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 outlast rain delay to beat O's and snap 6 game skid..

Zack Greinke probably threw his worst game of the year tonight.  He gave up 1 run over 7 innings on 6 hits and 2 walks while only striking out 6.  When that's your ace's worst start of the season 35+ games in, you're doing pretty well.  Tonight's win puts the Royals in first place by percentage points over the Detroit Tigers and the rest of the AL Central.  Woo.

Short post, so let's get right into it..

Hitter of the Game

The offense was pretty solid tonight and the award could go to quite a few hitters.. Olivo drove in 3 and homered, Jacobs homered, and Mark Teahen had 3 hits.  But it was Jose Guillen who reallly broke the game open with a 2 RBI single in the first inning.  Those 2 runs would prove to be enough as Greinke was pitching, so I'll go with Jose as the hitter of the game award winner.

Pitcher of the Game

Zack Greinke continued his quest to start the All Star game tonight, as he went 7 innings allowing 1 run on 6 hits and 2 walks while striking out 6.  His ERA is "UP" to 0.60 on the season.  Sick.

Tomorrow

Kyle Davies will take on Rich Hill and the Orioles tomorrow in a 6:10 p.m. start.  Davies looks to build off his last start when he went 6+ innings and gave up just 1 run against the Angels last Sunday.

Minor League Notables

Kila Ka'aihue hit a home run tonight for Omaha.  He was 1-4 with a walk, an RBI and 2 runs scored.

Chris Nicoll struck out 4 in 2 perfect innings for AA Northwest Arkansas.

John Bale made an appearance for AA Northwest Arkansas as well, throwing a scoreless inning.  He gave up 0 hits and walked 1 and struck 1 out.  His ERA is at 2.45 in 4 appearances for AA.

After a slow start Jamar Walton has his batting average up to .296 after a 2-4 performance tonight.  He did not strikeout or walk.  Look out for Jamar, we signed him midway through last season and I think he has enough potential to be a pretty good sleeper prospect, he is 23 so he's a tad old for his level, but keep an eye out for him anyway.

Danny Duffy pitched 5 solid innings tonight, allowing just 1 run.  He struck out 3, walked 1 and allowed 4 hits.

Blaine Hardy started tonight for A Burlington Bees.  He threw 5 innings of 1 run ball, allowing 4 hits and walking 2 batters.  He struck out 4.  His ERA is at 2.67 on the season.

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!

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!

Royals DFA the wrong Pena.

Well, a depressing game today.  Especially considering we were facing Zach Miner.  Ugh.. oh well.  Obviously Kyle didn't have it today.  We'll have to see how he bounces back next time out.  I'm (obviously) not ready to give up on him yet.

Hitter of the Game

Coco Crisp scored the only run, so I'll give him the award, but make no mistake, the offense was awful all around today.  Coco was 1-3 with 1 run, 0 rbi, 0 k and a walk.

Pitcher of the Game

Ron Mahay gets it today.  He came in and struck out the side on 16 pitches.  Enough said.  He gave up no hits and walked no one.

Tomorrow

The Royals will finish up the Tigers series tomorrow as Sidney Ponson takes on Armando Gallaraga.  I expect another massacre.  Ugh.

DFA'd

Brayan Pena was DFAd today and all I have to say is why..  Tony Pena Jr. should have not even made this team, let alone still be hanging on.  By all accounts Brayan is a very useful player who is well.. a lot better than TPJ.  Oh well.  DFA Fail.

Minor League Notables

Derrick Robinson had a nice game, going 3-6 with 3 runs, 2 rbi, and a double.  He did not walk or strike out.  He also stole 2 bases, bring his season total to 11.

Mike Moustakas was 2-5 with a double and a home run.  Mike scored 2 runs and drove 2 in.  He did not walk or strike out.

Antonio Jimenez was 3-4 with a double and a RBI.  He also stole a base, he did not strike out or walk.

Thanks as always 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.

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..

Royals pitching is leading the league in Ks.. nice..

What a game.  Tonight reminds me of games the Royals have been in in the past, except that it is usually the Royals who lose.  While the approach with Pavano on the hill wasn't great, they still managed 8 hits off of him in 6 innings, which isn't an awful number.  The strikeouts have got to go down and the walks have to go up, which did happen once we got to their bullpen (4 bb, 0 k).  There was a consistent approach to drive the ball up the middle and also to shorten the swings with 2 strikes, which is reassuring.

On the other hand, the pitching was good.  5.2 innings 3 runs is probably somewhere very near where Kyle will end up this season, I imagine, probably slightly better.  The 5 K's is nice, and the pitching staff as a whole has been absolutely awesome this year, as we lead the entire league in strikeouts.  John Buck was the man tonight, and I really hope he gets to start a few games in a row and see if he can put it together.  Kelly Shoppach finally broke through last year after showing flashes in the past in his age 28 season, which is how old Buck will be for the majority of this season.  Another positive about Buck's performance was the fact that Joakim the Dream didn't have to pitch in three consecutive outings, though I do like the fact that Trey isn't afraid of bringing him in three straight games.

Hitter of the Game

John Buck.  2-4 with 2 runs scored and 5 RBI on 2 home runs including  a grand slam.  He also threw out Josh Barfield.  Well, he didn't really throw out Josh Barfield, but we got the call anyway.  There's that Buck-Karma for you.  Buckarma.. interesting..

Pitcher of the Game

Juan Cruz recorded his 2nd hold of the season with 2 scoreless innings pitched tonight.  Cruz gave up just a single as he struck out 3 batters and walked none.  Cruz has yet to allow a run this season.

Tomorrow 

Sir Sidney takes on Jeremy Sowers tomorrow in a 1:10 start.  Interesting pitching matchup, definitely.   Sowers is the type of lefty who could slice and dice our lineup, especially in a day game after a night game, I think.  We'll have to make sure we focus at the plate and work the count.

No comments from yesterday's post, so I'll ask again.  What would you like to see me write about as far as minor leagues go?  Focus on a certain team, a certain player, rotate through?  All ideas are welcome.  Thanks for reading.

Greinke Ks 9 as Royals KO the Tribe..

I may be crazy because I know that TPJ had some nice defensive plays tonight.  But please tell me that for the rest of the time we don't have Gordon and Guillen we will have Maier and Callaspo instead of TPJ and Callaspo.  I understand that maybe Maier wasn't in KC yet or he was unable to play for some other reason, but on all levels Maier is a much much better player that TPJ, and I don't even necessarily think that Maier is above replacement-level.  That is simply a testament to how bad TPJ is with the bat.  

Anyway, run saving defensive plays from players who shouldn't be on our team aside, I thought tonight was a really good game.  The hitters only managed 5 hits, but I felt like we really worked the count a lot better.  It showed up in the box score as the hitters drew 5 walks against 6 strikeouts, a ratio I can live with from the whole team.  Greinke commanded the game from the first batter.  The strike zone was slightly large, but fairly consistent throughout the night.  

Teahen had a clutch RBI single on a 1-2 count in the first inning that I felt was really important because it reminded me of how Teahen hits when he is on.  The pitch was boring in on him and was low out of the zone but Teahen kept his hands in and stayed back and was able to drive the inside pitch back up the middle into centerfield.  Billy Butler had a huge double right after which drove in DDJ.  

The one thing I did notice is that Mike Aviles needs to start working the walk more if he wants to stay in the 2 hole.  I have been a fan of Mike's for at least the last 3 years, but I always figured his walk total would move up as he got older.  He almost reminds me of Angel Berroa in the sense that he is looking to hit anything that is hittable instead of looking to hit pitches that he can drive.  I'm not down on him, but it's just something to look out for.

Hitter of the Game

We'll go with Mike Jacobs today.  The offense was spread out today as no one drove in or scored more than 1 run, and no one even had more than one hit.  Mike Jacobs did have a long solo home run however, and he also took a walk.  If Mike Jacobs hit a home run and took a walk every game, he would be the best player in all of baseball.  Aim for the stars, Mike.

Pitcher of the Game

Gotta go with Donald Zackary Greinke on this one.  The Zack-Attack pitched 5 scoreless innings with 9 (count them, 9) strikeouts.  He did have 2 walks, which is just fine when you K 9 hitters.  Greinke did give up 6 hits, and 8 baserunners in 5 innings is starting to push the limits of where you want to be, but all in all, Greinke was awesome tonight.  The only thing he'll have to work on is not Meche-ing himself by throwing too many pitches.  He may get back to pitching to contact except for when he needs a K so he can get deeper into games.  Nice.

Tomorrow 

Carl Pavano will match up with Kyle Davies as the Royals host the Indians tomorrow.  First pitch is at 6:10 central time.

Question for all of the readers - 

I've been considering adding a section in my posts where I take a look at the minor league games, probably not all of them because that would take forever, but I might be able to write a paragraph on a game or a particular player or two, possibly a "prospect watch" section or something similar.. any opinions on this?  Please leave any ideas/advice in the comments section.  Thanks for reading!

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!

Gload's Gone but HoSucky Still Sucks!

No More Gload

Well, the Ross Gload era officially ended yesterday, as the Royals sent him and 1.5 of his 1.9 million dollar salary to the Florida Marlins for a PTBNL.  Checking out the blogs I frequent, I was somewhat surprised to see so many intelligent people sad to see him gone.  Ross Gload was awful, he was pegged as a defensive player but had many lapses where he would not pay attention at all on defense.  (An attempted pickoff from Gil Meche (I think) where Gload was asleep and almost got nailed in the face comes to mind.  He was a "high average" hitter who never hit above .288 as a Royal.  And he was left handed.  While that is good, or at least is usually good as a hitter, it severly limits the positions you can play, and as a bench player, limits your usefulness.  Ross Gload was pegged as a decent outfielder, but I personally cringed every time I saw his name penciled in to play there.  Sure, we may get nothing good back, (I was hoping for Robert Andino before I saw he had been traded for Hayden Penn already), but either way, hopefully DM learned that it isn't good to give a player a multimillion dollar extension when he A. is not yet free agent eligible and B. sucks.

I imagine Mitch Maier will make the club out of spring training in Ross's spot, and then will get sent down when the Royals bump up their pitching to 12 players.

The Game

Horacio Ramirez sucks.  Period.  While following this game I almost wanted to throw up.  I surely don't want to write about his performance, so I wont.  Horacio is practically as bad as Joe Mays, Scott Elarton, Fatelvys Hernandez, DJ Carrasco, Brian Anderson, and all the other trash pitchers we've rolled out since 2004.  Awful.  Not any improvement.  Pathetic.  Frustrating.

I can't even type in real sentences anymore!

Anyway - the hitters had 7 hits and 3 runs, but more importantly they finally walked more than they struck out.  (4 walks to 2 strikeouts).  However, I'd prefer more walks, with more strikeouts being acceptable as long as there are more walks (like.. 6 a game would be nice! haha).  Well, regardless, the offense wasn't good enough to overcome Horacio's suckiness (kind of light trying to escape from a black hole..) and the Royals lost to the Rangers 9-3 in front of a crowd of 3,204.  The pitching was bad, giving up 9 runs on 13 hits, though they did strikeout 6 and walk 3. 

Hitter of the Game

The HoG award goes to Shane Costa, the only hitter with 2 hits on the day.  Shane was 2-2 with an RBI and no walks or strikeouts.  Shane is hitting .484 this spring, but likely faces a demotion to AAA Omaha before Sunday's 2 p.m. deadline.

Pitcher of the Game

Kyle Farnsworth once again wins the pitcher of the game award.  Kyle has been excellent since his first few apperances, as he pitched a scoreless 8th inning, walking one and striking out one, while allowing no hits.

Tomorrow 

The Royals will again take on the Texas Rangers tomorrow, but the location will be outside Arizona for the first time this year.  The game is scheduled for 7:05 Central Time and will take place in "Dr. Pepper Ballpark" which is the Rangers' AA affilatie's stadium in Frisco, Texas.  Zack Greinke will take on Vicente Padilla as each of them gears up for the regular season.

Expect my final "breakout candidate of the year" (relievers) post on Saturday and my "official predictions" post on Sunday.

As always, thanks for checking it out.

Sir Sidney Certainly Sucks..

Okay, all alliteration aside, (oops, I did it again), I'm not joking.

Sidney Ponson had another awful showing today, as he pitched 5 innings allowing 7 runs (7 earned) on 7 hits with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.  He did give up just one extra base hit, a triple to Travis Buck, but was obviously not 4th starter quality today.  (Unless we're using the 2005 Royals as the measuring stick, in which he was probably #2 starter quality).  While spring training games are not a promise of things to come, this late in the game they are sure a good indicator, and all indications point to me wanting to vomit as I see DM penciling in "Ponson, S." in the 4th starter's slot below Kyle Davies.  

edit: I forgot to even write about my frustrations about how our 2nd best starter this spring, Sir Luke Hochevar was sent down yesterday, but needless to say, the move frustrates me!  I'm frustrated!  Frustrated..

Horacio Ramirez was bad enough, I felt like he was a waste of space, too old to have potential and too much of a bad track history to trust any potential he was given anyway.  But at least he was a lefty.  At least DM could argue that he was something he felt we needed.  Sure, I disagree, I don't see any point in saying that it's more important to have a lesser pitcher in your rotation because he uses the wrong arm to throw a baseball.  But the whole Sidney Ponson thing is really turning into a sour apple for me.  Now while it's true, one sour apple might not necessarily spoil the bunch, (at least I'm trying to not let it spoil the bunch), it is one more thing to add to my list of grievances with Dayton Moore.

Sure, DM has added countless depth to the organization, but is that more of a function of his eye for talent or his ability to make David Glass open his checkbook more often?  I believe the argument could swing either way.  I'm not ready to write off DM yet, as I haven't been in the past.  But I really could use some reinforcement from him that he is committed in the ways he says he is.  Please do not let Tony Pena be on this team, please do not let Ponson or Ramirez be in the rotation.  Please stop trying to make the Royals be something they are not.  They are a youthful team that is building in the right direction, stop trying to add pieces that are unnecessary and a waste of money.  This money could be spent in Latin America!

Take for instance Horacio Ramirez, Ross Gload and Willie Bloomquist.  All three are superfluous parts on this ball club, in my opinion, because they could easily be replaced by AAA or players who are released.  Let's look at just how much money these players are set to make in 2009, assuming they spend the entire year with the Royals.

Ross Gload - 1.9 million

Horacio Ramirez - 1.8 million

Willie Bloomquist - 1.4 million

2009 total - 5.1 million dollars

5.1 million dollars is a ton of money.  Let's take a look at something that 5.1 million dollars could buy the Royals in Latin America instead of these three wasted roster spots.

Last season, the Oakland A's set a record for the highest international signing bonus in franchise history when they inked then 16 year old RHP Michael Inoa to a contract with a bonus of 4.25 million dollars.  Inoa is already rated as the A's 3rd best prospect as a 17 year old by Baseball America.  Keep in mind that the A's have the 3rd best system in MLB according to the same source.  That is to say, we could trade Gload, Ramirez, and Bloomquist for an A caliber prospect, and possibly add wins that very season as well.

While this all sounds promising, keep in mind that just having money to spend isn't the same as signing this caliber of prospect.  And that player is just a prospect, not a proven commodity.  However, all of these things in the open, I think that 7/10 Royals fans would prefer the prospect over the ML trash.. (oops I mean "players").  

My point isn't that we should cut these players and sign the next prospect we find to a monster deal, my point is just that in baseball, especially in this economic environment (dang it, I promised myself I wouldn't bring that up..), it's ultra important to watch spending, and most importantly, spend wisely.  Sure, there's no guarantee that Inoa pitches even 1 effective ML inning, but I'd rather build my team with players of his caliber than overspend for players who have already proved they are not super stars.. (see: Guillen, Jose).

Anyway, let's take a break from this rant and take a look at the game.  The Royals lost to the A's 7-2 today in front of 3,183.  Obviously Ponson was bad, but the rest of the pitching was good, as the pitching outside of Ponson struck out 4 batters and walked none in 4 innings.  The offense on the other hand was abysmal.  The hitters struck out 8 times and walked just once, which is really frustrating this close to the season.  

Let's take a look at the HoG and the PoG.. By the way, as the season gets rolling I'm going to be adding a box to the sidebar on the main page listing which players have won the POG and HOG and how many times they have won it.  Should make for an interesting experiment as far as who I think has carried the team the most.

Hitter of the Game

Tony Pena had two hits including the only extra base hit (a double), but since he's Tony Pena I'm going to choose someone else.  That's why John Buck will be the hitter of the game for today.  John was the lone Royal to draw a walk.  Sad, but true.  John was 1-2 with 1 run scored.  John took the one walk and did not strike out.  His spring average sits at .390.

Pitcher of the Game

Robinson Tejada will nab the pitcher of the game award, and it wasn't just because he was Ponson's first replacement.  Tejada pitched a perfect 6th inning with 2 strikeouts, proving that even fringe-replacement level pitchers could succeed against the A's today.  I guess that makes Ponson below replacement level.. hmm..

Tomorrow

Gil Meche will face off against Aaron Cook and the Rockies as each pitcher will get their last look before the regular season tomorrow.  First pitch is at 3:05 central time.  Tomorrow's game will be the second to last game in Arizona, as the Royals will travel to and play in Texas Friday and Saturday.

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.

Don't call it a comeback.. Why Coco might carry the Royals in '09..

The Royals continued their good play of late as they beat the Chi-Sox 9-3 in front of 4,645 fans.  

The hitters managed 6 extra base hits and 6 singles for a total of 12 hits.  The hitters had 4 walks and 4 strikeouts as well.  The pitchers gave up 7 hits (2 of them for extra bases) and 3 runs.  The hitters struck out just four and walked 2 batters.

Hitter of the Game

I'm going to go a different route in naming today's hitter of the game.  While he didn't score or drive a run in, he did continue his AWESOME spring.  Coco Crisp will be today's hitter of the game.  Coco was 1-1 with two walks and no strikeouts.  Coco's spring line sits at .391/.545/.609.  Not too shabby for a defense-first centerfielder.

Pitcher of the Game

Kyle Davies continued his impressive spring as he went 4 scoreless innings giving up just one single while striking out 2 and walking 1.  Kyle's spring ERA sits at a measly 0.71.  He earned a save as he went the final three innings.

Tomorrow

The Royals will have 2 games tomorrow, their only split squad games of the spring.  Robinson Tejada will take on Vicente Padilla when the Royals host the Rangers.  Zack Greinke will take on Yovani Gallardo as the Royals will play visitors to the Brew Crew.  First pitch for both games is scheduled for 3:05 Central Time.

Covelli Loyce Crisp

Much has been discussed about Coco's background already.  I'm sure you've heard the tale.  Coco's Dad was a boxer, his Mom was a sprinter, and the rest of his family was also connected to athletics somehow.  While I love all of this background information and the fact that Coco is the type of player that plays his heart out no matter the situation, it is not why I believe Coco Crisp might be the biggest surprise on the Royals this year.  It is not why he is my breakout (again) candidate of the year amongst our outfielders. 

There will be a lot of articles written this spring telling you that Coco is finally healthy again.  There will be some explaining that he never got comfortable in Boston and that the CF job was handed to Jacoby Ellsbury and stripped from him unjustly.  I believe in all of these things, (well except for the last one), but most importantly, I believe in Coco Crisp.

Coco has a skill set very similar to David DeJesus.  David has hit for a higher average in his career (and had a better OBP), but their power numbers are similar, and Coco is much better at stealing bases and by all accounts plays much better defensively.  Coco is basically a true "centerfielder" version of the tweener that David DeJesus is.

But this isn't a comparison of the two players, no sirree.  It is an argument as to why I think Coco might just win comeback player of the year.  

While I usually don't put much emphasis on spring numbers, Coco has really impressed me so far.  Coco has drawn 9 walks against just 3 strikeouts, and has a line of .391/.545/.609.  Another encouraging sign is that most of these numbers have come against pitchers vying for the rotation of their perspective squads, as Coco has started in centerfield in each of his 11 appearances.  In fact, Coco is 2nd in walks this spring, trailing Albert Pujols by 1.  No other player has at least 8 walks.

But sure, it's just spring, and it's early spring at that.  Coco could go on to strikeout in every remaining at bat he has, right?  Not so fast.  I'm a big believer in carryover from the 2nd half of the previous season.  I feel like baseball is a game of trends, and the numbers from a player's second half are a much better indicator of the next season than the entire numbers from the previous season.  Well, how did Coco do in the 2nd half of last season?  I'm glad you asked.

Last season, in 175 plate appearances after the all star break, Coco hit .315/.392/.403 with 20 walks against 26 strike outs.  This line was good for a 794 OPS.  

By comparison, our four starting outfielders for the last 2 months of the season (DeJesus, Maier, Guillen, Teahen) posted 792, 634, 752, and 692 OPS respectively.

So, basically, if Coco Crisp had been a Royal last season and if he had posted the same stat line (a lot of ifs, I know) then he would have been the Royals best offensive and defensive outfielder.  Interesting.

If I don't have you sold yet, then take a look at this.  Before Crisp went to Boston, before he was injured and pressured and criticized and put under the microscope of the Boston media, Coco was one of, if not the best young centerfield prospects in the game.

I'm talking about Coco's 2004 and 2005 seasons in Cleveland, of course.

Let's take a quick gander at Coco's numbers from 2004 and 2005 in comparison to the Royal's primary centerfielders during those years, Mr. Carlos Beltran and Mr. David DeJesus.

2004:

Coco - .297/.344/.446

Beltran - .267/.367/.548

DeJesus - .287/.360/.402

2005: 

Coco - .300/.345/.465

Beltran - .266/.330/.414

DeJesus - .293/.359/.445

At first glance, you might notice Beltran's awesome year in 2004, but if you look closer, you might realize that Coco easily outplayed him in 2005.  I'm as big a fan of OBP as anyone I know, but the 51 points of SLG that Coco holds over Carlos is easily worth the 15 points of OBP he gives up.  

So what is the point I'm trying to make?  The point is that in 2005, Coco Crisp was essentially a better outfielder than Carlos Beltran.  Oh, and Carlos Beltran is almost 3 years older than Coco.  Sure, they're completely different players, Coco is a player who hits for a high average, and has to in order to maintain his value while Beltran is a power and OBP guy.  But in the end, if Coco can end up being 3/4 the player that Carlos is (while earning 1/4 of Beltran's yearly salary) then I think the Royals will be very well off.

So do I have a prediction for Coco's line this year?  Sure I do.  But I'm not sure I'm ready to divulge it yet and embarrass myself.  I do, however, believe in Covelli Loyce Crisp.

And I think that you should too.

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. 

DeJesus drives in 4..

The Royals beat the Indians, 9-4 today.

The Royals got off to an early lead, pegging 3 runs on Aaron Laffey in the first inning and 4 runs on Jack Cassel in the second.  Royals hitters had 5 XBH, including 3 HR (DeJesus, Jacobs, Shealy).  The hitters also drew 6 walks against 7 strikeouts and managed 12 hits.  John Buck had the lone error on an errant throw.  The Royals pitchers gave up 4 runs (3 earned) on 10 hits. The pitchers struck out just 4, but walked none.  

Hitter of the Game

The hitter of the game award could go to any number of players, but I'm going to David DeJesus today.  David was 2-2 with a sacrifice fly.  David scored 2 runs and had 4 RBI.  Other notables: Shealy, Jacobs, Buck, Bloomquist.

Pitcher of the Game 

The pitcher of the game award will to Kyle Davies, who pitched 3.2 solid innings, giving up 2 runs (1 earned).  Kyle gave up 4 hits and struck out 3, walking none.  Davies also gave up a home run to Beau Mills in the 4th inning.

Tomorrow

Zack Greinke gets the nod tomorrow when the Royals host the Milwaukee Brewers in Surprise at 3:05 central time.  Robinson Tejada, Roman Colon, and Matt Wright are also scheduled to pitch tomorrow, while the Brew Crew will start Yovani Gallarado.

Thanks for reading.