, he'll tell you all about how bad Callaspo is and the things he is doing wrong.

Look, I agree Callaspo can hit. My point is he needs to be off of 2B. Either DH him or sell him off for something useful. If he stays at 2B, we aren't improving.

If we are going to talk about defense....I saw Alex Gordon make his fair share of errors when he came back. That better change next yr. Not to mention, he needs to hit instead of striking out. His poor performance overall is getting old.

Agreed on Gordon. I say give him one more year.

Shoppach makes too much. He will make the kind of money Olivo/Buck would command, IMO.

Agreed we need more than a rangy 2B. However, when your teams don't score runs and they aren't fast, you need defense. We have got to start somewhere and keeping one tool players like Callaspo around does no good.

Well, I really dont see Callaspo has a one tool player. I see Mike Jacobs as a one tool player...at that. At least Callaspo is fairly fast and has good baserunning skills.

A huge problem this year was getting on base and scoring runs.

When Greinke lost games of 1-0 or 2-1, that wasnt because of Callaspo's bad defense. It was because we couldnt score any runs. That being said, getting rid of someone that hit .300 and had a career year isnt the way to go. Thats what the DH is for. Good hitters that dont play all that well at defense. Thats why you dont see crappy Jacobs playing the field.

"Solution? Put him as a DH and Butler at 1st, where he was most of the season."

Posted by: NastyNateisGreat | November 09, 2009 at 01:33 PM

Let me get this straight. You've been to or watched 324 games in the last two years and you want to put a guy who hit all 11 of his career home runs last year as your DH? That's what you think is good production from a DH?

Maybe you should watch another 324 games before you comment again. Perhaps you'll learn something. Seriously, your credibility is severely crippled.

Pena's gonna be a good young catcher, give him a shot. The Royals should be looking to fill holes in the outfield first. You can count on Guillen being {injured} at least 80% of the season and we have no center fielder. That is the biggest need on the team. Oh yeah, either trade Soria or make him a starter. He is going to waste in the bullpen.