I would’ve hit Jacobs higher in the lineup against the soft tossin righty. Not that it mattered and hopefully Jacobs blunder is enough to not play him at First for quite sometime.

The pitching decisions I didn’t have that big of problem with. Yes I would like Soria to go in sooner but we also don’t know the background. Jamey performed decently as did Mahay. His biggest mistake and yes it was again the same mistake that they’ve made for the third time this year. Pitching Farnsworth in a high leverage situation.

That is three times now and if Trey continues to run him out in high leverage situations then he deserves any fate that may come his way.

Oh, and when did we trade Robinson Tejeda? I assume he was dealt because he was not asked to even so much as warm up and has not pitched since Wednesday.

Soria lacking for recent opportunities

decision made. Bringing in Farnsy in the ninth was just inevitable….
I am out of town for Friday and Saturday with no access to the web or email, they play
well. Today I get to watch, and this happens.

I almost feel sorry for Farnsworth at this point. I’m sure he wishes he was better. In fact, at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts hoping Hillman won’t bring him in in tight situations—which would probably hurt his performance anymore.

Fire Trey Hillman. (no exclamations, just cold acceptance.)

I’m very curious to see how yet another crucial failure by Farnsworth today affects his standing in the pen. Will this be the last time Trey calls on him in such a situation for a long time? We can only hope… Is there a chance Farnsy continues to pitch so poorly that he gets “Yabuta-ed” down to Omaha for a spell? Longshot…

I’m thinking that he’ll be a 6th-7th inning guy for a few weeks…then start pitching somewhat decently in that role. This will cause Hillman to once again call upon him in a higher leverage situation such as today’s, where he will fail again. After that, who knows…

What really bothers me (or, more accurately, scares me) is this: if all of us could see Farnsworth’s struggles coming the day he signed, why couldn’t Royals’ management? If all of us could see Farnsy’s meltdown coming as he jogged in this afternoon from the bullpen, why couldn’t Trey? Mind-boggling. It makes it very, very difficult to see this team, despite its talent., winning anything under Hillman (and, I hate to say it, but maybe even under Moore).

It’s not too late to buy firetreyhillman.com and have it point back to this site!

Is continually using Farnsworthless in ANY kind of clutch situation and expecting a result other than a complete catastrophe. The sad part is that he is just about the ONLY pitcher that could have been the incorrect choice (even HoRam would’ve been better), and Hillman managed to make it.

I’m not that upset about the Jacobs decision. For goodness sake, he IS a first baseman, and we don’t have a “shutdown corner” at first. That’s a play you just have to make. Starting Butler there is marginally better (maybe), but I really don’t blame Trey for that.

I swear though, if he puts that diesel anywhere near a fire in the next month, I’m going to go all spider monkey on him.

argument should really be put to bed. Particularly since he clearly can’t pitch more than one inning.

“We’re never in that situation if we make a couple of plays,” Hillman said. “It was the defense more than the pitching.”

Wrong. The defense wouldn’t have mattered at all if the correct pitchers had been in the game when they should have been. Also, I don’t understand him getting on DDJ. It’s not like he duffed something like Jacobs did. That was a tough play on the wall that he nearly made – but didn’t.

the illogic. Hillman says he needs to get Soria some work because he hasn’t had any lately. But, he also says that he didn’t want to get him “up and down” more than once. WTF? Why the hell not? I mean let’s be serious here. Is he a professional pitcher or what? He ought to be able to handle 2 innings EVERY time they use him.

But, this is hilarious – if only because if I didn’t laugh I’d have to cry.

This is pretty much exactly where I stand on every issue.

I will add one more thing, though:

If he brought Mahay in to retire Hamilton, Andruw, Blalock, then to go to Soria, I’d be fine with that too. I’d prefer to go Cruz for 7 and 8 and then Soria, but Cruz-Mahay-Soria would have worked fine for me, as well. Honest.

Even after Mahay couldn’t get Andruw or Blalock out (albeit, Blalock being safe was entirely on Jacobs’ botch of a little league-level play), if you bring in Soria at that point everything hsould be OK. Soria could come in, get a necessary GIDP, or just strike everybody out in a Greinke-type fashion.

Soria getting 6 outs is OK. I promise.

The situation is the bottom of the 8th, 2 outs, tying run at 2nd.

You have 2 pitchers to chose from (well, actually, more than that, but it comes down to two choices):

Jamey Wright, while a decent pitcher, was a non-roster invitee to spring training on a minor league contract. He’s a groundball pitcher with a low-K rate. The Royals infield defense was already “questionable” with Teahen at 3rd, Callapso at 2nd and Jacobs at 1B.

All Star closer Joakim Soria. Hasn’t pitched in about a week due to lack of save opportunities. During the offseason you mentioned how you wanted to use him for more 4-5-6 out saves. That very morning, the local paper quoted you as saying that you were going to try to get him work today.

You go with option 1 and don’t even have Soria warming up. Amazing. The only thing that would’ve been more amazing in this game would’ve been to see Bloomquist come in to pitch the 9th before Soria.

(And before all of this happened, I was going to commend Trey for his handling of the bullpen — he didn’t immediately go to Farnsworth in the 7th or 8th like he would of at the start of the season. (Although the move to Ron “Not a Lefty Specialist” Mahay seemed to be directly as a result of fan criticism from the opener))

2.47

Hillman said he wasn’t willing to extend Soria beyond “one up and down” because of a lack of work in recent days.

does this mean he doesn’t want to use Soria, because he hasn’t been used much recently? And he couldn’t use him for more than 3 hitters, because of a lack of work? I think I am going mad….

Stayed in the game. Period. Mahay’s platoon splits are insignifigant, particularly when Cruz is pitching like he was. Defensive breakdown or not, Mahay lost this game for us, and it wasn’t his fault. Trey is to blame.

Lots of people suck at their jobs, and incompetent management puts them in position to fail again or again. That does not absolve them of their incompetence. At some point, he has to realize, no matter how hard you throw, if you throw it down the middle of the plate it’s going to be crushed.

Yes, we have lost four games so far due to HoRam and Farnsworth. Neither of those men should be in the situations, because we simply have better options; however, neither man is going anywhere in the meantime. HoRam will continue to start until MLB’s arbitrary date for club control occurs, and Farns will continue to work until he is beaten to death by the Royal Triumvirate (which I will forever refer to our top three as. You may also call Trey Hillman and Farnsworth, Brutus and Cassius, if it pleases you.).

I like this as a metaphorical representation of today’s game. Trey watches as the chaos he created unfolds, and then puts in Farnsworth to deal the final blow to a dying man.
Julius Caesar’s Assassination, done HBO style

Oh, by the way in case no one’s mentioned it. Our manager sucks, and we are all doomed.

Making stupid mistakes, putting the wrong people in the wrong situations, then blaming it on the players when it all blows up in his face.

I think I’m going to make a call to the Royals front office tomorrow, saying that I would love to be the next manager.

Hillman said he never considered using All-Star closer Joakim Soria instead of Farnsworth to start the ninth inning because it was a tie game.

"Not on the road," Hillman said. "At home, yes. But not on the road. Just simply because the percentages are against you in that situation."

I know others have commented on this, but I wanted to throw in my two cents. That’s quite possibly the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard a manager say. What “percentage” is against the Royals in that situation? That is breathtakingly idiotic.

I wasn’t able to add my thoughts on the game thread because I had internet problems, but I was watching the game. I was cussing and stomping around my house long before Farnsworth gave up that bomb to claim his third, and most dramatic, loss. I immediately threw my television remote across the house and into the kitchen breaking a glass when I saw Farnsworth throwing in the bullpen. Why? I don’t know, fuck. Maybe because I understand that when you match up power pitching against power hitters, THE HITTERS DO THIS MAGIC TRICK WHERE THEY TURN THE FUCKING BASEBALL INTO A FUCKING SOUVENIR.

Not only should Farnsworth not have been in that inning, in that situation, facing the heart of that order, he shouldn’t have made an appearance in the entire series (except maybe in the 12-3 rout). He simply does not match up well with anyone in that line up. If Kyle did somehow manage to get past Young, did Hillman really think he was going to get Hamilton? Josh Hamilton was salivating at the chance to get in the batter’s box against Farns, especially with his slump that is going to inevitably end soon. What in God’s holy name was going through Hillman’s head?

Prior to this utter meltdown, I was on the fence as to whether I approved of Trey Hillman; that little dilemma is no longer on my list of problems to solve. I am not going to make any rash decisions at this point, but if something so ridiculous happens again, I assure you I will NOT purchase tickets until that man is fired.

What we witnessed on Sunday is unquestionably reprehensible. If anything like this happens again, we Royals fans cannot be soft. I will personally start a fucking riot.