You can find all the previous Bloggers Roundtables right here.

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Bloggers

Craig Brown - Royals Authority
Will McDonald - Royals Review


Question 1: - What would be your Royals rotation in 2008 and why?

Craig: Thankfully, the first three guys are no-brainers:  Gil Meche, Brian Bannister and Zack Greinke. 

After that, it’s anybody’s guess.  And there is nobody in camp that I can get excited about.  I guess John Bale has done all right, and is left-handed (which for some reason is considered a positive) but he threw only 40 innings last year.  He seems to be the consensus choice for number four - and I have my doubts.  After that, things really get rough.  Brett Tomko, Kyle Davies and Luke Hochevar all have more cons than pros.

Of the three, Hochevar has the most upside and as a former number one overall draft pick, the most pressure.  Since he struggled with 5.12 ERA in Triple-A last year, it probably makes the most sense to return him to Omaha for a little more seasoning.

Davies is horribly inconsistent and Tomko is a 6.00 ERA waiting to happen. 

The solution is probably to just go with a three man rotation and hope the starters can give the Royals 300 innings.  What, this isn’t 1908?

Will: Well, in my dream world, the Royals would experiment with a four man rotation: Meche, Greinke, Bannister, and I guess Bale. This won't happen of course, but its hard to imagine a better set of circumstances to try it: the top 3 are supposedly heady, non-fastball intensive pitchers, who are fairly durable and are backed by a deep, solid bullpen. Or, we could keep sending out a terrible pitcher every five days, kill the bullpen anyway, and watch  manager Hillman overtax Meche repeatedly with Japanese-inspired pseudo toughness.


Question 2: Billy Butler vs Alex Gordon - which one will take the biggest step forward in 2008 and why?

Craig: Gordon probably takes the “bigger” step forward, only because after his disappointing .247/.314/.411 he has further to go.

But in order for Gordon to make any kind of strides, he needs to improve his plate discipline.  Last year, he swung at an enormous number of pitches out of the strike zone.  We can chalk part (or most) of that up to the fact he was a rookie who came with some pretty large expectations.  But we all know baseball is a game of adjustments.  And if Gordon doesn’t make the proper adjustments at the plate, it will be a long season.  The Royals are talking about batting him third, which might be a bit premature, but after sticking with the guy the whole season last year, why not?

But if you’re looking for who will be the most productive, I’d still go for Butler who showed a better ability to adapt to big league pitchers and is a better natural hitter. 

I think Butler will hit .300/.360/.450 and my (optimistic) projection for Gordon is .265/.340/.440.

Will: I suppose I'm as confident in Butler as I was in Gordon before Gordon turned into the worst hitter in the AL for two months last season. I am a little cold on him now, but still think Butler could have a Pujolsian style splash.


Question 3: What is your favorite double-play combination for 2008 and beyond?

Craig: I’d like to see Alberto Callaspo win the everyday second base job, but he’ll have to wait until Mark Grudzielanek hits the DL to get a chance.  At this point, he’s probably just as good defensively and with his contact rate, he would bring so much more to the plate. 

Not that I like it, but he should be paired with Tony Pena, Jr.  And that’s only because the Royals don’t have any other options.

Further down the road, I wonder about the possibility of moving Callaspo to short and having Mark Teahen play second.  Teahen has tons of versatility - the Royals have had him do just about everything but pitch - so it seems like something they should at least consider.  Of course, I have questions about his range and his ability to turn a double play.  But it just feels like something he would be able to do.  And when you look at his bat, it’s not going to give you the kind of production you need out of a corner outfielder.  But his value would certainly increase (offensively speaking) if he played second. 

Will: Callaspo and a player to be named. Moore's allegiance to Grudzielanek remains fairly inexplicable. Tony Pena Jr. remains a strange player: he's so talented defensively, but also makes a ton of errors through lack of focus. I suppose I could still warm to him.


Question 4: If you had one move you could take back during Dayton Moore's short tenure in KC, what would it be?

Craig: That’s a difficult question.  The Miguel Olivo signing was unnecessary, but unless he gets 300 at bats, he won’t hurt the team too much.  The Grudzielanek resiging was the wrong move, but at the time the Royals had no way of knowing Callaspo would be available.  I’m not a fan of Joey Gathright, but again, as long as his at bats are limited, he shouldn’t be a huge negative.  The Pena trade at the end of last season was an upgrade defensively, but he’s too much like Angel Berroa with the bat to be considered a long term keeper. 

But while he hasn’t made a lot of impact moves, he has managed to get rid of some dead weight.  Jeremy Affeldt, Mike MacDougal, Andy Sisco, Berroa (to the minors) are gone and that’s a good thing.  But Moore has primarily focused on the pitching - which makes sense considering how terrible the Royals were - so now it’s time to turn his attention to the bats.

I guess looking back at his limited track record, there’s not much there that either excites me, or get me angry. 

But on Opening Day, the Royals are likely to field a team where five of the nine starters were acquired by his predecessor.  There’s still a bunch of work to be done.

Will: Resigning Ross Gload and Grudzielanek were both totally pointless, but relatively minor. I'm more non-pro-Moore as anyone, but there haven't been any real howlers. I guess I would take back the Jose Guillen signing, which I don't think actually solved the problem. The Royals should have signed someone actually good (or waited another year to do so) or just found the next Emil Brown (pre-horrible collapse) who could have been 80% of Guillen for a tenth the price.


Question 5: Present a minor league player you feel is under the radar (weaknesses/strenghts, projections, ETA, etc.)

Craig: I’m probably not the right guy to answer this question because I’ve never paid close attention to the minor league system.  But while we were doing our 40-man roster review at Royals Authority, I did the profile on Mario Lisson and was pretty impressed.  He’s a shortstop who has spent most of his career in the low minors and hit .285/.348/.408 in high A-ball last year.  He has some issues with the strike zone, but has the potential to be an above average offensive shortstop.

What really sold me on Lisson was this video below, I found on YouTube.  The ball really jumps off his bat.  He’ll begin the season in Double-A and will be one of the few guys I’ll take an interest in this summer.


Will: Rowdy Hardy has posted fairly incredible numbers (2.59 ERA in over 200 innings) in the low minors, despite having no velocity and questionable stuff, and drawn some attention for it. He's the anti-Royal prospect, who tend to be great stuff guys who still can't get people out. He'll likely never appear in a major league game, but he's a fun guy to track.