The Royals will play a baseball game tomorrow. This is not a drill. No, the game doesn’t mean anything and we’ll likely get relatively bored of spring training games in fairly short order, but that doesn’t change the fact that a baseball game will be played tomorrow between the Royals and another team. That’s darn exciting. There is some intrigue in the spring this season because the Royals have some positional battles to focus on, so we’ll have that this season. I’m just looking forward to seeing the team get on the field and actually play.
- I guess this will be my friendly reminder not to focus on or worry about spring training stats. For hitters, they’re often facing pitchers who aren’t big leaguers and likely aren’t to be big leaguers. Sometimes they’re facing pitchers who are working on a certain pitch or pitchers who are just looking to get in their work. Sometimes they hit a fly ball that would land at the warning track in Kansas City that flies out of the park in Surprise. On the pitching side, many of the same caveats apply. So many hitters in the games are not even remotely big league hitters, plus there’s the fact that there’s timing issues early in spring training after not seeing breaking stuff for awhile. While I lean toward the stats side of evaluation, spring training is a time where the scouting side and using what you actually see on the field is way more important than the alternative. And if you want a real indicator of how a guy is doing, listen to what Ned Yost says all spring. He’ll tell you who he likes for the roster. Sometimes it won’t be blatantly obvious, but if you pay attention, you’ll definitely know.
- Let’s talk about Eric Hosmer and an extension. I got overzealous last year and talked about what an extension for Hosmer would look like. I don’t think I was overzealous in what he would ask for (I settled on 7/$154 million), but I was overzealous in saying the Royals should sign the deal if he was willing to take some deferred money. I believe he’s still looking for a mega-contract similar to that, and if the Royals are willing to give him what he’s looking for, he’ll almost certainly forgo free agency. I don’t think they will, but if you’re wondering how a deal gets done, I think that’s the way. There’s a lot of talk about Hosmer’s value and what he’ll get in free agency. On one hand, front offices are getting smarter every year and Hosmer isn’t an elite player. On the other hand, he’s one of a very few first basemen worth signing and I count up to 12 teams who could have interest in him. He’ll be marketed as a budding superstar with vast postseason experience who comes through in the clutch. There’s an added bonus that he’ll be just 28 and leaves plenty of room for improvement. You might argue that he’s worth what Alex Gordon got or less, but when you have that kind of bidding for a player, I think all bets are off.
- For my money, I’d be going after Mike Moustakas long before Hosmer, and that’s not anything I would have expected to say a couple years ago. Moustakas is the better bet, though, for a couple reasons. The first is that I think his asking price is probably about half of what Hosmer is looking to get. That alone makes him more attractive for the long haul. But when you factor that in with the fact that he seems like a really good bet to actually be more valuable, that seals the deal. The thing is that his value isn’t just tied to him being on the field but what the Royals can do with him in the fold for the long-term. If they were to sign Moustakas, that would allow them to either look to deal Cheslor Cuthbert and/or Hunter Dozier or to use one of them at first base to give similar value to what Hosmer does for a fraction of the cost. If they can shop either or both of those, they could get back even more value potentially. So anyway, my point is that if I was the Royals, I’d get working on a Moustakas extension like yesterday and not worry about Hosmer.
- While there’s no reason to make any kind of a big deal about pitching lineups in the early part of spring training, I am very excited to see what guys like Josh Staumont and Jake Junis can do in Cactus League competition. Both, to me, are guys who could make an impact at the big league level. You all know about Staumont’s fastball, his ability to get strikeouts and his inability to limit walks, but him working with Dave Eiland throughout camp is something that interests me. Clint Scoles recently talked about Junis as one of his breakout candidates in the minors, and I can’t argue with him about that. I agree with Clint too, that Junis could be dynamite out of the bullpen given his repertoire. I think this might be my favorite part of spring training because you get the chance to see these guys who may not make the opening day roster but who have a shot to contribute during the season. I’m just glad baseball is back.