a solution for ss and theories why the offense is terrible

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 10:16 AM EDT Comment 41 comments

I have a few theories as to why our offense is not really as bad as it seems.

In Billy Butlers last 6 games hes had 23 at bats, Butler only has 5 hits( all singles) for a .217 average with only one walk. If your good hitters struggle you really have no chance. Once he comes around the offense will improve. Another reason Mr. Jose Guillen come on down. He went 2-3 last night and raised he average to .190 I am hoping hes just having a sluggish april. After all David Wright started off with no homeruns for april and he found away to hit 30 hrs by the end of the season.

Now for my Solution for the starting ss.

Get rid of tony pena jr for good. The nationals are looking to trade ronnie belliard. He is a great defender who can play ss and hit 290 with 11 hrs last yr!!!! The nationals are also looking to move one of their outfielders. How about a flier on willy mo pena who has been struggling in a reserve role?

P.S

Zack Greinke please come through and win tonight I have you as my sleeper for the cy young.

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One could safely assume that TPJ has never

taken HGH….unless it all went to his ears.

Let's Go Blues!

by powderbluesfor08 on Apr 25, 2008 10:44 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Ronnie Belliard?

He’s hitting .214/.313/.339 and has played five games at shortstop in his career. He’s not even that good a defensive second baseman, there’s no way he could handle shortstop.

Wily Mo Pena would be nice, but they just acquired him last fall and signed him to an extension, so I doubt they’d trade him.

Our offensive woes are really not a big mystery. We had a pretty terrible offense last year. Gordon and Butler could be expected to improve, and they have. But our biggest addition was Guillen, and he hasn’t hit thus far. I don’t think adding a player will change things that much. We have to wait for our guys to come around.

We’re 13th in OBA and 14th in SLG. That usually will lead you to be 14th in runs scored.

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Apr 25, 2008 10:56 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Bonds.

by djk royal on Apr 25, 2008 11:06 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yeah but the 214 is a small sample compared to all of last season

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 11:14 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Good point

But he was pretty average last year. A huge improvement over TPJ for sure, but I seriously doubt the could handle shortstop. And if you’re going to put a guy like that at short, you may as well play Callaspo.

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Apr 25, 2008 11:16 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

oo see thats what i forgot to mention

in my idea we trade grudz at the deadline to a contending team desperate for a 2b man so callaspo is at 2nd an belliards at ss

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 11:22 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

If you are getting rid of Gruz anyway.

Why not have Callaspo at SS and Beliard at 2B. I personally wouldn’t give up on Grudz yet but I could be convinced if there were a SS in the deal. I would like to see German traded if anything because he may get more in return.

Proud father of a budding Royals fan.

by Skirra on Apr 25, 2008 11:31 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yeah but if you keep grudz you cant justify not signing someone like bonds.

because grudz is how old like 36 and if we dont have a win now mentality we have a rebuilding mentality. and if we are rebuilding a 36 yrold shouldent really be on this team.

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 11:37 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The difference...

is one is gritty and the other grouchy. It sounds like the pay might even be similar between the two at this point. Long story short. A tad below average and gritty is > one of the best hitters ever and grouchy. Oh, and Grudz is actually blocking two second basemen that are probably better. Bonds would be blocking Ross Gload.

by djk royal on Apr 25, 2008 11:45 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

gload cannot be blocked !!!

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 11:59 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

"Grudz is actually blocking two second basemen that are probably better"

Really? I don’t think that’s true at all. Callaspo might be pretty good eventually, but he’s certainly not as good as Grudz at this moment and German is a great utility guy, but he’s not an everyday 2B.

by royaldaddy on Apr 26, 2008 12:09 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

If we are rebuilding, a 33 year old like Belliard should not be on the team either

As Skirra pointed out above, you can accomplish the offensive upgrade at SS by playing Callaspo at SS.

by Gopherballs on Apr 25, 2008 11:46 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Guillen...

is 31 or 32. Should we cut him too?

by djk royal on Apr 25, 2008 11:53 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

no we should just have never signed him, thats a whole nother conversation though..

than again a guy like gabe kapler is outright embarassing guillen though 12% of the season. for about 11 million less.

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 12:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Belliard is neither a "great defender" nor can he play SS

RZR has him below average (.800 with 30 out of zone outs). Considering defense, Belliard offers no real upgrade over Grudz.

by Gopherballs on Apr 25, 2008 11:39 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

belliard isnt bad hes not great but hes better than tony pena jr when you factor in his offense.

belliard actually had 6 errors which was equal to grudz so it is sort of a draw.

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 12:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

His range is terrible

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Apr 25, 2008 12:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

absolutely so we should stick with the modern day rey ordonez and be content to see him slap a

ball for a base hit bi weekly?? Cmon MIcah Owings has a higher batting average

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 12:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hey, I'm no TPJ fan

But the alternative is not Ronnie Belliard.

Put Callaspo at short.

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Apr 25, 2008 12:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Grudz is a much better fielder than Belliard

Looking just at errors is a lousy way to evaluate defense. There are several advance metric like RZR that analyze actual play by play data to rate defenders. Belliard is barely adequate at 2B and would be a disaster at SS. Preventing runs count just as much as scoring runs, and Belliard at SS would give up more runs than his bat could generate. I am all for finding an upgrade over Pena(including the one sitting on the bench), but Belliard makes no sense.

by Gopherballs on Apr 25, 2008 12:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i just said belliard because you can get him for nothing since the nationals allready have a 2b men

so who would you be inclined to bring in for 2b this season or even next since grudz cant play forever.

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 12:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The other guy on the bench

Callaspo is the long term 2B, but he can play SS for the short term. In the meantime, Grudz or German can play 2B. In the long term, the team really needs to find a new SS.

Felipe Lopez is a free agent at the end of the year (and the Nats have shopped him, not Belliard), so the Nats will not give Belliard away for free.

by Gopherballs on Apr 25, 2008 12:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

if the royals love defense so much for ss

they should get anderson hernandez (sarcasm)

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 1:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Our outfield, 1b...

and SS are all playing lousy. 1b and SS were a given. The outfield is our “core” so that’s a little scary.

by djk royal on Apr 25, 2008 11:41 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

i really dont understand why the royals dont get bonds

he hit 28 hrs in like 350 abs half of our players couldent do that in 700 abs….

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 1:18 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Half?? l would say most of our players couldnt

Only guys who could have a chance is Guillen, Gordon, Butler, Buck, Olivo and thats it

A lot of you wont like me... by I assure you my opinion will be voiced GO ROYALS!

by focs on Apr 25, 2008 2:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Bonds simply does not fit in with

everything we’ve seen since Moore has taken over the team.

A mind without purpose will walk in dark places.

by NHZ on Apr 25, 2008 7:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

technically bonds has never been proven of any wrong doing.

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 7:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Uh huh,

and his trainer kept going to jail for him. Amongst a ridiculous amount of other evidence that I’ll be happy not to throw at you. Suffice to say I do not like Bonds, and my hate for him might be a little irrational.

That aside, it still makes little sense for us to pick up Bonds. We’re not a “win now” team.

A mind without purpose will walk in dark places.

by NHZ on Apr 25, 2008 8:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i was trying to not embarass them

by Billybutlerformvp on Apr 25, 2008 2:19 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Dont do them the favor.. they embarrass themselves

A lot of you wont like me... by I assure you my opinion will be voiced GO ROYALS!

by focs on Apr 25, 2008 2:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I can't believe I'm writing this, but...

the Royals should keep TPJ around, at least for this season. Don’t take this as a ringing endorsement of TPJ. I’m arguing for this because, as NHZ and others have said, we are NOT a win-now team. Looking long term, it will probably be best to take our lumps with TPJ this year unless a great opportunity for a trade is presented to us. The free agent crop of shortstops is uninspiring, but this is what happens to ya when your shortstop of the future turns out to be Angel Berroa.

Moving Callaspo to short is NOT the answer—we all know that his defense is much better at 2b, and even if Grudz isn’t traded in July, he almost certainly won’t be re-signed. German isn’t the answer either, for obvious reasons (nor should Callaspo be moved to SS and German take over for 2b if/when we trade Grudz).

Our best move to address the lack of offense coming from SS would be to engineer a trade for someone like Chin-Lung Hu. We’re weak at first baseman and outfield as well, but at least those areas can be addressed through free agency.

by DarthYoshi on Apr 25, 2008 10:20 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Hu for who?

I don’t think the Dodgers are going to give up next years starting SS for a bag of balls. Trading for any minor league SS who can hit and field will be very difficult. How about picking college short stops in rounds 1 through 4 of the amateur draft? What’s the story with Aviles? Is he bad defender?

by The commentator formerly known as Yoda on Apr 25, 2008 11:34 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You don't draft to need.

I mean, if there’s a SS there, fine, but if you’ve got the third pick and the best SS is 12th on the board, you don’t take him.

Sarcasm™. It's the new gravy.

by jonfmorse on Apr 25, 2008 11:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Aviles is already 27

...and is likely to peak in the next couple of years, but is still in AAA ball. I don’t think the Royals view him as a true prospect.

and jonofmorse is right about the draft—you need to draft best player available.

I think we potentially could get a trade for Hu—I’m not saying it’ll be cheap, but if the Dodgers really are talking extension w/ Furcal, I think that we could potentially get Hu for one of our pitching prospects and a throw-in.

by DarthYoshi on Apr 26, 2008 1:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

sign bonds and trade him to the dodgers?

This space intentionally left blank.

by marbotty on Apr 26, 2008 5:41 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Step outside the box

Everyone who goes in the top half of the first round has a chance to be a fine player. Why not draft for position scarcity ON OCCASION.

by The commentator formerly known as Yoda on Apr 26, 2008 4:23 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Because it takes so long to reach the big leagues

By the time this college shortstop reaches the big leagues, we may already have a solution at shortstop. This ain’t the NFL or NBA where you can plug guys in immediately.

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Apr 27, 2008 8:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Always address the problem directly

Tulo played in the minors for 126 games, and he was a #8 pick. There is very little harm in drafting a potentially valuable SS. Or 4 of them. They do play other positions ex. Adam Jones, Asdrubal Cabrera. Who exactly are you willing to trade? You want a Hu it will cost a Hochevar. If you want Chris Nelson, it will only cost you a Cortes. If you want Furcal it will be $16mil X 4.

If you want to think in the same manner as other teams without their cash, you will always be mediocre. Your GM can be Billy Beane, or he can be Ed Wade.

by The commentator formerly known as Yoda on Apr 28, 2008 2:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Better yet, analogy time

I have a fire in my kitchen/I have a SS who can’t hit. What do I do?

A Call the firemen/draft short stops. Hope the firemen get here in time/hope I have drafted well.
B Try to put out the fire myself/trade for a hitting SS. Hope I can put out the fire myself/hope I make a good trade. or
A + B

by The commentator formerly known as Yoda on Apr 28, 2008 2:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

My first reaction

“Belliard at shortstop? Did he lost 25 pounds when I wasn’t paying attention? He isn’t really a positive asset defensively at second base, let alone shortstop. That’s just a bizarre suggestion.”

Belliard isn’t a bad player, but he is a 33 year old fat second baseman who’s had a maddening habit of mixing some really bad years with his stretches where he’s a pretty decent player. If you’re just looking for a one year stopgap at second base on a budget, then there are a lot of ideas that are measurably worse. If you’re looking for any kind of semi-permanent solution, it’s best to look elsewhere.

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." - Mark Twain

by JM Barten on Apr 27, 2008 9:51 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs