Bleacher Report - Articles by Josh Duggan

Kansas City Royals Rumors: Guillen To Greener Pastures, Bedard To Don Blue?

Josh Duggan — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:01:39 -0500

The New York Daily News printed its second (at least) article in the past week regarding a deal in the early stages of talks between Royals and the Mets. In this deal, Kansas City would be sending Jose Guillen to New York, presumably eating a chunk of his $12 million salary for 2010, for Angel Pagan.

It is no secret that Jose Guillen's contract has been a bit of a disaster. Given his age, physical condition, and injury history, there is a nearly nonexistent chance that he will prove himself worthy of the remaining $12 million on his contract. Clark over at Royals Authority expressed a sentiment I share:

"The money's gone no matter what—no one is going to make the Royals an offer that begins with 'we'll pay all of Guillen's salary'—the time is now to get something...anything, and move on."

To get a player like Pagan in return, someone who by defensive metrics like UZR/150 is above average in the corners and average in center and possesses a career .281/.331/.443 split in 829 plate appearances, would be worthy of eating nearly all of Guillen's albatross of a contract.

Even if the reports of his attention lapses in the field are accurate, the situation cannot be any worse than having to play Jose Guillen in the field, whose range is limited to a five-foot radius.

The switch-hitting Pagan is also coming off a year in which he hit .306/.350/.487, which was aided by a BABIP of .352 but also came in the power-sapping confines of Citi Field. At 28 (turns 29 in July), Pagan's 2009 season stands out from the rest, which doesn't inspire confidence insofar as the expectation of repetition is concerned. Even after taking that into account, Pagan is not an absolute liability in the field.

In 2009, Pagan had a WAR of 2.8. Even in Guillen's arguably productive 2008 campaign, he only produced a 0.2 WAR. The WAR-based value FanGraphs assigned to Pagan's 2009 season was $12.8 million.

If this deal can get done, then Dayton Moore needs to do everything he can to make it happen. Pagan is arbitration-eligible and made $575,000 last year. If the Royals have to pay $10 million of Guillen's salary and somewhere in the $1-2 million range for Pagan, it is worth it in my book, even with the very real chance that Pagan does not replicate his 2009 success.

As for the Erik Bedard rumors, he was a Mariner, so it makes sense that the Royals would be pursuing him.

According to Jeff Passan (and obviously MLB Trade Rumors, who we all frequent at this time of year), the Royals are coming hard and fast at Bedard. Any deal seems likely to be incentive-laden, although with Moore's recent history there has certainly been a good deal of money handed out irresponsibly.

Assuming that they could sign him for a reasonably low guaranteed salary (somewhere below $3 million or so) with easily attainable guarantees granted relative healthiness, I am in favor of the signing.

It was obvious that the Mariners grotesquely overpaid when they pulled the trigger on the deal with Baltimore to acquire Bedard two offseasons ago. Fortunately, the Royals wouldn't have to give up anything more than money to get Bedard.

Moreover, signing Bedard to a performance-based contract with attainable benchmarks if he's healthy sends the right message to other free agents and the important players within the organization (read: Zack Greinke).

And, yes, he did have surgery on his torn labrum in his throwing shoulder in August, so he more than likely will not be ready on Opening Day, but he should be able to begin working out again in February. If we're only talking about missing the first month or two, then he may be of more worth than just as a trading chip, which would in and of itself be a worthy gambit.

If the Royals can find a way to cut bait on awful contracts like Guillen's while getting playable pieces back in return and independently signing guys like Brad Thompson, Jorge Campillo, and Bryan Bullington to non-guaranteed minor-league contracts to stock the upper level of the minors and potentially bolster the bullpen, then they may be able to make a step back in the right direction.

It certainly cannot get much worse.

And the Cy Young Award Goes To...Zack Greinke

Josh Duggan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:12:09 -0500

I contemplated preparing something in advance for the occasion of Zack Greinke winning the Cy Young, but I was not entirely convinced that the BBWAA would make the right decision. After the debacle that was the Bartolo Colon 2005 Cy Young Award and the late season statements of Patrick Reusse, a CY voter, I made sure to temper my expectations.

Consider my faith in the BBWAA as capable award voters restored.

This caps a season that we Royals fans are not entirely used to. In fact, most fans have not been privy to a season like Greinke's 2009 campaign.

By nearly cumulative measure, Zack Greinke was the best pitcher in the American League. If we start talking about stats like WAR, he was the best player in baseball. If you wanted to, a case could certainly have been made for Greinke deserving the Gold Glove, as well.

Now, were it not for Greinke's herculean efforts on the mound, Royals fans would have endured an historically abysmal season. When looking past the Royals ace, there was little to cheer for and even less to be encouraged by.

What Greinke gave us all was hope.

Looking beyond the mere fact that every five days we got to see the best pitcher in baseball donning that jersey for the club we somehow still root for, Greinke's dominance let us look towards the future with a little bit of optimism in the midst of a 97-loss season.

His candor refreshed us and gave an empathetic organizational face to the frustration we were all dealing with as apoplectic fans. After all, if there was anyone who didn't deserve a team falling apart around him, it was Greinke. He was our surrogate in that regard. While our suffering was undoubtedly nothing in comparison to his, we were on the same boat.

So, while Zack Greinke does not care for the accolades that have been heaped upon him, this award does somehow validate the slightly less sad existence of the beleaguered Royals fan.

For that, Zack, we salute you.

Royals Sign Wilson Betemit!

Josh Duggan — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:53:53 -0500

The. Final. Piece. Of. The. Puzzle.

Simon says Championship.

It's hard to even feign emotion one way or the other about this signing. It's a minor-league deal, and he did man each of the four infield positions for the Yankees in 2008, so there is certainly an element of roster flexibility that he would fill in Mark Teahen's absence. He is pretty much a replacement player with a little postseason experience who isn't going to cost the Royals much of anything.

As far as his defense is concerned, it would appear as though he is sub-par across the board. The only position he has garnered enough playing time at to be able to make any quasi-meaningful analysis on is third base, where he has managed a -11.1 UZR/150 in 243 games played (173 starts). That is roughly comparable to Teahen's -10.1 in about twice as much time played at the hot corner. I was never particularly impressed with Teahen's defense at third, visually or statistically, but it always seemed like he was getting praise and then having his apologists chalk it up to being moved all over the field. If the not-having-a-home argument actually holds water, then the same argument can be applied to Betemit.

Again, this is not a move to get excited about, but he was a guy who the Yankees traded for a couple years back at the deadline for depth. At the price tag, it is hard to complain about the signing.

On an unrelated note, Fangraphs will be doing their Royals minor league assessment this week. Keep your eyes peeled.

A Voice of Reason: The Alberto Callaspo Trade Rumors

Josh Duggan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:21:32 -0500

Sunday night, Bob Dutton reported that the Royals are rumored to be interested in shipping Alberto Callaspo to the Los Angeles Dodgers for 28-year-old (29 in April) catcher A.J. Ellis. Seeing as though Ellis has worked his way up to a grand total of 13 plate appearances in two September call-ups at that advanced an age, it is hard to get overly excited about the prospect of this deal.

It is that exact lack of excitement that has permeated the Royals blogosphere in the last day-and-a-half.

Now, if a deal were to be completed consisting solely of Alberto Callaspo and A.J. Ellis, then the Royals will unequivocally have been taken to the cleaners.

The thing is, I really can't imagine that Dayton Moore would pull the trigger on a deal in which the Royals only net a soon to be 29-year-old minor league catcher whose AAA stats benefit from having been inflated by playing in the PCL and his home games in Las Vegas and then Albuquerque.

While playing for the Isotopes in 2009, his road split was .262/.369/.315/.685 while his home split was an absurd .359/.492/.425/.917. Moreover, his road split from this past season is very much in line with his career lines at his stops along the lower levels of the minors, all in climates less arid and at elevations a lot closer to sea level. Despite his consistently high walk rates, the sudden statistical leap forward reeks of being the minor league equivalent of the pre-humidor Rockies' numbers.

If Dayton Moore were to trade Callaspo for Ellis straight up, he would be trading an admittedly defensively challenged second baseman who is two years younger than Ellis, still one year away from arbitration-eligibility*, and carrier of an OPS of 114 last season for an entirely unproven, light hitting catcher who is supposedly defensively sound.

It is probably fair to say that a large segment of the Royals fan base is losing, or has already lost faith in Dayton Moore after a disastrous offseason heading into the 2009 season.

It probably is not fair to think that Dayton Moore is hapless enough to pull the trigger on a one-for-one deal like this.

Last year's offseason left us scratching our heads, as did the trades of the troubled pair of Daniels this summer, but even I cannot imagine that Dayton Moore would send Callaspo to the Dodgers for only A.J. Ellis.

That deal, even after taking into account the likelihood that Callaspo's power numbers are likely to come back down a bit next season, would be absolutely moronic. So moronic that I refuse to believe Dayton Moore would pull the trigger on a trade that ridiculous.

Failing to get at least two replacement level Major Leaguers with some upside (or one legitimate big leaguer) back for Callaspo, one of the only desirable trading chips the Royals have, would be an unmitigated disaster.

Dayton Moore may have made a bunch of questionable moves lately, but he couldn't possibly be that insane.

I hope.

*Apparently Callaspo has fallen six days short of the requisite service time to qualify as a "Super Two."

Initial Reaction to the Rumored Mark Teahen Trade to the White Sox

Josh Duggan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:31:55 -0500

As I begin writing this piece, a deal has not been finalized. That being said, rumors have been swirling surrounding a deal with the Chicago White Sox that would potentially send Mark Teahen packing. In return, the Royals are purported to be receiving second baseman Chris Getz and third baseman Josh Fields.

Continuing on under the assumption that this deal ends up getting completed, my initial reaction is a bit on the tepid side. Dave Cameron makes the very valid point that the move frees up about $5 million that Mark Teahen is more than likely going to end up making after going through arbitration.

The Royals certainly shouldn't be paying a player who is simply a league-average hitter that kind of money in this economic climate.

As Royals fans, we have a pretty good grasp on who Mark Teahen is. When looking at the pieces Moore may be acquiring, one would hardly say they are sexy.

At a glance, Getz would only seem to be a marginal defensive upgrade at second base from the horrid Alberto Callaspo.

In 2009 (and I do not have John Dewan 's Fielding Bible, so this analysis is sorely lacking), Getz held a 5.0 RF/9 to Callaspo's 4.4. Callaspo's -7.5 UZR/150 was only slightly worse than -6.7 that Getz managed. Their Fielding Percentages: Callaspo .973, Getz .986.

Offensively, Callaspo was the best second baseman in the Central, as detailed here , so it is not his bat that needs replacing. While it was only his rookie season, Getz does not have a bat that can be instantly inserted into even the Royals' measly lineup and do much of anything that Callaspo cannot do.

The one thing that Getz does bring to the table is an element of speed, as his 25 steals in 27 attempts are testament to.

Whether or not Getz brings anything to the table past having an actual Major League player on the Royals' Major League roster come Spring Training is debatable, but he did make $401,000 last year and is not yet arbitration eligible.

Of slight consolation, while Getz' Major League career split of .262/.323/.346/.669 is underwhelming, his minor league experience (.286/.362/.380/.742) would indicate that he can get on-base at the very least.

While it would appear that there is little to no power, he is just 26 years old, so there is not a zero percent chance that he ever hits for middling power, positionally speaking.

As for Josh Fields, it would appear that hopes for a replication of his 2007 power explosion are about as likely as Mark Teahen returning to the hallowed ground that he stepped into in 2006.

Unfortunately for the Royals, Fields is yet another OBP-deficient bat. Despite his 23 home runs in 418 plate appearances in 2007, Fields' OPS+ was a mere 101, largely because he walked an alarmingly low 35 times. That was good for an OBP of .308.

Insofar as his defense is concerned, let's just say his glove is not be forcing the admittedly sub-par glove of Alex Gordon to another spot on the diamond. The last season in which Fields logged a significant amount of playing time at third, he had an RF/9 of 2.7 and a UZR/150 of -13.9.

By comparison, Teahen's RF/9 at third in 2009 was 2.5 and his UZR/150 was -10.9, while Gordon had an RF/9 of 2.6 and a UZR/150 of -3.6 in his regressive 2008. No matter the position (he has also logged nominal time in left and at first), Fields is below average.

In short, Fields is your typical free-swinging power-hitter who brings little to the plate past his prodigious power and brings nothing to the field.

It is a little unfair to look at his offensive numbers from the past two seasons, as he's garnered a whopping 93 games played since his 2007 breakout, but he is sporting a paltry .214/.292/.328/.621 line in that time.

Perhaps a change of scenery will do Fields good. He did talk of leaving baseball last offseason, so he clearly hasn't been happy.

Whether or not that dissatisfaction can be traced to playing in Chicago cannot be unequivocally answered, but his mere $410,000 salary is meager enough that the Royals can afford to take chance on him. Especially since Fields is not yet arbitration eligible as well.

What this boils down to is the Royals cutting costs while acquiring marginal Major League talent with discernible upside. Unlike the Mike Jacobs acquisition at this time last year, this deal makes financial sense.

With their payroll stretched thin as it is, perhaps Moore has learned a lesson or two from last year's disastrous offseason (Greinke extension notwithstanding).

Moreover, hopefully the acquisition of Fields shows that Mike Jacobs will be sent packing. After all, he is basically Mike Jacobs at a tenth of the price tag. Combined, Fields and Getz will likely earn one-fifth of what Teahen is likely to get in arbitration.

Now, whether or not Trey Hillman would actually be able to utilize Fields and Getz properly is another beast entirely, but if this deal gets completed the Royals have successfully gotten legitimate talent back for an average hitter who would be making entirely too much money next season.

With as much irresponsibly allocated money as was committed to the likes of Kyle Farnsworth and Yuniesky Betancourt, these kind of cost-cutting measures need to be taken, and Mark Teahen is probably not an irreplaceable piece of the Royals' puzzle.

At the very least, this would mean "Superhero" (the theme song from "Entourage," which was presumably chosen because Kevin Connolly is Mark Teahen's doppelganger) would not be heard at the K, a future I am personally alright with.

A Restless Kansas City Royals Ramble

Josh Duggan — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:36:06 -0400

As Royals fans, we have very little to talk about right now.

Hell, most of us checked out sometime in June when it had become more than clear that the fast start was a mirage and that the air of respectability we thought was going to accompany the Royals resurgence had been knocked from our lungs.

Regardless, I would imagine that the bulk of Royals fans can only bring themselves to stop by this post-season in random passing glances. There isn't much joy that can be derived from watching a turncoat left fielder who used to wear Royal blue* try one more time to get a ring in New York. Was the 75-year-old Matt Stairs a Royal long enough to for us to root for him?

*And, yes, I can't remember him ever actually wearing a uniform that was Royal blue, but you know what I mean.

No. Right now, we can only be envious of fans who—let's be honest—aren't exactly starving for a successful baseball season.

Well, that and rooting against the Evil Empire.

Since free agency is still a ways down the road, and no trades or re-signings can be announced until after the World Series is completed, we bloggers have little of worth to write about. Well, unless you want to include fabricated trades that are all but completed involving Cy Young winners-to-be for 28-year-old has-beens and a bunch of never-will-bes*.

*I agree with what Sam Mellinger said about not wanting to tear into this writer too hard because he's not getting paid to do this and it is a labor of love (or "Labour of Love" for all you UB40 fans reading this blog), but I have to say that as a writer whose blog also appears on Bleacher Report I feel like this blogger has given the rest of us a bad name. I would like to think that my column never veers toward this reckless type of rumor-mongering, but part of me feels like my involvement with the same site somehow makes me slightly guilty by association.

Luckily, I have another blog that is not dependent upon my fandom of a horrible baseball team to turn my attention to. One only dependent on my consumption of pop culture . Needless to say, the subjects for entries there present themselves much more readily.

Here I am, left to write about what? Well, Clark Fosler has found his niche for October columns, and his work has been great thus far (who'd have thunk that the Royals third basemen collectively out-produced all other third basemen in the Central?).

So, I guess I can reflect about the limited Royals-relevant baseball action that is going on right now. Over at Kings of Kauffman , Wally Fish is doing a bang-up job of staying on top of any developments with the Surprise Rafters .

Aside from the slightly discouraging displacement of David Lough (one of the only offensive bright spots in the Royals minor league system this year) on the roster due to some hamstring issues, there is a little good news. After a year marked with significant struggles at the plate in an admittedly hostile hitting environment, Mike Moustakas has begun to alleviate some of my concerns.

Moustakas scuffled his way to a .250/.297/.421 split with 16 home runs and 10 steals in Wilmington. While those numbers are not encouraging, the 20-year-old (he just turned 21 in September) worked a worrying 32 walks in 530 plate appearances. In 30 plate appearances in the Arizona Fall League, Moustakas is hitting .276/.313/.483 with a 1:3 BB:K, one home run, one steal, three doubles, six runs, and nine runs batted in.

I am well aware of the fact that this is an absurdly small sample size, but we don't have a lot to talk about right now, do we?

The average is clearly up here, and it was looking a lot nicer before a 1-for-8 stretch in his last two games. Four extra-base hits in 29 at-bats is also encouraging. Now, another pair of games like his on Thursday and Friday, and the picture is a little less hopeful. He'd be hitting .216 were that to happen, and then the reactionaries among us are crying that the sky is falling again.

Right now, we can only hope that this season in High-A was an aberration, that he does know the difference between a ball and a strike, and that (as a 21-year-old this coming season, presumably most of which will be spent as a Natural) he begins to live up to the hype that goes along with being a high first-round draft pick.

But if he wants to do me a solid, he'll work his way on base three times via the base-on-balls in his next game, and I'll run with that small sample size screaming into the hills announcing to all the flora and fauna that Mike Moustakas has arrived.

Until then, I get to bite my nails to the quick, hoping that he isn't the next wasted number two pick of the draft, further setting back a franchise that cannot afford to be so wasteful.

The Machine By Joe Posnanski

Josh Duggan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:24:43 -0400

I feel like I should set this entry up just a little by stating that before I go anywhere else on the Internet I check my RSS tab on my browser to see if Joe Posnanski has written anything new. More often than not, he has. If there isn't a new entry in the feeder, I go to the blog anyway to make sure the RSS is up to speed. If the first step fails to turn up a fresh entry, the second step almost always does.

This is somewhat remarkable in that he is so prolific in his writing that one would think the quality would suffer under the burden of his hyperproductivity. I can categorically state that it does not.

Seemingly each day, Joe* gives his loyal followers a blog entry like this, or this, or this, or this. And those are just a few that go back to the U.S. Open (tennis, not golf). To think that he does this while juggling being a husband and father of two, writing for Sports Illustrated (and before that he was a two-time AP Sportswriter of the Year as a columnist at the Kansas City Star), and writing his second book is mind-blowing to me.

*And I read his blog so voraciously that I really do feel like I am on a first-name basis with him despite the fact that there is no way he has more than a fleeting idea as to who I am—although it was my question about The Catcher in the Rye that led to a poll question a couple of weeks ago...Hell, it's even where I took this use of the asterisk (Pozterisk) to off-set tangential trains of thought. So with that rather lengthy and not entirely relevant introduction reeking of self-indulgence perhaps only paralleled by a Harry Knowles review, I finally get to the reason behind this blog entry:

Joe Posnanski's newest book is available in bookstores (and presumably at your public library). His first book was the deeply affective The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neill's America, which you can find a review of here. You certainly wouldn't need to start there, but if you haven't read it yet, do so immediately.

As for that newest book I mentioned, it might just be as good as TSOB. Briefly titled The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, Posnanski recounts with colorful detail (and language) the storied season of one of the greatest teams to ever take the field.

Now, I am not a Reds fan. I have no feelings about them one way or the other. My level of interest in the subject matter going into the book was limited to being vaguely intrigued by the figure of Pete Rose and hoping that Joe Morgan came off as at least a bit of a jerk (thus further validating the disdain I feel towards Joe Morgan, the Color Commentator).

The returns I got from this book exceeded my expectations one-hundred-fold. Posnanski shapes the on-and-off-the-field goings-on into an immensely entertaining and compelling narrative. Where some baseball books come of as a bit dry and over-burdened with clichés and purple prose, The Machine achieves an seemingly effortless engagement of the reader's attention. With only vague notions as to who these men were, I found myself often deciding that I would read five more pages and then do whatever task I needed to do only to grant the commencement of that chore another reprieve when I felt like I needed to know what happened next for Don Gullett or Ken Griffey.

The preseason stage-setting pitting the Los Angeles Dodgers against Sparky Anderson's Reds is perhaps the most surprisingly compelling section. Without any games being played, Posnanski sets the stage for the season at hand masterfully, pitting their failures up to that season against the continual expectation that the supremely talented Reds should be winning it all.

Posnanski also captures the fascinating duality of a successful clubhouse, with its friction and its camaraderie. Imbuing the book with a healthy dose of blue language (these are ballplayers we're talking about here) to insert the book comfortably into the appropriate time and place, he gives the reader the sense of actually being a fly on the wall in the '75 Reds clubhouse.

In all, this book is about as far from a chore as possible and makes for an enveloping journey from the beginning to the end of a baseball season culminating in a hard-earned and long-awaited World Series win filled with drama and suspense.

For the doubters, all you need to do is read the Prologue in which Pete Rose storms up and down the length of the dugout in Game Seven with his Reds on the ropes, feverishly cussing his teammates out. If that passage does not grab you, you have got a serious character flaw.

Regardless, the book is a fantastic read, one that should appeal to even the most casual of baseball fans.

Trey Hillman: Doing Us a Solid, Better Late Than Never

Josh Duggan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:07:56 -0400

I've been pretty hard on Trey Hillman this year.

We all have been.

While I do not think the criticism levied against him is baseless or without cause, I will say that I am completely behind his decision to bring Joakim Soria in for a two-inning save behind another gem of a Zack Greinke start.

I am not even especially upset that Hillman let Soria throw 46 pitches en route to closing it out. After all, he is not going to be needed until Greinke's last start.

At this point, there is only one thing that matters for the Royals (the reasons behind that fact are too depressing to dwell on today): Zack Greinke getting the Cy Young he so rightfully deserves (even if he doesn't seem to want the recognition).

Thankfully, Trey seems to sense that we all need this.

At the end of Sam Mellinger's linked article, Greinke's manager acknowledges the problems the Royals have had supporting their ace: "Just look at the statistics,” he said. “This is an individual award. It should not be held against you if you’re the individual going for the award because you’ve lacked a severe amount of run support. Zack could have 20 wins, easily.”

While it may be too late*, it is nice to see the effort on Trey's part to assure that a victory seemingly in hand was not going to slip away as so many others have.

*I am still not sold on the BBWAA actually awarding the CY to the best pitcher in the game. Hopefully, this win over his Twins pushed that 'number' into a realm in which Patrick Reusse could fathom voting for Greinke...

The gesture, as simple as it may have been, should not go without a little acknowledgment and gratitude.

The Royals Front Office Has Won The Battle of Who Could Care Less

Josh Duggan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:10:13 -0400

I'd like to preface what I am about to say with a short qualification. What follows could very likely come across as being self-aggrandizing. It may even seem like I am trying to add a degree of importance to this thing that I do as a hobby.

Let me assure you, I have mixed feelings about this blogging thing that I have taken to. It is a medium by which we (by "we", I mean "I") can say virtually whatever we want with little or no repercussions. In anger, I am sure I have crossed a line here or there.

Furthermore, when I tell people that I write a blog about the Royals, it is not without a more than proportionate amount of shame and embarrassment. Not all of those negative feelings have causes that can be attributed to the shameful team that I unfortunately am a fan of.

I certainly have no delusions of grandeur insofar as my status in the world is concerned.

Now that I have hopefully made all that abundantly clear, I will say that amongst a sports franchise's fan base, there are not that many who feel so strongly about their team that they elect to write at length about that team. It is an endeavor that is not for the weak of heart. The dedication it takes to spend countless hours expounding upon the performance of a franchise both on and off the field is nearly immeasurable.

For fans of some teams, the time and dedication is rewarded by success in the win column. It wouldn't be difficult to find the time to write about a team like the Yankees or the Red Sox or the Cardinals. Their on-field performance warrants such dedication.

Admittedly, this is an inexact exercise, but the simple google search of "Boston Red Sox blog" turns up 8,080,000 results. When interchanging "Kansas City Royals" for "Boston Red Sox", 1,240,000 hits pop up.

This is no coincidence.

While Kansas City is certainly a smaller market than Boston, its fan base has been depleted by years of neglect and losing.

Despite this September surge, this has been the most disappointing season I can remember. The losing has been hard to handle, to be sure. More disturbing by far has been the fact that it would seem no one is at the helm of this aimless ship.

When combining the atrocious roster moves, the wasted money, the squandered start, and the lack of vision, it is not surprising that many of those dedicated Royals bloggers have lost interest.

The vitriolic, anti-stat Dr. Thunder and Southern Lightning at Hapless Royals have jumped ship.

The thoughtful Michael A. Molde over at Undying Royalty hasn't been able to bring himself to write an entry since May 22.

Levi "Tug" Payton over at Everything Royals essentially hung everything up on Aug. 2.

Only six of H.G. Miller's 28 posts this year over at Royal Reactions have come since June.

The stellar Jeff Parker at Royally Speaking (who also writes for Dugout Central and Hardball Cooperative) hasn't passed the 10 post mark in a month since May.

Guys like Joe Bomello at New Blue Tradition, Royals Nation at The Royal Treatment, and Clint over at Royal Report Card haven't posted in months.

I could keep going because there are many others (The Tao and Keith to name but a couple more) who have fallen by the wayside as this Royals team has made us question everything our fandom means to us. But surely, no one has summed up our collective discouragement as the most prominent Royals blogger, Rany Jazayerli, did on what is to be his last post for quite some time.

Through all of this one thing becomes increasingly clear. While Dayton Moore & Co. continue to take umbrage with any criticism lobbed in their direction, many of the Royals most dedicated and passionate fans are simply giving up.

While Billy Butler's season has been cause for a little hope, and Joakim Soria has still been The Mexicutioner, there is really only one reason to watch this team ever.

Meaningless September wins are not going to change this.

Dayton Moore, this season has worn your fans out. As much as we know you want to win, we no longer have the belief that we will ever see that happen. We are collectively giving up.

So if your goal was to defeat the Royals fans who might be voices of dissent when things have gone so far awry, you have won that battle, Mr. Moore.

It seems clear that we've all lost steam.

Another Greinke Start, Another Royals Letdown

Josh Duggan — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:14:33 -0400

Honestly, this article could write itself after almost any Greinke non-win this season.

The awful team on the field behind him finds a way to squander another Greinke gem.

Two hits and no runs allowed through six are proven to be immaterial, as the hapless Royals strand runners, ground into double plays, fall astray on the basepaths, and subvert his best efforts on defense.

There was Miguel Olivo getting caught in a run down between third and home after getting greedy on the basepaths on a DeJesus single to second. Of course, he also fell down after rounding first on the single that landed him on base in the first place. And that single on which Olivo tried to score from second base may or may not have actual crossed a line drawn directly from first to second base.

Then in the bottom half of that same inning, "Gold Glover" David DeJesus misplays a ball off the wall in the left field corner. As Shin-Soo Choo rounded second base, DeJesus further screws Greinke by attempting to pick the gently rolling ball up with his glove rather than his bare hand, flipping the ball about 10 feet further away, and allowing Choo to reach third with ease on a "triple".

After inducing a weak pop fly just into foul territory at first base, Greinke was further undermined by the aforementioned left fielder. Diving nearly directly forward, DeJesus found a sinking liner off the bat of Travis Hafner making its way past his glove and onto the grass.

Choo scored with ease, while Greinke had to resign himself to striking out the villainous Luis Valbuena.

Shockingly, Trey Hillman exercised restraint in not bringing Greinke back out in a tie game in the eighth. Unfortunately, that special stat that could have helped Greinke in his quest to convince some of the more antiquated CY-voting mindsets was already out the window.

With each game that this writer watches, it becomes increasingly harder to find reasons to not outright loathe this team.

Only some of those reasons are derived from how the rest of this team (Jack Soria notwithstanding) is directly responsible for there even being a conversation about who the Cy Young Award should go to in the American League. I think the poll I put up a few articles ago answers that question.

Just What Did The Royals Get For Danny Gutierrez? An Expert Helps Us Out

Josh Duggan — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:46:49 -0400

By chance, I know Scott Lucas, who does a fantastic job of covering the Rangers farm system for the preeminent Rangers blog, The Newberg Report.

Rather than give my reaction to the Danny Gutierrez trade, I decided it would be best to ask Scott the following via email:

So the reports (which at this point have not been verified by the Rangers' brass, but surely will by the time this goes up) are that the Royals have traded RHP Daniel Gutierrez to the Rangers for catcher Manuel Pina and outfielder Tim Smith.

As Royals fans, we knew Gutierrez as a player who has been suspended for violation of team rules in 2007 and missed most of this 2009 season while rehabbing an inflamed right shoulder away from the team reportedly under the instruction of his agent Scott Boras.

We also knew him as a high-ceiling prospect with a plus curve and solid command of both his curve and fastball. On nearly every organizational pre-season prospect ranking list, Gutierrez was a top 10 prospect.

Meanwhile, both players the Royals received do not appear to have been nearly as lauded. Most analysis seems to be falling somewhere in the neighborhood of both projecting out as role players on the Major League level—at best—with Pina seeming to fit the mold of the defense-first catcher and Smith being likened to David DeJesus in the Royals' blogosphere.

All that being said, what can the Royals say they got back for their problematic prospect?

Are these initial reactions to who the Royals are getting back accurate?

In your estimation (and obviously with prospects there is going to be a heartier degree of uncertainty), did the Rangers come out ahead in this deal?

Scott was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to respond with the following:

Neither Smith nor Pina ranked among Texas's Top 30 in Baseball America's preseason rankings. I rated Pina 41st and Smith 46th entering the season. Now, I'd probably have Smith in the low 20s and Pina more-or-less unchanged.

Pina owns a good, though not great, defensive reputation. Texas has promoted him pretty aggressively despite modest offensive development. He's shown a little more power this year, but in general he's a .260 hitter light on secondary skills.

He's just 22, so there's time, but he'll need to step up just to be an adequate backup. Pina hit a totally uncharacteristic .400/.452/.600 through mid-May in AA, after which he's batted a paltry .199/.254/.305.

Smith was Texas's 7th rounder in 2006 out of Arizona State. He played a little CF in his rookie season but is best suited to the corners. Smith makes good contact and has shown developing power and patience plus decent speed. That said, his upside isn't high; perhaps he becomes a fourth outfielder. Smith's all-out playing style has compared favorably to David Murphy and the revered Rusty Greer. If he tops out in AAA, it won't be for lack of hustle. A broken rib ended his season early, he played a couple of rehab games in Arizona and is now with Team Canada.

Odds are that both will provide quality organizational depth rather than Major League talent. Pina will be Rule 5-eligible if not placed on the 40-man roster this winter. Smith's doesn't require protection until 2010.

The trade certainly does not balance the pitcher-heavy quality of Texas's minor-league system. Still, the Rangers probably see it as gaining a "B" prospect for two "Cs" and an affordable risk.

Obviously, there were some issues between Gutierrez and the Royals' front office, but the returns for a nearly unanimous pre-season top 10 prospect within the organization seem middling, at best.

Thanks again for your time and help, Scott.

A Review of Satchel: The Life and Times Of an American Legend

Josh Duggan — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:38:31 -0400

If there has been one good thing about the Royals* only being watchable once every five games or so, it has been that I have found myself with slightly more free time on my hands. Past a cursory look at the standings to see where the Royals are in the running for the Bryce Harper Sweepstakes and trying to catch Greinke’s starts, my time devoted to baseball is shrinking to microscopic proportions.

*I think it is obvious that we’re using the plural form of Royal out of politeness here.

Granted, I now work somewhere in the 70 hours per week neighborhood, so the term 'free time' is being applied loosely here, but that luxury would be virtually nonexistent if the product on the field at the Kougar were even remotely entertaining.

What I have spent my last week or so doing is reading the new—we’re talking books here, so a couple months old is still new, right?—Satchel Paige biography by Larry Tye. If for some reason you are not familiar with the man who may well have been the greatest pitcher in the history of the game, here is a link to the book’s author speaking about Paige at Amazon.

Now, I am hardly a man who keeps abreast of what is atop the best-sellers lists. In fact, the only reason I even knew the book had been published was because of NPR. But the instant its existence was illuminated for me was the instant I knew I had to read the book.

When I was a child, my dad—a Kansas City native, whose childhood home is almost entirely responsible for my years of sports-fan-derived misery—found one of my uncle’s old books on Satchel Paige and read it to us at bedtime while staying at my grandparents’ house. Between my uncle—whose rabid baseball fandom—and my dad—whose Royals fandom has since waned as things like real life have taken up the space that a less complicated life used to allow for—my fate as a baseball fan was sealed.

Satchel Paige was a mythic figure to me as a child.

Larry Tye’s new book does nothing to undermine the mythos that I have so long associated with the hazy figure from my childhood memories.

To be able to say that about something from my childhood is refreshing, given that nearly everything I remembered as being awesome from my youth has not held water (i.e., Short Circuit or “MacGyver”).

Larry Tye’s thoroughly researched and obviously passionate account of this larger than life Negro League superstar is at all times captivating. While the facts are painstakingly separated from the legend, the reader is taken on an historian’s voyage through the muddled annals of Negro League history—one rife with hyperbole and unburdened by a need for accuracy in reportage. What those facts elucidate is the life and work of one of the greatest unsung figures of the 20^th Century.

The importance of Leroy “Satchel” Paige in terms of what his fame, skill, and persona did to sew fertile seeds in the growing of goodwill between the races is never more aptly drawn up as it is here.

And reading about the man himself with his homespun aphorisms and colorful peccadilloes is a blast for the duration of the 300 pages.

It is a quick read, imbued with love for the subject and his time and imminently worth the effort put into it.

But you don’t have to take my word for it…

Undermining Greatness: What the 2009 Royals Are Doing to Zack Greinke

Josh Duggan — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:18:18 -0400

Dear Unquantifiable Masses Who Sit Eagerly At Your Computers Hitting Refresh On Your Browsers Hoping To See A New Column By Yours Truly,

I lay prostrate at your feet begging your forgiveness for my absence. While there were reasons that extended beyond work, their elucidation will likely bore you. As such I will simply move on, assuming the desired absolution has been granted.

Perhaps the worst thing about this season has been the fact that every fifth start we Royals fans get to see what it could be like if there was talent on this team we follow.

Taking the mound in a Royals uniform on Tuesday night was the inimitable Zack Greinke.

In eight innings, he struck out 15, thoroughly dominating an admittedly weak Indians lineup.

Of course, he did this with an atrocious defense behind him, a comically inept offense supporting him, and a repulsive bullpen at the ready.

Greinke, the best pitcher in baseball this season, earned just his 12th win, lifting his record to 12-8.

Every fifth day, we get to hope that our team doesn't screw over its own superstar.

There is nothing else to root for (except for the outside chance at the first pick of next year's draft and the welcoming of Bryce Harper into the fold, something that surely will be undermined by a sweep of Detroit in the final weekend of the season...) other than hoping that the team we inexplicably still follow manages to not rape its own player.

We are tantalized by the very real talent of one special player, a talent that sticks out even more on a team of has-beens, also-rans, and never-will-bes.

And now we will stand by as the rest of the Royals take to the field and undermine the best-pitcher-in-baseball's quest for the Cy Young.

Thank you for a great 2009, Royals.

Moving Things Around: The Alberto Callaspo Edition

Josh Duggan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:58:21 -0400

In a season that can most aptly be described as a hatef***ing of the fans, it would seem that now might be the time to blow this team up.

Not like Dayton Moore said was going to happen after the disappointment of last season, either.

No, what needs to happen is some actual self-realization as to where this team has fallen short.

In a season marked with empty apologies while shirking the onus of blame, GMDM, SABRTrey, & Co. need to take off their rose-colored glasses and see how they can rid themselves of the disease that is this current roster make-up.

While it is easy to say that nearly every player on the roster should be traded, outside of Zack Greinke, Joakim Soria, Billy Butler, and Alex Gordon, getting another team to take on that "talent" would be nearly impossible. After all, this team has become the worst team in baseball largely because it is comprised of substandard major league players at nearly every position.

As Sam Mellinger elucidated here, gains could stand to be made defensively.

Defensively, the roster is one black hole after another. The entire starting infield is simply atrocious and has only gotten worse with the foolish addition of Yuniesky Betancourt.

In the outfield, the Royals have David DeJesus in left as the only player with a positive UZR/150 at the position he is manning while exhibiting that he is even remotely capable of hitting at the major league level.

Hitting ability notwithstanding, recent acquisition Josh Anderson has only proven he's able to play left field capably in the bigs. Mitch Maier can capably roam center but seems to be a AAAA-hitter at best.

Without exploring extra-club options defensively, it would seem that the Royals could potentially improve their defense slightly from within.

It is well documented that Alberto Callaspo is cement-footed and iron-gloved...

At second base.

While he may not be a particularly good hitter (contrary to Dayton Moore's assertions suggesting otherwise), Willie Bloomquist is by nearly every measure a good defensive second baseman.

With new liability Yuniesky Betancourt missing balls in every direction, it would seem that this team can no longer afford to have the limited glove of Alberto Callaspo standing at second.

Since the season is already well past lost, why not try Alberto Callaspo out in right field?

If there is one thing Bert has proven, it is that he is not a second baseman. If there is a second thing Bert has proven, it is that his bat could play at virtually any position on this team.

Any concern for displacement of Mark Teahen can be alleviated by the fact that he can simply be shifted, well, anywhere.

It would seem as though Jeff Bianchi is roughly a year away from being able to take on the role of starting middle infielder. Unless Callaspo leaves town between now and then, the track record of the Royals brass points toward Betancourt and his contract being cemented (figuratively in two different ways) at short.

Moving Callaspo out of one of the most important defensive positions on the field and replacing him with a capable glove from in-house cannot hurt things can it?

The Royals Have No Love For Us

Josh Duggan — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:02:26 -0400

What follows will probably strike many as wallowing in self-pity, an impulse I have been known to indulge in from time to time. At the very least, this will serve as an explanation as to why my Royals-related output has fallen off as the season has worn on.

Fans of other baseball teams couldn't possibly understand the futility inherent in rooting for the Royals (fans of the Expos/Nationals excepted, of course, but one could argue that there shouldn't really be any of those).

Fans of other baseball teams don't get to read articles like these, in which a writer the local newspaper honestly posits the question: "Are the Royals the worst MLB team of the millennium?"

They also are not subjected to the points that followed therein to validate the argument, citing their failure to finish higher than third in their division at any point in the aughts and the .299 winning percentage that the Royals have sported in their past 77 games.

Now, a fan of the Mets may point to their having won their last World Series just a year after the Royals' win in 1985 while playing in the shadow of the Yankees. Of course, the Mets have been back to the playoffs more than once since 1986, and they have only finished three seasons with a record under .500 since 1997.

Cubs' fans may point to 1908, Steve Bartman, and the arms of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, but the Cubs have been to the playoffs five times since the Royals' last visit. They also have to look back to 1966 to find their last season with triple-digit losses. The World Series win may not be there, but at least they have borne witness to competitive teams in recent memory.

Really, of the horrific teams this decade, only Baltimore and Pittsburgh have seats at the table. Along with Kansas City, the Orioles and Pirates have not been within sniffing distance of a divisional title. Both have actually waited longer since their last Series win (1983 and 1979, respectively). The difference is that both teams have been to the playoffs at least twice since the Royals last trip.

That leaves the Expos/Nationals, who have never been to the playoffs. Torn from the indifferent grip of a strike-spurned Montreal to move to the Nation's capital, one would have to imagine that the fans who would have suffered long enough have bailed on the team that couldn't be bothered to love them back and left for greener pastures.

And I suppose a part of that last sentence is what this piece is getting at. For all of the labors of love that we Royals fans endure, our team does not love us back.

Instead, the fickle mistress that she is teases us with the promise of hope associated with a new administration after throttling us with years of a meddling-tainted run towards ruination. That new regime teased us further with what appeared to be a few steps in the direction towards contention and away from the common 100-loss seasons. We hung our dreams upon the promise of 2010 and the fruition of a plan.

Then we were subjected to a 2009 season pocked with a dismal off-season in which the weaknesses of 2008 were exacerbated rather than addressed and the few strengths of the team were blown up.

One stained with the inability to evaluate talent even slightly, trading the promise of potential in prospects for a bombed-out black hole of a shortstop already in the midst of a precipitous decline at the age of 28.

One disgraced with a Cy Young-caliber season being undermined by a putrid offense, a hapless defense, and a wretched bullpen.

One marred with the shameless admittance by the man running the show that defensive metrics were something he did not grasp.

One tarnished with the apparent lack of realization as to how the plan could have fallen so far from the vision when it seems so clear to everyone else as to where the fatal flaws were.

It is that kind of season that forces Royals fans to question their loyalty to a team that probably does not deserve their devotion while realizing that the ship does not have a chance to be righted until 2011 by even the most optimistic expectations, and that is all contingent upon draft picks panning out (something a Royals fan could never count on).

KC Royals Have Little to Offer, Less to Gain as the Trade Deadline Nears

Josh Duggan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:29:23 -0400

In light of the personnel moves of the past year, the trade deadline that is approaching is doing so ominously.

Since the end of the 2008 season, Dayton Moore has dealt the keys to what had been a solid bullpen and previously highly touted prospects and has Mike Jacobs, Yuniesky Betancourt, and an out-for-the-year Coco Crisp to show for it.

To exacerbate the trade inequities (all of whom were making entirely too much money to boot), the Royals also went out and signed Kyle Farnsworth and Juan Cruz to fairly sizable contracts in the hopes of replacing the arms they shipped off. Of course, both of these players have struggled mightily when it mattered.

If you want to cast the net of blame further into the past, the Royals are paying the worst everyday player in baseball according to FanGraphs WAR formula $12 million this season and next.

According to FanGraphs, he is worth negative $7.3 million, making for a nearly $20 million net loss. This is, of course, Jose Guillen, who is doing the Royals more good on the DL than he was on the field.

So, if the trade deadline is approaching, the astute Royals fan is looking at the Royals prospects with a generous helping of trepidation.

In addition to the trust issues that fans are having with the Kansas City front office, there is also the issue of there being few desirable pieces currently donning the Royals uniform.

Obviously, there are two stars on this team who any team in baseball would love to have, but the Royals' future hinges upon the success of Zack Greinke and Joakim Soria. Moreover, they are under club-favorable contracts.

To trade either player given the current state of the Royals would be short-sighted and detrimental to the franchise barring a complete and utter fleecing on Dayton Moore's part.

Given the Cy Young season that Greinke is having or Soria's 1.98 career ERA in two-plus seasons, there may not be a return in either case that could qualify as such.

So, assuming that Zack Greinke and Joakim Soria are untouchable, that leaves very little in the way of desirable Royals to be had from this sub-.400 team.

On offense, the most desirable trade-bait would probably have to be the following three players: Billy Butler, Alberto Callaspo, and Mark Teahen.

The only one of those players who the Royals should be even remotely hesitant to deal is the 23-year-old Butler. His ability to hit and occasional flashes of power should serve as encouragement enough for the Royals to hold onto him unless an interested party is willing to overpay for what his current value is.

Seeing as though he is finally starting come into his own, it would seem that the returns probably will not be able to exceed what the Royals could get from Butler if he stayed in house.

As far as Callaspo is concerned, he has proven this season that he is more than capable with the lumber. His 116 OPS+ leads the team. So does his .356 OBP.

His major shortcoming is that he is the worst defensive second baseman in the American League. On a team as defensively inept as the Royals, a change is almost necessary. While the issue could certainly be addressed by a position change, he could also be dealt and is one of the very few Royals who could actually net a decent return.

The other offensive player who may net something of worth is Mark Teahen. Often included in trade rumors swirling around the Royals, the return of Alex Gordon from hip surgery makes Teahen's ability to play third base is of less value to the Royals.

With a handful of contenders having issues at third and Teahen's respectable OPS+ of 112, the interest in Teahen could actually be there come Friday.

As for issues concerning Gordon's current playing time limitations, the acquisition of Ryan Freel gives the Royals three active players capable of filling in at third not counting Brayan Peña. This should effectively enable the Royals to move Mark Teahen if the price is right.

In addition to these three offensive players that are actually worth something to the Royals and may garner interest this week, the Royals also have a redundancy in starting catchers. Regardless of their shortcomings, there almost always seems to be a demand for catchers, and the standards for serviceability hovers just above mediocrity.

Both John Buck and Miguel Olivo fit that description. As far as most Royals fans are concerned, both can be shipped off to whoever will have them.

Then there is David DeJesus. If we are being honest, he should have been shipped off before the 2008 season began. His value in the eyes of other clubs was never higher than it was at that point.

Of course, he wasn't dealt.

The past few months have seen him raise him correct some of the early season issues he had, but the fact remains that his abysmal April and May have lowered his value enough that it would probably not be advantageous for the Royals to move him at this point.

On the pitching front, Gil Meche and his $11 million contract are likely going to be in Kansas City through 2011, especially since he is currently on the DL.

Luke Hochevar finally looks to showing signs of life and an ability to dominate legitimate lineups. It is far too early to ship him off considering the fact that they invested their first pick overall in 2006 to get him.

Brian Bannister could be conceivably be dealt, as he has rebounded nicely from an awful 2008 campaign and could yield decent returns from teams in need of a back-of-the-rotation starter at a reasonable price tag.

The problem with dealing Bannister, however, is that any hope they have for 2010 almost has to be tied to their starting rotation. With Bannister as the Royals fourth starter, they could be all right.

If the Royals are unable to get another quality starter who isn't at least doing well in Triple-A via one trade or another, they may not be able to afford to lose Bannister for next year. With all of the money they have tied up in dead weight like Kyle Farnsworth and Jose Guillen and then the players who are arbitration eligible, Dayton Moore is going to be unable to free up much payroll.

Since almost all of the help in the minors is going to be in the minors until at least 2011, an issue such as the back end of the rotation likely cannot be addressed amenably via free agency.

This leaves the bullpen.

Who would want any part of these guys?

Well, apparently the Braves may want Ron Mahay (thanks MLB Trade Rumors). They can have him. For a player to be named later. They can have the entire bullpen short of Joakim Soria.

The obvious problem with all of the trade bait mentioned above is that they will yield very little in terms of returns.

Obviously, it would be great if the Royals could cut ties with players like Mike Jacobs, Yuniesky Betancourt (and it's been two weeks), Kyle Farnsworth, Jose Guillen, etc., but what team would be dumb enough to take any of them on? Bill Bavasi is no longer running the show in Seattle. Jim Bowden isn't in Washington.

The Royals have too many problems to mention succinctly in one column, and all of the help that is in the minors is years away. They have very little in terms of players of worth and need to get players in Triple-A or higher to have any hope at being competitive as early as next year since they are dealing with a roster full of holes.

Teams simply aren't going to be throwing strong defensive players who get on base and quality pitching at the Royals for what they have available.

If Moore can get something for the players listed above, then the criticism that has been growing louder and louder over the past few months will start to subside ever so slightly.

Most Royals fans would be shocked if such a thing were to happen.

Trey Hillman: Visionary

Josh Duggan — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:43:38 -0400

For what is now a third straight day, Royals fans are dealing with the crushing blow of an eighth-inning lead having been blown.

Each game has seen the Royals' bullpen, whose ineptitude I detailed just a day ago, collectively snatch defeat from the grips of victory.

Each game has seen Trey Hillman stubbornly refuse to put a well-rested Joakim Soria in to take care of a few hitters in the eighth.

This, of course, is the same Joakim Soria who has not pitched since July 12.

The same Joakim Soria who was the Royals lone All-Star representative last season.

The same Joakim Soria who is the only Royals reliever this season with an ERA below 4.24.

The same Joakim Soria who has struck out 20 in 15.1 innings of work since coming off the DL.

The same Joakim Soria who has allowed five earned runs all season.

But Trey Hillman refused for three straight games to turn the ball over to the only competent reliever the Royals have on staff, favoring a game of Russian roulette with the Royals' reliever corps.

Or maybe there should be an 'e' added to the end of 'corps'.

After the game, Royals fans (or perhaps at this point it would be more appropriate to pare that word down to its singular form) were greeted by this article on the Kansas City Star's website. In that article, it was stated that not only would Royals fans be driven away in droves by Trey Hillman's inept bullpen management this year, but that he would be back for another year of alienating and abusing the fan base in 2010.

There was a time not too long ago that Royals fans possessed hope for this current regime.

This parasitic relationship in which a vampiric front office feeds on the hopes and dreams of the fan base has taken a turn for the worse, as promises of being brought over to the realm of sports fans who have enjoyed the fruits of their teams' successes have been exposed as being outright lies.

Now all that the remaining masochists have is a floundering team that can't hold the few leads it gets because its manager (who "has the chance to be one of the very best baseball men in a generation," according to this article that only further damns the current administration's vision) is averse to using even a shred of common sense.

Royals' Bullpen Woes Lead to Second Straight Loss

Josh Duggan — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 02:32:51 -0400

After a second straight night in which Juan Cruz blew an eighth-inning lead, it would seem like perhaps the time is now to examine what has gone wrong in the Royals bullpen.

A year after the Royals were able to pride themselves on having one of the better bullpens in baseball, Dayton Moore's 2009 creation has run off the tracks.

Gone are Leo Núñez and Ramón Ramírez, the arms that carried the Royals through the seventh and eighth innings of 2008. Núñez had an ERA+ of 143 in 45 appearances for KC last season. Ramírez sported a 162 ERA+ in 71 games last year.

Adding insult to injury, Núñez's ERA+ is 116 this season while Ramírez's is 201. The players acquired in the trades that sent the setup men from 2008 packing have put up an OPS+ of 88 (Mike Jacobs) and 90 (Coco Crisp) and the latter played in a mere 49 games before being shut down for the year.

With the departures of the men Trey Hillman turned to 116 times last season, Dayton Moore brought in Kyle Farnsworth, Juan Cruz, Jamey Wright, and Doug Waechter.

In their own ways, each has failed to deliver for the man who brought them in.

Kyle Farnsworth has pitched well with nothing on the line. Give him a high-leverage situation, though, and the results have been disastrous. Just ask Michael Young or Jim Thome (who he never should have been pitching to anyway, but that is a point in another discussion).

Unfortunately, there have been enough attempts at protecting a lead from Farnsworth to still possess a 4.24 ERA. Tragically, that ERA is the best of anyone Royals relief pitcher not named Joakim Soria.

Farnsworth does at least possess an ERA+ of 102 thus far this season, which doesn't justify the two-year, $9.25 million contract Moore handed him early in this past off-season hot on the heels of a 16-game stint in Detroit in which he earned a 66 ERA+. Adding to his worth is the fact that he currently finds himself on the DL with a groin strain.

When Juan Cruz was signed this off-season, there were not many people who were saying anything but laudatory things about the signing. Cruz's performance in 2008 earned him the Type A free agent classification.

In his each of his three seasons in Arizona, his ERA+ climbed, starting at 113 and working its way up to 176 by last year. For each of the years of 2003 through 2008, Cruz struck out opposing hitters at a minimum of a 8.4 K/9 clip, averaging 10.0 K/9 over that time.

Of course, Cruz has been horribly disappointing. For the second straight night, Cruz was brought in to protect a lead in the eighth only to surrender that lead as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

After peaking on May 17 with an ERA of 1.45, Cruz pitched a brutal 12-outing stretch in which he put up the following line: 10.95 ERA, 2.11 WHIP, 9:8 K:BB, and a .360/.458/.640/1.098 line against in 12.1 IP. By the end of that run, his ERA had ballooned to 5.23.

Some of his struggles may be linked to the issue explored here. After Friday's game, Juan Cruz possessed a shockingly low GB/FB of 0.26. When combining that with the plummeting K/9 (6.69 through July 17th) and the increased reliance upon his changeup (touched upon in the Juan Cruz write-up here), the picture may be becoming clearer.

That changeup, which Cruz has been falling back on 13.4% of the time (up from 4.1% in 2008), is the same pitch that Cruz left up against Evan Longoria on Friday. This after giving Longoria fits with his fastball. Longoria promptly deposited that ball into deep left field.

His ERA of 4.91 is good for eighth-best amongst Royals relievers this season.

Horacio Ramirez, who pitched so poorly he was cut despite his $1.8 million salary, had an ERA of 4.42 in relief.

Jamey Wright, who had surpassed the 100 mark in ERA+ only once since 2005 (the 2007 season in Texas), has pitched predictably underwhelmingly. If FanGraphs' Pitch Type information on Wright is correct, then Wright has also puzzlingly abandoned the slider this year in favor of the cutter.

Regardless, his early season success has long since been left by the wayside, as his ERA now sits at 4.57. His FIP of 5.34 would suggest that perhaps even that ERA was reached with a certain degree of luck.

Doug Waechter, the other free agent brought in to brace the Royals for the loss of their two star set-up men, made three appearances before going to the DL.

Now in my talks of the Royals' 2008 bullpen, I did neglect to mention another arm that they relied upon heavily. On July 30 of last year, Ron Mahay had pitched in 47 games for the Royals.

In those 47 games, the then-37-year-old Mahay was the proud owner of a 1.75 ERA. Opposing hitters were hitting .221/.290/.289/.579 against him. He had a 42:22 K:BB in 56.2 IP.

You will note that all of those stats were through July 30 of last year.

Any contending team in baseball could have used a left-handed relief pitcher sporting those numbers at the trade deadline.

After the deadline passed last year, Mahay's ERA was 15.75 while hitters laced everything he threw to the tune of a .421/.511/.789/1.300 line in 10 games.

This year, Mahay's line is as follows: 29 GP, 30.2 IP, 1 W, 0 L, 4.40 ERA, 1.57 WHIP, 28 K, 12 BB. It isn't an awful line.

It also isn't nearly as good as the line he had heading into the trade deadline in 2008.

Obviously, it isn't entirely fair to play Armchair GM with the gift of hindsight and state that someone should have been traded, but it was widely thought that Mahay would be the piece that Moore would deal at the deadline.

His inability to get something in return for Mahay when his value was conveniently at its peak is regrettable to say the least.

When compounding the lack of well-timed opportunism with the fact that absolutely none of Dayton Moore's expensive off-season bullpen acquisitions have panned out, you have found the recipe for late-inning meltdowns.

When an offense is as unable to score runs as this incarnation of the Royals offense is, that is simply untenable.

Welcome Respite From Real Baseball: Zack Greinke with a Defense Behind Him

Josh Duggan — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:05:59 -0400

Royals fans breathed a sigh of relief when Zack Greinke took the mound in the All-Star Game.

That sigh of relief was rooted in the fact that the worst defense in baseball (one that only got worse with the addition of Yuniesky Betancourt this past weekend) wouldn't be backing him up.

Even the worst defense wouldn't have really affected Greinke's performance tonight.

He threw 10 pitches, eight of which were strikes. He induced a weak pop fly in foul territory near third off the bat of Raul Ibanez. After disposing of Ibanez with ease, he sent David Wright down looking—painting the outside corner for strike three—and embarrassed Shane Victorino with his killer slider in the dirt.

Now granted, Wright's been slumping hard, but getting to see Greinke own a perennial MVP candidate and a Hawaiian endowed with the gift of flight on a national stage was comforting.

While things may have taken a drastic turn for the worse since the Royals sat atop the AL Central at 18-11, at least it would appear that the days of Ken Harvey or Mark Redman being the Royals' sole All-Star representative are in the past.

There is still a hefty degree of embarrassment that is attached to being a Royals fan, but Greinke has begun to ease the pain of that embarrassment.

Royals Links:

Speaking of embarrassment, here are two articles that draw attention to a certain statement regarding defensive metrics that Dayton Moore made on 810 WHB:

Upon Further Review (Kansas City Star blog) - Explaining the defensive stats to Dayton Moore

FanGraphs - Dayton Moore and Defense

There isn't a lot to say that wasn't covered in those articles. The complete aversion to statistical analysis that is apparent in the current Royals front office is disturbing to say the least.

Speaking of FanGraphs, Royals fans were lucky enough to get a positive article regarding the pitchers of the (distant) future here. One cannot help but wonder where Daniel Cortes would have fit in to this piece...

And, it's a couple of days old, but John Sickels (who named Greinke one of his top five favorite players in baseball) did a scouting report on the Burlington Bees this past week. There are some encouraging things going on in the low minors with these Royals.

Now if only Selig would go ahead an approve those contracts sitting on his desk for Wil Myers and especially Chris Dwyer, so that they can be welcomed into the fold. Dwyer could even get a little bit of work in...

Kansas City Royals at the Breaking Point?

Josh Duggan — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:41:00 -0400

After de-internetting myself for the past two weeks, I get to come back to this.

Any Royals fan knows what "this" is. I don't need to link to anyone's blogs. The fallout is widespread.

There isn't much that can be said about the acquisition of Yuniesky Betancourt. Or at least there isn't much that can be said to positively speak about the newest Royal. He is one of the worst everyday players in the Majors. Moreover, Daniel Cortes was one of the pieces dealt to get him.

There has been talk that perhaps Cortes's departure was related to a pair of misdemeanor charges filed against him related to drunken public urination.

If the Royals front office was trying to send a message, the only one they sent was to the fans.

That message is that the front office has no idea what they're doing.

In the offseason, I was willing to give Dayton Moore the benefit of the doubt when it came to the deals he had made. I believed that he could rebuild the bullpen with ease. I was willing to see how these pieces came together. I was of the "wait and see" camp, not wanting to eviscerate the front office for moves that could actually pan out.

Well, Ramon Ramirez is tearing it up for Boston (ERA+ of 200) while Coco Crisp is out for the year after playing with a messed up shoulder for what almost had to have been the entire season.

His OPS+ on the season was 91 when he went down. Leo Nunez has played well for Florida (ERA+ of 108) while Mike Jacobs is unplayable in the field and has posted a .218/.294/.401/.695 split while posting an OPS+ of 83.

Signings like Horacio Ramirez, Sidney Ponson, and Kyle Farnsworth have proved to be terrible. Even Juan Cruz, who was a universally praised signing, can only be qualified as a bust.

The only offseason acquisition that comes to mind as being even remotely solid is Willie Bloomquist, and that is largely because expectations were so low for Bloomquist in the first place.

Now there have certainly been a slew of injuries to key players on this Royals team. Alex Gordon is just now set to make his return to the team after playing poorly in seven games to start the season. Joakim Soria was injured for a month. Coco Crisp is now out for the season. Pieces of the bullpen John Bale, Doug Waechter, and Robinson Tejeda have both missed extensive time calling for Hillman to rely too heavily upon sketchy arms in ill-fitting situations.

Of course, Trey Hillman would have found a way to mismanage his bullpen even with all of the tools at his disposal.

But all of that is beside the point.

Dayton Moore just traded legitimate prospects, one who was very recently rated the top arm in the organization and the other a lefty (and we all know about their yearning for lefties), for a terrible player.

A lazy player who does absolutely nothing well past goldbricking.

I took on the task of devoting myself to writing a blog solely dedicated to the Kansas City Royals this past year. I thought things were looking up.

Now we find ourselves rooting for a team in the midst of a soul-crushing spiral. Not even a Cy Young-caliber first half from Zack Greinke has been able to save this team.

The front office is looking increasingly clueless as the offense is in its third straight year of regression, and they just traded away prospects who could have reasonably yielded a legitimate Major Leaguer but instead netted Yuniesky Betancourt.

After ten-plus years of getting increasingly upset with the Chiefs front office, the appearance of the Royals moving in the right direction for the past three years was one we Kansas City fans needed to cling to.

Yet I can no longer delude myself into believing that the Royals are moving in the right direction.

A Belated Brief on a Greinke Start in Houston

Josh Duggan — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:26:00 -0400

Sorry for my nine-day absence, Royalscentricity readers. I've taken on a third job, which means I'm up to 70 hours a week or so. This leaves little time for blogging, as I'm pulling doubles three days a week now.

That being said, I fully intend to keep going with this and my other blog, Inconsiderate Prick, along with my column at Sports Grumblings.

Now usually, I would have had a little time to shoot something off into the ether on Tuesday, but I drove to Houston to see Zack Greinke take on the Astros.

I did intend to do a write up about the game but clearly did not get around to it in a remotely timely fashion.

Obviously, Greinke wasn't at the top of his game. The Astros were getting on-base at a fairly high clip and driving his pitch count up.

His pitch count was pretty high after five (in the 70s, if memory serves me correctly), but he worked through his last three innings efficaciously and handed the ball off to Jack Soria to collect the save. Owning both in my keeper league, it was a very successful day in my book.

There were two key highlights in the game. The first was when Greinke struck out Pudge Rodriguez on a 63 MPH curve that had the Hall-of-Famer swinging so desperately that his bat ended up about four rows deep just past the visitor's dugout.

The second was Billy Butler's 408-foot bomb that careened off the second panes of glass up the outfield wall in deep left field.

On a weird sidenote, we ran into Dayton Moore's sister in the parking lot a couple of blocks from the Juice Box. She was very nice but regaled us with tales of ruthless Astros fans. I am happy to report that I didn't have to whoop up on any out-of-line 'Stros fans.

Everyone got along amicably. I'm sure if we were fans of a Major League team, we'd have taken some shit from people. We're Royals fans, though, and no one cares about us.

Just so you dear readers are aware, I will be out of town starting Sunday for a week. Little Brother is getting hitched.

As such, I'll be back in Minnesota for a week and then working on the 4th back here in Austin. Luckily, the Royals are playing the Twins (albeit in KC) so I'll still get a chance to see most of their games.

Maybe that's not lucky for me...

Were Those Four Kansas City Royals Wins Just Another Cruel Tease?

Josh Duggan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:59:00 -0400

With the Royals having bludgeoned my hope nearly to death with that abysmal 6 - 23 stretch (or whatever it was—the prospect of actually looking that up is simply too depressing), it was becoming hard to motivate myself to write about the Royals.

Over that span of games, the Royals played embarrassingly bad on seemingly every front. Defensively, the Royals were throwing the ball all over the field, allowing runners to advance on ill-advised throws that were variously deemed errors or otherwise. The offense scuffled to put anything together. The bullpen imploded early and often.

Of course, there was management. Luis Hernandez pinch-hit for Tony Peña, Jr. despite the fact that Mark Teahen and Mike Jacobs sat on the bench at his avail. And TPJ had managed to get a hit earlier in that ballgame.

The rationale for this seems to be that Trey Hillman will only replace someone in the lineup with another batter that can instantly take up that position out of fear that a multipositional player cannot handle switching spots on the field mid-game.

Regardless, with a chance to start a rally, Trey turned, looked down his bench, sized up the situation, and let Luis Hernandez lead off the ninth in a tie game.

On multiple occasions, John Bale has proven that despite his apparent ability to pitch, his defense is atrocious. Since he often comes in during high-leverage situations to face lefties, this is worrisome as many of the balls put in play while he is in the game come to the right side of the infield meaning he finds himself in the middle of these plays.

Then interleague started and the Royals got to win a few games. Morale was on the rise. Everything was coming up Milhouse—er, Royals.

Gil Meche has caught what Zack Greinke had in April and May.

Luke Hochevar threw a shocking 80 pitch complete game.

The Royals draft went very well, netting Aaron Crow, Wil Myers, and Chris Dwyer with their first, third and fourth round picks. Crow was not expected to slip to the Royals, Myers was almost universally regarded a first-round talent, and Dwyer is a player teams shied away from for signability concerns.

Respectively, they were the seventh, 31st, and 55th ranked players on the Baseball America list of Top 100 draft prospects for the '09 draft. I am by no means a prospecting guru (gold or otherwise), but it seems to me that on the surface these three picks are outstanding.

Zack Greinke was coming in to extend the winning streak to five games tonight.

The sun was shining down on Kansas City.

Then the Royals' defense got in the way.

Jose Guillen (a card-carrying member of The Extremely Limited Range Club) just barely failed to get to a fly ball in right, allowing Chris Young to advance from first to third on the Miguel Montero double. Young scored on a sacrifice fly on the ensuing at-bat, which would have been the third out of the inning were a fleet-footed man playing in right.

In the three-run fourth, Jose Guillen decided to hurl it towards home while off-balance, missing the plate by at least 15 feet. On the next play, down 2 -1 at this point, Miguel Olivo was unable to corral a Mark Teahen throw to the plate, and both Chris Young and Miguel Montero scored on the fielding error.

With suitable defense, one of those four runs score.

Sure, the Royals offense was MIA once a runner got aboard tonight, but the fact remains that this defense does nothing but dig holes for an offensively challenged ballclub to try to claw out of.

Further exacerbating things is the fact that this suspect defense is costing the starting pitchers outs. How many times in the past weeks has Alberto Callaspo failed to turn the double play because he was unable to get the ball out of his glove? How many singles turn into doubles and triples when they're hit into right?

With seemingly everyone in the bullpen deadset on implosion, the starting pitchers need to go as long as possible. Giving the opponents extra bases, outs, etc., how can one reasonably expect that to happen?

On a side note: Luis Hernandez pinch-hit again tonight.

On an unrelated good news note(s): John Sickels seems to be pretty impressed with Jordan Parraz, the player netted in the Tyler Lumsden dump. Sickels also seemed fairly impressed by the Royals draft. As there may not be a writer out there I trust more on the prospects front, it is nice to see Sickels giving Piccolo & Co. props.

Juan Cruz Is Royally Awful

Josh Duggan — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:18:00 -0400

It is getting harder and harder to pay attention to what is going on with the Kansas City Royals right now.

Last night, I left for the gym with the Royals having presumably driven Cleveland's Cliff Lee from the game in the top of the sixth, working his pitch count up over 100. They were leading 4-0 and were about to get to work on the hapless Indians bullpen.

I got back, watched some basketball, got dinner, and then thought to look at the box score.

What the $@#&?

I don't even want to know how the Indians managed to come back, let alone score eight runs after having been held scoreless through five. Apparently, some of the blame lays at the feet of the Royals' suspect defense once again, while the rest can be split up amongst the bullpen, chiefly Juan Cruz.

Cruz, whose signing I was very excited about, has been positively abysmal over his past seven outings.

On May 17, his ERA sat at a stellar 1.45. Since that game (but before this past debacle), his line read: 6 G, 5.0 IP, 3 K, 10 H, 5 BB, 9 R (all earned), and opponents hit .455/.556/.727/1.283 off of him.

If you would like the ERA and WHIP translated for you, that is 16.20 and 3.00, respectively.

And that was in his six appearances before this past evening's.

When you add in the one-third of an inning in which he allowed three earned runs on a single/fielder's choice/walk/hit-by-pitch sequence (all of whom of course scored on a Mark DeRosa grand slam off of Jamey Wright on the second pitch he saw), his ERA over his past seven outings is a whopping 20.26 and his WHIP is 3.37.

That ERA that worked its way down to 1.45 on May 17 is at 5.62 less than a month later. His WHIP that was under 1.00 at that point is now 1.42.

The more troubling thing is that before the shellacking on Tuesday, Cruz's BABIP was a scant .228 and his FIP 4.76. His K/BB was a worrisome 1.07. His K/9 is less than half of what it was last year and the year before. In fact, it is more than 1.50 lower than in any season.

While I am surely making too much out of a small sample size of stats, it is hard to write this all off as being especially unlucky. If anything, that BABIP indicates something very much to the contrary. Furthermore, the drop in strikeouts is deeply concerning.

Perhaps the most telling stat of all is his o-swing percentage. In his exceptionally effective 2007 and 2008 campaigns, Cruz was inducing o-swing percentages of 24.7 and 30.1. This season it is 18.9 percent, which makes me wonder if there is something amiss. Maybe he is tipping his pitches now. His contact percentage is up to 76.1 from 66.0 last year.

Whatever is going on with Cruz is seriously concerning me, and I can only hope that it works itself out. He did cost the Royals their second-round draft pick, after all.

At least the draft is happening. That will give me something to write about that doesn't make me want to set myself on fire.

A Month Later Than Normal, Are The Royals Done?

Josh Duggan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:02:00 -0400

Now that Zack Greinke had a start in which he looked vaguely human, the sky has completely fallen in on the Royals.

Ray W. at RoRetc is calling for heads (or rather, head) to roll. As Sam Mellinger at the Kansas City Star points out, the bullpen has allowed 33 earned runs in their last 30 2/3 innings for an ERA of 9.63.

Mere weeks ago, the Royals sat atop the division at 18-11.

Now their record is 23-27.

Over that 5-16 stretch, Kansas City's offense has been putrid, their defense abominable, and the bullpen indefensible. Even their starting pitching has scuffled for the most part.

Who are the Royals then? Are they the team that dazzled (in Royals terms at the very least) at 18-11? This awful product on the field can't be the truth, can it?

Both identities probably hold true.

I don't think this will be the only rough stretch this season, but another stretch of 18-11-ish ball is probably in the cards, too.

Health has certainly been an issue, with the bullpen hit more than maybe any other aspect of the team. Injuries to two of the Royals most effective relievers (Robinson Tejeda's walks be damned) have left them relying on the likes of Sidney Ponson and Horacio Ramirez far too often.

Ramirez, who Royals fans hope gets the pink slip with every roster move, may grant everyone that collective wish this week when Joakim Soria is reactivated and Coco Crisp is taken off the bereavement list.

The return of Soria, expected Tuesday, should move Cruz, Wright, and company into more comfortable territory. The current dregs of the bullpen would move into blowout only roles.

Injuries haven't just afflicted the team on the positional depth chart either. While Crisp and Mike Aviles have seen their performance suffer on the field as a result of their injuries, it is Gil Meche's struggles that have been most worrisome. His last start was very encouraging, but one cannot help but wonder whether Meche might have been best served doing a 15-day stint on the DL in the hopes of righting his ailing back.

One word, Gil: Yoga.

Regardless of all this, the Royals made a decent run at things for a month or so. Maybe they can keep themselves close enough to strike with a healthy Alex Gordon, but that is probably a long shot at this point. We as fans got a couple of months of meaningful baseball this time at least.

Now I guess we look forward to Disco ascending the ranks and hopefully pitching where he needs to—Kansas City.

Zack Greinke: Unknown Pleasures and Substituting Allegory for Superlatives

Josh Duggan — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:15:00 -0400

Honestly, it is getting pretty hard to write about what Zack Greinke is doing. Each game, he keeps raising the bar. To see an earned run scored off Zack is shocking, frankly. When he steps to the mound, regardless of how inept the Royals offense (or even the defense) is, it seems like all is right in the world.

The echelon to which Zack Greinke is ascending is tantalizing.

The long-dormant desires that Royals fans are becoming reacquainted with every fifth day could be likened to a person afflicted with Alzheimer's suddenly being rid of the memory loss altogether. After years of persevering the malaise of confusion and loss caused by Royals fandom, a beacon of clarity not only breaks through but tears us from the chains that bind us, freeing us to enjoy sports as so many others have gotten to in this long drought.

Immediately after Zack Greinke sates the success-starved Royals fan, the drought begins again. The fans are left to weather the storm that follows, hoping that someone, anyone, can provide us with that taste that we need.

To conflate this allegory with metaphor, Zack Greinke is our heroin, and the four days of withdrawal between fixes can be trying to say the least. Over these past few weeks, the symptoms of withdrawal have been getting increasingly ugly.

Kansas City Royals Face the Strange Ch-ch-changes

Josh Duggan — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:00:00 -0400

Well, that was fun, Luke. We'll see you again in a month or so?...

The Royals sent Luke Hochevar back down to Omaha after a fairly rocky stretch of three starts. In his three-start run, Hoch threw more than 3.1 innings exactly once. His ERA sat at 10.80.

His FIP, while better, was still 6.92. His K:BB ratio was 3:7. Clearly his success in the PCL did not translate over these three games.

In conjunction with the Hochevar demotion, the Royals place Robinson Tejeda and Mike Aviles on the DL. The Tejeda move to the DL clears up the whispers inquiring as to why Trey Hillman wasn't using him more recently.

Gamesmanship rears its head again. The Aviles injury and struggles that came with that injury are well-known. The Royals have to hope that the injury is truly what was wrong with Aviles, not that he is Angel Berroa v. 2.0.

With these three roster moves, the Royals brought up middle infielder Tug Hulett, right-handed power reliever Roman Colon, and the much talked about lefty-specialist John Bale.

These moves seem to point towards Sidney Ponson reclaiming the fourth spot in the rotation. By reclaiming, I mean that Hochevar played his way out of it, of course; by fourth spot in the rotation, I am by no means valuing him as such, as he is the fifth-best starter in this rotation.

Obviously, Luke Hochevar's performance in his most recent stint with the Royals was nothing to keep him in the rotation right now.

With the team struggling as much as it has been for the past two weeks, they could not afford to keep giving away games. For all his faults, Ponson pitched well enough to have kept the Royals in the game in four of his six starts.

Hopefully the return of John Bale (I cannot believe I am actually looking forward to his return) means that Horacio Ramirez will see his appearances limited to absolute blowouts.

The Colon promotion should also be seen as a means by which the Royals want to give themselves more power in the bullpen.

Tejeda's availability would seem to have been limited over the past few weeks, and the team has suffered as they trotted out soft tossers, Sidney Ponson and Horacio Ramirez out there in relief.

A change was clearly necessitated by the disappointing play that has been on display since the Angels series. This was supposed to be the stretch by which the Royals were able to put some separation between them and the rest of the Central. No such thing has happened.

During today's game, the Royals find themselves a mere 1.5 games better than the fourth place White Sox and .5 games better than the Twins. The Tigers have gone on a tear to coincide with the Royals poor play and are now four games out in front.

Let us hope that this change sparks something.

Cardinals Draw First Blood, Young Wide-Eyed David Caruso Next To Die

Josh Duggan — Sat, 23 May 2009 01:15:00 -0400

After giving up two runs in the bottom of the first inning, Kyle Davies calmed down working very efficient home halves of the second through fifth innings.

From the two-out two-run Nick Stavinoha single that drove in Brian Barden and Albert Pujols, Kyle Davies retired every Cardinals hitter until the dragon slayer, Albert Pujols batted with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, whereupon Pujols yanked a line drive single into shallow right. Along the way, Davies struck out seven.

Of course, the Royals struggled mightily to score runs, going scoreless through seven--finally driving the previously hittable Todd Wellemeyer from the game after putting the first two runners (Mike Jacobs and John Buck) on in the top of the seventh without recording an out.

Jason Motte quelled the best chance for a Royals rally with two outs after David DeJesus sacrifice bunted the two-slowest-Royals-not-carrying-the-surname-Guillen to second and third by striking out pinch-hitters Willie Bloomquist and Billy Butler on nothing but mid-to-high 90s fastballs.

Horacio Ramirez gave up an opposite-field gopher ball in the bottom of the seventh to Tyler Greene of all people, which extended the Cardinals lead to 3-0.

After the Royals failed to put any runs on the board, Ramirez came back out in the eighth inning and promptly gave up a single to left-handed hitter Skip Schumaker followed by a double by right-handed Brian Barden that was stopped quickly enough by David DeJesus that Schumaker still stood at third.

Riding an 11-game scoreless appearance streak, Kyle Farnsworth came in to clean up a bases loaded (Pujols was intentionally walked before Chris Duncan popped out in foul territory to Mark Teahen) situation and immediately gave up a two-run single to Khalil Greene.

His streak is still in tact, and with the way the Royals' bullpen has been lately, two runs allowed in that situation is about as good as you could hope for. It is vaguely reminiscent of the early season issues he had, unfortunately.

While the Cardinals offense was putting five runs on the board, the Royals offense managed exactly zero runs.

Those zero runs were off Todd Wellemeyer and the St. Louis Cardinals. That is the same Todd Wellemeyer who had pitched well enough to carry a 5.87 ERA and 1.74 WHIP into action. The same Todd Wellemeyer who had more earned runs allowed than strikeouts (30 to 27).

Obviously, Wellemeyer's .349 BABIP heading into action factored into his struggles, but the fact remains that the previously pedestrian Wellemeyer thoroughly dominated the Royals.

The sweep is out of the picture now, but one has to start to wonder when the Royals will begin to put things back together again. They have now squandered three straight quality starts with offensive ineptitude (not that the bullpen has done them any favors either, of course).

Kansas City's hopes for contention cannot weather this storm much longer. They need to start scoring runs.

Kobe Bryant: Dirty Player Or Dirtiest Player?

Josh Duggan — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:24:10 -0400

Obviously, there is a fairly extensive history of cheap and dirty plays in Kobe Bryant's career.

Simply put, if Bryant's play were a nice suit, that suit would be lined with so much fecal matter no amount of Martinizing would rid that suit of the stench it is burdened with.

It seemed like every other week while the Lakers were scuffling a few years back, Bryant was trying to manufacture a drawn foul from thin air, going out of his way to create contact while flailing around on perimeter shots, leaving dazed Marko Jarics, Kyle Korvers, and Manu Ginoblis in his path.

Or you could look back to just the last series. A Kobe cheap shot to Ron Artest's throat ended up leading to an Artest ejection (an unjustified one at that). Bryant elbows were also flying the game prior, dubiously lashing out at Shane Battier.

During Game Two of the Western Conference Finals—which this writer happens to think the Nuggets will win in six—a particular play sticks out as being yet another in a long line of dirty plays that goes completely without comment.

Everyone always talks about how dirty guys like Bill Laimbeer or Bruce Bowen or Robert Horry are/were. There are certainly parties who say the same about Bryant, but his skill set is such that it largely overshadows his pervasive filthiness.

Case in point: On a Carmelo Anthony miss from 26 feet, Bryant violently pushed Dahntay Jones with two hands from behind to throw Jones out of bounds and get the rebound. He turned, dribbled, and fed the breaking Trevor Ariza down court for a lay-up to go up 70-64 with 5:09 to go in the third.

On the push, Jones went flying out of bounds, out of control. When Mike Breen & Co. were breaking down the play in replay, not one person—not Mike Breen, not Jeff Van Gundy, not Mark Jackson—mentioned the fact that Kobe committed the loose ball foul.

No one even joked that Bryant got away with one there.

They just lauded Bryant for the pass.

Maybe they realize if they pointed out every little cheap shot Bryant unfurled on his opponents, they would not get to talk about anything else.

Unfortunately, that probably is not the case. Bryant is a star; a cheap star, but a star. Not only is he going to get preferential treatment from the refs, he is bound to get that same care from the announcers.

It is too bad Bryant is not held more accountable for his dirty ways.

I Thought Cleveland's Bullpen was Supposed to Be the Bad One...

Josh Duggan — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:16:00 -0400

After an epic win like the one on Tuesday night, one would have hoped that the Royals would build on that momentum and close out the last place Indians in a three-game sweep. Then the bullpen happened.

On both this afternoon and last night, the Royals top two starters, Gil Meche and Zack Greinke, left with the lead.

On both occasions, the bullpen—led by the sterling performances of Jamey Wright, Horacio Ramirez, Ron Mahay, Sidney Ponson, Robinson Tejeda, and Juan Cruz (and in case you weren't paying attention, that's nearly the whole bullpen).

One name shockingly left off that list is Kyle Farnsworth, who will officially be removed from the Shit List as soon as this post is completed.

While Farnsworth is not currently imploding every time he steps on the mound, it seems like everyone else is. Most disturbing is Jamey Wright. The reason this is most disturbing is that he had been one of Hillman and McClure's go-to men.

If one were to simply glance at Wright's stats on the season, his 2.42 ERA with a K:BB ratio of 15:6 and a WHIP of 1.26 would lead the average person to think he's been pretty effective.

Unfortunately, the ratios are a bit of a mirage. In his four holds, he has allowed two earned runs twice. Speaking of runs allowed, he has also allowed seven unearned runs to his six earned runs.

Granted, some of this can be attributed to his ground ball tendencies, but two of those unearned runs came during the complete meltdown in Anaheim which featured him airmailing a throw to center field that should have resulted in an inning ending double play.

In his next appearance out of the pen, the Royals were down one run when Jamey Wright came in with one out and Adam Kennedy standing on first base.

He proceeded to give Kennedy second on a wild pitch, walk Bobby Crosby, have Orlando Cabrera reach on a Mark Teahen error to load the bases, plunk Kurt Suzuki with the bases loaded, induce a Jason Giambi foul out, allow an infield single plating the runner at third, and proffer a pitch to Jack Cust which was promptly crushed for a three-run double.

In case you missed it, he recorded one out in that sequence and allowed an inherited runner to score on a hit by pitch. Today, Wright came in to face Jhonny Peralta with a runner on and immediately gave up another RBI double, this time in a tie game. To say his appearances of late have been rocky would be a gross understatement.

This is not to say that there are not others without fault. Ron Mahay came in today with two inherited base runners from one of the messier Juan Cruz appearances of the season (in one-third of an inning, Cruz's ERA jumped from 1.45 on the season to 3.32) and gave up a double to Victor Martinez.

Yes, V-Mart is hitting somewhere around .700 this season, but the inability to clean up a mess left by another pitcher has been a problem on more than one occasion for Mahay as well.

Mahay and Wright are pieces of the bullpen puzzle that are probably vital to the Royals success this season.

I could start focusing on guys like Horacio Ramirez and Sidney Ponson, who took the blown save/loss designation these last two games but were both undermined by fellow bullpen mates and the defense behind them, but they are essentially going to be needed for spot starts and mop up duty.

The nature of the Royals bullpen is such that the effectiveness of Mahay and Wright would seem integral to the Royals' ability to hold leads late.

Their sketchy outings of late do raise the question is it time for Kyle Farnsworth to be brought out of the doghouse. Yes, in high leverage situations this season, he has been a catastrophe.

No, I am not a masochist by nature (despite my Royals and Chiefs fandom). The fact of the matter is Kyle Farnsworth has now gone 11 straight appearances without allowing a run. Over that stretch of time, he has allowed seven hits and two walks while striking out 11 in 12 innings.

Obviously, such a proposition is a scary one, but as a different piece of the pen crumbles around him, the Professor stands tall. It is hard to ignore what he has done over his last 11 times out there.

Moreover, is there anything that we Royals fans are afraid of Farnsworth doing that isn't already being taken care of by the "more reliable" arms in the bullpen?

As much as it pains me to say this, I think it is time to test the waters with Kyle Farnsworth again. If you want to read that as being an act of desperation, dropping six of nine against last place teams has reduced me to that.

With the Tigers suddenly looking like the team they were supposed to be last season when they were going to dominate all of baseball, the Royals cannot mess around any longer.

At least, Jake Peavy nixed the offer that would have sent him to the White Sox. That was scary for me as a Royals fan and a Jake Peavy fantasy owner.

Kansas City Royals: In-Game Musings of a Madman

Josh Duggan — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:34:00 -0400

All Times CDT (eat it, East and West Coasters)

7:05 pm—Well, I'm going to try this out to see how it goes. Seeing as though my DVR makes me a demigod, I'll be able to rewind anything I miss while typing. This by no means will be an everyday thing. An undertaking of that enormity would be my undoing. The Royals have taken over my life enough as it stands.

7:09 pm—I've gotta say, Brian Bannister's goatee is getting more and more formidable. If that goatee were an actor from yore, it'd be Lee Marvin.

7:12 pm—Despite choking up on the bat as high as a nine-year-old, Asdrubal Cabrera rips a double over DeJesus' head. It seems like there are a lot of balls that David DeJesus is not getting to that Willie Bloomquist probably would have a play on.

On Sizemore's flyout to the warning track, I had a moment of concern wherein Asdrubal Cabrera might be able to tag up from second and actually make it home on Coco Crisp's arm, or lack thereof.

And there's a run...

Nice throw to the cutoff man, Coco.

And Banny paints the corner to get Mark DeRosa out looking. Damage limited to one run. Slight sigh of relief is breathed.

7:20 pm—Good Lord, Billy Butler is getting good wood on the ball every time he's up. With Alex Gordon sidelined, this was definitely a necessity if the Royals were to weather that storm.

On the 1-1 pitch to Jose Guillen I had a flashback to last season, in which he would have swung at that ball inside and looked foolish. Granted, he flew out to center on the next pitch, but at least that was a strike. His discipline in the batter's box this year is absolutely shocking to me. So much so that I feel compelled to talk about it incessantly.

7:27 pm—Well, at least Bannister got Matt LaPorta swinging on the pitch after the "checked" swing. Two Ks. Throwin' rocks tonight, boys.

And the second inning is in the books with Bannister having looked quite a bit more in control than in the first. I guess that's the thing with the no-seam that you can't really control...

7:35 pm—Those Mark Teahen numbers against Cliff Lee have to all be from 2007, right? .368 with two socked dongs and only five Ks in 38 at-bats. That's hard to fathom.

I guess he picks him up at will though, because he got a bead on that one. Hell, Mike Jacobs scored from first on that one.

And he runs into an out on the basepaths again. Hasn't Ben Francisco already thrown him out at least once this season? I know you're a good base runner, Mr. Teahen, but come on. You've been thrown out at least four times in this early season while trying to stretch out hits and advancing on fly balls.

7:43 pm—I thought Burl Ives was dead.

Three Ks! Qadry Ismail, look out! There's a new Missile.

Quick work in the third. Always nice when Bannister's on the mound.

7:50 pm—And...another out on the basepaths. Why, Alberto? Why? Bert Calypso strikes again.

7:54 pm—Glad that Shin-Soo Choo fly ball was hit right at Guillen. If it weren't, Choo would probably be standing on second base.

You get the sense that the Royals need to hand it to the Indians in this series to make their claim on the AL Central. With Detroit facing the red-hot Rangers concurrently, it would seem that now is the time to make up that game and make a statement after a less-than-impressive six games against cellar-dwellers Oakland and Baltimore. That statement needs to be, "We do not let lesser teams beat us."

Back to the game, that Coco dive was pretty close, all things considered. It's too bad Callaspo's relay to the plate wasn't a little more to the third base side of the plate. They may have had a play...

8:04 pm—With these Royals, you never know what kind of night you're going to get offensively, but you have to be pleased when Cliff Lee doesn't reecord a strikeout until the fourth inning. Now that Mike Jacobs is in the batter's box, I suppose the odds for that second one going in the books are pretty good. Yep. Two Ks now.

Oh, shit. I haven't had a beer yet. What is wrong with me?

Inning over. Guillen stranded at first. Beer time.

8:10 pm—No beer? Dammit.

Bunts? Back-to-back? Play like men, Cleveland.

Weird double play. Out at first. Run down between first and second. Then Luis Valbuena tries to deck Miguel Olivo with Olivo jumping up ready to go. Might not be the guy you wanna fuck around with there, Valbuena. He will pummel you until your kidneys are pudding and your heart prunes up.

8:17 pm—The question here is if Olivo is going to be motivated enough to take this ball yard. Well, he harnessed his rage and laced a single between third and short. Watch out, catcher, on the basepaths. Will he steal home with a full count and two outs?

DeJesus takes care of advancing Olivo to second. Anticipation builds.

Bloomquist's deep fly to right center takes care of third base. The tension is palpable with the lefty Lee's back turned. Do it, Miguel. Do it.

You ruined it, Mr. Crisp. First pitch? Argh!

8:24 pm—Whiskey time. Glenrothes Select Reserve to be exact. Two fingers, neat, in a tumbler. Not as American as a can of Schlitz, but what can you do?

It's always weird for me to think that Mark DeRosa is 34 years old. It must be rough to wait for that long before becoming an everyday player. I guess that's the curse of playing on a good team for so long.

Man, Callaspo and Bloomquist were both so close on that DeRosa grounder over the second base bag.

As Teahen elects to turn two rather than try to take the out at home, one gets the sense that this game is over in the top of the sixth with the Indians up two.

And as the game feels like it's slipping away, news of eight innings of one-hit ball from Dontrelle Willis against the Rangers comes across the screen.

With that hit-by-pitch that Matt LaPorta drew, you almost hope that he broke something there.

If a 3-1 lead wasn't insurmountable, it sure feels like this 5-1 lead is...

Banny, Dorn has come in from third, and he's telling you to "Strike this [awkward TV edit] guy out." Looks like you listened to Psych's dad. Good work. It'd be better if that two-run moonshot wasn't mixed in there, though.

8:36 pm—Sonic Slam time. Make up for that baserunning gaffe here, Bert. Oddly, six of his 11 strikeouts on the season have come in the last 10 games. Is something amiss, Senor Calyspo? Relax. Stop pressing. You'll stay in the mix for the doubles crown. How was Choo playing right there? He's clearly using black magic.

Billy "Bam-Bam" Butler knocks a double off the wall and suddenly hope stirs in the heart of this miserly Royals fan.

Warm the cockles of my heart, Jose Guillen.

The ball drops, and it is bobbled! With Guillen on second, it will only take a double to plate him.

Mostly irrelevant as Mike Jacobs is sure to blast a home run into the fountain here. Or inadvertently make contact on a checked swing grounding out to the pitcher about 15 feet from the plate.

Teahen lines out to short, and the Royals are only down three. Lee's pitch count is so low, that it is hard to get too hopeful for four more runs scored tonight.

8:46 pm—In comes The Game Changer, Horacio Ramirez, to face the top of the Indians order.

Asdrubal? Done.

Sizemore? Downsized.

AL Batting Average Leader Victor Martinez? Apparently, he grew up wanting to be Ozzie Guillen (shortstop not an outspoken hot-head—or at least I assume that he wasn't aspiring to be a hot-head, as that seems like an odd dream). Walk. Don't give them base runners, Herr Ramirez.

Choo? Eaten.

Indians, you've been Horacio Ramirezed. That's like getting posterized by Shawn Bradley, the best player in the history of the NBA.

8:54 pm—Panic and the specter of sitting two games down in the Central to the Tigers are both starting to settle in. Maybe I need to stop caring about sports. It will surely make me insane.

Olivo Time!

Apparently Willis only went six and a third—a little less imposing, I guess.

Post-script on Olivo Time: More often than not, this equates to a strikeout. Our wildest dreams were fulfilled on that one.

David DeJesus is up with eight outs left. With the way he is—or rather, isn't—hitting, you know what this means. Pop fly. The defensively-challenged Matt LaPorta need not leave his comfort zone to get to that ball.

Hope lies on the shoulders of Willie Bloomquist. Mariners fans, Bill Bavasi, and Asdrubal Cabrera chuckle at the thought, and Bloomquist grounds out to short.

9:01 pm—Note to Heineken: Putting a Biz Markie sing-along in your ads cannot cover up the fact that your product is a substandard domestic lager packaged in a lame green bottle and marked up because it was shipped across an ocean.

HoRam comes back out to take it to the streets, Michael McDonald-style, beard and all. And to Matt LaPorta he says, "I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see." Sit down.

9:08 pm—Coco Crisp's strike zone judgment is insane. He is laying off pitches that are so close and not getting burned often. Perhaps his eye is keeping him from going after balls he would have gotten hits off of last year, but his OBP more than makes up for the putrid average.

Regardless, three straight fly balls to Choo, and I'm looking for things to throw.

9:13 pm—The Professor makes his way to the mound. Nine straight scoreless outings seems impossible after that first week or so.

Billy Butler's glovework elicits a "Nice grab" from the old lady.

Another ground ball to the right side of the infield. Another out for Farnsworth in the Bizarro Kougar.

David DeJesus front crawls* to that could-have-been gapper off the bat of Cabrera.

*Also, the product of the old lady's viewership.

9:21—Kerry Wood comes out and if his last outing against the Royals is an indicator of what is to come, the bottom of the ninth is a mere formality.

Guillen comes up and just as quickly as he got there is out with a whimper.

3-1 to Jacobs. Crush it. Crush it. Full count. For about 70 days.

CRUSHED!

MARK TEAHEN CRUSHES ANOTHER. CUE EPIC MUSIC. BACK-TO-BACK! AND THEY'RE BOTH ON MY FANTASY TEAM! THAT SHIT IS GOLDEN.

Olivo to make it three? He's sure swinging for the fucking fences. Faked out on that breaking ball inside. Wait, Miguel Olivo is working the count? Jack Attack chalks it up to lamest facial hair ever on the chin of one Kerry Wood. This is fashion crime karma, Wood.

DeJesus with a clutch triple with one out. Hope is not dead. Hope is very much alive. One out. Willie Bloomquist comes to the plate. You've got to think he's going to drive this run in.

Ballgame? That wild pitch almost did it.

Willie Ballgame...3-1. That's it. Sac fly. Ball game.

Fuck yeah!

9:35 pm—So I guess I picked the right game to do this on. A roller coaster ride if I've ever seen one. The Royals throw down the gauntlet in the bottom of the ninth, come back from the dead, erase a three-run lead, and DeJesus scores on a deep Bloomquist sacrifice fly to the strong-armed Choo after driving in the game-tying run on a triple the play before.

This Royals fan is pretty damn happy.