Apr/100
Early Season Thoughts
Posted by: Casey on April 16, 2010.
To start things out, I’d like to go ahead and say I haven’t been as dedicated as I was last year when it came to Royals baseball. I still read the stories and check the sites, but as far as watching the team goes, I’ve probably only watched about half the innings played thus far.
I completely expected this season to be depressing in that I thought a 70-92 season would be a huge plus. Everyone in baseball knew this bullpen was going to be absolutely terrible, excluding those manager’s in the central who get to benefit from the atrocity that is Farnsworth/Mendoza.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the Kansas City bullpen,” Leyland said. “I think the Kansas City bullpen has a lot of fine arms down there, and for whatever reason, we’ve been fortunate to get a couple timely hits.”
The surprise for me has been the impact made thus far from some new guys. Ankiel has hit the ball better than I thought he would, Kendall has hit well for average, Pods has done his share of OBP (.525), and I’ve even been happy with Getz’s performance. I was critical of all of these acquisitions (like why are we putting a 12 million dollar outfielder at DH?) and signing two outfielders in Ankiel/Pods. Granted, Guillen isn’t a good fielder, and apparently he almost died this off-season, so I can see where DM was going with this. He even probably figured Callaspo as the DH in case Guillen did lose the battle to blood clots in the legs.
Yet he did nothing about the god-awful bullpen, except bringing in a career 7.73 era pitcher in Mendoza and some non-roster invitee’s who have actually ended up being the lone not-so-dark spots in the bullpen. Like I said a few days ago on twitter.. The fact that Dayton Moore chilled all winter being comfortable with what our 2010 bullpen was going to be like, without really doing anything about it, makes me think his days as our GM should be numbered.
However, they’ve exceeded our expectations with the bat, base-running has been terrible aside from some good stolen bases, starting pitching has been decent except apparently Zack has some new (or not) mental issues (plus he doesn’t have the world’s best catcher in Miguel Olivo anymore). Meche is still a pussy and Bannie/Hoch/Davies have performed well. I thought Zack might struggle a bit early-season this year with hitters taking different approaches against him now that he’s not just a baby-faced righty.
My outlook: don’t drink the powder blue kool-aid. This team was a 100 loss team a year ago had Zack not gone un-hittable, and the bullpen will continue to be a liability to the rest of our team’s health. The bats won’t keep this ridiculous pace, and our starters will probably slide a little. Consider this: the Royals lead the league in hitting (.307 average), and with the decent starting pitching we’ve got, we are still only 4-6.
Nov/090
My Congrats to Greinke
Posted by: Casey on November 29, 2009.
What a marvelous season he had. It was great to see that someone with potential actually stepped up and produced like we all hoped he would (same to you, BB).
We all know the stats. Let’s just hope he can be our cornerstone for years to come.
New poll: How will Greinke do in 2010?
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/091
This is getting ridiculous
Posted by: photogwingsfan on July 9, 2009.
When The Royals When the Kansas City Royals (36-48) took the field last night I assumed like most that they had an above than average chance of winning the game against Detroit. The Royals had their “10-J-Q-K-ACE” Zack Greinke on the mound against Lucas French, who was born in Salina, KS, which is home to an amazing burger joint called the Cozy Inn. French was looking for his first major league win and as we know obtained it with a 3-1 win.
Normally three runs are good enough for a pitcher to expect a win but not for the Royals pitching staff. The Royals have a team batting average of .252 (13th place of 14 A.L. teams), have hit only 73 homeruns (13th place of 14 A.L. teams) and have only 712 hits (which also puts them into 13th place out of 14 A.L. teams). I could go on about the boys in blue dismal batting statistics but the point is we don’t really have anyone on the team that scares an opposing team. Yes Billy Butler (.293/8/35) is having his best year so far in his short career but on any other team he would most likely be a nice role player.
My point is that we are still a few years away from having a realistic chance of playing with the big boys and hoping young players like Eric Hosmer ( Class A Burlington Bees) and Mike Moustakas (High Class A Wilmington Blue Rocks) help the team. We also have to hope that Trey Hillman and the coaching staff get their act together because right now the ship is sinking fast and I am not sure they have enough Mighty Putty Wood to fix the problem.
Jul/093
Happy Greinke Day
Posted by: Casey on July 8, 2009.
Not only is it a Greinke day, but it’s on a day when the Royals have a chance to win the series, let alone against a division leader. Yes, it should be a wonderful game, although Zack’s ERA is now at an even 2.00 … Hopefully it doesn’t continue to rise and he can keep it under 3.00 for the entire season, if he wants a shot at the Cy Young.
First pitch is at 6:05 central time.
Also, you should be noticing some exciting new changes happening to the site, I’ll explain everything in full detail. This is kinda a test post with my new auto-tweet thing.
Jun/090
Dismal Royals Head To Houston
Posted by: Casey on June 23, 2009.
Showing or causing gloom or depression. I think that’s a fairly accurate word for the way this team makes me feel. There are times when we show good potential, then there are times where we completely fall apart. This weekend series against the Cardinals was a nightmare, which was proceeded by the collapse in the final two games against the D-Backs. And all of this after a 4 game winning streak.
Want to know something else that is depressing? Greinke is winless in his last 4 starts. He gets another chance starting on tuesday as he leads the Royals into Houston. Many of the Astros players have not seen Zack, aside from Ivan Rodriguez who’s got a .370 average and a homerun in 27 at bats.
When I look at this Astros team, I think they would have been really good about five years ago. Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee, Pudge, Darin Erstad, Keppinger. They’ve got some vets who have been very good, but they are 32-35, in next to last place in the NLC. They are behind the awful Reds, who we just saw last week (and swept). This will be an interesting series, especially with the short porch in left field. I think the key will, yet again, be the Royals defense. I think we’ll get good enough pitching to win in atleast 2 of the 3 games, so the key will be scoring enough runs and not having another defensive breakdown. Please take Callaspo out in the 7th if we have a slim lead..
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