Comments on: Butler Bops in K.C.

By: DWrek

DWrek — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:38:54 +0000

Good guy for sim leagues. Good OBP and probably won’t need to be platooned. Now if he could just find a glove that works…

By: glp

glp — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:59:05 +0000

I wouldn’t look for the Royals hitting to necessarily be much better next year, but 2011 could be a very different story. My feeling is that they need to get through one more season with the flotsam, jetsam, dross, and dreck that they now have at the major league level, then after that they can jettison a bunch of those guys and start replacing them with the kids (who we can only hope will perform).

By: R M

R M — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:11:05 +0000

You are using stats that have nothing to do with Butler driving in runs. Dejesus had a .347 OBP, Olivio had a .292 OBP, Guillen .314, Jacobs a .297 OBP, and Aviles has a career 3.9% walk rate. In a lineup littered with players who struggle to reach base 30% of the time and possess a good bit of power, I think he is going to be seeing a lot of empty bases when he comes up to bat, which means low RBI totals. Looking at that lineup makes me cringe.

By: Nats Fan

Nats Fan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:16:41 +0000

I think the Royals have a good chance for a better offense next season. Butler should turn some of his doubles into homeruns being a bit older. Callaspo showed good offense this season (.352 wOBA at secondbase) in only part of a season. If Alex Gordon returns healthy then he should improve the production at third. If Aviles is more like his 2008 version (wOBA .360) than 2009 (.205) then he is good bat for a SS and way better bat than Bentacourt. Dejesus is a 3.3 WAR player and it is not all glove. Guillen and Jacobs are bad, but both had the worst year of their careers in 2009 with career low BABIPS (.280 and .260), so they stand a fair chance to be much less bad next season. Olivo at catcher gets bad press but his .334 wOBA is good enough for 5th in the AL and 8th overall among catchers with 400 at bats or more in 2009. If they find a very good CF, then the offense should improve in every line spot at least some (with solid luck) so overall they could be as good as average for the AL next season.

By: The A Team

The A Team — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:52:25 +0000

The question is, does anyone else in the lineup have enough talent to make Butler more than a rate stats guy?

By: Big Oil

Big Oil — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:17:37 +0000

Big fan of Billy. Riding him down the stretch was fun, and will be more fun when those doubles turn into HRs.