Restocking the cupboard

Picture via USA Today.com

Going into this year I was looking at the possibility of the Royals system ranking dropping off due to the extreme number of promotions.  I thought that Kansas City may go heavy in the bullpen with rookies or at least thought that they should along with the likely promotions of Giavotella, Hosmer and Moustakas but with the promotion of Salvador Perez the Royals have 10 rookies on their 25 man roster a number even I hadn’t thought of prior to September.  With 8 of those rookies appearing on the preseason Baseball Prospectus Top 20 one would normally say an organization has been stripped of talent at the minor league level.  How could a system replace that much talent and not fall off a cliff into the bottom half of organization rankings?  Well one way to do it is to spend a franchise record amount of money on the draft and in Latin America something that the Royals have just done.

With the signings of Bubba Starling, Jack Lopez, Kyle Smith and Bryan Brickhouse today the Royals have completed a process that saw them sign the equivalent of 9 first round picks according to major league slotting recommendations.  While it’s not a completely fair comparison to say Elier Hernandez and Adalberto Mondesi earned first round money because they signed under a open market driving their price up a tad, I think it is fair to say they would still be paid quite well under a draft scenario.  Leaving Mr. Glass with a job well done and a number of prospects we can watch come up in the 2nd wave.

Name                                            Pick                   Bonus                 Equivalent to MLB slot            

Bubba Starling                                1-5                    $7.5M                   3rd highest overall
Elier Hernandez                          Intl FA               $3.1M                    1st Round 3rd Pick
Adalberto Mondesi                    Int FA                $2M                       1st Rd 8th Pick
Cam Gallagher                               2-65                  $750K                  Supp. 1st Rd 46th Pick
Bryan Brickhouse                        3-95                  $1.5 M                    1st Rd 16th Pick
Kyle Smith                                      4-126                $695K                   Supp. 1st Rd 51st Pick
Jake Junis                                      29-876              $675K                  Supp. 1st Rd 53rd Pick
Patrick Leonard                           5-156                $600K                   Supp. 1st Rd 60th Pick
Jack Lopez                                    16-486               $750K                   Supp. 1st Rd 46th Pick

Now are all of these guys lock 1st round talents?  Probably not but Kansas City views them as 1st round money worthy talents and they have done pretty well at acquiring talent through the draft for one wave of talent so adding these players to the next wave is a good sign.

Lets take a quick look at the next wave ranking players from A ball and below.
#1  Cheslor Cuthbert - International jewel who is outplaying expectations
#2  Bubba Starling – Josh Hamilton, Bo Jackson the comparisons can sound crazy but he’s got crazy tools.
#3  Elier Hernandez – 5-tool talent who earned Royals biggest bonus ever
#4  Jorge Bonifacio – he’s impressed in the Appy league showing some 5-tool talent
#5  Brett Eibner – look past the low BA and Brett’s season hasn’t been bad showing impressive secondary skills
#6  Yordano Ventura – 93-97 mph FB w/ flashes of a + change
#7  Jason Adam – big kid who has flashed upper 90s and a + curveball
#8  Orlando Calixte – Intl. $1m signee who has some pop in the bat
#9  Michael Antonio – There is some pop in this kids bat even if it requires a move of position
#10  Adalberto Mondesi – $2m signee with great bloodlines
#11  Humberto Arteaga – $1M intl. signee who is a smooth gloveman
#12  Bryan Brickhouse – flashes low to mid 90s fb w/ solid cb, comes from a great high school background
#13  Cam Gallagher – Big time power RH bat who if he can stick at catcher could be a top notch prospect
#14  Kyle Smith – Advanced pitcher who could adjust to pro ball fast despite size.
#15  Brian Fletcher – Auburn has prepared him for life in the Midwest league but still needs work on defense
#16  Greg Billo – Ticking his velo up recently plus showing the ability to locate his curve and use his change.
#17  Patrick Leonard – Plus power prospect
#18  Kevin David – Oklahoma State catcher adjusting to his first pro season
#19  Jake Junis – $675K pitcher who is a good athlete and has advance feel for pitches
#20 Robinson Yambati, Sugar Ray Marimon, Leondy Perez, Leonel Santiago – Latin group all shown flashes during A ball
List doesn’t include lower profile internation signings like Darwin Castillo.

This group probably isn’t as touted as Moose and Hos were and I don’t see that overachiever similar to Giavotella but what this group has that the first wave lacked is an extreme amount of athleticism.  Starling, Eibner, Mondesi, Arteaga, Lopez and Calixte all profile as athletic up the middle players while Hernandez and Bonifacio have been profiled by some as potential 5 tool players along with Bubba.  The corner power potential of this group isn’t the same at the infield spots as the first wave but Cheslor Cuthbert could turn out to be a better overall third base prospect than Moose when you consider all aspects of his game are average or better and the corner outfield is much deeper and better prospects than what the first wave had.

At this point I would say that this wave doesn’t have the pitching upside of the first wave but there definitely are some intriguing arms that are young popping big numbers on the guns already and could provide talent on the hill in the future.  The first wave didn’t feature many international prospects on the hill but this new wave will have many even if they are less than high profile signings.  Yordano Ventura flashes 99 on the gun at times while Sugar Ray Marimon threw a no hitter for Kane County this year, these international jewels combined with flashing big money at Brickhouse, Adam, Smith, Junis, etc. gives KC a large assortment of  talented arms to track through the system.

If the first wave of talent does what everyone is hoping they will which is win then what this second wave offers are trade chips to add assets and missing pieces for playoff runs as well as replenish the players that KC is unable to agree to contract extensions with.  We’ve seen the value of prospects go through the roof recently and a few of these chips could bring back large returns to the Royals perhaps Kansas City needs a true ace then the upside of Bubba Starling, Elier Hernandez or Jorge Bonifacio may help bring back that #1 starting pitcher during a playoff run or as they lose the bat of Eric Hosmer the possible upgrades at other positions may lessen the blow.  It will be the role of these players to grow their skills and hopefully either help the organization with their play or by the assets they acquire off their prospect value.

The one thing we should be reminded of is Dayton Moore’s former stomping ground in Atlanta while being a much larger TV market it isn’t a much bigger spender than what Dayton has been quoted at recently.  The Braves have maintained solid performance while carrying a payroll average of $91 million over the last 12 years which is a number that if Kansas City is winning and peaking Kauffman attendance they should be able to get very close to that average.

Whether we watch this wave come up the way the first wave has or watch GMDM trade them off as trade pieces it is very apparent that Dayton Moore and staff has done a solid job of replenishing the talent within the organization.