Royals unleash the Kila Monster
It probably came a year or two too late, but the Royals have finally called up Kila Ka’aihue, as he takes the place of the injured Rick Ankiel. Better late than never, I guess. The 26-year-old first baseman turned into a bit of a cult hero in recent years, thanks to his ability to completely annihilate minor league pitching while not getting anything more than a cup of coffee in the show.
After posting an ungodly .463 wOBA with 37 homers in 515 plate appearances split between Double and Triple-A in 2008, the Kila Monster dropped down to “just” a .368 wOBA and 17 homers in Triple-A last year. He lost 144 points off his ISO, but his BB% and K% went largely unchanged, as did his batted ball rates according to minorleaguesplits.com. For whatever reason, the power just took a bit of a vacation.
Thankfully, it’s returned this year. Ka’aihue is hitting .304/.466/.620 (.455 wOBA) with seven dingers in 23 Triple-A games (yes, it’s obviously a small sample), and he continues to walk more than he strikes out (230 BB, 169 K dating back to ’08). I’m a sucker for guys that take ball four more often than strike three, but that bias isn’t why I’m recommending Ka’aihue for your fantasy team.
He doesn’t have the big name recognition of say, Ike Davis, but the lefty swinging Royal doesn’t have the massive platoon split either (.821 OPS vs. LHP in the minors, .881 vs. RHP). He might not have the defensive value and long-term outlook of Justin Smoak, but he’s a bit older and his power is more present than projected. Ka’aihue is strictly a 1B, so something’s going to have to give with Billy Butler and Jose Guillen if he’s to get regular playing time. My guess is that Butler stays at first, Guillen goes to the outfield while Ankiel’s injured, and Kila DH’s.
He’s available in basically all Yahoo! leagues (except mine! bwahaha), and if you’re looking for a little boost from the 1B or UTIL spots, here’s your guy. That goes double if you’re in a deep mixed or AL-only league. If you hurry, you should be able to grab him in time for Wednesday’s game.
Mike writes about the Yankees at River Ave. Blues and baseball in general at CBS Sports.
Thanks for the heads up! I’ve been scrambling to fill my 1B/3B spot in my ESPN league ever since Chris Davis didn’t work out. This is a 1 year league with small benches, so when prospects get promoted it is a mad dash to be the first one to add them.
Should I drop Brandon Webb to pick him up? I’ve got literally no offensive bench due to injuries and save speculating, but I have one more player on the DL than I do DL spots. It’s a 14 team keeper league, so if Kila pans out he could be very valuable, but I already have Joey Votto and Adrian Gonzalez under contract for 1B and CI.
I’d first try to trade Webb to a team with an open DL spot. I just traded *for* Webb for this reason.
No way I’m ready to give up on Webb in a keeper league, especially when I already have power and walks at the corners.
Just be aware that the Royals are saying that their outfield is not changing for now, which means no Guillen out there. Not sure what they are going to do with Kila – probably use him at both DH to spell Guillen here and there, and occasionally at 1B with Butler or Guillen DH’ing. So Butler, Guillen, and Ka’aihue will be job-sharing two positions. I wouldn’t count on Kila playing every day.
As a Royals fan and a big Kila fan, I like this news in a vacuum. Unfortunately, I don’t see where Kila will play other than pinch hit situations. He may be usefull in deep or AL only leagues (im not picking him up today in my AL only though), but I would wait to see if he is actually going to play before devoting a roster spot. If you are hurting for a 1b/dh spot, he could be a good play.
Man it would be dumb to bring this guy up while he’s raking and stick him on the bench. It’s bad enough that they’ll DH him exclusively. Maybe trade bait?
Hopefully Guillen is the trade bait and Kila/Gordon/Callaspo/Aviles work out who is the DH between them. The Royals are not good at determining who should be brought up for the most part, so hopefully this decision pays off for them.
Wouldn’t surprise me if Kila is the trade bait though, as the Royals do not value OBP as other teams might.
dumb? The first word of the headline is Royals….you have to take it from there.
Awesome. Just from a fan perspective, I’ve been waiting for this guy to come up and see if he can make an impact. Reminds me of Calvin Pickering, another guy, I never knew why a team like the Royals couldn’t give him 400 ABs and see what happens.
So, Derrek Lee or Kila in the UT?
So, for the 2010 season, do you choose this guy or Smoak? I’ve got Smoak and Kila is out there, but I’m not entirely sure what to do on this one; quite the conundrum.
Huh? You keep Smoak forever.
And so shall it be.
I would argue they’ve caged him. At least he got to play in the minors.
Whats the over/under on how many games until he gets a start?
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