Alright, when I first saw that Juan Cruz had been released and Luis Mendoza had been DFA'ed, I was happy. But then I remembered that Cruz has been one of the more reliable relievers this year. He had one of the lowest ERA's in the bullpen, while finding some bad luck with pitching to contact, showcased by his .528 BABIP. My guess is that the Royals thought it was time to part ways with good ol' Cruzy.
Looks like I need to change my subhead up top. Luis Mendoza and his 22.50 ERA have been released. The crime in this is that the Royals didn't need Mendoza. He was a project and the Royals simply didn't need him. With Brad Thompson and Carlos Rosa already on the 40-man roster, there was no need for Mendoza. Closer Joakim Soria said that Mendoza was the best pitcher in Mexico (which is kind of like saying that he makes the best pizza in Mexico). Whatever the case, Mendoza had his shot at the big leagues and once again, he failed.
Now to the real issue that I have with this decision. The Royals are recalling LHP Bruce Chen and RHP Brad Thompson from AAA. I'm ok with Thompson, but Bruce Chen is not a Major League arm. He is what he is. An AAAA pitcher with a 4.71 career ERA. Not interested. Meanwhile, we've got Carlos Rosa, a young guy who many thought would be a big set up arm a couple of years ago. But word from people around the Royals organization is that the front office believes that Rosa still hasn't learned to be a reliever. I hate to say it, but this is how these things are going to be for a while. Not until the Royals start getting viable young arms in Omaha. Blake Wood still isn't quite there yet, Rosa is struggling, Disco Hayes has very few believers in the front office and the Royals seem to be throwing stuff against a wall and seeing if it will stick. And for now, thats just the way it's going to be.
The more things change, the more they stay the same...
Friday, April 23, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Bullet Points on Toronto Series
-Zack was Zack today. Good to see him bolt it down and turn in a quality start against one of the AL's better offenses. If he struggled today, I was really going to start worrying. The only negative is that our bullpen sucks and couldn't hold the Jays, preventing Zack from getting his first win of the year.
-Jose Guillen and Scott Podsednik continue to swing hot bats. I never thought I would say this, but these two seem to be our offensive catalysts. If they can keep it up through the season and in to July, we may see these guys bring back a pretty decent haul around the trade deadline, especially Podsednik who is signed to a very club friendly deal. Guillen...not so much.
-Alex Gordon came up big today. The Royals were on the verge of a sweep and a disastrous 3-6 record on their first road trip. But Gordo pulled the boys in blue back from the edge and delivered with a huge extra innings home run. Oh yeah, the bomb he hit was off of a lefty too.
-Canada really doesn't care about baseball when the NHL Playoffs are going on and the Jays are playing the Royals. Truly a recipe for all time attendance lows.
-Josh Rupe may be the guy. No one in the bullpen has been able to throw strikes, but Rupe has come out of Omaha and been awesome. Even though he allowed the Jays to tie it today, he's really held it down. Now the question is if he can sustain it.
-Kyle Davies looks serviceable. I've been saying for years that he is underutilized in the rotation and should be used in the bullpen. I may be right considering he was magnificent through 5 innings yesterday and then imploded in the 6th. A common trend in his 2010 starts.
-The offense seems to get satisfied whenever they go up by 3 or more runs early in the game. No...No...no no no no. Jamie Quirk said it all the time last year when the Royals were winning with smoke and mirrors in May, you've got to have a "step-on-their-neck" mentality. Strike hard, strike first, show no mercy. Or maybe this offense isn't capable of scoring more than 3 runs on a regular basis.
-Jose Guillen and Scott Podsednik continue to swing hot bats. I never thought I would say this, but these two seem to be our offensive catalysts. If they can keep it up through the season and in to July, we may see these guys bring back a pretty decent haul around the trade deadline, especially Podsednik who is signed to a very club friendly deal. Guillen...not so much.
-Alex Gordon came up big today. The Royals were on the verge of a sweep and a disastrous 3-6 record on their first road trip. But Gordo pulled the boys in blue back from the edge and delivered with a huge extra innings home run. Oh yeah, the bomb he hit was off of a lefty too.
-Canada really doesn't care about baseball when the NHL Playoffs are going on and the Jays are playing the Royals. Truly a recipe for all time attendance lows.
-Josh Rupe may be the guy. No one in the bullpen has been able to throw strikes, but Rupe has come out of Omaha and been awesome. Even though he allowed the Jays to tie it today, he's really held it down. Now the question is if he can sustain it.
-Kyle Davies looks serviceable. I've been saying for years that he is underutilized in the rotation and should be used in the bullpen. I may be right considering he was magnificent through 5 innings yesterday and then imploded in the 6th. A common trend in his 2010 starts.
-The offense seems to get satisfied whenever they go up by 3 or more runs early in the game. No...No...no no no no. Jamie Quirk said it all the time last year when the Royals were winning with smoke and mirrors in May, you've got to have a "step-on-their-neck" mentality. Strike hard, strike first, show no mercy. Or maybe this offense isn't capable of scoring more than 3 runs on a regular basis.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Royals Bats Invade Canada! Overtake Canadian Military
Now is the time for retribution! Well, not really. But hey, the Blue Jays are off to a pretty good 7-6 start. Most people, including myself, were thinking that the Blue Jays would be baseball's version of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Crappy and old. But Cito Gaston is a brilliant manager and has obviously done something right. Vernon Wells is hitting like the Vernon Wells of old. But the Royals are catching the Blue Jays at the right time. Tonight's starter, Brandon Morrow, is coming off his worst start in years after giving up seven earned runs through four innings against the White Sox.
The Royals get to see Excelsior Springs native, Shawn Marcum in the final game of the series as he faces off against Zack Greinke on Wednesday.
So open a Labatt Blue, eat some pyrogies and crank up the Nickelback (on second thought, don't do that) and enjoy baseball on carpet for the next three days!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Twins Series Preview
Alright, so here we go. Early season baseball outdoors in the Twin Cities. Should be a riot! Here's some things to keep an eye on.
-Zack Greinke hasn't really looked much like Zack Greinke in his first two starts. He's much better than he's showcased early on. I'm looking for him to kick it into gear tonight and shut down this potent Twins offense.
-Roman Colon has been designated for assignment and Josh Rupe has been called up from Omaha. This is a baby step in the right direction. Dayton Moore has allegedly been shopping Juan Cruz and Kyle Farnsworth as well, saying that the Royals would eat some or most of their remaining salaries.
-Billy Butler has been hitting singles left and right, but hasn't showcased much power yet in 2010. Looking for a big series from Billy Ray simply for the fact that he's due.
-After the news of Jose Guillen's brush with death in the offseason, I'm rooting for this guy big time. Hopefully he keeps it going and murders the ball again this weekend. Only problem is that Jose has struggled in cold weather in his career. First pitch temp tonight in Minny is listed at 58 degrees.
-Can Gil Meche rebound this weekend? I sure hope so. If Gil can turn in solid starts this year like the rest of our rotation, look out.
-Interested to watch extended periods of baseball at Target Field. Haven't gotten a chance to see how the ball plays in the park. Very little foul territory as well.
-The Royals no longer have to dread the Metrodome. Time for a fresh start in Minnesota.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Royals Show Signs of a Good Team, Capitalize on Detroit Mistakes
Sometimes one game can change your outlook for the short term. I really liked what the Royals did today. They had to win today. I remember in 2006, the Royals didn't win a SERIES until mid-June. So we've improved in that department.
Alright, enough with the snarkiness. I loved how the Royals won this game today. Jose Guillen, wow. We all may have to owe you an apology if you continue hitting like this through April. JoGui has 5 taters in 4 games. Pretty impressive. He's playing like he should in a contract year. Good for him. If the Royals are 10 games out in July, then he could get a pretty good return in a trade. But if we aren't 10 games out, then he'll likely be a reason we aren't 10 games out.
John Parrish is everything John Bale wasn't. He's been very reliable these first couple of weeks. A big cheer came from my end when he got the biggest Royal killer, Miguel Cabrera, to ground out to get out of a jam in the 7th inning. An otherwise small victory in what could have been another disastrous bullpen meltdown.
The Royals took care of business when the Tigers made mistakes. Gerald Laird dropped a ball on what should have been an easy out at the plate. Rookie Scott Sizemore let a slow dribbler go under his glove, letting a run score. That is how the Royals are going to win. Simply play better than the other team. If you can do that most of the time, you'll likely be around .500.
Another exciting element of this Detroit series was that the Royals collected 46 hits. Don't know the last time that happened, but man we really shelled them this week.
I'm starting to creep back towards cautious optimism. After nine games it is tough to evaluate a team and whether or not they are streaky, but these guys are swinging the bats well, the starters are doing their job and turning in quality starts and the defense looks better, not good, but better. If we can get this bullpen figured out, then as one Royals blogger infamously wrote: "It's On".
Alright, enough with the snarkiness. I loved how the Royals won this game today. Jose Guillen, wow. We all may have to owe you an apology if you continue hitting like this through April. JoGui has 5 taters in 4 games. Pretty impressive. He's playing like he should in a contract year. Good for him. If the Royals are 10 games out in July, then he could get a pretty good return in a trade. But if we aren't 10 games out, then he'll likely be a reason we aren't 10 games out.
John Parrish is everything John Bale wasn't. He's been very reliable these first couple of weeks. A big cheer came from my end when he got the biggest Royal killer, Miguel Cabrera, to ground out to get out of a jam in the 7th inning. An otherwise small victory in what could have been another disastrous bullpen meltdown.
The Royals took care of business when the Tigers made mistakes. Gerald Laird dropped a ball on what should have been an easy out at the plate. Rookie Scott Sizemore let a slow dribbler go under his glove, letting a run score. That is how the Royals are going to win. Simply play better than the other team. If you can do that most of the time, you'll likely be around .500.
Another exciting element of this Detroit series was that the Royals collected 46 hits. Don't know the last time that happened, but man we really shelled them this week.
I'm starting to creep back towards cautious optimism. After nine games it is tough to evaluate a team and whether or not they are streaky, but these guys are swinging the bats well, the starters are doing their job and turning in quality starts and the defense looks better, not good, but better. If we can get this bullpen figured out, then as one Royals blogger infamously wrote: "It's On".
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Quick Thoughts on BoSox, Aviles, Bandwagoners and Gil's Mess
Really, the bullpen is awful. Boston's isn't much better, but they have some nice hitters like Jeremy Hermida and a 40 year old Jason Varitek. Glad we could squeak one away from them and not be a total embarassment of a 1 win team. Jose Guillen hit 2 homers today. Sorry Kila, but JoGui Wheelz just bought himself another month of active duty on a major league team. Mike Aviles, if I ran a baseball team named the Kansas City Royals, you would play every day and set the table for Bert and Billy Ray. Yuniesky Betancourt.....thats all. I can't speak on him. It would end up with me writing a run on sentence about first swing pop outs and GIDP. Red Sox "fans" were loud and obnoxious this weekend, per the usual, but on Saturday I actually sat behind a group of people who were ACTUALLY from Boston and they couldn't have been nicer. But most of them seemed to be bandwagoners who paid good hard American money to sit in a chair for 3 hours for the sole purpose of shouting "YOUUUUUUK" whenever Kevin Youkilis breathed or looked like Sloth from The Goonies. Gil Meche, wow. I'm sorry, looks like your career has taken a beating from Trey Hillman and Dayton Moore (starting April 15th, they will be referred to as "Treyton"). Either that, or a five year deal was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too long for a guy like Gil. Going with the latter as we know Dayton loves signing players within the timetable of their plateau.
10 days of peace now. Royals on the road for 9 games.
**One positive, Rick Ankiel is awesome. If that guy learned some plate discipline, he could be great. I mean, really really great.
10 days of peace now. Royals on the road for 9 games.
**One positive, Rick Ankiel is awesome. If that guy learned some plate discipline, he could be great. I mean, really really great.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
We Got 159 More of These to Go...Great.
First off, I'm going to save the Trey bashing for later. Like when it becomes a real question of whether or not he should be fired, which I am going to guess shows up sometime in late May.
You can't fault Trey for the fact that our league-worst-in-2009 bullpen was not improved (no, Luis Mendoza is not an improvement, Dayton). What you can fault him on is his impeccable need to start Jason Kendall and keep him on the basepaths in the late innings. He was good for two baserunning gaffes late in games during this series. I won't say that I didn't see it coming. Also, Kendall was allegedly acquired for his defense, yet in these three games he was also good for a couple of miscues behind the plate that let runners advance. Also, I really enjoy seeing him hit slow dribblers and soft liners with runners in scoring position.
But the main issue that I have with this opening week is that it has become obvious that Treyton (yep, thats what I'm calling them now) seem to be content with trying to "compete" with veterans rather that lose the "right way" with young talent that is in our system. Instead of calling up Kila Ka'aihue to DH, we watch Jose Guillen loaf around the batters box and hit TPJ-esque ground balls with runners on. Instead of letting Mitch Maier prove he can hit .300 outside of Arizona, we allow Scott Podsednik to throw three-hoppers to the cutoff man. Yeah, but he hit 3 singles today! Instead of letting Carlos Rosa learn how to become a setup man in the big leagues, we get to enjoy Roman Colon and Luis Mendoza feed Miguel Cabrera batting practice fastballs in the 7th inning.
I am positive that Treyton plan to keep using this anemic lineup well into May. Then they will finally "realize" that this crap that they are putting on the field isn't as great as they thought it would be! Its crap. This offense is crap, this defense is crap, this bullpen is atrocious and I can't believe I'm saying this only 3 games into the season, but it is the truth. I have zero faith that this team can accomplish anything positive. We will lead the league in no-decisions, errors, passed balls, blown saves, BB/9 and just about every other category that crap teams lead the league in.
It is so disheartening for me to write a post about this so early in the season, but I've seen this trainwreck before. Yeah, it's the 2005 Kansas City Royals. Rick Ankiel is Reggie Sanders. Scott Podsednik is Terrence Long. Jason Kendall is Paul Bako or whatever craptastic "defensive guru" we had behind the plate that season.
The only difference is that the starting rotation looks to be amazing. Luke really impressed me on Wednesday, Banny looked like Banny today, and Zack probably pitched the worst he'll pitch in the first half of the season, yet still turned in a quality start.
That is the most depressing part. The Royals have slowly decayed into an offensive blackhole, while we've seen the starting rotation blossom into one of the best in the American League.
While Treyton has been beating the "pitching and defense" war drum, the offense, which has the core of an outstanding run producing lineup, has been neglected and turned into a disaster. Betancourt, Kendall, Guillen, etc. Its all going to be a disaster.
My only hope is that sometime before the Trade Deadline is that Treyton is no more and Dayton Moore can make us remember why we all had so much hope in him when he took over a franchise that is starting to look like it once was in the darkest of times. But I'm not holding my breath.
You can't fault Trey for the fact that our league-worst-in-2009 bullpen was not improved (no, Luis Mendoza is not an improvement, Dayton). What you can fault him on is his impeccable need to start Jason Kendall and keep him on the basepaths in the late innings. He was good for two baserunning gaffes late in games during this series. I won't say that I didn't see it coming. Also, Kendall was allegedly acquired for his defense, yet in these three games he was also good for a couple of miscues behind the plate that let runners advance. Also, I really enjoy seeing him hit slow dribblers and soft liners with runners in scoring position.
But the main issue that I have with this opening week is that it has become obvious that Treyton (yep, thats what I'm calling them now) seem to be content with trying to "compete" with veterans rather that lose the "right way" with young talent that is in our system. Instead of calling up Kila Ka'aihue to DH, we watch Jose Guillen loaf around the batters box and hit TPJ-esque ground balls with runners on. Instead of letting Mitch Maier prove he can hit .300 outside of Arizona, we allow Scott Podsednik to throw three-hoppers to the cutoff man. Yeah, but he hit 3 singles today! Instead of letting Carlos Rosa learn how to become a setup man in the big leagues, we get to enjoy Roman Colon and Luis Mendoza feed Miguel Cabrera batting practice fastballs in the 7th inning.
I am positive that Treyton plan to keep using this anemic lineup well into May. Then they will finally "realize" that this crap that they are putting on the field isn't as great as they thought it would be! Its crap. This offense is crap, this defense is crap, this bullpen is atrocious and I can't believe I'm saying this only 3 games into the season, but it is the truth. I have zero faith that this team can accomplish anything positive. We will lead the league in no-decisions, errors, passed balls, blown saves, BB/9 and just about every other category that crap teams lead the league in.
It is so disheartening for me to write a post about this so early in the season, but I've seen this trainwreck before. Yeah, it's the 2005 Kansas City Royals. Rick Ankiel is Reggie Sanders. Scott Podsednik is Terrence Long. Jason Kendall is Paul Bako or whatever craptastic "defensive guru" we had behind the plate that season.
The only difference is that the starting rotation looks to be amazing. Luke really impressed me on Wednesday, Banny looked like Banny today, and Zack probably pitched the worst he'll pitch in the first half of the season, yet still turned in a quality start.
That is the most depressing part. The Royals have slowly decayed into an offensive blackhole, while we've seen the starting rotation blossom into one of the best in the American League.
While Treyton has been beating the "pitching and defense" war drum, the offense, which has the core of an outstanding run producing lineup, has been neglected and turned into a disaster. Betancourt, Kendall, Guillen, etc. Its all going to be a disaster.
My only hope is that sometime before the Trade Deadline is that Treyton is no more and Dayton Moore can make us remember why we all had so much hope in him when he took over a franchise that is starting to look like it once was in the darkest of times. But I'm not holding my breath.
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