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

6 game winning streak.. 

Pure awesomeness.

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

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

Hitter of the Game

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

Pitcher of the Game

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

Tomorrow

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

Minor League Notables

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading!

I keep waiting for them to lose.. still waiting..

Wow..

I missed the game live, but I watched it after I got home, and I can hardly believe me eyes.  This team is on fire right now.  Period.  I know that it was Carlos Silva that we hit hard, but still..

The offense was great again, working 4 walks against 2 strikeouts.  The pitching, meanwhile, struck out just 3, but walked just 1.

Our record is 17-11 now, and we're still alone atop the Central.. Nice..

Hitter of the Game

Mark Teahen earns the award with his 3-5 with a HR, 3 RBI, 2 Runs, no strikeouts or walks.  Teahen is now hitting .307/.397/.485 on the season.

Pitcher of the Game

Mr. 1 Strikeout, Sidney Ponson earns the award.  Sidney threw 7.1 innings of 1 run ball, giving up 8 hits while walking 1 and striking out 1.  Of his 8 hits, 3 went for extra bases (all were doubles).

Tomorrow

Banny faces off against Jarrod Washburn tomorrow at 1:10 central time.

Thanks for reading, Minor League Notables is taking a day off, but will be back tomorrow!

Royals are streaking at the top of the Central..

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

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

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

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

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

Hitter of the Game

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

Pitcher of the Game

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

Tomorrow

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

Minor League Notables

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

AA Northwest Arkansas was rained out AGAIN.

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

Derrick Robinson and Paulo Orlando had the only 2 hits.

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

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

Thanks for reading.

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.

Mark Teahen's line is .500/.553/1.000 .. impressive..

The Royals took the early lead but blew it in the 9th inning when Roman Colon gave up 3 runs.  The Royals and Rangers both banged out 10 hits, but the Rangers turned those into 8 runs while the Royals stranded 7 as a team and only managed 5 runs.  The hitters drew just 3 walks against 10 strikeouts as they continued their streak of poor pitch selection.  On the other hand the Pitchers only issued 2 walks but struck out just 5.  

Horacio Ramirez continued on his path to AAA as he allowed 4 runs (3 earned) on 4 hits in 5 innings.  HoRam stuck out just 1 and walked no one.

Hitter of the Game

It has to be Mark Teahen again.  I feel like a homer but Teahen really has been awesome as of late.  Mark was 2-3 today with no walks and 1 strikeout, all while playing second base.  Mark scored 2 runs and drove in another.  One of Mark's hits was a triple off of Feldman.  Mark's line on the spring is .500/.553/1.000.. not too bad for a second baseman, eh?

Pitcher of the Game

Doug Waechter pitched a perfect 6th inning, striking out one batter.  Waechter has seen a lot of action recently as the Royals are really working him to see if he has a place on the regular season roster.  After today's outing Waechter's ERA sits at an even 21.00 (no, the decimal's not in the wrong place)..  We'll see how he does in the near future.

Tomorrow

Zack Greinke and the boys in blue will face off against Jarrod Washburn and the Mariners in Peoria at 3:05 tomorrow.  Greinke will look to build off of his impressive performance last time out.

Teahen goes yardski..

Well the Royals went down today, and went down hard.  I know it's just spring training but it's never fun to see your pitching get demolished like that.  

Overall the pitchers gave up 9 runs on 17 hits, 8 of which went for extra bases.  The pitching did manage 9 strikeouts against 4 walks, not too bad.  The hitters scored just 3 runs on 11 hits and struck out 9 times while drawing just 2 walks.  

Hitter of the game

Mark Teahen grabs the hitter of the game award tonight.  Teahen was 2-4 with a solo home run and no strikeouts or walks.  He drove in one run and scored one run.

Pitcher of the game

Tim Hamulack will be the pitcher of the game for tonight.  I had never seen Tim pitch before and he was fairly impressive I thought.  Tim pitched a scoreless 8th inning, striking out 2 batters and allowing 2 hits.

Overall thoughts..

I felt like overall I was impressed with our hitters approach at the plate.  While it didn't amount to a lot of walks tonight, there were very few first pitch outs, which is encouraging as that is one of the most frustrating things in baseball for me.  (That and leadoff walks, of course).  

Tony Pena Jr. looked awful in the field, while I felt Mark Teahen didn't look half bad.  IF Teahen can continue his torrid hitting (and that is a big IF) then I feel like there will be almost no option but to start him at 2nd base.  (Hey, if Skip Schumaker can do it...).  Greinke's stuff was there, but I felt like he was kind of just toying around a lot, so I'm not too worried about his line for the night.

On another note, Joel Goldberg is as obnoxious and annoying as ever and Frank White continues to underwhelm me.

Tomorrow

The Royals are off on Thursday

Thanks as always for reading, look for me to continue my "breakout candidate of the year" series tomorrow on the Royals day off.

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.