#17 Bubba Starling

Kansas City Royals

DOB: 8/3/1992

Previous Rank: N/A

ETA: 2014

Starling was the top prep position player available in the 2011 draft.  His tools were the finest in the 2011 class for any position player, though.  He’s blazing fast, throws gas from the outfield, generates outstanding bat speed, and has a frame that projects both in terms of potential and the likelihood of a healthy career.  As far as we at The Sombrero are concerned, however, that is where the compliments end.

Starling is loaded with shit makeup, a lack of familiarity with the game, and poor fundamentals in terms of both mechanics and comprehension.  He signed late too, and basically missed half a season unnecessarily, suggesting that baseball is not a terribly high priority for him.  You’d think a guy who wasted as much time fooling around with a football as Starling did would want to get started early to attempt to maybe even the playing field between himself and the guys who have lived within the game for the last 10 or 15 years.

Starling then proceeded to receive an underage drinking charge.  Don’t look for this guy to ever have much in the way of baseball IQ.  Expect insane tools and athleticism, the type that guys like Starling don’t deserve.  He should spend a season and a half or two in the low Minors and about the same amount in Double-A and Triple-A.  Look for him to debut in center some time in 2014.  KC is really going to regret passing on Archie Bradley.

#38 Wil Myers

Kansas City Royals

DOB: 12/10/1990

Previous Rank: 15

ETA: 2013

Myers was ranked considerably higher last year, but a tough season in the Texas League as a 20-year-old has knocked him back a bit.  A triple slash line of .254/.353/.393 wouldn’t look nearly as bad if he was still behind the dish, but those numbers from a corner guy are far less impressive.  Nevertheless, he was a 20-year old in a very advanced league for someone that age, and all of the tools are still present.  Additionally he missed about a month of the first half due to a freak knee injury.

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – As the sun set and the air cooled over Veterans Memorial Stadium on Wednesday, Kane County Cougar pitcher Sugar Ray Marimon (Low A-Royals) kept getting hotter. His fastball popped, his splitter vanished and the hometown Kernels, slogging under the weight of an eight-game losing streak, couldn’t connect. The 22-year-old Columbia native had held them hittless through seven innings, and it seemed to the few hundred fans still remaining that Marimon was on pace to notch a feat that’s sweeter than his first name: a no-hitter.

But after a Kernel reached on an overthrow by the third baseman with two out in the eighth, Kane County pitching coach Jim Brower abruptly pulled Marimon. The pitcher wasn’t hurt or tired – he had walked just two batters. But with only  four outs to go, he had barely eclipsed the 100-pitch limit that the Royals set for all minor league pitchers in the franchise.

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