Kansas City Kansan: Sloan: It’s time to trade Greinke, Soria

Wyandotte the land with unread newspapers...when you can have Nick Sloan!

The Royals’ two most popular and talented players, the trades would leave many fans disappointed.

However, it could also leave the Royals’ cupboard stacked with young talent and within five years, the Royals could be a prime-time contending team.

ESPN recently ranked the Royals farm system. It ranked ninth, the highest in years.

Consider trading Greinke.

Greinke has one of the friendliest contracts in baseball and any team – not just the Yankees, Red Sox or Mets – could afford him. A team like Tampa Bay, Texas or Anaheim, who might be just one piece away from a title, might not hesitate to dish out four or even five solid prospects.

Soria, a top notch closer, could generate two to even three prospects.

While the six to eight prospects all wouldn’t turn out, odds are that half of them would. And joining the highly ranked class already, the Royals could have the premier minor league system in baseball by making these two moves.

The Daily Something: Your 1985 AL MVP

No, it’s not a look into the Damaso Garcia vote...it’s the Mattingly-Brett angle.

Got into a discussion the other day about this award. There was some pretty strenuous arguing over whether the winner should’ve been Don Mattingly (who actually won it in a landslide, with 23 first-place votes) or George Brett (who got the other five).

It’s a pretty interesting discussion on a lot of levels. Both played corner infield positions (though Brett played the more challenging and more valuable one) and were given Gold Gloves.

I say it’s interesting mostly because of how our perceptions have changed. It’s easy to see why Mattingly would have won in 1985. He led the league in doubles and RBI, way ahead of Brett and 21 ahead of second place Eddie Murray. The only category Brett led the league in that actually existed back then was slugging percentage, and I doubt anybody even looked at that. The Royals did go on to win the Series while the Yanks missed the playoffs, but the Yanks still won 97 games, thanks in large part to Donnie Baseball.

But you can guess where I’d come out as between these two guys. The advanced metrics* show Brett as a much, much better hitter. Driven mostly by the OBP advantage (Brett walked a career-high 103 times in ‘85, almost twice Mattingly’s total, though 30 of Brett’s were intentional), Brett blows Mattingly out of the water across the board in all but the 2B, HR, R and RBI categories. Throw in that Total Zone wasn’t as impressed with Mattingly’s fielding this year as most observers were, and the positional adjustment for Mattingly’s playing the easiest position on the diamond, and the Wins Above Replacement is a rout too: Brett 8.0, Donnie 6.4.

Keith Law: Top 100 prospects

NO.  PLAYER
1 Jason Heyward, OF, ATL
2 Stephen Strasburg, RHP, WAS
3 Carlos Santana, C, CLE
4 Buster Posey, C, SFO
5 Mike Stanton, OF, FLA
6 Desmond Jennings, OF, TAM
7 Martin Perez, LHP, TEX
8 Dustin Ackley, CF, SEA
9 Justin Smoak, 1B, TEX
10 Jesus Montero, C, NYY
11 Brian Matusz, LHP, BAL
12 Starlin Castro, SS, CHC
13 Neftali Feliz, RHP, TEX
14 Domonic Brown, RF, PHI
15 Wade Davis, RHP, TAM
16 Aroldis Chapman, LHP, CIN
17 Jeremy Hellickson, RHP, TAM
18 Casey Kelly, RHP, BOS
19 Aaron Hicks, RHP, MIN
20 Brett Wallace, 1B, TOR
21 Logan Morrison, 1B, FLA
22 Tyler Matzek, LHP, COL
23 Jenrry Mejia, RHP, NYM
24 Michael Taylor, OF, OAK
25 Zach Britton, LHP, BAL

Scouting reports for the top 25 should be free, I think.

“Igor” Gonzalez asked to be reinstated to play Double A

Former major leaguer Juan “Igor” Gonzalez asked the Baseball Federation of Puerto Rico be reinstated to play in the upcoming season of Double A ball

Tras cuatro años en el retiro profesional, González viene de jugar en el torneo Clase A. After four years in retirement career, Gonzalez has played in the tournament Class A.

El anuncio fue hecho durante la convención de la Federación, en la que se discutió el tema de los profesionales y reinstalados en el torneo. The announcement was made during the convention of the Federation, which discussed the issue of professionals and reinstated in the tournament.

Joe Posnanski Blog: The Six Stages of Kansas City Royals Grief

and very severe cognitive decline is just around the bend.

To be honest: I don’t know what to think about any of it. It’s not impossible that Ankiel, playing in a comfortable atmosphere in Kansas City, will have a good year. Hey, Emil Brown did. It’s also not impossible that he will be Mike Jacobs. I obviously have my own prediction (.240-.250 average, few walks, average defense the Royals will rave about, 15-20 homers if he gets enough at-bats).

But what makes the whole thing so baffling is that I have absolutely no idea what this is supposed to accomplish. It is just so disconcerting that three and a half years after Dayton Moore was hired in Kansas City, their minor league system is so bereft of Major League ready talent, they are going around the league and signing 30-somethings that nobody else wants. It is troubling that the Royals apparently plan in 2010 is to make fans hope that a bunch of older players will recapture their past glory — or at least their past moderate success.

It is troubling that Dayton Moore’s entirely sensible plan for success — find young players, develop them, bring them to the big leagues — seems to be spinning in the mud. If you are going to be that kind of organization, you actually have to BE that kind of organization. I don’t know if Jason Kendall, Scott Podsednik, Jose Guillen, Rick Ankiel, Yuniesky Betancourt, Kyle Farnsworth, Juan Cruz and so on are are blocking any promising younger players from the big leagues.

But I guess that’s the point: If they ARE blocking younger talents, then the Royals are doing a lousy job of developing players.

And if they ARE NOT blocking younger talents, then the Royals are doing a lousy job of developing players.

So maybe it’s really not confusing at all.

Job Posting: Kansas City Royals Mascot

RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Responsible for performing at two hundred (200) appearances throughout the fiscal year (November 1- October 31)
• Work with Sr. Director to ensure that the Alternate Mascot is correctly and thoroughly trained in a manner consistent with the character and has been given the tools with which to perform to their fullest extent
• Participate in league initiatives (i.e. All-Star) or any other appearances as deemed necessary by the Sr. Director.
• Perform as Sluggerrr at all Royals home games (81)
• Work with Sr. Director to create, develop and implement mascot skits performed at Royals games
• Work with Mascot Appearance Coordinator to ensure that all props, signs etc. are kept up in a manner suitable for showing at games and appearances
• Maintain office hours as scheduled by Sr. Director. Use office hours to work on developing the character’s craft (props, shooting drills, skits/video features etc.)
• Attend weekly EPP staff meetings and any other meeting as requested by Mascot Appearance Coordinator &/or Sr. Director
• Assist in any additional duties assigned by the Mascot Appearance Coordinator &/or Sr. Director

REQUIREMENTS:
• Must be at least 18 years old
• Must be at least a high school graduate (college degree preferred)
• Must have at least two years experience as a mascot at the college or professional level
• Must be a creative performer
• Must possess a basic knowledge of Major League Baseball
• Ability to support & grow the Mascot Character/Program
• Must be 6’-6’4” tall in order to fit costume properly
• Must provide a DVD or link to view a video highlight & photo while performing

You too can be there rooting on Rick Ankiel and Scott Podsednik while wearing a Lion costume!

Report: Royals sign Ankiel for $3.25 million

The Royals agreed to a contract with another outfielder, this time with Rick Ankiel for one year and $3.25 million, according to a report by Yahoo Sports late Thursday night. The contract includes a mutual option for 2011 worth $6 million.

Ankiel came up as a pitcher, debuting for the Cardinals a month after his 20th birthday in 1999. He was 11-7 with a 3.50 ERA in 2000, but came undone in the playoffs that year — he threw five wild pitches with two hits, four walks and four runs during the third inning of his first start.

EV Tribune: Mesa unveils plan to keep Cubs; vote Monday

Mesa’s plan was developed after months of talks with the team to prevent the Cactus League’s most popular team from accepting a bid from investors near Naples, Fla.

The $84 million plan was drafted on requests that the Cubs had to develop a Wrigleyville-themed complex, Mesa City Manager Chris Brady said. The city would own the stadium and training facilities. Mesa maintains the current training facilities, but Brady said the team wanted to take that expense and gain advertising rights at the new complex.

Mellinger: Billy Butler, The List, and the follow-up season

The List of Sam Mellinger.

So, you remember The List, right?

It’s the one that came to define Billy Butler’s breakout season, the one taken up by Hall of Famers and future Hall of Famers, fewer than 10 in more than 100 years of professional baseball. It’s the one everybody came to talk about, the one that made Butler sound like a little kid who’s sick of hearing about his homework.

“Yes,” he’d say. “I know about The List.”

At first, the list in question was the men who hit 50 or more doubles in a season at 23 or younger*. There were only seven who did it before Butler: Hank Greenberg, Enos Slaughter, Stan Musial, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Grady Sizemore and Miguel Cabrera.

...But then Butler kept hitting home runs, too, six during a 17-game stretch in September so The New List became the five men who hit 50 or more doubles AND 20 or more homers in a season at 23 or younger. That knocked Slaughter and Musial off, leaving just Greenberg, A-Rod, Pujols, Sizemore, Cabrera, and Butler.

Butler is a bit of a baseball historian. You can have real conversations with the guy about some of the great players of past generations*. He studies it, he knows it, and to his credit any talk about The List was usually met with an uncomfortable shuffle and a stern answer.

“Just because I’m on that list,” he’d say, “by no means do I think I’m as good as those guys.”

Chass: WEINER WHACKS MARLINS; PIRATES NEXT?

Kudos to Murray’s headline writer.

No other Florida-like agreements have been reached and none apparently will be sought until after April 1, the deadline for revenue-sharing recipients to report on their use of the 2009 money. But the Pirates, the Rays, the Padres and the Royals remain in the union’s sights, according to union and management representatives.

Weiner, who succeeded Donald Fehr last month as the union’s executive director, declined to discuss the matter Saturday, saying he had said all he wanted to say in a statement the union issued last week.

Rob Manfred, the chief management labor executive, declined to confirm the identity of teams that have been discussed with the union but said, “We’ve had more conversations than just about the Marlins. It’s not a Marlins-only issue.”

FanFest time of optimism for Royals, fans - KansasCity.com

Winter time for Royals fans is the happiest time of the year.

Alex Gordon says no more talk about his hip. Just baseball. Brian Bannister says he feels 100 percent and ready to become the reliable big-league starter so many look for. Mike Aviles smiles as he offers a strong handshake and says he’ll be ready to play by April.

David DeJesus says sure, the Royals haven’t added the bigger names of offseasons past, but, hey, they’ve got more depth than ever this year.

These words came at the team’s FanFest this weekend, as thousands of people wearing Royals gear packed a couple of ballrooms at the Overland Park Convention Center. The words lay out an optimism that belies a team coming off a 97-loss season.

Edit: Link fixed. Jim

Yost hired by Royals

If the strategic plan is to fail AND cause any remaining Royals fans to set themselves on fire this is a key piece in helping make that happen.

Former Brewers manager Ned Yost is back in the game.

Yost was hired by the Kansas City Royals to be a special assistant in their baseball operations department. According to the team release, he will serve more on the player development said than be in uniform with the big-league club.

Rany on the Royals: Problems and (Potential) Solutions in Center Field

Ramblin’ Rany wonders if Scott Podsednik is the most pick-offable player of modern times, among many other things. I just picked off this bit based on this B-R breakdown.

Last season, Podsednik was caught stealing 13 times. He was also picked off 11 more times. That seems like an incredibly high total for me – although we have no point of reference, as I don’t know of any way to bring up the league leaders in this category – but it’s just the third-highest season total of his career. Podsednik was picked off 12 times in 2006, and 14 times in 2005. For his career, he’s been picked off 53 times.

Now, if a player is picked off while trying to get back to the bag, no caught stealing is recorded. But if a player, knowing he’s dead meat, lights out for second base instead and gets thrown out – this is recorded as a caught stealing. Yes, it’s a dumb distinction. In theory, a player who is working on a long consecutive stolen-base streak would have that streak preserved if he dives back into first, but if he heads the other way and gets thrown out, that streak is over. It offers the perverse incentive for a player to not head for second and hope the opposition screws up the rundown, even though it may be his only shot at staying alive.

Anyway, of Podsednik’s 53 pickoffs, 17 were “pickoff caught stealings”, leaving 36 additional pickoffs – nine of those came last year. Add those 36 pickoffs to his 87 official caught stealings, and he’s actually made an out 123 times on the basepaths before the ball has even been put in play. If you count his pickoffs, his career 75.3% success rate on the bases drops to 68.4%; his 69.8% mark last season drops to 57.7%. That’s almost Buddy Bell territory.

Royals Review: Will the Scouting Gurus Please Show Up?

“Holding the Podsednik”? Wasn’t that an early Claudine Beccarie loop film?

But what utterly saddens me is this: why does it have to be this way? Why does Dayton make so many moves that look like they were dreamed up by a talk radio caller or (gasp) a blogger who isn’t even trying hard? We’ve supposedly got a great scouting mind running this team… and the solution he comes up with is Scott Podsednik?

Are we sure we didn’t hire Murray Chass or some other good “baseball man” who checked out of actually paying attention or following the game in detail decades ago?

At first I thought Dayton Moore was just a bad GM, now I’m worried if he’s even trying.

Because when it comes to stopgap options who aren’t very good, you don’t have to pick a formerly famous person who was born in the 1970s. There aren’t rules about these things.

Dayton Moore has J.J. Picollo on staff. He’s supposed to be another great scouting mind. Dayton Moore has Mike Arbuckle on staff, he’s also supposedly a great scout. Supposedly, we’ve got everything in place to build the kind of low-cost roster that can win here. Supposedly, nobody knows more about 15-19 year old baseball players than these guys. Supposedly, they can spot tools from space. Supposedly, they were all great great hires.

And we’re left holding the Podsednik.

Joe Posnanski Blog: The Royal Decade

I haven’t seen anything this wide and expansive since Splittorff started wearing those anti-floater crack glasses.

The following is a 9000-plus word opus on the Royals Decade. I don’t know why I did it, and I don’t know why I’m publishing it. Some things are probably better left alone. And so I would say to you, if for whatever reason you plan to start reading this, to remember: This is a 9000-plus word opus on the Kansas City Royals. There is no false advertising involved. And you will have only yourself to blame.

...Trouble is: That year was an illusion in so many ways. It was Kansas City’s first Indian Summer of the decade. For one thing, even with all the records, the Royals in retrospect were not an especially good offensive team that year. They finished fifth in the league in runs scored — and were closer to eighth place than fourth. That, you will recall, was a crazy offensive season, plus Kauffman Stadium at the time was a ridiculous bandbox (they would push the fences back in a couple of years). The Royals pulled off a rather remarkable feat in 2000, something I did not realize in the time:

They led the league in hitting but had a below league-average on-base percentage.

I bolded and italicized that little factoid because it had not happened in the league since 1961*, and in many ways I think that sentence perfectly reflects the Kansas City Royals of the 2000s. They were always aiming for the wrong thing. The 2000s decade in baseball may be remembered for our emerging sense of performance enhancing drugs and also for the statistical revolution that, in many ways, changed the way the game was observed, scouted and played. The Royals throughout the decade always would seem one step behind the times. And so, it’s appropriate that the Royals entered their decade of doom leading the league in a category that SEEMED important — batting average — but eighth in the catgory that WAS important, on-base percentage.They had those young hitting stars, but they were last in the league in walks, fifth in runs scored, 13th in homers and eighth in on-base percentage.

*Who do you think led the American League in batting average in 1961? The Mantle-Maris Yankees, right? No. The Norm Cash Tigers? No. The Roy Sievers-Nellie Fox White Sox? No. It was the 1961 Cleveland Indians, led by Jimmy Piersall’s .322. I had no idea.

Posnanski: Depressing Royals story of the Day

I just thought this tidbit was too funny/amazing to not share:

Here’s the thing: Last year, there were seven players in baseball who qualified for the batting title with OPS+ of 80 or less. You got that number in mind? Seven.

– Two of those players — Yuniesky Betancourt and Jason Kendall — have been locked up by the Royals.

– Jose Guillen had an OPS+ of 80, but did not get enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title — he and his $13 million contract will be in the everyday lineup as either a DH or (gasp) a right fielder.

– Chris Getz, who had an OPS+ of 74 in 415 plate appearances (not enough to qualify) was acquired by the Royals and figures to be in the everyday lineup at second base.

– And now, Brian N. Anderson, with his career 69 OPS+ is the leading candidate to be the Opening Day centerfielder.

If you click through, make sure to check out Joe’s article on NeL Strat-o-matic, which was linked earlier by Repoz.

Royals Review: How Dayton Moore Can Have a Comeback Year

Uhh...check the gnarly family tree to see if you’re related to Scotty, flip through the Buffoonyourself! catalog for a complete head/toe size 38 leather ensemble...and you’re set!

Strengthen Your Standing in the Community: I use “community” broadly here: the baseball community, the Kansas City community, your relationships inside the organization. If this Dayton Moore thing is going to work at all, then ownership has to remain committed to being the Yankees of the amateur spending market. And much of that goes back to reputation and belief. To this point, against a lot of evidence to the contrary, they’ve believed in Dayton Moore. Will that last forever? To be blunt, 2009 sucked: the Royals sucked and the leadership team repeatedly came across as petty, vindictive, & paranoid. The local and national baseball media began to be much more critical of the Royals and a lot of the benefit of the doubt and goodwill Moore earned withered away. The Royals are in the entertainment business, and if the team continues to behave in the way it has over the last year, things are going to get a lot worse. At a certain point, the perception amongst the fans and the media gets so negative that the environment becomes too toxic to continue. I’m not saying Dayton Moore needs to hire Nate Silver. I’m not saying that Rany should throw out the first pitch on Opening Day. Let’s start small and admit just one mistake. One. Let’s work on restoring normal relations with the local media. Stop lecturing everyone. Stop saying dumb things. Basically, disappear for months at a time, and when you emerge, be engaging and humble rather than holier than thou. Dayton Moore needs Joe Posnanski back on his side. Ownership does not want to be a national joke, which is why they hired Moore. It’s somewhat amazing that Moore himself seems to have lost sight of this. At present, a huge percentage of whatever success the Royals have had drafting lies at the credit of ownership, who has spent money. If they lose faith in Moore’s ability to execute and roll back the budget, the goose is cooked.

EV Tribune: Mesa puts Cubs batting cages on hold

Mesa is refusing to upgrade a ballpark used by the Chicago Cubs unless the team enters more serious negotiations to keep spring training here.

The city was about to sign off on roughly $684,000 for semi-enclosed batting cages but on Thursday decided to hold off until top Mesa officials meet the Cubs in Chicago on Friday.

The city had expected the Cubs would welcome improvements that the team requested, Mayor Scott Smith said. But he noted that when a Chicago sports columnist asked Cubs manager (sic - he’s team president) Crane Kenney about the batting cages, no comment was given.

“The silence that came out of Chicago and the Cubs was deafening,” Smith said.

Cardboard Gods: Wilker: Darrell Porter

Flip Your Mask…

Speaking of being drunk, I drank too much this past Friday night and wasted the whole next day as a groaning invalid. You’d think I’d know better by this point, now that I’ve put in 28 years of recreational inebriation since I acquired my first hangover when I was fifteen by getting drunk with a couple buddies on rum and coke, in a dark little league dugout a few feet away from where I’d had my brief moment as a bespectacled catcher. But Friday I got a chance to see a punk legend, Grant Hart, perform at a place right around the corner from my house, and it was fun to be blasted by the great loud heartbreaking melodies and the whiskey. Drinking, loud music: it’s a little like being a little league catcher to me. For a while, you’re wrapped in armor, surveying your kingdom, able to withstand anything.

During the winter of 1979, as I was waiting to play my final season of little league (and as a teenaged Grant Hart was beginning to play with Bob Mould and Greg Norton as Husker Du), Darrell Porter’s means of feeling invulnerable off the field was showing its grim limitations. Porter, who by then had established himself as one of the best catchers in the game, became paranoid due to increasingly heavy use of cocaine, and he began sitting by his front window with a shotgun, waiting for the arrival of the commissioner of baseball, Bowie Kuhn, whom Porter was convinced would arrive at any minute and ban him from baseball.

MLB: Rangers considering Buck at backstop

You can add John Buck, now a free agent, to the list of catchers the Rangers are considering this offseason.

Buck became a free agent on Saturday night, when the Royals elected not to tender him a contract for 2010. The Rangers were monitoring both Buck and Dioner Navarro, the former All-Star catcher for the Rays, who will remain in Tampa Bay after agreeing to a one-year contract in the final hours before the on-tender deadline.

Buck was the Royals’ No. 1 catcher for 4 1/2 years before losing his job to Miguel Olivo last season. Both Buck and Olivo are now free agents, as the Royals have signed Jason Kendall to a two-year contract to be their regular catcher.

“Usually, when the non-tender list comes out, there are some catchers, some bullpen options and guys who might be utility infielders,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. “We’ll go over the list and see who we might be interested in.”

Thanks to EddieO.

Joe Posnanski Blog: Royals Projected Lineup By OPS+

Bzzzz! I haven’t seen so much sub-100...since Heyward got the band back together!

Leading off and playing left field: 106 (David DeJesus).
Batting second and playing second: 74 (Chris Getz … I just have a bad feeling about them hitting him second).
Batting third and playing first base: 124 (Billy Butler).
Hitting cleanup and DHing: 80 (Jose Guillen … he could be in RF too).
Batting fifth and playing third: 86 (Alex Gordon … you hope he will improve on this).
Batting sixth and playing center field: 76 (Willie Bloomquist … the Royals don’t have an actual center fielder at the moment. You could put Mitch Maier’s 78 here. I suspect the Royals will get someone).
Batting seventh and catching: 72 (Jason Kendall).
Batting eighth and playing DH/OF: 68 Josh Fields (I’m cheating a little bit here here … this could be Alberto Callaspo’s 114. But I’m pretty certain Callaspo will not be with the Royals in 2010 … and Fields will get at-bats).
Batting ninth and playing shortstop: 68 (Yuniesky Betancourt).

Looking like another pennant in the American City of Avenues and Fountains.

MLB.com: Non-tendered catchers to be eyed

The Rangers are keeping a close watch on catchers who might not be tendered a contract by the Saturday deadline.
...
Two catchers who might attract the Rangers attention are Dioner Navarro of the Rays and John Buck of the Royals. The Rangers are looking for catching depth because of the uncertainty surrounding catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

There are catchers on the free-agent market, but the top ones have been getting two-year contracts. Jason Kendall agreed to a two-year deal with the Royals on Friday while Ivan Rodriguez did so earlier this week with the Nationals and Brian Schneider did so earlier this month with the Phillies.

The Rangers have interest in Rod Barajas, who was their starting catcher in 2004-06. But he is also looking for a two-year deal.

“I don’t think you’ll see us go there,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said.

Annual Non-tender Day thread coming up later, once it’s become Saturday on the east coast.

KC Star: Royals sign Kendall to two-year deal

UPDATED: (instead of 2yr/$4m originally reported, may now be 2yr/$6m)

Kendall, 35, reached agreement Friday with the Royals on a two-year contract believed to be valued around $6 million—or similar to the deal that Ivan Rodriguez signed earlier in the week with Washington.

The Royals expect Kendall, a 14-year veteran, to provide a significant defensive upgrade over the tandem of Miguel Olivo and John Buck while contributing some much-desired savvy to a youthful collection of pitchers and catchers.
...
The move virtually ensures the Royals will allow Buck to become a free agent by not offering him a contract before the deadline at 11 p.m. Saturday. He made $2.9 million last season when he batted .247 with eight homers and 36 RBIs in 59 games as Olivo’s backup.

Offering a contract to Buck would lock in his right to arbitration and likely boost his salary to $3.5 million or more.
...
Kendall welcomes the opportunity to serve as mentor.

“You owe that to the game,” he said. “You try to give back. It took me six or seven years to figure out how to call a game—how you watch hitters’ feet; how to watch hitters’ hands. It took me a while to figure that stuff out.”

MLB: Royals release Mike Jacobs

Or to quote Dacron Moore from last year..."It’s safe to say that Mike Jacobs’ bat will be in the lineup every day.”

The Royals got the last day of the Winter Meetings off to a fast start, releasing designated hitter Mike Jacobs and lefty relief pitcher John Bale early Thursday morning.

Jacobs, obtained from the Marlins in a trade for reliever Leo Nunez, hit 19 home runs with 61 RBIs and a .228 average after a .247/32/93 line in 2008 in the National League.

Jacobs got off to a good start in his first 36 games, batting .270 with nine homers and 23 RBIs, but fell off rapidly. He began the season as the starting first baseman but quickly lost that job to Billy Butler and went into a designated hitter role.

Passan:  Cuban Arguelles agrees to deal with Royals

Noel Arguelles, a 19-year-old left-hander who last year defected from Cuba, agreed to a five-year, $7 million major league deal with the Royals on Saturday, according to a club source. Arguelles can earn up to $2 million in incentives as well. An official from another team interested in Arguelles said he had been informed a deal was close.

Along with shortstop Jose Iglesias, Arguelles left the Cuban junior national team while in Canada last year. Iglesias signed a four-year, $8.2 million deal with Boston and impressed scouts in the Arizona Fall League. Meanwhile, the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Arguelles got into pitching shape, worked out in front of more than 100 people in the Dominican and had at least a half-dozen teams interested in signing him.

If he “got into pitching shape”, then how did his fastball get slower than it was in Cuba?

Arguelles’ talent is unquestioned. While his fastball during workouts wasn’t at the 94 mph it reached during his national team days, his changeup remains a potential out pitch and his curveball projects above average as well. Control is Arguelles’ biggest pitfall.

Rany on the Royals: Kevin Appier: A Retrospective.

I can not, in good faith, make a case that he deserves enshrinement in the Hall of Fame. But I hope that at least one of the several readers of this blog who have a Hall of Fame vote will check the box next to his name anyway. The nature of Hall of Fame voting is inherently broken, as Bill James brilliantly laid out in his opus “The Politics of Glory” (later published under the name “Whatever Happened To The Hall of Fame?”)

The binary, up-or-down nature of Hall of Fame voting allows no room for nuance, and provides no mechanism for voters to distinguish between shades of Hall of Famers. This leads to a situation whereby a player who everyone agrees is just shy of being Hall-worthy gets no votes, whereas a player that has the support of a vocal minority of voters stays on the ballot year after year. This is how Lou Whitaker gets tossed off the ballot after one year, while Jack Morris sticks around year after year, gaining enough momentum each season to make his election a worrisome possibility.

...Appier might not get a single vote when the results are released next month, or he might receive enough votes to stay on the ballot another year. Neither result will have any impact on his place in my experience as a baseball fan. Kevin Appier was the shining beacon of light in my journey from hard-core baseball fan to insanely obsessive baseball fan to burgeoning baseball writer in the 1990s. He was a reason for me to turn on the TV or the radio or follow the play-by-play on the proto-web every fifth day. He was the inner wall of defense against the rising tide of despair that lapped at the shores of the Royals throughout the 1990s, and it’s no coincidence that the bottom fell out on the organization soon after he got hurt.

I can’t imagine my history as a Royals fan without the eight years I spent watching and rooting for Kevin Appier. No matter whether the Hall of Fame chooses to give him some small measure of remembrance next month, he’ll be remembered by the fans that had the pleasure to watch him pitch for a long time to come.

Thanks to The Mingori Details.

KC Star: Podsednik draws a look

Free-agent outfielder Scott Podsednik is the latest name to surface in connection with the Royals. Club officials confirmed a FoxSports.com report of contact with Podsednik’s representatives but said talks have not progressed beyond a preliminary exploration of interest.

General manager Dayton Moore declined to comment directly on Podsednik while again emphasizing the club’s preference to seek trade possibilities over free-agent acquisitions next week at the industry’s annual winter meetings in Indianapolis.

“You know what we need and what we’re looking for,” Moore said. “But our focus right now, as I’ve said before, is really not on free agents. Sometimes, they recruit us. That’s what is happening right now.”
...
Finances are a key issue. The Royals’ interest is probably tied to Podsednik’s willingness to sign a deal similar to his $800,000 salary in 2009. Indications suggest he is seeking a far sweeter multi-year contract. If true, the Royals figure to look elsewhere.

MLB.com: Royals linked to Podsednik, [Pudge] Rodriguez

Thoma: Around the division: Royals

The Hulett unloader. Off the garbage scow and onto the fast track.

They have a management team that says one thing and does another. They talk about improving the on-base percentage, and everybody they bring in swings wildly at everything.

The latest case in point is Tug Hulett, an infielder who’ll turn 27 in February, a .194 hitter in 75 major league plate appearances. The Royals cut him loose this month; the Boston Red Sox picked him up.

Why did the Red Sox claim him? Because Hulett has a .394 lifetime on-base percentage in the minors.

At 27, Hulett isn’t going to become a star. Two other organizations have disposed of him. There’s got to be a reason for that.

But if a front office says it wants to improve its OBP, and it’s carrying infielders along the lines of Willie Bloomquist (.308 OBP) and Luis Hernandez (.284) and Yuniesky Betancourt (.274), you’d think .394 would get their attention.

It didn’t. It doesn’t. And as long as Dayton Moore (general manager) and Trey Hillman (manager) continue to operate this way, there’s no need to take the Royals seriously.

Rubin: New York Mets jump into bargain hunt for free agent Jose Guillen

Guillen - .271/.322/.442
Frenchy - .271/.311/.432

The Mets have a backup option if the Matt Holliday and Jason Bay bidding gets out of hand. The Royals, who are looking to deal outfielder Jose Guillen, identified the Mets as a potential trading partner, although there was no deal considered close, sources said.

Guillen, 33, was limited to 81 games last season with Kansas City because of right leg injuries, including with a ligament tear in the knee and hamstring discomfort. He hit .242 with nine homers and 40 RBI in 281 at-bats.

The Royals want to acquire an inexpensive outfielder in return for Guillen, and are impressed with Angel Pagan despite his shortcomings. They’d be willing to eat money in a swap: Guillen is owed $12 million in 2010, the final season of a three-year, $36 million deal. One impediment would be the salary Kansas City would be willing to kick in probably isn’t enough for the Mets to acquire Guillen in what sources say may be a frugal offseason - especially if Guillen is no longer a full-time player.

The Mets desperately are searching for a power upgrade and have a void in left field. However, Guillen’s power and range have diminished and he isn’t driving the ball as thoroughly as he did while hitting a combined 82 homers from 2003-05. Guillen was named in the Mitchell Report but had a 15-game suspension rescinded on April 11, 2008.

Posnanski: The McCloskey Awards

AL: Trey Hillman
NL: Manny Acta

The Royals did the little things terribly. They also did big things terribly...They were awful as a base running team. They were awful defensively. They manufactured the fewest runs in the American League (according to Bill James’ sensible definition of manufactured runs — where two of the bases are not attributable to hits or walks) and they gave up THE MOST manufactured runs in the American League. They gave Mike Jacobs 101 at-bats against left-handed pitching, which is like setting fire to them. They wildly mistreated the most expensive pitcher in Royals history, Gil Meche, and predictably he wound up on the DL.