I’m less worried about Eldred than the development team right now with regard to these three, but you’re not wrong. I just wonder how much they’ve already learned and what they can utilize.
Great information and analysis of three prospects that virtually none of us have ever heard of. Who would you expect to be next traded? Merrifield? Taylor? Barlow? No one else?
This is about what I expected. Just a good BA and OP are not valued like someone who drives in runs. Especially with a short term rental. The Yankees realized other teams were not going to send the stars and the moon for him and so offered just enough to get him. For Beni, this was probably the best spot for his current skill set. Just get on and let the rest of the team do what they do best. For me, just glad one of the 10 are gone. I personally won't be happy until at least half are off this team. I've had a hard time listening to the games when they dominate the lineup.
But it's also 13th, 23rd and 29th on Baseball America. I'm guilty of this too, but using prospect rankings can be a poor way to look at a trade because of such varying opinions.
I think everyone got a little hyped up about the return they get for Benny one of the things I forget about each year is there is always more players that become available than you assume. See Soto this year. The thing that irritates me are the reports than Benny will get the shot now with the Yankees. This was totally about having 8 days off over the all star break and just move them all now for low A arms.
Well I don't think it was about having eight days off as much as it was about not being willing to do something for a non-contending team. But it's still frustrating.
As I was reading through this I kept thinking, "It's nice to have this info, but none of it matters if they don't fix their pitching coaches/development people issues." Then you went and said the same thing at the end of your article, only said it much better than I could have!
The other thing that jumped out at me: all of them are pretty old for A-ball.
Meanwhile, these guys are going to have to get their walk rates WAY up if they want to fit in around here. I'm confident that the current crew of coaches/developers will be able to help them with that.
Jonathan Bowlan back on the hill tonight at NWA after a year and a half absence while rehabbing a TJ. Seems like a big story. There aren't a lot of short term options in the minors atm likely to step up as a starter once you get past Zerpa and Hernandez.
It is a big story. Bowlan is one of my favorite pitching prospects in the system and he looks good now. I wouldn't be too surprised to see him make his big league debut at some point relatively soon.
Makes me wonder if there wasn’t as big a market for Benny as we were being told. It seems pretty clear to me that they realized they weren’t going to get much better than this even if they waited. Otherwise don’t you wait until the day of? I guess you do risk injury but there was clearly no impact prospect to be had because even if you were sniffing that you’d would’ve waited till the end to take this one. Maybe that many teams weren’t in on him. We’ll never know but the timing seemed odd to me. You?
There was a plenty big market. I think the Royals just liked the deal they got from the Yankees. Maybe they liked the deal so much but the Yankees said if we don't do this now, we'll go get Ian Happ. Or maybe the Royals wanted to pull the trigger quickly because every day Benintendi is out there is a day he could get hurt. I think the reality is that they know what the market for rental players is. I talked about in that article I linked from a few weeks back. You're just not getting impact pieces for 65ish games of a non-impact piece. So when they found a deal they liked, they took it. That's my take.
He did. A lot of that was before Soto was on the market though, so maybe that really did change the calculus. I’m not sure how much it would have, but that was a big change.
What are the chances we raid the Yankees pitching development to get someone teaching that sweeping slider? Having three pupils of said coach already in the system would be a nice benefit.
Why is a premium not paid to highly talented coaches and development staff? Market inefficiencies is how we developed one of the all time great bullpens. I think this is the inefficiency the Royals need to be exploiting. Has to be cheaper than one MLB minimum salary.
Oh I completely agree. I've said for years that if you pay the best of the best $10 million to help develop, you're probably able to save hundreds of millions to billions in salary over the years by not having to acquire the talent on the more expensive markets.
*WHEW!* I'm so glad to see that this trade made it possible to start O'Hearn in RF Thursday night. I was deeply, deeply concerned that might not happen. Everything is fixed now.
Am I the only one who thinks that if given a real chance at it, Greinke could not only play RF better than O'Hearn, he could hit better as well? (Greinke's career OPS is nearly 30 points higher than O'Hearn's OPS this year. And his career BA is about 20 points higher than O'Hearn's this year.)
I'm not at all a fan of the way MJ sets the target but then drops his glove to the ground as soon as the pitcher starts into his windup, thus making the target vanish, presumably just when it's needed most. There's probably a cool "inside baseball" term for that but I don't know what it is.
He's not the only catcher to do that but it still makes me a little crazy.
You've said before that you feel the Royals' offense isn't that bad. But isn't this like a dozen times they've been shut out this season? Outside of Salvy last season, it's been a while since they've had a feared hitter in their lineup. And they can hardly afford to waste a great start like Singer gave them.
You nailed it with the development comment.
Every trade is going to have that lingering cloud of doubt over it with "Well, what happens when Eldred gets his hands on him?".
I’m less worried about Eldred than the development team right now with regard to these three, but you’re not wrong. I just wonder how much they’ve already learned and what they can utilize.
Is it my imagination, or do rental players tend to bring back less of a return than they used to?
It's not your imagination at all. That trend started to shift maybe 2017ish.
Great information and analysis of three prospects that virtually none of us have ever heard of. Who would you expect to be next traded? Merrifield? Taylor? Barlow? No one else?
I don't know who's next, but I'm expecting Merrifield to go. Taylor and Barlow are probably 50/50 and maybe Staumont or Greinke.
This is about what I expected. Just a good BA and OP are not valued like someone who drives in runs. Especially with a short term rental. The Yankees realized other teams were not going to send the stars and the moon for him and so offered just enough to get him. For Beni, this was probably the best spot for his current skill set. Just get on and let the rest of the team do what they do best. For me, just glad one of the 10 are gone. I personally won't be happy until at least half are off this team. I've had a hard time listening to the games when they dominate the lineup.
I don't know how many of them will go, but I'd imagine Merrifield is gone in the next few days as well.
When I saw 19th, 21, and 30th, I was very underwhelmed. I also had Gil pegged es the one I hoped for. Oh well, time will tell.
But it's also 13th, 23rd and 29th on Baseball America. I'm guilty of this too, but using prospect rankings can be a poor way to look at a trade because of such varying opinions.
I think everyone got a little hyped up about the return they get for Benny one of the things I forget about each year is there is always more players that become available than you assume. See Soto this year. The thing that irritates me are the reports than Benny will get the shot now with the Yankees. This was totally about having 8 days off over the all star break and just move them all now for low A arms.
Well I don't think it was about having eight days off as much as it was about not being willing to do something for a non-contending team. But it's still frustrating.
IN: Champlain, Way, Sikkema, Waters, Hoffmann, Alexander, Mills, Fleming.
OUT: Benintendi, pick #35, Santana.
Not bad, JJ.
Haven’t gotten an impact prospect yet (at the time of trade, I still think they can “fix” Waters), but that’s a nice haul to build some depth.
As I was reading through this I kept thinking, "It's nice to have this info, but none of it matters if they don't fix their pitching coaches/development people issues." Then you went and said the same thing at the end of your article, only said it much better than I could have!
The other thing that jumped out at me: all of them are pretty old for A-ball.
Meanwhile, these guys are going to have to get their walk rates WAY up if they want to fit in around here. I'm confident that the current crew of coaches/developers will be able to help them with that.
If there's one thing I have faith in is that we're going to see a game where they walk six in three innings at some point in the next two months.
IMO, looking at this in what we gave up to get Benny and what we got in trading him, it's a net gain and win.
Now if its used to get more outfield playing time for O'Hearn, it's a loss.
I would assume that won't be the final result. They've pretty much shown that O'Hearn is a bench bat and that's about it at this point.
.....and Thursday night Matheny says, "Oh yeah, Lesky? Well, watch THIS!!" 😝
Mike once again demonstrating that he can make nonsensical lineup decisions with the best (worst) of 'em.
Jonathan Bowlan back on the hill tonight at NWA after a year and a half absence while rehabbing a TJ. Seems like a big story. There aren't a lot of short term options in the minors atm likely to step up as a starter once you get past Zerpa and Hernandez.
It is a big story. Bowlan is one of my favorite pitching prospects in the system and he looks good now. I wouldn't be too surprised to see him make his big league debut at some point relatively soon.
Makes me wonder if there wasn’t as big a market for Benny as we were being told. It seems pretty clear to me that they realized they weren’t going to get much better than this even if they waited. Otherwise don’t you wait until the day of? I guess you do risk injury but there was clearly no impact prospect to be had because even if you were sniffing that you’d would’ve waited till the end to take this one. Maybe that many teams weren’t in on him. We’ll never know but the timing seemed odd to me. You?
There was a plenty big market. I think the Royals just liked the deal they got from the Yankees. Maybe they liked the deal so much but the Yankees said if we don't do this now, we'll go get Ian Happ. Or maybe the Royals wanted to pull the trigger quickly because every day Benintendi is out there is a day he could get hurt. I think the reality is that they know what the market for rental players is. I talked about in that article I linked from a few weeks back. You're just not getting impact pieces for 65ish games of a non-impact piece. So when they found a deal they liked, they took it. That's my take.
Passan’s article irritates me now. Man, he really hyped Benny up. Lol
He did. A lot of that was before Soto was on the market though, so maybe that really did change the calculus. I’m not sure how much it would have, but that was a big change.
What are the chances we raid the Yankees pitching development to get someone teaching that sweeping slider? Having three pupils of said coach already in the system would be a nice benefit.
I don’t know, but I’d absolutely pay whoever is in charge three times what they’re making now.
Why is a premium not paid to highly talented coaches and development staff? Market inefficiencies is how we developed one of the all time great bullpens. I think this is the inefficiency the Royals need to be exploiting. Has to be cheaper than one MLB minimum salary.
Oh I completely agree. I've said for years that if you pay the best of the best $10 million to help develop, you're probably able to save hundreds of millions to billions in salary over the years by not having to acquire the talent on the more expensive markets.
*WHEW!* I'm so glad to see that this trade made it possible to start O'Hearn in RF Thursday night. I was deeply, deeply concerned that might not happen. Everything is fixed now.
Am I the only one who thinks that if given a real chance at it, Greinke could not only play RF better than O'Hearn, he could hit better as well? (Greinke's career OPS is nearly 30 points higher than O'Hearn's OPS this year. And his career BA is about 20 points higher than O'Hearn's this year.)
I'm not at all a fan of the way MJ sets the target but then drops his glove to the ground as soon as the pitcher starts into his windup, thus making the target vanish, presumably just when it's needed most. There's probably a cool "inside baseball" term for that but I don't know what it is.
He's not the only catcher to do that but it still makes me a little crazy.
You've said before that you feel the Royals' offense isn't that bad. But isn't this like a dozen times they've been shut out this season? Outside of Salvy last season, it's been a while since they've had a feared hitter in their lineup. And they can hardly afford to waste a great start like Singer gave them.