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.
May/090
Royals Lose To Tigers 8-3
Posted by: Casey on May 27, 2009.
Davies Gives Up 8 Runs (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
The Tigers took two out of three games in a big series between division leaders in Kansas City, which increases the Tigers lead in the AL Central to four games. None of the games of the series were close, and the Royals lose yet another series.
Rick Porcello won his first game against the Royals this year, he’s now 1-1 against KC. For a kid who’s only 20 years old, he’s definately shown his promise. He throws hard and has some nasty stuff. It’s amazing how many of the pitchers for the Tigers throw in the upper-90’s. It seemed like every reliever that came in threw hard and threw effectively. I think the Tigers have showed the Royals that they deserve to be where they are, which is in 1st place.
The Royals get a day off tomorrow, which is a much needed rest before the White Sox come in for a weekend series. Hopefully we can win that series, as the boys in blue have now lost 6 straight series (although they won 2 out of 4 against Baltimore in that stretch).
May/091
Davies With Solid Start, Royals Offense Sucks, Bullpen Continues Struggles
Posted by: Casey on May 22, 2009.
Royals Lose Again. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam)
Well, the part about the possibility of this weekend being a complete disaster seems to have started. After getting shut out 5-0 by Todd Wellemeyer of all people, this series shapes up to be a bad one.
There were certainly some more questionable decisions made by Hillman again this game. Pinch Hitting Bloomquist for Avilles was an awful decision, at least in my view. As a manager, you can see who’s warming up and you know who the other team has. Regardless of how Avilles has played so far this year, he’s still a much better clutch hitter than Bloomquist. I don’t even get it. Why use Bloomquist there? The next batter was going to be Butler, so there’s no reason to bring someone off the bench.
So many questions for this team.. And now we’re back to .500 .. Hopefully we can pick it up for the game tomorrow. I’m frustrated with the way this team is hitting right now.
It was a good start by Davies, though. After giving up two runs in the first inning, he didn’t give up another and was pinch-hit for in the top of the 7th. It looked like it wasn’t going to be a good night for him, but he pitched well. Again, it was the offense not coming through. The bullpen also gave up 3 more runs tonight, making it 13 runs in 9 innings.
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