Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Worst game ever

We've all suffered through some pretty pathetic games as Royals fans, but I'm singling out today's loss to the Rangers as the worst one I've ever seen. There is so much to be frustrated about after that loss that I have no idea where to start. It had all of the makings of a good rebound game to head home with team heads high and in good spirits for a Memorial Day game on Monday. Instead it turned into a painful-to-watch meltdown that would understandably crush any positive team morale and could easily turn into a tailspin of losing baseball. For all of the pathetic losses that the Royals have endured over the two past week - in what we'll call the post Indians series season part of the season - they still could have came back from Texas in decent shape. The title of the last post was "Righting the Ship" which followed the 14-inning win on Friday, I'm now afraid that was premature; the ship has capsized and it's women-and-children-first time, so grab the nearest life vest if you're a Royals fan and hang on because I'd don't think the rescue vessel is coming anytime soon.

The Post Buster Posey Era Dilemma

Today's game ended on an RBI-single, with MIKE NAPOLI SCORING FROM FIRST!!!!! If you were forced to pick the least likely candidates to score from first on a single, Napoli would probably rank just behind Billy Butler as the least likely to do so. The truth is that after watching the replay 20 times, the actual call may not have been that bad, but this is the typical MLB play that never goes against the catcher: ball beats runner, runner out. That's just the way it is. What makes this play even more questionable is the timing; one of baseball's best young stars just lost the rest of his season because he was blocking the plate and got plowed at home trying to stop a run from scoring. This in turn ignited a serious debate about rule changes that should take place in baseball that prevent that type of play from happening. Everyone was in unanimous agreement that it had to change and that there were to be no more home plate collisions. Fast forward to Sunday, there is no doubt in my mind that every MLB team had been issued an urgent memo that there was to be no more blocking of home plate and subsequent collisions. I can't be sure that Pena was told this and that it was going through his mind during that play, but earlier in the year we have seen him block the plate to stop a run and on this particular play you could see him intentionally step away from the plate and attempt the swipe tag as opposed to the traditional plate blocking technique employed by catchers. Which begs the question, is there any way for this to be done safely? It almost seems logically/physically impossibe for a catcher not to 'block home plate' during a play-at-the-plate. Is he supposed to stay away and apply the tag meekly? If so, then we saw the result of this on Sunday with Brayan Pena and it cost the Royals  dearly. It could also be that Pena was scared to death of big Mike Napoli, but lets pretend that was not the determining factor. I'm going to be the baseball curmudgeon here and say that, I'm sorry Buster Posey got hurt, but baseball doesn't need some obscure rule which dictates how catchers are supposed to handle plays at home henceforth in a manner consistent with slow pitch softball. There was an easy solution to this problem; make Buster Posey play 1st Base, if this had happened to any number of veteran back-up catchers the problem would have never garnered so much attention. However it happened to young superstar Buster Bosey and now everyone is clamoring for the MLB to make changes, but the reality is that it is a rare exciting play in baseball and 9 out-of 10 times the only result is crowd cheering.  

The Fork is in

None of this play-at-the-plate discussion would have been necessary, if Joakim Soria wouldn't have blown his second consecutive save. He has looked so helpless in his last two save opportunities that I'm really not sure he deserves another chance to close the game. I actually hope he gets it and he can find some way to recover, but what once was one of the bright spots for the Royals has now turned into its biggest question mark. This question goes even further beyond the immediate concerns of the closer role for the rest of 2011, if this continues the Royals might well decline his option at the end of the season in hopes that he's still worth a draft pick or trade him now if he's still worth anything. If he continues like this, would you really want to pay him $6 mil next year? Especially when the best part of you team is every other relief pitcher not named Joakim Soria (or Vin Mazzaro). Let's assume the best here; he gets mostly back on-track, holds the closer job for the remainder of the season and finishes the year with a 4.50 ERA and 30-something saves, after what you've seen so far this year would you really want him back from a purely business decision-based standpoint? Everyone - including the PBR - talked about his trade value late last year and during the offseason, to which the Royals made it clear that he was not going to be traded despite the Yankees' best efforts. Now you've got damaged goods with little trade value, lots of second guessing and no real way-out but to let him keep pitching. What's a GM to do?

True Grit

Despite the day off work and the BBQ grills blazing, it's going to take a real effort to turn on tomorrow's game. The good old days of my Royals nausea are coming back again and it's going to take John Wayne + Jeff Bridges, with a dash of Jason Kendall, type Grit to get me through the rest of the year. Maybe I just need to take a Royals watching vacation and pretend I'm a Red Sox fan for a week. Is there any prescription strong enough for a Royals fan? 

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Righting the Ship

Maybe it was just one game, but the Royals took a collective deep sigh of relief after the win last night in Texas. It took ANOTHER extra inning, but the Royals managed to shake off that nightmare series in Baltimore and hopefully turn back into that team we remember from about  two weeks ago.

More Home Runs

During the 14th inning you could almost hear the Royals taking out weeks of pent-up aggression as they hit three HRs to break the game open and give Joakim Soria the chance to close a game that he couldn't blow. These came after Alex Gordon's game-tying blast that continued their domination of Texas closer Neftali Feliz, who has now blown three saves in-a-row against the Royals. This team may not have a guy who will hit 40 HRs, but there are about 4-5 guys who could hit 20. In the last SIX YEARS (2005-2010), the Royals players have combined for exactly four 20 HR+ seasons! This includes three years in which not one player on the team was able to hit 20 HRs. So if it seems strange to see any showing of power - albeit a modest showing - from the Royals players, you're not imagining things because it has been a long time since your KC Royals have displayed any team power. Although this team does include Chris Getz and Alcides Escobar who might get out homered by nearly every NL pitching staff, so we're probably not going to break any records, but having a few guys in the line-up is better than nothing.

One in, One out

There must have been something seriously wrong with Robinson Tejada because you just don't cut ties with one of your most effective relievers over the past two years whom you are paying $1.5 mil, to go claim someone just released by another team. But that is the nature of bullpen work, enter Mr. Felipe Paulino who stepped right in and filled that "long" reliever role perfectly last night, which most likely led to a Dayton Moore elbow strain from patting himself on the back after that textbook display of GM-ing. Unfortunately, this was necessitated by the apparent rapid failure of the bullpen-to-starter move for Nate Adcock. Not to mention a long line of Royals starters unable to put up more than five innings of mediocre work, B. Chen where are you? I'd imagine we'll see at least one more try at it from Adcock, but this was probably doomed from the start and doesn't have a great solution. The Royals are currently working with a rotation that might have one major league 5th stater (Francis or Hoch, depending on the night), Dan Duffy and 2-3 pitchers who might struggle to beat out Jeff Suppan in Omaha. Vin Mazzaro looks better every day.

Splitt's Grips: RIP


Your broadcasts will be sorely missed here at the PBR.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Ole Ball Game

Ninth inning, up 3-2, 1 out, 0-2 count on JJ Hardy, four batters later game over Royals lose 5-3. That one stung a little. A week ago the Royals suffered that historically bad loss to the Cleveland Indians, then on Sunday they were heading for a blowout, when they somehow turned a 7-1 loss into a close extra innings game, only to later literally hand the game back to St. Louis. But for a few more feet on Bryan Pena's fly ball, any show of control from Tim Collins, an Umpire with less of a grudge against the Royals, the old Joakim Soria, anyone but Roger Dorn Betemit at 3B and the Royals could be one game over .500 hanging with Detroit for 2nd place. Instead those baseball gods have handed the Royals a pair of crushing defeats which leaves them three games under .500 and fighting to stay in front of the Sox and out of fourth place. I guess it was bound to happen after all of the ridiculous walk-off wins the Royals have handed out to other teams this year, but man it was tough to watch that game. That leaves the Royals hovering just below .500, still hoping to patch together a respectable season and trying their hardest to give fans something to look forward to and that may be the best they're going to do for now.

Return of the long ball

If there was one good thing to have come from that Cardinals game it was seeing multiple HRs hit in the same game, I don't know about you but seeing that was a sight for sore eyes. We know that this isn't the Bronx Bombers, but mixing in a long ball here and there always helps the cause.

It could be so much worse

The Royals' pitchers are currently 2nd to last in the majors in strikeouts and have paired that with the second most walks issued. Add to that the most hits given up and third most HRs allowed and you almost wonder how they haven't been blown out of more games. Sure the offense is pretty good at times, but I'm starting to think that their defense is actually very, very good. Not just improved but well above average, luck certainly has played a role in the moderate success of the team but it seems that a big part of how they haven't been even worse could lie in the gloves.

Duffman

Mentioning how bad the Royals have been at striking out batters this season a perfect segue into praising the arrival of Danny Duffy. It's such a relief to see a pitcher in the starting rotation with good "stuff" again. I dare you to name one person in the Royals rotation that any major league hitter should be scared of facing. This is exactly what the rotation needs, hopefully he's here to stay and won't get sent back down to make room for the return of Kyle Davies.

Say it ain't so Joakim

Tonight's game really makes you wonder about the state of Joakim Soria. He could have been helped by Wilson on the hot corner, but hitters are getting very good swings off of him. I wouldn't be shocked to read the KC Star tomorrow to hear about how he is heading to the DL with some shoulder/elbow "stiffness" which lags into late season shut-down surgery, but then again I wouldn't be surprised if he never gives up another run for the rest of the year. That is just the nature of a closer. I just really hope that we haven't seen the last of the once dominant Soria.

Crowing

If there is one lesson that should be learned from the Soria troubles it is not that Aaron Crow should be our new closer - certainly there will be many fans who think this - but rather that he needs to be pushed into the starting rotation. The Royals have enough bullpen arms to put together two teams, but seeing Aaron Crow hang out in the pen and then come in for one inning is just a tease. The guy was a starter his entire life, just look at Joakim, sometimes things go bad very quickly in the pen and by then it is way too late to see if you could have had a good starter for a few years. Watching him throw 95mph and break off sliders one inning at a time just doesn't do it for me. Yes, it could all go horribly wrong, but at least you have to try; what's the worst that could happen? Crow blows out his arm trying to start, the Royals lose one or two more games this season and we never remember his name in three years? I'm sorry but I'm going to take that risk when David Glass surprises everyone and names me GM.

Enough Said

What else can you do except keep your fingers crossed for the next 115 games. In the previous PBR post we mentioned that the last home stand would go a long way toward showing us what kind of team the Royals are and they came out of it looking like a team that's just not quite 'there' yet. Hopefully it's coming, but we'll still probably have to see a few more of these games before it's all said and done.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Extra, Extra

It took two extra inning games and two blown saves from Neftali Feliz, but the Royals finally snapped their losing streak and now have a one game winning steak going into the big I-70 series. I, like everyone else, was on the verge of calling this team the "same old Royals" heading into the 9th inning of last night's game against the Rangers. A quick recap of the 35 innings which led up to that; Monday the Tribe embarrassed the Royals in historic fashion and on Tuesday it was more of the same but with less scoring, the result of this may simply be admitting that the Indians are actually good and not a fluke like the Royals. Wednesday saw the Royals walk 13, get back-to-back pinch runners picked off and miss another easy chance to win in the 10th. This game in many ways was even more pathetic than the 19-1 loss, the Royals looked so helpless, yet they had every opportunity to win, but appeared as if that was physically impossible. Then came the first eight innings of yesterday's game that saw more runners thrown out stealing, picked-off and stretching singles and pretty much made all 25 Royals fans in attendance cringe.Then possible AL MVP candidate Eric Hosmer ends the starting pitcher's night with a single, then the Royals' AL MVP candidate #2 Francouer singles and after a couple forgettable ABs Aviles stepped-up and flicked away 10 Neftali Feliz fastballs - does he not have an off-speed pitch - and then singled to tie the game. Again in the tenth Frenchy and Hosmer led the way and the Royals squeaked out a much needed victory.

Oh and by the way...

These four games brought about even more shifting in the roster which resulted in three new members in the bullpen and a two new faces in the starting rotation. The injury to Kyle Davies forced Vin Mazzaro into action a day early and we all know how that turned out. I'm mean really all he has to do is throw three consecutive complete game shutouts and his ERA would be down to a respectable 4.3. Following the game Vinny was told to pack his bags for Omaha and work on not allowing 10-run innings. In addition Kyle Davies was placed on the DL, maybe never to return to the Royals rotation which would be an interesting way to end your career with a team. Jeremy Jeffress and Jarrod Dyson were sent packing as well, supposedly to allow some fresh arms to enter the bullpen, but I'm guessing that it will be a few weeks or longer before we see them again. Christmas came early for the PBR and we actually got what we wished for, in the last post I begged for someone to "suck bad enough" to allow for the Royals to call-up a rookie starting pitcher and Vinny took care of that in fine fashion. The decision to start Nate Adcock is a bit strange, but most likely very temporary so as not to be worth the added stress on my keyboard in discussing, at least for now. The Duffman is hopefully here to stay, he may not be Greinke from 2009, but any change to the rotation is welcome and despite walking 6, he proved that he can also strike-out a hitter when need be.

Yosty's new line-up card

For all of the crazy things Yosty does, every once in a while he stumbles onto something that might actually work and proves that he may not be quite as stuck in convention as we think. He realized that trotting Chris Getz and his .218 average or grip-it-and-rip-it Mike Aviles might not be the best way to handle the #1 spot in your line-up. Butler did get another blow to his ego, but as of right now Hosmer and Frenchy are your two best hitters, so it works. Check this out for a slightly more detailed account of how it might help the team going forward. We'll see how long this sticks, however I do like the thought process because finding a good place for Alex Gordon is also an added benefit while not making him look bad because Hosmer is the future #3 hitter. It hasn't worked out yet in terms of the quantity of runs, but if Hosmer is batting #5 or #6 the Royals don't push either of those games to extra innings.

I-70 Series

Also known as Missouri's biggest sporting event and the only time the Royals sellout tickets after opening day. The goal is obviously taking two out of three, getting back to .500 and erasing what had been building up to be an embarassing homestand , that is until last night's bit of good fortune. Good luck to the Royals pitchers who will be attempting to keep the Cardinals line-up from hitting balls onto I-70 and maybe the new line-up can help the Royals get back to scoring some runs.  

Monday, May 16, 2011

Third Place

I'd like to say that I'm mad about how the Royals have suddenly fallen into third place, but the truth is if we finished the season right where we're at, I'd be pretty content. The hot start was based on some unsustainable offensive production and luck and the subsequent fall back to mediocrity has left some people upset. However, the truth is that the make-up of the current team is so much more than I had hoped for at the beginning the season that you still can't but be anything more than pleasantly surprised.

Signs of the Times

The Royals have already broken two insanely long losing streaks that demonstrate just how pathetic they've been over the last 20-some years. Taking two of three from the Yankees last week marked the first time since 1999 that the team had won a series playing at Yankee stadium. And the sweep of the Twins at the K marked the first time this had happened since 1994. Taken separately these could be seen as anomalies, but together it seems that the new look 2011 Royals have shed at least some of their previous demons and gone from door mats to competitive. There have been the standard missed opportunities, but the Royals have lost very few games where they looked like they might not be able to finish ahead of some minor league teams. It's not great to be talking about the dream of finishing near .500 or in third place but just looking at those two losing streaks makes you realize that improvement is improvement.

Good pitching DOES beat Good hitting

Okay so we still don't know if this Royals offense is actually Good but going into the series against the A's it was one of the best in baseball. However, since then we've found out that Alex Gordon might not be ready to win the batting title, Jeff Francouer probably won't hit 50 HRs and Wilson Betemit isn't quite ready to be mentioned in the same breath as Jose Bautista-like career resurrections. For the better part of the last eight games the Royals offense has been shown what good pitching can do to streaky hitters. With the one exception when they beat up on the Yankees #7 starter, Ivan Nova, it is pretty clear the Royals bats aren't quite ready to handle good pitching. Not that this should really come as any big surprise or disappointment, but the Royals can take advantage of bad pitching and will most likely struggle against the Justin Verlander's of the world. As we mentioned in the previous PBR post, it's nice to know that the Royals can beat bad teams, but going 3-5 against good teams - and staying in the games they lost - is also something to be proud of.

The Rotation

Honestly I wish someone in the rotation would just step-up and suck bad enough that the team would have a good excuse to call-up one of the rookie pitchers. However, the fact is that it has been pretty respectable of late and every time you think one of them is ready fall off into the abyss, they scratch together a good start. One thing jumps out at you when you look at their stats; they don't strike out anyone. Tim Collins is a relief pitcher who has logged 21.1 innings with 25 Ks, in exactly 36 more innings or 108 outs Luke Hochevar has struck out FIVE more batters. In 32.2 more innings Jeff Francis has topped Collins by TWO strikeouts and in half the amount of innings pitched Collins has struck out more batters than Bruce Chen. With this combined melting pot of contact pitchers, it's hard to see the Royals going far in the Division no matter what Hosmer and the rest of the offense can do the rest of the season. At some point they will have to get a top of the rotation guy if they want to squeak out some more victories against better teams.
 
Home Again
 
We've been rambling on and on here at the PBR about tests, but this home stand could be the definitive test of how good/not bad they are and will be for the rest of the year. Three good teams playing well (Cardinals, Rangers and Indians), will come to visit the K and by the time the dust settles after these seven games we should have pretty clear picture if this was just a fluke April or if playing .500 baseball in September is a real possibility.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Beating Bad Teams

Following a brutal road trip the Royals came home to nest on the Orioles and Twins and have proven one thing; they can beat bad teams. For once we are not the bad team, there are other teams that are worse and this is a hard pill to swallow for a born Royals doubter. However, being better than the bad teams is something I'm feeling good about. We may not stay around .500 level for the whole season, but not suffering through a long season of getting beat by those bad teams and continually being slaughtered by good teams makes MLB TV worth the money. We might actually be a decent team like...the Oakland A's, who just happen to be coming to town to provide the Royals with another gauge to test the flukiness of their start to the 2011 season.

Who's on First?

Well, now we have the answer to that question; Mr. Eric Hosmer is the first in a long line of talented young bucks to make his way from Omaha to KC Mo. and will not be wasting any time by starting Friday vs. the A's. I wish I could be more excited about this, the guy is one of the best hitting prospects in the game and is projected to man first base for the next several years, but I almost feel like it is a marketing gimmick to bring in more fan excitement and put people in the stands. Also, you have to feel like Kila got shafted and will either never play in the majors again or be great somewhere else, forever taunting the Royals. The Royals problems do not stem from a lack of offense (or defense at first), the best thing we can hope for is that Hosmer starts hitting when someone else stops (Alex, Frenchy, Wilson) and thus keeps the Royals offensive machine rolling. Because as of right now, WE HAVE SCORED MORE RUNS THAN THE YANKEES! So it's not as if Kila was somehow holding us back by not hitting and we still have the same problem finding playing time for Betemit and Aviles - it is now apparent to me that Yostie will never give up on Getzie - and the real key is going to be finding a top of the line starting pitcher if this run can last. As for Billy Butler, he may never step foot on the field again, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it still must be difficult for a very good player to be so bluntly told that his glove is of no use. In the end this is a very good thing, however for some reason I just can't love it right now, but talk to me in a week after he hits lights-out.

I've been Chen-ed again

I might have to start a brand new blog solely dedicated to trying to answer the question of Bruce Chen. Is he terrible? Is he GREAT? Is he just average or slightly below? I think the answer is that on any given night he can be any one of those things and I should probably get used to the show, enjoy the good and say "I told you so" when the bad comes. He may actually be getting close to earning the proverbial "soft-tossing lefty" title that seems to somehow baffle hitters who should otherwise know better than to chase his Crisco/Vasaline splitter/slider/cutter junk ball. He is our default Ace right now - meaning he is a solid #4 on a good pitching staff - who continually defies the odds and if he's our Jamie Moyer then let it be.

Parle Vu Jeff?

Is the unbreakable Steve Balboni record of 36 HRs in trouble? With 8 HRs on May 6th Frenchy certainly has as good a shot as anyone. It hasn't been since 2000 when Jermaine Dye hit 33 that anyone has put up a 3 with a second digit behind it in HR totals for a Royals player, so for die hard Royals fans this record brings about McGwire/Sosa vs. Hank Aaron fervor. I'm still taking the under on Frenchy, not that I'm totally discounting his hot start, but I feel it's more likely for a Royals player to break DiMaggio's hit streak than for the Balboni record to fall.

Good offense vs. Good pitching, Bad pitching vs. Bad offense = Oakland vs. KC

Taking two of three from the A's might impress me more than anything the Royals have done this season because I still don't feel that I've seen the team score 5 runs off of a good pitcher or win a well played series. They've destroyed bullpens, scored greasy unearned runs and had good swings against bad pitching, but I feel like this would be earning our wins. The A's have the best pitching staff in the league and the Royals have the best offense, one of these things is for real. This should actually be the most exciting series played in KC in quite some time; DeJesus reunion time, the Hosmer cometh, the Royals playing well, it all adds up to good clean family fun.