After a strong start to 2013, the Kansas City Royals ended last week losing a three in a row to the injury plagued New York Yankees.  The Royals finished the week losing six of seven and find themselves two games behind the first place Indians with a record of 18-16.

In the first edition of Royals Weekend Rundown, let’s recap the week that was shall we?

Best of the Week:  Alex Gordon

Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer deserve some credit for getting the monkey off their backs and belting their first home runs of the season (Moustakas hit three this week).  This still doesn’t top Gordon’s monstrous week in which he slugged three homers, scored five runs, drove in eight, and hit .393.

Ned Yost made perhaps his best move as Royals skipper by moving Gordon to the three-hole to generate more run production.  Right now he’s hitting .400 with a 1.108 OPS in that spot.

While the production is over a small sample size, its a testament to Gordon’s growth as a ballplayer and the Royal’s patience the last few years.  Look at the numbers from the two halves of his career to date:

2007-2010:  .244 Avg. / 45 HR / 161 RBI / .320 OBP / .404 SLG

2011-2013:  .301 Avg. / 43 HR / 187 RBI / .365 OBP / .482 SLG

Gordon has gone from the brink of receiving the dreaded “bust” and demotion to making a name for himself as a cornerstone player for the club.  If he keeps this up for another two months, I would be shocked if he isn’t selected to his first All Star team.

Worst of the Week:  Billy Butler and Alcides Escobar

One could argue that this should go to the entire Royals offense except for the aforementioned Alex Gordon.  The team hit an abysmal .233 this week averaging around four runs per game.

While Escobar and Butler don’t deserve all the blame, they stand out because they hit first and fourth in the order respectively and hit a combined .105 (6-for-57) this week.  No need to worry, I expect both will bounce back soon in the next couple weeks against weaker pitching.

The Road Ahead:  Go West Young Men…

Monday night marks the first of a 10-game road West Coast road trip starting in Anaheim against the soul-searching Angels.  The Halos begin the series with a record of 14-23 and have at least found some rhythm on offense.  However, their pitching staff is still a mess.  Kansas City will face Joe Blanton, Jason Vargas, and Barry Enright who are a combined 1-10 and could help the Royals heat up.  After the three game stint in Anaheim, the Royals head to Oakland for a three game set with the A’s.

Probable Pitchers vs. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim:

Monday at 9:05 CT:  Luis Mendoza (0-2, 6.38 ERA) vs. Joe Blanton (0-6, 5.66 ERA)

Tuesday at 9:05 CT:  Jeremy Guthrie (5-0, 2.28 ERA) vs. Jason Vargas (1-3, 4.26 ERA)

Wednesday at 9:05 CT:  Wade Davis (2-3, 5.86 ERA) vs. Barry Enright (0-1, 11.37 ERA)

Follow Adam Rozwadowski on Twitter @adam_roz

We might be watching a #Royals team consisting of 2 of the best 5 players to ever don the blue and white for KC

April 28, 2013 2:51 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@PCBearcat

Ross Martin

The tweet above was referencing Billy Butler and Alex Gordon, and more specifically their climb up the Kansas City Royals’ historical hierarchy. It led, as most thought-provoking tweets do, to a lengthy discussion about who are the ten best Royals ever, a debate which has no concrete resolution. While that discussion in itself can be fascinating, what I want to focus on today is whether Butler and Gordon really are on pace to join the all-time Royals greats, and what kind of production they’ll need to get there.

Maybe it’s because I so thoroughly enjoyed his barbecue sauce last night, but I’d like to start with Butler. In Royals history there are two very good comps for Butler in my opinion, Hal McRae and Mike Sweeney. Like Butler, both were doubles machines that were best suited to play DH. Since Butler has just crossed over 3500 career plate appearances, I thought we’d take a look at all three after approximately that much time with the Royals. It should be noted that while Sweeney’s career with the Royals also started at age 21, McRae was a 27-year-old that had spent four part-time seasons with Cincinnati. As a final disclaimer, I would place McRae in my top ten Royals of all-time while I believe Sweeney falls just short. Here is the production for the three up to this point in Butler’s career.

As you can see, Butler matches up pretty well through approximately 3500 plate appearances with the main difference being the era that Sweeney played in and WAR.  Now let’s look at what Sweeney and McRae did over the next five seasons…

This takes us to the end of Mike Sweeney’s career with the Royals while McRae had four seasons left as mostly a part-time DH. While their raw numbers are fairly similar, McRae’s OPS+ accounts for the differences in era and the difference in WAR reveals how much time Sweeney spent on the DL. Both players saw a slight dip in their OBP% but McRae’s SLG% jumped while Sweeney’s lagged. Butler is at the beginning of his prime as a power hitter, which means we could see a slight dip in OBP% and an increase in SLG%, but I thought it would be interesting to look at how Butler would compare  like if he simply had five more seasons with similar statistics to his previous five. Here are the numbers for McRae and Butler in their Royals’ careers compared to what Butler’s numbers could look like five years from now:

What the chart above shows, I believe, is that Butler is on pace to be in this discussion for the best DH in club history, and one of the ten greatest Royals of all-time. The encouraging thing for Butler is that he is just at the beginning of his prime and could very well improve upon his numbers over the last five years. The final factor may well come down to winning. As you can see also see above, there is not much difference between Hal McRae and Mike Sweeney’s Royals’ career numbers. The difference is something you can’t see above, winning. If Butler matches these totals and the team loses another 450 games over the next five years I would say he’ll be looked at much more like Sweeney. If he leads this club back to the postseason for the first time since McRae was actually playing, there is little doubt he will be viewed amongst the Royals’ greats.

Comparisons are a little bit harder to find for Alex Gordon simply because he’s a very unique player. Offensively, Gordon does not have one skill that stands out but he’s seemingly “good” at everything. He’s not a base swiper on the level of Willie Wilson, he doesn’t have the power numbers of Danny Tartabull, but he has turned into one of the most valuable players in baseball because of his ability to do everything well. I’ve chosen two players to compare Gordon with, Amos Otis and Carlos Beltran. Otis is, in my book, a lock for the top ten Royals ever, while Beltran is just on the outside simply because he falls short in the areas of longevity and contributions to a winner. I stuck with the same statistics for this comparison but it bears mentioning that both Beltran and Otis were much more proficient base stealers than Gordon.

At first glance it looks like Gordon is well behind Beltran after nearly 3200 at bats, but a quick glance at OPS+ shows that Gordon compares to his era just as well if not better. It also bears mentioning that both Beltran and Otis played for better offensive teams than Gordon ever has and played a more premium defensive position (at least for this portion of their careers) than does Gordon. Beltran played only another half season with the Royals before being traded to the Houston Astros, and in my book one reason he’s not amongst the Royals’ greats. Otis, on the other hand, still had his best offensive season ahead of him (1978) and spent another ten years in a Royals’ uniform. With Gordon likely to be much more expensive than Butler when he hits free agency, I’m only going to project him out until he’s no longer under club control. Here’s what his numbers could look like assuming he comes close to his production from the last two years.

With Gordon being two years older it isn’t quite as likely that he maintains this level of production for the next four seasons, but I’m not sure he has to to pass Beltran and Otis. Of course, much like Sweeney, Butler and Beltran, Gordon has yet to sniff the postseason while Otis played in 22 postseason games in blue and hit .478 in the 1980 World Series. Otis also had three Gold Gloves at age 27 while Gordon has two at 29, but I think there’s a good chance Gordon catches him this season.

If there’s any conclusions I can draw from all of this it’s that:

A) Ross was spot on with his tweet last Sunday (although not quite as right as he was when he coined the nickname Country Breakfast) especially if either or both of these players finish their career in Kansas City.

and

B) Gordon is much closer to joining the greatest Royals of all-time than is Butler, which is something no one would have thought three years ago.

For arguments sake, my Top Ten Royals of All-Time read like this: George Brett, Willie Wilson, Amos Otis, Frank White, Bret Saberhagen, Kevin Appier, Hal McRae, Dan Quisenberry, Mark Gubicza, and Zack Greinke. Feel free to tell me why I’m wrong below.

With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2013, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty four men on the ballot for the first time this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2013 menu at the top of the page.

In this article, we take a look at Mike Piazza

Mike Piazza
One of the most prolific hitting catchers of all time, Piazza hits the ballot after a 16 year career.  During that career, he would appear in 12 All Star games and win 10 Silver Slugger Awards and the Rookie Of The Year Award in 1993.

Why He Should Get In
The numbers our outstanding, especially for a catcher.  His position may, in fact, be his saving grace.  While his defense was sub-par for his entire career, his offensive numbers show him to be one of the best hitters to play his position of all time.  While his totals for home runs, runs batted in, and hits are not overly impressive on their own, the fact that he compiled the majority of them while being a backstop keeps him in the discussion.

Why He Should Not Get In
His numbers, as stated above, are not outstanding if he were anywhere else on the field.  That being said, most people feel that he had no business being a catcher for as log as he was, given his lack of ability at that position.  Being a great offensive star at a position generally only works if you were a defensive star at that position as well.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2013, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty four men on the ballot for the first time this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2013 menu at the top of the page.

In this article, we take a look at Sammy Sosa

Why He Should Get In
His home run (609) and runs batted in (1,667) totals speak loudly enough about a Hall Of Fame career.  Add in 2,408 hits, 234 stolen bases and 929 walks and it is easy to see that Sammy was a well-rounded player that brought more than just a big bat to the teams he played for.

Why He Should Not Get In
More than just about any other player, Sammy will feel the strain of the steroid era.  A player that was perceived to be average for most of his career, Sosa’s numbers ballooned quickly without explanation around 1998 and stayed at that level until 2002.  The voters will most likely use Sosa as an example in their voting for some time to come.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2013, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty four men on the ballot for the first time this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2013 menu at the top of the page.

In this article, we take a look at Barry Bonds

Why He Should Get In
The list here is simply astonishing.  He had 2,935 hits.  He led the league in home runs twice, including the single season record of 73 in 2001.  He won two batting titles.  He finished his career with 762 home runs, 2,558 walks, and 688 intentional walks, all of those are all time records.  He led the league 10 times in on base percentage, seven times in slugging percentage, and nine times in OPS (on base plus slugging percentage).  His career is unparalleled and unrivaled by the best to ever play the game.

Why He Should Not Get In
There are two things keeping Barry out of the Hall: his connection to steroids and he is generally disliked.  He was one of the most brash and disrespectful players in the game when it came with interactions with the media, the fans, or his teammates.  His connection to steroids will keep him out for a good long time, but I would wager to say that he will eventually find his rightful place in Cooperstown.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2013, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty four men on the ballot for the first time this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2013 menu at the top of the page.

In this article, we take a look at Sandy Alomar

Why He Should Get In
Alomar’s career was embodied behind the scenes.  A field general and leader, he was another coach on the field.

Why He Should Not Get In
In short, his numbers just don’t stack up.  While it would be easier to stomach the low offensive numbers based on his presence defensively, he would need to have a few more awards from that side of the diamond.  With out the Gold Gloves to back him up, the offensive shortcomings will keep him from election.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2013, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty four men on the ballot for the first time this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2013 menu at the top of the page.

In this article, we take a look at Reggie Sanders

Why He Should Get In
Sanders was a rounded player that hit 305 home runs and stole 304 bases over the course of his career.

Why He Should Not Get In
His overall numbers fall short with less than 2,000 hits, less than 1,000 runs batted in, and less than 400 doubles.  He was a good, not great, baseball player.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2013, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty four men on the ballot for the first time this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2013 menu at the top of the page.

In this article, we take a look at Steve Finley

Steve Finley
Finley’s career would lead him to eight teams over 19 seasons, with his most memorable coming in Arizona from 1999-early 2004.  The outfielder would win five Gold Gloves during his career and be selected to two All Star rosters.

Why He Should Get In
A well-rounded player that stole more bases (320) than he hit home runs (304), Finley boasts a solid yet unremarkable career.

Why He Should Not Get In
The numbers, the awards, the iconic moments simply are not there.  While he was a likeable player that put together a solid career, it is not Cooperstown worthy.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2013, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty four men on the ballot for the first time this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2013 menu at the top of the page.

In this article, we take a look at Craig Biggio

Why He Should Get In
A versatile player, Biggio was an All Star as a catcher and a second baseman. His offensive numbers are on par with what Hall Of Fame voters tend to recognize.  With over 3,000 hits and over 400 stolen bases as well as over 1100 runs batted in, he has solidified himself as worthy of a bronze plaque in the halls of Cooperstown.

Why He Should Not Get In
He may have held on a bit too long in an effort to get the numbers that he needed to in order to reach the hall.  While he may have held on too long, he was far from an embarassment to his career.  Biggio is as close to a first ballot hall of famer as you will find.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2013, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty four men on the ballot for the first time this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2013 menu at the top of the page.

In this article, we take a look at Royce Clayton

Royce Clayton
Clayton’s 17 year major league career would see him play for 11 different teams, most notably the Giants and the Cardinals.  It was in St. Louis in 1997 that he would make his lone All Star roster.

Why He Should Get In
His lengthy career spanned both leagues for extended periods of time, seeing him as one of the top second-tier players at his position during his career.

Why He Should Not Get In
While his career was lengthy, it is hard to put a finger on any part of it that would warrant him being a Hall Of Famer.  While he enjoyed a few above average years, he was never quite remarkable enough to stand out as one of the game’s best.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.