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.

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!

Another Greinke Gem..

Wow.

Tonight was easily the best baseball game I have ever seen in person.  It had everything, pitching, a home run, good defense, bad defense, an awesome crowd..

and Zack Greinke.

Seriously, who knew Greinke was even capable of this type of stuff?  He's now 6-0 with a 0.40 ERA and 54 strikeouts to 8 walks.  Cy Young Award type of start, to say the least.  Imagine that Greinke isn't really even in the prime of his career yet, especially as a pitcher, and that we have him for the next 4 seasons, at least, and I just get chills.

Colon had some K's but he wasn't really that good, I feel like the offense wasn't as good as it could have been.  The pitching on the other hand, was as good as it gets.

Greinke gave up 6 hits, but I think 2 of them could have maybe been scored as errors.  Even so, there was only a few hard hit balls all night, and any time a pitcher throws a shutout with 10 strikeouts and 0 walks in 104 pitches (78 strikes) you know your pitcher is on.

Hitter of the Game

I'll go with David DeJesus.  His home run really changed the game for the offense, I think.  David was 2-4 with a run, an rbi, a k and no walks.  He is now batting .253 on the season.

Pitcher of the Game

Zack Greinke.  No explanation necessary.

Tomorrow

The Royals finish up the short 2 game series with the Sox tomorrow when Kyle Davies will take on Gavin Floyd.  

Minor League Notables

Eric Hosmer hit his 6th double of the season tonight as he was 2-3 with a walk.

Sam Runion started and threw 5 solid innings, allowing 1 run over 5 innings on 4 hits, 2 bb and 2 k.

Chris Lubanski continued his good start, as he had 2 of the O-Royals' 4 hits, both singles.  He did not strikeout or walk, his average so far is .318.

Doug Waechter pitched in a rehab outing, going 1 scoreless inning allowing 2 hits, 1 bb and no k's.

As I write this, the Naturals are tied 4-4 in the 12th inning with the Arkansas Travelers.  

Brian McFall, Joe Dickerson, and Corey Smith have 3 hits each.  McFall and Dickerson have a double each.

Thanks for reading!

Ponson Experiment Over?

I must stress I have no exclusive knowledge as to what Dayton Moore and Trey Hillman are thinking.  I just know that when you have a team that is 12-11 and a starting pitcher that is 0-4 with an ERA above 7, it is unlikely that said pitcher will be in the rotation for long.

Needless to say Ponson was awful tonight.  disclaimer: I did not actually watch the game.  I did look at the box score, though, which lists Ponson as: 4.1 IP 9 H 7 ER 1 BB 1 K 1 HR.  Awful.  10 baserunners in 4.1 innings is way too much, especially when 5 of those baserunners reached base with extra base hits.  Even if Hoch isn't ready yet, there is no doubt in my mind that the Royals would be better off with Duckworth, Matt Wright, Heath Phillips, Lenny DiNardo, hell, maybe even Bruce Chen.  Ponson had his shot, and he has failed.  Time to move on.

Speaking of moving on..

The Royals drew 0 walks tonight and struck out 8 times.  I know we're facing the Twins.. but Really?

Really?

Ugh! So frustrating..

Hitter of the Game

HoG goes to David DeJesus.  Jose Guillen had more hits, but DDJ contributed to more runs.  On the night David was 2-4 with 3 RBI and a run scored.  He did not strike out or walk.  One of his hits was a double, his third of the season.

Pitcher of the Game

Wow.  Horacio Ramirez earned the PoG award tonight.  He needed just 13 pitches to get 5 outs, including a strikeout.  He did not give up a walk, hit, or run.  With this impressive outing, he dropped his ERA to 9.00.  Nice.

Tomorrow

Brian Bannister takes on Glen Perkins in Minnesota tomorrow night.  First pitch is at 6:05, Banny will go for his 3rd win of the season.

Minor League Notables

AAA Omaha and AA Northwest Arkansas were both rained out tonight

Derrick Robinson was 1-4 with 3 Ks and a run scored.  He did steal his 12th base of the season, however.

Jeff Bianchi was 2-3 with a double and a run scored, he was caught stealing for the 2nd time this season.

Eric Hosmer scored the only run in a 1-0 Burlington Bees win.  He was 1-2 with a walk and a double.  He is batting .231/.354/.308 in 65 at bats this season.

Thanks as always for reading!