Despite the usual rhetoric, the Royals minor league squads started winning almost immediately, taking championships at multiple levels along the way to a 2015 World Series title. The first championship came at the Low-A level in 2008 at the Midwest League after the Burlington Bees rode a second-half division title into the playoffs and through a perfect playoff run. Ten years later, the Royals front office built another Low-A championship as the Lexington Legends defeated the Lakewood BlueClaws for the South Atlantic League title. Ten years apart and built in similar fashions but how does this recent championship team compare to that one?

Moustakas ’08 Flickr

The 1st Round Pick – Both teams had a 1st round pick who struggled in the early part of their season before finding a groove.
Burlington SS/3b – Mike Moustakas – Yes, Moose started the season at shortstop for the Bees playing 57 games there before making his move to third in June and playing there primarily during the second half of their season. .272/.337/.468 22 HR – Midwest Lg HR leader
Lexington 1b – Nick Pratto – the Royals 2017 1st round pick actually got on base at a higher clip and hit for a slightly higher average, finishing one extra-base hit shy of the 50 Moustakas put up. They did it in different fashions with Pratto striking out at nearly 13% higher clip.

Both players took off during the final two months of their seasons with Moustakas hitting .318/.386/.552 with 10 HR from July 1st to the end of the season compared to Pratto’s .319/.395/.516 with 7 HR. Pratto did perform better in the Low-A playoffs with his 1.148 OPS in six games compared to Moose’s .801.

The new pitcher with a strong finish – The seasons that Danny Duffy and Yefri Del Rosario put up 10 years apart were strikingly similar with both pitchers getting off to slow starts in their first three outings before getting in an outstanding groove.

Duffy – Paul Gierhart/MiLB.com

Burlington LHP – Danny Duffy – 17 Starts, 81.2 IP, 2.20 ERA, 0.99 WHIP

With an 8.49 ERA after three starts, Duffy didn’t give up more than three runs in any of his final 14 starts while allowing just 15 runs in 70 innings against 84 K’s

Lexington RHP – Yefri Del Rosario – 15 Starts, 79 IP, 3.19 ERA, 1.24 WHIP

After a 10.45 ERA in his first three starts, Del Rosario pitched his final 13 outings with just two starts of four runs allowed while giving up just 16 earned runs in his final 74.2 innings including his one shutout playoff starts against 68 K’s

The football player converting to full-time baseball

CF/LF- David Lough – Aside from Moose, a big breakout prospect for the Bees was a former football player who showed off his athleticism in the outfield while hitting .268/.329/.455.
CF/LF Brewer Hicklen – It was Hicklen who led the Lexington team in OPS and stolen bases, having a breakout season after playing baseball while accepting a football scholarship at UAB. He finished at .307/.378/.552.

Both teams added players to help them make their playoff runs with Burlington adding Johnny Giavotella to the top of their lineup along with a fireballing right-hander named Kelvin Herrera earning a promotion from rookie level Burlington, NC getting a bump to the Iowa roster in mid-August. Herrera gave the Bees six innings of two-run ball in his only playoff start while Gio helped carry the Bees offense in the playoffs with a hit in all six games highlighted by five hits, five runs scored and five RBIs with a pair of home runs in the two-game championship series. Meanwhile, the Legends received multiple late-season additions in Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar, and Kyle Isbel just to name the 2018 draftees. The two drafted pitchers gave up just three combined runs in their four playoff starts while Isbel chipped in with a .779 OPS in his 39 minor league games.

The teams compare as a whole statistically, with the ’08 Bees having a slight advantage in team ERA 3.49 to 3.61 compared to the Legends advantage in offensive OPS .733 to .722 while scoring 65 more runs. One can see a major difference in strikeouts on the offensive end with the Legends striking out 304 more times during the season. That number didn’t translate on the pitching side however, with the Legends staff striking out just eight more hitters in an extra 17 innings thrown.

Photo via Lexington Legends IG

These comparisons don’t do the Legends a lot of favors as the team was very deep in talent, winning a championship despite their top prospect, Seuly Matias, missing most of the second half of the season. In addition to Matias, the Legends lost Carlos Hernandez who had a sub-3 ERA during his final 10 starts before encountering injury. Comparing the two teams, the Legends starting pitching appears far deeper with Lynch, Kowar, Del Rosario and Hernandez leading the way compared to Burlington’s staff that added Herrera very late to Duffy and one of their better pitchers during the season, Danny Gutierrez. One of the more talented arms on the staff was Juan Abreu who was lost via a free agency snafu by the Royals and made seven appearances with the 2011 Astros. While the gap in terms of pitching does favor Lexington, the gap offensively seems rather large with Pratto, Matias, Isbel and MJ Melendez leading the way while getting All-Star contributions from Sebastian Rivero and a quality season from Hicklen.

Team to team, I give the edge to Lexington as would former major leaguer and Bees alum Clint Robinson, who scouts for another organization, saying that the overall talent on the Lexington club is by far better. “Lexington was better in nearly every facet of the game minus the infield.” That said if the Royals get three established major leaguers like Moose, Duffy, and Herrera alongside four other major league contributors from this squad they will be well ahead of the game.

MLB Contributors on the ’08 Bees
Danny Duffy
Kelvin Herrera
Mike Moustakas
Clint Robinson
Johnny Giavotella
David Lough
Juan Abreu

Featured Photo was taken from the Bees Blog

Follow me on Twitter @ClintScoles for information from Royals instructs next week.

Mike Moustakas has been traded, but the world keeps turning. While we say goodbye to Moose, we say hello to Brett Phillips and Jorge Lopez, two former top-100 prospects who are ready for the big leagues right now.

Is it the right move? Should the Royals have gotten younger prospects? And anyway, how does it fit with the current crop of Royals prospects?

We talked about these things and the fun, new energy on the Royals lately. They’re still pretty bad, but they’re at least a little more fun.

Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and BlogTalkRadio. You can also download this episode here (mp3).

Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com.

After Mike Moustakas joined forces with Lorenzo Cain in Milwaukee, the 2015 cupboard has officially been cleaned. Eric Hosmer is underperforming in San Diego. HDH is scattered to the four winds. RIP Yo. A whole eight players from the 2015 title team remain in the organization, and that’s counting Terrance Gore (he has not played in Kansas City in 2018) and Adalberto Mondesi (made one appearance, in the World Series, in all of 2015). What remains are players nobody else wants (Alex Gordon, Paulo Orlando, Alcides Escobar), players too valuable to the franchise to move for any less than a king’s ransom (Salvador Perez, Danny Duffy, BERTO, Gordon again) and Drew Butera, who doesn’t really fall into any of these categories.

So yeah. That’s…it. It could’ve gone better, I guess? I’m not sure how, but it seems like it should take more than three seasons to go from a title to 105 losses. The last time—the only time—that’s happened was when the Philadelphia A’s won the 1913 World Series and then lost 109 games two years later and 117 the year after that.

So we’re now watching history.

To quickly summarize (eulogize?) the Moustakas era in Kansas City, I can’t recall any player who has consistently refurbished how he did things so often and seemingly always as a net positive. After being picked second overall in 2007, he debuted in 2011 but it took awhile for him to find his footing. His first four years were probably highlighted by a 20-homer 2012 campaign (that also saw him hit .242 and strikeout 124 times), but he was rancid in 2013 (.233 average, .651 OPS) and worse to start 2014 (demoted to Triple-A Omaha) before catching fire late and clubbing five homers in the postseason.

A year later he was an All-Star and making the tumbling catch in the ALCS and winning the franchise’s first World Series in 30 years. He was a consistently above-average performer his last four seasons in Kansas City, even with an ACL tear robbing him of most of his 2016 season. He set the franchise record for single-season home runs last year and participated in the Home Run Derby. Moose is a big ol’ hogmolly of a boy and I will miss him his big lumbering self launching homers into the right field bullpen, until he comes back in the offseason—three years, $39 million, you heard it here first!

Like his buddy Hosmer, Moose expected to cash in last offseason. Unlike Hosmer, the market never developed and he and the organization eventually entered into a marriage of convenience for 2018. It started great (.302, eight homers over the first month) but has steadily declined, to the point where he was hitting .191 in July. For a two-month rental, the return (Jorge Lopez, Brett Phillips, Brett Phillips’ hysterical laugh) is pretty great.

Where that leaves the franchise moving forward is anyone’s guess. Lopez will need a minute. Phillips is a great addition to an already-crowded outfield; Gordon is getting paid either way, so he’s probably playing, and Phillips’ howitzer arm needs to play. That means one of the Jorge’s (Bonifacio and Soler) will get to DH a lot more than they’d probably like. Rosell Herrera has been a bright spot since coming aboard, but he’s probably getting squeezed out (or moving to third, as has been alluded to).

Ned Yost also telling me he will look at Alcides Escobar, Hunter Dozier and Rosell Herrera at third base

— Joel Goldberg (@goldbergkc) July 28, 2018

Everyone will get a look at third—Esky, Dozier, Herrera, Whit Merrifield, Drew Butera, why not? If nothing else, this should mean, unequivocally, that Adalberto Mondesi plays shortstop every day for the rest of the season and beyond. If another deal for an infielder is made, it means someone—Nicky Lopez, Frank Schwindel, Ryan O’Hearn—will come to Kansas City. After some uncharacteristic whiffs over the last couple of years, it feels hard to describe this as anything other than a win for Dayton Moore, perhaps silencing some critics wondering if he was the right man for this rebuild.

The elusive future seems like it’s gaining clarity. Mike Moustakas, who played such a role in the previous foundation, helped on his way out the door provide for the Royals future.

According to Ned Yost, the Royals weren’t going to just give away Mike Moustakas and with the return they received that seems to be the case with two prospects who have seen Major League difficulties but have been on the radar for a bit.

Brett Phillips – Ranked the No. 10 Prospect in the Brewers organization in their recent re-rank, Phillips is a multi-tool centerfielder. The top tool in his box is his 80-grade arm, which was on display in a throw to the plate that was recorded at 104 mph last year. Alongside the cannon arm, Phillips has better than average speed and a tick-above-average power. The hit tool rates less than average by some but he’s flashed some ability in his brief callup in 2017 before struggles this season. With a crowded outfield in Milwaukee and prospect Corey Ray coming strong Phillips makes a logical player for the Brewers to move. The 24-year-old will likely be given the starting job on a rebuilding Royals team and given the opportunity to improve his hit tool; should he do that he can man centerfield for a few seasons before moving to a corner.

Cause and Effect – Are Bubba Starling’s days in the organization over? The acquisitions of Phillips and Brian Goodwin in the past week leave no opening for the former first-round pick, and with a crowded outfield of Alex Gordon, Jorge Soler, and Jorge Bonifacio the Royals could be looking to platoon Gordon going forward as well.

Jorge Lopez – In Lopez, the Royals are getting an erratic right-hander that works in the mid 90’s with his fastball with a plus curveball. The No. 2 prospect in the Brewers system as recently as 2015 Lopez has seen his stock take a dive after problems at Triple-A and the big leagues. Even with the struggles with control in the majors, Lopez is able to create groundball contact with his two above-average pitches and would be a welcome addition to a bullpen full of struggling pitchers. Should Cal Eldred help him improve his command then he has the makings of a quality relief sixth/seventh inning role reliever.

Cause and Effect – This may get a poor reliever off the 40 man.

Final Analysis – This is a no-brainer for a two month rental of Mike Moustakas. The Royals get one possible above-average everyday player and a reliever with some upside. In Phillips, the Royals are getting a possible 2-3 win player at a position of need (centerfield) that won’t be arbitration eligible until 2021 and won’t be a free agent until 2024. On the low-end, Phillips likely profiles as a fourth outfielder who can platoon on the good side and play some center and right with good range. Add in a nearly-ready reliever lottery ticket and this makes for a very positive return by GMDM.

By August 6, the trade deadline will be ancient news. Any (or all!) of Mike Moustakas, Whit Merrifield, Danny Duffy, Lucas Duda and others could be suiting up in different uniforms. Half of Omaha could be in Kansas City by then. Alcides Escobar is sure to have earned another plate appearance bonus check.

Which’ll be great, because I can’t imagine a scenario where they’ll be content to just kind of phone in a game like they did Wednesday. Against the Tigers—and this was a bad Detroit lineup, Nicholas Castellanos aside.

First I want to talk about hanging Duffy out to dry on a day when he clearly didn’t have it. Brian Flynn and Jason Adam hadn’t pitched since Saturday, Glenn Sparkman since July 15. I didn’t need 107 pitches of proof that this wasn’t Duffy’s day, Flynn proved he could do multiple innings in Saturday’s appearance and Sparkman HADN’T DONE ANYTHING IN 10 DAYS. This was just needless and stupid and dumb, not even factoring in that it gives contenders a reason to be out on Duffy or could’ve gotten him hurt—I don’t even think he’ll be traded. I think Duffy had turned in some good performances of late and maybe the old adage of “My ace needs to get me at least to the sixth inning” should be slightly amended for a near-30 year old who spent a lot of last season bouncing around on the disabled list, particularly when he’s getting beaten around by the likes of [checks notes] Jeimer Candelario.

Know when to cut your losses, Ned.

I’ll zoom through the carnage quickly, which was the one bright spot to this game (duration: two hours, 50 minutes). Detroit struck for a run in the second after John Hicks doubled and Victor Martinez’s Corpse singled. The Royals countered with a run-scoring Alex Gordon double to plate Hunter Dozier. So far, so not-bad.

Then the Tigers scored four runs in the fourth. It started with a Hicks walk and a Martinez single, then was compounded by a Duffy wild pitch that scored Hicks and moved Martinez to second. I would’ve scored that a passed ball, but I can get behind the ruling; Duffy missed his spot by, to use a scouting term, “A lot.”

After Ronny Rodriguez grounded out, Duffy served up a single to JaCoby Jones and a homer to Jose Iglesias. And then he pitched to 11 more batters!

The Royals scratched another back in the fifth, when Whit Merrifield singled and stole second. Moustakas then slapped an opposite-field double to make it a three-run deficit, and precisely one more runner reached scoring position the next three innings.

Duffy was mercifully removed with two outs in the sixth, but not before two more runs came across. After Iglesias walked and Victor Reyes singled, ANOTHER wild pitch (this one all Duffy, Perez was barely able to get a piece of it) scored Iglesias. Then Candelario singled to score Reyes and that was, finally, that.

The Tigers tacked on another in the ninth, when Adam had some command issues, walking Niko Goodrum and Hicks before allowing Martinez’s Corpse to drive in another run. Bully for him.

Two quick outs followed for the Royals in the ninth. Then Adalberto Mondesi singled, Merrifield tripled and Rosell Herrera singled. Whoa, it’s 8-4 and Moustakas is up! For old time’s sake, could he come through?

Nope. Strikeout. Ballgame. Let’s start a road trip, gang!

Your Tweet of Despair

30 more losses to 100. #Royals

— Mark Van Baale (@markvanbaale) July 25, 2018

The Bright Spot: Merrifield, Moustakas and Mondesi each collected two hits. By Monday, Mondesi may be the only one left.

The Nadir: We’ve discussed all the bizarre stuff relating to Duffy, but how’s about Jorge Bonifacio’s 0-for-4? No strikeouts either, must’ve been some real borderline hacks with two strikes that he just had to put into play.

Here was the pitch location in his fourth at-bat, on 1-2 count.

1-2 count, third at-bat

And his second at-bat, on a 2-2 count

That’s just bad luck, to get those hittable pitches and have nothing to show for it.

The Next Step: Jakob Junis and Sonny Gray start the series in the Bronx at 6:05 p.m. (CT), Thursday. Junis was on a pitch count his last time out, will be interesting to see if the restrictions come off.

His findings were basically there is no wrong answer when it comes to which one you prefer. There were some outliers who didn’t correlate so well when comparing the three, based on some freakish offensive performances (think Barry Bonds), but for the most part, the advanced metrics are generally in agreement. It’s nothing Earth-shattering, but interesting nonetheless.

So how do the numbers stack up when looking at the 2018 version of the Royals offense?

The Royals don’t walk and they don’t hit home runs. The numbers don’t lie. Their walk rate of seven percent is 28th in baseball. (But third in the Central. My goodness, this division is abjectly awful.) They’re dead last in home runs, with 81 through the weekend. Although they are lurking behind the Marlins and Tigers at 83 and 82 dingers, respectively. By this fact, the Royals should fare worse in OPS+, which places more weight behind the free pass and the dinger, than your other favorite composite offensive metric.

TAv has factored situational hitting into the sauce. That means things the Royals really seem to be good at, like those productive outs, carry a little more weight. But, hold on a moment. Situational hitting is also things such as bringing home runners from third with fewer than two outs and avoiding double plays. Those are two things the Royals aren’t so good at. The Royals have a 12.5 percent double play rate, which is the third highest in baseball. They’ve scored just 45 percent of runners on third with fewer than two outs. That’s the fourth-worst rate in the majors.

So why not take a look at how the 2018 Royals do when it comes to all three offensive metrics? We know it’s not going to be pretty. They’re at or near the bottom in nearly every key offensive statistic you can dream up. Individually, there haven’t been any standout performances. This is a dreadful offense. Still, we are a Royals site. We soldier on.

The following table is sorted by plate appearances.

There are a couple of things we can immediately glean from this table. For starters, it’s a very good thing Whit Merrifield is leading off these days. He’s the best hitter on the team who isn’t on the disabled list (we see you, Jorge Soler) and it obviously makes sense the top offensive performer should get the most chances. We can say the same about Mike Moustakas, although the bat has cooled. The Phillies had another scout in attendance on Monday, but Moustakas sat. Still, the trade winds are blowing hard. The wager here is he will be removed from this table sometime this week.

Alas, beyond the top two names, the good offensive news stops abruptly. The Royals continue to insist that Alcides Escobar is a capable everyday player, but that’s just not the case anymore. There’s no amount of defense that can justify giving that many plate appearances to a batter that abjectly awful in the batter’s box. 

Had we run these numbers at the end of June, things would have looked a little more grim in the case of Salvador Perez. And boy do the Royals need to get Jorge Soler back. Although it sounds like his return isn’t pending anytime soon.

The numbers, as you should expect given the linear regression relationship, are fairly consistent across the board. There isn’t an individual on this club who does anything in the extreme. (Although you could argue that Escobar makes a ton of outs. This would be accurate.)  Take someone like Lucas Duda as an example as he’s the most pedestrian of the current Royals roster. Sure, he walks a little less than league average and strikes out a little more often, but by and large, he’s a league-average player in every facet of his offensive game.

Duda’s traditional numbers are in line with his more advanced metrics. A point off the average TAv and a couple points below league average when it comes to wRC+ and OPS+. He did well against a left-handed starter on Monday. He was never signed to this team to play the entire season. We’ll see if someone will pay for a platoon advantage when he hits against the righties and an overall league average player. 

The big outlier is in the lineup is Bonifacio. His TAv outpaces his wRC+ and OPS+ by quite a bit. Some of that certainly comes down to sample size. He has just 70 plate appearances on the year through Sunday. 

This little exercise doesn’t necessarily prove anything; it basically confirms what we already know about the Royals offense. It’s grim. Things look to change in the next week with the addition of Brian Goodwin and the probable subtraction of Moustakas. The return of Adalberto Mondesi from family leave should reduce the playing time of Escobar. There may be more lineup alterations forthcoming. However, the changes aren’t any kind of panacea. In fact, things look to get worse before they get better.

Still, given the suboptimal pieces there’s an optimal lineup to be constructed. It does still exist. Good luck figuring that out.

• The rotation in the final 67 games is especially intriguing to me. Barring a trade or injury, Danny Duffy is going to get 13-14 more starts. Barring another injury, Jakob Junis is going to get 13-14 more starts. Both of them are pretty important if the Royals really do plan to look competitive as soon as 2020 (which I still think is too soon). The rest is fluid to me and very interesting. Brad Keller has shown quite a bit as a starter, but his last two starts pretty much highlighted every reason why people who were skeptical about him were skeptical about him. Then there’s Burch Smith, who I don’t think is even a big leaguer, if we’re being honest. And then there’s Ian Kennedy, who is owed a lot of money, but that money has been spent. There’s no reason not to get a look at some pitchers down the stretch, even if it means a temporary sojourn to the bullpen for him. You guys know that I’m a Trevor Oaks fan, even though his couple of starts haven’t gone well. I’d like to see what he can do in 8-10 starts down the stretch. Eric Skoglund just had a successful rehab start in Surprise, so it looks like he might be back soon. I’m very curious to see if the progress he made early in the year is sustainable. If/when Scott Barlow is healthy, I’d love to see him make some starts as well. And honestly, even if the Royals have to back off Duffy for a start here and there to get a look at some other guys, I’m more than okay with it. The hope is obviously that a couple of the guys from this draft are up and at the top of the rotation by 2021 or so, but there’ll need to be others to fill in. It’ll be good to find out now (and next season) who can be part of that.
• For your weekly Adalberto Mondesi update, remember back to the series in Milwaukee when he first started looking like a big league hitter? Well, since and including that series, he’s hitting .294/.308/.549. Yes, it’s 52 plate appearances. That’s not a lot. Yes he’s walked just once. That’s way too few. Yes, he’s got a .343 BABIP, which actually might not be that high for a guy with his speed, but it’s still high on the surface. But it is so nice to see him have some big league success finally. Even his overall numbers show something. He’s got a .194 ISO, so he’s clearly hitting for power. He has roughly half the extra base hits of Alcides Escobar in about 20 percent of the plate appearances. He’s still swinging at way too many bad pitches and he’s still really struggling with breaking balls, but that’s likely going to plague him for at least awhile. It’s probably why he isn’t likely to be a star, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a key cog on the next good Royals team. He’s flashed exciting defense as well, so if he’s able to maintain a moderately high average and show off the type of ISO he’s shown off to this point, the Royals are in very good shape with him moving forward. They have 67 games left, and he needs to play at least 62 of them, with at least 90 percent of them coming at shortstop. I’m not confident that’ll happen, but you never know.
• The Dodgers trade of Manny Machado is great news for the Royals in their efforts to move Mike Moustakas and maybe even Whit Merrifield. Since the Dodgers weren’t in on either and some teams like the Phillies, Yankees and Braves were in on Moose and maybe Merrifield too, along with Machado, it bodes well for the Royals chances of getting a better return on at least Moose and maybe makes Merrifield even more desirable. On the Moose front, I’m still skeptical that he’ll bring back much, but when teams get desperate, they do some crazy things. Plus I’ve been wondering if offering certain prospects for one player in a deal that doesn’t get completed makes those prospects more likely to go in a different deal. It’s sort of like loosening the lid on the jar. Once the GM has decided they’re willing to move on from a prospect, is it easier to pry that prospect away? I really don’t know the answer, but I find it interesting to consider anyway. My guess is Moose ends up in either Philadelphia or New York, but the National League is so crazy that I could see the Cardinals, Rockies and maybe even the Diamondbacks getting involved. And that’s before injuries could factor in, though there’s less than two weeks before the deadline, so that time is running short. As for Merrifield, I think the Red Sox, Indians, Mariners, A’s, Phillies, Brewers, Rockies and maybe even the Nationals make sense for him as both short-term and long-term plays. It’ll be an interesting couple weeks and it’s made more interesting by the Dodgers splash this week.
• I’m starting to look ahead to the 2019 season, and while it’ll likely be more of the same for this team, I imagine we’ll see some small one-year deals signed similar to the ones for Jon Jay and Lucas Duda. There are obviously in-house options for pretty much every position, but I could see a scenario where the Royals go shopping for a first baseman, third baseman and center fielder next year. If they don’t end up trading Merrifield, he could be an option in center field if they end up going with Nicky Lopez and Mondesi up the middle, but if they do, maybe they go get Jay one more time to play center for a little bit or Cameron Maybin, who they were rumored to be interested in this year. At third, they have some options if they decide Hunter Dozier and Cheslor Cuthbert can’t cut it. Chase Headley, Pablo Sandoval or Luis Valbuena could all be a short term fit with an eye on trading for more prospects at the deadline. And at first, they should almost definitely go with someone in the organization just to give a shot to someone like Frank Schwindel, but maybe Duda gets a reprieve or they go with Matt Adams. I guess the point isn’t so much the names, but rather starting to think about where the Royals might be looking for short-term veteran fits, and those are the places that pop into my head.

The Royals limped…crawled…technically made it to the All-Star break and are on pace for a franchise-worst record. There weren’t a lot of positives in the first half, but Jeff and Mike made some predictions in March and had to check on the status of those calls at the break.

We discussed Jorge Soler, Alex Gordon, Jakob Junis, Mike Moustakas and more, plus a brief look at the Manny Machado trade and how it might impact the Royals over the next couple weeks.

Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and BlogTalkRadio. You can also download this episode here (mp3).

Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com. Email us a question and if we answer it on the air, we’ll send you a gift certificate to our friends at Kelly’s Westport Inn.

Just a quick note here. I’m listing some prospects who could be intriguing to the Royals. This isn’t that I think they’re going to be the return or that I’m hearing anything on them. These are just the types of guys in the range of the system that they could and seem likely to target in a Moustakas trade.

Atlanta Braves

The Braves probably aren’t really in any rush to make a deal for a third baseman because Johan Camargo has played really well for them, especially lately. They’re on here simply because they’ve been mentioned as a Moustakas suitor in the past. If they don’t believe Camargo is part of the future, I suppose they could flip him for Moose, which is something I wasn’t too wild about a couple weeks ago, but as the deadline gets closer, if that’s the best return, that’s the best return. The Braves have such a deep stable of young arms that they’re an attractive partner for the Royals with really any of their middle tier pitchers a good target here. I wonder if they’d take a look at Patrick Weigel who had Tommy John in the middle of last year and should be back at some point this season. That might be a steal for Moose, but one that isn’t without its risks.

Boston Red Sox

Yes they have Rafael Devers who just had a phenomenal game against the Yankees, but he hasn’t exactly been lighting it up this year. He does seem to have a bright future, but Moustakas is kind of the better version of him already. He strikes out less, walks a touch more and plays better defense with similar power. I don’t think this is a great fit, but Dave Dombrowski does some odd things sometimes. The Red Sox system isn’t great. A lot of the pieces they had were dealt for other pieces on the big league roster. Guys like Michael Chavis and Jay Groome are probably off limits in a Moose deal, but someone like Mike Shawaryn would be a nice return for him. It’s probably more likely to be a lower level guy, but hey, it’s worth asking. Darwinzon Hernandez would be an interesting target as well

Cleveland Indians

It’d be tough to make this deal work since it’s in the division, but a little easier knowing Moose isn’t a long-term guy in Cleveland. Although that might make it harder on the Indians side given that they wouldn’t want to give up a piece that could haunt them for years in exchange for two plus months of a guy. Jason Kipnis is a disaster at the plate and they could slide Jose Ramirez to second to accommodate Moustakas. It’d give them another lefty thumper to go along with Yonder Alonso and Michael Brantley (and the two switch hitting beasts they have), so it makes a lot of sense and the acquisition cost would be much lower than some of the other options. I could see the Royals targeting Aaron Civale, a righty who should be big league ready next season or maybe into 2020. Quentin Holmes is a 2016 draft pick who can fly, so that alone makes him a Royals-esque target. He’d probably be difficult to pry, but they’d definitely try. And if they’re looking for a relief prospect, James Karinchak has been dominant this year and matches up with the 2020 timeline they seem to be focusing on for some reason.

Los Angeles Angels

I’m not even sure they’re going to be buyers, but with Cozart out for the year now (and struggling anyway), the Angels could use a third baseman. And hey, there’s the southern California roots too, so that’s great. Moose might actually be a perfect target for the Angels since they’re barely on the fringe of contention, meaning they won’t want to pay the price for Manny Machado or even Eduardo Escobar. The Angels system is much improved, so there’s a little to choose from here. I’m sure the Royals would love Michael Hermosillo, who has been quite good in AAA but quite bad in the big leagues. If they’re making this deal, though, it’s likely because the Royals only asked for someone like Brennon Lund or Luis Pena.

Philadelphia Phillies

This is where the rumors are, but I think the Phillies are more interested in Machado than Moose. I’ve heard from multiple people that if a deal gets done, it would likely include Maikel Franco, which is the opposite of exciting but makes sense from the Phillies side. He’s a disappointing player, but he does have power, I guess. And he’s under team control through 2021. On one hand, acquiring a guy who hit .280/.343/.497 as a 22-year old is exciting. On the other hand, he hasn’t been nearly that good since 2015 and what’s really the point here other than to hope he rebounds after three straight mediocre or worse years and has trade value? Best case on a prospect front here might be Enyel De Los Santos, who has been fantastic this year in AAA, though I’m not confident the Phillies would give him up. The Royals might also like Kyle Young with his 6’10” frame or maybe Drew Anderson if they’re looking for a back end guy to be up soon. I’m not sure why that would be important, but you never know.

St. Louis Cardinals

There are rumors of interest, and there were rumors of interest in free agency as well. At the time, I thought Jedd Gyorko was a better option than paying Moose, but he’s struggled this year. They have Matt Carpenter at third, but could slide him to either second to replace a struggling Kolten Wong or first and could trade Jose Martinez, who is a hell of a hitter but pretty much a disaster defensively. I do think it would be hilarious if the Royals trade Moustakas for Martinez, just for the fan uproar. But that doesn’t seem so likely. Connor Jones is a guy who I think the Royals would have some interest in. This is a much tougher fit because I’m not sure there’s a great match in terms of what the Royals would want and what the Cardinals would give up.

Wherever Moose goes, the return is pretty unlikely to alter the franchise as some may have hoped would be the case back in April. But hey, you never know. Sometimes the secondary or tertiary pieces in a deal turn out to be the best. It’ll be a sad day when the Royals say goodbye to Mike Moustakas…again…but it’s a necessary move and it’s coming.

And it’s not that I don’t love being attached to the couch for three-plus hours at a time while Ryan Goins does Ryan Goins Things (grounds out weakly on a 3-1 count, swings-and-misses on pedestrian-speed belt-high fastballs, etc.); sometimes it’s a good reminder on the preciousness and fragility of life and that your choices are important. Like choosing to pinch-hit for Ryan Goins close and late or something.

Anyway, the Royals lost 3-2 to Texas. They’ve won twice in the month of June. They’ve scored as many runs since Saturday as Cleveland and Oakland scored tonight. Feel free to find your own fun little nuggets of truth. At my last little stop, one of the Very Important Editor Gentlemen told me to be less negative in my recaps, that people don’t like to hear about the bad parts when reading about they’re favorite teams.

Fortunately, I’m not 100 percent positive David and Craig do anything more than Control+F my writings to get most of the swear words cleaned up. So I can be as honest about this as I care to be; feel free to read elsewhere if you need these turds more polished than I care to make them.

Easy as it goes, the Rangers had a run three batters into the contest. Shin-Soo Choo (that man again) singled on the second pitch of the game, stole second and moved to third on an Elvis Andrus ground out. Nomar Mazara’s sac fly to center scored Choo easily. The game was tied for all of three batters.

Jakob Junis loaded the bases for poops and grins in the second, giving up singles to Jurickson Profar and Rougned Odor before walking Joey Gallo. But Junis cleaned up the mess as easily as he made it, inducing an Isiah Kiner-Falefa ground ball to Adalberto Mondesi, easily turning a double play, although Profar did come across.

The only two capable Kansas City hitters teamed up to halve the deficit in the bottom of the second. Alex Gordon lined a one-out single, scoring on Hunter Dozier’s double. Dozier decided to try for a triple, which might’ve been fine had Carlos Tocci fallen down, or accidentally thrown the ball over the fence or something but instead he made the strong thrown to Elvis Andrus, who threw Dozier out by 15 feet at third. Goins was the next batter, so it’s more likely than not that the one-out situation with a runner at second wouldn’t have come to fruition anyway.

It might’ve been better if Profar hadn’t robbed Salvador Perez’s leadoff rip in the hole between short and third, but squandered chances and so forth.

Odor homered in the sixth. Mike Moustakas homered in the ninth. They canceled one another out, although Odor’s bomb did get Junis halfway to the franchise record for homers allowed in a single season, which is fun!

One of the funniest moments of the season happened when Alcides Escobar—who only plays everyday thanks to the Royals obsession with his silly-ass streak—took a borderline strike three call and had the audacity to turn and say something to plate umpire Chad Fairchild.

Was it the right call? Probably not.

Does Alcides Escobar, of the .202 average on the season, have a leg to stand on when it comes to anything that happens at home plate? Also probably not.

The ninth inning had something resembling actual promise for the Royals after Moustakas’ leadoff homer. Perez singled, but Gordon struck out and Dozier’s force out pegged Perez at second. With Goins batting and two down, Dozier was caught on a delayed steal by Kiner-Falefa.

Kiner-Falefa is not a catcher. In fact, it was his first career big-league game as a catcher.

The Bright Spot: Three shutout bullpen innings are really good! I don’t personally believe that required four pitchers, but you could fill several books with things I believe that are wrong.

The Nadir: One-through-four in the order combined to go 2-for-15, with both hits coming in the ninth. Won’t win many games with what should, ostensibly, be your four best hitters batting .133.

The Next Step: A blessed day off (I’m gonna watch the NBA Draft because THAT is what actual hope looks like, not Ryan Goins) awaits on Thursday, while the defending World Champions look to reprise last weekend’s sweep in Kansas City when the Royals visit Houston. Danny Duffy and Dallas Keuchel square off in the opener.