Comments on: Catchers, Relievers, Money and More

By: DanL

DanL — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:38:48 +0000

On the topic of whether a run in early innings is more or less important than one late in the game, my thinking comes from something I’ve heard managers talk about – they manage based on how many more outs they have to get to finish off the game.

The theory is that being down one run at the start of the second inning means you have 24 outs to overcome the one run. At the start of the eighth inning being down one run, you only have six outs left to get that one (or two) run(s). Based on that, late inning relievers do have more impact on the game than the starters.

This also relates to why keeping Dyson (and should have brought back Teahan) on the roster could give you a handful more wins during the year – runs late in the game are harder for the other team to match.

By: Axl

Axl — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:02:39 +0000

Jim, how’s “Master Chen’s” fwar looking? He just might have straightened out Adam Dunn today. But he’s a veteran continuing to work on things I course. Chen is gonna be a Royal pain and if Royals recent history is any indicator of things to come, they will wait an extra 10 bad starts before he’s pulled. There’s some Gordon extension money or god forbid an effective starter on the market.

By: airgoesit

airgoesit — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:07:37 +0000

Soria might make the all-royals bullpen, but he’d be very hard pressed to be in the top 25-30 players all time. He’d arguably be only the 6th or 7th best Royal on the 1999 team alone depending how you assign value. (that said, if he WAS on that team they might have made the playoffs) And he’s at least 5th maybe worse on the ’85 champs.

By: Clark Fosler

Clark Fosler — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:21:57 +0000

Had he not blown out his shoulder, Busby would have been the first Royal in the Hall of Fame instead of Brett – I was young, but he was THAT good. Plus, he also has the best baseball line in history: “You always have to throw at a guy twice, so he knows the first one wasn’t a mistake.”

By: scott h

scott h — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:41:53 +0000

I agree Clark with all the rambling. I love the “mexicutioner” but for 8 mil next year I would rather lock up Gordon and or Hosmer . I would like to think Moore would bring Soria back at a lower cost next year and lace his contract with incentives that could be reached to up the salary. I for one think a run past the 7th inning is at least twice as important as a run in the first 3 innings because you have less AB’s to make it up. As well as a runner stranded past the 7th is more important than a runner stranded in the first 3. As a player I always felt that we had enough chances to make it up if we fell behind in the first three but giving up a run in the last 1 or 2 doesn’t give your team ample time to make up for it.

By: Nick scott

Nick scott — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:24:15 +0000

soria’s rank among royals all time is interesting. I don’t think he’s near the top 10 yet. He might be close to the top 10 pitchers, but I think these guys have to be above him just as pitchers in no order

split
sabes
appier
montgomery
gubicza
quiz
leonard
greinke
busby
gura

By: Kyle

Kyle — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:18:28 +0000

Grant, if you can think of 20-30 better Royals than Soria, you are a bigger Royals fan than I am. He would probably be pretty close to my top 10. They have been pretty bad through the years.

Don’t get me wrong, I want Soria to be a Royal moving forward. But not for 8 mil. I don’t think there is a team out there that will pay him 8 mil next year.

By: Travis

Travis — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:06:26 +0000

I think a good analog to Soria is Joe Nathan. He missed all of 2010 and really wasn’t back in true form until mid summer. If the Royals are going to truly contend (>90 wins) then Soria would be quite a lift, but it might be better suited to use that money for Gordon.

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:05:04 +0000

Its unfortunate that Soria is so young. I think we forget (or at least I do) that he’s only 27 years old. And yet, it seems like he’s been our closer forever. It’s with a heavy heart that I agree with Clark. You can’t exercise that 2013 option. Especially with Hosmer and Gordon’s big pay day looming in the not so distant future.

If this really is the end of Soria’s career as a Royal…where does he rank all-time among Royal’s greats? Top 30? Top 25? He’s got the most saves of any Mexican-born player and has / had one of the coolest nicknames in baseball.

By: jim fetterolf

jim fetterolf — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:48:34 +0000

“Sure, the Royals are on the hook for Soria’s six million this year”

When the Tigers’ Martinez got hurt, I read that if he missed the whole season insurance would cover his salary, but a partial year would cost the Tigers the whole thing. Maybe that happens with Soria?

As for bullpen in general, since everyone but maybe Broxton has options, they could effectively have a twelve or fourteen man bullpen. Last year we saw both Collins and Crow pitch a couple of innings a few times, so getting them up to 30 innings in two months, then rotating them to Omaha for Teaford and Herrera coming up for two months would work. That is one reason I didn’t like trading Kevin Chapman, he projected as a Tim Collins type of power lefty and I expected to see him this year in KC.