Royal Report Card

Where the Royals went wrong..

2011-05-11T12:59:00.000-05:00

Last night, the Royals COMPLETELY blew up an opportunity to win against the Yankees. If you watched the game, you know I'm talking about the 7th inning. Let's take a look at exactly what happened:

At the top of the inning, the Royals are down 3-1, with Jeff Francouer to bat and Freddy Garcia still on the mound for the Yankees. Francouer singles on a soft line drive to LF which gives us a man on first with no outs. At this point in the inning the Royals are expected (based on Baseball Prospectus's 2011 expected runs matrix found here) to score 0.8367 runs. There is a good chance at this point that the Royals can get a run this inning to get it to within one.

Next, Eric Hosmer walks on 6 pitches, which leads to Garcia getting the hook. This brings up men on first and 2nd, still no outs, and now the Royals are into the Yankees bullpen. The Royals should have expected to score 1.453 runs this inning, which means they were getting quite close to a situation where they SHOULD have expected to tie the game.

Next, Mike Aviles flies out in a full count to the CF. This decreases the Royals expected runs to 0.9012. The Royals probably still should have expected to get one run back in this inning.

Jeff Francouer then steals 3rd base, so we have men on first and third, 1 out, for a run expectancy of 1.1629.

Matt Treanor then comes to bat, he subsequently walks on 5 pitches, this loads the bases with 1 out. At this point the Royals can expect to at least tie the game in this inning, their expected runs goes all the way up to 1.5642. A solid hit will tie it.

What Ned Yost does next, in my eyes, is unforgivable:

He actually lets Alcides Escobar bat with the bases loaded in a 2 run game. Yes, Alcides Escobar, he of the .233/.259/.279 and 53 OPS+... yes, that's not a typo.. 53 OPS+ this year. Needless to say, he's one of the worst hitters in the AL, and Ned Yost ACTUALLY lets him bat. At this point, I'm fuming. The Royals need a hit to tie it, or a walk to bring it within one (at this point David Robertson has thrown more balls than strikes). Beyond frustrating.

Escobar strikes out swinging and the Royals run expectancy drops all the way to 0.6724. Chris Getz then also strikes out swinging but at this point it doesn't really matter, does it?

Because in the MOST important at bat of the game, Ned Yost let the worst hitter on the team strike out.

Ned Yost has done a lot of great things for KC, but if he can't see the importance of letting a Wilson Betemit hit in that situation (and then sliding Aviles over to SS where he played all of '08..) then I'm not sure I have any time for Ned Yost.

P.S. In case you were wondering, Alcides Escobar has a -16 OPS+ when coming to bat with runners in scoring position. No, that's not a joke, no, I'm not flaming Escobar, he's been a very valuable piece to this team, but DAMMIT NED, Ya don't let him hit with the bases loaded when you're down 2 and have only 1 out!

Patience is Key..

2011-04-13T21:39:00.001-05:00

Well, the Royals won again today, and now sit at 7-4 and atop the AL Wildcard leaderboard. Obviously, we're 11 games into the year and it's WAY too early to make any assumptions about the 2011 season.. However, the Royals have avoided their characteristic slow start this season and now come home for an 8 game home stand which sees them facing the Mariners and the Indians (losers of 2 in a row). Theoretically, the Royals could win 6 games and see themselves sitting at the top of the division almost a month into the season. This would be great news. It would be a testament to the young(ish) players the Royals brought in or called up for this season.. Ka'aihue, Francouer, Cabrera, etc. have all been contributors to this point. Even players like Chris Getz and Matt Treanor have made impacts. This has all been great and really fun to watch, but do not let it trick you into thinking it would be okay to rush our prospects.

It has been clear that many baseball teams have underperformed to this point this season. The Royals may very well take advantage of all this bad baseball and actually finish .500 this year, I'm not predicting it, but I'm certainly willing to offer up the possibility that it could happen. What I am most afraid of for this season is not losing 100 games, it is rushing players like Eric Hosmer and Mike Montgomery to the big leagues. Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain are basically locks to see the bigs sometime before the All Star Break this season, because they have both spent time previous to this season in AAA. Eric Hosmer, however is 21 years old and has only played in ~50 games in AA. He needs to spend the whole season (or at least until September) in AAA. You can not leave a player in the minors too long (and even if you could, one season certainly would not be the cutoff point). However, you CERTAINLY can rush a player to the bigs too soon.. (see ANY of the Royals top prospects over the last decade). By bringing Hosmer to the majors this year you gain NOTHING. It would involve sitting/trading one of Billy Butler or Kila Ka'aihue and there is no reason to do that until next offseason. Give both of those players a year to hit and show what they can do before you decide which you would like to keep and which you would like to trade away.

The same mantra goes for Mike Montgomery and all of our young starting pitching. Give them each a season in AAA to hone their craft, certainly they will only get better over time. Our rotation is not good at this point, but we aren't planning on winning the world series this season yet either. I can think of a situation MAYBE where a pitcher gets hurt and goes down in mid/late July in which I might be okay with bringing up a young hurler, but we can cross that bridge when we get to it. At this point I'd like anyone under the age of 23 to stay in the minors this season, please.

As an aside, scouts and statisticians can agree that players peak when they are 27-32 (or so). Don't you want to hang on to our young players for all or at least most of this time period? You're not hurting yourself by being patient, but you could easily ruin this whole "The Process" by bringing players up before their time.

Thanks for reading.

The Next Coming of Rick Ankiel?

2011-04-12T00:14:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you've heard the story by now of Rick Ankiel the pitcher. He came up as a phenom and flamed out almost as quickly later that year in the playoffs, due almost solely to a complete lack of command. In 2000, at the age of 20, Rick Ankiel pitched in 2 playoff games. He logged a total of 4 innings with a stat line that read: 4 IP, 5 H, 7 ER, 0 HR, 11BB, 5K, and 9 WILD PITCHES. He literally could not find the glove. The next season he was up for less than 30 innings in the majors and his career as a pitcher was over.

I bring up this refresher in the history of control blow ups on the mound because Vin Mazzaro had a similar incident on Sunday. Mazzaro got the start against the Albuquerque Isotopes, but only managed to make it through 2.1 innings. His line looked like this: 2.1 IP, 2 H, 5 ER, 7 BB, 3K, 1 WP. Not on the exact same level but pretty eerily close to Ankiel's first playoff start. Now the good news is that while Mazzaro was somewhat lucky last year, his control wasn't really much of a problem. The bad news is that his control isn't really that great. Mazzaro has 213.2 innings pitched in the majors in his career. He has 89 walks for a BB/9 of 3.7. When I see that his K/9 is only 5.8 it really makes me nervous. This could be something that is just flukey and ends up being early season jitters. But it's definitely something to keep an eye on. According to this article at Royals.com, Mazzaro will now be passed over his first scheduled start (This Saturday) in lieu of Sean O'Sullivan.

The article states that the Royals want to make sure Mazzaro gets a few quality starts in AAA under his belt before he pitches in the majors this year, even though he won the 5th starter's job in spring training. This is understandable but it is scary that Sean O'Sullivan will be his replacement. O'Sullivan is like a worse version of Mazzaro, not many strike outs, too many walks, and he's prone to the long ball. As Roayls fans we didn't expect to get off to a 6-3 start, but here we are, and we're about to throw another long reliever in to be a starter, just as we have in the past. There is one bright side to O'Sullivan, he's somewhat young, at only 25 there is a decent chance he may still improve. But, as like Rany from www.RanyOnTheRoyals.com likes to point out, most good pitchers are just as good in their early 20's as they are in their mid to late 20's.

Time will tell if Mazzaro or O'Sullivan will even be relevant to the Royals future pitching staffs. Until then, it'll be an interesting story to follow.

Live Blog! 4/5/11 Royals 7, White Sox 6 - Final/12

2011-04-05T19:07:00.021-05:00

Pregame thoughts:

Pitcher: Luke Hochevar 0-1, 4.76 ERA

Lineup:

Mike Aviles - 5
Melky Cabrera - 8
Alex Gordon - 7
Billy Butler - D/H
Kila Ka'aihue - 3
Jeff Francouer - 9
Alcides Escobar - 6
Matt Treanor - 2
Chris Getz - 4

We'll see your basic Royals lineup today, and the same one that was run out on opening day when Hochevar faced the Angels. We'll face Gavin Floyd in his first start of the season. The pitching matchup should be interesting, to say the least.. I see a lot of Floyd in Hochevar and vice versa. Just saw that Billy Butler is a career .341 hitter vs. the AL Central.. holy crap, if he can stay healthy and fit, Billy has the opportunity to have a very special career. Anyway, first pitch should be any minute now.

First Inning:

Juan Pierre hit the hardest triple he'll probably hit all season and ends up standing at 3b. And before I can finish typing the previous sentence Gordon Beckham hits a hard single to drive in a run. 5 pitches, 1-0.. most fans probably haven't even found their seat yet.. not the best of starts.

Great pitch by Hochevar to get the swinging strike on Dunn after he crushes a ball just foul. Hochevar looks like his typical self, he has had some nice movement so far, but just isn't finding the strike zone consistently.

I was LITERALLY thinking "perfect triple play opportunity right here" and then Paul Konerko SMACKS one deep into LF.. definitely a no-doubter.. still no outs.. definitely depressing.

Rios reaches on a single.. still no one out..

first out is a little tapper back to the mound by Quentin.. hopefully this gets the ball rolling in the right direction now. Second out on one more pitch and Alexei Ramirez comes up to bat. Alright, top of the first is finally over.. hopefully we can scratch across a run or two in the bottom of the inning to make things interesting.. it's only 4 runs.. not un-do-able by any means

I'm looking for Mike Aviles to have an extended at bat here.. I would love to see him see 5-6 pitches at least. Mike Aviles could really end up being as good of a leadoff hitter as the Royals have had in years.. I think he could be DDJ with more power. Aviles flies out, but only after seeing 5 pitches. Pitch count is of utmost importance, especially after such a long top of the first inning.

As I type that Melky is first pitch swinging and singles through the hole between short and 3rd. GORDON!!! Alex is first pitch swinging as well and crushes a ball to straightaway CF. I think everyone who follows the Royals knows that this is a big year for Alex, and in my opinion, the early returns are great.

It's a great feeling to score 2 runs before your two best hitters even come to bat. Billy Butler gets an average Billy Butler hit.. ball is perfectly squared up and crushed right back up the middle. The kid can hit. Seriously.

Kila may end up being my favorite Royal this year. I love his mentality and at the plate I don't think anyone matches his patience and power. Kila flies out to LF, Billy is still at first now with 2 outs.. let's extend the inning just a bit longer.

I was half expecting Frenchy to crush the first pitch. Instead, it's a bit inside and the count is 1-0. The bottom of this inning has been huge. If the Royals expect to be the '10 Padres of 2011, then attitude will be everything. By scoring 2 and cutting the lead in half right after the Sox score 4 they can maintain their confidence. Francouer flies out to end the inning. To the 2nd we go!

Second Inning:

Brent Morel flies out to a perfectly positioned Francouer, good start for Hoch to the inning, it would be very important for this to be a quick inning. Pierre grounds out to 2B and the Sox are down to their last out in the 2nd. Inning will go on a bit longer as Beckham singles. Sox have a dangerous middle of the order, it'd be cool hand Luke clutch to retire Dunn right here. Instead, Luke falls behind 3-0.

Kinda figures that after working back from 3-0 to 3-2 Luke hits Dunn on the foot on a fail of a curveball. Konerko grounds out to the SS Escobar to end the inning. Not the best inning, but infinitely better than the first.

Escobar will lead off the inning, and singles right up the middle. If Escobar can get on base a little more and work on his ISO SLG%.. he could end up being one of the best SS's in the game.. (as long as his defense stands to be as good as everyone says it is).

Matt Treanor is up, does anyone else hope that Treanor is the starter when Kendall gets back? Or that maybe Kendall won't come back at all? If I had to rank the catchers it would look like this: Brayan Pena > Matt Treanor > Jason Kendall. I don't think Ned Yost agrees with me however, as I believe he probably has his list directly inverted.

There's really nothing quite like leadoff baserunners. Wouldn't mind seeing Escobar try and steal here. Base Stealing is overrated, but a player like Escobar needs to do the little things and help his team any way he can. Looks like Gavin Floyd is thinking the same thing I am, and is throwing over constantly. Treanor walks on 5 pitches, 2 on 0 out.

Thank God Getz isn't bunting here. He pops out, and Aviles is up.

I like the look of the on-screen graphics, but why can't we put a pitch count up? It's such useful information, and there are a lot of networks that keep one up all the time now. Gotta love the double steal with 2 outs.. Let's see if Melky can double in a couple of runs now. Melky singles through the right side and two runs score..

Wow, Melky completely lucks out when he advances to 2nd on the throw.. the play was very close, he was called safe. I'd love it if Gordon can pull a rabbit out of his hat and give the Royals the lead here. Instead he softly lines out to 3b on a pitch that broke his bat. The game is now tied and Luke should be rested after another long half inning. Onto the 3rd!

Third Inning:

Escobar makes plays that Betancourt could only dream of making.. and he makes them look easy. I've been very impressed with his defense so far this season.

Three ground balls, three relatively quick outs. This inning was Hochevar at his best.

Billy rarely hits a ball that isn't screaming.. unfortunately that one was right at the defender.

Kila strikes out, but only after running an 0-2 count to 3-2. Frenchy hits one hard to extend the inning, however. I'm very impressed by how well the Royals have been at extending innings. For me, the only way to beat an opposing pitcher better than by scoring runs is to make him through a ton of pitches early in the game.

Francouer steals 2b and has such a good lead it doesn't even warrant a throw from Pierzynski. Escobar grounds out and the inning is over, but at least it wasn't a 1-2-3 inning.

Fourth Inning:

Looks like Hoch is doing a good job of keeping the ball down now. If he can keep the ball down AND throw strikes he could be great, it seems as if he never can do both. As I write this Hoch walks Ramirez on 4 pitches to start the inning.

The stats say it doesn't matter, but Matt Treanor really looks good receiving the ball. He frames it well and presents a big target for the pitcher.

Wow, the Royals of the past would have found a way to mess up that routine fly ball, (2b, ss, cf converging) instead, Melky calls for it and other two defenders peel off. Nicely done. Onto the bottom of the 3rd.

We need to come up with an awesome nickname for Matt Treanor, who grounds out to leadoff the inning. Getz grounds out on a 3-0 pitch.. I'm ready for Wilson Betemit, are you? Aviles strikes out and the Royals go 1-2-3 for the first time this game. Frustrating inning, especially Getz's plate appearance, you just can't give up outs!

Fifth Inning:

Before I can even think of something to say there are 2 outs in the inning. This game has just cruised by after the first 2 innings. Hochevar looks to have found his groove.. (hopefully). Another quick pop up and the Royals are back to bat. Time to knock Floyd out of the game.

Melky is retired for the first time tonight which brings up Gordon. Time to work on that slugging percentage, Alex. Instead, he swings over the top of a slider and strikes out. Typical. Time for Billy and hopefully Kila to give the Royals the lead. Instead, Butler grounds out softly to SS and it's another 1-2-3 inning for Floyd. Onto the 6th!

Sixth Inning:

Quentin just gets the ball in to LF over Escobar's outstretched glove. That ruins Luke's 10/11 retired in a row streak. The White Sox now lead after a Alexei Ramirez triple drives in Quentin from first base.

One out and man on 3rd so the Royals bring the infield in. I wholeheartedly disagree with this move, but I thought the double steal was dumb too, and it worked out perfectly, so let's see if Yost is pulling the right strings here. Luke dials up a great pitch and earns his first strikeout of the night. Time to limit the damage to one run and get this final out of the inning.

ANNNNNND now we're down 2 runs.. gotta love the infield singles. Luke is at 100 pitches. Assuming he retires this batter there's no chance he comes out for the 7th, right?

That ball was smoked! Luckily it hung up just enough to get to Melky.. Top of the sixth is in the books, time to start the comeback again.

Kila takes a walk to start the inning. Leadoff walks are the genesis of comeback rallies. Let's go!

Brent Morel makes an AWESOME jumping stab at a scorching line drive meant for the LF corner. The kid can play defense, that's for sure. Escobar grounds into a double play and the 6th is all done. Didn't hear on the broadcast that someone was warming up.. If I had to guess, I'd say Kanekoa or Aaron Crow are coming in. 99% sure Luke isn't going to go back out there though.

Seventh Inning:

Looks like I was right, Aaron Crow comes on to pitch the 7th inning. Even when the Royals aren't winning it will be great to see these young pitchers and players this year. It finally feels like we're building towards something. Wow, Aaron Crow's stuff looks absolutely electric. Considering how many good young starters we have, we might very well see Aaron Crow and Tim Collins setting up Joakim Soria in the immediate and distant future.

And Crow just painted a fastball right on the black for a called third strike, and then Getz makes an error.

It's all good though as Crow gets two foul outs and a strike out while allowing no hits or runs.

Floyd comes back out for the bottom of the 7th and the Royals have to be hoping to scratch across a couple of runs to tie it up.

Treanor looks kind of silly as Floyd k's his 5th of the night. That was about as well as Getz can hit a ball.. and it sort of dribbled through the hole between 2nd and 1st. Aviles really struggling at the plate tonight, aside from his first at bat he's looked kind of confused. Aviles lines into a double play.. tough luck, he squared the ball up pretty well, just hit it right at SS Ramirez.

Eighth Inning:

Aaron Crow back out to pitch the 8th. Let's see if he can grab a couple of K's and run through a quick top half. I never realized Crow had such a great slider. It really is on fire tonight. Royals try to go around the horn but the runner is just safe to avoid the double play. Morel running on the pitch and Treanor nails him by at least a couple of steps for the third out.

Chris Sale comes on for the 8th inning. I haven't seen him pitch yet so this should be interesting.

If Gordon can do something here against the tough lefty I'd be pretty impressed. He's worked a full count, so that's at least a moral victory. Gordon splits the LF and CF and rolls one to the wall. 1 out double for Alex! Awesome!

3-1 count for Butler.. *Danger Chris Sale, Danger!*

BILLY BUTLER WITH THE CLUTCH 2 RUN SHOT TO TIE IT UP!

You just had to think that we might be able to get to the Sox Bullpen. And it looks like we did.

wow, what a worthless PA by Kila.. didn't see one hittable pitch and swung at all three. Ugly, ugly stuff. You've GOTTA be better than that. Especially right after a rookie pitcher gives up a game tying HR.. You have to think there was an opportunity for a walk.

Jesse Crain comes on to relieve Chris Sale. Frenchy works a 2-1 count and then singles to LF. The Royals know how to beat up a bullpen, that's for sure. Wow, Francouer JUST got picked off. Wasn't even a good move either. Frenchy either lost his footing or was just way slow, either way he was clearly out.

Ninth Inning:

Soria on to pitch the ninth. I could turn the t.v. off for five minutes and still tell you exactly what will happen, haha. Comebacker to Soria for the first out. High popup to Escobar on the infield for the 2nd out. Frank and Ryan are arguing against walks.. kind of makes me want to cry. Meanwhile, Soria K's Adam Dunn to end the top of the inning. On to the bottom of the 9th.

Escobar up to bat, then Treanor, then Getz.. I'm hoping Getz won't get the chance to bat, either we'll have won, or Yost will have pinch hit for him. Escobar pops up to Konerko, 1 out.

Matt Treanor up.. can he become a folk legend with another HR? And instead he hits a soft come-backer to the mound.. please pinch hit for Getz.

And Yost is letting Getz hit. Awful, just awful. Predictably, Getz keeps it in the infield and taps one back to the pitcher for the third out. Onto extras!

Tenth Inning:

Robinson Tejada is coming on to pitch the top of the tenth inning. At this point I'm just hoping for quick a quick half inning so we get another shot at the Sox bullpen. Our 7-8-9 hitters don't give us much of a chance.. I feel a little better about our 1-2-3 and even better about our 4-5-6!

Kila makes a nice play on a foul pop up to end the top of the 10th.. pretty easy and stress free inning for Robbie right there, if the game goes 11 I fully expect to see him out to pitch again.

Sergio Santos on to pitch the bottom of the 10th. Turns out he's a converted SS.. I'm hoping this means he's more of a thrower than a pitcher and we can score on him.

Gordon breaks his bat but keeps the ball fair and ends up on 2b with a double!! Gordon has really impressed me this season, now it's time for the Butler.

And Butler gets IBB'd which brings up Kila with 2 outs and a man on first and second.. having made clear how much I think our 7-8-9 suck.. This is literally our best chance to win this game (lefty to bat, righty on mound)

C'mon Kila!

1-1 count. -- Kila fights one off and the count goes 1-2.. and strikes out swinging. Pretty ugly stuff, too. Onto the 11th.

Eleventh Inning:

Kanekoa Texeira on to pitch. He gets the routine fly out to LF to start the inning. And then he gets Alexei to fly out to LF.. Gordon makes me so nervous when he plays it so cool basket catching those liners with one hand.. He's gonna drop one eventually, and everyone's going to react badly, why not just give all your effort and make sure you catch every ball!

Morel sends a liner into RF for a single and the White Sox have a base runner for the first time since the 8th inning. Juan Pierre sharply grounds out to Aviles and it's the Royals turn to bat.

Jeff Francouer to lead off, and like I said, if we don't see a HR here, I'm afraid we'll see a 12th inning. Santos is still pitching, he's got some good stuff, but he's the type of pitcher that Francouer could take deep. Instead, Frenchy pops up to Morel and there's one out.

Escobar grounds out to his counterpart, Ramirez. It's Treanor Time. Treanor K's and it's time for the Sox middle of the order.. Beckham has been white hot tonight, scary stuff.

Twelfth Inning:

Kanekoa Texiera is back out to pitch the 12th. If he can put Beckham away I'll feel much much better. And instead Beckham hits one to Gordon in left who has to range far to his right and get the ball in quickly to 2b to hold Beckham to a long single. It was really a nice defensive play by Gordon. Hard hit ball to Getz and he (barely) gets the ball to 2b in time to get Gordon Beckham for the fielder's choice. Scary to watch, but nice play nonetheless. Konerko walks and there's 2 on with 1 out.. Time for a clutch double play.

Yost brings on Jeremy Jeffress to pitch.

Very interesting what just happened.. Lillibridge, on to pinch run for Adam Dunn gets caught in no mans land and then gets seemingly picked off but he was called safe.. the Ump thought Aviles had the ball in his hand and tagged the runner with an empty glove. The umps get together and the runner is called out.

And then Alcides Escobar makes what HAS to be the best defensive play of this young season. He ranges DEEP in the hole and makes a perfect throw to first base. Probably the best pick and throw I've seen ... maybe ever. bottom of the inning time!

Getz to lead off the inning.. awful, but we'll fight through it. Hopefully he can get on base so our real hitters can do some damage. Getz works the count full.. and singles right up through the middle! I'm hoping he doesn't try and steal second, at least until we have an out.

Forgot to mention, Tony Pena is on to pitch.

Aviles lays down a bunt as a single tear falls from my eye. Getz advances to 2b.

MELKY CABRERA SINGLES UP THE MIDDLE AND CHRIS GETZ SCORES! THE ROYALS DO IT AGAIN, THE ROYALS DO IT AGAIN! ROYALS WIN 7-6 IN 12 INNINGS!!!!

Post game wrap:

Well now I've had a chance to calm down a bit, I think I can reflect back on tonight's game. Tonight's game is a good example of how I hope this season will go. The Royals were far from perfect, but they managed to get the job done. They bunted when they probably shouldn't have, they double stole when it was probably too risky. They ran into outs at 2nd base, they got picked off of first base, they struck out too much and walked too little, but the bullpen was incredible and they walked away with the win.

The biggest difference between this year and Royals of years past has got to be attitude. This hot start that they've gotten off to is the perfect way to bring a young talented team like the Royals together for the season. Opportunities are abound for this year's Royals and up is the only way to go from here.

I'm headed out to the park tomorrow, with the bullpen pretty obliterated I hope to see a good game from Jeff Francis. If you read this, thanks!

First Live Blog Attempt

2011-04-05T14:41:00.001-05:00

Tonight during the Royals game I plan on live blogging. I will be watching the game with my trusty computer in hand and will be typing in all of my thoughts as the battle progresses. If this is something you're interested in being a part of then show up here tonight around 7:00 pm central and hang out with me.

2011 Standings Predictions

2011-03-31T13:06:00.002-05:00

Below are my predictions for the end-of-the-year standings for the 2011 MLB season. I have made a few "bold" predictions, mostly because I see some older teams regressing and some young teams taking a step forward. As all of us Royals fans know, this season won't be nearly as exciting as next year, but hopefully I can check back at the end of the year and see how accurately (or not) I was able to predict this season! Play Ball!

AL East:
Boston Red Sox
Tampa Bay Rays (Wild Card)
Baltimore Orioles
New York Yankees
Toronto Blue Jays

AL Central:
Minnesota Twins
Chicago White Sox
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
Cleveland Indians

AL West:
Texas Rangers
Oakland Athletics
Los Angeles Angels
Seattle Mariners

NL East:
Philadelphia Phillies
Atlanta Braves (Wild Card)
Washington Nationals
Florida Marlins
New York Mets

NL Central:
Milwaukee Brewers
Cincinnati Reds
St. Louis Cardinals
Chicago Cubs
Houston Astros
Pittsburgh Pirates

NL West:
San Diego Padres
Colorado Rockies
San Francisco Giants
Los Angeles Dodgers
Arizona Diamondbacks

Thanks for reading!

RBI Efficiency: Understanding Opportunity

2011-03-26T08:37:00.001-05:00

This post has long been in the works. Not necessarily in the physical sense, but in the mental sense. Ever since reading my first Baseball Prospectus article more than 5 years ago I have longed to have a better understanding of the REAL numbers behind baseball. It's frustrating living in a world full of outdated stats which don't always tell the whole story. None are more frustrating than RBI. I have come up with a way to better compare RBI numbers. I'm going to share this stat with you.

It seems as if almost every year when the discussion for MVP comes up, each candidate's RBI numbers are compared and a winner is determined by whoever has the most. This seems unfair to me. Not every player has the same opportunities to drive in runs. Why penalize a player for having ~5 less RBI when he had the opportunity to drive in 1000 runs, whereas the player who had ~5 more RBI had the opportunity to drive in 1150 runs? These players are clearly not being compared on an even plane. Think about it like this: When deciding a Cy Young Award winner, would you take into account the fact that one pitcher started 3 fewer games? I would. Now, this is slightly different because in a pitching comparison you may take into account the fact that the better pitcher was able to start more games, either by not being injured or not being in the minors, etc. However, when comparing RBI opportunities, both players may have an equal number of games played and even plate appearances, however, one of the players had an opportunity for more RBI simply by his position in the batting order and the success of his teammates.

In order to alleviate the problem that different RBI opportunities create, I propose a new stat. I'm going to call it RBI Efficiency, at least for now. It is a stat that can show how successful a player is at driving in runs compared to the opportunities that he has to drive in runs. This number can be shown as a decimal, but I prefer to show it as a percentage. This percentage literally says that player X will drive in a run XX% of the time he has the opportunity to drive in a run.

The calculation of this stat is actually fairly simple, but I don't believe anyone has come up with it yet due to a lack of statistical information being readily available until recently. www.Baseball-Reference.com has a link to batting split-stats for every major league player, broken down by year. This information is vital to calculate RBI-e. By looking at how many plate appearances each player had in different RBI situations, and then weighing how successful they were versus how successful they could have been, you can come up with their RBI-e.

Later in this post I will break down the 2010 Royals RBI-e, as well as a few other players in the AL for the 2010 season, but for now I will break down how this stat is calculated.

Every time a player comes to bat, he has an opportunity to drive in at least 1 run. This is true no matter the game situation, no matter the outs, and no matter the inning. If the bases are empty, the player has the "opportunity" to drive in 1 run. That is to say, in a perfect (offensive) world, each player would come to bat and hit a solo home run. The goal of baseball is to score runs, and this is the simplest, most efficient way of doing so. Since that player has the "opportunity" to score 1 run, all of his RBI with the bases empty are measured against the number of plate appearances he had. For instance, in 2006, Mark Teahen had 234 plate appearances with the bases empty. He had 8 RBI in such situations, therefore, when calculating his RBI-e you start with his efficiency being 8/234. In reality, a very small percentage or runs are scored this way, and so a player's true efficiency will not very well be reflected by his efficiency with the bases empty.

As we continue to determine a player's RBI-e, I find it helpful to create a small chart that looks something like this:

PA RBI e

empty 234 8 8/234

1 on xxx xx xx/xxx

2 on xxx xx xx/xxx

full xx xx xx/xx

total: xxx/xxxx e: xx.xx%

Continuing with our calculation of Mark Teahen's RBI-e in 2006, he had 146 plate appearances with 1 man on. In those situations, (either with a man on 1st, 2nd, or 3rd) he had the opportunity to drive in 292 runs (again, think of ultimate success as a home run, in this case, a 2 run shot). He drove in 35 RBI. His efficiency with 1 man on was 35/292, giving him a running total of 43/526.

Mark had 51 plate appearances with 2 men on. He could have hit 51 3 run home runs, meaning he had the "opportunity" to drive in 153 RBI. He drove in 22 Runs. This brings his running total to 65/679. Mark had 8 plate appearances with the bases loaded. He had the opportunity for 8 grand slams, for a total of 32 RBI. He drove in 4 runs for an "e" of 4/32.

Mark Teahen's RBI-e in 2006 was 69/711, 0.970, or 9.70%. This is to say Mark Teahen drove in 9.70% of the runs that he had the opportunity to drive in. If we take a look back at our chart from earlier, and finish filling it out, it looks like this:

PA RBI e

empty 234 8 8/234

1 on 146 35 35/292

2 on 51 22 22/153

full 8 4 4/32

total: 69/711 0.970 RBI-e=9.70%

No stat has meaning without understanding how different players compare, but before I break down other players, I'd like to discuss what this stat is meant to do, and its flaws. This stat is NOT meant to determine how well a player did compared to how well an average player might do. To better understand what I mean by this, consider the following. I lump together all of a player's plate appearances with one man on. This may seem counterintuitive at first, because a player is expected to drive in many more runs with a man on third and no outs than he is expected to drive in with a man on first and 2 outs. However, this stat is not meant to weigh individual expectancies, it is simply a tool to help measure different players' efficiency when it comes to driving in runs. You may argue that this puts certain players at a disadvantage, especially those that do not hit home runs very often. I would agree, however, as I discussed earlier, in a perfect world, a home run would be the result of every at bat, and so by putting players who do not hit home runs at a disadvantage, we are simply viewing them in a truer sense of their value when compared to other players.

That being said, let's look at a break down of the 2010 Royals. There were 11 players who drove in at least 30 RBI in 2010. Those players were:

78 Billy Butler

78 Yuniesky Betancourt

77 Jose Guillen

56 Alberto Callaspo

51 Scott Podsednik

43 Wilson Betemit

39 Mitch Maier

37 Jason Kendall

37 David DeJesus

32 Mike Aviles

When you look at RBI totals alone, Butler, Betancourt and Guillen were clearly the standouts. Let's take a look at their RBI-e now.

8.27% Wilson Betemit

8.02% Jose Guillen

7.88% Yuniesky Betancourt

6.98% Billy Butler

5.99% David DeJesus

5.75% Alberto Callaspo

5.71% Mitch Maier

5.65% Scott Podsednik

4.60% Mike Aviles

4.70% Jason Kendall

As you can see, the names at the bottom of the list probably don't surprise you, except maybe Aviles. However, Wilson Betemit being at the top came as a bit of a surprise to me. Betemit drove in 43 runs last season, but he only had the opportunity to drive in 520, which was less than half the amount that Billy Butler had the opportunity to drive in. Wilson Betemit did a better job of utilizing his RBI opportunities than Butler did, and, theoretically, if Betemit had as many opportunities as Butler, he would (should) have driven in more runs. Butler's efficiency is simply not as good as it could have been. In order to gain more perspective let's take a look at how Butler has been since reaching the majors in 2007.

Billy Butler RBI-e

2007 8.74%

2008 7.30%

2009 8.62%

2010 6.98%

As you can see, these numbers bounce around a little bit, he seems to have had some success his rookie year, regressed a bit in his sophomore year and then taken another step forward in 2009. However, last year he regressed a bit again, at least when looking at his ability to drive in runs. Let's take a look at another fairly young player with a similar number of plate appearances in his career.

Evan Longoria RBI-e

2008 9.80%

2009 10.03%

2010 9.23%

Clearly, Longoria does a better job of utilizing his opportunities to drive in runs. In fact, in 2010, Longoria had the opportunity to drive in 1127 runs. Butler had the opportunity to drive in 1117 runs. Butler drove in 78, while Longoria drove in 104. Now that we have a better understanding of efficiency, we can determine that while Butler drove in 26 fewer runs, he had 100 less "opportunities" to drive in a run. When you combine both of these numbers you can see that he was simply not as good as Longoria at driving in runs.

Just for fun, let's take a look at Miguel Cabrera's 2010 season (2010 AL RBI leader). Miguel had the "opportunity" to drive in 1127 runs, which is the exact same number that Evan Longoria could have driven in. However, Miggy drove in 126 runs, while Longoria drove in 104. Miggy's RBI-e Then was 11.18%. He was clearly better than Longoria.

I hope this stat will be useful for helping to determine not only players' seasons as they compare to other players, but also as they compare to their own careers. This stat is not meant to be an end-all, be-all kind of stat, and I doubt you'll find it on the back of a baseball card anytime soon. But it can be a useful tool when comparing different players, especially when looking at players who bat in different spots in the lineup and who play for teams with largely different levels of runs scored. Thanks for reading.

A New Kind of Stat..

2011-03-24T12:55:00.002-05:00

Check back tonight/tomorrow for a post concerning a new kind of statistic I have come up with which will help to determine player efficiency, especially as it pertains to driving in runs. Thanks!

Edit - New post will be up saturday morning. Thanks for the patience!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

2011-03-08T03:30:00.004-06:00

Sure, it may be common in this day and age to delete and start over when things don't go as planned. However, that's not the plan here. Here at RRC I am going to pick up where I left off. This is going to be a place where I can come to write how I feel about the Royals, about baseball, and about sports. I look forward to posting updates on the team this season. We've all been through a lot, and yet we carry on. That's the mantra this blog will take. As always, thanks for reading.

Quick Update

2010-05-14T20:45:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to update real quickly.. tomorrow I'll be flying out of town to Baltimore, I'll be seeing the monday and tuesday Royals v. Orioles games so I'll probably be posting some pictures from the game. I should be able to post another update sometime before I come back, so look forward to that.

Thanks for reading!

Isn't it just fitting..?

2010-05-13T01:20:00.005-05:00

I find it so fitting that my last post (all the way in last May..Yikes!) had "Trey Hillman sucks" in the title. Almost a year later, I feel the exact same way.. what have we learned? Nothing. I'm not going to rant and rave about how dumb Trey Hillman is. But I will bring up two small points that annoy me to no end. 1. Why the HELL are we bunting in the first inning with our #3 hitter? There are NO FREAKING OUTS YET. For all we know, we might not make an out all game and score infinity runs. But Trey wants to give the other team 1 of the 27 outs they need to record in order for them to win the game. In my opinion, that's heresy and he should be hanged! ..errr fired. The second thing is this little snippet that will be in the Star tomorrow;

"This much we know about reliever Blake Wood, who was called up from Class AAA Omaha on Wednesday to give the Royals’ unstable bullpen a boost – he is absolutely going to take the ball in some crucial situations.

“We don’t have time to baby him,” said Royals manager Trey Hillman, who indicated the 24-year old will be used as a setup man. “I don’t have time to put him protection mode out of the bullpen. We’ve got to see what this guy’s got.”

So what you're saying is that you're desperate, and you don't care about developing a player who might actually turn out to be good. You'd rather Josh Rupe the situation, throw a man into the fire and watch him get burned. Look, I understand that the Royals have no good setup men. I know this. But that doesn't mean you potentially RUIN a prospect. Trey Hillman is CLEARLY coaching for his job at this point. Until the Royals get Trey out of town, the season is not only lost, but our future is in jeopardy as well. (At least that part of the future that is in KC this year). As far as DM goes, I hope he is removed from his position sometime soon. I would love to keep him on as some sort of minor league special assistant, as he has at least turned things around, but when it comes to big league decisions, please, please... HIRE PAUL DEPODESTA!!

I know that I've been AWOL for a long, long time, but I plan on getting this thing up and going again. The posts may be sporadic, but I'll definitely get a few in a week. As far as all the little things I was doing last year (daily minor league updates and hitter and pitcher of each MLB game..) well, that is going to go away, it was simply too much work, and I didn't see very much input from any of my readers on it anyway.

I'll have more news in a post on Friday, so keep your eyes peeled for that. As far as the Royals go, Zack Greinke takes the mound tomorrow afternoon in a 1:10 start, so if you CAN go.. DO go.

Thanks for reading.

Melville Shines in Debut, Trey Hillman Sucks..

2009-05-20T23:31:00.001-05:00

I am getting sick and tired of watching Trey Hillman make stupid decision after stupid decision. George Brett can bitch and moan all he wants, but the fact of the matter is that the media complain about Trey's moves because the media know what the hell they're talking about..

Pulling Gil Meche after 87 pitches when he's got the best stuff he's had all season - mistake

Replacing him with Jamey Wright who's practically already thrown his arm off and it's not even June yet - mistake

Replacing him with Sidney Ponson who obviously sucks.. - mistake

Bunting DDJ over with John Buck in the 6th (I think) inning with 1 out - mistake

You think that it's not a big deal, but when we're 4 games out of the playoffs in September remember nights like tonight, when a competent manager who would bring in a guy like Robinson Tejada with the bases loaded instead of bringing him in to clean up Hooch's mess.. it just doesn't make any sense.. Use your best pitchers in the close games and let them pitch the most innings. Jamey Wright has had a nice start to the season, but the dude wasn't even on a major league contract before the end of ST. He's already thrown like 500 innings and his stuff isn't electric. I know that Joakim is hurt, but jeez, don't act like our bullpen is 05 status.. it's clearly better than that.

Look at it this way, of the 4 pitchers that pitched tonight, they would rank like this in terms of current ability:

Meche
Tejada

Wright
Ponson

So why don't you let Meche pitch into the 7th and if he has some trouble bring in Tejada to bail him out, we're up 2 runs at that point, shouldn't you use your 2nd best pitcher, remember, as you achieve outs, there are less opportunities for the other team to score and win, so while the outs are more "valuable" in the 9th than in the 1st (think of it like the clock ticks faster after the 2 minute warning than before in football) it's also more difficult to come back because you have less chances to screw up. Use your better pitchers while you have the lead, don't let your worse pitchers come in and screw it up. Jamey Wright got screwed on a HBP call but that doesn't make it ok to bring in an even worse pitcher in Sidney Ponson, who is 1-5 now, btw. It frustrates me to no end, and I really want Trey fired. Seriously.

Whatever.

Hitter of the Game

I guess Jose Guillen. Jose was 2-4 with a walk, 2 k's 2 RBI and a run scored. One of his hits was a double.

Pitcher of the Game

Gil threw 87 pitches, 55 were for strikes. His line ended up looking like this: 6 ip, 6 h, 2 er, 1 bb, 2 k.. the k's are lower than you'd like, but he wasn't bad at all.. a lot of ground ball outs and not many hard hit balls..

Tomorrow

The Don pitches tomorrow. He'll face off against Carl Pavano in an epic battle (just kidding I hope) in an afternoon game. First pitch is at 1:10. If you CAN go, then you SHOULD go.

Minor League Notables

Derrick Robinson had another 2 hit night, going 2-5 with a run scored and 2 more stolen bases.

Mike Moustakas was 3-5 with a double, an RBI, and 2 runs scored.

Johnny Giavotella got on base 3 times as he was 1-3 with a triple, an RBI, 2 walks, and 2 runs scored.

Danny Duffy earned the win tonight as he went 5 innings giving up 3 runs on 7 hits 2 walks while striking out 5. He is now 5-1 with a 3.43 ERA.. I'll take it.

Nick Van Stratten was 4-4 tonight with a double, a triple, 2 runs scored, 3 RBI and a walk and a stolen base. Alright!

Tim Melville made his 2009 debut tonight, he pitched 6 innings, allowing just one run on 2 hits and 1 walk, striking out 2. He earned the win.

Thanks for reading!

Brett Blows Up, Royals Roar Back..

2009-05-19T23:18:00.006-05:00

and I was there to witness it all!

The Royals are now officially 4-0 in games that I've been to this season.. is it safe to say I'm a good luck charm? I hope so..

The Royals came back after being down 5-2 in the ninth to win in front of a raucous crowd of 25,024. While it was a T-Shirt Tuesday, I didn't even remember that it was one when I decided I wanted to go this afternoon. Brian Bannister came back to earth a bit, as his ERA skyrocketed to 2.75 from 1.80 after today. He could have come away with a 6 inning 2 run affair, but some sketchy defense and a mistake to Kelly Shoppach did him in.

Hitter of the Game

This might be the toughest choice of the year, as it really could be argued that any one of about 6 players could win the award. I think I'll go with Mike Jacobs, which is interesting because I was kind of surprised he was even in the lineup tonight. Since Cliff Lee was starting I figured we'd see a Buck/Olivo game, as they both hit lefties well. However, Jacobs ended up paying off as he was 2-4 with a strikeout and no walks. Jacobs drove in 1 run and scored 2. His HR in the 9th inning really got the rally started, and that's why he gets the award.

Pitcher of the Game

Again, not an easy award to assign. Banny gave up 5 runs over 6 innings, so it won't be him. Horacio threw 2 scoreless innings and Farnsworth threw a scoreless ninth. I think I'll go with Kyle Farnsworth, simply because he didn't let a 3 run deficit affect his game. He came in, threw 14 pitches and got the ball back to the Indians. He didn't give up any hits or walks and didn't strike anyone out.

Tomorrow

Gil Meche starts for the Royals tomorrow against Fausto Carmona and the Indians. First pitch is at 7:10.

Minor League Notables

Brayan Pena had 3 of the O-Royals 8 hits tonight. He was 3-4 with a HR, 1 RBI and 1 Run. He is batting .339 in AAA so far.

Kurt Mertins was 4-5 tonight with a triple and 3 rbi. He did not score a run or strike out.

Jordan Parraz was 1-2 with an RBI triple and 3 walks.

Blake Johnson started for AA Northwest Arkansas tonight, he pitched 6 shutout innings allowing 5 hits, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. His ERA is down to 4.21 after tonight.

John Bale made another AA appearance tonight as he pitched 2 perfect innings tonight with 2 strikeouts. His ERA is at 1.35 for AA so far.

Derrick Robinson's AVG is up to .246 as he had 2 hits and took a walk tonight. One of his hits was a double. He stole 2 bases tonight and his stolen base total is up to 20 so far this season.

Mike Moustakas had a 3 hit tonight as he was 3-5. He did not drive in any runs or score any runs, nor did he walk or strikeout.

Paulo Orlando also had 3 hits, 1 of his hits was for a triple and he scored 2 runs but did not drive any in.

Fernando Garcia, a 20 year old 2nd baseman from Puerto Rico, was 2-4 with a triple and a walk tonight for A Burlington Bees. He is batting .320 so far this season.

Thoughts on Trey..

There's been a lot of drama surrounding Trey lately, culminating with Brett's blowup last night on the local news.. My thoughts are that he isn't awful, but my biggest beef with him is that he has been around baseball too much. He is too typical of a baseball manager. An intelligent baseball mind knows that it is almost never advantageous to bunt, but Trey still had DDJ bunting in the 4th (I think) inning tonight. That's the same DDJ that hit the game-tying triple in the 9th inning. Let the boys swing! I don't hate Trey, I just wish that he would manage with the actual facts. But I realize that very few managers do this.. so whatever.

Thanks for reading!

Wrapping up last weekend..

2009-05-19T12:45:00.004-05:00

Well the Royals went 1-1 on Saturday and Sunday.. I guess I'll take a .500 stretch.

On Saturday it was a tale of Kyle Davies pitching fairly well, but the offense pumping out just 2 runs against Rich Hill and Co.

Sunday it was the Royals staying in the game early, despite some defensive and baserunning miscues and then turning the offense on late with 3 runs in the 8th against Jim Johnson.

Hitter of the Game

Alberto Callaspo drove in the only 2 runs on Sat. He was 2-4 with his 15th double of the season. He did not strikeout or walk.

Billy Butler drove in 2 runs on Sunday with a 2-5 performance. Billy had a double, a run scored, no walks, and a strikeout.

Pitcher of the Game

7 innings, 6 hits, 3 runs, 2 bb and 4 ks earns Kyle Davies the award for Saturday. Not Awesome, but definitely good enough to get the win.

Robinson Tejada's 2.2 innings and 0 hits allowed along with 1 walk and 3 ks earn him the hitter of the game award for Sunday.

Tomorrow (Today)

Brian Bannister faces Cliff Lee tonight at the K in a 7:10 start. Get out and watch some baseball, it's an awesome day for it!

Look for tonight's wrap up and another minor league segment tonight. Thanks for reading!

Royals outlast rain delay to beat O's and snap 6 game skid..

2009-05-16T00:29:00.004-05:00

Zack Greinke probably threw his worst game of the year tonight. He gave up 1 run over 7 innings on 6 hits and 2 walks while only striking out 6. When that's your ace's worst start of the season 35+ games in, you're doing pretty well. Tonight's win puts the Royals in first place by percentage points over the Detroit Tigers and the rest of the AL Central. Woo.

Short post, so let's get right into it..

Hitter of the Game

The offense was pretty solid tonight and the award could go to quite a few hitters.. Olivo drove in 3 and homered, Jacobs homered, and Mark Teahen had 3 hits. But it was Jose Guillen who reallly broke the game open with a 2 RBI single in the first inning. Those 2 runs would prove to be enough as Greinke was pitching, so I'll go with Jose as the hitter of the game award winner.

Pitcher of the Game

Zack Greinke continued his quest to start the All Star game tonight, as he went 7 innings allowing 1 run on 6 hits and 2 walks while striking out 6. His ERA is "UP" to 0.60 on the season. Sick.

Tomorrow

Kyle Davies will take on Rich Hill and the Orioles tomorrow in a 6:10 p.m. start. Davies looks to build off his last start when he went 6+ innings and gave up just 1 run against the Angels last Sunday.

Minor League Notables

Kila Ka'aihue hit a home run tonight for Omaha. He was 1-4 with a walk, an RBI and 2 runs scored.

Chris Nicoll struck out 4 in 2 perfect innings for AA Northwest Arkansas.

John Bale made an appearance for AA Northwest Arkansas as well, throwing a scoreless inning. He gave up 0 hits and walked 1 and struck 1 out. His ERA is at 2.45 in 4 appearances for AA.

After a slow start Jamar Walton has his batting average up to .296 after a 2-4 performance tonight. He did not strikeout or walk. Look out for Jamar, we signed him midway through last season and I think he has enough potential to be a pretty good sleeper prospect, he is 23 so he's a tad old for his level, but keep an eye out for him anyway.

Danny Duffy pitched 5 solid innings tonight, allowing just 1 run. He struck out 3, walked 1 and allowed 4 hits.

Blaine Hardy started tonight for A Burlington Bees. He threw 5 innings of 1 run ball, allowing 4 hits and walking 2 batters. He struck out 4. His ERA is at 2.67 on the season.

Thanks for reading!

Royals skid to season high 6th straight loss..

2009-05-14T23:24:00.005-05:00

Well, looks like the Royals are back to their old ways..

No clutch pitching

No clutch hitting

no win.

again.

This team is doing so many small things that lead to losses. For instance, on Billy Butler's 2 RBI hit, he only made it to first base. How does this happen? The throw was going to the plate, and the cutoff man even bobbled it, and Billy couldn't even slide into 2nd base? Granted, Jacobs made the third out next, but if Jacobs could have even singled the Royals would have had the lead again and who knows what might have happened.

Also, Ron Mahay couldn't find the strike zone.. why? I understand if it's Shawn Camp or Jaime Cerda or Nate Field or Scott Sullivan or any of the other awful relievers we've had over the last few seasons.. but Ron Mahay? He's a legit major leaguer with a 10+ year career. I understand that sometimes you just don't have it.. but its games like these when you HAVE to be able to reach back and find a strike.. ugh!

We'll look for Greinke to throw a no-no tomorrow night in order to get the Royals back on track. After tonight's loss they stepped back into 2nd (3rd) place in the division. Ugh!

Hitter of the Game

Billy Butler earns the hitter of the game award for tonight's game. Billy was 2-5 with 3 RBI, a run, a strikeout, and no walks. One of Billy's hits was a solo HR.

Yesterday Mike Jacobs earned the hitter of the game award. He was 1-2 with a HR, 1 RBI and a run scored. He did not strike out or walk. He pinch hit for John Buck.

Pitcher of the Game

Kyle Farnsworth gets the award for tonight, as he closed out the game with a perfect 9th inning. He didn't strike anyone out. His ERA is down to 5.11

Brian Bannister gets the pitcher of the game award for his performance yesterday, even though he left early with some shoulder stiffness. He pitched 5.2 innings allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and a walk. He struck out 3.

Tomorrow

Zack Greinke will take on Adam Eaton and the Orioles tomorrow at 7:10. It is a sellout supposedly, so we'll see how many people show up after this 6 game losing streak.

Minor League Notables

Jose Duarte made his AAA debut tonight, with a 1-4 performance, including a run scored. He did not strike out or walk. He played CF and batted 8th.

Carlos Rosa struck out 6 in 2.1 innings of work today. He gave up 5 hits, including a solo HR. He did not walk any.

Brian McFall was 1-4 with a solo HR tonight. He did not strikeout or walk. He was the DH.

David Lough was 2-4 with a double, a run and an RBI. He did not walk or strikeout. He was the right fielder.

Mike Moustakas hit his 5th home run tonight. He was 1-4 with 2 RBI and a run scored. He struck out once and did not walk. He played 3rd base.

Alex Caldera pitched 4 innings in his start tonight. He gave up 0 runs and struck out 9. He did allow 3 hits and walked 5, however. His ERA is at 4.36.

Nick Van Stratten was 2-3 tonight with a double and a run scored. He walked once and did not strike out. He played center field and led off for the Burlington Bees.

Eric Hosmer was 1-2 with a 2 RBI double and 2 walks. He did not strike out or score a run. Eric played 1B.

Sam Runion started tonight, throwing 5 innings. He gave up 2 runs on 8 hits and no walks. He struck out 1 batter. His ERA is at 7.88 on the season. Ouch.

Thanks for reading!

Well Well Well, How times can change..

2009-05-13T15:09:00.005-05:00

Since the last time I posted the Royals are 0-4, and have been outscored 21 to 7, Greinke has thrown a complete game 4 hit 1 run affair and lost all while walking no one, again, and the Royals have come crashing back down to earth, as they're just 18-15. Ponson has been put in the bullpen, Luke Hochevar has been called up, and hammered. The offense has sucked like the beginning of the year, but we are taking more walks.

Safe to say a lot has happened lately, some of it interesting, but most of it depressing. I fell asleep in the 3rd inning of last night's game, that's the earliest I've fallen asleep during a Royals game.. ever. I am excited that Luke got called up, but he was absolutely hammered last night, by the worst offensive team in the American League.. I know we have too many 3rd baseman already, but can we go back and redraft Evan Longoria #1 overall?

Please?

Let's go over the award winners for the last 4 games when I was slacking..

Hitters

The Royals managed just 4 hits Friday night, and Billy Butler had two of them. He was 2-4 with an RBI, no K's and no BB's. One of his hits was a double.

Alberto Callaspo was the only hitter who had a hit and didn't strike out on Saturday, so he gets the award. No one deserved it in this 0 run fiasco.

Mark Teahen was 2-4 with 2 doubles Sunday, so he gets the award. He drove in a run but didn't score one. He K'd but did not walk.

Coco Crisp was 3-3 with a HR and a stolen base yesterday, earning him the award. He did make an error, but it didn't lead to a run. He did not strikeout or walk, his batting average is up to .261 and his line is at .261/.382/.471 on the season. Not bad.

Pitchers

Kyle Farnsworth gets the award for Friday as he pitched 2 scoreless innings, giving up just a single and striking out 2 while walking none.

Zack Greinke's ERA is at 0.51 this season, but he managed to lose on Saturday, as Joe Saunders simply outpitched him and our offense simply wasn't offensive. While it sucks to see Greinke at 6-1, I think it's better overall for him, as maybe he'll fall out of the limelight a little, and there is no chance he will be 15-0 or something in July and be a national headline story, which overall is better for Greinke and the Royals, I think.

Kyle Davies gave up 1 run in 6 innings of work on Sunday, and he struck out 4, walked 3 and gave up 3 hits. Davies start effectively knocked Ponson out of the rotation (at least temporarily)

Robinson Tejada gets the award for yesterday as he finished the game up, thank God. He pitched a perfect 8th inning, striking out 1.

Today

Brian Bannister tries to be the stopper of the Royals longest losing streak of the season today in Oakland. He will face former Central Missouri State standout Josh Outman. First pitch is at 9:05 Central time. I will probably post after the game and catch up on my Minor League Notables segment.

Thanks for reading!

Luke Hochevar and Brian Bannister combine for 14 IP 10 H 0 R 1 BB 16 K .. Solid..

2009-05-07T23:16:00.006-05:00

6 game winning streak..

Pure awesomeness.

Short post today, it's been awfully busy..

and I'm still trying to cope with the Manny news. It's too soon for me to talk about it.

Hitter of the Game

Billy Butler was the only Royal with 2 hits, and one of only two Royals with an RBI. He gets the award today, he was 2-4 with an RBI, no runs, strikeouts, or walks.

Pitcher of the Game

I don't necessarily like it when starters only go 6 innings, but Banny was pretty damn good today, even without his best control. He went 6 innings, allowing 5 hits and walking 1 while striking out 7. He did not allow a run, earned or otherwise.

Tomorrow

The Royals travel to LA tomorrow to take on the Halos. Gil Meche will take on Matt Palmer. First pitch is at 9:05 central time.

Minor League Notables

Nick Van Stratten was 4-6 with a HR, a 2B and 7 RBI.

Alex Caldera struck out 10 over 6 innings of 1 run ball. He walked just one and allowed just 4 hits. Very nice showing for him, he's got a 4.97 ERA on the year.

Kurt Mertins had a 2 hit game, going 2-4 with a home run, 1 run, 1 rbi and a strikeout. He is batting .278 so far.

Dan Cortes had one of his better outings this season as he pitched 6 innings of 1 run ball. He struck out 8, walked 4 and allowed 5 hits. His ERA is "down" to 5.02 after tonight.

Brayan Pena played left field, batted 3rd, and had 2 hits for AAA Omaha. He was 2-4 with an RBI, no k's or bbs.

Luke Hochevar had his best outing of the season, throwing 8 shutout innings against the Springfield Redbirds. He struck out 9, walked none and gave up just 5 hits, all singles. 75 of his 97 pitches were for strikes. I think it's gotta be close to hoochie mama time in Kansas City.

Thanks for reading!

I keep waiting for them to lose.. still waiting..

2009-05-06T23:31:00.003-05:00

Wow..

I missed the game live, but I watched it after I got home, and I can hardly believe me eyes. This team is on fire right now. Period. I know that it was Carlos Silva that we hit hard, but still..

The offense was great again, working 4 walks against 2 strikeouts. The pitching, meanwhile, struck out just 3, but walked just 1.

Our record is 17-11 now, and we're still alone atop the Central.. Nice..

Hitter of the Game

Mark Teahen earns the award with his 3-5 with a HR, 3 RBI, 2 Runs, no strikeouts or walks. Teahen is now hitting .307/.397/.485 on the season.

Pitcher of the Game

Mr. 1 Strikeout, Sidney Ponson earns the award. Sidney threw 7.1 innings of 1 run ball, giving up 8 hits while walking 1 and striking out 1. Of his 8 hits, 3 went for extra bases (all were doubles).

Tomorrow

Banny faces off against Jarrod Washburn tomorrow at 1:10 central time.

Thanks for reading, Minor League Notables is taking a day off, but will be back tomorrow!

Royals are streaking at the top of the Central..

2009-05-05T23:54:00.004-05:00

Wow. Another great game. I can't remember a streak of such great games in a row in a long time. The Royals again eek one out in extra innings, 8-7 over the ChiSox. Davies had another bad start, which is troubling, but what is encouraging is that the Royals fought back and won after being down by 4 runs twice and 3 runs once.

Callaspo continues to pound the ball, is leading the league in doubles, has 2 hr, and is leading the team in IBB. IF he continues to hit like this he HAS to hit third in our lineup at some point.

Zack Greinke's ERA+ came out today. It's at 1,173. Dallas Braden is 2nd in the AL with a 212 ERA+. Thoughts?

On that note, Greinke won the AL pitcher of the month award for April. Duh.

The offense was sick tonight, drawing 11 walks against 8 strikeouts. The pitchers dished out just 5 walks against 11 strikeouts. I love these numbers!

Hitter of the Game

Mike Jacobs. It could go to any number of players, Crisp, Buck, Callaspo, Butler all were very important, but I'm going to go with the guy who turned a 5-1 blowout into a 5-4 ball game with the longest HR in Kauffman that I have ever seen. Mike was just 1-5 with 2 strikeouts and a walk, 3 rbi and a run scored. He is hitting .241 on the season, but his presence in the clubhouse has been tremendous.

Pitcher of the Game

Jamey Wright earns this award tonight. Jamey threw 3 awesome innings and pitched around some shaky defense, too. He gave up 3 hits and struck out 3 over those 3 innings, and walked no one. His ERA on the season is a nice 1.45.

Tomorrow

The Royals and Sidney Ponson take on the M's and Carlos Silva in a matchup of two ERAs over 7. Should be an interesting game, probably not a 1-0 score.

Minor League Notables

Brandon Duckworth threw 7 innings of 1 run ball today. He gave up 6 hits, 1 bb, and struck out 3.

AA Northwest Arkansas was rained out AGAIN.

High A Wilmington got rain shortened to 7 innings and was 2 hit by Potomac.

Derrick Robinson and Paulo Orlando had the only 2 hits.

A Burlington got 3 hit in a full game by Wisconsin.

Kyle Martin had 2 hits and Nicholas Francis had the other hit.

Thanks for reading.

Another Greinke Gem..

2009-05-04T23:22:00.003-05:00

Wow.

Tonight was easily the best baseball game I have ever seen in person. It had everything, pitching, a home run, good defense, bad defense, an awesome crowd..

and Zack Greinke.

Seriously, who knew Greinke was even capable of this type of stuff? He's now 6-0 with a 0.40 ERA and 54 strikeouts to 8 walks. Cy Young Award type of start, to say the least. Imagine that Greinke isn't really even in the prime of his career yet, especially as a pitcher, and that we have him for the next 4 seasons, at least, and I just get chills.

Colon had some K's but he wasn't really that good, I feel like the offense wasn't as good as it could have been. The pitching on the other hand, was as good as it gets.

Greinke gave up 6 hits, but I think 2 of them could have maybe been scored as errors. Even so, there was only a few hard hit balls all night, and any time a pitcher throws a shutout with 10 strikeouts and 0 walks in 104 pitches (78 strikes) you know your pitcher is on.

Hitter of the Game

I'll go with David DeJesus. His home run really changed the game for the offense, I think. David was 2-4 with a run, an rbi, a k and no walks. He is now batting .253 on the season.

Pitcher of the Game

Zack Greinke. No explanation necessary.

Tomorrow

The Royals finish up the short 2 game series with the Sox tomorrow when Kyle Davies will take on Gavin Floyd.

Minor League Notables

Eric Hosmer hit his 6th double of the season tonight as he was 2-3 with a walk.

Sam Runion started and threw 5 solid innings, allowing 1 run over 5 innings on 4 hits, 2 bb and 2 k.

Chris Lubanski continued his good start, as he had 2 of the O-Royals' 4 hits, both singles. He did not strikeout or walk, his average so far is .318.

Doug Waechter pitched in a rehab outing, going 1 scoreless inning allowing 2 hits, 1 bb and no k's.

As I write this, the Naturals are tied 4-4 in the 12th inning with the Arkansas Travelers.

Brian McFall, Joe Dickerson, and Corey Smith have 3 hits each. McFall and Dickerson have a double each.

Thanks for reading!

Two straight comebacks leave the Royals alone atop the Central..

2009-05-03T23:11:00.006-05:00

Sorry there wasn't a post on Saturday, I was too busy turning 21..

I did catch a chunk of the game though, and all I can say is that the Royals gave me my favorite birthday present this year in the form of a W! Coupled with Sunday's comeback stunner, the Royals are 14-11 and alone in first place in the central. They are also in pretty good condition to move further ahead as the pitching matchups for the 2 game Chi-Sox series looks like this:

Bartolo Colon vs. Zack Greinke

Gavin Floyd vs. Kyle Davies

You have to love facing a teams 2 worst starters (probably) with 2 of your best 3 starters.

Anyway, as I said, Saturday was my birthday, and I was excited that the Royals managed a win. The Royals really aren't that good on my birthday. In the 21 years that I have been alive, (and a Royals fan), the Royals have had 17 games on my birthday. In those games the Royals are 7-10. I guess that really isn't that awful considering how many years the Royals have been awful during that span.

The Royals impressed me to no end on saturday with their patience at the plate, even against a team that rarely makes mistakes. The Royals drew 5 walks against 5 strikeouts. Not great, but acceptable, especially in a win.

And again today, while the Royals drew just 3 walks against 5 strikeouts, they still did a good job of not giving up. Jose Guillen's long ball really changed the game, but only the half inning before Meche had given up 2 more runs, had he not done this, Guillen's long ball would have given them the lead. They fought and clawed back to the top. It's a horrible cliche, but it stands true. Good teams find ways to win these kinds of games, bad teams find ways to lose them.

Let's look at the award winners

Hitter of the Game

Sat - Willie Bloomquist, believe it or not. Willie was 3-5 with a BB and K on saturday. He hit his first home run of the season, stole 2 bases, drove in a run and scored 2 more. Willie has impressed me so far this season. He's actually not been bad.

Sun - It's gotta be Jose Guillen. Guillen changed the game. While Bloomy and Teahen had broken up the no hitter right before him, Guillen broke up the shutout and basically turned Baker's bid for a no hitter into a 6 ip 5 er affair. Not bad. Guillen was 2-3 with a BB, 4 RBI, 1 run and no strikeouts. His two hits both when for extra bases, one was a double and the other was a home run.

Pitcher of the Game

Sat - It's gotta be Soria - Joakim the Dream pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up just 1 hit and striking out 1 while walking none. Joakim picked up his first win of the year.

Sun - I'll go with Jamey Wright, who picked up his 3rd hold of the year. Jamey pitched a perfect 8th inning, striking out 2. Jamey's ERA is at 1.72 so far this season.

Callaspo - Bert Reynolds has been absolutely awesome this year and is now hitting .380/.432/.570. Just thought I'd bring that up..

Tomorrow - The Royals are playing the Chi Sox and Greinke will take on Bartolo Colon. I'll be at the game and I plan on taking more pictures. Maybe I'll actually post them this time, we'll see..

Minor League Notables -

The Bees won 1-0 in 10 innings today on the back of Blaine Hardy and Brian Casey's strong pitching performances. (they were the only pitchers used in the game. They combined for 10 innings, 6 hits, 7 strikeouts, and 3 walks, no runs. Nice.)

Wilmington was postponed

Northwest Arkansas was postponed

Omaha was postponed

Exciting.

Thanks as always for reading!

Ponson Experiment Over?

2009-05-01T23:34:00.005-05:00

I must stress I have no exclusive knowledge as to what Dayton Moore and Trey Hillman are thinking. I just know that when you have a team that is 12-11 and a starting pitcher that is 0-4 with an ERA above 7, it is unlikely that said pitcher will be in the rotation for long.

Needless to say Ponson was awful tonight. disclaimer: I did not actually watch the game. I did look at the box score, though, which lists Ponson as: 4.1 IP 9 H 7 ER 1 BB 1 K 1 HR. Awful. 10 baserunners in 4.1 innings is way too much, especially when 5 of those baserunners reached base with extra base hits. Even if Hoch isn't ready yet, there is no doubt in my mind that the Royals would be better off with Duckworth, Matt Wright, Heath Phillips, Lenny DiNardo, hell, maybe even Bruce Chen. Ponson had his shot, and he has failed. Time to move on.

Speaking of moving on..

The Royals drew 0 walks tonight and struck out 8 times. I know we're facing the Twins.. but Really?

Really?

Ugh! So frustrating..

Hitter of the Game

HoG goes to David DeJesus. Jose Guillen had more hits, but DDJ contributed to more runs. On the night David was 2-4 with 3 RBI and a run scored. He did not strike out or walk. One of his hits was a double, his third of the season.

Pitcher of the Game

Wow. Horacio Ramirez earned the PoG award tonight. He needed just 13 pitches to get 5 outs, including a strikeout. He did not give up a walk, hit, or run. With this impressive outing, he dropped his ERA to 9.00. Nice.

Tomorrow

Brian Bannister takes on Glen Perkins in Minnesota tomorrow night. First pitch is at 6:05, Banny will go for his 3rd win of the season.

Minor League Notables

AAA Omaha and AA Northwest Arkansas were both rained out tonight

Derrick Robinson was 1-4 with 3 Ks and a run scored. He did steal his 12th base of the season, however.

Jeff Bianchi was 2-3 with a double and a run scored, he was caught stealing for the 2nd time this season.

Eric Hosmer scored the only run in a 1-0 Burlington Bees win. He was 1-2 with a walk and a double. He is batting .231/.354/.308 in 65 at bats this season.

Thanks as always for reading!

Playing Catch Up

2009-04-30T22:29:00.005-05:00

I missed posting on the last three games due to so much homework and studying, but I do have updates for the award winners.

Hitter of the Game

David DeJesus - David was 2-4 with the only RBI Tuesday. He had a double and did not walk or strike out

Billy Butler - Billy had the second best game of the season for a hitter (I count Teahen's 5 hit showing as #1) when he was 4-5 with a double and two home runs on Wednesday. Butler scored 4 runs and drove in 4 runs, he did not strike out or walk.

John Buck - John had an awesome game today, driving in 5 of the Royals 8 runs. John was 3-3 with two triples and a double and a sacrifice fly. Interestingly enough, John did not score a run. He did not strike out or walk.

Pitcher of the Game

Robinson Tejada - Tejada pitched 2.1 scoreless innings Tuesday after Meche left with a sore back. Tejada gave up 2 hits including a double, walked 1 and struck out two.

Zack Greinke - Zack had his worst start of the year and still earns pitcher of the game award for Wednesday. He allowed 2 runs in 7 innings on 5 hits and 2 walks. Greinke struck out 8, and he still leads the AL in the triple crown.

Juan Cruz - While Davies wasn't bad, (3 runs in 5.2 innings) I'll go with Juan Cruz, who proved the Royals would be OK if Joakim had to miss an extended amount of time. Juan earned his first save of the season (and the 2nd of his career) as he pitched a 1-2-3 scoreless ninth, striking out one hitter.

Tomorrow - Sidney Ponson will take on Kevin Slowey tomorrow night at the Metrodome. First pitch is at 7:10, normal posts should resume tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Bannister effectively wild and wildy effective..

2009-04-27T23:33:00.004-05:00

Well it was definitely a good game tonight, although it was pretty weird, as well. I've never seen a game in which a pitcher has been so dominant when pitching so poorly. Brian Bannister had only 53 strikes in 103 pitches and yet threw 7 innings giving up just one run on one hit. He did walk six and strike out two and the game was weird all the way around. David Purcey struck out just three Royals after being a big time strikeout pitcher in his other starts this season.

Guillen went yardski twice and Miguel hit a home run to center field. Bloomquist's line ended up 1/2 with 2 walks and a sac fly. His only hit was a triple. Coco had another walk. Teahen had 3 of the hardest hit balls of the game and was 0-3 with a walk. The Royals as a team took 8 walks, which is encouraging.

Overall it was a fun game, although it was rainy and a bit cold, I had a great time. The stadium looks awesome and it really feels like a major league ballpark now. Hopefully I'll be able to upload my pictures sometime tomorrow and get them posted.

Hitter of the Game

Has to be Jose Guillen. Jose was 3-4 with 2 home runs, 2 runs scored, 3 RBI, no walks and no strikeouts. Jose was really impressive today as both of his HRs were no doubters and had to be on a night like tonight with the way the weather was.

Pitcher of the Game

This will be the only time this season a pitcher with 6 walks gets the PoG award, but Banny earned it tonight. He was effectively wild and wildly effective, giving up just one hit in 7 innings, walking six and striking out two. It was encouraging to see Banny be effective even without his best control, or even his better control, which he blamed on the weather and the wetness of the ball.

Tomorrow

Gil Meche will face Scott Richmond in a 7:10 start. The Royals will again try and climb back into a tie with Detroit for first place as Detroit is now 11-8 while the Royals are 10-9.

Minor League Notables

The O-Royals offense got to Rangers Super-Prospect Neftali Feliz today, getting 5 runs (although all 5 were unearned) in 2.2 innings off of 3 hits and 4 walks. The O-Royals won 8-1 over OKC in a game that was called after 7 innings.

Chris Lubanski had 2 more hits, going 2/3 with a double and a walk. He drove in 2 runs and scored 1 himself.

Luke Hochevar threw 6 innings giving up 1 unearned run on 4 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 7 and threw 96 pitches. His ERA is now 1.44 this young season.

Jose Bonilla, the young catcher for the Burlington Bees hit his first home run of the season tonight. On the game he was 1/3 with 2 rbi and a run scored.

Thanks as always for reading.