This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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"The Royals had a .303 OBP last year, the sixth straight in which they’ve run a team OBP under .310. They haven’t had an OBP above the AL average since 2015, when they reinvented baseball. Renfroe has a career .300 OBP, Hampson .305. The Royals are chasing defense, speed, and power when their problem is what it’s been for most of the last 40 years: They make too many outs. Piccolo has the same blind spot Dayton Moore did, and it’s why the Royals are going nowhere with him in charge.
"The Royals are getting positive press for doing less than the bare minimum. They have invested so little for so long that spending $50 million on a bunch of zero- to two-win players looks like progress. It’s not. Good teams don’t buy these players, they develop and create them. The Royals will pay this group $48.5 million next year. That’s Shohei Ohtani money, and the Royals are doling it out to a supporting cast. The Royals already had a supporting cast. They need a core."
"The Royals are getting positive press for doing less than the bare minimum. They have invested so little for so long that spending $50 million on a bunch of zero- to two-win players looks like progress. It’s not. Good teams don’t buy these players, they develop and create them. The Royals will pay this group $48.5 million next year. That’s Shohei Ohtani money, and the Royals are doling it out to a supporting cast. The Royals already had a supporting cast. They need a core."
