Comments on: Adding Pitchers Through Free Agency

By: benjammin

benjammin — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:19:48 +0000

Baseball Ref War values:

Kuroda: (3.7)

Francis (1.4)

Um, yeah. I think I just found out which of these two system is less bunk ass than the other.

By: benjammin

benjammin — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:57:36 +0000

How in the world is it possible that Jeff Francis is worth more (2.6 WAR) than Hiroshi Kuroda (2.4). The answer is, there isnt any possible way. He dominates him is almost every concievable area. Innings pitched, K’s, era, etc. Therefore WAR is an unreliable, unpredictable and consequently, unusable tool.

By: Ted

Ted — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 04:31:07 +0000

Not certain how much juice this rumor has, but mlbtraderumors.com is reporting that KC and Atlanta have already discussed Jair Jurrgens, and that Atlanta might be interested in Cain and Myers.

Okay, I agree with Clark and think the team should stand pat. But I would support a trade if the players made sense. Jurrgens does not make sense for us: He is a free agent in two years, he strikes out too few people, walks just a tad too many, is prone to the fly ball (not a huge issue in KC) and is injury prone. For Myers that trade would piss me off in a big way. Big way. Wouldn’t be happy if it cost Cain either. Just the sort of rumor that sets my teeth on edge.

By: Deep Dixie Blue

Deep Dixie Blue — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:03:16 +0000

So Jeff Francis was our most valuable starting pitcher last year? Seems unlikely at the surface (6-16, 4.82 ERA) but his peripherals were much better than Chen’s and Francis pitched almost 30 innings more.

Hasn’t been much talk about bringing Francis back, but we could do a lot worse. If he can get his velocity back to 86-88, where he was to start this season, he might be a good bounce back candidate.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:07:42 +0000

Oswalt has explicitly expressed his desire to stay in the NL. He doesn’t strike out enough guys to be a true ace for us in the AL anyways, without even mentioning his velocity being down. He’s the type of free agent contract we do not need at this point with his injury woes. As far as perfect opportunity for him, don’t you think he would rather play for a World Series contender, than a team that if the chips fall right can break .500 for the first time in nearly a decade? We would be smarter to get guys like Capuano, Chen, Francis or Bedard and Haren on incentive laden cheap contracts and wait to see if Moustakas and Giavotella can improve their hitting before we decide that all we need is an arm or two to bring us over the top.

By: Tim Kniker

Tim Kniker — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:28:42 +0000

I would say that the best thing (especially in this very weak FA class) is that the Royals can find a better #5 and maybe #4. It’s exactly what they did this year. For relatively little money (<$2.5M/year) one can find someone who can give you a good #4/#5. To get our "ace," we need to wait for the arms to develop or we are going to need to use the stockpile in the farm to go out and trade for a solid #1/#2.

Depending on what extensions get signed, next year's FA class for pitchers looks very promising. I have a feeling that 2013 will be a true musical chairs for everyone's pitching rotation.

By: steve y

steve y — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:34:59 +0000

I believe that what the Royals really need is a short term ace, and that they are in a unique position to outbid everyone for Roy Oswalt for 1-3 years, as we have this small window of extreme payroll flexibility. He wants to come back, was probably tired of being the No. 4 pitcher for the Phillies, can choose between No. 2 or 3 for the Yankees or No. 1 for us, an up and coming team where he can be the man for 1-3 years until one of our young studs is ready to take over. The Royals would be wise to resign Chen also, but what they really need is a No. 1 guy, we have others for the rest, and by signing him, we do not even burn top prospects to get a No. 1, when we probably have our own in house, just 1-3 years away. I know he has a bulging disk and his velocity went down last year, so a complete physical is important, but this could be the perfect opportunity for him, and fill our short term greatest need until our great young starters catch up with our great young position players.