r/KCRoyals • u/ProSenjutsu • 1d ago
Playoff Blues
Watching these other small market teams play in the playoffs is disheartening. The Brewers and Rays have been enjoyable to watch. One day I hope the Royals will have a competitive front office that can keep a farm system providing MLB talent and a manager that can set his players up for success.
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u/Caveape80 23h ago
We were in the ALDS two years ago…..we just had too many injuries through out the season to be consistently competitive….not to mention in ‘24 our guys just forget how to hit, we could have beat the yanks in that series if Witt and Vinnie hadn’t been so shit at the plate. You gotta take advantage of situations when they’re presented to you.
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u/cgentry02 13h ago
Stop telling the casuals the facts of the matter, THEY DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR KNOWLEDGEABLE TAKE!
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u/Vixxxed 1d ago edited 1d ago
There’s too much organizational rot in the franchise. Way too much excuses and not enough accountability, it’ll be a long time until we hope to reach the Brewers and Rays level.
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u/stupidgnomes Jac Caglianone Fan Club 14h ago
Organizational rot is a great way to put it. The Royals aren’t just plagued by a bad manager or a bad coach or even JUST a bad GM. This iteration of the entire organization has been fostered and nurtured for 20 years. And because of how deep-seated the “rot” is, we can’t remove surface-level issues and expect a winning franchise all of a sudden. This thing needs to be burnt to the ground and built back up. This is genuinely the only way outside of a miracle.
Personally, I fear that we’ve already wasted Bobby and whatever competitive window we had. If things stay the same and nothing changes, I wouldn’t expect Bobby to come back once he gets his chance to test the market. Which sucks because if we let it get to that point we are going to be left with a comp pick to show for his entire, amazing Royals career. So if we find ourselves continuing to fail heading into the 2029 season, we’re going to need to consider a trade. BUT if the organizational rot still exists, I don’t know about you guys, but the last thing I want is the architect of the state of the organization making more decisions that could make it even harder to overcome if we ever do decide to actually try to be a well-run baseball team.
I can’t imagine Sherman hasn’t thought about this at least once. But JJ Picollo is currently talking like someone with ironclad job security, so it doesn’t sound like change is even a gleam on the horizon at this point. Guys, I am NOT optimistic lmao
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u/gf99b FIRE JJ & Q INTO THE SUN 7h ago
I completely agree with this assessment sadly. The ENTIRE front office needs to go, starting with JJ and Q. This “mediocrity is acceptable” culture needs to be replaced with one where winning is prioritized and strive to win games by giving their all. No more excuses, no more managers asleep in the dugout as the team gets shelled by the opponent, no more giving up and throwing together a random lineup just to go through the motions.
Personally I say we’ve already wasted our time with Bobby, and because he’s my favorite athlete that really, really hurts to say. I want him to stay in KC but I doubt he’d want to, and instead of getting nothing in return a trade might be best. But knowing JJ, he’d likely trade BWJ for a 42-year-old RHP with a 20+ ERA and maybe a random prospect we’ll never be able to develop.
If that wasn’t bad enough, I think there’s not much hope for seeing this team do anything with Jac and Carter. All other ALC teams have loaded farm systems with a lot of promising talent. We don’t have much to look forward to in comparison. That really sucks too since they’re also so great. Carter and Noah are hometown kids. It will suck so hard to face, and lose to, BWJ, Jac and Carter on whatever teams they end up going to.
Having BWJ, Jac and Carter, there’s no reason we should be this bad. Sherman should be capitalizing on them but he’s choosing to keep this front office employed. I wish I had the job security JJ and Q enjoy. I could half-ass everything all the time and never worry about losing my job.
I’ll get downvoted to hell for this but I think the fandom has a role in it. So many fans defend JJ as though he’s some baseball wizard because of 2024, conveniently ignoring the rest of the time he’s ran things. Reminds me of when the “Three Stooges” got fired and people were so upset over GMDM getting the boot. Out of all the years GMDM ran the Royals, only three were winning seasons. JJ is just an extension of GMDM, same attitudes and all. Even more frustrating is how people defend Q despite him being a big reason we lost many games this season through bad ideas and bad lineups.
A lot of people in KC want the Royals gone… like relocated to Nashville or some other city. When you consider that Sherman nor the front office cares, why should we care about the Royals? That really hurts to say but that’s the attitude many have. It seems like Sherman is trying to kill any and all support for the Royals in KC much like Finley did with the KC A’s in 1967. And it seems to be working just as well on this round. Personally I want the Royals to stay in KC forever as they’re my favorite sports team (and the only one I really care about) but them wasting BWJ, Jac, Carter and the massive opportunity to do some really cool things with them also really hurts to watch.
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u/Beisbol4lyfe 13h ago
20 years? I mean I get what you're saying , but the Royals were in the 2014 WS and won the 2015 WS, playoffs in 2024. I'm not saying that's the most amazing record ever, but I'd take that over some other organizations. The Rays have been doing their thing for a long time and the Brewers most most recently. Baseball is mostly cyclical though, especially for teams that can't sign big FAs (i.e Royals, Guardians, Twins). That's why the Central is usually up for grabs. I'm not happy with the season, but I think they have a strong core and just need a few draft picks to come through. And as far as Bobby goes, look at J-Ram, Harper, Machado, Freeman, Etc , they have all been very good going into their 30s. Now if it goes like this until 2029 , yeah I'm with you
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u/stupidgnomes Jac Caglianone Fan Club 12h ago
I hear you. But I’m fully of the opinion that 2014 and 2015 were lightning in a bottle. Don’t get me wrong, I am VERY appreciative of those years, but even with those two seasons the Royals have the second worst record in all of MLB from 2006 through 2026 (1,487-1,813). They had 4 seasons where they lost 100+ games and three of those seasons happened between 2018-2026. To me that is unacceptable. And yeah, I know the theory is that the AL Central is usually up for grabs, but the Royals have won the division one time between 2006 and 2026. So I don’t think the division is up for grabs for the Royals. And the reason why it’s not is because we are a poorly run organization and we have been ever since JJ was originally hired in 2006 as the Director of Player Development. He has been an abject failure since Day 1.
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u/cgentry02 13h ago
Loser talk comes from loser mentality, and you got it in spades, buddy.
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u/Vixxxed 10h ago
I’d be surprised if anyone who has watched this team since 2015 doesn’t have a loser mentality since yknow we have lost a ton.
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u/cgentry02 10h ago
We have one losing season out of last 3...went to playoffs 2 years ago. Keep crying.
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u/Vixxxed 10h ago
Or we have 2 winning seasons out of the last 11 seasons.
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u/cgentry02 9h ago
So, now we are counting old ownership and GM's?
JJ has been in control of team pretty much from 2023 on...that means hes had 2 losing seasons of 4.
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u/Vixxxed 9h ago
I mean yeah they haven’t fired that much people in that time span. JJ still had a prominent role in the franchise aswell at that time.
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u/cgentry02 9h ago
The old, he wasn't the gm, but he's responsible for the gm's moves, angle.
So he's responsible for Bobby witt? Vinnie? Garcia? Seems like some good moves to me...
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u/stupidgnomes Jac Caglianone Fan Club 12h ago
Compelling argument. I’m going to have to think about this, but I think you convinced me that in order for the Royals to succeed I simply need to change my loser mentality. Playoffs here we come!
Lmao
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u/cgentry02 12h ago
"If I whine hard enough in an online forum, that will effect the team in a way that they will play better baseball. Since I'm the only one that cares about winning, (and because the people's whose careers are based around it know less than me), me pointing out that they didn't have a winning season (for the first time in 3 seasons) will certainly effect organizational change through my power of negative mental thinking." <---- stupidgnomes
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u/stupidgnomes Jac Caglianone Fan Club 12h ago
Do you think I think my comment in a Reddit post is meant to influence the Kansas City Royals and how they operate the organization as a whole? Do you really think that? Because if you do, and it sounds like you do, you might need to take an internet break and take some time to teach yourself the concept of “commiserating” while delivering something called an “opinion”. I really think if you took some time to research that, you might be a little less bitchy.
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u/gf99b FIRE JJ & Q INTO THE SUN 7h ago
We have the most losses since 2000… by a large margin, too.
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u/cgentry02 7h ago
Cool.
Now what?
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u/gf99b FIRE JJ & Q INTO THE SUN 7h ago
Get rid of the people who continue to foster the “loser mentality” in this org… like JJ and Q.
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u/cgentry02 7h ago
How do they foster "loser mentality"?
I dont see it.
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u/gf99b FIRE JJ & Q INTO THE SUN 7h ago
Let’s see… refusing to hold staff accountable is a big one. Any other team would’ve fired Q a LONG time ago. Wasting draft picks and making horrible trades and FA signings that either don’t move the needle or set us back. Being OK with getting swept by the Rockies and beat 22-1 by the ChiSox. Need I mention more?
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u/cgentry02 7h ago
"Hold staff accountable" is so vague it literally shows you have no actual points.
Q is actually a fine manager. I dont know what you think managers do, but my guess is that you dont.
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u/gf99b FIRE JJ & Q INTO THE SUN 6h ago
Hitting was a big problem this last season, and they had struggled with it in previous seasons too. Instead of firing the person responsible for hitting (Alec Zumwalt), they just changed his title. Not a good look. Had we had decent hitting, especially in the beginning of the season, there's a chance we may have been near .500.
Q allegedly fell asleep in the dugout during games when the Royals were getting shelled. Instead of keeping good pitchers in, he'd pull them and put a bad reliever in (like his golden boy, Erceg) who would proceed to give up whatever lead we had within minutes. And it didn't matter how bad the reliever sucked, he'd always leave them in way too long. A good example is that game where Noah Cameron pitched a stellar seven or eight innings, just for Q to replace him with a reliever that quickly loaded the bases. Q did decide to pull that pitcher but put Erceg in, who gave up a grand slam on the first ensuing at-bat. There was another game (possibly even the same game I was just talking about) where he put a bad reliever in at the worst possible moment. Bases loaded, opponent hit a grand slam on the VERY LAST out and won the game. That's not even going into the shitty lineups Q created on a daily basis that didn't make much sense to most fans. Even diehard fans I know, most being those who hardly fault staff that needed it, grew tired of Q.
You sound like the type of person that thought Cal Eldred was an incredible pitching coach too and GMDM is a baseball god. I don't want the Royals to be the butt of baseball jokes and play like a team that would get swept by a college, or even high school, team. We're a Major League team and need to start acting like one instead of playing like a low-A one. This team has way too much talent to be wasted by a manager that naps in the dugout during games and a GM that refuses to hold anyone accountable and trades good players we could actually use for 40+ year old pitchers that should have retired a couple seasons ago.
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u/SailTheWorldWithMe Davenport Trash Panda 1d ago
The difference between KC and The Rays is that wouldn't be an empty seat in the K.
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u/gf99b FIRE JJ & Q INTO THE SUN 7h ago
2024 would strongly disagree
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u/SailTheWorldWithMe Davenport Trash Panda 7h ago
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u/eltristo66 I hope I don't get pissed off 1d ago
The good news is we have a player that’s better than every other player in this playoffs.
The bad news is we suck shit
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u/DeliciousBerryYumYum 1d ago
Bobby Witt is better than J-Ram? Or Shohei? Don’t get me wrong, Bobby is the best shortstop in the game bar none, but he hasn’t had the body of work to make him a future Hall-of-Famer (yet)
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u/MasterScooby11 20h ago
If we’re talking present day/season damn right Bobby is better than Ohtani and JRam
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u/panoptik0n "If you didn't have any legs, could you still hit? Yeah." -Hud 14h ago edited 14h ago
J-Ram's career best 7.6 bWAR in 2018 is still well short of Bobby's 9.6 he put up in 2024.
If he's not pitching, Shohei is simply an incredibly good DH - not a 10+ WAR unicorn
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u/ProSenjutsu 1d ago
Your post made me chuckle but I wish we were playing with the best player in baseball still
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u/Fast-Signal7371 1d ago
Nothing will change until ownership decides to pull their head out of their ass.
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u/Jarl_Jakob Maikel Garcia 1d ago
As others have already pointed out I’m sure, it’s just mass incompetence from the organization at this point, and this October has just highlighted that issue. There’s really no excuse at this point for the Royals to be repeatedly uncompetitive when they have one of the maybe top three best baseball players in the world.
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u/Caveape80 23h ago
Our best players were constantly injured this season…..they rattled off 12 in a row the second everyone got healthy together
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u/ThatsBushLeague Pasquatch 1d ago
Can't you people just enjoy anything without shitting on your own team?
Baseball is fun. Playoff baseball is fucking awesome. Enjoy it.
If your brain jumps to "man this suck as a royals fan" while watching games, you need to go talk to a therapist.
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u/Beisbol4lyfe 13h ago
Exactly, we're just not going to be a perennial playoff team. If everything goes right, we'll have our chances, but most likely we get a year or 2 here and there. That's just how it goes. Brewers were not great for a long time, not even a generation ago. Blowing it all up is very risky. It's not like we have a toxic owner, imo. Royals have some young stars, I think we'll be in the playoffs soon again
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u/gf99b FIRE JJ & Q INTO THE SUN 3h ago
Given how the rest of the ALC actually have loaded farm systems with lots of talent to pick from and competent front offices that want to win, I wouldn’t bet on it. The ChiSux still have a loaded farm system, and so does Cleveland. Detroit has numerous Top 50 prospects they can bring up, same for the Twins.
The only franchise without a single Top 50 prospect? (checks notes) The Kansas City Royals.
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u/cgentry02 13h ago
Watching the casuals show up to remind us how little they understand baseball is always a doozy.
"I want my team to go to the world series and win it and never not have talent in the minors and we sign every free agent I've personally ever wanted and the new stadium is funded by the billionaire owner and injuries are the managers fault and only I can tell you what the GM has done wrong..."
Same old shit, different day.
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u/ThotTubTimeMachine69 THATS WHAT SPEED DO 23h ago
What I wouldnt give to ruin baseball again