Ten Percent Progress Report

Well, we're one-tenth of the way through the year. And, as promised, the second of our 20 progress reports, at each five percent mark (roughly eight games). While yes, the sample size is still small, it's still interesting to track the ups and downs in easily digestible segments. So, let's get on with it.

Pitching: Last time, I began by saying the team is SICK. Well, this time that's changed. It's no longer the team that is sick at pitching. It's now certain players that are sick.

On the list of "Sick and needing no cure": Brian Bannister (3-0, .86 ERA, 1 complete game). Bannister continues to exceed expectations. While yes, it's still early and everyone is waiting for that regression to happen, he's so far managed to toss 21 innings, giving up just 10 hits and 2 earned runs while working a 13-5 K:BB ratio. Bannister's got two of the top 5 AL pitching performances in Game Score this year, the only player who can say that. His latest performance was even better than his stellar April 2nd game. On April 13, Banny went a complete game, allowing three hits, no runs (the Guillen drop does not count against him), one walk and 3 Ks. I'll plagiarize myself here: Yowza. That can't last, but dang. It'd be nice if it could.

Zack Greinke: fighting for best pitcher on the staff, which is a good fight to have. Zack's currently insane, and not in the "missing a year" way, but the "holy hell, he's been good" way. Here are his game lines: Game 1: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K. Game 2: 8 IP, 6H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. Game 3: CG, 5 H, 1 ER, 1BB, 4 K. Those are some eerily similar numbers so far. He's rocking a .75 ERA. Until things change, let's just keep using my summations from last time: He's playing well and even if he regresses a bit, he'll still be darn good.

And in other great news, we still have four bullpen members who have yet to give up a run. Soria, Gobble, Ramirez and Nunez have yet to give up a run. Combined, those four have 21 IP, 10 H, 3BB, 28 K. In effect, they're a Bannister, but even better.

But in the bad news category, we've got this: Tomko and Bale do not get us wins. Bale gave up 3 runs in 6 innings (not bad), then 5 runs in 4 innings (bad). Tomko has not totally sucked, though. He's pitched, quite honestly, better than expected. He's pitched 11 innings as a starter and given up only 2 runs. Not bad at all. But for whatever reason, the offense doesn't show up when these guys pitch. More on that later.

Also bad news pitching, in quick-hit form because this is already going to be long: Hideo should pitch Nomo (see what I did there?)... Gil Meche has not been a No. 1 starter yet... and Bannister and Greinke only pitched once each in the last 8 games.

Batting: There are clear tiers being set up. Great, average and Boo/Hiss.

Great: Alex Gordon is still obscene (.333/.364/.540). Remarkably, he's only struck out just three times in the last eight games. He's now third on the team in Ks. Impressive job on not striking out. Still leading the team in hits and home runs (on pace for 30), RBI and total bases.

Teahen and Butler (.339/.403 (7 walks... nice)/.458)are still pounding it. Butler's league-leading 13-game hit streak ended, sadly. In other good batting surprises: Callaspo has hit .350/.350/.500 in just 20 AB and Miguel Olivo has been giving John Buck a run for his money with a .286/.318/.571 line. Nice. Grudzy's still hitting very respectable, too.

Average: John Buck, Ross Gload and Joey Gathright, welcome to the "Productive, yet uninspiring" category. I don't really have anything negative to say... Buck's drawn 6 walks to boost his OBP to .340... Gathright's got 7 steals, which isn't bad... Ross Gload has 5 walks to boost his OBP to .370, which is better than Gordon's. It's just that none of the three have any power whatsoever. None. 3 doubles and one home run between the three of them. Not bad, but not good... just meh.

Have nots: I have a feeling TPJ will reside here all year. In good news, he's more than doubled all his numbers. Sadly, his numbers are still .114/.130/.136. Yeah. It's thanks to two two-hit games, really. Guillen also is sucking. He now leads the team in Ks with 13. .169/.194/.262. It's time to start earning your biggest salary on the team, Jose. 90 percent of the season left, Guillen.

One last note: The Royals can't score more than 6 runs.

Standings: The Royals are in second. Boo! But only by a half game. Yay! The Royals are only four games out of last place. Boo! But the Royals are two games ahead of third-place Minnesota. Yay! And two games over .500! Yay again! The Royals went 3-5 in the last five percent and are now on pace for a 91-71 season. I can deal with that. I'd totally be ok with that.

This period's roundup: Bannister and Greinke get us wins, and Tomko and Bale don't. Meche is somewhere in between. Unfortunately, The B-Gs only pitched one time each (both DEVASTATINGLY good games). The next five percent should get each 2 starts, so we'll see what happens. And our singles-based attack continues to be like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Our good pitchers fortunately take the bullets out, and the not-as-good pitchers supply at least one bullet, which: still beats a knife. At 9-7 and just out of first, I'm totally OK with that. We need to remember that .500 seemed a dream, and we're still over that.

Current record: 9-7, half game out of first place, two games up on Minnesota.