Royals Stinking Up the Place!

Now, I had no illusions that anything was a sure thing about this baseball team.  If the pitching held up, if the hitters hit, if we played good ball...blah blah maybe we sneak up on someone.

Well, first, the injury bug bit the team.  Then the Royals just came out and played badly.  Now we are up to losing 11 in a row and people are starting to really, really criticize the team, the manager, the GM, the owner and the dude who cooks hot dogs...

I would say just calm down, except for this:  the longer this goes on, the harder it all gets.  You will need a winning streak of 8 or 9 just to get to .500.  Confidence has floated out the window and will be hard to retrieve.  People are really mad about the marketing theme.  It is not good.

We can still see .500 ball--81 wins 81 losses--but wins must start soon or even this modest dream may go by the wayside.  In the meantime, this city's fan bases' attitude towards all the losing by its NFL and MLB franchises is building.

Excuse Me--What?

The Kansas City Royals reacquired Yuni Betancourt from the Milwaukee Brewers, who declined to take his option from his old Royals contract this winter. He is signed to a one year deal and is visioned to be an infield back up and another right handed bat off the bench.

Excuse me--what?

Meantime, Over in Baseball...

Whoops, almost published a blank space!

Although if we were just talking about the Royals and trade deadline action, we would indeed have nothing to say, because nothing is happening or happened. Cabrera, Frenchy and all the rest are all still here. Wilson Betemit's trade to Detroit is the only action so far from the Royals who have pitching bits that might intrigue teams more than the position players.

Meantime, the Giants won the Beltran sweepstakes, the Phils grabbed Hunter Pence, the Cards and Jays added to their rosters with multiplayer trades. The trade deadline is Sunday, July 31 at 3 p.m. CT.

Carlos Beltran to Start as DH--and Something Interesting

I did not know this. Carlos Beltran, the extraordinary 5 tool player the Royals had to let go not too long ago, well, his Topps rookie baseball card was an uncorrected error. I was looking for pics of Beltran as a Royal to put in this post congratulating him on having a nice bounce back year and the honor of starting the All Star game tomorrow when I found this:

I thought the person in the photo looked a little too slender, especially in the face, and the eye brows were too bushy. I've seen Beltran in person and he has a round baby face. (He's good looking, in case you were wondering...)

Yup, this is him. Much better looking guy, bigger neck, more powerful. Very stern look. Did someone forget how to tell him to smile in Spanish? Turns out the names were reversed, and it was never fixed. Anyhow, kudos to Carlos Beltran and congratulations. His next trick? Getting out of New York and helping a contending team win.

MLB All Star Break--12 Thoughts

Well, here we are at the half way point of the baseball season and the analysis has been going full bore. Here are just a few cents worth from this vantage point.

1. American League Wild Card will come out of the East. This division is the best in the league hands down. Boston and New York are playing .600 ball and Tampa Bay is not far behind.

2. AL Central is not very good. Detroit, especially if the pitching holds out, is probably the class of the division. Minnesota, ordinarily very good is struggling, and Cleveland is fading.

3. Expect Texas and Angels of Anaheim to fight it out to the last in the West.

4. Jose Bautista seems to be real.

5. Pittsburgh Pirates over .500. Wow!

6. Offense is generally down. Hard to say if that's because pitching is better, or hitting is worse. No steroids = no power? But I think the game is pretty exciting--I don't have to have a bunch of home runs to enjoy a game. Yesterday's Tigers-Royals tilt with Jeff Francis and Justin Verlander matching each other just about pitch for pitch is a perfect example of a great watchable game that doesn't have a high score.

7. SF Giants in a position to repeat at this point.

8. Boy did that guy eff up the LA Dodgers.

9. Phillies also in a position to return to the playoffs, just quietly going about their business.

10. Can't help but note that the Mets are one game over .500 but still in third place. Can't help but wonder if everyone but Reyes and pitching is trade bait to restock their depleted farm system.

11. NL Central is also a bastion of the only-good. Brewers and Cards tied for first with 49-43 records. Jury still out for Milwaukee fans on Greinke trade. We certainly like that little shortstop you all sent us :)!

12. The Royals. People are getting discouraged with the continued losing and the continued promises of "wait until the youngsters get here." However, the team really does allow for a pinch of optimism: keeping games close, playing smarter baseball, good team chemistry, excellent defense and relief pitching in general. There's a lot wrong--we wouldn't be on a pace to lose 90+ games if all was peaches and cream--the starting pitching, lack of power and consistency in hitting, the mental errors from inexperience are just a few items that reflect the fact that this team needs more talent and experience to contend. Position players are developing well, but pitching is lagging behind, both at the major and minor league levels. As development continues, we may need to consider looking outside for pitching help, via trade and/or free agency to complete our transition from a losing team to a winner.

Meantime, this fan really hates the All-Star break. Whatyamean there's no baseball game tonight or Wednesday night?

Aviles Down; Moustakas Up

You just knew that it had to happen, that Mike Aviles, who I really like as a ball player and who seems to be a top notch guy too, was playing too poorly. He has regressed defensively--I don't know if it's all the switching, or something with his arm after surgery or what but Aviles was optioned to AAA and Mike Moustakas was brought up.

Not all are in agreement about bringing "Moose" up to the bigs, but he is in for a full dose of it, as Ned Yost has indicted he will play every day. We shall see then.

The Royals are going as their starting pitching goes right now. If they get good pitching at the beginning, and aren't dumped in a hole, they do alright. If they go down several runs, they do not have the punch to come back.

As it goes...

Royals Take Starling in First Round

I don't know if it was a surprise or expected, but the Kansas City Royals made the intriguing pick of Bubba Starling out of Gardner, KS. Starling was a two sport star at Gardner-Edgerton HS, playing outstanding quarterback for the school in the fall.

Considered a five tool player in baseball, with a live arm, hitting for average and power at the high school level, able to run well and play defense, if the Royals can actually sign Starling he would be quite an addition for the team in the future.

However, many consider that he is even better at football than baseball, and believe that he will go to Nebraska and throw passes in the Big 10 for the Cornhuskers. In addition, his agent is Scott Boras who no doubt will make signing him as difficult and expensive as possible.
The cynics out there are saying that this is one way the Royals can save money, by drafting a guy in the first round that they have no chance of signing. The optimists are saying that the Royals know more about signing him then they are letting on.

Earlier today, I saw this story on how Bo Jackson was signed by the Kansas City Royals. Hat tip to Tony's Kansas City. Images here are screen captures from footage on mlb.com

Two Good Moves

Two good moves were reported in sports news today--they were both initiated by the people with the issues.

The first is that after blowing his third save in a row for the Royals, Joakim Soria went to manager Ned Yost and asked to be removed from the closer role. He said in his post game interview that he was doing this because his ineffective work had lost games for the team. If I remember right, Soria has blown 5 saves, and the Royals lost all but one of those games. Aaron Crow, the Mizzou product, will get the job for now. Good on Soria for going to Yost and all but forcing his hand to make a change. The plan is to pitch Soria in "low pressure" situations and hope he gets his stuff together. I would send him to the doctor too, even though he says he feels fine, just to be sure.

The second is that Jim Tressel resigned as coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team. I am very glad he did this, as the program had gotten out of control. Talk about lack of institutional control! Ohio State players were found to have sold school stuff for money, gotten deals on cars and gotten money. Tressel at times has made a big deal out of integrity and being a Christian blah blah blah but has gotten into trouble--and not just picayune trouble but big trouble--at the last two schools he coached teams. He needs to think about what it means to profess Christ with his mouth and to do what God desires in the cut throat world of big time college sports. I am glad he had the guts to resign--he needs a good spiritual retreat and time to figure out what he wants to be--perhaps he would do better at the pro level where the rules are different?

So two needed step aways--one we will see results right away, the other not until the fall when the new Buckeyes take the field.

These Are Probably the Real Royals

The Royals have played worse than .500 baseball the past couple of weeks and have seen the quality of some aspects of their play go down. Billy Butler and Alex Gordon have both cooled off at the plate, a few errors have been committed in the field, and base running gaffs have cost important runners in late innings of close games. Pitching has been inconsistent. Starters have gone shorter in games and relievers have been wild at times. 13 walks cost the Royals a victory in the Sunday game against St. Louis.

I suspect that this is the revealing of the real Kansas City Royals--a team that will dazzle you one night and make you hold your head the next. A team that will pull one out of the fire one day, and kick one away the next. A team that will not make the play offs and will have a record of say, 81-81.

I heard one radio commentator talking about how all the prospects could fall apart--how pitchers will need surgery and position players won't be able to hit at higher levels. It really depressed me. How is it that our default position has become the grey cloud--waiting for calamity to hit our team? I personally prefer optimism to pessimism and joy in the good, rather than despair in the bad.

Someone else opined that in baseball, it is better to keep an even keel, to not go too high or too low. I agree with that. Because of its long season, baseball is a bit more like life than most sports. "One day at a time, one moment at a time, taking hardship as a pathway to peace."

Play ball!

Royals Rough Streak Caused Many Changes

A four game losing streak and injuries to two Royals starters plus the implosion of one prospect have caused a bit of roster upheaval out at Kauffman Stadium. After the dust settles, we have a slew of new names and numbers to learn, and a pitching youth movement in full force.

Adcock and Duffy are new names to get used to. We hope for Bruce Chen's rapid recovery to add some stability to what has become a very young rotation.

The Royals have dipped under .500 for the first time this year. This is the moment where we find out a bit more about the young players and about manager Ned Yost.

Yost has come under fire for leaving Vince Mazzaro out to take an awful 14 run beating. Mazzaro suffered two and 1/3 of the longest innings in major league history and many are questioning if he can come back from that beating. To me it is not his head--it's his stuff. He threw pitches in places you just cannot put them to major league hitters. If he gets back to doing and performing in the way that caused you to be called up in the first place, he will be fine. It could be that that will not be with the Royals in the future. That's OK--not all the younguns who make the majors will make it with the Royals.

I just hope we can continue to play close to .500 ball and keep it exciting, smart and competitive baseball all summer.

Royals Call Up Hosmer

Just a quick bit of breaking news--the Royals are calling up Eric Hosmer and sending Kila Ka'aihue to Omaha. Ka'aihue has struggled this season to hit. He is hitting .195 with 2 homers in 23 games. This I think explains the recent appearances of Wilson Betemit at first base.

The Royals took two out of three from Baltimore this series with a serious offensive breakout and a 9-1 win today. This home stand then, they are 5-1. Next are the Oakland A's in for three.

The news is from the Royals FB page. If you are a fan, you should "like" them!

Royals Like That Home Cooking

Alex Gordon hits a three run HR in the 8th. Charlie Riedel/AP via mlb.com

After a dismal road trip with horrible starting pitching and no timely hitting and occasionally shaky defense and 7 losses, the Royals have come home. The starting pitching has been better, the hits coming when needed and lo and behold, the Royals are winners of two in a row over the Twins of Minnesota. The Boys in Blue sit at 14-13, good for second place 4.5 games behind the Indians in the scuffling AL central.

Friday night, they won with small ball and speed. Tonight they put the smack down with 8 runs in the 8th inning. Friday there was 31 K in the stadium and apparently the place was buzzing. There were 22 K at The K tonight. This may be the way this season is: we end up at .500 with streaky play. A young team with sometimes wobbly starting pitching will do that.

.500 would really be fine with me! Anyone got any extra tix?

Royals Doing All Right

Long suffering Kansas City sports fans are suspicious of success at this point. Our default is that the wheels will fall off any time, and we will be thrust into the abyss of countless loses by our professional sports teams. Thus the 10-6 start of the Royals was a challenge to the fan--how do we think of this with this team, this "just wait until all the youngsters are up in 2012" team?

This is like the Chiefs last fall. Anything at this point is gravy. If the Royals play .500 ball, or even better all year long, well, aren't you just drooling thinking about the future?

Now, last night we had one of those games. Starter Kyle Davies pitched lights out, the offense got the lead and it was looking very promising for a win over the currently first place Cleveland Indians. Until the bull pen pitchers all forgot where the strike zone is and the Royals first gave up the lead, and then the game. Tonight Bruce Chen is pitching well in his start, and the Royals offense has plated 5 runs to this point, and it is looking like a promising bounce back from last night's disappointment. Current score 5-2 mid 7th inning. If the Royals hang on and win--and likely it will come down to relief pitching again--this is a great bounceback for this young team.

Attendance is down but the weather has been poor for much of the schedule. People are still skeptical--all we heard all winter was how bad this team would be and how we have to wait for 2012. I think this season will be more exciting than that. I am looking forward to each and every game. That is the thing about baseball--it's a one day at a time sort of thing. Each day the sun rises is a new day, each game is a new game, with fresh possibilities. I'm planning on enjoying each moment.

Royals 9-5-1 in Cactus League Play

Spring training is a notoriously difficult time to evaluate ball clubs. On paper the Royals, stripped down of many of the best performers of the past couple of years but not yet ready to bring up ballyhooed youngsters look to have a very bad, long year. However, there are signs that the team is making the right progress.

Don't expect the 2011 Royals to surprise--they are just too raw and there are too many questions, especially in the pitching area. With youngsters though you just never know. I would be thrilled if the 2011 Royals won more than 63 games, and just played smart baseball all year.

Kauffman Stadium is still a nice place to spend a summer evening too!

Meche: Retired

Well, Gil "I don't listen to my manager, coach or doctor" Meche is retiring. Guess he really didn't want to sit in the bullpen of a terrible team this coming year, even for $11 million.

As you can tell, my heart is just broken. (No sarcasm font on Blogger just yet so italic will have to do.)

Now, do ya think we can manage to spend that $11 million wisely, and not just tuck it back into the Wal-Mart account?

PS Fan fest this weekend. I forgot until I friended the right Royals page for the info!

Greinke IS Gone

While the Chiefs were the dominant news on Sunday, especially after the win, the trade of Zack Greinke to the Milwaukee Brewers for four young players attracted some attention too. Lots of people were critical, disappointed, dismayed. Many think the Royals will not win 60 games next year.

Let's take a look at what we got for Zack and Yuni Betancourt...

Three of the four players have had at least a cup of coffee in the majors.

Two are position players and two are pitchers.

One has been suspended for pot use twice. If he pops another positive drug screen, he's done. That is pitcher Jeremy Jeffress.

They all have potential--it was once said that potential was French for "not worth a damn."

Naming names, besides Jeffress, we have Alcides Escobar a strong defense no offense shortstop. Lorenzo Cain, speedy center fielder, who also is not yet hitting at a major league level.

Jake Odorizzi is the most intriguing of the lot, a power/control pitcher but he is the least experienced of the group, and has not played higher than A ball.

Truly only time will tell if we have made a trade that will help the Royals build a winner, or we have sent yet another superstar away for a stew of just average players.

In the meantime, a lot of Royals fans are feeling blue, and it is not from the chilly winter weather.

Photos, from Google image searches, from top to bottom: Alcides Escobar, Jake Odorizzi, Jeremy Jeffress and Lorenzo Cain.

Greinke's Gone

It's really just a matter of not getting ripped off now.

Because Zack Greinke is as good as gone from Kansas City.

I'd love to see him with my Mets, but the Mets farm system is a desert. There is nothing there to deal to KC.

This really sucks in so many ways. I got to see Zack pitch several times, and even when he does not have his best stuff, his talent is obvious and outstanding. It would have been great to watch a good team come together around him.

I think some of this really is about his psyche and the way Zack works--that his make up really struggles with all the losing, and he can't deal with another losing year in 2011, that it messes with his head. I think that's why he said some of the things he said late in the season this past summer and why he wants to be dealt now.

He will be missed. I will still be a Greinke fan, the same way I have been a Carlos Beltran fan and a Jermaine Dye fan and a Mike Sweeney fan. It's the way the sporting life is.

File photo of Greinke from the Kansas City Star.

Royals AAA Club Changes Name--Most of Omaha Hates It

The Omaha Royals are no more. They are now the Storm Chasers. The majority of the comments to this linked article hate it. Check it out, including the mascots and unis, and the video. What do you think?

(I like the naming of minor league affiliates after the parent clubs, but that's just me. With new names and such, there can be more merchandising--unfortunately an important part of any sports team now.)

The Royals Now--Like a Box of Chocolates

You truly do not know what you are going to get.

Take the just concluded Yankees series, which the Royals split 2-2. Two games they got run out of the stadium. Two games they got good or exceptional pitching and major league defense and won.

On Saturday night A-Rod goes yard three times. On Sunday afternoon, he is 0/3. So it's the pitching that will win games for the Charlie Brown Royals in the last 6 weeks of the season. The offense, while showing occasional flashes, is pretty much lame. Strong defense with error free play is also essential to Royals' Ws.

Wouldn't it be nice if Bryan Bullington, the gentleman in the photo above, (from the Kansas City Star BTW), finds his first round draft choice magic with the Royals, his fifth organization? Wouldn't that be completely awesome? He was OK in his first outing against the Angels, and outstanding against the Yankees. Keep Bannister in the bullpen, and let's really give Bullington a good look see at the major league level.

Royals and Atlanta Swap Players Just as Deadline Passes

Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth are headed to the heat of the NL East pennent race, traded to the Atlanta Braves for P Tim Collins, OF Gregor Blanco and P Jesse Chavez. Collins has been in AA and doing well; he will be sent to Omaha. Blanco has been used sparingly with the big league club and Chavez has had some struggles pitching in relief. They will join the Royals big club.

This ends the non-waiver trading period for Major League baseball. The Royals have made deals for youth in general, and moves that do decrease the payroll for next year somewhat. Still left is Jose Guillen, who is bringing interest from clubs in pennant races for his bat and improved outfield play. No other Royal is likely to make it through the trade process without a waiver claim now.

With such youthful players obtained, it will be years before we find out if Dayton Moore is a genius or a dud. However, I like the moves because they proclaim that the team is looking to the future. It will also be fun to see the new guys on the field, and how everything meshes in the club house. The team looks very different now than the team that took the field in April. Besides the trades of Callaspo, Podsednik, Ankiel, and Farnsworth, lost to injury have been Hochaver, Meche, and DeJesus. So it's been an interesting year.

Photos kyped from the 'net, from top to bottom: Collins (in the Toronto organisation until mid July), Blanco and Chavez.