Don't forget to vote

Don't forget Royals fans, tomorrow, July 1st is the absolute last day to vote for your favorite player to participate in the All Stat game or if you happen to be a computer hacker we could also use your services to get into the MLB database and add about 1,000,000 votes to Billy Butler's total to give him that extra push.  Okay, I get it there are a lot of people in New York and Derek Jeter will be the starting shortstop no matter if Yuniesky Betancourt were hitting like Ichiro plus Pujols with a bit of Longoria on top.  However, Michael Cuddyer is outpacing David DeJesus, who can't crack the top 15 outfielders' list.  Come on KC lets rock the vote and try to remind people that we are not just a middling little mid-western city split into two states who is so insignificant as to be under the giant shadow of MINNESOTA.  Here's the PBR's campaign stump for the KC All Stars:

David DeJesus:  While he might not even be a Royal by game time, nonetheless he is having an amazing season and is really the leader for the automatic bid the Royals will get.  His numbers are there and he is a KC local, so why can't we get him more votes than a previously unheard of rookie from Detroit (Austin Jackson)?  The answer to this probably personifies the current state of apathy amongst Royals Fans but, lets spend the one minute it would take to open up a new tab in our preferred internet browsing tool and click yes for David!

Joakim Soria:  Possibly the only other Royal who might have a legitimate case for being one of the best at his particular trade.  He hasn't been quite as Mexicutioner-esque as in the past but, still he has more saves than Mariano Rivera on a team with 14 less wins.  If I see Rivera out there over Joakim I promise that the PBR will expose this New York bias and bring justice to baseball.  Maybe a bit dramatic, so instead I'm proposing a cap on players from one team and whatever the number may be the Yankees will most certainly exceed it.  Sorry New York but Mark Teixeira shouldn't be anywhere near the top 5 let alone #2, he's hitting .230 for god's sake.

Billy Butler:  Unfortunately, Billy went out earlier this year and made some comments to the effect that it was frustrating to play for KC and not getting any All Star votes.  Then people were quick to point-out that he is only the fourth best 1B in the central division.  My advice to you Billy is that you should work on dropping some more lbs and switch positions to SS, your numbers really would look good there.  You play 1B Bill, sorry but doubles just don't grab anyone's attention at that position.

Jason Kendall:  You bet your ass if Dayton Moore and Ned Yost had anything to say about it Kendall would be an All Star.  You see they aren't guided by silly things like statistics and common sense and are therefore able to see Jason in his true light as the greatest catcher in the game.  Sorry, couldn't pass-up the opportunity to take a shot at Kendall - John Buck I LOVE YOU, I apologize for ever having said anything negative about you.

Zach Grienke:  Zach might get a sympathy vote, but this year we don't have much of an argument for him.  I doubt that there has ever been a 3-8 pitcher to make the All Star team, as a Yankee he might be 10-2 and be a sure thing but as a Royal he's on the outside looking in this year.

Apologies to the rest of the team but as I see the list is that short.  Anyone with very little to do right now, please head over to mlb.com and vote for a Royal!

20/20 Hindsight: Olivo

Before the season began I wrote that Miguel Olivo would probably be the player that I would miss the most on the Royals 2010 team.  Well, half way through the season that premonition is truer than anyone could have possibly imagined.  Olivo is the best catcher in baseball, including Joe Mauer, hands down no questions asked.  It took a bit before he became the everyday catcher for the Rockies as he was signed to be a platoon/back-up guy, but Miguel Olivo's 2010 season has thus far been ridiculous in every possible way.

We all know how the PBR - and basically every other Royals blog - feels about Jason Kendall; he currently doesn't have one single quantifiable statistic which can even be said to be average.  Yet he has started nearly every game (I take back the previous comment he leads the league in games started as a catcher) and now hits #2 in our line-up.  BA - .256; horrible, SLG% - .304; only three players in the AL have been worse and one is Juan Pierre, OBP - .315; great if your name is Yuniesky Betancourt but for an "on base guy" pretty pathetic, leads the league in both errors and stolen bases against and at best he has been OKAY at blocking pitches (the whole reason he was signed, by comparison J. Buck has 1PB and Kendall has 3PB).  You might attribute the errors and stolen bases against to the excess playing time but do you know what Kendall would say to that:

“I don’t buy it. It’s all mental. I don’t get tired, and I don’t think I’ve slept in six years. I haven’t slept since my kids have been born.”

What has Olivo done this season you might ask?  The answer is where do you start; first lets go with what the advanced stats gurus over at Fan Graphs have to say:  Miguel Olivo's WAR is 2.7 which would put him just a tick above ALBERT PUJOLS' 2.6 WAR.  Slash line; .301/.365/.523,  CS% - 54% ; leads the league at more than twice Kendall's CS%, has the highest overall fielding in the league (according to Fan Graphs), basically Miguel has done nothing wrong this year at the plate or in the field.

While a standard rebuttal might be that he hasn't played the whole year or that he is now playing at Coors field, there are only two things that jump out at you:  BA and OBP.  While it wouldn't be a stretch to say the BA is affected by the field on which he plays the OBP is just an anomaly.  He is on pace to shatter previous career highs in walks and OBP and this just can't be explained by the field; it is either a change in Miguel or maybe he won't walk the rest of the year and it will even out, who knows.  However, the power numbers really aren't out of line with last year, he has always had a good arm and has been an above average defender with the one exception that he has a few too many passed balls.  So make what you want of the OBP, give him a little discount for the BA, but the Royals focused on the PB and thought this made him a poor defensive catcher.  

The Royals knew or should have known he was a solid catcher and chose to look at one statistic which may not have anything to do with him and let that dictate their misguided desire to sign a new catcher.  Not only did the Royals not want him, but they paid him a cool $100K not to come back.  Their motto was get rid of the passed balls and BOOM problem solved.  What they got back in return was an older catcher who is one of the worst offensive players in the league and one of the worst defensive catchers, but the big benefit is that they get this everyday.

Something which may be purely correlation and not have anything to do with Olivo, but none the less is worth mentioning is the season that Zach Grienke had and the season that Ubaldo Jimenez is currently having.  If Ubaldo keeps it up  then you can credit Olivo as being the catcher behind two of the most dominant pitching seasons in the last 20-some years.  There are a lot of ifs here but Zach is off from last year and maybe it is simply that Miguel knows how to call a game, exactly what we were told was Kendall's strong suit. Olivo obviously doesn't do anything to make theses guys throw harder nor does he make their breaking balls drop harder and we'll have to wait and see how Zach and Ubaldo finish the season, but it it makes you wonder.  

All of this is like beating a dead hoarse, maybe more like a stable of dead horses or maybe like beating all of the dead horses from the civil war over and over again.  However, the fact remains that currently - of course things can change - Olivo is one of the most valuable PLAYERS in the game.  Not only is he just a solid catchers, but the fact that he is a good player, who plays a premium position, makes him on par with some of the best players in baseball (aforementioned Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Joe Mauer, etc.)  All of this couldn't be more embarrassing for management and equally frustrating for a fan.  As it stands now, we paid $100K to get rid of one of the best players in baseball and $6 mil to get one of the worst.                          

Strasburg Pre-game

What do you do when you're trying to avert a six-game losing streak by beating the greatest pitching prospect in history?  Yes, it is a tough task the Royals have in front of them, so here are some things to get us thinking before first pitch:

Runs:  Will they get one or two?  They might scratch across a third due to that unwritten anti-Mark Prior pitch count clause he has to deal with, that is if the Royals can make him throw enough pitches to get him out by the 7th.  I'm going with one run; a single and double combo from Callaspo and Aviles will keep them from being shutout.

First Hit:  S Pods will surely squib one through the 6-5 hole and keep his hot streak going.

J Guillen:  Will he strike-out once, twice, thrice or get the golden sombrero?  I'm going with two, a jam-shot back to the pitcher and a late inning meaningless single with no one on.

J Kendall:  Does he have a prayer?  We know he has been horrible lately, but he is a veteran who takes pitches and can handle the bat.  However, my guess is he keeps up the sinking average and lowest-in-the-league SLG% battle by not getting a single ball out of the infield.  I wouldn't be surprised to see a drag bunt, obviously any other manager in baseball would bench Kendall but I'm betting he'll still get the start today despite every logical thread of evidence going against that decision.

Opposing Pitcher:  Hey Banny, you've been really bad lately so today you get to square off against the future best pitcher in baseball, have fun.  Poor Brian, our heart goes out to you buddy; best case scenario is you get a no decision, sometimes that's just how the cards fall.  You simply couldn't pair two more polar opposites on the mound.  

Opposite Day:  Having said all of that, this game also has the feeling where there is so much going against the Royals, that they will win and just make us shake our heads.  Yuni just might walk multiple times, Kendall goes yard, Butler triples, no one talks about DDJ being traded, Bannister Ks 10 and the Burg walks 5.  Basically the Royals have almost no chance of winning this game but, we've all seen those random things happen and given that the Royals attempt to defy logic in every single way it would be fitting if some how they pulled this one out.

Go Royals, sorry to say that the most exiting thing happening for you right now is that the schedule happens to fall such that we get see a particular starting pitcher who might be the greatest thing since...the last greatest starting pitching prospect ever.

World Cup Fever

Yes we have it too - even though soccer is for **** - the PBR has little to be excited about with regards to our beloved Royals, so we're keeping up on that game that they play everywhere else in the world.  The US squad is playing some good FOOTball right now and got absolutely hosed in their last match, so much so that the ref has been disqualified from further matches in the World Cup.  That game is probably a perfect example of why we baseball fans hate that silly game, but I for one was more excited watching it than any Royals game during the past five years.  So we thought we would take a look at the Royals roster and see what kind of soccer players they would make...

Kyle Farnsworth:  Not exactly the right build to be playing soccer, could probably deliver a mean header in practice but lacks the overall skill set required for some footy.  However, he would probably make a great drunken English soccer fan; I can just see him in a pub pounding down pints of ale, shouting at the TV and getting in fist fights because he thinks Manchester United is way better than Chelsea.

Willie Bloomquist & Scott Posednik:  Two great examples of Americans that should have taken up soccer, every aspiring S Pods/Bloomy-10 year old out there should quit trying to play other sports right now and start playing soccer.  If we just did this with all short, fast, coordinated above average athletes in America, by the 2018 World Cup we would have the most feared squad ever.  Just take a look at the Spanish team, I would be surprised if there were two players over 6 foot, yet they are one of the best teams around.

Jose Guillen - Even if he had a chance to be good, he would have been forced into retirement a few years ago.  His body has broken down through the rigors of playing Right Field and DH in baseball, I'm guessing that he never would have made it past tryouts in soccer.

Mike Aviles - I'll bet Mike can do one of those curvy-Beckham-like kicks really well.  He just might have hope on the soccer field, if you changed his first name to Miguel and put a soccer jersey on him he could at least past the photo line-up.

Billy Butler - What's a soccer ball?  He might just be the antithesis of a soccer player; I would give lots of money to see Billy posed shirtless next to Cristiano Ronaldo.  Billy couldn't play goalie on a girls AAU sqaud.

Jason Kendall - Obviously he would be the starting goalie until he was 40 on the US squad had he chosen football.  The other team would always score more goals but then the coach would tell you that what Jason does doesn't show-up on the score card (NED wake-up, he's the worst catcher in baseball PERIOD).

Rick Ankiel - He could probably start practicing now and make the US team by 2014.

Chris Getz - I can't believe I forgot to include him with Bloomy and Pods, basically if you're fast and short but can't hit home runs by age 10 my advice is more kicky and less throwy!

Yuniesky Betancourt - Constant running, staying in formation, being aware of the situation...yeah not exactly Yuni's thing is it.

David DeJesus - Best Royals soccer player, hands down.  I'm willing to bet that had David started kicking balls instead of thowing them at age 6 he would be one of the best midfielders in all of soccer, or at least on this side of the pond.  My admitted rudimentary knowledge of soccer aside, he just looks like he could be lobbing passes over the defense and putting corner kicks right on the money.  Basically David's stock is up right now and I really hope he is traded to New York or Boston very soon, he deserves it.

USA! USA! USA!  Here's hoping that Donovan and crew can pull out the victory against Algeria and move on to keep playing in the round of 16.  That's a wrap on the PBR's attempt to see if anyone on the team could have made it as a soccer player.  Basically all pitchers were disqualified due to the fact that pitchers have only one skill and that it does not have anything to do with soccer but if anyone disagrees and feels that Kyle Davies would have been a great soccer player please let us know...

  

Serenity NOW!!!

After a brief honeymoon with Ned Yost, the Royals have been less than impressive of late and the things that make Royals fans talk to to themselves are starting to crop up in bunches, so here's a look at a few that made the PBR's list.

It took Milwaukee Ned some time, but finally he delivered a solid Hilman-esque quote that had me talking to my imaginary Royals fan friend that lives inside my head and sympathizes with me. Regarding the abrupt elevation of Jason Kendall to the two-hole Ned had this to say:

“I like the way it balances our lineup,” Yost said. “It gives us a better look down at the bottom when you have Yuni (Betancourt) hitting ninth, Mitch Maier hitting eighth and Aviles hitting seventh.

“It gives you more offensive production in the bottom of the order. And Jason is just a natural fit in the two-hole. I don’t see any reason why I’d change it.”

“Hitting in the two spot, especially behind a base-stealer like (Scott) Podsednik, you’ve got to be more patient. So it takes away from Mike’s strengths a little bit, and it fits right into Jason’s (strengths).”

Yes, Ned that all important bottom of the order production is what has been holding the Royals back all along. Usually, the thinking is that you give your best hitters the most chances to hit, i.e. batting them higher, however Ned likes to engineer pop from the bottom of the order by putting one of our best hitters there. He also offers the explanation that Mike is not letting Scott Posednik steal enough bases by swinging the bat and that Kendall's only-swing-when-you-must approach is tailor made for the two-hole which is there only to allow the all important S Pods to run rampant on the base paths. My logic goes something like this; we should be building our offense around Aviles and not Posednik, but what do I know I'll just keep talking to myself while Pods and Kendall drive our offense.

Grienke makes me hurt so bad, it's just painful to keep watching this. Grienke's start last night was the culmination of a string of bad ones for him and now there just seems to be no explanation and one of the few exciting days in the life of a disturbed Royals fan is slowly fading.

Bruce Chen is starting again, Gil Meche is toast and if the Royals had just sucked a little bit more in 2008 it could have been Saint Stephen Strasberg starting instead of Chen. While that last bit was just for fun, seriously there is no one who deserves a start more than Bruce Chen??? Hasn't he proven that he is no longer a starting pitcher, if I did my homework before writing this article I could probably name at least 30 pitchers more deserving of a "spot" start than B. Chen but as it is I'll just throw out Robison Tejada, Kyle Farnsworth (why not he doesn't do anything else), Edgar Osuna, Bryan Bullington, Brayan Pena (I realize he's our back-up catcher but I would be ecstatic just to see his smiling face on the field for a change). I can't think of any name I would like to see out there less than Chen.

Wilson F-ing Betemit!!! While Alex Gordon is down in Omaha treating minor league pitching like he were back with the Cornhuskers using a metal bat, we get the message from Dayton Moore that Alex will not be up anytime soon and that Ned likes the versatility of Betemit (for double-switches during interleague play!?!). Aren't Willie Bloomquist and Chris Getz versatile enough? What planet do we live on? Alex Gordon, has it come this far? The Getz/Callaspo-move to the outfield wasn't punishment enough, now Wilson Betemit gets the call up over you.

While I have to say that I really have nothing against Kendall, Chen, Posednik or Betemit these are just things symptomatic of what bad teams do. Kendall and Posednik don't dictate our offense, players like Aviles do. Bruce Chen doesn't get the nod in favor of a dozen other capable younger players and just because Wilson Betemit plays a lot of positions doesn't mean he gets called up in favor of Alex Gordon. It just doesn't make sense.

Serenity NOW, Serenity NOW, Serenity NOW, Serenity NOW, Serenity NOW, Serenity NOW!!!