by Richard Douglas
The Royals sold the top of the farm this past off season to address the weakness that has hampered them since making the playoffs 27 years ago: starting pitching Mike Montgomery, Wil Myers, and Jake Odorizzi were all sent in a package to get James Shields, and sent Brandon Sisk to LA to get Ervin Santana. The team also spent $14.1 million in 2011 in bonus money, and $7.5 million last year. A good chunk of that large bonus went to super OF prospect Bubba Starling. Starling is a super athlete, who had turned down a chance to play QB at Nebraska to make baseball his career. Last year he produced a .385 wOBA in 53 games at Rookie league Burlington, slugging .485 and hitting 10 home runs. Starling has natural power, and is a threat on the basepaths after swiping 10 bags, and getting caught just once. His athltic abilities help him profile to be a center fielder with a strong arm. However, his swing mechanics need a lot of work. he struck out 35% of his at bats, due to a long, one planed swing. If he can hit across multiple levels, he'll move quickly through the system.
The top draftee from this past year was Kyle Zimmer, a power pitching righty out of San Francisco His fastball is easily the best in the Royals system, It works in the mid 90s, and can be brought up to near triple digits when he needs it to. His curevball is an advanced pitch, scoring a 70 on the 20-80 scale. He also has a slider that he throws pretty well, but his changeup will still need work to get to a 50 grade. He got hit around a bit at the low A level, giving up 34 hits in 30 innings of work. However, he still struck out 8.8 batters per 9 innings of work, and walked only 8 batters in his 6 games. He won;t be rushed to the majors, but if his changeup and slider continue to advance, the club will be making a call sooner than later.
Orlando Calixate posted a .752 OPS last year at Low and High A levels, as well as a .337 wOBA. His power projects better than most minor league short stops, after hitting 14 home runs and 30 doubles a year ago. He did however see an increased strike out after his promotion to High A, going from 17.3% to 24.2%. He needs to develop better patience at the plate, especially deep in counts. He has good reaction times,, and an arm strong enough to keep him at short stop going forward.
Jorge Bonifacio is another top outfield prospect who signed out of the Dominican in 2009. He i a lien drive hitter, posting a career .448 slugging percentage. He strikes out at about a 25% rate, but is easily the systems best pure hitter. Sam Selman joined the team in 2012 after having control issues during his collegiant career, but fixed them to be drafted in the second round. He throws a nice fastball that sits in the low to mid 90s, and can touch near triple digits. He dominated the rookie league, allowing just a .204 average against.
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