Not only did the Royals beat the Yankees in Yankee Stadium last night, they did so behind Eric Hosmer's first MLB home run. Here's the latest on the Royals, with a focus on Hosmer…
- Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star argues that the Royals should attempt to sign Hosmer to a deal that guarantees him $25MM over six years and includes three club option years that could raise the value of the deal to $65MM over nine years.
- My take: agent Scott Boras would presumably decline the offer, instead of allowing Kansas City to lock Hosmer's free agent years up for below market value. Plus, Hosmer could easily earn more than $25MM for his first three arbitration years if he becomes the player we expect him to be. Ryan Howard, Joey Votto, Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols and Mark Teixeira all earned at least $27.9MM for their first three seasons of arbitration. Justin Morneau was inconsistent early in his career, but had still earned over $25MM through his first three arbitration years. Still, as Mellinger says, there’s no harm in asking.
- As Ken Rosenthal points out at FOX Sports, fellow Royals Alex Gordon and Jeff Francoeur experienced similar hype to Hosmer and they haven't lived up to it. But Gordon and Francoeur like what they see from the rookie and what happened to them won't necessarily happen to Hosmer. Rosenthal's entire piece is worth a read.
- Royals manager Ned Yost told Dick Kaegel of MLB.com that he wants to make sure prospects such as Danny Duffy and Mike Montgomery are "absolutely ready" before calling on them. At this point, Yost says "we're not quite there yet with these kids."
My take is that Mellinger has a severe man crush on Hosmer. The guy’s been in the league 5 days and already Mellinger has him set for life with the contract proposal. Next week he’ll start up a Hosmer for the HOF campaign! Every rookie can hit the fastball, otherwise they don’t reach the bigs. Lets see him play into August before we anoint him God’s gift to baseball.
bitter much??
The guy works for the KC star, they have lately been a terrible team, they are doing well and now have a very exciting young prospect on their team. No one’s annointing him anything, they are just discussing the future, which the first time in a long time looks bright for the royals.
Seriously chill out
Not bitter at all. I can understand a homer getting excited especially in KC, with their rich Baseball history. But really, couldn’t he wait a bit ?
it’s been a long time for royals fans, I don’t blame them one bit for being excited..
Not a knock on you, but you are probably too young to remember when the yankees we’re in a similar position
Yeah, I have this feeling he wasn’t around during the Stump Merrill years.
@L@Luncbox45:disqus uncbox45 as well. Thank you both for the compliment! I sound young don’t I? The most knowledgeable and articulate Yankees fan on this site is YFsince78. My logo could easily have been Yanks Fan since 62. That’s how far back I go, I’m betting you don’t go that far back. I have not only seen the Merrill years but suffered through the lean years in the 60’s. I know what it is to root for a terrible team year after year. I’m not always right, but you never see me gloat or disparage anyone or their team, because I never forget where I came from.
I’ve seen my share of instant phenoms in my day and that’s why I say lets go a little slow with Mellingers post. I grew up with the Yankees patron saint of homers, Phil Rizzuto, so I recognize silly hype when I see it. Hosmer looks like a player, but look at all the names the Mellinger throws him in with- after 5 days!
Just as an aside, Buster Posey was last year’s God, this year he’s back to the pack.
That all I’m saying
regardless, faulting a fan base and reporters for getting excited about an upcoming topprospect seems a bit much.. we all love the game of baseball, you should be excited that you get to see someone come up and begin their career and have the mass attention..
Is the contract extension a bit much? perhaps.. but many people said that about the rays in reference to Longoria.
Once Montgomery can get his walks down, he’ll be ready for the MLB. Duffy, on the otherhand, looks ready right now.
Is Duffy a top of the rotation kind of guy?
Absolutely
I agree with slopeboy