Questionnaire with New Royals General Manager

[3E8]

I found a link to this at the Hardball Times, and thought it was a pretty interesting read. It gives us a little insight as to a new draft/developing strategy the Royals will employ to strengthen their club. Their new GM was formerly with the Braves organization.

 

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/15102717.htm

[witesoxfan]

I would say delete this from the face of the earth and never let Flash see it. He is going to go on about a 1500 word rant about how everyone else in the AL Central is developing a ton of great players within while KW is busy taking safe picks and trading them away...lol

 

 

 

"Q: Do you target groundball pitchers or strikeout pitchers? What do you look for in a pitcher?

 

A: We want to develop power pitchers in this organization. You’ve got to develop them because the only teams that can afford them on the free-agent market are the Yankees and the Red Sox or a team like the Blue Jays who just happened to have a lot of money to spend that year. As a general rule 90 percent of baseball can’t afford them, if not more. So you have to develop them. Other than that, you just blend in. The matchups are what it’s all about in this game. You look at this division and some of the left-handed hitting talent, it’s important to have some left-handed pitchers. Ultimately, you want guys who can command their fastball and have a quality secondary pitch and control that. But it’s important that we concentrate on developing power pitchers."

 

"Q: The Braves instituted a working agreement with a team in Japan. Do you see making an arrangement like that with the Royals?

 

A: We’ll see. It’s not on the front burner. I love the international aspect of our game. I think it’s important that the Royals are very visible and very competitive internationally. We’ve got to clean up some things more on the immediate front. We’ve got to get our program going in Latin America and establish our presence there and then expand out to the eastern part of the world. All while making sure that we’re very successful with the draft and taking care of the players that we have in the system through our development programs."

 

 

 

Definately a good read, and definately scary when you think about how much of this stuff he has planned out. This division could be, like, really, really, really good within the next 5 years. Hell, the Sox could put out teams like the 01-04 teams and lose 90-100 games

[DBAHO]

A: We’ll see. It’s not on the front burner. I love the international aspect of our game. I think it’s important that the Royals are very visible and very competitive internationally. We’ve got to clean up some things more on the immediate front. We’ve got to get our program going in Latin America and establish our presence there and then expand out to the eastern part of the world. All while making sure that we’re very successful with the draft and taking care of the players that we have in the system through our development programs."

Hopefully this is EXACTLY why KW has in mind in terms of beefing up our minor league system.

 

I've said it many times before, just down here in Australia, the Red Sox, Padres and Twins pretty much have a mortgage on the talent on offer down here.

 

Like to see the Sox get more active internationally for sure.