Royals Review

Game 36 Open Thread - Baltimore Orioles at Kansas City Royals

2012-05-16T22:30:21Z

Starters:

Hunter (2-2, 5.14 ERA) vs Paulino (1-1, 3.09 ERA)

Daily Links:

Myers And Odorizzi Promoted - Pine Tar Press

Broadcaster Rankings (Radio): #20 – #11 [Royals team ranked #20] - Fangraphs

Indians: [Former Royal] Robinson Tejeda Released, Dan Wheeler Outrighted - MLB Daily Dish

Rays acquire OF [Former Royal] Rich Thompson from Phillies - Tampa Bay Times

Poll

Will Myers and/or Odorizzi be promoted to the major league club sometime this year?

WiIl Myers Brings Swagger, Horrifically Annoyingly-Spelled Name to AAA

2012-05-16T14:51:25Z

Trigger the hype explosions! Let the prospect lust flower! Declare today a personal day, ye subscribers to Baseball America! Scream loudly all those who love preciously spelled names.

Uber-super-never-been-better Royals prospect Wil Myers is headed to AAA. This is the second best day of our lives, to be topped only by his inimitable Major League Debut. For there is nothing better than a top prospect. They are, quite simply, all that matters.

Prior to last season BA rated Myers the #10 prospect in all of baseball. This season, he was #28, because apparently NUMBERS ARE DIFFERENT NOW AND #28 ACTUALLY MEANS #-100000000 BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT HIS ORDINAL RANK SHOULD BE BECAUSE #1 ISN'T HIGH ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111111111111111111

Myers has 13 homers in 35 games at AA this season.

After Brief Success, Royal 2Bs Falling Back to Earth

2012-05-16T13:13:48Z

Three weeks into the season, Royal secondbasemen -- Yuni and Getz in 50/50 split time -- had the third highest composite OPS of any 2B-team in the American League. With Yuni and Getz at 40 and 39 PAs respectively, their total line was a surprisingly good .333/.370/.464.

How have they done since?

As of this morning, May 16th, here's the "as a 2B" line for the Royals, with AL rank:

	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
	.274	.331	.395	.726
AL Rank	5th	6th	7th	7th

So there's been a fairly large drop. The days of being in the Cano-Kinsler neighborhood are over.

Since April 26th, Getz has hit just .231/.311/.333 which has been nearly all of the composite decline, since he's basically been the only 2B out there since Yuni's injury. In 5 PAs as a 2B Johnny G has also contributed, posting a .000/.200/.000 line.

But the larger issue here is Getz, who appears to have stopped stinging the ball quite so much. Although, don't expect a decrease in playing time - the Royals just don't care about results when filling out the lineup card. (Gordon Beckham, however, is still awful.)

This has been your Royal secondbasemen update.

Royals Take Care of Business, Sweep Rangers with a 7-4 Win

2012-05-16T03:18:42Z

Highlights

Vin Mazzaro was serviceable. 5IP, 3 ER, 2 K, 1 BB
Hosmer had an unassisted double play.
Hosmer had 2 hits, both deep to left field. I am not calling it a break out, but it was nice to see him get a couple of opposite field hits.
Dyson was on base 3 of 5 times. Could he actually be the leadoff hitter Dayton has been searching years to have on the team?
Tim Collins was lights out, striking out 5 of the 6 batters he faced. The bullpen only gave up one run, a 9th inning HRs via Mijares.
The Royal hitters had twice as many walks as the Rangers (2 vs.1). Wait, the Royal pitchers only walked one batter and that was Josh Hamilton. And the team won. Coincidence? I think not.
Future game tickets are going for as low as $15. My wife was thinking of getting All-Star Game tickets, saw the current price, and asked why the future's game was so low.

Game 35 Open Thread - Kansas City Royals at Texas Rangers

2012-05-15T22:30:14Z

Starters:

Mazzaro (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Lewis (3-2, 3.69 ERA)

Daily Links:

The Royals And Pitcher Development - SBNation

Kansas City's Vin Mazzaro gets a bid for redemption with start against Texas - Yahoo!'s Big League Stew

Royals Lose Danny Duffy for the Season - Fangraphs

Poll

Will Mazzaro have more innings pitched or runs allowed in his start tonight?

Mazzaro Starts for Royals Tonight - 365 Days After Nightmare Outing

2012-05-15T16:30:48Z

Today is a big day for the legend that is Vincent Mazzaro. Even though he has pitched in 6 games since his infamous outing, he will always be remember for that night 365 days ago. In case you have been able to purge your fragile/warped mind of that outing, here is a summary of it:

Kyle Davies had the start that day. He faced 4 batters and walked 3 of them. After that game he would go on the DL with shoulder inflamation.

Nate Adcock relieved Davies and went 1.2 innings.

Mazzaro then relieved Adcock in the 3rd inning after Adcock had walked one batter. Mazzaro then got 3 straight outs to end the inning. Now it is time for the 10 run 4th inning:

LaPorta: Single to RF (Line Drive)
Hannahan: Groundout, 2B-SS/Forceout at 2B; Hannahan to 1B
Brantley: Walk; Hannahan to 2B
Cabrera: Single to SS (Pop Fly to Deep SS-3B Hole); Hannahan Scores; Brantley to 2B
Choo: Flyball: CF (Deep LF-CF); Brantley to 3B, Cabrera Steals 2B
Santana: Walk
Hafner: Double to CF (Fly Ball to Deep CF); Brantley Scores; Cabrera Scores; Santana Scores
Cabrera: Single to RF (Fly Ball to RF Line); Hafner Scores
Buck: Single to SS (Ground Ball to Weak SS); Cabrera to 2B
LaPorta: Double to LF (Line Drive to Deep LF); Cabrera Scores; Buck Scores
Hannahan: Single to RF (Ground Ball thru 2B-1B); LaPorta to 3B
Brantley: Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep RF); LaPorta Scores; Hannahan Scores
Cabrera: Strikeout Swinging

A person would think that the Royals would not send someone that has allowed 10 runs to score in one inning to pitch the next inning. We are talking about the Royals and out came Mazzaro again for the following additional carnage:

Choo: Flyball, LF (Deep LF-CF)
Santana: Double to RF (Ground Ball)
Hafner: Walk
Cabrera: Single to 3B (Ground Ball to Weak 3B); Santana to 3B; Hafner to 2B
Buck: Single to LF (Line Drive to LF-CF); Santana Scores; Hafner to 3B; Cabrera to 2B

Mazzaro's final line for the game:

2.1 IP (more than any other Royal pitcher during the game)
77 Pitches (22 more pitches than Cleveland's starter, Tomlin, threw in 6 IP)
14 Earned Runs
3 Walks
11 Hits
2 Strikeouts

That start put a horrible dent in his career stats. Here are his stats with and without the 5/16/11 appearance added:

Date	K/9	BB/9	ERA
Before 5/16/11	5.8	3.9	4.72
After 5/16/11	2.3	3.1	3.91
Combined without 5/16/11	5.5	3.8	4.64
Combined with 5/16/11	5.5	3.9	5.12

The major change in his stats, compared to the ones that don't include the start, is the 0.5 jump in ERA.

His combined stats are pretty bad, with or without the start. I have heard some fans and radio hosts state that he should not be starting today. Back in November, I stated that Mazzaro, along with O'Sullivan and Mendoza, should not be part of the Royals solution at starting pitcher. Since the Royals did not have 8 possible starting pitchers to start the season as I feel any team should, Mazzaro will unfortunately be starting tonight.

Truthfully, the situation isn't that much different than most other games. The Royals will be using a sub-average starting pitcher. Heck compared to some other Royals starting pitchers used recently, he doesn't look half bad. Here are the career stats for starters the Royals have used over the last couple of years:

Name	K/9	BB/9	ERA
Luis Mendoza	4.5	4.0	6.79
Sean O'Sullivan	4.2	3.4	6.13
Kyle Davies	6.4	4.3	5.59
Luke Hochevar	6.0	3.3	5.39
Danny Duffy	7.8	4.7	5.28
Bruce Chen	6.8	3.4	4.51
Nathan Adcock	5.4	3.9	4.39
Jonathan Sanchez	9.3	4.9	4.34

He has easily out performed Mendoza, O'Sullivan and Davies, even with the horrible outing included. Those 3 pitchers have gotten 128 starts for the Royals over their careers. His stats are comparable to Adcock and Hochevar which have had an additional 106 starts.

If anyone doesn't think Mazzaro doesn't fit in with the caliber of starting pitching the Royals display on a nightly basis is wrong. While he had a historically bad pitching night, the Royals have had a historically bad starting pitching decade with the exception of Greinke and Meche for a couple of years.

Tonight will be big for Mazzaro. He can try to continue the streak of good pitching in the last 3 games and prove that he is past the blow up. It will be tough to do going against a Texas team that has scored more runs than any team in the league. They have score 72 more runs than the Royals. That works out to over 2 more runs per game. It could get ugly out there tonight for Mazzaro. While it would be nice for him to go deep into the game to help the bullpen get some rest, it would probably help his confidence more if he is able to have an extended outing. I think a line for him to aim for tonight is 5 innings, 4 runs allowed. That kind of start will be right in line with the rest of the starts the Royals have gotten from their starters this year.

365 days have passed since Mazzaro's 14 run, 2 inning nightmare. While he didn't look like a major league pitcher at the time (and still may not be), he is really not that more different the sub-standard starting pitchers the Royals use on a nightly basis. I wish Vincent good luck tonight. He is going to need it.

Moore admits to only "frustration" about all of this but did have strong words about criticism of...

2012-05-15T12:01:16Z

Moore admits to only "frustration" about all of this but did have strong words about criticism of the team not ordering an MRI when Duffy missed a start a few weeks ago because of elbow tightness.

"That’s idiotic," he says. "That’s really, really looking at things with a critical spirit."

Mellinger's article at the Star

Rangers Fall to Mighty Royals, Master Chen

2012-05-15T03:07:27Z

Perhaps it is just the 26 seasons of playoffless baseball wrought with futility and chocked full of embarrassment, but somehow even with the Royals sporting a two-run lead with two outs, no runners on, and an 0-2 count on David Murphy, it still felt like the Royals were going to find a way to lose this game. A batter later with last year's stud Mike Napoli at the dish having worked a full count, a loss seemed inevitable.

Shockingly--at least as shocking as a single win in a 162-game season can be--the Royals held on to win in Arlington. Led by a strong start from everyone's favorite Sino-Panamanian southpawed jokester and run production provided by Chris Getz, Jeff Francoeur, and Alcides Escobar, the Rangers look inward, searching for explanations to bring their loss into a light informed by reason.

Good luck with that.