Notes From 610 Sports Interviews

Here are some notes from a few interviews that have occured on Fescoe in the Morning on 610 Sports Kansas City. I apologize for the awkward formatting but when I copy and paste it in the bullets won't function right and I really have no desire to retype this whole thing.

Dayton Moore:
· Best players need to be most competitive players, and if you aren’t comfortable you have to maximize value.
· From start Brewers had middle of field guys, but zack initially didn’t want to go there. In the end Zack waived his no trade for Milwaukee.
· Tried to lock Zack up thru winter meetings.
· Cain only has about 100 at bats in triple-A and some royals people believe he needs about 200-250 more.
· Moore says KC needs him on opening day roster.
· Wants position players to beat pitchers that, because there is more of an adjustment period.
· Jeffress will have opportunity to make club in Spring
· Odorizzi will start season in Wilmington.
· Since 2009 he has been tested weekly and there hasn’t been any issues. Many Royals scouts know him since high school. Before deal KC spoke to Hosmer and said “this guy’s a stud. He fits in with us. Was over at our house every Sunday for Barbecue.”
· Moore would rather have a player like Jeffress that they can manage risk, than a player in low A.
· Moore says he sees Jeffress as a reliever. Art Stewart saw every game and says he is best suited as a reliever.
· Soria signed longterm in one of most club friendly deals in baseball. Kansas City’s first choice was to sign Greinke long term again, but Zack didn’t want to.
· Moore expects KC to always be ranked among top farm systems in baseball.
· If you can’t sign a guy long term, in year 4 and 5 you have to look to maximize value.
· Want to get to a point where the roster can be predicted for the next 2-4 years.
· Ideal rotation going in is Hochevar, Davies, Mazzaro, O’Sullivan. But there is work to do in adding to rotation. Duffy, Teaford, and Crow are going to get very strong opportunities and could win jobs. Will look to add one or two more pitchers on one year deals.
· No guaranteed contracts in 2012.
Billy Butler:
· Greinke was going to do more damage than good, is glad the organization was able to move on from it.
· Butler doesn’t agree with the way Greinke handled it.
· Zack’s job wasn’t to comment on where organization was heading. Just because he had a Cy Young doesn’t make that okay.
· Butler is all for the Kansas City Royals. Butler wants to play for Royals everyday of his career.
J.J. Cooper:
· Pretty solid package. Key part is Escobar.
· Didn’t have an above average defensive shortstop prospect that is above 16 years old.
· With wave of pitching they need a good fielding infield. Should help pitching staff long term.
· Expects Escobar to be a bottom order hitter but great defensively. Range and arm both well above average.
· Duffy is most advanced of the wave of pitching. If he hadn’t stepped away from game last year he would be slam dunk to start in rotation this year.
· Knows how to set up hitters with both location and hitter’s timing. Very solid middle rotation starter.
· Expects Monty to start in double A, then hit triple A at some point. But there isn’t any reason that KC should speed up guys arbitration clocks this season.
· First year Cooper did Royals farm, they were writing about Montgomery and Duffy. There was nothing ahead of them. Now those guys are near major league ready. Very few of the initial group has failed.
· The gap between KC and 2 is about as big as the number 2 and the number 8 system.
· The Royals would have a better farm system than the Brewers if you took out the top 12 or 13 guys.
· Royals Top 5 prospects all are in top 25 in baseball.
· Doesn’t think Myers will be a catcher. Most scouts think that he could do it, except the Royals can’t acquire a top notch middle of the order guy. If Myers can move to outfield he can play in 20-30 more games a year.
· Lucas May and Manny Pina are back up types.
· Salvador Perez has starter potential. Showed ability with bat and is excellent behind the plate.
· If the Royals can’t find a homegrown guy the Royals will have such a large percentage of homegrown guys that they will have the money to fill the catcher spot up.
· Aaron Crow, Tim Melville, and Noel Arguelles are the three guys whose stock dropped in 2010.
· Crow still has same stuff. Cooper expects Crow to have a significantly better 2011 than 2010.
· Cooper says Brewers win short term. Long term Cooper hasn’t heard about a better deal than the one the Royals got. Because Greinke had such a large no trade clause, the Royals had to get a certain team to agree.
· Three of the guys will be in big leagues this year. Very confident that Jeffress and Escobar are going to be good contributors for years to come. Fairly confident that Cain will be a solid contributor.
· If they get 2 very solid contributors out of deal then they have done better than the Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay deals.
· IF they get 3 then Royals win trade long term.