So everything else aside, how will he play?
Relevant numbers:
Thanks to a) a bounceback season b) endless playing time and c) the relative decline in offense since the middle of the last decade, 2011 was Francoeur's most valuable season at the plate of his career. Per at bat, only his 70 games in 2005 (.370 wOBA) were better. The truth is, from 50,000 feet he doesn't really seem to have gotten more than marginally more patient, as his 5.6% walk rate was actually down from many of his prior seasons and right in line with where he's always been, but the power that he flashed early in his career returned. Line drives were slightly up and his speed score -- perhaps slimming down helped -- improved.
The splits reveal a familiar Francoeur story. He crushed left-handed pitching, posting a .570 SLG and a .934 OPS against southpaws in 168 PAs. Against righties, he wasn't as good, but he wasn't terrible either, at .279/.318/.445. His career OBP/SLG against righties, including 2011, is .300/.410. This is, overall, encouraging, because he hit better against both handed-pitchers, while maintaining his general trend as a hitter.
A raft of stories to grab onto as we near ever closer to the start of Spring Training. Positives and negatives included below. It's hard not to feel the enthusiasm.
Beyond our Royals, there's talk of the Cubs playing at the Cell, a look at the young Tribe, and a strange move by Billy Beane.
Royals:
Baseball:
This series is meant to get us to start thinking about the 2012 by way of their divisional rivals. How good are the Royals in relation to their opponents. Today's questions: Are the Royals better than the Twins?
Twins in a box: 2011 record: 63-99. Additions: Ryan Doumit, Jamey Carroll, Josh Willingham, Joel Zumaya. Losses: Joe Nathan, Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel, Jason Repko, Matt Tolbert, Anyone Who Liked Joe Mauer's Contract
Who would win a fight between Chris Getz and Johnny Giavotella?
The scenario: Getz says that "Thanatopsis" was William Cullen Bryant's best poem, Giavotella insists that his best work was actually "Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood." Things deteriorate. So who wins the fight before Francoeur jumps in and reminds everyone "we're all on the same team here!"
Late last week the Royals and Alex Gordon agreed to a one-year $4.775 million dollar contract, essentially splitting the difference between what both sides had wanted this winter. Although discussions of a long-term contract with Gordon came to a head this month, there is not immediate urgency here: Gordon is still under team control through the 2013 season.
Gordon's at an interesting point in his career. He's not quite the second coming of Jose Bautista, but he fact remains he hit .244/.328/.405 in his first 1641 PAs, then hit .303/.376/.502 in 688 last season. He has the pedigree and a number of plausible explanations for his previous struggles, but you have to look at all the data.
I'm a Gordon believer and a Gordon defender, and it's a rare opportunity for me to feel right about something. Nevertheless, no matte what you think the ultimate cause was, Gordon has had an up-and-down career, with some definite downs. Heading into his age 28 season, Gordon could take another step forward and develop into a real offensive force. He might also see his batting average drop down closer to his career levels, which might offset continued gains in other areas.
Just under $5 million is still a very good price for Gordon. Jeff Francoeur, mind you, is getting paid $6 million for 2012 and $7.5 M for 2013. If Gordon reproduces his 2011 in 2012, the Royals will have one of those good problems teams face, with a valuable player heading towards a nice 3-arb payday. Having good players is a good thing. Of course, they also risk Gordon deciding he'll want to hit the free agent market.
On the other hand, the Royals hold some flexibility at the moment, which is apparently what they value more. If Gordon struggles again, they might be able to secure him for a lower price.
Dave Cameron is the latest smug saber-terrorist to attack us. Why does he and the rest of the saber-dorks hate us? I believe he hates our way of life, hates our freedoms, hates our strength. He sees the wonderful strength of our farm system -- ranked #1 by all systems by default since after 2011 everyone stopped doing organizational rankings because we destroyed the metrics by being so awesome -- and our culture of winning, family, team-building, love, prudence, scouting, Bubba Starling and the rest of it he lashes out.
In the latest saber-attack, this basement dwelling infidel defined the Bruce Chen contract as one of the ten worst moves of the winter.
#9 – Royals Sign Bruce Chen For 2/9M
Bruce Chen is 35-years-old and has been a below average pitcher for nearly his entire career, and he showed no real signs of improvement last year – his low ERA was essentially just about preventing hits with men on base. There’s no reason to think that Chen has turned a corner at this point in his career, and he’s still just a generic #5 starter nearing the end of his career. Better pitchers than Chen had to settle for minor league contracts. Meanwhile, the Royals decided to throw money at the type of pitcher that the rest of baseball has learned isn’t worth any kind of guarantee. For a team with a limited budget, efficiency is mandatory, and this isn’t a very good way to spend 10% of their overall budget.
I demand that we show TWO Bruce Chen jokes on the jumbotron EVERY game in response to this. Don't let them win.
Welcome to the Gordon-palooza, in which we avoid the Gordon-pocalypse.
According to Dutton, the two sides are a) working on a one-year deal for 2012 to avoid arbitration and b) setting up a longer contract. Here's the money quote:
The Royals are believed to have offered an overall four-year package for about $30 million, which would mirror the deal reached last year with designated hitter Billy Butler.
The Royals and Gordon can do the one-year dance for 2012 and 2013, but they presumably wouldn't want to do so, unless one of the parties truly wants out. It's tough to talk about a deal that hasn't been struck yet, but a 4/30 deal could be fair for both sides.
KANSAS CITY - Officials announced today that current Royals GM "Dayton Moore" and UVA Men's basketball coach "Tony Bennett" are one and the same. It is not clear at press time if the man behind the complex and unprecedented double sports life is truly Moore, Bennett, or some as yet undiscovered third identity.
"Bennett" has been the head coach at the University of Virginia since 2009 and has been known in basketball circles for years, claiming to have been born in Wisconsin in the late 1960s. "Moore's" age is similar, though he is known to friends to have decried a Kansas birthplace.
The news came as a shock to both the baseball and basketball worlds, though not everyone has been upset.
"Frankly, I'm impressed," said Virginia fan Thomas Tidewater, "to coach those really boring Washington State teams and spend years methodically building the Royals farm system and acquiring former Braves at the same time? Amazing."
The net began to close on Moore/Bennett a few days ago, when he told a group of UVA beat writers that his biggest worry in ACC conference play was that "we don't have enough starting pitching, but hey, I didn't draft Luke Hochevar. Wait, I kinda did. No wait, I didn't. I mean, I'm a basketball coach."
An anoynmous source tipped off KC and UVA officials with photographs and the list of the exceedingly high number of college players from DC and Northern VA by Moore as Royals GM.
"He was trying to kill two birds with one stone." A local UVA observer tells Royals Review, "I think we were seeing a man running down the end of his rope after years of elaborate deception."
"We wouldn't see him around much in the winter," said Royal 2B Chris Getz, "but sometimes we'd see him in March and he'd always seem really frazzled and tired. Nobody knew."
Despite uproar it is not apparent what the future holds for Moore/Bennett, the Royals, or UVA basketball. Legal experts believe that almost certainly some degree of fraud was committed, but the case could take years to unravel.
"You don't do this alone," said FBI regional officer Mike Johnson, "we're still piecing together an incredibly complex case."
MLB Bud Selig has announced that he will hold off on taking action until all the facts are known, but added, "overall, this is a sad day. I blame the Players' Association and the agents representing amateur talent for allowing this to happen."
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