Brilliant!

You do however probably need one big name, 15+M name to be the 1 or 2 and then, in a year you are competing well, you hit up the FA market around trade deadline for another big gun, like the rangers last year.

C.J willson anchor then beef it up with Cliff lee at deadline, that seems like a really good general plan, with the other 3 or 4 guys ( yes you probably want 6 capable arms, injurys) being home grown, or bargan vets like chen/frans.

I agree, if I had to guess who could start best of soria/crow/holland, it would be soria. But that is with a BIG IF, if he can get control of his slow curve again. He is after all a soft throwing rightly at 90-92mph, so he needs to have the batter on his heals to be effective. There’s a good chance he’d always struggle with walks and high pitch counts as a starter unless he gets that strike out curve, or some safe contact pitch under control.

Holland is interesting as a starter, he has a nice spliter? for a strike out pitch, but I think it would take a whole season to stretch him out to the point where he can give you innings as a starter.

Crow, is a one trick pony and just watching him I feel like his arm will fall off if he puts in starter innings, future closer.

I have not always been sold on Bruce Chen but you have to admit the guy finds a way to win and if he can do that I would keep him around as a #4 or #5. Chen does not have any pitch that is dominant but he is a younger Jaime Moyer. I guy does not have to pitch 92 to 96 miles an hour to be a dominant starter. Lots of Love from the Middle East.

Peace be with you.

I would like to see C.Rob in September, but as you mentioned he is blocked by the two best players on the team. Can he learn another position (outfield)? Probably not he is slow. Dyson and Lough are having nice seasons in AAA, but they are probably not everyday players in MLB. And there aren’t many teams out there looking for that 4th outfielder to put them over the top. Cain may be an everyday player, but you are right he is “blocked” by an outfield that is playing above what anyone thought when they were signed.

The offense, defense, and bullpen are fun to watch for the most part. It is still a young team that needs to grow quite a bit before it is playoff bound. Two ACE starting pitchers might not have put this team over the top this year.

The fact is that the Royals are actually NOT a terrible team. Dice up the stats and watch a few games… They are actually a respectable team, except with abysmal starting pitching, which is THE unpardonable sin in baseball.

Which brings us back to the point: Assuming some reasonably expected progress among our crop of young position players, we are probably a couple of quality starters from being an over-.500 team. This is NOT the same team that saddled Greinke with a sickening pile of weak run-support losses a couple of seasons ago.

So what’s the most likely track to getting there in the next season or two?

For my part, I don’t care for free agency. I hate having a revolving door of players on the roster. If I were a Yankees fan, I’d hate baseball. Right now I can watch a game where more than half of the starting lineup consists of players I’ve seen play in person here in AA (big NWA Naturals fan!), in the past two seasons! (Moose, Hos, Gia, Perez, Duffy… and then the majority of the bullpen). I’d absolutely LOVE nothing more than to have a Royals team comprised 100% of our own homegrown talent… it makes me feel so much more invested and interested in the team.

Having said that, I’ve also learned to enjoy watching hired guns like Frenchy and Cabrera do their thing for the Royals, despite the fact that my eyes have only recently stopped aching from rolling them so hard at last offseason’s signings (just like you and everyone else) and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t begrudge watching a free agent ace pitch us to an extra 8 wins a season, either.

Chris

If the prospects were that good, they would be starting for a very bad Royals team, right? So no one will take a package of C.Robinson, Dyson, Lough, Falu, SOS, Mazzaro, etc. It’s going to be tough to find a buyer using Myers, Dwyer, Lamb, Cuthbert, Adam and I really don’t want them to give up on any of those five. Developing starting pitching is the way the Royals have to do it. But it does take time and A LOT of pitching prospects.

In the next 3 years they need to have a 3 out of Duffy, Monty, Dwyer, Lamb, Odorizzi, Adam, Arguelles, Ventura, Yambati, W.Smith, Marks in the rotation. Then Hoch, Paulino, SOS, Mazzaro need to fill the 4 & 5 spots. They “could” get one middle of the road FA, but they need one of that first group to REALLY step up and be the ACE.

I think at least one big free agent starter HAS to be a part of the plan. While I’d love to grow all of our own talent, pitching is just too hit-and-miss (look at the recent fortunes of blue chippers like Duffy, Montgomery, Lamb et al) to count on developing your own starting rotation on a predictable timeline. As well as the Royals have done drafting and developing position players in recent years, we’ve had sort of the opposite luck with pitching.

With all the various spare parts currently stocked up in the minor league system, and the high value assigned to prospects right now, a free agent starter or two feels like the savvy move. Clint Robinson isn’t getting any younger.

“free agency is a terrible, terrible way to build a rotation.” <— Apparently Philly didn't get this memo?

Chris