FanPost

BODs: July 26 and 27

Long time,no post. Just as well, as I have been trying to work all week at the K while enduring the worst summer cold I have ever had. Not much fun, when your throat is too sore to swallow, but you need to yell "peanuts" and need to drink water to stay hydrated as well. Enough of my whining. On to the awards!

July 26:
BOD: JDLR and Smirky
SK: Pena and DDJ
HM: Greinke

Gotta award a SP who allows zero runs to that lineup, no matter if it was less than artistic. Too many baserunners; not enough IP? That's quibbling against that lineup. Smirky has to rate high, not only for the near cycle, but for several good defensive plays, both at 1B and at 3B. When he allows his natural abilities to shine through, well, it's pretty obvious he could be special one day. Let's hope he continues to grow into somebody to one day remember. Damn near gave Pena the BOD just for drawing a walk - pretty disappointed there was no fireworks to commemorate the occasion, a la Quinn. DDJ had the key hit of the game, IMHO, with the two out, two run double that made a 1-0 game 3-0. Greinke, once again making me drool with the possibility of seeing him become a starter and throw like he does when he is a reliever, was awesome. 25 pitches, 8 outs recorded against 7 batters? Against that lineup? Tell me again why he needs to pace himself if he ever gets another crack at the rotation? I just have to see him in the rotation one more time before agreeing he should be the closer. That stuff is simply electric. Everybody, with the exception of A-Rod, was way behind his fastball.
MVO: Hideki Matsui, for serving as JDLR's personal escape hatch. Twice JDLR pitched around A-Rod (as he promised he would do), twice Matsui made key outs. Too bad for the Royals "fans" from Kansas City's sister city in Japan, who came for the game, and proclaimed in the paper to be Royals fans. They were heard by this vendor to be rooting for Matsui. Screw them, and their city - we don't need you, and I'm glad you saw Matsui fail.

July 27:
BOD: Bannister
SK: Butler
HM: Grud, Teahen

Bannister pitched beautifully - nothing else to say. Butler? Well, I'm waiting for something to go wrong, because this sort of thing just doesn't happen to our franchise, does it? The Natural, counting just his 2nd stint with the Royals, now has 4 HRs and 26 RBIs in just 29 games. Also hitting over 330. Also now tied for the team lead in GWRBIs with 6. If you're wondering, that's a pace for about 23 HRs and 145 HRs over a full season.
Read that again..... Now, realize he is only twenty fricking one. What if he improves with a normal learning curve? Are we looking at a potential MVP one day? That's hard to do as a DH, but...  I was very happy to see his 2nd AB tonight, after the 3 run bomb, when he purposely led with his hands and hit a grounder to the right side, setting up the SF by Gload. Normally, rookies are still trying to prove they belong in the bigs, this guy is making the unselfish team play already. Now, personally I'd tell him to stop that and just hit eventually, since he is cleanup, but for now I am very happy to know that he is seemingly putting the team first. Grud and Teahen did a nice job setting the table tonight, and Grud chipped in with an RBI and a nice defensive play as well.

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