The Royals defeated the Orioles this afternoon to earn their fifth victory in their last six games. The big headline of the day for Kansas City, however, has to do with a certain minor league call-up…
- The Royals announced that Eric Hosmer has been called up to the big leagues to replace Kila Ka'aihue at first base. Hosmer was the third overall pick of the 2008 amateur draft and was rated by Baseball America as the eighth-best prospect in the game before this season. He has a career .886 OPS in the minors, and had a superb .439/.525/.582 line in 118 plate appearances for Triple-A Omaha this season.
- MLB.com's Dick Kaegel says the club wanted Hosmer to have around 250 Triple-A at-bats before coming to the majors, but it's interesting that K.C. pulled the trigger now and not next month. The early call-up means that Hosmer is likely to pick up enough service time to become a Super Two player, meaning he'll earn an extra year of salary arbitration. This, of course, depends on if the Super Two rules aren't changed in the next collective bargaining agreement.
- Noel Arguelles is pitching well in his first month of pro baseball, writes Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star.
- You can follow all the latest Kansas City news on MLBTR's Royals-centric Facebook page, RSS and Twitter feeds.
I know he is going to get super two, but the Royals are over 500 right now in a mind boggling weak division. They haven’t had a winning season since 2003 and are probably saying “To Hell with it, lets go for it”
Have to love the decision. It would be great to see them contend most of the year. If Hosmer comes up and mashes and they stay in contention, you have to think it will do great things for their fan base to start seeing this farm system produce.
I just love the fact that the Indians and Royals are competing for the division while the so called “annual 3-way race” teams sit at the bottom
its refreshing.. now only if that happened in the AL east !
The Tigers seem to be pulling it together, but I honestly think the twins and sox have dug themselves too deep
That 11 games will be near impossible to make up for the Sox. Unless they have another 25-5 run in them (which they don’t), this is going to be one of the worst years in White Sox history (at least vs. expectations). While they could end up near .500, just like last year, the games early in the year have the same value as ones late in the year.
Good move.
The Blue Wave is officially in stage 2. Stage 1 are the 5 rookie relievers. Other stage 2 players to come are Moose, Cain, Monty, Duffy. It’s all coming together for a nice 5-7 year run
I think all four of those guys will be in Blue this year, but in reverse order. Duffy will be up by June 1 and Montgomery around the All-Star break. With Moustakas, he’s got some polishing to do still — too homer happy — so look for a possible trade deadline call-up as the Royals move somebody (maybe Betemit) for 1. prospects, if not still in the race or 2.) a quality hole-filler, if they are.
Great news, but too bad Kila couldn’t get it together.
And my fantasy team rejoices!
Cool story, bro
I absolutely love the aggressiveness of the Royals, forget the finances and politics for a bit and put the best possible team on the field. I love it
Great move bringing up Hosmer regardless of the Super 2. I understand why teams delay call ups but if a guy can help a team then just do it.
This is still a team that starts Failceour in RF and Melky in CF. Let’s not get too excited… They still have about 86 more losses ahead of them this season.
Not with the way the central is set up so far. Franceour is only in the top ten in most hitting categories in the AL. Melky has been clutch, so it is not like you have any idea what is going on.
If Franceour is outside of the bottom ten in all hitting categories at the end of the season I will eat my hat. Same goes for Melky. The Royals are riding a hot streak. Their true talent is at between 90-100 losses.
Billy Butler and maybe Alex Gordon are the whole offense while Bruce friggin Chen is the ace? Yeah, that’s a winner. Enjoy the ride while it lasts, but try to keep the blinders off, homer.
Yes the SP is weak but the Royals win loss record right now is not smoke and mirrors. The run differential is solid and the offense has produced. Hate on Francouer all you want but the man is possessed right now. Add in Hosmer and the Royals WILL be a top 5 offensive team in the AL at the end of the year. Don’t be a hater, bro.
Considering it’s only what 32 games into the season. I would say literally everything in baseball with exception to halladay is smoke and mirrors
”
If Franceour is outside of the bottom ten in all hitting categories at the end of the season I will eat my hat.”
you might have to eat your hat. ZiPS has Francoeur finishing the season with a .281/.324/.475 line, which is close to league average for a right fielder :)
If you are familiar with ZIPS then you should be familiar with wRC.
70
91
84
Those are his wRC scores for the past three seasons. That’s comparable to what you would expect out of a catcher or shortstop, not a right fielder.
.294
.309
.300
Those are his OBP for the prior three seasons.
Now do you think a wRC of 161 coupled with an OBP of .346 is the outlier or what you think you can expect going forward? Frenchy has one hot streak every year where people say to themselves ‘This could be it! He’s finally breaking out!’. Then opposing pitchers go back to throwing him breaking balls in the dirt and he gets himself out over and over and over again. Enjoy the ride. Just be realistic enough to know it’s not going to last.
Not that this means a whole lot, but I actually saw Frenchy lay off a breaking ball in the dirt with 2 strikes this year!
I’d never seen it before, it was genuinely shocking.
I don’t care what he does going forward. I’m not a Royals fan (I’m an Orioles fan) and I don’t particularly like Francoeur as a player. I’m just saying, with the hot start he had, at the end of the season his numbers will probably look respectable, even factoring in a regression back to his normal numbers.
“If Franceour is outside of the bottom ten in all hitting categories at the end of the season” … ? When during his major league career has Francouer been in the Bottom 10? He may have not performed close to expecations, but his career numbers are hardly pitiful. Admit it, you just hate Francouer and are not amenable to proper perspective.
“When during his major league career has Francouer been in the Bottom 10?”
every year for the past 3 years
If he keeps this up for another 5 games or so, maybe Sports Illustrated
will write a big article about how great he is and drop him on the
front cover of next week’s issue…and then he’ll do what Jeff Francoeur
always does, and not hit the rest of the season.
Two categories that Francoeur isn’t (and won’t be) top 10 in…hits and walks. He hasn’t posted a SLG% of better than .450 since his rookie season, so don’t expect this to last.
Ahh, the enchanting naivete of SSS…
-C
Orioles need to trade for Kila. They only have Snyder in the pipeline and Lee looks like he is pretty much done. Apparently 283 ABs is the line for the Royals and Kila.
First of all, Snyder isn’t even our best 1B prospect – Mahoney is. Second, Lee is a good defender at 1B, and has already prevented numerous errors with his ability to pick bad throws. Third, the O’s are 2-8 against left-handed starters (and therefore 12-8 against right-handed starters), posting an OPS of nearly .100 points lower against them. Bringing in Kila to replace a guy who has, if nothing else, been hitting the LHP (.303/.414/.424 against them) wouldn’t help. Fourth, isn’t this idea based on the fact that 283 AB is too small to judge a player’s true ability? Why are you using Lee’s 116 AB this season to judge him all of a sudden? And unlike Kila, Lee has shown in the past that he’s capable of being an excellent major league ballplayer.
I’m pulling for the Royals and the Indians this year. I’m a big Braves fan, but you got to love it when teams besides New York,Boston, or Philly are winning. It is good for baseball.
Love to see them deal for someone like Kelly Johnson. This would be pretty nice come July:
2B Johnson
SS Aviles
1B Hosmer
DH Butler
3B Moustakas
LF Gordon
CF Cabrera
RF Francoeur
C Pena/Kendall
Replace O’Sullivan, Davies, and Francis or Chen with Montgomery, Duffy, and a veteran starter via trade and you have a team that could certianly compete for the Central title.
Ok so the bottom of the lineup is brutal. Put Lorenzo Cain in CF and see if Clint Robinson can handle an OF corner.
Escobar may be the best defensive SS in the AL. He is going nowhere. Cain in center would be a nice upgrade though.
What do you really get with Johnson at 2B that is any upgrade over Aviles, other than some power? And why or why would anybody want to see Aviles return to SS, especially with Escobar putting on a Gold Glove performance. If the Royals’ SP is weak, putting a pair of statues on the middle infield is hardly a solution. I’d take Aviles at 2B in order to keep his bat and Betemit’s in the line-up, but giving up D in both spots is ludicrous.
Moustakas has to get his stroke back before coming up. He’s too homer happy right now. And what’s your gripe with Chen and O’Sullivan? They are pitching effectively right now.
Eric Hosmer ERA may begin.