Royals Name Tim Conroy And Jim Fregosi, Jr. As Special Assistants To The General Manager

KANSAS CITY, MO (October 18, 2011) – The Kansas City Royals today announced that the club has hired Tim Conroy and Jim Fregosi, Jr. as special assistants to general manager Dayton Moore.

Conroy joins the Royals from the Atlanta Braves organization where he held the position of special assistant to the general manager/Major League scout since December of 2004. Conroy previously served the Braves as a national scouting supervisor (2001-02) and a national cross checker (2003-04). Prior to his time in the Atlanta organization, Conroy worked as an area scout and an east coast regional supervisor with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1994-2000. A first-round selection of the Oakland Athletics in 1978, Conroy pitched in the Majors with the A’s (1978, 1982-85) and Cardinals (1986-87). He and his wife, Michele, reside in Monroeville, Pa. with their children, Jenna, Brooke and T.J.

Fregosi, Jr. has spent the past 10 years with the Philadelphia Phillies organization, the last three as a Major League scout. He initially joined the Phillies as an area scout in 1992 after completing a six-year minor league playing career. He also scouted for the Colorado Rockies from 1999-2000 before returning to the Phillies in 2001. The son of former Major League manager Jim Fregosi, Fregosi, Jr. was born in Inglewood, Calif., and now resides in Murrieta, Calif.

The thing about being underrated is that people’s expectations of your performance level is generally wrong. This could be for a variety of reasons:

• Unreasonable expectations
• Bias (ridiculous or not)
• Misinformed/uneducated opinion
• Pre-conceived notions about the player or team
• Not playing in huge television/media markets on the East Coast
• …etc.

It’s been my opinion for the last couple of years that the number one most underrated pitcher in all of baseball is Jered Weaver, of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. More on him later. The guy I want to talk about is Kyle Lohse, a guy who is having an outstanding year.

Kyle Lohse is having a career year with the Cardinals in 2011.

Kyle Lohse reported to spring training in mid-February, as he always does. But in a ridiculous display of control, he waited until April 4th to walk a batter. So all he did was pitch for a straight month before missing the plate 4 times to one batter. That’s control. He walked one batter in 7 innings in his 2011 season debut (April 4th). Did not walk a single batter in 8 innings on April 10th, he walked one batter in 7 ⅓ on April 15th, and on April 21st he walked 2 in his first complete game shutout of the year. On the 27th of April, he walked one Houston batter in 7 strong innings. April totals: 5 walks surrendered over 38 ⅓ innings pitched.

I realize that April is distant memory, but this is a sample of the Kyle Lohse (a finally healthy Kyle Lohse) that we’ve seen this season–clearly his best since the ‘08 campaign with the Cardinals.

Most players, managers, and others in baseball will tell you that they’d “rather be lucky than good”. I submit to you that Lohse has been rather unlucky at times this year, yet much much better than just “good”.

Consider his masterful performance on the 7th of May: 8 innings, scattering 6 hits, and surrendering only one run. Unfortunately, he took a tough loss in that game. (That was during a stretch where the Cardinals were spending 14 straight innings going hitless) So, no run support for him, and Lohse takes a hard luck loss after pitching his guts out! Then, take this week’s game versus the Philadelphia Phillies, when he faced off against Cliff Lee. (Who walked a career-high six batters his last time against the Cards, if I recall*) That game actually had some very incredible undertones, in terms of unusual pitching performances on both sides. Primarily, a second unlucky loss for Lohse. I spoke of his control earlier–in this game he pitched 8 innings without a walk or a strikeout (think he knows where the plate is?) You have to go back more than 12 years to find 3 similar occurrences, that’s only the 4th time it’s happened since May of 1999. What’s more amazing is that you have to go back another decade to May of 1989 to find the last time the same thing that happened to Lohse happened to someone else–throwing 8 innings without walking or striking out a batter, yet taking a loss (Mike Witt).

So, the 7-4 record is a bit misleading, 9-2 could easily be in its place at this point. What’s not misleading?

• His career-high 2.95 K/BB ratio
• Career-low 1.6 BB/9
• Career-low 7.6 H/9
• Career-low 1.029 WHIP
• Sub-3.00 ERA
• Wiith already 105 innings (on pace to set a new career high), his walk total for the season is still in the teens.

Toss in a complete game, and look at a few of the other things he’s accomplished, and it’s hard not to put Kyle Lohse near the top of the list, when it comes to underrated players. Heck, I’ll bet as a Cardinals fan, you weren’t even aware he’s had this good of a season**!

*Running late for deadline, feeling a bit lazy to fact-check, but that “sounded right”.
** Does not apply if your name is Bob Netherton

For as long as I can remember, when the Royals schedule comes out and I see those away games at Yankee Stadium I’ve been conditioned to just chock it up as three losses. I’m hoping the series gets over as soon as possible, and not be exposed to much hayseed, redneck, or flyover territory comments from self anointed elite in the Big Apple.

That didn’t happen this week. Like always the bullpen picked up some shaky starts from the rotation, and the bats continued to buck the trend of most of baseball and continued to score. After a series like that Royals fans should be wearing their gear, smiling, reminding east coast elitist that their team with a $200 million pay-roll was taken behind the woodshed by a team with a $40 million pay-roll. But that’s after you explained woodsheds to them, and what happens behind them.

Eric Hosmer won't be a Free Agent until 2017 (photo by Minda Haas)

However, I realized two hours after winning the series that most Royals fans were worried about Eric Hosmer’s contract extension, or lack of one. The amount of panic I saw on blogs, message boards, and the Twitter had me confused for a moment. I thought it was our website mates, the Cardinal fans that had a beloved first baseman in the final year before free agency.

I hope this conversation doesn’t happen for every prospect that comes up and has a good first week. Think big picture. In 2016 if all these prospects have had the careers we hope they have, there is no way any team will be able to sign them all. Dayton Moore and staff will have to pick and choose who to make long term lucrative contracts too. At this point we have no idea who that should be. Committing large sums of money to Hosmer would be limiting the flexibility of the organization.

Eric Hosmer is under the Royals’ control through the 2017 season. There is no reason to panic. I don’t even think there is a reason to make an extension offer at this point. No one knows the outcome of the new CBA. No one knows what Eric Hosmer thinks. And most of all, no one knows what the rest of these prospects are going to do.

Not only that, if Dayton Moore is successful in building the farm system the way the Braves and Twins have built their farm system there should be an Eric Hosmer coming up every few years. So, Cheer up Royals fans. Enjoy Eric Hosmer, enjoy being a Royals fan. We’re not the fan base who has stars that are free agents at the end of the season, and we’re not the fan base that just lost 2 out of 3 to team that is perceived to be the doormat of the league.