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!

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.

On the Intrasquad game and the next Shane Victorino..

Today kicked off the unofficial official start of Spring Training, at least in my opinion.  I'm speaking about the intrasquad game, of course.  Only after the game do we get lineups, so let's take a look at Team A now:

CF Coco Crisp

SS Mike Aviles

LF David DeJesus

DH Ross Gload

1B Billy Butler

 C John Buck

2B Willie Bloomquist

3B Esteban German

RF Derrick Robinson

DH John Suomi

Notice anything different about this lineup?  Two DH's.  Which is a great idea, in my opinion.  It is important to get as many players as many at bats as possible during Spring Training.  I think the top three in this lineup is how the opening day lineup probably shakes out, barring injuries.  While it's not ideal from a stats standpoint, a stats standpoint also says that the difference between the best lineup and the worst lineup is about 10 runs a season.  Also I'm glad to see that they're using Ross Gload at DH, I hope he doesn't spend a single inning in the field this spring, we know very well his abilities in the field, it is much more important to see how Butler/Jacobs/Shealy perform.  Onto Team B:

CF Mitch Maier

SS Tony Pena Jr.

1B Mike Jacobs

DH Ryan Shealy

3B Alex Gordon

 C Miguel Olivo

2B Mark Teahen

DH Alberto Callaspo

LF Chris Lubanski

RF Jose Duarte

My first thought on this team is that I love the outfield.  It has a lot of youth and possibly future callups this year in it.  Mitch Maier and Chris Lubanski are both two of the hardest working prospects in our upper minors.  They are also two of the bigger disappointments of the Allard Baird era.  (Along with Colt Griffin, Mike Stodolka.. etc. etc. etc.)  This outfield also contains one of the sleeper prospects that I really believe in. And as you will come to find out through my writings I'm a HUGE fan of this sleeper prospect. He is easily my favorite position player in the minors.  And he reminds me of one of my favorite position players who isn't a Royal, Shane Victorino.  He is... Jose Duarte!  Both Shane and Jose play excellent defense with great throwing arms.  They both are keen to getting on base via the walk and stealing bases at a good rate.  Shane has more power than Jose but Jose has improved his power numbers every step of the way.  His ISO Slugging percentage in '06 was 76, in '07 was 79 and last year jumped up to 100.  ISO slugging is simply Slugging percentage minus Batting Average, and is a good indicator of raw power.  It is a stat I enjoy utilizing.  

Anyway, on to the rest of the team.  I am glad they are playing Teahen at 2B from the get-go, but am afraid they are not committed enough to allowing him to succeed.  I watched a media clip from Royals.com today where Trey Hillman was talking about how he had to remind Teahen to get some time in the OF after he was through at 2B.  I understand that Teahen needs to work all around the diamond because that is most likely where he will be playing, but in my opinion, Teahen should spend all of his time at 2B right now, because if he is unable to be a starter there, he is not going to be a starter anywhere on the field.  His defense in the OF and at the corner INF positions is good enough to get him by as a utility player without the extra work in spring training.  Mark needs to focus on 2B and 2B alone for the remainder of ST.

On another note, former Jayhawk and Rangers 3B prospect Travis Metcalf won the HR derby today, beating J.R. House in the finals.  The derby was a competition between three Rangers and three Royals.  From the Royals there was Corey Smith and Kila Ka'aihue along with House.  The Rangers supplied German Duran and last year's first round pick Justin Smoak as well as the winner, Metcalf.

Wednesday will kick off the official start to Spring Training, or at least to the Cactus League season.  The game will be between the Royals and the Rangers, and scheduled to start is Horacio Ramirez.  I imagine this selection is because whoever pitches first, will likely be able to pitch the most.  While the pick does suck on one hand because I'm not a big Horacio fan, it is also a wise pick that I respect because it will allow for the best evaluation of his abilities.  Also slotted for some innings are Brandon Duckworth and Lenny DiNardo for two innings (or 30 pitches) each.  Following them will be an inning each from Henry Barrera, Yasuhiko Yabuta, and Franquelis Osoria.  This info is all from the KC Star.  

According to this schedule, the Royals have 34 Cactus League games this spring.  This includes split squad games.  I plan on doing a small writeup for each game, as long as I am able to find information or at least a box score.  I also plan on naming a player of the game and possibly doing a small writeup on my thoughts for each of one of the players on the Royals 40 man roster (including a few days where I do two players, so the numbers match up.)  Well see how it takes off, however I am very much enjoying putting my thoughts on paper (so to speak) with this blog so far.

Well, as always, thanks for reading.  Leave any questions or suggestions for future topics in the comments.