Comments on: Paying for Starters

By: fredrick

fredrick — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:09:28 +0000

at this juncture we can assert that we have strong candidates for the back end of the rotation. i am comfortable with mendoza, paulino and montgomery. other options for the rotation obviously include hochevar, crow, and teaford. i do not think we resign chen because he is a type b free agent.

because of all the names in the running for the rotation he can be let go and frankly i would rather have the draft pick (more upside) than another year of bruce. francis can be go too. i am not a fan of luke. since he had a good second half this is the prime chance to deal him before he sucks again.

when it comes to prospects, who stays and who goes depends on the team needs and circumstances. essentially any prospect should be up for grabs if the price is right. that said, i would not deal certain guys like lorenzo cain, odorizzi, antonio, amongst others. guys who can be dealt include most notably wil myers

By: klog11

klog11 — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:50:11 +0000

any trade for a starter should not start with prospects. its talks should start with soria and go from there that away what we give up in prospects isnt as top flight and we are able to retain our depth

By: jim fetterolf

jim fetterolf — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 22:45:29 +0000

Kershaw or Cain. Soria is replaceable and Billy, while a star hitter, doesn’t have the value to the team of Gordon or Hosmer and can be replaced, at the moment, by Melky with Cain moving to CF. Billy’s a good enough 1B to play in the NL, just not good enough to replace Hosmer. Of course, Melky might be a good trade to SF with Beltran leaving.

By: Keith

Keith — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:53:23 +0000

I know the thought is “Prospects”; but, what if Crow closes and Robinson is given a chance DH/1B. That gives GMDM Soria and Butler to play with in a trade. Would you package Soria or Butler to get? Kershaw, M Cain, Shields, Haren, C Hammels? I believe I would.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:07:20 +0000

Prospect evaluators do not sour on a prospect after part of a bad season. Myers was injured alot of the first half, and was only 20 in AA this season. Monty still has the tools to be an ace, so I don’t think that would scare anyone away. He just needs to walk a few less. The Royals still have a top 5 Farm system.

I wouldn’t want any trade to involve them, but I think it has to if you want a #1. I don’t think Lamb has dropped too much either. They usually don’t drop prospects b/c of injury either. So there is probably still Monty, Myers, Lamb, Odorizzi in the top 50. Then add Bubba for sure. And maybe one of the other pitchers they picked in the draft. I don’t know how they evaluate 16 year old prospects, but Elier Hernendez could also be up there.

They could still have 6 top 100 prospects. Not as good as last year, but they also graduated 12 or so prospects from last year.

By: 25 years and counting

25 years and counting — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 03:37:18 +0000

I really don’t think the Royals even have the top prospects to be in the discussion for a #1 starter. Myers and Monty no longer gets you in the door, the Monty and Myers of one year ago did, but not anymore. The system seems more quantity than quality now. If you mentioned Myers and Monty for Kershaw you’d get laughed out of the room. Unfortunately, there just aren’t any sexy top 20 guys left in the system which you need to start talking about true #1s. That ship might have already sailed. But I really hope they push hard for any available starting pitcher in the trade market, I don’t think I’d miss anyone in the system (short of Bubba) if it meant the possibility of having a complete rotation to start they year.

By: KCattheBat

KCattheBat — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:51:55 +0000

The Tigers are 25 games above .500 with the third best record in the Majors. I think we need to be bold and if you’re going to go for it, I like the Milwaukee approach of going after multiple starters.

Maybe Wil Myers alone gets you someone like Gavin Floyd, like Lawrie got Marcum. Then maybe Montgomery, Cain, Dwyer, Gia for Kershaw.

So you’d start 2012 with Kershaw, Floyd, Hochevar, Duffy and Paulino. That seems pretty formidable and you’d still have Crow in AAA and Lamb and Odorizzi a year away.

That seems like the only approach that gives you contending level performance on both sides of the ball. With the depth of the farm system, we wouldn’t be as depleted as Milwaukee’s minor league is now either and could plug in gaps from their to remain in contention for years to come.

Who’s with me?

By: Christian

Christian — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:00:59 +0000

Any reason to not give Soria a shot at the starting rotation, he has the pitches and everything. To me it always looks like he almost getting bored closing games, he might want that challenge and he used to be a starting pitcher anyways, i mean what can we lose really except maybe Soria steps up and can be an Ace he has the skillset for it.

By: mike

mike — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:51:38 +0000

I think anytime you can trade for an established MLB player that is better than what you have available then you should do it. The youth of the Royals hopefully allows them to be a little creative and maybe save a prospect in doing so. While Kershaw might cost Monty and Myers, along with a couple of lower level prospects, maybe the Royals can buy low on Billingley and Myers could be replace with Cain. The Giants have a taste for winning, but they’re OLD in the field…maybe Matt Cain can be had for Cain and Jake O. Until a guy strikes out MLB batters, he’s a lottery ticket. Its fun to dream what you would do if you won, but the odds are always higher for losing than winning. DM has always said pitching is currency…lets just hope he spends wisely.

If the Royals don’t want to send players away, then they should try to load up on as many starters that will work cheap as they can. There’s a chance Kevin Slowey is let go. He’s not great, but could fill a role in the rotation. Take a run at Jackson but don’t overpay. I guess I’d rather have five #3 starters than a #1, three #4s and a #5.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:37:48 +0000

If it’s Myers then I would need to keep Cain to fill in at center and I would move Bubba to RF. You need to keep some bullets to continue to plug away, especially since DM has proven to be less than competent at building a MLB roster. If four of my top 10 prospects brought back Kershaw, I would pull the trigger. He is a real game changer. He would be the only guy I would willingly give up Monty for.