Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 283 | Kansas City Royals | Profile & Projection

Episode Date: February 24, 2021

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Another team profile and projection. We're talking about the Kansas City Royals. Jake's seventh favorite team that's primary color is blue in all four major sports. My name is Jimmy. That's Jake. Trevor's here. BPD is here. Jake, can you tell us a little bit about this Royals team?

Now, I already know that they finished 26 and 34 last year, which puts them on pace for a 70 and 92. regular season. Everyone knows that our audience voted them as the 24th best team in MLB, and that's why we're doing them today. But what else can you tell us? John, let me tell you about my Kansas City Royals. Sure, they lost Franchi Cordero out the door. Khalil Lee goes to the Mets. Michael Franco is still inside. Matt Harvey and Ian Kennedy, good riddance, who they added. How about Andrew Ben and Tendi? Bounce back, my guy. Carlos Santana, not the guitarist, the on-base specialist, Michael A. Taylor,

John Boys, Michael A. Taylor, and Mike Minor coming to town, throwing some high change-ups. High change-ups. The Royals with a nice little off-season I'm interested to see at the end of this official off-season to see kind of where they rank when it's all said and done. and talent coming in because they made some moves this year, Trev. And they got a sneaky little lineup. Kind of love the lineup. And I actually know a lot about the players in it. So that's a nice plus for me. At Catcher, we got the stalwart.

The guy that used to play every game. He's getting a little bit up there now, so they're giving him some rest. But that's Sal Perez, you know, gold glove, gold glove, gold glove, gold glove, he'll also can hit a little bit. He'll be back behind the play at first base. Carlos Santana. not the guitarist, but the

the banger, the masher. Actually, the guy that breaks the TVs in the clubhouse for the Phillies, that's who they have at first base, Carlos Santana. Too many video games. No many, too many video games. I don't even know if that really happened. I was there. I don't remember it. Anyways, second base,

Nikki Lopez, shortstop, Alberto Mondesi. Third base, this is where we kind of, we're not sure. They had Hunter Doja. They moved him off at third base. Kelvin Gutierrez is scheduled to be in there now. we'll see that's kind of a fluid situation for them. Then we move to the outfield. I think this is where they're kind of set. They got left field.

They just traded for our guy. Benny Biceps, Andrew Benintendi will be there. In center field, they brought in Michael a Taylor, Speedster. Can go get it. In that big outfield, they need it. And then in right field, Whitmerfield, who I remember as a second baseman, they moved him last year, played a little bit of right field, played a little bit of center field, got him slated to go into right this year.

And then DH, and also in the outfield. Jorge Solair, the masher. Jim, what about that rotation? Treb, the rotation's more of the same from last year, but they did add Mike Minor to a company, Danny Duffy, Brad Keller, Brady Singer, and Chris Bubick, which is exciting.

That's actually, if you're a casual baseball fan, you don't really know, like, the Royals fans will tell you, no, there's some good stuff there going on. We can let you know in a little bit. Boo, bitch. Boo, bitch, and get out the way. Boo bitch. Has anyone put that like a strikeout reel of his to that song?

Move, bitch, get out the way. We can work on it. Or like if he brushes people up and in. Oh, yeah. Boo, bitch, get out the way. Yeah. I think he would be bad if he was in New York and he was bad. Boo, bitch.

Hmm. Get off the mound. Boo, bitch. Get off the mound. So be good, man. Otherwise you're in trouble. In the pen they got Greg Holland. Just Stalmont.

Stamont, I never know how I'm saying it, but he's awesome. Scott Barlow, Jesse Hahn, Kyle Zimmer and a bunch of other guys. Junis is going to bounce around somewhere. He kind of gets moved out of the starting rotation to the bullpen. Kind of was happening. As always, Royals fans, you know more about your team than we do. So anything we get wrong, anything that we should have said that we didn't. Tweeted us, let us know.

We don't know everything about every team. We're just trying to piece together what's going on for ourselves here. And we are in a weird spot with the Royals where we're happy that they're trying to make their team better because every team should be doing that. But also, I don't think they're like going to win. Would you say their ceiling is finishing third? Did we say this on an episode recently? Do you think they could possibly finish third in the division?

I do. I really do. I really like this lineup. You know, the pitching is young. We'll get to that in a little bit. Mike Minor, we'll see what he's still got in the tank. You know, he's got some more numbers that are pretty cool. But, man, Whitmerfield just flat out hits.

Just flat out hits. Adelberto Mondesie, you know, he's a guy that if he hits at a slightly below league average, he is a big-time war player. He does everything else. He plays defense. He runs. Entering his age 25 season, excited to see what that looks like. He's kind of a stud.

He's 30 now. Carlos Santana, some bad luck last year. Jorge Soler, crazy power. Crazy power. Ben Intendi, can he bounce back? I got a little more into those numbers, and there was some bad luck tied to it, too, and it's still like 50 games, kind of got him out of Boston.

And then Hunter Dozier, Michael A. Taylor, Hanser Alberto, should be split in second base with Nikki Lopez. If you throw a lefty, he going to hit. So that lineup is going to be there every day and compete, which I really like. And then from there, it's just going to be the development of the pitchers, which Brad Keller's got a pretty nice MLB resume going on. Minor and Danny Duffy are kind of who they are at this point. And if Singer or Boobitch can take off, you got the forming of a team here.

You got the formula to win some series, which, you know, they're going to be playing in the Central. I think the Indians got worse. I think they're still probably a better team as of right now. but when you talk about the course of a baseball season, you're an injury to a way, or hell a tradeaway, the way Cleveland operates, that I love the energy that's going on with Kansas City. They made moves.

I think the team will feel that. I think the city will feel that if they're letting fans in the stand. And man, there's a nice little formula if you can get through that starting pitching with that bullpen too. I mean, Stomont and Holland can be straight nasty on you. So I'm in on these royals, a clear, as we do the, lesser teams in MLB, first team that I'm considering moving up a tier.

What does that mean? Like this fan base can be excited. Yeah, yeah, I think you could be excited and maybe I, 500 if things start going really well. Maybe, you know, compete for third or a deep cut wild card. That seems a little dramatic, but exciting. Yeah, they're handling this the right way. I mean, like you're saying, you want to give the fans something.

Clearly they know they're not going to wait. in the AL Central this year. They probably aren't going to be in contention for a playoff spot either. But what they are doing is they're surrounding their young core with some veterans, guys that are going to show on the rope. So in a couple years, because they are close. They have depth in their minor league system. They have some guys at the big level that are, you know, one, two years in that they think that are going to be mainstays for their roster. So you surround them with the Carlos Santana, so you can teach these guys how to get on base. And you bring in Greg Hall and kind of have them say,

hey look, this is what we did back in the day with our bullpen. This is how you're going to operate. You surround them with people like this. So when they get to the point where it's time for them to take the jump, they're ready, man, and they're season and polish. And I think that Dayton Moore does that pretty well. And this is a roster that's constructed for that purpose. What are you smiling at?

Our graphic designer Matt commented under the 10-inch Trev pick with his own ruler pick. And it's, I mean, we're looking at 8 and 3-court. It's just a different way to go about it. So I like that. What did I probably have? Oh, yeah. But we didn't put it out there.

That's why I'm really happy for Matt. Anyway, Brad Keller is a guy that if you're not following baseball, you should kind of know about. If you're not a Royals fan or even in the A.L. Central, it had a really good year last year. He finished with the 24 ERA. I mean, obviously, only 10 games. I do think there was like one blowup. I think he was even better than that. I'm not sure.

He upped his slider usage a ton This is a big duty He's 65 250 Like Jake said he's got a repertoire going now But he up the slider usage None of the analytics Stand out Jake The only thing he's good at

The only thing he's Upper tier at is missing barrels Guys just can't square them up for some reason That's a pretty good thing to be It's a good thing to be good at right? Yeah but all the other stuff You know he grades out You know analytically poorly

But he had a really good year Last year Brady Singer had a pretty good year last year. I believe his ERA landed at four, but he had some really good games in there. I think he shut out the Cleveland Indians. Eight innings pitched one hit for Brady Singer last year.

So I think you can, you know, you hope you see more of that. And he did, and less of, like his worst game was five point two fiber and runs against the White Sox and less of that. But he had, he had two back-to-back games, eight innings pitched, one hit zero in runs, six innings pitch, two hit zero and runs. And that's what, you know, from the short sample, you're like, you see that as a Royals fan, you're like, okay, extrapolate that, keep it going. So again, I don't think this team is going to be in a wild card race,

but I do think they can win a couple series here and there and be a fun watch. The offense is pretty fun. Even the defense is kind of a fun watch. Yeah, man. I hate always bringing it back to 2014, 2015, that's that's kind of a, a long time ago. But I saw this organization go from bottom of the A.O. Central to

back-to-back World Series appearances with one World Series championship. And it happened very, very quickly. And I think, you know, this is going to be a little different because of the lost minor league seasons we've had. You know, Bobby Witt, Jr., he's one of the top prospects in baseball. He played in 2019 the minor league. And he got his whole season,

2020, just gone. So the development might take a little bit longer, but these, they know how to draft. They know to develop talent. So this is, if you're a Kansas City Royal fan, they go out there, check the games out, see some of the young guys on the team now because they're going to be Star Wars in the lineup in a few years and then keep an eye on the guys in the minor lease

because, like I said, they develop talent. They're going to be there. They're a homegrown type of organization. They like that and they promote from within. They really do it the right way. Good celebrity fan base for Kansas City as well. Yeah. It's a great ballpark, Jim.

you can tailgate outside of it. It's kind of, you feel like you're on your own little island. The Chief Stadium, Arrowhead is right next to it. That's cool. Cool, cool spot. Downtown Kansas City is cool. Everything about Kansas City, I used to love going to play there. I'm sure watching a game is equally as fun.

How come Stone Street, Eric Stone Street from Modern Family Cam, he's in the owner group. How come Paul Rudd wasn't asked to be in the owner group? Got to know people, man. Timings everything. you know one bad thing about kansas city oh yeah um so you know from the dug or excuse me the clubhouse to the parking lot you got to walk through these crazy underground tunnels long walk but then you also you walk by the trash you can't avoid it it's right there so you get to this point underground and

just stank but that's about it they do everything else the right way great clubhouse everything is good. Kansas City, I like you guys. Siddakis is also a Royals fan, I believe. Yeah. That's a lot of funny people. A lot of funny people. Midwest, man. Jimmy's Midwest. I also Did it Rob Riggle, too?

Yeah, I think so. Dude, Stone Street's like there's photos of him watching Royals games on the set of Modern Family. He's like me. We're like, no, the game's going to be out no matter where I'm at. He's a real, he's big with the Chiefs, too. I love that. Kansas City, Kansas City royalty. I wouldn't be surprised if KCR makes another couple moves here,

whether it's bringing back Michael Franco, or, you know, just another sneaky bat player, a sneaky arm. Because, again, they've been making moves this offseason. They signed Carlos Santana. They signed Mike Minor. They traded for Benny. They've been making moves. There's a couple free agent stragglers out there

where I think you could get a proper opportunity. There's a couple innings-eaters, which I wouldn't hate, a Porcelo, a Mike Leak, something like that. like that. We'll see. Can't anticipate that. Happy with what they've done so far. And yeah, I think the rumor was that their front office operates a little differently, knowing that they are the Royals and however they work. And they saw a little bit of a hole in the market with how every other team was going. So yeah, if a couple of those pitchers pan out, singer's a big boy, he was at like top 50 prospect or so. Keller's been twirling it. I think analytics are going to come back

to figure out that there's guys that just know how to get people out and that's what's important. Not a big punchy guy, but man, go Royals, go Stone Street, go Rudd, go wriggle, go Mahomes. First season without Alex Gordon?

Yeah, right? Did they end up trading it? They didn't trade him because that was a whole thing, right? Yeah. Fan favorite. He had the weird. Big shoes for Benny to fail. Yeah.

New fan faith. Is that Joe still the manager? I thought. No, Isn't it Mathis? Is it Mathis? Not Mathis. Mathini.

Methini, yes. Which I thought was a really bad hire. Not a bad hire, just kind of a boring. Boring hire for you. Yeah. Royals fans, tell me if you like them or not. I have hilarious stories about Nade Yost. Stamont's cool.

If you want to go watch highlights of a pitcher that throws just gas and filth, go watch Stalmont. All right, let's go into the over-under. We have it at, Pocoda has it at 71. wins, 91 losses. Jake, is that the same as... Let me check.

I can get on there. 71's the number to beat. Yep. 91 losses, 71 wins. I want to be... That seems fair. It seems good. I might take the over on this one

because they get to play the NL Central, which is the worst division going right now. Hmm. Yeah, I'm not hiding my colors on this one. I like the over here. I think the AL Central is a little more up for grabs. I think at Alberto Monasey has a chance to be like a known shortstop commodity in this league.

Whitmerfield's really good. I like the lineup on a day-to-day basis. And yeah, you just need a couple of things to go right with those pitchers. And I think, again, we haven't talked a lot about Mike Minor. We're a couple years removed from him having like an eight war. as a pitcher in Texas. So, hey, if they see something that works, yeah, that 2019 season, I mean, 208 innings, 359 ERA, not sure he still has that in the chamber,

but if he's got something close to it, I'm in on these royals, I believe. Jake has the over. I think I have the over. I hate when we are. So agreeing all the time, Trev, what do you have? What's the number again? 71. 71 and 91.

71 and 91. I think I'll take the over. I'm pretty optimistic. I like it. I don't love it. I don't love the over here, but I do want to root for him, so I'll say over.

I think that they're, I didn't even mention they brought back Wade Davis too for that bullpen. Greg Hall and Wade Davis are going to teach the kids all the secrets. He goes by Wayvis now. Leavis. That was, I'm not kidding you.

It was game over, bro, when those guys came in the game. It was, you hated it. We should have a consensus thing. Like, note at BBD, like all three of us were in on the Royals over. And if it doesn't happen, like Trevor's got to eat a bug. We should just have a Google sheet so we can look at it at the end of the year and very easily see. Or even, like, during the season, who's on track. Have I said over to every single one so far?

You're Trevor Trover. They're calling you Trover. Trover. Positive ploof. 10-inch ploof. Thanks for listening. That's the Royals. Go Royals.

Trevor was under on the Rockies. Huge.