We knew it was coming, there had to be a correction to the market, and it came this weekend in the form of the Texas Rangers. The Royals had been living on the edge of a nice ride that saw them make late inning comebacks, get shutouts from Bruce Chen and turn Melky Cabrera in to a hero (twice). I would like to say that we just came up against a team on a roll and there was nothing we could do about it, but the Rangers were without their All Star closer and last year's MVP, not to mention the first two games were against suspect starting pitchers. However, the Royals were swept and now they're off to Cleveland, still battling for first but now tied with Detroit for second on our way down, not up.
My bad
As soon as I offer up some praise in my last post to Bruce Chen and Jeff Francis they go out get knocked around by Texas. I guess I should have waited until after they came across a team comprised of top to bottom power hitters to give them any words of approval. I know Billy Butler doesn't miss Zack Greinke but it was nice having at least one starter in your rotation who didn't make you hold your breath with every pitch. The entire starting rotation is comprised of pitchers who make you nervous when they take the mound against any team other than the Seattle Mariners. Everyone knew going into the season that this could be an area of concern, not that one series in Texas with the wind blowing out should lead you to believe that Francis and Chen's days are over, but their ERAs are heading north.
The new Gordon = Scott Posednik?
I think it is great that Alex Gordon is finally putting together a good stretch of hitting but with just the one HR it makes me a little worried about the air being sucked out of that .360 average in a hurry. Remember last year when Posednik was leading the league in hitting? Personally I would rather see him hitting .260 with 5 HRs, but that's just me. Maybe he has finally channeled the spirit of George Brett that he has always been looking for and he'll be a .320, 40 2Bs type of guy for the next 15 years, I just had him pegged as a 30 HR hopeful. That being said, I'm still curious to see his numbers come May 1st, hopefully he can tack on a few more HRs before the end of the month and get on a nice 25-30 HR pace.
He can do this but not that...
The foursome of Chris Getz, Wilson Betemit, Kila and Mike Aviles is a collection of players who all have big time deficiencies and therefore find themselves battling amongst one another for playing time. It was beautiful to see Aviles drill two HRs today, but for what ever reason, a once decent major league shortstop is incapable of playing a passable 2B or 3B. There is no reason that he shouldn't be a decent second baseman. He could be something like an overachieving Ricky Weeks, but as long as Getz keeps poking a few singles here and there, stealing a few bases and looking ('looking' being the key word) the part of a good defensive 2B, Ned is forced to give him the position until other teams start using a fifth infielder. Thankfully Kila finally uncorked another HR (a bomb at that) in Texas and earned the chance to prove that he is going to be our Adam Dunn (or Carlos Pena). Wilson does look improved from last year in the field, but he also looks like he should spend most of his time DHing and we're covered at that position for a while, so again he finds himself as probably our second best hitter (behind Butler) but stuck in position limbo. Personally I hope (and believe) that at some point Getz will be hitting around .250 with a .300 slugging average and at that point Ned will no longer be able to kid himself and Mike will take over the 2B job.
The Royals will head to Cleveland and get a chance to put all of that "resiliency" talk to the test. If they're still in second place by the time they come home to face the Twins the Royals should consider themselves in good shape because all of the signs point to an impending stretch of baseball that sees them come back to earth.
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