A Day Late, A Dollar Short

So now its time for what at least one of you readers has been waiting for. My breakdown of the Royals off season moves so far.

The Royals have been one of the more active teams this off season, especially before the winter meetings that just happened. The moves that they have made so far are as follows:

- Royals trade for first baseman Mike Jacobs from the Florida Marlins for pitcher Leo Nunez
- Royals trade for centerfielder Coco Crisp from the Boston Red Sox for reliever Ramon Ramirez
- Royals took care of some house cleaning signing some minor leaguers and trading one bigger name prospect, Tyler Lumsden, to the Astros for cash or a player (ended up being an outfielder named Jordan Parraz)
- Royals signed Horacio Ramirez and Doug Waechter (both pitchers) to one year deals
- Royals signed Kyle Farnsworth to 2 year deal worth $9.25 million

So now that you know you that lets give a preview of the lineup
Catcher - Olivo or Buck (this needs to be fixed, we need to stick with one guy)
1B - Mike Jacobs
2B - ??, with the loss of Grudzy, I don't know who they will stick there. Maybe Aviles?
SS - Aviles, another acquisition or the Mendoza-esqe Tony Pena Jr.
3B - Gordon - you can't take him out of the lineup
LF - David Dejesus, or Jose Guillen if he plays the field
CF - Coco Crisp
RF - Either Dejesus or Mark Teahan, depending upon if Guillen plays the field. I expect he would, but you never know.
DH - Probably Butler, as Guillen I think they will play Guillen in the field, but also could be one of the extra outfielders (Teahan) or the backup Catcher (Olivo has a better bat, Buck better glove though not by much). Or, if they want, they can try Kila Ka'aihue.

The Rotation will not change much at the top and will hopefully look something like this:
1 - Gil Meche
2 - Zack Greinke
Gets a little fuzzier after that
3 - Brian Bannister
4 - Luke Hochevar
Really fuzzy
5 - Kyle Davies / Horacio Ramirez / John Bale/ A free agent?

The bullpen includes plenty of returnees as well as the new guys I mentioned:
- Farnsworth
- Dougie Dub (for w, of course)
- Duckworth
- Joakim Soria, of course
- Joel Peralta, who I wish they would get rid of because he just doesn't cut when we need him
- Robinson Tejeda, who they think will be a pretty good pickup
- Jimmy Gobble, who they should also get rid of
- Rob Mahay, who is making a cool $4 mill and a decent guy out of the pen
- Devon Lowery, I don't know who he is either, but he was a September call up last year

So, now time for the breakdown on the deals. I hope that the pickup of Mike Jacobs is a good one. The Royals have struggled to get any production from that position at the plate (see Ross Gload and Doug Mint-kay-vich) and Jacobs has produced over the last 3 years, the bulk of his major league experience. He's averaging about 23 home runs and 70+ RBI's a year. On the downside, he is striking out over 100 times a year. Doesn't have very much speed, but does have a good on-base percentage (career average over 300, which is good for the Royals). I think that if they have found someone who will produce from first base and play decent defense (career fielding percentage .990 which is good), they have a keeper. Plus, he's not quite 30 and he will be in the prime of his career with the other young talent the Royals have put together. The Royals did give up a solid pitcher in Leo Nunez, but they seem to be able to find guys in the pen that can produce on a consistent basis (Soria, Nunez, Andrew Sisco, Mike MacDougal when he was good). In my book a relief pitcher for a 20 and, optimistically, 80 guy at first base is a good deal.

The other big pickup is Coco Crisp. He has been on the Red Sox team for the last few years after having a stint with the Indians. Of note with the Red Sox, they won a lot of games. Bringing in the mentality of winning games I think is always important. This guys has been a part of a World Series and you can't argue with that.
The thing that I like most about Coco is that he fits that stereotypical leadoff hitter. Someone with a good OBP (.331 for his career) and can steal bases (Average of about 20 over the last 5 years). He gets a few home runs, but you don't expect that from the leadoff spot.
The Royals have experimented with Dejesus, Joey Gathright (who is with the Cubbies now) and some random infielders (German, Aviles) at the leadoff spot, but have not had any luck. This should give the team someone who gets on base for the likes of Guillen, Jacobs and Butler to drive in.
Also, Dejesus can move from center field and not have to run all over the place to get balls. This should help his production in the field and at the plate.
Kansas City gave up Ramirez, who had a sub 3 ERA last year, but did so with only one pitch, a fastball. I think that the same thing rings true with him as it did Nunez. He was a good bullpen guy. Something the Royals have actually been able to find in recent years. If Coco fits the mold of a leadoff hitter. He will be better than that decent middle reliever.

The bullpen moves don't really interest me that much at this time. It is a bunch of guys that I know very little about. Farnsworth is a decent pitcher, and Waechter had a good year last year for the Marlins (4-2, with a 3.69 ERA in 48 appearances). They should be good veteran additions to the pen.The Royals already have a closer and most of the starters (hopefully). If Soria is the same pitcher he was last year and the starters improve even a little bit, this team should be looking at right around a .500 record. If you couple the increase in pitching with the potential increase in offensive production, this could be a team that stays in the hunt for the division until August.

Hope this gets people excited for the season in Kansas City, I know that writing about all this stuff got me excited. Stay tuned and keep the comments coming!

DDSF