Jul/100
Eff Steinbrenner and the Yankees. Why I hate the White Sox. The Royals culture (This whole thing is a plot against me isn’t it?).
Posted by: Bertkc01 on July 22, 2010.
First of all… go here and do this.
https://secure.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/fans/moniker_madness/y2010/moniker_madness.jsp
Now on to the reason I’m here.
Baseball lost a man who both made baseball great and demonized for generations to come in George Steinbrenner. You can’t deny his significance on the game and impact he made in New York. Yada yada yada. Everything you can say you put in that last sentence. Point is though I still hate him. Don’t get me wrong I would still share a drink with him and listen to any advice he gives me (or would have if, in my perfect day dream world, we both went to the same golf club). I just happen to hate what he did to the game of baseball. He turned it into a bidding war. I hope the Yankees of his era do not become the model in which to make a baseball team because I admire what the Braves and Twins are doing a whole heck of a lot more. Solid minor league system constantly moving talent through the system that leads to just making sure 4 or 5 guys are happy, producing and winning and surrounding them with young talent that is replaced in 3 years (you know when they get tooexpensive). Thing is you start winning enough then that talent sticks around and you start making money because the fans love it. Then you can trade some of that talent for other guys who are All-Stars or you sign them in offseason. Oh wait… that’s what Steinbrenner did. Guess I can’t be mad. He did it better than anyone else and left behind a $1.1 billion legacy. * Sigh *
I just got to be clear on one thing though. I friggin’ hate the White Sox. I mean hate them. Like remind me of people I didn’t like in high school hate. The way you hate someone when just looking at them makes a little bile shoot into your throat a little bit. *^#)&)&*#)*EG)&(*UDLJKDV. Hate. I hate them so much I typed garbledy gook on my work. Here’s why: They aren’t good yet they are in first place. What they have is the equivalent of 6 dumb jocks, 2 freshman and 1 nerd playing on the team at all times. The freshman are clearly having off years (Pierre and Beckham) and the nerd (pitcher) is basically doing all the work he can and waiting for the dumb jocks (Konerko, Quentin, Ramirez, Kotsay so on and on)to finally start doing their job which is to kick sand in the faces of all the dumb jocks. So what motivates them? The coach starts talking about benching them or trading. IS THAT ALL IT TAKES? I’m stuck in KC waiting for the talent pool to develop and the whole world of division winning and post season play to come to me in 2 years (it’s always 2 years) and all Guillen has to do is mutter something about sending them to the some other cellar dwelling team and then they are like “Oh okay boss huh huh.” and in a month they’re in 1st place. Give me a break. I wish my team was that dumb/good.
Here’s the point of all this. I had planned to write an article about who we could get in trades and I mean I was going to go over everything and everyone. From Pena to Greinke. Everyone is looking at DeJesus and Guillen and Soria to trade then all of the sudden they trade Callaspo. I can only assume this means that they are planning to make room for Moustakas to get in the lineup eventually and get better starting pitching. Hopefully that means that Davies is on the chopping block next. I can hope right? So now we are completely at a loss of what to do. We have developed a legitimate right side of the diamond with Aviles, Billy Butler and David DeJesus we can say that these are legitimate Royals players. They play the way we want them too and they play it well (only 3 players hitting over .300). Then we have the pitching staff. Greinke, Blake Wood, Soria and Dusty Hughes. You can argue D-Hughes but I think he can develop into a great role player. The Dayton Moore 10 year plan (we are in year 4) calls for majority of the players to be home grown. They’re is 25 on a roster.
So that means 7/25 are part of the future. We need 5 more. I am going with Kila Ka’aihue (sp?), Moustakas, Hosmer and Gordon to be added in. That brings us to 11. Another problem comes when we see that we now have three first basemen. Most likely to be out? KK. Moore isn’t giving up a prized 1st round pick like Hosmer and Billy Butler is an excellent DH. So that takes back to 10. We are getting close people to starting to go down the path of White Sox and the Yankees. It’s just a matter of getting the right pieces in place.
Jul/100
First 1/2 evaluation and random thoughts
Posted by: Bertkc01 on July 14, 2010.
Passing thoughts on the Royals since the midway point (which isn’t the midway point but it’s like the Christmas break of baseball)
Hey our AAA, AA and High A minor league teams look awesome!
From a fan’s glance I’m gonna break down the first half of the season into 2 halves. Le’ts call them Yuni and Betancourt.
The Trey days (Betancourt):
Royals were error prone fools. THE BULLPEN. Should I even start? They couldn’t close a case on Usama Bin Laden. They worked walks like they were outs and they were the worst in baseball. If not statistcally then they were the best at deflating morality in baseball.
Offense: OBP and AVG. are among the best in baseball but (and it’s a big but) none of that matters when the defense is error prone and the walks (heard the saying “beware the 2 out walk” multiple times) are escalating to the point of embarrasement.
No play illustrates this better than when, on opening day, Robinson Tejeda came in and gave up a lead by way of Johny Damon. I listen to the radio. I heard the frothing. We started off 0-1.
Since Hillman’s firing (Yuni):
The Royals are at .500.
The Royals seem to finally have figured it out. Good D and good pitching will go along way to overcoming a lack of a slugger. A Kila Kai’ahue and Jose Guillen and Ankiel filled line up (with an Alex Gordon twist) would resolve this issue I think but maybe Gordon needs to work on his approach a bit. Or maybe we should trade him? Seriously though we got Parraz, Dyson and Robinson lined up to accept the succesor’s job so why not? That means we got Podsednik and Gordon to trade. Wow, what would you give for that? Pods as CF and Gordon as LF. Not so much what but who would trade for that? It feels like a National league team would want that. What team in the NL needs a better outfield? How about the Cubs or the Astros? Anyone got any ideas?
The high point of the year? Beating Strasburg and kick starting a 10-3 pace for 13 games before being swept by the White Sox. God I hate the White Sox.
2nd
Since Guillen got gimpy on us who will they have play his spot? It appears Betemit is the answer. On top of that Moustakas was just moved to AAA and Hosmer is projected to go to AA (See last article for my secret “I told ya so” idea). Where it not for Betemit we would see KK in the majors and my idea would be in full fruition sigh. Alas it was not yet ment to be. KK I will see you in 2011. sniff, sniff
Here’s hoping we stay even now and make our late year run we made like we did last 2 years with both KK, Moustakas and Gordon stepping onto the podium’s we have waiting for them.
So I want to open it up for next article: Should I write about the Royals playing culture where I point out the Royals players brought up in the system are playing better than free agents? Or should I write about the job Dayton Moore has done? Just a thought.
Apr/102
Royals In Canada
Posted by: Casey on April 19, 2010.
Yes, the first trip to Toronto is my favorite road series of the season for one main reason: Canada. While many people may find Canada useful for things such as using their flag to travel internationally, I find Canadian’s extremely humorous in general. Anytime someone makes a Canada joke, I automatically laugh, even if it’s not funny or even if it’s not a joke. I hear Canada and something triggers in my head to laugh.
I’m glad someone else (Billy Butler) understands my undying appreciation of the cool country above us.
“Hanging out in Toronto! Who’s up for some baseball, eh?”
He might have well have just said “I laugh at Canadian’s because they’re funny”. But that would be me putting words in his mouth, and no one wants to see Billy when he’s angry.
If you do not share my appreciation of Canadian culture, this youtube video from one of my favorite television shows (South Park) pretty much sums up my understanding of all things Canada. Please note: this video is extremely appropriate, no typical South Park lingo involved.
If you are Ankiel’d on this, there’s this random Canadian argument in that episode (Canada On Strike) which is one of my favorite moments on that cynical immature show. In the episode, the entire country of Canada goes on strike because they want more money, yes they want some of that internet money. Luckily, there’s a simple solution that includes Butter’s being Butter’s. In all seriousness, if you are a South Park fan who finds Canada funny, this episode is for you. Or if you just find Canada funny I think you’ll enjoy that episode.
Now not everything in Canada is funny. There’s plenty of things we should thank them for. Like that whole healthcare thing. Apparently we got tired of hearing those pompous frenchmen to the north declaring rather humbly that their healthcare system was better than ours. Also, Canada did a commendable job of handling Juno beach on D-Day. If you know a Canadian, don’t ever mention Canada being inferior to the U.S. militarily, because they will give you an epic lecture about Juno beach and you will never second-guess Mountie power again.
But aside from those two great Canadian accomplishments, there’s also something great that came out of Toronto. If you are a Rock/Alternative music fan, there’s a chance you may already know of Evans Blue. They’re one of my favorite bands, and their one popular song that you may have already heard is called “Cold”.
Now that lead singer left the band awhile ago and started his new band called Parabelle (which I saw live with 5 other people at a local bar last fall). I’m not huge into the new Evans Blue lead singer, but he’s not bad, and the band still sounds great.
Enough off-topic stuff. The Royals fly into Toronto riding some hot bats. After taking game 3 of the series at Minnesota, the Royals are 5-7, while the Blue Jays are 7-6 (but have lost their last 3). We still lead the league in hitting at a .309 clip. Callaspo hit two 3-run home runs last night (maybe he really does feel more comfortable hitting lower in the lineup after all) and the team continues to see the ball well.
The pitching match-ups are as follows:
- Game 1 -- Bannie (0-0, 2.19) vs Morrow (0-1, 12.00)
- Game 2 -- Davies (1-0, 4.26) vs Eveland (2-0, 1.35)
- Game 3 -- Greinke (0-2, 3.57) vs Marcum (0-1, 4.05)
Some things to watch:
- Alex Gordon. He was rushed back to the club in my opinion, and it’ll be interesting to see how he does in this series.
- Callaspo. Not only is he hitting the ball well right now, he’s also made some pretty decent plays at second base with Gordon back and Getz on the dl.
- Jason Kendall. It’s safe to say I underestimated his impact in joining the Royals. He’s got a 12 game hitting streak to start the season.
- Bannie. I really like what we’ve seen from Bannister so far this year. He’s getting ahead of people and pitching to contact.
- Bullpen. After an improved series (still not good) against Minnesota, this could be a big turning point for the bullpen if they could have some good innings against Toronto.
Jul/090
With the trade deadline looming the Royals need to continue getting better
Posted by: photogwingsfan on July 30, 2009.
The non-waiver trade deadline, Friday, 3 p.m. (CST), will soon be upon us and the Royals are again in a position (as always) to make their team better. If the Royals have the chance to make a trade then field they should not hesitate.
The only positions/players I think they are fine with are David DeJesus and Mark Teahen in the outfield/infield and Billy Butler and Alex Gordon in the infield. They have all shown they can get the job done except for Gordon who I am still willing to give a pass to. (But if it gets to the end of next year and he is still struggling then I will start to really worry.) But if a team comes to the Royals wanting DeJesus or Teahan then I think they have to really listen.
So far the Royals have made some acquisitions. They traded for Ryan Freel, Yuniesky Betancourt and now recently Josh Anderson from the Detroit Tigers. None of them really excite me. Freel is just another role player, Betancourt is an upgrade from what he had before at shortstop; but practically anyone would be, and now Anderson. Anderson is the best of the three so far but still doesn’t give the team a step in the right direction which I believe is needed.
I am afraid that the Royals and Dayton Moore are content at sitting where they are and thinking they have a core of young players to build around. They have a few but clearly are not close to competing just yet and I believe they need to concentrate on getting more hitting and power in the lineup.
Jul/091
Petro's Mid-Season Grades For The Kansas City Royals (pt. 1)
Posted by: photogwingsfan on July 14, 2009.
After watching bits and pieces of the home run derby and being happy that St. Louis Cardinals’ Albert Pujols didn’t win on his home field, I had to get back to the task and hand unfortunately and give my grades for the Kansas City Royals at the mid way point. This is part one consisting of the coaching staff, catchers and infield. Part two will be later today/tomorrow and will be the DH spot (Mike Jacobs), outfielders and pitching staff.
Coaching staff: C-
There is not much else to say about Trey Hillman that hasn’t already been said. The way he has managed games this season is starting to make fans wonder if he is able to guide a team. With a team like the Royals he obviously needs to be making more right moves than wrong ones because the margin of error is slim. I think his job should be safe until next season unless the season gets even worse.
John Buck: C-
John Buck hasn’t done much to change my opinion on what I thought he was before the season. Yes has been injured for decent amount of games but as Royals fans know we will get a good defensive catcher but the offense is severely lacking and doubt it will ever come around.
Miguel Olivo: C+
Miguel Olivo, like John Buck, hasn’t really surprised me this year but his power has been a nice surprise. He is only three homeruns away from his career high (16) and I am sure will fall around 23 home runs.
Brayan Pena: n/a
Not much to really say about Brayan Pena but I don’t think we are expecting much from a third string catcher. He hasn’t played enough for me to even evaluate him.
Willie Bloomquist: C+
Willie Bloomquist has played a lot more than I honestly wish he would have but he has exceeded my expectations with his .280 batting average and has committed only seven errors while playing every position except for pitcher and catcher.
Billy Butler: B
Billy Butler is positioning himself to have a nice season if he can continue his batting average and connect on a few more homers and try to reach 20 by the end of the season. I have also been more than happy with his fielding at first base in the 78 games he has played there only committing four errors.
Alberto Callaspo: C
Alberto Callaspo has done more than expected at the plate with a .298 batting average and six home runs but his fielding has left something to be desired but has done a decent job overall playing second base.
Tony Pena Jr.: D-
It is not his fault that he is on the team, because no one in their right mind would refuse a position on a major league roster, but there is no reason on earth that Tony Pena, Jr. should be on this team. Every regime has their favorite/pet player and Jr. is it.
Mark Teahen: B
Mark Teahen has done everything this team has asked playing four different positions and keeping his batting average at a very respectable .294 and his home run total sitting at nine. If Teahen is traded I won’t be upset because the Royals need to upgrade at pretty much any position and he could be a nice piece to someone’s play-off puzzle.
Alex Gordon: n/a
Alex Gordon didn’t get off to a great start in the seven games he has played so far with his .095 batting average but a lot of that could be due to his injury. I am hoping as I am sure a lot of others that Gordon can come back strong because the Royals need it.