Daily Clips
October 6, 2017
LOCAL
Rivera, Griffin named Royals Prospects of the Year
October 5, 2017 By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/256655004/royals-rivera-griffin-named-prospects-of-year/?topicId=27118382
Why Eric Hosmer is the key to it all for the Royals, and how they’re approaching all possibilities
October 5, 2017 By Sam Mellinger/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/sam-mellinger/article177267481.html
NATIONAL
Execs open up on dysfunction threatening Braves’ foundation
October 5, 2017 By Joel Sherman/New York Post
http://nypost.com/2017/10/05/execs-open-up-on-dysfunction-threatening-braves-foundation/
MLB TRANSACTIONS
October 6, 2017 •.CBSSports.com
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/transactions
LOCAL
Rivera, Griffin named Royals Prospects of the Year
October 5, 2017 By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/256655004/royals-rivera-griffin-named-prospects-of-year/?topicId=27118382
Third baseman Emmanuel Rivera and left-hander Foster Griffin have been selected as MLB Pipeline's Hitting and Pitching Prospects of the year for 2017.
Rivera, 21, was a 19th-round pick in the Draft in 2015 out of the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico.
Rivera, who is 6-feet-2, 195 pounds, hit .310 with 12 home runs, 27 doubles and 72 RBIs for Class A Lexington this season.
"He's a physical kid, big and strong," Royals assistant general manager J.J. Picollo said. "He's got really good presence. He plays beyond his years. The way he walks and carries himself, it's like watching a Triple-A player."
The Royals see a bright future for him.
"He's got power, you see that right away," Picollo said. "And I think there's more in there. And he hits the ball the other way. Good defender, too."
Griffin, 22, was a high-school first-round pick in 2014 out of Orlando, Fla. The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder went 15-7 this season with a 3.35 ERA combined between Class A Wilmington and Double-A Northwest Arkansas. Griffin also represented the organization in the Futures Game in July.
Griffin's 2017 season, his fourth as a professional, was his best.
"More than anything, he sped up his delivery this year," Picollo said. "His fastball got better. His command got better. His curveball got better. Then his confidence improved."
Griffin's fastball sits in the 90-91 mph, though he can touch 93.
"It's nothing overwhelming, but he works his pitches in and out and now he's working up and down in the zone," Picollo said. "He's still at the age where there may be more there. He may get stronger as he gets older. He strikes us as a guy who won't rely on his velocity, though."
Each team's Hitting and Pitching Prospects of the Year were chosen by the MLBPipeline.com staff. To receive consideration, players must have spent at least half the year in the Minors, appeared on the team's Top 30 Prospects list and played the entire year in the organization.
Why Eric Hosmer is the key to it all for the Royals, and how they’re approaching all possibilities
October 5, 2017 By Sam Mellinger/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/sam-mellinger/article177267481.html
Over and over and over again this time of year, Royals executives have known their future would depend on Eric Hosmer. Not just Hosmer. But he’s always been the key to all of this.
When the “Our Time” Royals of 2012 stunk, it was largely because Hosmer stunk. They fired the hitting coach because of it. When the 2014 Royals stunk early, it was largely because Hosmer stunk early, and again they changed hitting coaches. When that same team won the 2014 AL Wild Card Game, it was largely because of Hosmer’s triple in the 12th.
And when the 2015 Royals won the World Series, Hosmer had a terrific season, and huge moments in the playoffs, including the mad dash home in New York.
Now, perhaps one last time, Hosmer will determine the future of the Royals.
This time, for more than one season.
Royals officials are making it clear that Hosmer is their top offseason priority. If they are able to re-sign him, they will try to shed some payroll and make an aggressive offer to Mike Moustakas or Lorenzo Cain. If Hosmer signs somewhere else, the Royals will move to a contingency plan.
You probably won’t like the contingency plan.
But, first, let’s talk about how they might sign Hosmer.
The Yankees will be in need of a first baseman, and if the Yankees want Hosmer, the Royals are not going to win a bidding war. The Red Sox will also presumably be shopping.
The Royals’ strongest recruiting pitch to their own free agents was made last weekend, when they turned the last homestand into their own version of Senior Day.
Royals general manager Dayton Moore has never directly played on sentiment in negotiations. He hasn’t done it in extending contracts to homegrown stars, and he didn’t do it two winters ago when Alex Gordon was a free agent.
But whether intended this way or not, the party and love from the organization and fans is the strongest possible statement about what those players mean to the Royals and Kansas City.
Each man is different — Moustakas is the most emotional, Hosmer the most stable; Cain wants love and comfort and Escobar wants the same plus opportunity — but those feelings are real.
The reality, however, is that those memories will exist no matter what. None of them would be the first to leave a place they loved and had success for another place that offered more money.
The Royals know they cannot offer the biggest contract to Hosmer, so they will likely follow the same plan that eventually landed Gordon two years ago: stay in touch, be patient, trust that they’ll have a chance after other offers come in, and then get as close as possible.
Hosmer signing with the Royals would require a series of breaks their way. Many around the game believe Hosmer could get $150 million or more. They would need to be wrong. Many around the game believe Hosmer wants to play in a bigger market. They would need to be wrong about that, too.
The market would have to shake in a way that Hosmer would not be offered what many believe, and his mind would likely have to get to a place where he was willing to take less. Not $50 million less. Nobody does that. But even a relatively small percentage of the total value could be in the seven figures.
Do you know anyone who’s turned down a million dollars?
Two years ago, most around baseball believed Gordon could get around $100 million. That never happened. A list of breaks went the Royals’ way, most notably Jason Heyward signing with the Cubs, which took the richest potential suitor for Gordon off the market. Gordon signed with the Royals for $72 million.
We don’t need a full sentence to acknowledge the Royals would hope Hosmer’s deal turns out better than Gordon’s has, but they would likely also need to give him some assurance that they were building a winner around him.
That could mean moving players like Ian Kennedy, Joakim Soria, Jason Hammel and Brandon Moss. All of those contracts are backloaded, so the Royals would need to eat some money. They haven’t done much of that in the past, but would have to see the opportunity to keep homegrown stars long-term as reason to break protocol.
But, again. All of this depends on Hosmer seeing a softer market than most expect, and reacting with a decision most don’t expect.
Even internally, club officials acknowledge this is unlikely.
So they’re coming up with a contingency plan to play next season without Hosmer, Moustakas, and Cain for the first time since 2010.
The contingency plan is, basically, to make the best of a bad situation by combining low-risk moves with hope.
Hosmer, Moustakas and Cain each figure to be among the top 10 free agents on the market this winter, but if the Royals can’t sign any of them, they are highly unlikely to pursue others.
That means filling holes with smaller contracts (Mark Reynolds replaces Hosmer at first?) or internally (Cheslor Cuthbert replaces Moose at third). At that point, the Royals would effectively be admitting a rebuild.
The position players and pitching staff would each figure to be in the bottom third, and their team defense would be further diminished. Moore would never commit to a virtual tank like some other clubs, such as the Astros, have done (successfully). But he could still find models to copy.
The Twins, for instance, had no intention of making this year’s postseason. They traded their closer at the deadline, and internally were ceding the wild card. But they kept winning, caught a few breaks, and took advantage of everyone else fading in the wild-card race.
This year it was the Twins, next year it could be the Royals.
The White Sox, to use another example, have shown how quickly you can go from all-in to full rebuild. They were among the heaviest suitors of Gordon two years ago, trying to push forward in the division while Chris Sale and others were still in arbitration. It never took, and Sale, Adam Eaton, Jose Quintana and others were dealt for prospects.
So the Royals could, at least in theory, hope to be next year’s Twins, and if that doesn’t work out, try to be next year’s White Sox.
Danny Duffy, Sal Perez, Whit Merrifield and others could be a workable nucleus for a playoff run with the right luck. But if they get to June and July without a realistic chance, they could always flip some proven big-leaguers for help in the future.
If this sounds wishy-washy, like an organization that doesn’t know exactly what it wants to be, it’s actually similar in philosophy to how they made the parade.
When he came to Kansas City, Moore didn’t intend to build a team without home-run power — first thing he wanted to do as GM was move the fences in.
He didn’t intend to build the best bullpen in modern baseball history — strongest belief he had when he arrived was the importance of starting pitching.
But the Royals’ best teams hit very few home runs, and had a line of shutdown relievers, because the front office identified cost-effective workarounds to the traditional ways of winning.
They’ll have to continue to think on their feet, but for now, they wait. Everything depends on Hosmer.
NATIONAL
Execs open up on dysfunction threatening Braves’ foundation
October 5, 2017 By Joel Sherman/New York Post
http://nypost.com/2017/10/05/execs-open-up-on-dysfunction-threatening-braves-foundation/
Part of the fallout from MLB’s investigation into illegalities, especially in the international market, that led to the resignation of Braves GM John Coppolella earlier this week is how much did vice chairman John Schuerholz and president of baseball operations John Hart know and what is their level of culpability in a matter that has brought disgrace to the franchise.
In phone conversations with The Post, both mainly stayed clear of specifics on the incident, citing that MLB’s investigation remains ongoing.
However, both insisted that two items that have been part of the upshot of this incident – that their relationship has deteriorated and that Hart simply does not work hard enough at his job – are untrue.
Coppolella resigned earlier in the week for “a breach of MLB rules regarding the international player market,” the Braves said in a statement. International head scout Gordon Blakeley also resigned.
Hart took over as the GM at least on an interim basis. His contract is up, but he said he expects to stay on (full disclosure, Hart and I once worked together at the MLB Network).
Hart left the MLB Network in September 2014 to become the Braves president of baseball operations. He said he had no desire to take on such responsibility, but did so because of his long friendship with Schuerholz – which within the sport was known as one of the tightest in the game.
But over the last year in particular word has circulated out of the Braves organization that Hart and Schuerholz were less convivial with one another and at times openly feuding.
“Coppy (Coppolella) may have had problems with John Schuerholz, but John brought me in out of my perfect life to come here,” Hart said. “John is a dear friend. We have gone to lunch three times this week. Our families will go to dinner. No one in baseball agrees on everything. John is proud of the guys here and all of that. That one (that we are feuding) is laughable. John is my best friend in the game. Working with him is a joy and fun. He is stepping back (from baseball operations), way back, he has for the last year-plus. … He is a special guy. I love the man, I do.”
Schuerholz, who was the champion GM of both the Royals and Braves and was elected to the Hall of Fame last year, said: “My relationship with John Hart is as good and strong as it has been.”
Nevertheless, there is belief in baseball’s inner circles that Schuerholz wants to hire current Royals GM Dayton Moore to replace Hart. Schuerholz was Moore’s mentor in Atlanta. There is a split in the industry if Moore would go or not, in part because he has roots in Kansas City, loyalty to the owning Glass family and passion for the urban baseball initiatives he has helped foster in the Kansas City area. But all spoken to agree on one issue – Moore will not come to work under Hart, only to replace him.
“I won’t comment on that on because it would be disrespectful to Dayton and the Kansas City Royals,” Schuerholz said.
Hart said the team is looking for someone to take on GM responsibilities, but that he is fully comfortable doing so for now and whatever period is needed. Though the Braves are currently looked at as chaotic, their powerful farm system continues to make them an attractive GM job.