Archive for Kansas City Royals

Daniel Nava spent a month in Triple-A Pawtucket earlier this season. Whether he merited the temporary demotion is a matter of opinion. Regardless of any stated reasons, the Red Sox outfielder was sent down partly as punishment for not appeasing the BABiP gods.

Not long before Nava got the bad news, I discussed his sudden propensity to hit into bad luck with Red Sox beat writer Jason Mastrodonato. At the time, Nava had a line-drive rate a shade under 25% and a ground-ball rate just over 42%. His batting average was well south of the Mendoza line. Mastronato – a stat-savvy scribe – agreed with me that it probably wouldn’t be fair to send Nava down. The switch-hitter was coming off a year in which he hit .303/.385/.445. A reversal of fortune seemed imminent.

Shortly thereafter, Nava had a two-hit game, upping his BA to .149 BA and his BABiP to .167. His next 98 plate appearances came in a PawSox uniform.

The 31-year-old has been back in Boston since late May – platooning with lefty-killer Jonny Gomes – and has seen his numbers slowly climb. Notable is the fact his BABiP has risen over .120 points despite a line-rate nearly identical to when he was sent down.

Nava isn’t a numbers guy — he professes to not look at his stats – nor is he one to complain. While many players would take vocal umbrage at a demotion, the humble outfielder has kept his mouth shut and his chin held high. But he is willing to admit it was frustrating to go through a stretch where nothing was falling.

“I was very aware that my numbers weren’t completely representative of how well I was hitting the ball,” Nava told me on Friday. “I knew [the bad luck] was going to end eventually, it was just a matter of when. I never got to find out before getting sent down, but that’s part of the game. At the end of the day, I also knew I wasn’t hitting as well as I could.” Read the rest of this entry »

Each weekday during the minor-league season, FanGraphs is providing a status update on multiple rookie-eligible players. Note that Age denotes the relevant prospect’s baseball age (i.e. as of July 1st of the current year); Top-15, the prospect’s place on Marc Hulet’s preseason organizational list; and Top-100, that same prospect’s rank on Hulet’s overall top-100 list.

This time around, I bring you tales of three teenagers who really stood out in recent viewings.

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Brent Honeywell, RHP, Tampa Bay Rays (Profile)
Level: Rookie-Advanced   Age: 19  Top-15: N/A   Top-100: N/A
Line: 8 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 10/1 K/BB, 0.00 ERA, 1.58 FIP

Summary
Honeywell already looks like a steal with the 72nd pick in the draft.

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Each weekday during the minor-league season, FanGraphs is providing a status update on multiple rookie-eligible players. Note that Age denotes the relevant prospect’s baseball age (i.e. as of July 1st of the current year); Top-15, the prospect’s place on Marc Hulet’s preseason organizational list; and Top-100, that same prospect’s rank on Hulet’s overall top-100 list.

In this installment of the PW, I’m focusing on three hurlers in the Appalachian League who were just selected in the top three rounds of the 2014 draft.

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Foster Griffin, LHP, Kansas City Royals (Profile)
Level: Rookie-Advanced   Age: 18  Top-15: N/A   Top-100: N/A
Line: 8.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 6/3 K/BB, 1.04 ERA, 5.15 FIP

Summary
More about projection than current ability, Griffin is nonetheless off to a good start in pro ball.

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Each weekday during the minor-league season, FanGraphs is providing a status update on multiple rookie-eligible players. Note that Age denotes the relevant prospect’s baseball age (i.e. as of July 1st of the current year); Top-15, the prospect’s place on Marc Hulet’s preseason organizational list; and Top-100, that same prospect’s rank on Hulet’s overall top-100 list.

Summary
A small Venezuelan southpaw, Lopez has command of three solid pitches at a young age.

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Each weekday during the minor-league season, FanGraphs is providing a status update on multiple rookie-eligible players. Note that Age denotes the relevant prospect’s baseball age (i.e. as of July 1st of the current year); Top-15, the prospect’s place on Marc Hulet’s preseason organizational list; and Top-100, that same prospect’s rank on Hulet’s overall top-100 list.

Raul Mondesi, SS, Kansas City Royals (Profile)
Level: High-A   Age: 18   Top-15: 3rd   Top-100: 46th
Line: 89 PA, .304/.382/.430, 1 HR, 9 BB, 23 K

Summary
One of the game’s top shortstop prospect is holding his own against much older players.

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Each weekday during the minor-league season, FanGraphs is providing a status update on multiple rookie-eligible players. Note that Age denotes the relevant prospect’s baseball age (i.e. as of July 1st of the current year); Top-15, the prospect’s place on Marc Hulet’s preseason organizational list; and Top-100, that same prospect’s rank on Hulet’s overall top-100 list.

Summary
The former fifth-overall pick continues to struggle with his swing, leading to increasingly poor output as he climbs the ladder.

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Each weekday during the minor-league season, FanGraphs is providing a status update on multiple rookie-eligible players. Note that Age denotes the relevant prospect’s baseball age (i.e. as of July 1st of the current year); Top-15, the prospect’s place on Marc Hulet’s preseason organizational list; and Top-100, that same prospect’s rank on Hulet’s overall top-100 list.

Alex Balog, RHP, Colorado Rockies (Profile)
Level: Low-A   Age: 21   Top-15: N/A   Top-100: N/A
Line: 11 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 1 HR, 9/5 K/BB, 4.09 ERA, 4.38 FIP

Summary
The 70th overall pick in last year’s draft struggled mightily upon his introduction to pro ball in 2013, but has regained the stuff that got him drafted so high.

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Like many minor league/prospect columnists, I try to see as much live baseball and as many minor league players as I can. Typically, I catch four or five games a week during the minor league season. It can be a bit of a grind at times, but I keep at it for two reasons: First, I want to be able to have the best and most far-reaching coverage I can, and second, because I’m usually having an awesome time doing it.

Of course, some games are more fun to attend from a scouting perspective than others. It’s a lot more exciting to take in the raw power of Joey Gallo, the blinding speed of Terrance Gore, the sweet swing of Francisco Lindor, or the arm strength of Eddie Butler than it is to watch 23-year-old Appalachian League middle relievers throw 84-mph fastballs to 23-year-old Appalachian League utility players. As such, I try to optimize my time and attend games that have the best likelihood of featuring interesting prospects, especially the starting pitchers. Typically, this decision is informed by some combination of the statistics, draft/prospect status, and reported tools/stuff of the players in question–in a way, I’m using a crude version of the same ideas behind our own Carson Cistulli’s NERD scores.

It’s a tremendous feeling to see a prospect in person and have them live up to what their statistics and reputation suggest they should look like. I heard all year about Atlanta’s Mauricio Cabrera and his triple-digit heat, so it was great to see him in person and watch a radar gun read “100” when I finally managed to catch one of his starts in August. Likewise, it’s disappointing to see a player underperform expectations. However, the most amazing experiences I have at games come when a player who’s way off the radar–uninteresting numbers and no scouting buzz–suddenly commands the most rapt attention. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen, and today I want to share one of my experiences with the phenomenon and tie it in with some of our beliefs about the way players–in particular, relief pitchers–ascend to MLB relevance.

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Three years ago, Chris Dwyer was being billed as part of a pitching renaissance in Kansas City. Along with fellow southpaws Danny Duffy, John Lamb and Mike Montgomery, he was going to comprise a formidable rotation of homegrown arms. The Royals’ had the top-ranked farm system in the game, and pitching was a big reason why. As KC fans know all too well, things haven’t exactly worked out as planned.

That doesn’t mean Dwyer is a lost cause. Health issues helped wreck his 2012 campaign — Dwyer lost weight and several mph off his fastball due to a thyroid condition — but he came back strong in 2013. The 25-year-old logged a 3.55 ERA in 28 starts at Omaha, and capped off his minor league season by pitching seven scoreless innings in the Triple-A championship game. He made his big-league debut in late September, tossing three scoreless innings over a pair of relief outings.

Dwyer still has command issues — he walked 4.1 batters per nine innings in Omaha — but the talent that once put him on Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects list is reemerging. His ranking may have plummeted, but his chances of contributing to the Royals pitching staff are very much alive. Read the rest of this entry »

The Kansas City Royals were pleased with the numbers Hunter Dozier put up this summer. The 22-year-old infielder hit .308/.397/.495 between rookie-level Idaho Falls and Low-A Lexington. Given that many considered Dozier an overdraft, the Royals also likely were relieved.

First-year stats aren’t all that meaningful, but Dozier’s performance helped validate the decision to take him with the eighth-overall pick out of Stephen F. Austin State University. What the 6-foot-4, 220-pound right-handed hitter needs to do next is continue to swing a productive-enough bat to justify his move to third base. Drafted as a shortstop, Dozier saw the majority of his time at the hot corner after signing for an under-slot $2.2 million.

Dozier talked about his approach to the game — and his position in the future — near the end of his first professional season. Read the rest of this entry »