ROYALS SIGN SHORTSTOP ALCIDES ESCOBAR TO A MULTI-YEAR CONTRACT
Four-Year Guaranteed Contract Also Includes Club Options for 2016 and 2017

SURPRISE, AZ (March 15, 2012) — The Kansas City Royals today announced the club has reached an agreement on a multi-year contract with shortstop Alcides Escobar. The contract includes four guaranteed years through the 2015 season, then club options for each of the following two seasons: 2016 and 2017. Consistent with club policy, financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The 25-year-old Escobar spent his first season with the Royals in 2011 after being acquired in a six-player trade with the Milwaukee Brewers on December 19, 2010. The defensive standout tied for the Major League lead with 158 games at shortstop while pacing baseball with 459 assists, 745 total chances and 271 putouts. The 6-foot-1, 193-pounder batted .254 with 21 doubles, eight triples, four home runs, 46 RBI and 69 runs scored. In addition, he stole a career-best 26 bases, becoming one of four shortstops in Royals history to steal 20 or more bases in a season (Freddie Patek, U.L. Washington and Angel Berroa). After a slow start, Escobar hit .286 from June 7 through the remainder of the season, including batting .324 in the month of September.

The Royals are back home to close out the first half of the season this weekend against Detroit after coming off a sub-par road trip that included a five-game losing streak and only one series win. The Royals could end the first half on a high note if they can pull out a series win against the Tigers.

This is the second year in a row the Royals have had a high quality production out of an outfielder and yet again did not make the All-Star team. Last year David DeJesus last year had a higher batting average and fielding percentage than Ichiro during the first half of the season, including a consecutive errorless streak that approached all-time major league records. The Royals’ fan votes fell just short of sending Alex Gordon to the All-Star game despite the fact that among players at his position, he is currently fourth in batting average, first in doubles, third in home runs, made only one error and has a league leading thirteen assists. You cannot get much better than that.

One could also make a case for Jeff Francoeur for being there as well who leads his position in assists and among the position leaders in extra base hits and RBIs. Melky Cabrera also made some noise on the defensive side of the ball (eight assists) and contributed an above average first half at the plate (.286 going into Friday night). If the Royals are serious about building a contending ball club heading into the 2012 season, they need to keep this outfield intact.

The “Moose” (Mike Moustakas) in the past week has become more of a mouse. He has not reached base since Sunday, while watching his average dip to .233. Eric Hosmer is showing signs of improvement with his bat and is solidifying himself defensively. Butler has turned in another one of his typical first halves by batting around .300 and hitting quite a few doubles along with some home runs every once in awhile.

The pitching staff has been plagued by two things all year, injuries and inconsistency. Injuries are nearly unavoidable regardless of position in this game. They will happen, it is just a matter when. However, inconsistency usually is accompanied by either lack of talent or lack of experience. The Royals pitching staff have demonstrated that they have problems with getting people out. They are one of only three teams in the American League to allow over one-hundred home runs so far this season, and have the highest opponents’ batting average and issued the second most walks in the A.L.

Good pitching beats good hitting in any level of baseball. The Royals have some very high quality prospects down in the minors. My question is, they have the talent to win at AA and AAA level, but do they have what it takes to win in the big show? We will not know until they are called up.

Looking at who’s available in the free agent market in terms of pitching and the fact that the Royals will have quite a bit of cap room next year after cutting out three of their highest paid players from last year. Of course, good pitching does not come cheap and the Royals will have to open up their pocket books a little more than they have in the past fifteen years in order to acquire those missing pieces. Alex Gordon, Billy Butler and the other all-star caliber players need to make a push for the organization to bring in the players that can fill in the gaps. The Royals have quite a few pieces together and just need a few more to finish the puzzle.

According to the Royals clubhouse, they supposedly made two significant upgrades on the offense when they brought up Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas from Omaha. The offense was having problems and those two were doing well enough to earn calls up to the big show to help remedy the Royals’ problem of run support.

These two have been somewhat helpful but not nearly as productive as two other starters who have been with the club all season (Billy Butler and Alex Gordon). As a team, the Royals only hit twelve home runs in the month of June. That is good enough for dead last in the entire Major Leagues to accompany a .360 slugging percentage during the same period (Ranked 22nd).

I know the Royals are not a roster full of sluggers such as the Boston Red Sox who led the league in slugging this past month and second in average. They did manage to average nearly a stolen base per day in the month of June, with 29. This stat ties them with the Yankees at the top of the American League. Therefore, when they are getting on base, the Royals are attempting to do some good when they have opportunities.

Another positive note – the Royals finished near the low end of the spectrum with strikeouts with only 156, compared to the Cubs who were struck out a league leading 228 times. The young players are at least putting the ball into play consistently, but have been failing to execute rallies day in and day out.

Being consistent on defense has been one of the Royals’ strong suits throughout most of the season, leads the Majors in Range Factor and is tied for second in double plays. The starting outfielders have combined for thirty-one assists going into this weekend, with Alex Gordon leading the way with thirteen.

The starting rotation has been plagued by injuries. More than half of them some time during the year. This makes it difficult for the coaching staff to develop any consistency when they are constantly having to make sure the plethora of young arms are not being over used and damaged.

A good steak does not have occasional flashes of great flavors as you eat it. It should have the same high quality taste from the first bite down to the last. There is little to no fat on it and has been a part of the Independence Day barbequing tradition for many years. Interest is quickly fading because the Royals are not giving us the beef. Give us some fireworks. Give us consistency. Give us the t-bone of baseball, more Ws.

The Royals were involved in four close games this week (won by two runs or less) and were able to come out on top in two of them. What this translates to me is that the pitching, which was heavily in question since the off-season with the trading of Zack Greinke, Gil Meche retiring and a handful or green bullpen candidates, has been doing their job of keeping the games within reach for the offense to step up and win the game.

Photo Courtesy of Minda Haas

However, it has been hit or miss this week when it comes crunch time for the Royals offense. The Royals have stranded 46 runners in the first six games of the week, including twenty in the last two games against Cleveland. The Royals cannot afford to leave a small village of base runners every single night.

It’s not all bad news though for the Royals offense. They have four every day lineup players batting at or over .329 after Friday nights contest. These four players also make up the 3-6 in the lineup, which you would expect your best hitters to be. However, Getz the leadoff hitter needs to ramp it up a notch after this week. He only has two hits this week, which took his average from a mediocre .269 down to .239 after Friday’s contest. As a team the Royals are currently tied for first in the American league in batting average (.269), rank second in on base percentage (.340) and first in stolen bases with 26.

The pitching and defense have both moved up a few slots in terms of performance related stats this week as well. No longer at the bottom or near it, they are in the middle of the pack in the American League. With strong consistent efforts by the likes of Alex Gordon (leads A.L. outfielders in assists) and the rest of the outfield, the defense will continue to progress and get better as the season goes on. The catchers, who are often unsung heroes of the defense, have stepped up very well this month. They have thrown out six runners and only allowed ten stolen bases, which is good enough to be in the top five in both categories.

The Royals have a tough week ahead against the defending American League champions (Rangers) before getting a day off, and facing off against Cleveland again for a three game set. Then they come back home to face the Twins next weekend. A tough stretch of games, but if the Royals can find a way to get some timely hits over the next five or six games, they may be at the top of the division by next weekend.