The Royals are having a tough season at the major league level, but their minor leaguers are playing extremely well. Today's news and developments are no exception to the year's trend:
- Jason Kendall will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, according to MLB.com's Dick Kaegel. The catcher's under contract with Kansas City for 2011, but he won't be back until early next season, since the recovery time is at least eight months.
- The Royals called on catcher Lucas May, according to a team press release. The Royals obtained May in July when they sent Scott Podsednik to Los Angeles. When the Royals acquired May, GM Dayton Moore called him a "slam dunk MLB catcher" in some capacity.
- The Royals named third baseman Mike Moustakas and left-hander John Lamb minor league hitter and pitcher of the year, respectively. Moustakas raked in the upper minors this year, hitting 34 homers, posting a 1.008 OPS and driving in over a run per game as a 21-year-old. Lamb wasn't too bad, either, posting a 2.33 ERA across three levels and striking out more than one batter per inning.
- Speaking of future Royals, one NL official guaranteed to Newsday's Ken Davidoff that Jeff Francoeur will play for Kansas City in 2011 (Twitter link). The Rangers technically control Francoeur's right's next year, but they'll likely non-tender him, so the Royals, who have appeared interested before, will likely have a shot at signing the outfielder.
I really don’t understand Moore’s hard on for Francoeur. It makes me sick thinking of him on the team next year when we have outfielders in the minors who will be far cheaper and just as good if not better than him (like Jordan Parraz and David Lough, who, despite disappointing years in AAA, could offensively be better than Francoeur now).
Why does Moore think May is so good? His stats at AAA are mediocre, and he is already 25 and almost 26? I really question the Royals organization and how they plan to win. There startng Yunieski Bentancourt and his sub-.300 OBP daily.
I don’t think May is a future star or anything, but I wouldn’t call is AAA numbers mediocre. .848 OPS with the Dodgers AAA team and .878 OPS with the Royals AAA is pretty good, especially for a catcher.
I see where you are coming from, but as a 25 year old catcher in AAA, an OPS in the mid 800s is nothing special, and though I could see May as being a really good backup or a below average starter, saying he is a “slam dunk” as Moore did is a vast overstatement.
25 isn’t old for AAA. Can’t dismiss his stats because of it.
Except that he’s a catcher, so no one really cares about his offensive numbers.
Exactly. Other than Mauer I wonder what the average OPS is for catchers.
Just looking over his positional play, it appears as if he just converted to a C three years ago. If that is the case, the extra time he would need for development would make his age about right I think. Makes me actually more impressed to be honest if he is ready to play in the majors (or it would be if it wasn’t GMDM that was making that decision).
We won’t know how good or bad he is in the majors until he plays in the majors. It’s not probable he will be the cornerstone catcher for years to come. That could be Wil Meyers, hopefully.
You can’t just say we won’t know how good he is in the majors until he plays there. A player doesn’t get better as he moves up in levels, especially someone in May’s case. It would be one thing if he was an imensly talented 1st round pick or any top prospect, but a 8th round pick not considered by anyone a top prospect is highly unlikely to be anything more than an average big league catcher, especially when he has not been able to crack the majors yet at age 25. Also, he was acquired for Scott Podsednik, which means he better not be great (then again the Dodgers did trade Carlos Santana for Casey Blake.)
No way is he near Santana’s talent level. But as far as hitting goes, an .800 or so OPS from a catcher is nothing to sneeze at, even if it was done in AAA. I’m not saying he’ll be good or anything, but someone hitting like that should at least get some kind of shot, what better time than in September with our “starting” catcher going down for the rest of the year…a starting catcher with a .615 OPS. Now May’s defense on the other hand, that could use some work from what I’ve heard.
The Santana comment was meant as a joke, just wanted to make fun of a Ned C trade. But what you’re saying is definately true. He has little chance of being a MLB star (or even an above average regular) but he is probably already better than Jason Kendall. I have no clue how that guy still has a job, he cannot hit for any power or throw out runners. I don’t know much about May, I just disagreed with Moore’s comment about him being a slam dunk. Hope you’re right about the Wil Meyers kid, as a baseball fan I root for teams like the Royals to find some cheap and affordable talent as I hate watching teams as pathetic as them (even though they’re in the same division as the White Sox).
I figured the Santana comment was a joke, but I’ve been seriously told that I said much more than I did, if that makes sense. Just never know what some people read, lol. We’re all hoping for Meyers, Hosmer, Moustakas, and all the arms in the minors. Thanks for the support. And what Moore said was insane, no way he’s a slam dunk, but this is coming from the guy who gave a Kendall a 2 year, $6 million contract.
Yea good luck down there with your Royals and the Chiefs. I know I would hate to be a sports fan in KC right now lol.
“I really question the Royals organization and how they plan to win.”
I think they plan to win because they have the #1 minor league system in Baseball.
Moose, Hosmer, Myers, Colon, D-Rob, Duffy, Giavotella, Yambati, Moreno, Lamb, Montgomery, Dwyer, Collins, Cuthbert, Ventura, Eibner, Chapman, Pimentel, Simmons, Santiago, Smith, and Espinal all make up this incredible minor league system.
Right, so why waste money by throwing it at Jeff “I’d swing at my own face if it wasn’t attached to my head” Francouer?
Maybe he’s trying to delay service time to try to keep whatever prospect core he sees as contributing to winning Royals teams together and cheap for as long as possible.
I don’t think even fairly optimistic guesses would say the Royals truly compete next year, so giving somebody like Francoeur–who should be cheap–a one or two year deal isn’t the end of the world. And because he’s likely to be cheap, if he really does stink it up or one of the prospects just dominates so much you have no choice but to promote him, you can always release him.
Creating a winning major-league team is the most important thing a GM does, but not the only one. Creating a winning organization going forward is important too. If next year was supposed to be their year then by all means, keep Francoeur as far away as possible. If not, meh, whatever.
But D Moore keeps signing players to block his minor league talent (see Mike Jacobs instead of Kila). They do have a great minor league system, but sometimes they just make the strangest moves. I guess I overstated the “how they plan to win” part but there are many questional moves made by their front office.
Well they got Mike Jacobs before Billy Butler became Butler so that isn’t
the best example, but see what you are saying.
The thing is, the system has never been as good as it is now, so the team is
obviously banking on 2012, 12, 14 when they will have pretty much a new
team, a team made up of prospects. So they obviously know whats coming…By
the way, I really think that Lamb, Monty, Duffy, Dwyer, and Teaford is the
best minor league rotation in Baseball. I think it beats Betances, Banuelos,
and Miller…Teheran and Delgado…and every other milb rotation. Plus,
every one of their farm teams is loaded with talent. Domican, Surprise,
Idaho Falls, B-Royals, BB, Wilmington, NW Arkansas, and Omaha. So obviously
the only team they have that has least amount of upside and talent is the
Kansas City Royals.
Dude…Kila is a joke. He may be a ‘fan favorite’ but he’s not going to do anything at the ML level. There’s a reason he’s been languishing in the minors – he’s a AAAA player on his best day. Look at his numbers since his call up. Yes…he’s done marginally better of late, but he stinks out loud. No one who has played for the Royals for the last 4 years has blocked any talent in the minors because there wasn’t any.
Look at it this way, like Yuniesky Betancourt and the departed Mike Jacobs, at least Francoeur won’t clog up the bases for Butler, Moustakas, et. al.
Good point. I just love Dusty Baker-style baseball.
Lucas May is not a catcher. If he was he would of been on the roster at some point this year.
He’s listed as a catcher… but Shortstops do not usually make the switch to catcher well. Never seen the kid, but from what I here he may be brutal behind the plate
god i am so excited for Moustakas.he has looked great in the minors this year.royals should bring him up and start him to give him an eaarly expierince in the big leauges in prep for his arrival next season as a starter.believe it or not royals fans have a lot to look foward to
If you are excited about Moose, you better be excited about the rest of the trifecta…Hosmer and Myers.
I realize this adds nothing substantive to the discussion, but – given the Royals’ track record for the last 20 years, I have unbounded confidence in their ability to screw up all three.
Nope. This time they won’t screw up.
No no no no no no no. Do not rush the kid. Those AA home/away splits still scare me to death. I know he’s been on a run lately in AAA but there is absolutely no need to rush him to the majors, even for a September call up.
This is infuriating.
Francoeur is a player who is neither needed nor wanted in Kansas City. Riddle me this: where does he play for us? DeJesus is, unless injured, going to play nearly every game in RF. Frenchy can not play CF, which is taken by Blanco/Maier anyway. Gordon is already penciled in as our LF. At best, Frenchy provides a righthanded “bat” to platoon with Alex Gordon in left field – but that’s nothing that Josh Fields couldn’t do better and cheaper.
I’d take Francoeur if he would accept $500,000 and a bench role, but he’d accept neither. Also, GMDM is simply not smart enough to refrain from offering him 2 years, $4 million, and a starting spot that’s his to lose. The Contest continues. Your move, Minaya.
Look, DM has to sign *somebody* to take ABs away from Blanco, who walks waaay too much to be an effective major leaguer. Get the bat off your shoulder, son!
Relax, all you Royals fans. Frenchy will only go to a team that will play him everyday.That means he won’t anywhere but Pittsburgh.
Dayton is not smart enough not to play Francoeur every day.
Royals fans suffer enough why bring in Jeff Francoeur? The Royals cannot take a walk as is and Frenchy would only eliminate the base on balls entirely from Kansas City. The Royals secret plan is eliminating walks from baseball? Moore has very interesting offensive plan
Do we really need another yunigma in the outfield? After all the good moves GMDM has made this summer it would really create alot of doubt in my mind if we brought in francoeur.
Kansas City – Where crappy Braves go to die.
You guys are sheep….where does it say KC will be signing Francouer? It doesn’t. It is one guys OPINION. So save me the dramatic. If KC signs him, then start bagging on DM.