A little fine-tuning perhaps: Gregor Blanco?

[Dojji]

I noticed that the Royals waived Gregor Blanco. It kinda floored me -- I know he doesn't have a lot of power but the guy is a legit 4th OF at worst over his career so far. And the Royals outfield, frankly, is crap -- I would have thought he was the one guy who was more or less guaranteed a spot as the only OF in their system who hit to a 100 OPS+ last year

 

Anyone think we should take a look? If there's any way we could grab this guy and stash him in Pawtucket he'd be really useful depth, and we're really short on young RHH outfielders. I don't really trust McDonald, guys like him come and go, and I think he had a career year last year and strongly suspect he won't fare as well in his encore performance, and Blanco is a guy you can play out as Ellsbury insurance, put in the leadoff mix and he can be productive, he's done that whenever he's gotten regular at bats.

 

I dunno, probably just blowing smoke, but the guy's young, cheap, and actually fairly talented and like I said, I'm a bit leery of McD -- I think Blanco is a slightly better bet all around.

 

Thoughts?

[ORS]

According to MLB.com's transactions page for 3/30, he's cleared waivers and been outrighted to AAA. So, not an option. Also, he's been tagged as OF depth stashed in the minors.....for Kansas City. There's a reason this happened. He's not all that appealing.

[Dipre]

What is it with you and current or ex- Royals players?

[Spudboy]

I don't think Darnell McDonald had a career year. I think we saw him play to his level and I see no reason to expect him to regress.

[Spudboy]

What is it with you and current or ex- Royals players?

 

Sometimes I just don't get Dojji. He beats the Nava drum loudly yet does not trust McDonald.

 

Oh well.

[Dojji]

There's a real difference between a guy who kills the ball for his entire minor league career, reaches the majors, and still hits at a decent-but-not-great clip in his novice campaign, whose only real fault as a prospect is that he started his minor league career at the age of 25, and a guy who kicks around the minors forever and finally turns it on at age 32. One is just an unconventional prospect, the other is a bona fide fluke.

 

I mean we're talking about a guy with a career minor league line of .272/.333/.404 here. The chance of major regression is NOT trivial. Sure, Nava could bomb out too, but as he hasn't yet, he's a better longterm bet than McDonald. The only reason I make no fuss about the current roster is because we need a backup CF and can't leave that to Drew. Nava doesn't help us there.

 

As for Blanco, he's got 600 at bats in the big leagues, most as a starting CF, and while power will never be in his game, he's a good bet to be an outfield version of Scutaro, and has a career MLB OBP of about .350 with useful speed. No one would mistake him for a starter here, but as a speedy bench RHH with an OBP/speed focus, he's a useful player that doesn't belong in the minors.

[jopete19]

According to MLB.com's transactions page for 3/30' date=' he's cleared waivers and been outrighted to AAA. So, not an option. Also, he's been tagged as OF depth stashed in the minors.....for Kansas City. There's a reason this happened. He's not all that appealing.[/quote']

 

they just changed their name to the Omaha Storm Chasers. haha. Gotta love minor league baseball.