Patience is Key..

Well, the Royals won again today, and now sit at 7-4 and atop the AL Wildcard leaderboard.  Obviously, we're 11 games into the year and it's WAY too early to make any assumptions about the 2011 season.. However, the Royals have avoided their characteristic slow start this season and now come home for an 8 game home stand which sees them facing the Mariners and the Indians (losers of 2 in a row).  Theoretically, the Royals could win 6 games and see themselves sitting at the top of the division almost a month into the season.  This would be great news.  It would be a testament to the young(ish) players the Royals brought in or called up for this season.. Ka'aihue, Francouer, Cabrera, etc. have all been contributors to this point.  Even players like Chris Getz and Matt Treanor have made impacts.  This has all been great and really fun to watch, but do not let it trick you into thinking it would be okay to rush our prospects.

It has been clear that many baseball teams have underperformed to this point this season.  The Royals may very well take advantage of all this bad baseball and actually finish .500 this year, I'm not predicting it, but I'm certainly willing to offer up the possibility that it could happen.  What I am most afraid of for this season is not losing 100 games, it is rushing players like Eric Hosmer and Mike Montgomery to the big leagues.  Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain are basically locks to see the bigs sometime before the All Star Break this season, because they have both spent time previous to this season in AAA.  Eric Hosmer, however is 21 years old and has only played in ~50 games in AA.  He needs to spend the whole season (or at least until September) in AAA.  You can not leave a player in the minors too long (and even if you could, one season certainly would not be the cutoff point).  However, you CERTAINLY can rush a player to the bigs too soon.. (see ANY of the Royals top prospects over the last decade).  By bringing Hosmer to the majors this year you gain NOTHING.  It would involve sitting/trading one of Billy Butler or Kila Ka'aihue and there is no reason to do that until next offseason.  Give both of those players a year to hit and show what they can do before you decide which you would like to keep and which you would like to trade away.

The same mantra goes for Mike Montgomery and all of our young starting pitching.  Give them each a season in AAA to hone their craft, certainly they will only get better over time.  Our rotation is not good at this point, but we aren't planning on winning the world series this season yet either.  I can think of a situation MAYBE where a pitcher gets hurt and goes down in mid/late July in which I might be okay with bringing up a young hurler, but we can cross that bridge when we get to it.  At this point I'd like anyone under the age of 23 to stay in the minors this season, please.

As an aside, scouts and statisticians can agree that players peak when they are 27-32 (or so).  Don't you want to hang on to our young players for all or at least most of this time period?  You're not hurting yourself by being patient, but you could easily ruin this whole "The Process" by bringing players up before their time.

Thanks for reading.

RBI Efficiency: Understanding Opportunity

This post has long been in the works. Not necessarily in the physical sense, but in the mental sense. Ever since reading my first Baseball Prospectus article more than 5 years ago I have longed to have a better understanding of the REAL numbers behind baseball. It's frustrating living in a world full of outdated stats which don't always tell the whole story. None are more frustrating than RBI. I have come up with a way to better compare RBI numbers. I'm going to share this stat with you.

It seems as if almost every year when the discussion for MVP comes up, each candidate's RBI numbers are compared and a winner is determined by whoever has the most. This seems unfair to me. Not every player has the same opportunities to drive in runs. Why penalize a player for having ~5 less RBI when he had the opportunity to drive in 1000 runs, whereas the player who had ~5 more RBI had the opportunity to drive in 1150 runs? These players are clearly not being compared on an even plane. Think about it like this: When deciding a Cy Young Award winner, would you take into account the fact that one pitcher started 3 fewer games? I would. Now, this is slightly different because in a pitching comparison you may take into account the fact that the better pitcher was able to start more games, either by not being injured or not being in the minors, etc. However, when comparing RBI opportunities, both players may have an equal number of games played and even plate appearances, however, one of the players had an opportunity for more RBI simply by his position in the batting order and the success of his teammates.

In order to alleviate the problem that different RBI opportunities create, I propose a new stat. I'm going to call it RBI Efficiency, at least for now. It is a stat that can show how successful a player is at driving in runs compared to the opportunities that he has to drive in runs. This number can be shown as a decimal, but I prefer to show it as a percentage. This percentage literally says that player X will drive in a run XX% of the time he has the opportunity to drive in a run.

The calculation of this stat is actually fairly simple, but I don't believe anyone has come up with it yet due to a lack of statistical information being readily available until recently. www.Baseball-Reference.com has a link to batting split-stats for every major league player, broken down by year. This information is vital to calculate RBI-e. By looking at how many plate appearances each player had in different RBI situations, and then weighing how successful they were versus how successful they could have been, you can come up with their RBI-e.

Later in this post I will break down the 2010 Royals RBI-e, as well as a few other players in the AL for the 2010 season, but for now I will break down how this stat is calculated.

Every time a player comes to bat, he has an opportunity to drive in at least 1 run. This is true no matter the game situation, no matter the outs, and no matter the inning. If the bases are empty, the player has the "opportunity" to drive in 1 run. That is to say, in a perfect (offensive) world, each player would come to bat and hit a solo home run. The goal of baseball is to score runs, and this is the simplest, most efficient way of doing so. Since that player has the "opportunity" to score 1 run, all of his RBI with the bases empty are measured against the number of plate appearances he had. For instance, in 2006, Mark Teahen had 234 plate appearances with the bases empty. He had 8 RBI in such situations, therefore, when calculating his RBI-e you start with his efficiency being 8/234. In reality, a very small percentage or runs are scored this way, and so a player's true efficiency will not very well be reflected by his efficiency with the bases empty.

As we continue to determine a player's RBI-e, I find it helpful to create a small chart that looks something like this:

PA RBI e

empty 234 8 8/234

1 on xxx xx xx/xxx

2 on xxx xx xx/xxx

full xx xx xx/xx

total: xxx/xxxx e: xx.xx%

Continuing with our calculation of Mark Teahen's RBI-e in 2006, he had 146 plate appearances with 1 man on. In those situations, (either with a man on 1st, 2nd, or 3rd) he had the opportunity to drive in 292 runs (again, think of ultimate success as a home run, in this case, a 2 run shot). He drove in 35 RBI. His efficiency with 1 man on was 35/292, giving him a running total of 43/526.

Mark had 51 plate appearances with 2 men on. He could have hit 51 3 run home runs, meaning he had the "opportunity" to drive in 153 RBI. He drove in 22 Runs. This brings his running total to 65/679. Mark had 8 plate appearances with the bases loaded. He had the opportunity for 8 grand slams, for a total of 32 RBI. He drove in 4 runs for an "e" of 4/32.

Mark Teahen's RBI-e in 2006 was 69/711, 0.970, or 9.70%. This is to say Mark Teahen drove in 9.70% of the runs that he had the opportunity to drive in. If we take a look back at our chart from earlier, and finish filling it out, it looks like this:

PA RBI e

empty 234 8 8/234

1 on 146 35 35/292

2 on 51 22 22/153

full 8 4 4/32

total: 69/711 0.970 RBI-e=9.70%

No stat has meaning without understanding how different players compare, but before I break down other players, I'd like to discuss what this stat is meant to do, and its flaws. This stat is NOT meant to determine how well a player did compared to how well an average player might do. To better understand what I mean by this, consider the following. I lump together all of a player's plate appearances with one man on. This may seem counterintuitive at first, because a player is expected to drive in many more runs with a man on third and no outs than he is expected to drive in with a man on first and 2 outs. However, this stat is not meant to weigh individual expectancies, it is simply a tool to help measure different players' efficiency when it comes to driving in runs. You may argue that this puts certain players at a disadvantage, especially those that do not hit home runs very often. I would agree, however, as I discussed earlier, in a perfect world, a home run would be the result of every at bat, and so by putting players who do not hit home runs at a disadvantage, we are simply viewing them in a truer sense of their value when compared to other players.

That being said, let's look at a break down of the 2010 Royals. There were 11 players who drove in at least 30 RBI in 2010. Those players were:

78 Billy Butler

78 Yuniesky Betancourt

77 Jose Guillen

56 Alberto Callaspo

51 Scott Podsednik

43 Wilson Betemit

39 Mitch Maier

37 Jason Kendall

37 David DeJesus

32 Mike Aviles

When you look at RBI totals alone, Butler, Betancourt and Guillen were clearly the standouts. Let's take a look at their RBI-e now.

8.27% Wilson Betemit

8.02% Jose Guillen

7.88% Yuniesky Betancourt

6.98% Billy Butler

5.99% David DeJesus

5.75% Alberto Callaspo

5.71% Mitch Maier

5.65% Scott Podsednik

4.60% Mike Aviles

4.70% Jason Kendall

As you can see, the names at the bottom of the list probably don't surprise you, except maybe Aviles. However, Wilson Betemit being at the top came as a bit of a surprise to me. Betemit drove in 43 runs last season, but he only had the opportunity to drive in 520, which was less than half the amount that Billy Butler had the opportunity to drive in. Wilson Betemit did a better job of utilizing his RBI opportunities than Butler did, and, theoretically, if Betemit had as many opportunities as Butler, he would (should) have driven in more runs. Butler's efficiency is simply not as good as it could have been. In order to gain more perspective let's take a look at how Butler has been since reaching the majors in 2007.

Billy Butler RBI-e

2007 8.74%

2008 7.30%

2009 8.62%

2010 6.98%

As you can see, these numbers bounce around a little bit, he seems to have had some success his rookie year, regressed a bit in his sophomore year and then taken another step forward in 2009. However, last year he regressed a bit again, at least when looking at his ability to drive in runs. Let's take a look at another fairly young player with a similar number of plate appearances in his career.

Evan Longoria RBI-e

2008 9.80%

2009 10.03%

2010 9.23%

Clearly, Longoria does a better job of utilizing his opportunities to drive in runs. In fact, in 2010, Longoria had the opportunity to drive in 1127 runs. Butler had the opportunity to drive in 1117 runs. Butler drove in 78, while Longoria drove in 104. Now that we have a better understanding of efficiency, we can determine that while Butler drove in 26 fewer runs, he had 100 less "opportunities" to drive in a run. When you combine both of these numbers you can see that he was simply not as good as Longoria at driving in runs.

Just for fun, let's take a look at Miguel Cabrera's 2010 season (2010 AL RBI leader). Miguel had the "opportunity" to drive in 1127 runs, which is the exact same number that Evan Longoria could have driven in. However, Miggy drove in 126 runs, while Longoria drove in 104. Miggy's RBI-e Then was 11.18%. He was clearly better than Longoria.

I hope this stat will be useful for helping to determine not only players' seasons as they compare to other players, but also as they compare to their own careers. This stat is not meant to be an end-all, be-all kind of stat, and I doubt you'll find it on the back of a baseball card anytime soon. But it can be a useful tool when comparing different players, especially when looking at players who bat in different spots in the lineup and who play for teams with largely different levels of runs scored. Thanks for reading.

Wrapping up last weekend..

Well the Royals went 1-1 on Saturday and Sunday.. I guess I'll take a .500 stretch.

On Saturday it was a tale of Kyle Davies pitching fairly well, but the offense pumping out just 2 runs against Rich Hill and Co.

Sunday it was the Royals staying in the game early, despite some defensive and baserunning miscues and then turning the offense on late with 3 runs in the 8th against Jim Johnson.

Hitter of the Game

Alberto Callaspo drove in the only 2 runs on Sat.  He was 2-4 with his 15th double of the season.  He did not strikeout or walk.

Billy Butler drove in 2 runs on Sunday with a 2-5 performance.  Billy had a double, a run scored, no walks, and a strikeout.

Pitcher of the Game

7 innings, 6 hits, 3 runs, 2 bb and 4 ks earns Kyle Davies the award for Saturday.  Not Awesome, but definitely good enough to get the win.

Robinson Tejada's 2.2 innings and 0 hits allowed along with 1 walk and 3 ks earn him the hitter of the game award for Sunday.

Tomorrow (Today)

Brian Bannister faces Cliff Lee tonight at the K in a 7:10 start.  Get out and watch some baseball, it's an awesome day for it!

Look for tonight's wrap up and another minor league segment tonight.  Thanks for reading!

Royals skid to season high 6th straight loss..

Well, looks like the Royals are back to their old ways..

No clutch pitching

No clutch hitting

no win.

again.

This team is doing so many small things that lead to losses.  For instance, on Billy Butler's 2 RBI hit, he only made it to first base.  How does this happen?  The throw was going to the plate, and the cutoff man even bobbled it, and Billy couldn't even slide into 2nd base?  Granted, Jacobs made the third out next, but if Jacobs could have even singled the Royals would have had the lead again and who knows what might have happened.

Also, Ron Mahay couldn't find the strike zone.. why?  I understand if it's Shawn Camp or Jaime Cerda or Nate Field or Scott Sullivan or any of the other awful relievers we've had over the last few seasons.. but Ron Mahay?  He's a legit major leaguer with a 10+ year career.  I understand that sometimes you just don't have it.. but its games like these when you HAVE to be able to reach back and find a strike.. ugh!

We'll look for Greinke to throw a no-no tomorrow night in order to get the Royals back on track.  After tonight's loss they stepped back into 2nd (3rd) place in the division.  Ugh!

Hitter of the Game

Billy Butler earns the hitter of the game award for tonight's game.  Billy was 2-5 with 3 RBI, a run, a strikeout, and no walks.  One of Billy's hits was a solo HR.

Yesterday Mike Jacobs earned the hitter of the game award.  He was 1-2 with a HR, 1 RBI and a run scored.  He did not strike out or walk.  He pinch hit for John Buck.

Pitcher of the Game

Kyle Farnsworth gets the award for tonight, as he closed out the game with a perfect 9th inning.  He didn't strike anyone out.  His ERA is down to 5.11

Brian Bannister gets the pitcher of the game award for his performance yesterday, even though he left early with some shoulder stiffness.  He pitched 5.2 innings allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and a walk.  He struck out 3.

Tomorrow

Zack Greinke will take on Adam Eaton and the Orioles tomorrow at 7:10.  It is a sellout supposedly, so we'll see how many people show up after this 6 game losing streak.

Minor League Notables

Jose Duarte made his AAA debut tonight, with a 1-4 performance, including a run scored.  He did not strike out or walk.  He played CF and batted 8th.

Carlos Rosa struck out 6 in 2.1 innings of work today.  He gave up 5 hits, including a solo HR.  He did not walk any.  

Brian McFall was 1-4 with a solo HR tonight.  He did not strikeout or walk.  He was the DH.

David Lough was 2-4 with a double, a run and an RBI.  He did not walk or strikeout.  He was the right fielder.

Mike Moustakas hit his 5th home run tonight.  He was 1-4 with 2 RBI and a run scored.  He struck out once and did not walk.  He played 3rd base.

Alex Caldera pitched 4 innings in his start tonight.  He gave up 0 runs and struck out 9.  He did allow 3 hits and walked 5, however.  His ERA is at 4.36.

Nick Van Stratten was 2-3 tonight with a double and a run scored.  He walked once and did not strike out.  He played center field and led off for the Burlington Bees.

Eric Hosmer was 1-2 with a 2 RBI double and 2 walks.  He did not strike out or score a run.  Eric played 1B.

Sam Runion started tonight, throwing 5 innings.  He gave up 2 runs on 8 hits and no walks.  He struck out 1 batter.  His ERA is at 7.88 on the season.  Ouch.

Thanks for reading!

Well Well Well, How times can change..

Since the last time I posted the Royals are 0-4, and have been outscored 21 to 7, Greinke has thrown a complete game 4 hit 1 run affair and lost all while walking no one, again, and the Royals have come crashing back down to earth, as they're just 18-15.  Ponson has been put in the bullpen, Luke Hochevar has been called up, and hammered.  The offense has sucked like the beginning of the year, but we are taking more walks.

Safe to say a lot has happened lately, some of it interesting, but most of it depressing.  I fell asleep in the 3rd inning of last night's game, that's the earliest I've fallen asleep during a Royals game.. ever.  I am excited that Luke got called up, but he was absolutely hammered last night, by the worst offensive team in the American League.. I know we have too many 3rd baseman already, but can we go back and redraft Evan Longoria #1 overall?

Please?

Let's go over the award winners for the last 4 games when I was slacking..

Hitters

The Royals managed just 4 hits Friday night, and Billy Butler had two of them.  He was 2-4  with an RBI, no K's and no BB's.  One of his hits was a double.

Alberto Callaspo was the only hitter who had a hit and didn't strike out on Saturday, so he gets the award.  No one deserved it in this 0 run fiasco.

Mark Teahen was 2-4 with 2 doubles Sunday, so he gets the award.  He drove in a run but didn't score one.  He K'd but did not walk.

Coco Crisp was 3-3 with a HR and a stolen base yesterday, earning him the award.  He did make an error, but it didn't lead to a run.  He did not strikeout or walk, his batting average is up to .261 and his line is at .261/.382/.471 on the season.  Not bad.

Pitchers

Kyle Farnsworth gets the award for Friday as he pitched 2 scoreless innings, giving up just a single and striking out 2 while walking none.

Zack Greinke's ERA is at 0.51 this season, but he managed to lose on Saturday, as Joe Saunders simply outpitched him and our offense simply wasn't offensive.  While it sucks to see Greinke at 6-1, I think it's better overall for him, as maybe he'll fall out of the limelight a little, and there is no chance he will be 15-0 or something in July and be a national headline story, which overall is better for Greinke and the Royals, I think.

Kyle Davies gave up 1 run in 6 innings of work on Sunday, and he struck out 4, walked 3 and gave up 3 hits.  Davies start effectively knocked Ponson out of the rotation (at least temporarily)

Robinson Tejada gets the award for yesterday as he finished the game up, thank God.  He pitched a perfect 8th inning, striking out 1.

Today 

Brian Bannister tries to be the stopper of the Royals longest losing streak of the season today in Oakland.  He will face former Central Missouri State standout Josh Outman.  First pitch is at 9:05 Central time.  I will probably post after the game and catch up on my Minor League Notables segment.

Thanks for reading!

Luke Hochevar and Brian Bannister combine for 14 IP 10 H 0 R 1 BB 16 K .. Solid..

6 game winning streak.. 

Pure awesomeness.

Short post today, it's been awfully busy..

and I'm still trying to cope with the Manny news.  It's too soon for me to talk about it.

Hitter of the Game

Billy Butler was the only Royal with 2 hits, and one of only two Royals with an RBI.  He gets the award today, he was 2-4 with an RBI, no runs, strikeouts, or walks.

Pitcher of the Game

I don't necessarily like it when starters only go 6 innings, but Banny was pretty damn good today, even without his best control.  He went 6 innings, allowing 5 hits and walking 1 while striking out 7.  He did not allow a run, earned or otherwise.

Tomorrow

The Royals travel to LA tomorrow to take on the Halos.  Gil Meche will take on Matt Palmer.  First pitch is at 9:05 central time.

Minor League Notables

Nick Van Stratten was 4-6 with a HR, a 2B and 7 RBI.

Alex Caldera struck out 10 over 6 innings of 1 run ball.  He walked just one and allowed just 4 hits.  Very nice showing for him, he's got a 4.97 ERA on the year.

Kurt Mertins had a 2 hit game, going 2-4 with a home run, 1 run, 1 rbi and a strikeout.  He is batting .278 so far.

Dan Cortes had one of his better outings this season as he pitched 6 innings of 1 run ball.  He struck out 8, walked 4 and allowed 5 hits.  His ERA is "down" to 5.02 after tonight.

Brayan Pena played left field, batted 3rd, and had 2 hits for AAA Omaha.  He was 2-4 with an RBI, no k's or bbs.

Luke Hochevar had his best outing of the season, throwing 8 shutout innings against the Springfield Redbirds.  He struck out 9, walked none and gave up just 5 hits, all singles.  75 of his 97 pitches were for strikes.  I think it's gotta be close to hoochie mama time in Kansas City.

Thanks for reading!

Royals are streaking at the top of the Central..

Wow.  Another great game.  I can't remember a streak of such great games in a row in a long time.  The Royals again eek one out in extra innings, 8-7 over the ChiSox.  Davies had another bad start, which is troubling, but what is encouraging is that the Royals fought back and won after being down by 4 runs twice and 3 runs once.

Callaspo continues to pound the ball, is leading the league in doubles, has 2 hr, and is leading the team in IBB.  IF he continues to hit like this he HAS to hit third in our lineup at some point.

Zack Greinke's ERA+ came out today.  It's at 1,173.  Dallas Braden is 2nd in the AL with a 212 ERA+.  Thoughts?

On that note, Greinke won the AL pitcher of the month award for April.  Duh.

The offense was sick tonight, drawing 11 walks against 8 strikeouts.  The pitchers dished out just 5 walks against 11 strikeouts.  I love these numbers!

Hitter of the Game

Mike Jacobs.  It could go to any number of players, Crisp, Buck, Callaspo, Butler all were very important, but I'm going to go with the guy who turned a 5-1 blowout into a 5-4 ball game with the longest HR in Kauffman that I have ever seen.  Mike was just 1-5 with 2 strikeouts and a walk, 3 rbi and a run scored.  He is hitting .241 on the season, but his presence in the clubhouse has been tremendous.

Pitcher of the Game

Jamey Wright earns this award tonight.  Jamey threw 3 awesome innings and pitched around some shaky defense, too.  He gave up 3 hits and struck out 3 over those 3 innings, and walked no one.  His ERA on the season is a nice 1.45.

Tomorrow

The Royals and Sidney Ponson take on the M's and Carlos Silva in a matchup of two ERAs over 7.  Should be an interesting game, probably not a 1-0 score.

Minor League Notables

Brandon Duckworth threw 7 innings of 1 run ball today.  He gave up 6 hits, 1 bb, and struck out 3.

AA Northwest Arkansas was rained out AGAIN.

High A Wilmington got rain shortened to 7 innings and was 2 hit by Potomac.

Derrick Robinson and Paulo Orlando had the only 2 hits.

A Burlington got 3 hit in a full game by Wisconsin.

Kyle Martin had 2 hits and Nicholas Francis had the other hit.

Thanks for reading.

Playing Catch Up

I missed posting on the last three games due to so much homework and studying, but I do have updates for the award winners.

Hitter of the Game

David DeJesus - David was 2-4 with the only RBI Tuesday.  He had a double and did not walk or strike out

Billy Butler - Billy had the second best game of the season for a hitter (I count Teahen's 5 hit showing as #1) when he was 4-5 with a double and two home runs on Wednesday.  Butler scored 4 runs and drove in 4 runs, he did not strike out or walk.

John Buck - John had an awesome game today, driving in 5 of the Royals 8 runs.  John was 3-3 with two triples and a double and a sacrifice fly.  Interestingly enough, John did not score a run.  He did not strike out or walk.

Pitcher of the Game

Robinson Tejada - Tejada pitched 2.1 scoreless innings Tuesday after Meche left with a sore back.  Tejada gave up 2 hits including a double, walked 1 and struck out two.

Zack Greinke - Zack had his worst start of the year and still earns pitcher of the game award for Wednesday.  He allowed 2 runs in 7 innings on 5 hits and 2 walks.  Greinke struck out 8, and he still leads the AL in the triple crown.

Juan Cruz - While Davies wasn't bad, (3 runs in 5.2 innings) I'll go with Juan Cruz, who proved the Royals would be OK if Joakim had to miss an extended amount of time.  Juan earned his first save of the season (and the 2nd of his career) as he pitched a 1-2-3 scoreless ninth, striking out one hitter.

Tomorrow - Sidney Ponson will take on Kevin Slowey tomorrow night at the Metrodome.  First pitch is at 7:10, normal posts should resume tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Bannister effectively wild and wildy effective..

Well it was definitely a good game tonight, although it was pretty weird, as well.  I've never seen a game in which a pitcher has been so dominant when pitching so poorly.  Brian Bannister had only 53 strikes in 103 pitches and yet threw 7 innings giving up just one run on one hit.  He did walk six and strike out two and the game was weird all the way around.  David Purcey struck out just three Royals after being a big time strikeout pitcher in his other starts this season.

Guillen went yardski twice and Miguel hit a home run to center field.  Bloomquist's line ended up 1/2 with 2 walks and a sac fly.  His only hit was a triple.  Coco had another walk.  Teahen had 3 of the hardest hit balls of the game and was 0-3 with a walk.  The Royals as a team took 8 walks, which is encouraging.

Overall it was a fun game, although it was rainy and a bit cold, I had a great time.  The stadium looks awesome and it really feels like a major league ballpark now.  Hopefully I'll be able to upload my pictures sometime tomorrow and get them posted.

Hitter of the Game

Has to be Jose Guillen.  Jose was 3-4 with 2 home runs, 2 runs scored, 3 RBI, no walks and no strikeouts.  Jose was really impressive today as both of his HRs were no doubters and had to be on a night like tonight with the way the weather was.

Pitcher of the Game

This will be the only time this season a pitcher with 6 walks gets the PoG award, but Banny earned it tonight.  He was effectively wild and wildly effective, giving up just one hit in 7 innings, walking six and striking out two.  It was encouraging to see Banny be effective even without his best control, or even his better control, which he blamed on the weather and the wetness of the ball.

Tomorrow

Gil Meche will face Scott Richmond in a 7:10 start.  The Royals will again try and climb back into a tie with Detroit for first place as Detroit is now 11-8 while the Royals are 10-9.

Minor League Notables

The O-Royals offense got to Rangers Super-Prospect Neftali Feliz today, getting 5 runs (although all 5 were unearned) in 2.2 innings off of 3 hits and 4 walks.  The O-Royals won 8-1 over OKC in a game that was called after 7 innings.

Chris Lubanski had 2 more hits, going 2/3 with a double and a walk.  He drove in 2 runs and scored 1 himself.

Luke Hochevar threw 6 innings giving up 1 unearned run on 4 hits and 2 walks.  He struck out 7 and threw 96 pitches.  His ERA is now 1.44 this young season.

Jose Bonilla, the young catcher for the Burlington Bees hit his first home run of the season tonight.  On the game he was 1/3 with 2 rbi and a run scored.

Thanks as always for reading.

Zack Greinke is The Chosen One..

Today was one of the more interesting days in baseball this season.

The Yankees lost 22-4, the Marlins are now 10-1 after their 2nd straight 9th inning comeback in as many days, and Zack Greinke set a new Royals record.

The record I'm speaking of, of course, is for the most consecutive innings spanning one or more seasons without allowing a run.  The previous mark, 33, was held by Kevin Appier and set all the way back in 1993.  Greinke one-up'd the Ape, as the record now stands at 34.

I didn't get a chance to watch the game until well after it ended, but I must say, it was easily the most dominating pitching performance by a Royal that I can remember seeing.  Greinke had everything working tonight, and what's most encouraging to me is how he performed with men on the bases.  Zack has always been a player who strives for perfection, and at times in the past it seemed like he would be a little frustrated with himself after making a mistake.  It was obvious tonight, however, that he really buckled down and made his pitches with men on base.

Greinke's line looked like this:  9 ip, 7 h, 0 r, 0 er, 10k, 0 bb.  

His combined line for the season is this:  3-0, 20 ip, 16 h, 0 r, 0 er, 26 k, 5 bb.

Remember Cliff Lee's ridiculous start last spring?  In his first three starts, he had this line:

3-0, 22.2 ip, 8 h, 2 r, 1 er, 20 k, 2 bb

Cliff Lee had a ridiculous start last year, and Zack Greinke is right there with him this year.  

In his 4th start last year, Lee faced the Royals and threw a 9 inning shutout, allowing 3 hits and striking out 9 while walking 0.  Greinke is set to face the Indians next Thursday in his next start, so it will be very intriguing to see what happens.

Today's game had a bunch of pluses, in my opinion.  Hillman let Greinke stay in even over 100 pitches after he allowed a 2 out single in the 9th.  Hillman put in Mitch Maier in the 7th.  Hillman didn't have any player bunt.  These are all good things.  I did think it was kind of dumb to put Maier in for Bloomquist and leave Callaspo at 2nd.  If he was going to make some defensive moves I think it would be best to put Maier in RF, Bloomquist at 2b and Pena at SS.  Although both Aviles and Callaspo batted again, so I understand the thought process of leaving them in until the bottom of the 9th inning, when neither of them (hopefully) would get the chance to bat again.

Maybe there is a big disadvantage to bringing in a player who has sat the bench the whole game to play one half inning of defense, but if Pena Jr. isn't on the roster to play SS in the bottom of the 9th inning of a two run game when your best pitcher is going for his first career shutout and the Royals record for consecutive innings without a run, then what the hell is he on the roster for?

Hitter of the Game

The Royals didn't have a great offensive night, but Billy Butler doubled in the winning run in the 6th inning.  Oh, and it was his 23rd birthday, so he'll get some special consideration for that, as well.  Billy has been off to a slow start this season, but he has looked better now that he has been playing 1B pretty consistently.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I imagine we'll soon find out.  

Pitcher of the Game

It's pretty easy to decide a pitcher of the game when there is only one pitcher in the game.  The Chosen One will earn his 3rd award in as many appearances this season, and he also gets me to hop on his MVP and Cy Young award bandwagon.

Tomorrow

Kyle Davies will face off against Vicente Padilla in a 2:05 central time start tomorrow.  Kyle looks to bounce back from a "shaky" start that saw him give up 3 runs in 5.2 innings to the Tribe.

Thanks for reading, look for my minor league updates to start soon..

Does our offense really suck more than Sidney Ponson.. Really??

Well, I guess as long as the outcome was the same I can't be too disappointed, as I did expect the Royals to lose today.  But I'm pretty sure the fact Ponson actually surprised me and kept them in the game was even more frustrating.  Add in the fact that the Yankees only deserved probably 1 or 2 of their 4 runs and it's very very frustrating.  

First off, I thought Alberto Callaspo was the "experienced" second baseman?  Haven't we heard Trey talk a ton about how Bloomquist has the range, Teahen has the bat and Callaspo has the "experience"..  Dude looked like he was confused as all get out today.  Not making the right out, not tagging the runner and just running through the base assuming a force out.. all kinds of madness.

Anyway, Callaspo hate aside, the strikeouts and lack of discipline are killing me.  Pettite easily could have pitched another inning today if he wanted, he was just that efficient.  Sure, the strike zone was big, and I have beef with that, but the Yankees drew more walks and frankly, that pisses me off.  If there's one thing your offense should do it is to strive to draw more walks and get more hits than the other offense.  At a few points I felt like the offense was just swinging at anything that was a strike, instead of working the count and looking for a pitch to drive.  Pathetic.

I'm pretty sure Butler had the only hard hit ball period, and thanks to FSN we didn't even get to see the pitch.  Awesome, very reminiscent of the RSTN days.  The point is, the offense was awful for the 4th day in a row.  1 or 2 runs a game is not going to cut it in the ML, no matter how good MGD (Meche, Greinke, Davies) are going to be this season.  We have got to cut down on the strikeouts and we have to make the other pitcher work.

In other news, Jose Guillen went on the DL today.  Awesome.  It is definitely better than last season when he tried to play through a similar injury, but it always hurts losing your cleanup hitter.  No matter how much I rag on him, I recognize he means a lot to this team.  I am slightly confused though as to why Brayan and Tony Pena are still both on this roster.  Neither of them really does a lot for the bench.  Sure TPJ plays defense, but that's all he does, and Trey has yet to use him in 4 close games yet this year.  Brayan is the real head scratcher though.  I just don't understand the obsession.  He is a backup catcher who can play some in the field.  How'd that work out for JR House?  I understand the intrigue that he can bat from both sides of the plate.. but if he's a crappy hitter (okay, he isn't THAT bad) then it doesn't matter where he likes to swing the bat from, he isn't helping the offense very much.

Point is, I feel like Kila, Shealy, Maier, Costa, etc. would all be much more beneficial to this team than baseball.  Baseball has the most games of any sport that I know of, and players on the bench are going to get starts.  Who would you rather see grab 200 ABs for the Royals this year, Brayan and Tony Pena or Shane Costa and Ryan Shealy?  I thought so..

Jamey Wright will be the pitcher of the game, as he went 2 scoreless striking out 3 and giving up just a hit.  

Billy Butler hit a double, drew the only walk and scored the only run, earning him HoG honors today.

Let's hope the boys turn it around tomorrow against CC.. ugh.. haha.. just kidding, we all know Horacio Ramirez is going to start for the Royals..  Gil Meche will try to prevent the sweep on Sunday.  First pitch tomorrow is at 6:10.. 

Stars aligned for Teahen to take off??

Well, after another short hiatus I'm back.  I guess I should warn everyone that throughout the season I may miss a few days due to my somewhat unpredictable schedule.  Rest assured, however, that I will always be back and should be able to catch up the PoG and HoG award winners for the games that I missed.  Speaking of the PoG and HoG, you should notice a new table on the main page with a list of all the HoGs and PoGs that I will update all year long.

Anyway, let's look what's gone on since I last posted!

The Royals fell 4-2 on Tuesday, with 3 of those runs coming from a shot by Jim Thome.  Personally, I was distraught when Meche wasn't run back out to pitch the 8th after he only had 91 pitches in the 7th (this was a pitcher who led the league in pitches last year), but I was even more distraught when Hillman left Farnsworth (the king of giving up HR.. or at the least the Prince to Joel Peralta's King) in to face one of the best HR hitters of all time.  Farnsworth throws hard and straight, Thome hits hard straight balls a long ways..  Bad combo.  I fully expected Hillman to put in Mahay or Soria or even Cruz in after Farnsworth K'd the righty Quentin.  It just didn't make much sense to me for Farns to stay in.  But by not posting yesterday I mostly missed out on this discussion so I'll let bygones be bygones.   Anyway, there were only two pitchers yesterday and one ended up with an ERA of 9, the other ended up with an ERA under 2.  For those reasons I'll anoint Gil Meche as the first PoG.  As for hitters, I'll name the only player to drive in a run (he drove in 2) to be the HoG.  Gil Meche and Alex Gordon, if those two players are the most important for a lot of games this year I expect we'll do pretty well.

As for today's game, I felt like it was a slightly worse game for the Royals than yesterday, even though they won.  The offense was slightly less patient and the pitching was slightly less good.  Don't get me wrong, it was a great game.  In fact, I think one of the most important plays of April happened this game.  In the 8th inning, Mark Teahen ranged far to his right and scooped a ball up on the run and threw out Dewayne Wise.  While Mark Grudz probably would have made this look routine even with his reduced range, I was pretty impressed.  I know it's early, but so far Mark Teahen has not been embarrassing at 2nd base.  Listening to his interview today on 810 with Soren Petro, he makes me want to believe that playing 2nd base is something he will work even harder at than learning the OF.  This is because it is something he enjoys.  Mark Teahen will probably never have the career he could have had if the Royals had drafted Ryan Braun and moved him to the OF while keeping Teahen at 3B.  But that doesn't have to be a bad thing.  Teahen is only 27 this season, and while he may not be that pull hitter everyone wants him to be, by playing 2B and having Kevin Seitzer as a pitching coach, I really feel like the stars are in line for Teahen to have another breakout year.  He may not do this by hitting for a ton of power, but look for a player who will hit for around .290 with a lot of doubles, a lot of walks, less strikeouts, and around 15 home runs.  Maybe a player similar to Jose Lopez with a few more walks?  That may be something to hope for.  Probably not as good defensively as Jose, however.

Anyway, the PoG of today's game has to be Zack Greinke.  Greinke looked like good ol' vintage Zack.  I had hoped he could get through 7 innings, but let's be honest, in today's world 6 innings of shutout ball and 3 hits is pretty good for a starting pitcher.  Add in the fact you're pitching AT the home of one of the better offenses in the league, and he had a downright great performance.  The hitter of the game will be Mike Aviles.  Mike had a nice bounceback day after going 0-4 in his '09 debut yesterday.  Mike was the only Royal to score a run, as he scored both of the runs today.  He also started the only double play of the game.

Another thing I just remembered that somewhat irks me is the sac bunt that Crisp had to lay down today.  I know Hillman used to manage in Japan, but c'mon!  There simply isn't a Tony Pena Jr. in the starting lineup (hopefull there won't be in ANY starting lineup this season!)  The Royals lineup is clearly aligned for offense, otherwise Gload will still be here and playing 1B, Bloomquist would be playing 2B Guillen would be the DH with Teahen in the OF.  But, that's not the case, the lineup is catered to offense, so let them hit!  What irked me even more was there was a wild pitch to move Aviles to 2B while Crisp was trying to bunt.  Did Trey decide to then let Crisp swing away with a 2-0 count?  NO.  He made Crisp bunt Aviles over to 3rd.  Ouch.  This is the leadoff hitter we're talking about.  A player capable of 35 doubles and 15 home runs, not to mention a .300 average.  And we're bunting over to 3rd with no outs..  Really?

This nonsense has to stop!

On the plus side, there haven't really been any baserunning gaffs yet, and no stolen bases, so that's a good sign.  (I think only Crisp and Teahen should be green-lighted on the basepaths.. everyone else is probably too much of a liability.  And I'm not saying Teahen is as good at stealing as Crisp, I just think he is as smart on the basepaths as any other player in the majors, so the trust should be there to allow him to know when to run and when not to run.)

Anyway, the game tomorrow starts at 1:05 p.m. with Kyle Davies taking on John Danks.  Should be another pitcher's duel.. (or so we hope!)

Thanks for reading!

p.s. I picked 77 in the poll question..

Ponson debuts in minor league game as Royals cruise in Tucson

Sir Sidney Ponson made his debut today, pitching 5 solid innings.  Ponson allowed just one run on a solo homer, struck out three and walked none.  Ponson needed just 49 pitches to get through those 5 innings as he did not pitch more than 4 pitches to any one batter.  Time will tell us if Ponson really has anything left in the tank, but for now, you couldn't ask for a much better debut from the veteran sinkerballer.

At the same time Sir Sidney was debuting, the Royals were off in Tucson facing the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Meche lasted just 3 2/3 innings, wasting 82 pitches in the process.  Vintage Gil Meche, one might say.  The good news was that 8 players had multi-hit games, as the Royals banged out 22 hits as a team.  those 22 hits were good for 13 runs as they beat the d-backs 13-6.

The offense was easily the better side of the team today, as 7 of the 22 hits went for extra bases.  Butler and Maier led the XBH charge as Butler had a home run and a double and Maier had two doubles.  The hitters struck out 6 times and managed just 3 walks, however.  Fairly disappointing numbers for such an offensive game.  Teahen, Colon, and Tommy Murphy all made errors as well.  Teahen did manage three hits today, however, driving his spring line up to .484/.543/1.065 with 5 home runs.

As a whole, the pitching wasn't THAT bad.  The pitchers allowed 6 runs on 13 hits, with half of those runs being allowed by Gil Meche.  Gil also allowed 8 hits in his 3 2/3 innings.  The pitchers did strike out 9 and walk just 4, an encouraging sign.  In fact, only the three runs allowed by Gil were earned, as the other three (one by Jamey Wright, two by Yaushiko Yabuta) were unearned.  

Hitter of the Game

Lots of good options here today, but I'm going to go with Billy Butler.  Billy the kid was 2 for 6 with 3 runs scored and 5 RBI.  Billy did not draw a walk or strike out.  His two hits were a double and a home run.  The double was off of Travis Blackley and the home run was off of Evan MacLane.  Billy's spring line sits at .341/.408/.614.

Pitcher of the Game

Pitcher of the game today will be Roman Colon.  Roman earned his first hold of the season as he pitched a scoreless 7th and 8th innings today.  Roman gave up just one hit, a double to Chris Young.  Colon did not walk any and struck out one.  Roman's spring ERA sits at a breezy 0.93. 

Tomorrow

The Royals will host the LA Angels of Anaheim at the Surprise complex tomorrow.  First pitch is scheduled for 3:05 central time.  Horacio Ramirez will get the nod for the Royals.  He will face off against John Lackey.  Also scheduled to pitch are Robinson Tejada and Lenny DiNardo.

Mitch Maier hits an inside the park home run as the Royals trounce the Mariners..

The Royals beat the Mariners 9-2 today in Surprise.  The Royals were down early as Seattle scored one run each in the 2nd and 3rd, but roared back to take the lead for good when they scored 6th in the 4th.  They capped the 9 run day off with 3 more in the bottom of the 8th.

The Offense

The Royals managed 11 hits and 9 runs in 8 innings of work today.  2 of the hits were XBH, both were HRs (Butler, Maier).  The hitters today walked 5 times against 4 strikeouts, getting back to the habit they had earlier this spring of walking more than striking out, an awesome accomplishment as a team.  Brayan Pena was thrown out trying to steal second and Chris Lubanski was picked off of first base.  Mitch Maier made the only error.  

The Pitching

The pitching today gave up 2 runs on 10 hits.  Chris Shelton and Jeff Clement had the lone extra base hits, both doubles.  The pitchers gave up just 2 walks while striking out 13, easily their best numbers in those two categories of the spring.  One note is that Mike Sweeney got the start at DH batting 4th against his old team, Mike went 2-3 with a run and a strikeout.

Hitter of the Game

The hitter of the game award goes to Billy Butler, who smacked a 3 run homerun.  Billy was 1-3 with 1 run and 3 rbi.  Billy's average this spring sits at an even .300.  Other notables were Mitch Maier who had an inside-the-park-homer and David DeJesus who was 2-3 with a run.

Pitcher of the Game

The pitcher of the game award goes to Heath Phillips.  Heath pitched 2 scoreless innings, allowing just one single while striking out 3.  Heath's ERA for the spring sits at 1.13 in 8 innings.  Juan Cruz also made his debut today pitching a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out two.

Tomorrow

The Royals will host the Chicago White Sox in Surprise tomorrow at 3:05 Central Time tomorrow.  The Sox will start Clayton Richard.  Horacio Ramirez gets the nod for the Royals.  Following the lefty will be Kyle Davies.

Thanks as always for reading.  Expect my candidate for the "breakout candidate of the year" in the outfield tomorrow. 

Why you should give Hoochie Mama another chance..

The Royals only needed one inning of offense to win yesterday.  Today, again, they only got one inning of offense, however they only managed one run in that inning (the third), and fell to the Cubs 9-1 in front of a crowd of 8,987 today. 

Pitching

Brian Bannister was roughed up for 4 runs on 5 hits in 3 innings.  Banny managed just 1 strikeout and walked 2.  Banny gave up 2 XBH, a double to Derrek Lee and a big fly to Alfonso Soriano.  As a team the Royals pitchers struck out 5 and walked just three, but allowed 12 hits, 6 of them going for extra bases.  Every Royals pitcher gave up at least one run, and Kyle Farnsworth's ERA sits at a nice round 15.00.  Yes, the decimal point is in the right place.. 15.00

Offense

Offensively, the Royals managed just 4 hits as Maier, Jacobs, Gload and Butler all singled.  Mitch Maier also had a stolen base.  Jamey Wright had the lone error in the game on an errant pick off attempt.  Despite their recent success, the Royals didn't walk a single time today and struck out 6 times.  Their offense was completely shut down today in what was easily their worst showing so far this spring.

Hitter of the Game

The hitter of the game today was Mitch Maier, who led off and played centerfield today.  Mitch was 1 for 3 with the lone RBI, driving in Ross Gload on a 3rd inning single.  Mitch also stole 2nd base.  Mitch did not walk or strike out and his average this spring is .304 after today's game.

Pitcher of the Game

The pitcher of the game today was Luke Hochevar.  Luke pitched 3 solid innings, giving up 1 run on 2 hits.  Both of those hits did go for extra bases, however.  Luke struck out 2 and walked 1 and after today his spring ERA sits at 3.38.

Tomorrow

The Royals have Tuesday March 10th off, litearlly.  The players have been told to stay away from camp and take the day easy.  Interesting take after an absymal performance.  We'll have to see how it plays out.

No more Estey

In other news, Esteban German was granted free agency today.  As you may recall, German was DFA'd when Juan Cruz was signed and added to the 40 man roster.

Hoochie Mama

When Luke Hochevar was taken with the 40th overall pick in the 2005 draft by the LA Dodgers, it was clear that he had fallen so low because of his price.  When he was selected first overall the very next year, many people believed it was also because he would sign for a little bit less money since he had sat out a year (playing independent baseball).  Luke ended up signing for 5.3 million with the opportunity to make 7 million in his first 3 years.

Still New

Despite being in the Royals system for the last three season, Luke still feels like a very new player to me.  I say that because until last season, he had never started more than 16 games at any one level.  However, last season Luke started 22 for the Royals, posting a 5.51 ERA and a 6-12 record, both very underwhelming.  

Rushed

Looking at Luke's career numbers makes me wonder why he was rushed so much.  Aside from 15 innings of A ball in 2006, Luke has never been dominant, or even good, at any level.  Sure, he started in AAA last season and had a 2.60 ERA in 17.1 innings, but this was after he competed hard for a rotation spot in spring training and was likely far ahead of his AAA competition.  

Give him another chance

While Luke had an awful season last year, including an injury that kept him out of all but 6 starts in the second half of the season, I really feel like he took a step forward.  I think that one of the most important things for a good prospect to do is fail.  And by all accounts, Luke is/was a good prospect, including being the #63 'spect in MLB last season and #32 'spect in MLB in '07.  I don't mean that it is important for a prospect to fail at each level, though I think there is some value in that as well.  But it is very important for a prospect to fail at the big league level, because it teaches them that the work that they have done in the past won't cut it in the big leagues.  Luke must work harder, study harder, try harder than he has ever had to work, study, and try in his life.  

It is this reason that I think Luke has the chance to succeed.  I've poured over the numbers and there really isn't anything there to prove that he will do well at the major league level, other than the fact that he is young and was a great prospect and has great stuff.  This is one time that I will go on my pitching coach instincts and look past the numbers.  I don't have proof that Luke will succeed, except for what I see.  Luke routinely works his sinker around the strike zone, and when his sinker is working, he has the ability to pitch as well as anyone.  He is just inconsistent with his control, much like any young pitcher needing more experience.

Doc Who?

While I'm not sure that Luke will have a breakout season in 2009, I do feel like he has the chance to be very successful in the near future.  If I had to write a line for him, I imagine it would have him going 12-11 with a 4.49 ERA in 29 starts, which is very acceptable.  I feel like Luke's "stuff" is very underrated, however, and I think that maybe in 2 or 3 years, once he gets more experience, he will have the chance to really dominate, maybe similar to another sinkerballer from Denver, Doc Halladay.

Okay, maybe the Roy Halladay comparison is a bit extreme, (okay probably too extreme).  Okay, the Roy Halladay is definitely not fair, but I do have a lot of faith in Luke.  I think people forget that he only has 207 minor league innings of practice, so he might take a while to reach his full potential since he is essentially learning in the big leagues.

Thanks for reading!  Don't forget to vote for who you think will win the WBC in the top left corner!

Another Tie?!?!

Well, the last play I was able to hear today was John Buck unleashing a home run over the left field fence.  I had to turn off the car and walk into class right after that, but I felt pretty confident the Royals would be able to hold on to their lead.. so much for what I know.

The Royals went on to give up two runs each in the 7th and 8th innings via Kyle Farnsworth and Jimmy Gobble, tying the Cleveland Indians 9-9 today.

Hitters

Although the Royals managed to score 9 runs, their hitters were pretty disappointing, in my opinion.  They had 13 hits but drew just 2 walks (both by Mike Jacobs, go figure..) and struck out 9 times.  I realize this team has a lot of starters at the WBC, but 9 Ks to 2 BBs isn't just unacceptable, it's really bad.  The one positive coming from the strikeouts was that 2 of them were from an 0-3 Gload, who *fingers crossed* will manage to suck so bad he won't make the team out of Spring Training.  John Buck had a a double to go along with his home run and was 2-3.

Pitchers

As a group, the Royals pitchers were bad, you never want to have a team ERA of 9.  However, they did manage 12 strikeouts, which is encouraging.  They also surrendered 5 walks, which is discouraging, but not too bad if you're getting 12 strikeouts.  Greinke gave up 2 home runs, which is disappointing, as he had an excellent first outing, but I'll give him a free pass because it is ST.  Roman Colon had another scoreless outing, which brings him up to 3 scoreless innings with 5 strikeouts and 1 walk.  It's looking more and more like he might make the team.

Hitter of the Game

The hitter of the game award today goes to Alex Gordon.  Alex was 2 for 3 and hit a grand slam, totaling 4 RBI and 1 run.  Alex is hitting .250/.357/.583 so far this spring.  I realize it's early but if can keep that production up it would be a good building block off of the second half of last season when he hit .277/.392/.496 in 41 games.

Pitcher of the Game

The pitcher of the game award goes to Joel Peralta, who logged a scoreless inning, striking out 2 and walking none while giving up just a single.  Joel hasn't had a good spring so far, and was very susceptible to the home run last season, but he's still a fairly reliable veteran who should be stashed in AAA in case he doesn't make the club.  I'm more than confident he'll have some solid major league innings this season, once again.

Tomorrow

Brian Bannister will face off against Kevin Millwood and the Rangers tomorrow in Surprise.  He will be followed up by Luke Hochevar, no word yet on the other scheduled pitchers.  First pitch will be at 2:05 central time.

Notes

The Royals finished signing the rest of the non-arb. eligible players on their 40 man roster today, namely; Mitch Maier, Billy Butler and Mike Aviles.  No real news there, and it's interesting that Aviles agreed to the deal while not even in camp (he's at the PR WBC camp).  Further proof that he really isn't involved in the process at all (at least late in the process).  This isn't necessarily true though, because he could have agreed last week sometime and they were just waiting for one of the other three to finish up because the Royals wanted to announce the signings at the same time.. Who knows.

Thanks as always for reading.