It makes you wonder how much of having more than a week off played a part in it with guys.
I’m not going into vaccine stuff so don’t delete this comment. Lol. That said…..am I the only one ready for a complete clean house. I’m not sure I’m talking about manager and pitching coach anymore. After Merrifield’s comments I’m pretty much ready for a entire clubhouse clean out. The leadership within the clubhouse is clearly not on par with the rest of the league. It’s just the losing, little pitcher improvement across the system, clear clubhouse issues, trade assets getting hurt pitching, players saying they’d get the shot if they played for a winner……I mean come on already. Merrifield, Dozier, Taylor, Benny, O’Hearn, Cam, Keller, Barlow, Staumont. All good players, but I’m good with a move on. Just start with the guys under 25 and move forward. And I’ve stopped watching them regularly and still amazed that they lose the day on a day they win. Lol.
I'm going to guess it wasn't about the full week off because I'm honestly not sure they're that aware of the schedule, but you never know.
I think my good friend Clint Scoles said it best. Most of these guys that they thought were veteran leaders were never winners in the minors either. The Royals talk about that like it's important and then didn't care about that with this group. Or maybe they just paid lip service to some of this group being part of a winning core because Dayton & Co. try to convey a sense of trying to win at all costs, which is certainly possible. I wouldn't put an age limit on who you're starting over with, but this team is already skewing WAY younger than even two months ago and it's going to continue. I think next year's team will look fairly different.
My saving grace that I keep coming back to is I think they HAVE to look completely different next year. I get they will after the deadline…..but I had my doubts on how much. Maybe this moves the needle a little more on them moving Merrifield and Dozier….the two longest tenured Royals. Both good ball players….but nobody is buying to tickets to watch them at this point. I think I’m a little flabbergasted that the FO doesn’t see this as well though. Maybe they do, but they aren’t changing anything during the season. Still a little concerned they have blinders on.
Oh I don't know about that. It's not like he hasn't known this was coming and didn't have time to think about what he was going to say, so I suppose it's possible.
I know we're talking about ownership billionaires here, but if the Royals had put MAT, Whit on the IL, they'd have to pay them. Now, they save a few bucks by putting them on the restricted list and get the free callup as you'd mentioned.
To be honest, it makes sense. But I've also been essentially assured that wasn't the thought process. Again, I'm not sure how it wasn't the thought process, but I can just tell you what I was told by someone who would absolutely know. We can all make our choices to fully believe that or not and I know what my choice is.
What I mean is, for MAT and Whit, where they could have put them on the IL and paid them, if I'm Sherman I'd tell JJ to go with the option that saves money. The Royals under DM have tended to be more generous than necessary at times (and I think it's usually smart business in the long run) but I'd draw the line here.
Nice comments. Honestly, my first response to the news so many won't make the trip to Canada is lets dump the lot before next season. There are many on that list I am a fan of, but turning your back on teammates who are making the trip says so much. When you put your own personal issues ahead of the greater good of your team, it show lack of commitment to the cause. Winning and bringing another championship to KC.
That said, I guess pitchers can be worked around, but losing BOTH catchers can't. Any continuity between them and pitchers is lost for the entire time they are across the border. How can you have a unified vision of future success, if you can't count on more than a third of your active roster to show up and play. Especially because their own personal interests are more important to them than the success of the team. The fact we have one of the worst records in baseball doesn't matter. Their recent winning record and fan interest be damned. They don't care!
It baffles me that all of these players are just willing to not compete. And I'm definitely very curious what happens in a clubhouse that has already had plenty of reports of issues.
My first thought exactly. We had already been hearing about "tension in the clubhouse." Seems pretty likely that this issue was either a core part of that or at least exacerbated it.
Am I the only guy who has gained quite a bit of appreciation for Ryan O'Hearn in the past 18 hours or so? I mean, yeah, he sucks, but he at least seems to be the one member of the team's boys club that put the team first here.
I've read that one or two have made the decision to be vaccinated even since the season started. I wonder if one was O'Hearn, seeing the opportunity for some playing time. I don't begrudge him if that's true. Better to do the right thing late than never.
I’m honestly a little disappointed that Isbel wasn’t a guy who bolted to that vaccination line when he realized he would have 4 days of uninterrupted playing time. I’ve spent all season whining about him not getting a shot (no pun intended) but it turns out he didn’t even take the easy steps he needed to to get guaranteed starts.
Yeah, you would think some guys would value the opportunity in their career. I mean, it's just four games, but it's also four games that he may not have played otherwise (though probably would have with Taylor hurt).
I was sad/embarrassed/shocked when this news came out yesterday, considering no other team had more than four players that couldn't make the Canadian trip. I'm just not sure what this says about the leadership both in the organization and the clubhouse. I have advocated getting a look at some of the young guys like Garcia, Pratto, Massey, Hicklin or whoever, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind.
He has only walked 18 in 71.2 IP this year, but he has two different starts in which he's walked five and only eight walks throughout the rest of the season. That's weird; I guess that on the rare occasions that he's wild, he's REALLY wild. I wonder whether there's something, mechanically or otherwise, that Brady or the coaching staff should be able to recognize that will help him in those "wild" times.
I would assume a better pitching coach would be able to identify issues much quicker and theoretically get them corrected in-game. A lot of Singer’s success comes from pitches that start off the plate and end up in the zone. That’s how gets so many called strikes. So when those pitches don’t end up over the plate, I imagine it’s typically due to a slight mechanical flaw and, yeah, they should be able to see that quickly I would think.
As Hunter Dozier continues to slowly but steadily drive his OPS towards .800, a familiar dilemma presents itself: Do you assume he's returning to the form of the "real Hunter Dozier," believing that last year's horrible season really was injury-driven? Or do you think "better trade him now before the next bad thing happens, because his value will likely never be higher"?
Predicting when the downslope of any particular player's career will begin is an uncertain business at best. Yes, we know what the averages are, but those averages are compiled from thousands of players, most of whom are NOT average in this respect. (Think "Billy Butler" and "Zack Greinke" at opposite ends of that continuum.)
I believe that the Royals will be able to contend for a playoff spot no sooner than 2025. Hunter will be 33 years old at the start of that season. You can make a case that he'll be a versatile and still-productive veteran and a valuable team leader at that age. You can make an equally persuasive case that his inevitable decline will be in full swing by then.
So - extend him now? Trade him now? Wait until the off-season to decide? Stand pat and hope for the best? Viewed objectively I don't think there's an obvious, clear-cut "right" answer to this question. What I do know is that it's Dayton's and JJ's job to get it right anyway.
I know that some fans have already decided one way or the other, and no amount of evidence will ever persuade them that they were wrong. But Dayton and JJ can't afford to be so arbitrary.
As I wrote before the season, Dozier is fine as a player. He was above average in 2019, league average in 2020 and then a disaster in the first half of 2021, but in the second half hit .261/.331/.449. He's essentially repeated that this year at .265/.327/.445 in a slightly worse offensive environment relative to the league. Since 2019, he has a 106 OPS+ and a 106 wRC+.
But they already extended him. He's signed through 2024 with a 2025 team option. The correct move, though, in my opinion is to move him though his market might be limited some because his best suitor, the Red Sox, is in the AL East where they have to go to Toronto.
Thank you again - for some reason I was thinking he was only signed through '23. I find myself wondering if they're going to be more willing now to trade guys who voluntarily rendered themselves ineligible to play in Toronto, and less willing to trade the others.
They very well might be. Hard to say at this point how much the market is impacted by those guys. I don't buy that the Yankees are just done because of the series in Toronto coming so late when the games are likely meaningless, but you never know.
David - thank you SO MUCH for your policy re vaccination comments! I don't know if you've seen the dumpster fire in the comments over at The Athletic or not. Never in my time as a subscriber there have I seen a topic generate so much heat and so little light!
The three articles posted there have generated more than 830 comments in less than 18 hours. None of which will change anybody's mind about anything. Meanwhile, Nate Taylor's outstanding article about the Chiefs young LB's has generated just a dozen comments in more than 24 hours. I don't think that's because there are more hardcore Royals fans than Chiefs fans right now.
I apologize if this is “vaccine related” but thank you for providing a space during this time where Royals fans can go to just discuss the baseball implications only of what this week will be like.
Until a few years ago I thought that the distance from Arrowhead to the K was just a few hundred feet. That distance seems to have been growing ever since. This latest fiasco has me convinced it should be measured in light-years.
Sorry, but players value lots of things above the team -- and they should. Nobody calls out a player who misses a series due to the birth of a child or the death of a family member. Everybody in that clubhouse knows the effectiveness of the shots.
I specifically warned I would delete comments like the one you left. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
No, it’s because I put a rule in today’s article and you broke it.
David, I have no idea what that victim of nanocephalus wrote. But thank you anyway!
Nothing worth reading.
It makes you wonder how much of having more than a week off played a part in it with guys.
I’m not going into vaccine stuff so don’t delete this comment. Lol. That said…..am I the only one ready for a complete clean house. I’m not sure I’m talking about manager and pitching coach anymore. After Merrifield’s comments I’m pretty much ready for a entire clubhouse clean out. The leadership within the clubhouse is clearly not on par with the rest of the league. It’s just the losing, little pitcher improvement across the system, clear clubhouse issues, trade assets getting hurt pitching, players saying they’d get the shot if they played for a winner……I mean come on already. Merrifield, Dozier, Taylor, Benny, O’Hearn, Cam, Keller, Barlow, Staumont. All good players, but I’m good with a move on. Just start with the guys under 25 and move forward. And I’ve stopped watching them regularly and still amazed that they lose the day on a day they win. Lol.
I'm going to guess it wasn't about the full week off because I'm honestly not sure they're that aware of the schedule, but you never know.
I think my good friend Clint Scoles said it best. Most of these guys that they thought were veteran leaders were never winners in the minors either. The Royals talk about that like it's important and then didn't care about that with this group. Or maybe they just paid lip service to some of this group being part of a winning core because Dayton & Co. try to convey a sense of trying to win at all costs, which is certainly possible. I wouldn't put an age limit on who you're starting over with, but this team is already skewing WAY younger than even two months ago and it's going to continue. I think next year's team will look fairly different.
My saving grace that I keep coming back to is I think they HAVE to look completely different next year. I get they will after the deadline…..but I had my doubts on how much. Maybe this moves the needle a little more on them moving Merrifield and Dozier….the two longest tenured Royals. Both good ball players….but nobody is buying to tickets to watch them at this point. I think I’m a little flabbergasted that the FO doesn’t see this as well though. Maybe they do, but they aren’t changing anything during the season. Still a little concerned they have blinders on.
Hoping maybe Merrifield’s comments open some eyes in the front office moving forward if they didn’t already know.
I haven't listened to what Dayton said this morning yet, but it sounds like he wasn't happy. I know others were more than just "not happy."
Going conspiracy theory here….but do you think Merrifield has essentially asked to be traded and this is part of making sure that happens?
Oh I don't know about that. It's not like he hasn't known this was coming and didn't have time to think about what he was going to say, so I suppose it's possible.
David, you can't leave us all hanging like that! C'mon, spill! At least a little bit! (Obviously unless it puts your sources at risk.)
I know we're talking about ownership billionaires here, but if the Royals had put MAT, Whit on the IL, they'd have to pay them. Now, they save a few bucks by putting them on the restricted list and get the free callup as you'd mentioned.
To be honest, it makes sense. But I've also been essentially assured that wasn't the thought process. Again, I'm not sure how it wasn't the thought process, but I can just tell you what I was told by someone who would absolutely know. We can all make our choices to fully believe that or not and I know what my choice is.
If I'm John Sherman, I'm definitely not paying these guys for games they chose to make themselves unavailable to play.
He doesn't have to make that choice because they're not getting paid anyway.
What I mean is, for MAT and Whit, where they could have put them on the IL and paid them, if I'm Sherman I'd tell JJ to go with the option that saves money. The Royals under DM have tended to be more generous than necessary at times (and I think it's usually smart business in the long run) but I'd draw the line here.
Nice comments. Honestly, my first response to the news so many won't make the trip to Canada is lets dump the lot before next season. There are many on that list I am a fan of, but turning your back on teammates who are making the trip says so much. When you put your own personal issues ahead of the greater good of your team, it show lack of commitment to the cause. Winning and bringing another championship to KC.
That said, I guess pitchers can be worked around, but losing BOTH catchers can't. Any continuity between them and pitchers is lost for the entire time they are across the border. How can you have a unified vision of future success, if you can't count on more than a third of your active roster to show up and play. Especially because their own personal interests are more important to them than the success of the team. The fact we have one of the worst records in baseball doesn't matter. Their recent winning record and fan interest be damned. They don't care!
It baffles me that all of these players are just willing to not compete. And I'm definitely very curious what happens in a clubhouse that has already had plenty of reports of issues.
My first thought exactly. We had already been hearing about "tension in the clubhouse." Seems pretty likely that this issue was either a core part of that or at least exacerbated it.
Am I the only guy who has gained quite a bit of appreciation for Ryan O'Hearn in the past 18 hours or so? I mean, yeah, he sucks, but he at least seems to be the one member of the team's boys club that put the team first here.
He was the biggest surprise to me, to be completely honest. Any list of speculation for me started with him and that was obviously completely unfair.
I've read that one or two have made the decision to be vaccinated even since the season started. I wonder if one was O'Hearn, seeing the opportunity for some playing time. I don't begrudge him if that's true. Better to do the right thing late than never.
I've been curious of which players too and also can you imagine if there were even more?
I’m honestly a little disappointed that Isbel wasn’t a guy who bolted to that vaccination line when he realized he would have 4 days of uninterrupted playing time. I’ve spent all season whining about him not getting a shot (no pun intended) but it turns out he didn’t even take the easy steps he needed to to get guaranteed starts.
Yeah, you would think some guys would value the opportunity in their career. I mean, it's just four games, but it's also four games that he may not have played otherwise (though probably would have with Taylor hurt).
I was sad/embarrassed/shocked when this news came out yesterday, considering no other team had more than four players that couldn't make the Canadian trip. I'm just not sure what this says about the leadership both in the organization and the clubhouse. I have advocated getting a look at some of the young guys like Garcia, Pratto, Massey, Hicklin or whoever, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind.
Yeah, the silver lining here is the real future of the Royals could be on display this series. Massey needs to be on the big league club IMO.
Hey, at least it'll be fun to see those guys. I wish it wasn't in such a tough spot though.
10 players in-eligible for playing in Canada seems like it's higher than any other team.
Looking forward to see what the call-ups would be. Maybe someone will get Wally Pipp'd.
There were 25 total all season before this. Previous high was four. So yeah, definitely higher.
Contrasting this to how the Chiefs locker room handled it and it's fascinating to me.
Speaks volumes on a lack of clubhouse leadership.
My comment is steering back to Brady Singer:
He has only walked 18 in 71.2 IP this year, but he has two different starts in which he's walked five and only eight walks throughout the rest of the season. That's weird; I guess that on the rare occasions that he's wild, he's REALLY wild. I wonder whether there's something, mechanically or otherwise, that Brady or the coaching staff should be able to recognize that will help him in those "wild" times.
I would assume a better pitching coach would be able to identify issues much quicker and theoretically get them corrected in-game. A lot of Singer’s success comes from pitches that start off the plate and end up in the zone. That’s how gets so many called strikes. So when those pitches don’t end up over the plate, I imagine it’s typically due to a slight mechanical flaw and, yeah, they should be able to see that quickly I would think.
I'm very impressed, David. A frogger reference! That's strong stuff. Makes me wonder if Doc fired up the DeLorean to help out a little....😁
As Hunter Dozier continues to slowly but steadily drive his OPS towards .800, a familiar dilemma presents itself: Do you assume he's returning to the form of the "real Hunter Dozier," believing that last year's horrible season really was injury-driven? Or do you think "better trade him now before the next bad thing happens, because his value will likely never be higher"?
Predicting when the downslope of any particular player's career will begin is an uncertain business at best. Yes, we know what the averages are, but those averages are compiled from thousands of players, most of whom are NOT average in this respect. (Think "Billy Butler" and "Zack Greinke" at opposite ends of that continuum.)
I believe that the Royals will be able to contend for a playoff spot no sooner than 2025. Hunter will be 33 years old at the start of that season. You can make a case that he'll be a versatile and still-productive veteran and a valuable team leader at that age. You can make an equally persuasive case that his inevitable decline will be in full swing by then.
So - extend him now? Trade him now? Wait until the off-season to decide? Stand pat and hope for the best? Viewed objectively I don't think there's an obvious, clear-cut "right" answer to this question. What I do know is that it's Dayton's and JJ's job to get it right anyway.
I know that some fans have already decided one way or the other, and no amount of evidence will ever persuade them that they were wrong. But Dayton and JJ can't afford to be so arbitrary.
As I wrote before the season, Dozier is fine as a player. He was above average in 2019, league average in 2020 and then a disaster in the first half of 2021, but in the second half hit .261/.331/.449. He's essentially repeated that this year at .265/.327/.445 in a slightly worse offensive environment relative to the league. Since 2019, he has a 106 OPS+ and a 106 wRC+.
But they already extended him. He's signed through 2024 with a 2025 team option. The correct move, though, in my opinion is to move him though his market might be limited some because his best suitor, the Red Sox, is in the AL East where they have to go to Toronto.
Thank you again - for some reason I was thinking he was only signed through '23. I find myself wondering if they're going to be more willing now to trade guys who voluntarily rendered themselves ineligible to play in Toronto, and less willing to trade the others.
They very well might be. Hard to say at this point how much the market is impacted by those guys. I don't buy that the Yankees are just done because of the series in Toronto coming so late when the games are likely meaningless, but you never know.
David - thank you SO MUCH for your policy re vaccination comments! I don't know if you've seen the dumpster fire in the comments over at The Athletic or not. Never in my time as a subscriber there have I seen a topic generate so much heat and so little light!
The three articles posted there have generated more than 830 comments in less than 18 hours. None of which will change anybody's mind about anything. Meanwhile, Nate Taylor's outstanding article about the Chiefs young LB's has generated just a dozen comments in more than 24 hours. I don't think that's because there are more hardcore Royals fans than Chiefs fans right now.
I apologize if this is “vaccine related” but thank you for providing a space during this time where Royals fans can go to just discuss the baseball implications only of what this week will be like.
That was the goal! There are plenty of places to talk about it and argue about it.
Are all of the minor leaguers who you mentioned fully vaccinated and can get into Canada or is that still unknown?
Unknown at this point. But we'll know soon enough.
Until a few years ago I thought that the distance from Arrowhead to the K was just a few hundred feet. That distance seems to have been growing ever since. This latest fiasco has me convinced it should be measured in light-years.
Sorry, but players value lots of things above the team -- and they should. Nobody calls out a player who misses a series due to the birth of a child or the death of a family member. Everybody in that clubhouse knows the effectiveness of the shots.
At 2:30 today, Dayton said on the radio - in regard to the front office and coaches - that "all of our key leaders are vaccinated."
2 hours later came word that Cal Eldred is not vaccinated. Draw your own conclusions.
I don’t think it means anything. He was talking about front office and manager. I wish it meant something.