kcdc1

Yuni's had some big hits and a couple game winning HR's, so if you haven't checked the numbers in a while, you might think he's carrying his weight and that his continued presence in the line-up is a defensible managerial decision. He's not, and it's not. Yuni's line stands at .248/.283/.423. That's good for a .299 wOBA and an 85 wRC+, 15% below the MLB average. If he were playing great defense at C or SS, you could stomach that offensive line, but instead, he's playing statue at 2B every day. I'll give him that he has good dexterity and he looks fine turning the double play, but he's fat and slow, and he has no range in either direction. Yuni seems to give up hits on balls that should have been outs almost every game. Please Ned Yost. Fight your primal urges, and remove this package of awful defense and a .283 OBP from our line-up. We'd like to win more, and Yuni is costing this team wins.

"Eighth inning: With the Royals leading 2-0, Mike Moustakas came out to play third base, and Betancourt was shifted to second. Despite the fact that Johnny Giavotella had a good day defensively, making at least three outstanding plays (by my count), the Royals feel that this alignment makes them better on the defensive side of the ball."

Over his last 10 games, Myers has hit .343/.465/.886 with 5 home runs, 2 doubles and a triple in 35 AB's. Yes, that's an .886 slugging percentage. But he's also struck out 10 times, continuing his season-long trend of striking out in more than 20% of his plate appearances. Part of me says this isn't a problem--that he's so dangerous that pitchers aren't throwing him strikes, so he's expanding his zone to do damage. But another part wonders if he's having this much trouble making contact in AA, what will happen against savvier pitchers in AAA and the Majors? Myers is consistently hitting baseballs about as hard as baseballs can be hit, but he's also swinging and missing a lot. Do we care?

Projections courtesy of ZiPS. Gordon comes in at #12, but that seems a lot less shocking than Moose at #15. The projections don't include baserunning, and there isn't yet a comparable list for pitchers.

I....I don't have words. Was a Fangraphs piece really more or less re-printed in the Star? And did Yost really bring up?

Velocity readings at the K may be a little hot, but Duffy's been throwing gas in his first two starts. His average fastball velocity of 94.9 MPH is 3rd highest in the Majors, behind only Stephen Strasburg and Jeff Samardzija. And among lefties, he's in a league of his own. Matt Moore is the closest LH SP, clocking in at 93.6 MPH, 1.3 MPH slower than Duffy's average. Duffy is also sporting a K/9 over 10 so far which is pretty good in its own right. The kid has been dealing so far in 2012.

They're heard that you think they suck, and they're getting ready to kick some EXTRA ass just to prove you wrong.

The logic goes something like this: (1) The Royals run differential last year suggested a 78 win team. (2) Projections expect large amounts of regression from players like Gordon and Francoeur, but Rany believes their success in 2011 is at least partially attributable to real and sustainable adjustments (Seitzer!), and regression won't be as steep as projected. (3) The Royals are very young and should be expected to improve over last year (4) The rotation won't hurt the team as much as a lot of people expect, both because (a) it won't be quite as bad as people expect and (b) given the expanding role of the bullpen and the importance of defense, the starting rotation isn't responsibe for as large a share of run prevention as conventional wisdom holds. There's no calculation at the end that outputs 81 wins, so the numbers guys won't be satisfied, but it's not a totally unreasonable argument.

Did anyone else see this seemingly bad news and have their initial reaction be, "Oh phew, maybe Paulino will stay a starter?" Something's wrong here, no?

"It’s a tremendous deal for the Royals, the rare contract that combines terrific upside with virtually no risk."

Royals players have collected the WAR of an 83 win team. They're on pace to win 71. Some of that difference can be accounted for by pitchers underperforming their FIPS and by the team underperforming its run differential.

9 games left against Detroit, and 51 games left total. Long odds, but it's the closest the Royals have been to the playoffs in August in a long time. Hell, put the 2007 Rockies in this spot and they'd win the division by 15 games.