Jul/091
Petro's Mid-Season Grades For the Kansas City Royals (pt. 2)
Posted by: photogwingsfan on July 15, 2009.
Mike Jacobs: C
Mike Jacobs was obtained by Dayton Moore and the Kansas City Royals to hit the long ball. He has done that for the most part with 12 home runs but what we hasn’t done is drive in runs (30 RBI’s) and have a respectable batting average (.222).
David DeJesus: C
David DeJesus has rebounded somewhat after having a rough start to the season and I think has a lot to do with him feeling comfortable batting in the lead-off position. I will fill a lot better about DeJesus if he can continue to hit and raise his .256 batting average.
Jose Guillen: C-
Jose Guillen has done what we expected him to do. A poor batting average (.243), not many RBI’s (37) and has sprinkled in a few home runs (9). What he hasn’t done, which almost made bump him up to a “C” rating, is go on one of his tirades…there is still a chance.
Mitch Maier: C-
Mitch Maier hasn’t had a lot of chances to show what he has but when he has been in the game it has been mainly for defensive purposes and not for his batting average (.213).
Zack Greinke: A
Zack Greinke (10-5) has done everything anyone could ask at this point in the season. He is second in E.R.A. (2.12) in the Major Leagues, tied for second in wins (10), tied for fifth in strikeouts (129), first in complete games (5), and tied for first in shutouts (2). Along with a dominate inning in the All-Star Game (two strikeouts and no hits) he is having an amazing year.
Brian Bannister: C
Brian Bannister started the season off with a promising 4-2 start in his first eight starts, but since then he is 2-5 in his last eight. A good amount of that can be attributed to a lack of run support but he still needs to show consistency in the second half and maintain his respectable E.R.A. (3.66).
Gil Meche: C
Gil Meche (4-9) has had an off year so far. His E.R.A. (4.50) is not where you would like it to be and he has given up too many home runs (11). Some would say his high pitch count (132) on June 16 against Arizona would is part of the reason he has done poorly in his past starts, but as in past seasons he has rebounded and I believe he will.
Luke Hochevar: C-
I might be harsh with Luke Hochevar, and even though it wasn’t his fault he was the top draft pick in 2006, more is expected of him in what will be his second full season. He has shown flashes, once he finally made his season debut in the second week in May, but he isn’t striking out enough and is still giving up too many home runs.
Kyle Davies: D
Kyle Davies started the season off giving Royals fans an exciting look but that didn’t last long and he was sent to the minors before June ended. Not much has worked for him collectively so far this season so myself and Royals fans hope he can turn things around in the minor leagues and help the big league team as soon as possible.
Jamey Wright: D
Jamey Wright has done what I expected. Eat some innings and pitch below average. It was hard for me to give him much of a grade but when he has gotten into the game it isn’t much to look at.
Kyle Farnsworth: C+
Kyle Farnsworth didn’t start the season off well in the minds of Royals fans when he blew a save against the Chicago White Sox to start the season, but he picked it up after that and has pitched pretty well since then. I am not as much of a Farnsworth hater than others but he does need to try and limit the amount of hits he is giving up with 24 hits and 23.1 innings pitched.
Juan Cruz: C
Juan Cruz has been electric at times and way off as well so far this season. He has been a nice setup man for Joakim Soria and unless something drastic happens and he loses his role to Farnsworth he will continue to be a worthy asset.
Joakim Soria: B
The Mexicutioner has done what is expected of him with a good E.R.A. (1.88) and save total (14) but what is holding me back to giving him a better grade is that he was injured for part of the first half. If he would have been healthy there is no doubt he would have better numbers and could have even been elected to the Major League All-Star game.
John Bale, Bruce Chen, Roman Colon, Ron Mahay, Robinson Tejeda: None of these guys have pitched enough innings in my opinion during the season to really warrant a season grade. Once the season is done it will be easier to see what they have meant to the team.
Jul/095
Royals Drop Game 2, Stay Optimistic
Posted by: Casey on July 11, 2009.
The bad news is, the Red Sox scored one run all night on friday, and they still got the win. The good news is that Bannister stymied the Sox for much of the night, dancing through the high-powered sox lineup with using both sides of the plate and keeping the hitters guessing.
There’s something about Fenway Park that makes Lester completely dominate the Royals. He has now pitched 26 scoreless innings against the Royals at home, which is an unbelievable feat. If you would have told me that there was going to be a no-hitter tonight in the major leagues, I would have been genuinely worried that it was going to be Lester doing it to us again. Lester has turned into a heck of a pitcher, really coming after hitters and not being afraid of challenging guys with his fastball. I enjoy watching him pitch, I think he’s got a chance to be very great.
I’m very optimistic about our chances to come away with at least a 2-2 tie at Fenway, which in my mind is an accomplishment, especially when you consider the fact that the Sox missed out on Greinke. We get to face Smoltz, which will be fun to face a legend, especially since he hasn’t been very good so far as a Red Sox player. Not only that, but we also have Meche heading onto the mound to face him in saturdays game. Hopefully we get the win against Smoltz because Chen will be facing Beckett in the sunday finale and yeah, that could be bad.
After many hours of thought, here’s my ruling on the trade today. We’re getting a SS who is a legitimate big-leaguer. We’ll be having Gordon and Betancourt on the left side of the infield, which gives us a much better lineup than we have had in the last few weeks. Compare these hypothetical lineups:
Typical lineup for first-half of the season.
- DeJesus (LF)
- Bloomquist (SS)
- Butler (1B)
- Guillen (RF)
- Teahen (3B)
- Jacobs (DH)
- Callaspo (2B)
- Olivo (C)
- Maier (CF)
With Gordon/Betancourt
- DeJesus (LF)
- Bloomquist (CF)
- Butler (1B)
- Guillen (DH)
- Teahen (RF)
- Gordon (3B)
- Callaspo (2B)
- Olivo (C)
- Betancourt (SS)
If you compare the lineups, you’ll notice some small differences, which actually turns out to be big differences. We fielded a lineup earlier this year that had Maier, TPJ and Hernandez. None of those players are legitimate big-league players, let alone guys that should be starting often. The additions of Gordon and Betancourt make this team much better on offense, defense and speed. I don’t think you can argue that.
We won’t know if Cortes ends up being as good as advertised. I think that because he’s not a proven big-league player, and that we got Betancourt who is a proven player (who by the way, has unlimited talent), that this trade is going to work out well for the Royals. It dramatically improves this team at SS, meanwhile we won’t know how Cortes pans out for years to come. I like the trade, and I will go on record as saying that I think Betancourt will work harder in KC and will work out for us very well. Let’s hope I am right.
BTW – props to Teahen. I really don’t want to see him leave this team.
Jul/090
Royals @ Red Sox, 6/10/09
Posted by: Casey on July 10, 2009.
Bannister vs Lester.
Let’s hope for no no-no.
Jul/092
Royals @ Red Sox – Live Game Thread 6/9/2009
Posted by: Casey on July 9, 2009.
Hochevar vs Penny. First pitch at 6:10 CST. Game is being played at Fenway.
Hope for no no-no..
Jun/090
Royals Sweep Reds
Posted by: Casey on June 14, 2009.
Teahen Attempts To Break Up DP (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
As I mentioned in my preview for the Cleveland series, I felt that the upcoming schedule would be helpful for the Royals to get back to business. Although they gave away the series at Cleveland, they had no problems handling the above-.500 Reds.
The Reds gave up 5 unearned runs in the series finale on Sunday, and made it difficult for the Royals to not sweep them. There’s no denying that the AL does provide tougher competition than the NL, but nevertheless, the Royals will take the sweep.
Perhaps an even better sign is that the Royals swept the Reds without Meche or Greinke pitching in any of the 3 games.
The Royals return to action on tuesday when the 27-36 Arizona Diamondbacks come to town. The D-Backs are last in the NL West division, and it could be another series win for the Royals as Meche and Greinke will both pitch. After the D-Backs series, the Cardinals come to town and the Royals will hopefully still be riding some momentum heading into that series.
It’s nice to see the bats coming alive, as several players are sporting solid hit streaks. Callaspo is hitting the ball very well, getting back to his early-season form.
Also, Coco hit the DL today, and hopefully he can return with a less-sore shoulder in 15 days. He had only played in 5 of the last 15 games, and I for one was hoping they would put him on the DL earlier than they did, but the important thing is that he gets back to being healthy. Tug Hulett was recalled from Omaha to take his spot.
Jun/090
Royals Give Win Away
Posted by: Casey on June 9, 2009.
Callaspo isn't cut out for hockey (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Merry Christmas.
Heading into the bottom of the 6th, I had a sick feeling in my stomach. From one point of view, the Royals were looking pretty good at getting this series off the right way, up 4-0 with Bannie controlling things. That’s when we completely de-railed. A double play ball that we got 0 outs on, then a play that we should have got the lead runner and not allowed anyone to score, but Olivo pulled his foot off home plate.
After giving up 4 runs in the bottom of the 6th, we gave up a grand slam in the 7th and well, that was the game.
Who does the blame fall upon in this game? Bannister gives up 1 ER, and our bullpen/defense pretty much accounts for the rest of the 7. All season long I have said that this team is not where it should be defensively, and that we won’t make any kind of noise if we don’t have a solid bullpen or solid defense to go along with the good pitching. Who in this bullpen do you trust when you have a slim lead? Soria. Other then that, who do you trust? I would say Mahay (of last year) as well.
This bullpen is so awful that I can’t believe we ever thought it was going to be a strength.
The good news is that we scored 4 runs off of Cliff Lee, the other good news is that we have Meche and Greinke for the final two games of the series. This series is not lost, even though we gave away a game today. This was a ridiculous game, and a game that the Royals, in no way, should have lost. We’ve got to swallow this tough pill, and head out there tomorrow with Meche and then Greinke the following day. We desperately need a series victory…
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