Passing grade

The pesky Royals used their patented late inning heroics luck to steal a series split from the equally lucky-to-date Cleveland Indians in the two teams' early season battle for first place. This was not a well played series, and most likely the weather had something to do with this, but it was a pretty fun match-up - if only for Royals and Indians fans - even though these teams may not both be in first place come September. I think the real question is not will they be able to hang on and win the division but will one of these teams finish 3rd or even 2nd in the AL Central? My prediction is that yes, this is a very real possibility, and with the combination of the poor play of the Twins, Sox or Tigers and the improved Indians and Royals we will see one of the two hang around in 3rd place (or better). They both seem to have some nice pieces and more importantly their secondary players are no longer vapid drains on the team's overall performance and in fact slightly better the team as a whole. Overall the Royals get a passing grade for their recent home stand and now are ready to set sail on their first extended road trip and one that will be the biggest test to date. But at least they won't have to deal with Monsoon season in KC.

Patience darlin...

Once again the Royals used the recently discovered WALK to propel both of their late inning rallies during the last game of the Indians series that saw them comeback despite missing many early opportunities against the dominant Josh Tomlin (?). Unfortunately, the Indians had already demonstrated how to use this strategy during the first game that saw our bullpen walk seven and blow a great start from Kyle Davies (got to capitalize when that happens!). We're still waiting to see more HRs, but for now it is nice to see a team not waving at every slider in the dirt that comes their way (a lá Olivo, Betancourt, Guillen, Jacobs, Buck et al) and actually make the opposing pitcher break a sweat on the mound.

Macdougal or Soria???

Maybe by becoming a pacifist and dropping the Mexicutioner nick-name Joakim Soria has become more willing to allow people to reach base against him, but as a Royals fan I can say that we prefer to see the old Soria back and not rely on bases-loaded line drives to get us out of jams. Mike Macdougal is currently in copyright infringement talks with his lawyer as Joakim is pulling his best Macdougal early in the year. Let's just hope that it's a weather related/early season blip and not something we're going to have to bear through all year long, I'm not sure I can take it anymore.

Not another apology

The PBR has already issued one official apology to Bruce Chen and now both he and Jeff Francis are pitching like they actually read my previous comments about their prospects for success in the Royals' starting rotation. So far they've been good, I can't say anything else, as of right now I'm happy they are on my team. Official apologies aren't due until after the season, but I'm already starting to draft theirs. Is it luck, left-handedness or real talent? The jury is still out, with Francis it's really more of an injury risk thing and Chen is just a mystery, but right now I'll bet the Yankees would love to have overpaid for either one of these guys. It would have taken about two months of AJ Burnett's salary to get them both for the year.

Straight talkin...

Everyone should go and listen to Billy Butler talking trash during a radio interview that changed my whole perspective on the guy (kind of). He is about as articulate as...well... a 25 year-old baseball player, but the fact that he did not hesitate to dump on Zack Greinke and other unnamed former teammates is pretty surprising. He also indirectly said that he doesn't pay attention to the things Ned Yost says after games, which might actually make him smarter than I thought. I had Billy pegged as Mr. Jolly, but he may actually have some A-hole in him and for a someone trying to hit a baseball every night that is a good thing. Then again, he also spent his birthday dining with Jeff Francouer, with whom he has been a teammate for about 3 months, so hopefully other people actually get along with him too.

If you had set  a passing grade for how you would have liked for the Royals to play during the last home stand, I would say that they pretty much nailed it. Not too fancy, a little lucky, but good results in the end. Surprise, surprise, three weeks into the season and you're still happy to be a Royals fan.