Two straight comebacks leave the Royals alone atop the Central..

Sorry there wasn't a post on Saturday, I was too busy turning 21..

I did catch a chunk of the game though, and all I can say is that the Royals gave me my favorite birthday present this year in the form of a W!  Coupled with Sunday's comeback stunner, the Royals are 14-11 and alone in first place in the central.  They are also in pretty good condition to move further ahead as the pitching matchups for the 2 game Chi-Sox series looks like this:

Bartolo Colon vs. Zack Greinke

Gavin Floyd vs. Kyle Davies

You have to love facing a teams 2 worst starters (probably) with 2 of your best 3 starters.  

Anyway, as I said, Saturday was my birthday, and I was excited that the Royals managed a win.  The Royals really aren't that good on my birthday.  In the 21 years that I have been alive, (and a Royals fan), the Royals have had 17 games on my birthday.  In those games the Royals are 7-10.  I guess that really isn't that awful considering how many years the Royals have been awful during that span.

The Royals impressed me to no end on saturday with their patience at the plate, even against a team that rarely makes mistakes.  The Royals drew 5 walks against 5 strikeouts.  Not great, but acceptable, especially in a win.

And again today, while the Royals drew just 3 walks against 5 strikeouts, they still did a good job of not giving up.  Jose Guillen's long ball really changed the game, but only the half inning before Meche had given up 2 more runs, had he not done this, Guillen's long ball would have given them the lead.  They fought and clawed back to the top.  It's a horrible cliche, but it stands true.  Good teams find ways to win these kinds of games, bad teams find ways to lose them.

Let's look at the award winners

Hitter of the Game

Sat - Willie Bloomquist, believe it or not.  Willie was 3-5 with a BB and K on saturday.  He hit his first home run of the season, stole 2 bases, drove in a run and scored 2 more.  Willie has impressed me so far this season.  He's actually not been bad.

Sun - It's gotta be Jose Guillen.  Guillen changed the game.  While Bloomy and Teahen had broken up the no hitter right before him, Guillen broke up the shutout and basically turned Baker's bid for a no hitter into a 6 ip 5 er affair.  Not bad.  Guillen was 2-3 with a BB, 4 RBI, 1 run and no strikeouts.  His two hits both when for extra bases, one was a double and the other was a home run.

Pitcher of the Game

Sat - It's gotta be Soria - Joakim the Dream pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up just 1 hit and striking out 1 while walking none.  Joakim picked up his first win of the year.

Sun - I'll go with Jamey Wright, who picked up his 3rd hold of the year.  Jamey pitched a perfect 8th inning, striking out 2.  Jamey's ERA is at 1.72 so far this season.

Callaspo - Bert Reynolds has been absolutely awesome this year and is now hitting .380/.432/.570.  Just thought I'd bring that up..

Tomorrow - The Royals are playing the Chi Sox and Greinke will take on Bartolo Colon.  I'll be at the game and I plan on taking more pictures.  Maybe I'll actually post them this time, we'll see..

Minor League Notables - 

The Bees won 1-0 in 10 innings today on the back of Blaine Hardy and Brian Casey's strong pitching performances.  (they were the only pitchers used in the game.  They combined for 10 innings, 6 hits, 7 strikeouts, and 3 walks, no runs.  Nice.)

Wilmington was postponed

Northwest Arkansas was postponed

Omaha was postponed

Exciting.

Thanks as always for reading!

Zack Greinke dominates (again), Juan Cruz's new nickname is "The Committee" ??

Doctor's Office

Joakim Soria is injured.  He will not be going on the DL immediately, however, which is encouraging.  Apparently he has some shoulder stiffness which all of the Royals' Brass are saying is not a big deal.  I'll believe it when I see him dominating on the mound again.  Trey Hillman says that he is going to use a closer by committee while Joakim the Dream is injured.  I guess that means Juan Cruz's new nickname is the committee, as he is the only one who should be closing.

It really doesn't get any better than this.

Greinke may have ended his scoreless streak tonight, but who cares?  He's first in the league in almost every pitch category and he continues to dominate.  Allard Baird is smiling somewhere..

I don't think Greinke will continue to go 9 innings 0 earned runs the rest of the year, but if he can even be anywhere close to this he's a lock for the AL Cy Young.  Awesome.

Our offense wasn't awful today either, banging out 8 hits and drawing 4 walks for 6 runs against a pretty good young pitcher.  Teahen and Callaspo both had home runs, which was a nice touch.

Hitter of the Game

We'll go with Mark Teahen who was 1-4 with the 2 run home run in the first inning, which would have been enough runs on its own for the win.  Teahen scored a run himself (obviously) and did not strike out or walk.

Pitcher of the Game

Zack Greinke - 9 ip 3 h 0 er 10 k 1 bb

really?

enough said.

Tomorrow 

Kyle Davies will face Zach Miner tomorrow in a 6:10 start.  Supposedly the Royals have already sold 30,000 tickets, so it should be packed again as it's jersey give-away night.

Lets take a look at 3 minor league hitters who have impressed me so far this spring.  All of them are outfielders.

Derrick Robinson - High A - Wilmington Blue Rocks -  His defense is what he's known for, it's his offense he's been needing to work on.  Tonight Derrick was 2-5 with 1 run scored and 2 strikeouts.  He also stole a base.  On the season Derrick is hitting just .226/.314/.226.  This sounds unimpressive, but he's really not doing too poorly, having scored 10 runs in 14 games and driven in 5 himself.  He is also 9 for 11 in stolen bases in his first 14 games.  He has drawn 8 walks to 12 strikeouts.  Derrick isn't off to a great start, but his stolen bases and walks are what are impressing me so far.  Expect the hitting to come around, I know I do.

Jose Duarte - AA - Northwest Arkansas Naturals - Jose was 0-2 with a walk, a sac bunt and no strikeouts tonight.  He scored a run and stole 3rd base as well.  On the season Jose is hitting .348/.456/.457 which is awesome.  Jose is 24 this season and in his 2nd year of AA so it's expected he'd do well, but I'm very impressed.  Jose has drawn 10 walks to just 6 strikeouts and is 7-7 in stolen bases.  He has scored 9 runs and driven in 4.  Jose is regarded as the best defensive outfielder in the system.  I'd expect him in AAA probably sometime around the all star break.  If you've read my blog at all, you know I'm a huge fan of Jose.

Chris Lubanski - AAA - Omaha Royals - Chris was 0-3 with a walk tonight.  On the season he is hitting .302/.397/.492.  He has scored 15 runs in 16 games and has driven in 8 runs.  He has drawn 10 walks against 15 strikeouts and has 7 extra base hits so far.  He is also 4-4 in stolen bases.  I've obviously written a lot about Chris and you know I'm a fan of his.  If he continues to hit .300/.400/.500 (or very close) expect him in KC at some point this season.

Return of the Professor..

What a game.

After the heartbreaker last night, the Royals really mended our relationship today with their 3rd shutout of the season.  By comparison, the Royals didn't get their 3rd shutout until May 4th, last season.  It came against the Indians, of all teams.

Mr. Bannister was not amazing tonight, but he didn't walk too many hitters, and his pitch count stayed decent.  He probably needs to continue to attack more / nibble less, but it's hard to pick on a guy for 6 shutout innings and 4 singles allowed.  He might not be one of the "big 3" who can pick up a strikeout almost at will, but if he maintains an ERA sub 4.15 then the Royals will have the best pitching staff in the A.L.  (assuming the big 3 continue to pitch at their ridiculous paces.)

This brings up the question.. when is Hoochie mama coming up?  Soon, I hope..

Read yesterday's post if you want to see what I said about how well Cliff Lee would do against the Royals..  It wasn't the 3 hit 9 k shutout he threw last year, but no one will deny Mr. Clifford Phifer Lee pitched a very good game today.

The offense needs to draw more walks, period.  Billy's in the first inning was nice, because it came after falling behind, but seriously, one walk?  Pathetic.  Cliff Lee threw 122 pitches, 85 of them were for strikes..  While he was pounding the strike zone, if the Royals decided to not swing first pitch so often we would have a better chance of making Cliff throw more outside the strike zone and getting to the bullpen more quickly, which should be every offense's goal.

Hitter of the Game

Like yesterday, I really struggled with this one today..  DDJ drove in the "winning" run but was 0-3..  Bloomquist drove in the other run on a bloop single.. Callaspo had 2 hits but no runs or RBI..  I think I'll settle with Coco Crisp, who really set the table today in the first with his second leadoff double in as many days.  Coco ended up with 2 hits in 4 at bats, and while he didn't walk for what seems like the first game this season (it's not..) he also didn't strike out.  He scored a run but didn't capitalize on an opportunity to drive some in during the 7th inning, oh well, he earns today's award.  In reality, the offense wasn't that great and the award should probably go to Butler, if anyone, simply for taking the lone walk.. Oh well.

Pitcher of the Game

I was considering using Soria simply because he finally got to pitch, but we'll go with the Professor, he wasn't dominant, but he was very good and threw 6 innings of shutout, 1 walk, 4 hit baseball in the big leagues.  Something that is very commendable and earns him the pitcher of the game award.

Tomorrow

It's an early game tomorrow, with Gil Meche facing Anthony "I wear my hat low" Reyes.  First pitch as at 11:05 central time, so don't forget!

Also, I fully intend to include some minor league stats/analysis very soon, I just haven't quite picked a format and had the time to start it yet.  Fear not, it shall arrive!

Thanks for reading!

Hillman's Gotta Go..

..And fast.

I'm very frustrated writing this post to the point where it's more difficult than usual.  Trey Hillman cost the Royals the game today, and it was the second time *by my count* this has happened this season, and we're only 12 games in.

The Royals sit at 7-5, and if a normal, even semi-intelligent manager had made the calls these first two weeks there is no doubt in my mind the Royals could be 9-3 and sitting pretty atop the AL Central.  But no, Hillman HAS to use Joakim for the 9th inning when we have a lead.  Let's be honest, Joakim Soria is PROBABLY our best pitcher.  If the Royals need one batter retired, Joakim is the guy.  SO WHY IN THE WORLD DO YOU LIMIT HIS INNINGS? Sure, he pitched 4 straight games, so let him sit two, fine.  But why do you bring in the likes of Jamey Wright and Kyle Farnsuck to pitch instead of Soria?  It's gotta stop.  Soon.

Oh, and more AWFUL news.  Hillman has decided Gil Meche needs an extra day off, so instead of pitching Wednesday on normal rest *like he's done all his career with KC* Trey is going to give Horacio the Ball and throw off Meche's schedule, and essentially forfeit the game.  Boy, if Cliff Lee ever got an opportunity to turn his season around this would be it.  In yesterday's post I talked about what Lee did to the Royals in his 4th start last year.  I can only imagine he's already licking his chops seeing what he can do to us on Wednesday.  If the Tribe scored 22 runs in a game that Wang started, I wonder how many they can score against Horacio.. over/under at 30.. anyone?

Anyway, on to the routine stuff:

Hitter of the Game

DDJ and Jacobs both had good offensive games, and they both had defensive.. err.. miscues.  I'll go with Jacobs for the hitter of the game here, simply because his home run came at a more crucial time, at least by my estimation.  Jacobs was 2-4 with a home run, 2 rbi, 1 run scored and 1 strike out, 0 walks.

Pitcher of the Game

We'll go with Kyle Davies, the innings 3-6 version.  Kyle's line ended up at 6 ip, 3 h, 5 bb, 8 k.  Not bad for a #3 starter.  Davies has become very useful, even in his not-completely-effective current form.  He's one of those players that's very close to putting it all together *I think* and when he does, look out!

Tomorrow

The Royals have off tomorrow, creating a perfect opportunity for DM the GM to fire Hillman the game loser.

DO call it a comeback..

Well.. when the Royals gave up the lead in the 7th inning on Mike Jacobs lack of an ability to effectively field a ground ball, all hope was lost.  At least in my opinion.  When the next 5 Royals batters made consecutive outs, most all hope was lost.  But nay, not today, the Royals roared back on the bat of Butler, Pena, Callaspo and Buck.  I'll admit, I was surprised, as I didn't think the Royals offense had 6 runs in them.  

When Joakim Soria shut the door, I felt completely silly for having given up earlier.  Then again, this offense does suck.  Our DH and RF combine for 8 career home runs.. and neither of them are "young".  Ouch.

Hitter of the Game

Big ol' John Buck stole the show today with a 3-4 performance.  John drove in 3 runs and scored one himself.  He did not walk and struck out once.  2 of his 3 hits went for bases as he had a double and a home run.

Pitcher of the Game

I know that Gil could have easily had 7 shutout innings today, as it was his defense more than his pitching that let him down, but I have to go with Soria slamming the door shut by striking out the side en route to his third save of the season for the pitcher of the game.  Soria gave up no hits and walked no one.  Perfect.

Tomorrow

Zack Greinke will take on Fausto Carmona tomorrow at the K.  First pitch is at 7:10 central time.

Kyle Davies, Boy Wonder..

wow.. just wow.

I totally did not see this game coming today.  Maybe it was the fact that I've read too many scouting reports on John Danks entitled "future ace" or maybe it was the fact that a player with one extra base hit was starting in RF for us today, reminiscent of the bad ol' days.  But none of that matters when Kyle Davies goes out and pitches like he did today.  And honestly, Danks was almost as good.  Today's game was one of the best pitching duels I think I've ever seen the Royals been involved in.  In fact, this whole series was one of the lowest scoring series I can remember the Royals being a part of.  Then again, last year's opening series the Royals allowed just 5 runs in 3 games to the Detroit Tigers.  While the Tigers did not end up the beast many of us thought they would be, everyone was very excited about Meche, Bannister, and Greinke's games then too.

I'm not saying that the performances of the last three days should be discounted, as strikeouts have been up and walks and hits have been down, I'm just saying let's keep a level head before anointing the Royals the proverbial AL Central "crown".

Something that impressed me was that even though Joakim gave up a run to make it 2-1 and clearly didn't have his best command, he still fought through and closed it out for a Royals victory.  Impressive.

Coco Crisp will be the hitter of the game today, as it's hard to find a more important batter.  Coco was 2-3 with 2 walks, a double, a two run game winning home run and no strikeouts.  He drove in 2 and scored 1 run.  Impressive.

Kyle Davies is the pitcher of the game today, obviously.  Davies had electric stuff, and to my recollection didn't even throw his curveball until the 4th inning, and it seemed to me his curve was one of his best pitches today.

Some beef I have with Trey is that Coco was once again trying to bunt over Mike Aviles.  Look, I realize the game is close and a few runs will probably win it, but stats prove that trading an out for moving up a base almost NEVER increase your chance of scoring one run or multiple runs.  The fact of the matter is, you should basically never sac bunt in the AL.  Especially when the bunter is one of your better hitters, and the runner (Callaspo) is slow enough that he wouldn't automatically score on any hit from 2nd base even with 2 outs.

Please, no more bunting!

The Royals and Ponson take on the Yankees tomorrow, while I'm excited to see how the Royals do against Pettite, as they tore up lefties pretty well last year, I'm anything but excited to see Tex and the boys tee off on Sucky Ponson.. ugh!

Thanks for reading.

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..

I'm dreaming.. Right...?

Whew, after a long day I can barely keep my eyes open!  Then again, why would I want to, knowing that TPJ made the roster.. maybe if I go to sleep I'll wake up and it'll all have been a dream.. TPJ making the roster.. HoSucky and Sucky Ponson making the rotation..  Yeah.. All a dream..

Anyway, we'll look at the game quickly, but expect a longer/better post tomorrow.  I'm just not able to write much tonight!  Sorry!

The Game

Zack Greinke struck out 7 but allowed 4 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings.  Greinke's ERA is at 9.21, so we'll see if he can turn it around for the season, as this was the last game he will pitch in before he will pitch Wednesday in Chicago.  The Rangers outhit the Royals 9-7 and also scored more runs, winning 7-2.  The hitters managed 5 walks and struck out 8 times, not great, but an improvement.  The pitchers struck out 12 Rangers but walked 5.  The strikeouts are fine, but they could stand to walk less hitters.  

Hitter of the Game

David DeJesus was 2-3 today with 2 doubles, netting him the HoG award.  David had 1 RBI, 1 run, 1 K and 1 BB.  He is batting .303 on the spring.  David was in the two hole tonight.  I think I really like him there.

Pitcher of the Game

Hamulack pitched a third of an inning.  But he was the only pitcher who was successful, in my opinion, so he will be the pitcher of the game.  He gave up 0 hits and struck out and walked none as he retired the only batter he faced and stranded his lone inherited runner.  Hamulack has a 2.45 ERA this spring, but it appears he will probably not make the 25 man roster.

Tomorrow

The Royals will play the Rangers in their first game in a big league ball park tomorrow at 1:05 central time.  Kyle Davies gets the nod for the Royals, while Anna Benson's husband will start for the Rangers.  Joakim Soria is also scheduled to pitch.

Thanks for reading!

Bert "Reynolds" Callaspo's 4 hit day leads the Royals past the M's..

Haha.  Royals.com has a story entitled "Soria now one of Majors elite closers".  It's like.. really? NOW he's one of the majors elite closers?  After a season and a half of being a stud closer he becomes one of the majors elite closers near the end of spring training?  Apparently the 22 runs and 17 hits today by our offense wasn't enough of a story, the writers had to go and write some silly story about how Soria is NOW one of the elite closers.  I understand the fact that a lot of people around the nation have yet to realize just how great he is.  But really, to anoint him a phenom NOW seems kind of pointless and mistimed, at best.

Oh, and did anyone catch the fact that ESPN the Magazine brought up in its newest edition about David DeJesus.  Apparently David has a better WARP than Adam Dunn in left field last season.. Interesting..  Just goes to show why the Royals should have signed Dunn to DH!

Anyway, on to the slugfest!

Zack Greinke was pretty bad as he only made it through 2 innings allowing 8 runs, but the Royals used their 9 run seventh inning to power back and beat the Seattle Mariners today in front of a Seattle crowd of 7,271 in Peoria.

The Royals offense really impressed me today, not only because of all the runs and hits, but because they finally walked more times than they struck out.  The offense drew 6 walks against 5 strikeouts.  The pitchers on the other hand walked just one batter while striking out 8, so it was great on both sides.

Hitter of the Game

Tough, but I'll go with the guy who banged out 4 hits and scored 3 runs while driving in 2 himself.  I'm talking about Bert "Reynolds" Callaspo, of course.  Callaspo was 4-6 and did not walk while striking out once.  His average sits at .262 on the Spring, a little below Teahen's .500.

Pitcher of the Game

Brandon Duckworth.. Ew.  I really don't even care to explain it, but he pitched two scoreless innings giving up just one single.  He didn't strike out or walk anyone.

Tomorrow

The Royals host the Chicago Cubs and Rich Harden tomorrow in a game set to start at 3:05 Central Time.  Kyle Davies gets the nod for the Royals, also scheduled to pitch is Joakim the Dream.

Oh and as a side note, Kevin Gregg will be the Cubs closer, at least at the beginning of the season..  Interesting.

Joel Peralta asked to pitch home run derby..

Okay, Joel Peralta wasn't ACTUALLY asked to be the pitcher of the home run derby, but he probably should be.  I remember a few years ago when Joel was actually good.  Of course, that was back when the Royals were really bad, and I'd much rather have good Royals and bad Joel than the alternative.

Of course I'm talking about Joel Peralta allowing Chase Headley to take him deep for a 3 run walk off home run today as the Padres fought back against the Royals and won 9-7.  Headley's home run was the only one of the game, but it was enough to bring the Padres back after Kyle Davies had held them to 1 run over his 5.1 innings.  The offense pumped out enough runs to win, but between Waechter and Peralta the pitching just couldn't hold off the offensive juggernaut that the Padres ran out there.  (Adrian Gonzalez and Brian Giles didn't even play today).  Ouch.

Hitter of the Game

Mark Teahen will grab the hitter of the game award today, as he continues on his torrid pace as of late.  Mark was 3-4 with a double and two singles.  Teahen drove in 3 runs and did not strike out or walk.  He also stole second and third base in the first inning after his RBI single.  Teahen is batting .514/.564/1.057 and leads all of the MLB in slugging counting players with at least 10 at bats.

Pitcher of the Game

The Mexicutioner.  Enough said.  Joakim the dream pitched 2 scoreless innings giving up just one single.  Joakim struck out two and walked none.  Soria has yet to allow a run this spring.

Tomorrow

Zack Greinke and the Royals will host Sean Gallagher and the Oakland A's tomorrow night in Surprise.  First pitch will be at 8:05 Central Time.

Editorial on Teahen

There has beena  lot of debate recently on what Teahen's stellar spring numbers actually mean.  While I am impressed by his performance, it is not an indicator of how he will do this season.  That being said, I don't think it matters if Trey and Dayton make him a starter or not because of his spring numbers.  The fact of the matter is Mark Teahen will get his at bats this summer, starting or otherwise.  If he continues to hit even half as well as he has this spring, then Bloomquist, Gload, TPJ, hell, even Mario Mendoza himself couldn't keep Teahen out of the lineup.

My point is, don't worry.  If he Teahen is named a starter out of spring training, fine.  If he isn't named a starter, fine.  Point is, if he performs, I have no doubt that Trey will get him at bats.

Thanks for reading.

Halos + Royals = 40 hits and 30 runs.. and why Horacio Ramirez should be in AAA..

The Angels and the Royals combined for 40 hits and 30 runs today.  Wow, clearly it was a bad day to be a pitcher, but is Horacio Ramirez seriously a "lock" for the rotation?  He has been the epitome of awful this spring.  In 14 innings and 4 starts (5 appearances) Horacio is 1-2 with a 10.29 ERA.

We know that Meche and Greinke will both make the rotation.  Davies and Hochevar both have been excellent (or at least "very good") this spring, so in a perfect world (my world) they both make the rotation as well.  That means that Horacio and Bannister (and Sir Sidney, I guess) are up for the final rotation spots.  As bad as Banny has been this spring, Horacio has been worse.

Banny and Horacio both have 4 starts.  Horacio has an extra relief appearance so he leads the innings pitched category 14 to 12.2.  However, Horacio has allowed 31 hits and 4 walks in those 14 innings, for a WHIP of 2.50, which is unheard of.  Bannister has given up "just" 17 hits and 4 walks for a WHIP of 1.66.  Still bad, but "bad" is always better than "unheard of".  Banny and Horacio both have equal K/BB rates, so we'll call that a wash.  Neither of them has been able to strike anyone out though, which is discouraging.

The one stat Horacio has on his side is ground outs to air outs.  Ramirez has a 3.88 GO/AO ratio, which is actually quite good.  Banny on the other hand has a 1.40 GO/AO ratio on the other hand.  One other interesting side note, Ramirez has allowed 5 steals on him this spring, while no batters have been caught stealing.  No one has attempted a steal on Bannister yet.  

I think I've mentioned before that I hate "errors".  Because I hate "errors" (both "errors" on the field, and "errors" the concept) I think that "ERA" isn't as useful as Run Average, which is simply how many runs, earned or otherwise, a pitcher allows over 9 innings.  Horacio Ramirez's Run Average is at an atrocious 14.14, meaning he allows 14 runs per nine innings.  Absolutely awful.  The whole point to this argument that while it may be a nice luxury to have a lefty in the rotation, when the lefty is getting yanked in the 2nd or 3nd inning every game, you're just putting too much stress on your bullpen.

That's why I think the rotation should fill out as such:

Gil Meche
Zack Greinke

Kyle Davies

Luke Hochevar

Brian Bannister

Who's with me?

Hitter of the Game

Miguel Olivo mashed two home runs today as he went 2-5 with one strikeout.  Miguel drove in 2 runs and scored 2 more himself.  Miguel is hitting .354 on the spring.

Pitcher of the Game

He was the only pitcher not to give up a run today, in fact he hasn't given up a run all spring.  Lenny DiNardo earns the pitcher of the game award today.  Lenny Pitched a scoreless 8th inning, allowing two singles and striking out one while walking none.

Tomorrow

The Royals will travel to Peoria to face the Padres tomorrow.  Kyle Davies will look to bounce back from his worst start of the spring as he faces off against Chris Young.  Also scheduled to pitch for the Royals is Doug Waechter, Joakim Soria, and Heath Phillips.

Lowery and Ka'aihue reassigned as Lubanski goes yard..

The big news of the day (for me, anyway) is that Devin Lowery and Kila Ka'aihue were both optioned down to AAA.  This leaves the Royals with 48 players left in major league camp, players like JR House, Tommy Murphy, Heath Phillips and Corey Smith, all who are virtual locks to get cut eventually.  Before everyone gets out of hand over the young players getting cut before the players who are locks to get cut later you must understand the reasoning for the moves.  That is; to get those players more at bats.  

Ka'aihue had 17 at bats this spring, good for 21st on the squad.  In those at bats he posted a line of .235/.409/.235.  Devin Lowery on the other hand had pitched in 4.2 innings, good for 17th most this spring.  Devin had given up just 1 hit and no runs so far this spring.  Both of these players figure to spend at least some time in Kansas City this summer, regardless of injuries to the ML squad.

Well the 2nd and final TV game for the spring has come and gone, this one being much better than the first, in my opinion.  The Royals beat the Dodgers 9-4, as Brandon Duckworth managed to get the win.  10 Royals hitters had 1 hit each none better than Chris Lubanski's 2 run shot in the 6th innings.  The Royals managed 6 runs in the 5th innings when the Dodgers booted the ball around defensively.

Hochevar was solid, after a shaky start and poor command I was concerned.  However, he managed to fight through it and produced 4 solid innings, striking out just one but allowing just 3 runs.  

Hitter of the game

The hitter of the game has to be Chris Lubanski, who drove in himself and Coco Crisp in the 6th inning with a good shot to straight away center.  Chris is hitting .304/.322/.504 in 23 at bats this spring, including 3 home runs.

Pitcher of the game

Overall the pitching today was quite solid, but I like Joakim Soria for the pitcher of the game.  It was good to see Joakim in a Royals uni today, as he's fresh back from the WBC.  Joakim pitched the 7th inning, allowing just one single and striking out 2 batters.  Vintage Joakim, one might say.  Joakim has yet to allow a run this spring.

Tomorrow

The Royals once again travel to Tucson to take on the D-backs tomorrow.  First pitch is scheduled for 3:05 Central time.  Gil Meche gets the nod for the Royals against AZ ace Brandon Webb.  Jamey Wright, Roman Colon, and Yasuhiko Yabuta are also scheduled to pitch tomorrow.

Thanks for reading, once again.