The Royals

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

I mean, I guess infants is fine, particularly if he can handle the stick behind Aoki. But lets not pretend he's in the same universe as Phillips or that were not paying him way too much money to put up Bonofacios numbers from last year without the SBs. If he's "gold level" insurance for 2b/ss/3b, then I can dig.

[Kat Kid]

He's projected to be better than brandon phillips and he's significantly cheaper.

No he's not, which is why he's significantly cheaper.

Phillips I could get excited about.

It depends on which projection system we're talking about.  Infante had a career year last year, Phillips has had two consecutive seasons where he has declined offensively.

Conceding that reasonable people could disagree about which player will perform better going forward, it is not reasonable for any team to expect to benefit from the from the difference in salary.  Even worse, Phillips' contract is backloaded.

2014   33   Cincinnati Reds   $11,000,000      
2015   34   Cincinnati Reds   $12,000,000      
2016   35   Cincinnati Reds   $13,000,000      
2017   36   Cincinnati Reds   $14,000,000   

[Kat Kid]

I mean, I guess infants is fine, particularly if he can handle the stick behind Aoki. But lets not pretend he's in the same universe as Phillips or that were not paying him way too much money to put up Bonofacios numbers from last year without the SBs. If he's "gold level" insurance for 2b/ss/3b, then I can dig.

Why do you like Phillips so much again?

[PowercatPat]

I'm having a hard time getting up for Infante. Someone tell me why I should be.  Seems like a lot of money for a punch and Judy middle infielder who is below average in the field, kind of old and not particularly good at anything.

I guess he was pretty good in his 3/4 of a season last year, but he was pretty well protected in that lineup.

ESPN Stats & Info ?@ESPNStatsInfo 13 Dec
Highest BA in AL in 2013, minimum 400 PA- Miguel Cabrera .348, Joe Mauer .324, Mike Trout .323, newest KC Royals IF Omar Infante .318

He is a huge upgrade over what we've had the last decade at 2nd base. Just be happy Getz or Boni isn't our every day starter.

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

If we traded for Phillips, I doubt we'd eat his entire contract.  Nonetheless, its not my money so I'd rather have the better player, Phillips.

[bones129]

I'm having a hard time getting up for Infante. Someone tell me why I should be.  Seems like a lot of money for a punch and Judy middle infielder who is below average in the field, kind of old and not particularly good at anything.

I guess he was pretty good in his 3/4 of a season last year, but he was pretty well protected in that lineup.

ESPN Stats & Info ?@ESPNStatsInfo 13 Dec
Highest BA in AL in 2013, minimum 400 PA- Miguel Cabrera .348, Joe Mauer .324, Mike Trout .323, newest KC Royals IF Omar Infante .318

He is a huge upgrade over what we've had the last decade at 2nd base. Just be happy Getz or Boni isn't our every day starter.

I agree that he's a good upgrade. Getz was garbage, but Boni will make a good utility infielder. KCR's need to hang on to Boni for that purpose.

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

I mean, I guess infants is fine, particularly if he can handle the stick behind Aoki. But lets not pretend he's in the same universe as Phillips or that were not paying him way too much money to put up Bonofacios numbers from last year without the SBs. If he's "gold level" insurance for 2b/ss/3b, then I can dig.

Why do you like Phillips so much again?

What's not to like?  He's better than infante at every facet of the game of baseball except making contact.

[Kat Kid]

I'm having a hard time getting up for Infante. Someone tell me why I should be.  Seems like a lot of money for a punch and Judy middle infielder who is below average in the field, kind of old and not particularly good at anything.

I guess he was pretty good in his 3/4 of a season last year, but he was pretty well protected in that lineup.

ESPN Stats & Info ?@ESPNStatsInfo 13 Dec
Highest BA in AL in 2013, minimum 400 PA- Miguel Cabrera .348, Joe Mauer .324, Mike Trout .323, newest KC Royals IF Omar Infante .318

He is a huge upgrade over what we've had the last decade at 2nd base. Just be happy Getz or Boni isn't our every day starter.

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=2b&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=400&type=1&season=2013&month=0&season1=2013&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=10,d

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

I'm having a hard time getting up for Infante. Someone tell me why I should be.  Seems like a lot of money for a punch and Judy middle infielder who is below average in the field, kind of old and not particularly good at anything.

I guess he was pretty good in his 3/4 of a season last year, but he was pretty well protected in that lineup.

ESPN Stats & Info ?@ESPNStatsInfo 13 Dec
Highest BA in AL in 2013, minimum 400 PA- Miguel Cabrera .348, Joe Mauer .324, Mike Trout .323, newest KC Royals IF Omar Infante .318

He is a huge upgrade over what we've had the last decade at 2nd base. Just be happy Getz or Boni isn't our every day starter.

No argument he's an upgrade. Just seems really pedestrian for a 4yr deal

[Kat Kid]

I mean, I guess infants is fine, particularly if he can handle the stick behind Aoki. But lets not pretend he's in the same universe as Phillips or that were not paying him way too much money to put up Bonofacios numbers from last year without the SBs. If he's "gold level" insurance for 2b/ss/3b, then I can dig.

Why do you like Phillips so much again?

What's not to like?  He's better than infante at every facet of the game of baseball except making contact.

Despite hitting more homers, he slugged less than Infante (had 7 more XBH in 200 extra PA).  Phillips also got on base less than Infante.  Phillips has gotten worse for two straight years and he was a significantly worse offensive player last year.  You can claim that you think he is due for a bounce back next year, but it is false to say that Phillips was the better player last year.

[star seed 7]

If we traded for Phillips, I doubt we'd eat his entire contract.  Nonetheless, its not my money so I'd rather have the better player, Phillips.

look at this tax and spend liberal!

[bones129]

I'm comfortable with Infante for now. Decent and fairly consistent bat, which we've lacked at 2B. Not a killer bat, but serviceable and some more.

[Kat Kid]

I'm comfortable with Infante for now. Decent and fairly consistent bat, which we've lacked at 2B. Not a killer bat, but serviceable and some more.

I'm not sure people are appreciating how good a bat Infante has......

Omar Infante had a lower OPS than the following 2b last year (min. 400PA):

1.  Robinson Cano  .899
2.  Matt Carpenter  .873
3.  Chase Utley      .823
4.  Jason Kipnis      .818
5.  Omar Infante     .795
He had a better OPS than:

6.  Dustin Pedroia   .787
7.  Howie Kendrick  .775


15.  Brandon Phillips .706


19.  Jose Altuve       .678


24.  Emilio Bonifacio .625

[sys]

infante is a great signing.  exactly what they needed and they didn't have trade anyone (maybe the contract was too long, oth, maybe they got him for less than market value now.  inflation, discount rate, etc.).

get an equiv. pitcher and i'm going to be very excited. 

[jtksu]

infante is a great signing.  exactly what they needed and they didn't have trade anyone (maybe the contract was too long, oth, maybe they got him for less than market value now.  inflation, discount rate, etc.).

get an equiv. pitcher and i'm going to be very excited.

I think they already did.  They're penciling him in at the third spot in the rotation...   Plus, it looks like Santana might be an option after all...

[Diamond Dave]

In terms of offensive value, I like to look at three numbers. OPS, OBP and WAR. Let's take a quick look at the last three years of Infante and Phillips, as well as Bonifacio and Getz just for shits and gigs.

OPS (2011, 2012, 2013)
Infante    .696 .719 .795
Phillips     .810 .750 .706
Bonifacio  .753 .645 .625
Getz        .600 .672 .561

OBP
Infante    .315 .300 .345
Phillips     .353 .321 .310
Bonifacio .360 .330 .295
Getz       .313 .312 .288

WAR
Infante     2.4 2.9 3.1
Phillips      5.6 3.7 2.6
Bonifacio   2.8 0.4 0.6
Getz         0.6 0.3 -0.1

As stated before, Phillips is consistently down in each category. This, by no means, pegs him as a terrible player. But I would be seriously concerned about his production next year and any following years.

Infante has shown steady improvement capped off with what is his best year since being an all star in 2010. Will he have a career year next year? Probability says no but it looks a lot more promising than Phillips. I'd be very content with 3.0 WAR guy.

I don't think anyone is saying that Bonifacio is better than either Infante or Phillips but it's interesting to match them up with them. He is a serviceable utility guy that can fill in on days off and provide depth for inevitable injuries.

Lol @ Getz. How he got so many AB's is just another one of Dayton's unsolved mysterys.

Overall, Infante is a better get. He's got the numbers to back it up, comes at a 30% discount comparatively, and is a year younger. Am I high fiving over four years? Not exactly. But I think the Royals realized after they lost Beltran that they needed to overpay/overextend a bit in order to compete for these types of player. I'll be the first to credit Dayton so far this offseason. He's made some decent moves. My only fear is now that we're over budget, they'll make a cost cutting move that takes us two steps back.

[kslim]

You guys will be very happy with Omar, still pissed we didn't sign him long term when we had the chance

[WildcatNkilt]

So what will our battling lineup look like?  Where does Infante fall in the lineup now?

[PowercatPat]

So what will our battling lineup look like?  Where does Infante fall in the lineup now?

1. Aoki
2. Infante
3. Gordon
4. Butler
5. Hosmer
6. Salvy
7. Moose
8. Cain
9. Escobar

[jmlynch1]

If Moose becomes unMoose 

[WildcatNkilt]

And with lots of speed on the bench. 

[mocat]

So what will our battling lineup look like?  Where does Infante fall in the lineup now?

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[scottwildcat]

[kslim]

that was a really good post mocat

[WildcatNkilt]

I enjoyed it.