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.
Jun/101
Why you don’t want to trade DeJesus and other wonderful problems to have.
Posted by: Bertkc01 on June 28, 2010.
What are you people thinking about trading David DeJesus!? In what world is that a good idea? Who could replace him in our system? Remember the last time we departed with a great outfielder? The answer of course is “Which example do you want to use?” Trading Carlos Beltran who would play in the world series? Or Jermaine Dye who would help the White Sox win they’re first world series since the were the black sox? Or Johny Damon? Hall of Fame Johny Damon. Hero of Boston. Destroyer of Philly. Oh and did I mention a FUTURE HALL OF FAMER (He is and you know it. Don’t act like it isn’t going to happen.).
I personally would not like another rebuilding period to run any of our players out of town and what really needs to be done is, despite a recent 21 game hit streak, leading the team in HR, RBI and well slacking on the way to first. We need to discharge Guillen and make way for Kila in AAA and move Robinson from the Naturals to AAA (or move Gordon to first, there I said it, I said it and I’m not embarrased) and Hosmer to the Naturals and just set an example of how you get your teams ready for the future.
You don’t trade DeJesus. You just don’t. You offer to cover half of Guillen’s contract you get a pitcher and a shorstop who are close to major league ready or close to being close but you just don’t trade DeJesus. You don’t get rid of a guy who is putting himself in the teams record books because of defense and hits .330 and if you do you are fulfilling a stigma that has been attached to you by your fans as a cheap, lazy, greedy ball club that has no desire to win anything of significance again. Ever.
You don’t option Chen or Lerew to anywhere. Remember the end of 2008? Royals had a great bullpen with guys that were being called up from AAA or were from Dayton’s Atlanta rejects squad and we, as fans, we’re beginning we could win the division next year. Remember those guys? LEO FRIGGIN’ NUNEZ? Closer for the marlins anyone? Anyone? Ramon Martinez? Red Spx setup man anyone? Hello? Two words should forever scar and insult Royals ownership from 2009. Jacobs and Crisp. Sir Strike out and Mr. Owie Shoulder and oh we also inherited they’re ARBITRATION (scary soap opera pipe organ music here). We need to dump Davies or move him to the bullpen and he has no other option because he’s got 2 guys breathing down his neck for his job. When Hochevar comes back (not particularly excited for Meche and his new arm slot to be seen yet) he will move to the number 2 spot and we will begin to see the championship rotation take form. Greinke, Hochevar then Chen (holding it for Montgomery (AA) or Lamb (A) or whoever moves the fastest) then Lerew then Bannister. Bannister is pitching well but I really like seeing him on day games so he retains the five spot. So that’s the rotation that will announce to Major League Baseball that the Royals are no longer a joke. We can’t do that unless we tell Davies to start doing his job or go play for the Pirates. Harsh.
Sign DeJesus to the option and pay the man because he’s worth it. Sign him to a $21 million/3 year deal then let the baseball gods do what they may. Keep the guy here at least until 2012.
Davies goes to the bullpen or to the wolves. He sinks or swims. Suck it up and take it. He’ll always have a 2nd career in construction. Harsh.
Feb/103
Spring Breakdown – SP
Posted by: Casey on February 18, 2010.
Spring is officially here, with no real surprises coming out of the first day. As expected, the “shoulder-fatigue” plan was in full force in explaining Davies/Bannister/Meche’s early exits from 2009. In fact, the most surprising news was that Greinke had a couple teeth pulled. I guess no news is good news..
Greinke – The biggest question in my mind is if he can adjust to hitters adjusting to him. I think people put too much weight in people adjusting over the off-season to individual pitchers/hitters they face. During the season, players put plenty of time into studying pitchers, especially Cy-Young’s. I think Greinke will be hard pressed to duplicate a season like he had last year, and I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on him. He does need to take the next step towards consistency season by season and continue to put up quality starts. I had a friend ask me the other day how bad it would have been last year had Greinke not put us on his back, and I told him we might just see exactly that this year. Also, don’t put too much stock in how he does this spring, because last spring he was terrible (perfected his changeup).
Meche – I have never been a very big Meche fan. I think we spent too much money on him and his back provides some serious questions for me. All season in 2009, when he was pitching well it was because his back wasn’t hurting him. Then when he pitched badly, it was because of his back. I get tired of hearing those types of excuses and it gets to a point where he just needs to man up and take the blame for not keeping the ball down. He, of course, reassured the media today by saying he worked 3-4 times a week on back/shoulder strengthening exercises. If he can stay healthy, I look for him to have a typical Meche season (around 4.00 ERA).
Bannister – Bannister went 7-12 last year with a 4.74 ERA and 1.370 WHIP. That of course improved on his terrible 2008 season. He also had some shoulder fatigue towards the end of the year, but also put a lot of work in the offseason on getting stronger. He apparently had two personal trainers, one for general strength and one for shoulder strength. He’s also my favorite to take over the Mark Teahen Show.
Davies – After a promising 2008 season (9-7, 4.06 ERA), Kyle struggled in 2009 like everyone else (aside from Greinke). He posted a 8-9 5.27 ERA and also had a shortened season. He also is said to be 100% for 2010.
Hochevar – With a 6.55 ERA last season (compared to 5.51 in 2008), you start to wonder when he’s going to make his Greinke-like turn, or if he ever will. You hope some of these other young guys step it up soon, and Hochevar might just be one of the guys to do so (he’ll have to do much better than he did last year).
Tejeda – Robinson will have an outside shot of taking a spot in the rotation pending any sign of injuries/fatigue. I think it’s more likely that he takes over a spot for a struggling starter early in the season, if not we’ll see him as a long reliever and he’ll start in spot situations.
Farnsworth – Yes, Kyle Farnsworth is apparently getting a chance as a starter. Bob McClure at his finest. And I have nothing else to say about this.
Stats wise, everyone digressed in 2009 compared to their 2008 season aside from Greinke. If our starters can pull it together and stay healthy, there shouldn’t be any reason why this won’t be an improved unit in 2010.
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