Kansas City Royals Farm System Overview – 2010
Overview
I really like what the Kansas City Royals have done with their draft philosophy over the past few years — mainly since the 2007 draft.
The 2007 draft is admittedly a little shaky. Moustakas is still looked at as a very good prospect, but he has some red flags and you’d like to have gotten more out of the No. 2 pick. A couple of their high round pitchers have been mediocre, but they did manage to find Danny Duffy in the third round, David Lough in the 11th round, and Hilton Richardson — though he’s a fringy prospect — in the 7th round.
But the 2008 and 2009 drafts have the chance to produce massive hauls for the Royals. The 08′ draft has produced Mike Montgomery, Tim Melville, and John Lamb. Not to mention their top pick — Eric Hosmer — still has a lot of potential with the bat. The team was able to assemble other talent as well, like Johnny Giavotella who was a little bit of a disappointment last year, but not a bust and Tyler Sample, a high upside, but high risk pitching prospect.
The 2009 draft has a chance to be just as good as 2008. Aaron Crow is an advanced level pitching prospect that could pay dividends in the next year or so. Wil Myers has a chance to be a special bat. Chris Dwyer, a 4th round pick, has two plus pitches and a chance to start at the big league level, and Louis Coleman is a versatile pitcher who should be able to help the Royals big league club relatively quickly. And we have yet to see who will emerge from the 2009 draft as a quality prospect in their own right.
Let me cut to the chase. What I really like about the Royals’ last three drafts, especially the 08′ and 09′ drafts is that they’ve accumulated high level pitching. What I like is that the pitching they’ve accumulated have well rounded games. They aren’t just boom-or-bust arm strength guys. We’re talking about pitchers who have both a good fastball and advanced secondary stuff. Pitchers that actually have a good feel for pitching. Pitchers that can control/command almost all of their pitchers. They have collected pitchers that are easy to project as starters at the Major League level, and not just back of the rotation types.
The team has been pretty dormant when it comes to signing premium talent outside of the United States recently, but that changed this offseason when the team signed Cuban defect Noel Arguelles. And he fits right in with the kind of pitcher the team has drafted though he’s a little more raw and doesn’t have quite the command of the pitchers I mentioned above.
The team will have another high draft pick in 2010 where they can add another premium talent to their system.
The progress the team has made through the draft has not been replicated at the Major League level. GM Dayton Moore made some pretty ridiculous moves, trading for Yuniesky Betancourt, Coco Crisp, Mike Jacobs and signing Kyle Farnsworth and Juan Cruz. Not even mentioning that collection of veterans would lead to very few wins on a team not expected to compete to begin with, the bottom line is those players simply weren’t very good when the Royals acquired them.
The Royals needed to focus on player development, investing in the draft and into markets outside of the U.S. Once the Royals are on the cusp of competing, then the Royals can fill in the holes via free agency and through trades. And I think — I think — Moore has gotten the message, but we don’t know for sure…at least not yet. He made a couple deals this past offseason that I’m OK with:
Mark Teahan for Chris Getz and Josh Fields, signing Rick Ankiel and Scott Podsednik to 1-year deals…I don’t have any problems here. They are essentially stop gaps and there is no long term commitment there. However, Jason Kendell at two years, $6 million is an ugly, terrible signing.
The Royals system overall was difficult to rank. Moustakas and Hosmer both have red flags, but their tools are evident and they are still so young, it’s difficult to project what they’ll ultimately be. The pitchers were even more difficult because you have a lot of similar pitchers with similar upsides at similar levels. The hardest part was ranking Duffy, Melville, and Lamb. All three pitchers are very close in talent and upside.
Royals Top-15 Prospects
Key Links1. Wil Myers | C | Age – 19 | Grade – B+
2. Mike Montgomery | LHP | Age – 20 | Grade – B+
3. Aaron Crow | RHP | Age – 23 | Grade – B/B+
4. Mike Moustakas | 3b | Age – 21 | Grade – B
5. Danny Duffy | LHP | Age – 21 | Grade – B
6. Eric Hosmer | 1b | Age – 20 | Grade – B
7. Tim Melville | RHP | Age – 20 | Grade – B
8. Noel Arguelles | LHP | Age – 20 | Grade – B-
9. John Lamb | LHP | Age – 19 | Grade – B-
10. David Lough | CF | Age – 24 | Grade – B-
11. Jeff Bianchi | SS/2b | Age – 24 | Grade – B-
12. Chris Dwyer | LHP | Age – 22 | Grade – B-
13. Louis Coleman | RHP | Age – 24 | Grade – C+
14. Carlos Rosa | RHP | Age – 25 | Grade – C+
15. Tyler Sample | RHP | Age – 20 | Grade – C+
› Prospect Primer (Grading Criteria Explained)
› Team Page Listings
› Index of 2010 Top-15 Prospect Lists
› Index of 2009 Top-15 Prospect Lists
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