No Call Up for Wil Myers?

[philliesfiend55]

I'm a little surprised that the Royals did not bring up The Minor League Player Of The year, Wil Myers (according to USAToday Sports Weekly and Baseball America). Myers blasted 37 home runs this year in a season between AA and AAA and led the Royals AAA affiliate to the final round of the Pacific Coast League championship. Then again, the Cincinnati Reds also didn't bring up Billy Hamilton, who merely rewrote the record books with 155 stolen bases to break the previous minor leagues stolen bases record by a good margin. Both moves would have been good publicity moves and created some buzz but the front offices in each case didn't want to rush their star prospects to the big leagues.
Myers will turn 22 in December and ought to have a legitimate shot at winning a roster spot out of 2013 Spring Training.

[Ben Grimm]

Agreed. I don't get it. He's the future and after demolishing things this year, he should have been given the invite. Even if he fails, it gives him a taste as well as the Royals a look at their future. Dyson, Myers and Gordon have the possibility to be one of the more productive OFs in MLB.

[bbxpert]

The reason the Royals didn't call up Myers is because they would have to add him to the 40 man roster. Myers wouldn't be eligible for the Rule 5 draft, so they didn't need to protect him by adding him to the 40 man roster. On the other hand, Jake Odorizzi did have to be protected. That is why they called him up. He would need to be protected anyway. By not calling up Myers now, that allows the Royals to protect one more player on the 40 man roster.

[philliesfiend55]

The reason the Royals didn't call up Myers is because they would have to add him to the 40 man roster. Myers wouldn't be eligible for the Rule 5 draft, so they didn't need to protect him by adding him to the 40 man roster. On the other hand, Jake Odorizzi did have to be protected. That is why they called him up. He would need to be protected anyway. By not calling up Myers now, that allows the Royals to protect one more player on the 40 man roster.

There's got to be a better system out there waiting to be invented. The 40 Man roster rules greatly infringe upon player movement They penalize the "rapid developer" from moving up several levels in one season, especially the in the case of the leap to the majors. With the 40 man roster a team can advance a player any number of levels throught the minors, all the way to AAA, but promoting such a fast developing player to the majors is always a problem,if they aren't on the 40 man roster. To accomodate a fast developing non-40 man roster player someone else has to be removed from the 40 man roster that the team may not want to part with.

[Ben Grimm]

On the Tampa forum, a beat writer (or maybe it was Yahoo) mentioned a Wil Myers / James Shields swap. While Shields can be a very solid TotR guy, he does have some miles on his arm. He also only has two years left on his deal I believe. If I were moving a hitter like Myers, I'd hope to get a Hellickson or Moore in return to have longer control and have the pitcher grow with the rest of the talent. Maybe Guthrie and Santana can pitch lights out behind Shields for a season, and the Royals make a major move to win the Central. But history isn't on their side as we saw what happened to Sanchez along with the never reaching promise in Hochevar.

Granted, if there's a vulnerable time for the ALCent, it may be now since Minny, Cleveland and even the Sox are a bit of a ways off from being true AL contenders. But with Detroit getting V-Mart back next year, the Yanks & Rays having talent in the East along with Toronto after their moves, and LA, Texas and Oakland - it's a tough road in which KC needs every pitcher to do well and every hitter to break out. We saw this year - especially in Hosmer - that it's never a given. I love the talent KC has, but I'm not sure it'll be ready to be real for another two-three years. If that's the case, Shields could likely be gone by then whereas the same wouldn't be true for Moore and probably not for Hellickson.

The Card's have tried for Hellickson last year and were turned down by Tampa. But I'm not sure they offered somebody like Myers.

[philliesfiend55]

Myers wasn't added to the 40 Man Off-season roster and the main determining factor had to be the fact that he hasn't had enough years in the minors where he had to be protected. In terms of how close to major leagues ready he is, however, I'd say very close. If he has a great Spring Training he could force himself onto the big leagues roster, or if he has a month and a half to star next season in AAA, he'll be in the majors before Memorial Day Weekend. At that point someone on the Royals 40 will have to be axed, so why not just add Myers to the roster this offseason. The Lord works in mysterious ways and so do baseball front offices.

[The Commissioner]

We in the Tampa viewing area would like to thank K.C. for the swap. Actually, this may turn out to be one of those win/win trades. Shields should immediately improve the Royals in the short term, while the prospects could improve Tampa down the road.