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/100
Fixing Zack
Posted by: Bertkc01 on June 16, 2010.
06/09/2010
Zack’s “issues”
Listening to the post game a caller called in and stated that Zack’s wife is his new passion and he’s not as into baseball as in the past. Others have stated it’s the fact his catcher isn’t there (Miguel “Wild Pitch” Olivo). Others are crying run support and yet others (me) think he needs to be represcribed a different anti anxiety pill. Let’s get rid of all the crazy theories and just focus on the numbers.
It’s common knowledge that Zack gets crap for run support and most recently he’s gotten less than crap. He’s gotten absolutely nothing. The score when he left the last 4 games: 7-0, 1-0, 4-0 and 6-0.
Okay two of those games he didn’t help himself but let’s go back to the beginning… I mean really break it down…
| DATE |  |
GAME | |
W | |
L | |
ERA | |
G | |
GS | |
CG | |
SHO | |
SV | |
SVO | |
IP | |
H | |
R | |
ER | |
HR | |
BB | |
SO | |
NP-S | |
GO-AO |
| APR 05 | DET | 0 | 0 | 1.50 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.0 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 96-56 | 8-5 | |||||||||||||||||||
| APR 10 | BOS | 0 | 1 | 3.55 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.2 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 108-68 | 9-6 | |||||||||||||||||||
| APR 16 | @MIN | 0 | 1 | 3.57 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.0 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 108-57 | 3-6 | |||||||||||||||||||
| APR 21 | @TOR | 0 | 0 | 3.28 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 109-66 | 5-8 | |||||||||||||||||||
| APR 27 | SEA | 0 | 0 | 2.56 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 119-77 | 6-9 | |||||||||||||||||||
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DATE | |
GAME | |
W | |
L | |
ERA | |
G | |
GS | |
CG | |
SHO | |
SV | |
SVO | |
IP | |
H | |
R | |
ER | |
HR | |
BB | |
SO | |
NP-S | |
GO-AO |
| MAY 02 | @TB | 0 | 1 | 2.27 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 87-65 | 7-11 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MAY 07 | @TEX | 0 | 1 | 2.51 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.0 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 108-73 | 7-8 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MAY 13 | CLE | 1 | 0 | 2.73 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.0 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 112-72 | 7-3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MAY 18 | @BAL | 0 | 0 | 2.72 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 108-72 | 6-8 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MAY 23 | COL | 0 | 1 | 3.57 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.1 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 65-42 | 3-6 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MAY 29 | @BOS | 0 | 1 | 3.39 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 115-66 | 4-9 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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DATE | |
GAME | |
W | |
L | |
ERA | |
G | |
GS | |
CG | |
SHO | |
SV | |
SVO | |
IP | |
H | |
R | |
ER | |
HR | |
BB | |
SO | |
NP-S | |
GO-AO |
| JUN 03 | LAA | 0 | 1 | 3.60 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.0 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 116-72 | 3-3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| JUN 08 | @MIN | 0 | 1 | 4.05 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.0 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 102-70 | 5-3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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So there’s 6 games where he gave up 2 run or less assuming when he gives up 5 runs or more he loses. That leaves us with a 6 – 2 record. One number that stands out is the home run numbers and go-ao numbers.
The one thing though that nobody will point out is Yuni Betancourt has committed at least 3 of the 6 errors on Greinke starts. One was in Texas where Zack had 4 runs scored. 3 of them were earned. One was against Colorado were he botched a double play ball by, get this, not letting go of the ball! They later scored 4 more runs that inning, 3 earned.
Oh and does it need to be pointed out that Brayan Pena caught the only win?
Kendall has done great with 3 of the other 4 pitchers. Kyle Davies, I would totally cut you now if I had a pitcher that could be brought up. Hoch, Banny and now Chen are pitching wonderfully with Kendall. I know I’m leaving out Mr Bursitis himself Gil Meche but really can we just ignore his actions so far this season? For whatever reason Greinke is not getting any help.
Here’s my personal theory: Maybe new anti anxiety drug. Maybe we need to get more than a bunch of slap hitters. Maybe Guillen needs to be “injured” and Kila Kai’ahue (sp?) needs to be brought up. Maybe Rick “K man” Ankiel will provide a spark when he gets back from rehabbing in Omaha, doubtful but possible. Maybe Zack really is distracted by his hot wife. Would that make her the Yoko Ono of the Royals? I hope not. She needs to come to more games. Nice score on that one Zack. Maybe we need to lay off comparing him to last year Zack because his performance was in the Walter Johnson/Fernando Valenzuela calibur of performances. Walter Johnson is considered to be one of the best 3 pitchers in the post 1900 era btw. Fernando had a screwball. No one hits a screwball too well if its thrown right. All things being equal the reason is this:
- Cy Young Awards are difficult to win back to back and those that do are HOF calibur.
2. Royals just can’t hit the ace of a pitching staff.
In summation Greinke will do it again but not this year.
Apr/102
Recapping Road Trip, Preview Homestand
Posted by: Casey on April 22, 2010.
Kansas City finished its 3 team road trip (Tigers 2-1, Twins 1-2, Canadians 1-2) a total of 4-5, which isn’t bad. We should have swept the Tigers (see: bullpen meltdown), salvaged game 3 against Twins and almost gave away game 3 against the Blue Jays but came out with a victory. There are some positives and some negatives, as with any situation, and I’m going to attempt to break down some of them.
Positives from road trip:
- Greinke. In Zack’s start against Toronto on Wednesday, he showed some more life than he had the rest of the season. His fastball velocity was still a little low, but he was locating his slider and his pitch-mix was more like last year’s. He still lived up in the zone with his fastball too often for my liking, but overall a good sign.
- Absurd hitting. We are still hitting at ridiculous numbers. As a team, a .296 BA 15 games into a season is a good sign. No one expects it to continue, but no one expected it in the first place. Yes, the 2010 Royals, defying expectations.
- Relievers. The bullpen hasn’t been as bad as it was to start the season. They will still struggle all season long, but hopefully not at the pace as it was heading. I should modify this by saying the bullpen was pretty bad in the Detroit series, but Rupe has been a solid contributor since his arrival. I do expect a move to be made tomorrow, hopefully Mendoza being sent down for another pitcher.
- Jose Guillen. ‘Clots (too early?) is actually contributing. I know, crazy. I’ve been as much of an advocate for him being traded as anyone, and right now just might be the perfect time to do it. If anyone’s going to take on his huge salary, they might be more inclined when he’s hitting .377/.406/.738. Let’s face it, we’re leading the league in hitting and sitting in 4th place. Guillen has been our best performer so far, but he’s not going to get us into the playoffs. With Getz returning fairly soon, Callaspo is the odd man out and Gordon needs at bats, and knowing Hillman he’ll want to get Callaspo out there as much as possible. I just think it’s best for the team to trade JG.
- Yuniesky Betancourt. Oddly enough, our talented short stop is actually performing up to this point. Sure he hurts on defense at times (seems improved to me), but when he’s hitting .309 who’s complaining? Not me. I was glad when we traded for Yuni mostly because of his potential to be a decent SS. I don’t question work ethic when Trey Hillman is involved.
- Billy Butler. BB off to a better start than he was last year. I think this is a big positive for the team. He’s not squaring up that pitch early in the count like he did last year when he was a doubles machine, but he’s still hitting better than he did last april (doesn’t take much). This might not be a big deal to most Royals fans, but I find the joy in the little things.
- Jason Kendall. He is way better than I thought he would be. Both offensively and defensively. I’ll say it. Plus he’s a great veteran to have in that clubhouse.
- We are not the Pirates.
Negatives from road trip:
- Rick Ankiel. Rick showed some great early season promise, but I really think he’s going to be a streaky player for us. The main problem I see with Ankiel (aside from confusion) is that no matter what the count is, he’s got the exact same swing. Because of that lack of a skill, Ankiel is a career .151 hitter with two strikes. The main way that he needs to overcome this issue is by being more patient at the plate. It’s almost like he’s afraid of getting two strikes that he tries to get a pitch to square up before then. Pitchers know that he’s an early ball hitter, so they’re very careful early in the count. It would also be nice if a coach could get him to shorten up with two strikes, but that would be good coaching.
- Gil Meche. Gil really doesn’t look good at this point in the season. I am at the point that I don’t think we’re going to see a sub-4.00 ERA from Meche again in his career. I hope my opinion changes come his next start, but as it stands now, that’s how I feel.
- Brayan Pena. He had an absolutely terrible game behind the plate against Toronto on Tuesday. As I mentioned on twitter, I hadn’t noticed him being that bad defensively last year, and I still don’t think he was as bad last year as he was Tuesday, but we’ve been kinda spoiled by Kendall to this point.
- Record. Like I’ve already stated, we are leading the league in hitting at a crazy pace, yet we are sitting 6-9. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when we cool off…
Pitching match-ups for Twins series:
- Game 1 – Pavano (2-1, 4.96) vs Meche (0-1, 11.57)
- Game 2 – Blackburn (1-1, 6.05) vs Hoch (2-0, 2.89)
- Game 3 – Slowey (2-1, 2.45) vs Bannie (0-1, 4.58)
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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