'Social Sunday' Twitter Chat: Royals Farm Focus With Lee Warren

Jessica (@MinorLeagueBall): Welcome to 'Social Sunday' with our special Royals focus. Storm Chasers/PCL writer @OmahaBaseball joins this week's chat. Royals are making post-season history. But you wrote that it's not so surprising when farm's been winning for years. Guys like Moustakas & Hosmer (who J. Sickels ranked #1/#2 & said are 'damn good' in '11) are stars as expected. #MiLBall

LEE WARREN (@OmahaBaseball) They are stars now, but it didn't come easy for either of them. Moose needed to be in an environment where the pressure was off. Also closed his stance, allowing him to go opposite way. Moustakas really struggled to hit breaking stuff away early on in Omaha. I had more confidence that Hosmer would emerge. He was in Omaha for only five weeks or so and just crushed PCL pitching. #MiLBall

J.C. ‏@rock_climber02 @OmahaBaseball @MinorLeagueBall pressure is off in the playoffs?

LEE: No, the pressure was off when he was demoted to Omaha.

JESSICA: How much has the loss of Odorizzi/Myers crossed your mind with playoffs berth? How do you view trade now? Readers & @OmahaBaseball? #MiLBall

LEE: Essentially, Dayton Moore was gambling the future for a chance to win in 2014, and it worked. If it hadn't, well....

@JayLowrey He bet his job. These games have been great and 2 wins from series. Not counting it yet.

LEE: The trade makes Moore look like a genius now. Huge risk when he made it though.

JESSICA: Which brings me to the state of things now. Particularly Kyle Zimmer. Thoughts on him & being shut down? @OmahaBaseball #Royals #MiLBall

LEE: [He] had a strong outing or two in the playoffs for Omaha. But better to be safe with him. He's too important going forward.

JESSICA: Let's talk a little about the PCL/Storm Chasers 2014 season. The Storm Chasers won their 2nd straight PCL CS & 3rd in 4 years. What were the strengths of that team? Who stood out? @OmahaBaseball #MiLBall

LEE: They had a lot of power in the lineup: Carlos Peguero, Matt Fields, Francisco Pena. And they had a great bullpen. The crazy thing is, the Chasers lost quite a few guys to KC in the playoffs and won anyway.

JESSICA: Wrapping up & looking ahead to Omaha in 2015, who do you expect to be up there? Expectations for upper level guys? @OmahaBaseball #MiLBall

LEE: I'm awful at projections. From a selfish perspective, it would be nice to see Brandon Finnegan in an Omaha uniform.

That concluded this week’s ‘Social Sunday’ prospect chat. There won’t be a chat or Q & A next week, but Q & A comes back on the 26^th with Rays prospect, 2014 4^th pick Blake Bivens. Prospect chat will return November 2^nd, when ‘Amazin’ Avenue’s’ Mets prospect writer Jeffrey Paternostro takes on hosting duties.

Look for more announcements on Facebook for upcoming chats and stories in the works.