Royals Kind of Tired of Playing Baseball - Finish Being Swept by Last Place Twins
by RoyalsRetro on Jun 5, 2011 4:46 PM EDT
Email
PrintWith all the energy of a deflated balloon, the Royals completed their four game series with the Twins the same way it began - with a listless loss to a decimated and not very good Twins club. With a lineup featuring zero players with an OPS north of .750, the Twins still managed three first inning runs - all unearned - off Jeff Francis in typical Francis fashion. After that, you may as well have caught Stargate reruns on another channel because absolutely nothing happened. Well, Billy Butler reached base all four times at bat, but no one else could be bothered to do anything offensively.
Dear lord, I'm bored just writing this.
This is usually the time when managers start doing crazy things in a vain attempt to "right the ship" so look forward to Alcides Escobar leading off or Billy Butler bunting or Alex Gordon sacrificing a live chicken.
I don't know if you noticed this but Mike Aviles is really into suck territory both offensively and defensively.
Jesse Chavez is still Jesse Chavez.
I predict Jose Bautista hits eleventy billion home runs this week.
Well at least the awesome drafting powers of Dayton Moore will keep our minds off the crappy team for at least a week. 2015 is so close.
84 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Swept by the worst team in baseball
Yeah, that seems about right. Except for the “worst team in baseball” part.
Nobody said this season would be easy or enjoyable. We’ve actually had more fun than this roster should have permitted so far. Now let’s just settle in, watch the young guys develop, and ignore the scoreboard and standings like we expected to back in February.
It's all ball bearings these days!
by CentralChamps20?? on Jun 5, 2011 4:53 PM EDT reply actions
A "hot" start
can mask a lot of suck. For a while.
It's all ball bearings these days!
by CentralChamps20?? on Jun 5, 2011 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions
So can we start getting looks at Lough and Cain?
Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.
Rock Chalk Talk
Wouldn't be fair to Melky
It's all ball bearings these days!
by CentralChamps20?? on Jun 5, 2011 4:59 PM EDT up reply actions
shouldn't we be the worst team in baseball now
we did just lose 4 to the worst team, so shouldn’t we get their title?
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bhindepmo
Chairman, The Melky Cabrera Seasoning Sauce. It's great on your outfield!
I would like to point out that
Eleventy-billion is your new favoritest number.
I'm waiting for my wave of talent to arrive.
by mitchfreakingmaier! on Jun 6, 2011 10:10 AM EDT up reply actions
You know i feel so dirty when they start talking cute. i want to tell her that i lover her, but the point is rather moot.
Okay, well maybe we should tell that to Rain Man, because he practically bankrupted a casino, and he was a ri-tard.
by Clearly Ambiguous on Jun 5, 2011 5:21 PM EDT up reply actions
Might as well fire Yost now.
They’re going to do it at the end of the season to make it look like they’re doing something. Why wait?
Afraid not
And it’s not really his fault. He didn’t build this roster. If the Royals could be managed by a ghost committee of Casey Stengel, Sparky Anderson, Walter Alston, and Leo Durocher, they still wouldn’t finish this season within 20 games of .500.
It's all ball bearings these days!
by CentralChamps20?? on Jun 5, 2011 5:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Are you serious?
Ned is here til the Process is finished. Seriously, he could have run out to the pitching mound naked in the fourth inning and put in Billy Butler to pitch and he’d still be managing.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
Eleventy billion
How does that break down, threety billion in each of the first 3 games and twoty billion in the last game?
It's all ball bearings these days!
by CentralChamps20?? on Jun 5, 2011 4:56 PM EDT reply actions
Better move betemit
Before he turns into dejesus of last year…
by billski8 on Jun 5, 2011 5:05 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
Those BATS stock exchange
idiots will have to donate $500 measly dollars to Habitat for Humanity because Butler was perfect at the plate.
SUCK IT BATS
I loathe David Glass
Agreed.
If everyone on the team was hitting .300, approximately one player every 10 games or so would be perfect. So in all likeliness, they could have just donated $10,000 and donated more.
"We don’t have guys with a long history of being effective in the seventh and eighth innings."
~Trey Hillman, master of understatements.
Going back.
The only other perfect game I could find was a Matt Traenor 2-2 game in April.
Seriously, WORST SPONSORSHIP DEAL EVER.
Nick Swisher is handsome.
Naturals say Chen & Davies will pitch with them in rehab on Wednesday.
Each taking a game in a double-header. I never thought I’d miss Kyle Davies – and well, “miss” might be too strong of a word, but the revolving door of starting-pitching suck from the past few series has been incredible. That our offense shriveled up and died right at the same time has not been fun to watch. At least there is some comfort in knowing you have a starting pitcher for each game instead of looking woefully down at the bullpen and saying, “Well, we don’t care if we blow out Chavez’s arm since he sucks so hard, so why not have him start on Tuesday.”
good thing Jeff Montgomery stated that we don't need starting pitching right now
what games does he watch?
"Things could always be worse." - Buddy Bell
Well.
I for one don’t care if we blow out Chavez’s arm since he sucks so hard, so why not have him start on Tuesday?
Nick Swisher is handsome.
yeah, the Chavez promotion is more confusing
when you realize that he gave up 15 runs in 14 2/3 innings in May.
So it wasn’t just a random promotion, it also had no merit or logic whatsoever. But Jesse did play for the Braves
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bhindepmo
Chairman, The Melky Cabrera Seasoning Sauce. It's great on your outfield!
Offense
has been really bad of late. It is almost like, if you have 3 automatic outs per trip through the order, all of the rest of your bats have to be hot at the same time to score runs.
That this offense could not get it going in any game against such a positively pedestrian group of Twins pitchers does not bode well.
Top part of the lineup OBP:
.350/.475 SLG (Gordon)
.313/.438 (Melky)
.331/.500 (Hos)
.319/.480 (Frenchy)
.402/.427 (Butler)
.358/.419 (Betemit)
The 2 and 4 holes are huge on base sinkholes, and Hosmer does not yet seem to be generating walks. Now, it seems to me that simply having Betemit bat in the 2 hole would do wonders for this lineup, but I would like to see:
Gordon
Betemit
Butler
Hosmer
Frenchy
Melky
I think you have a much better chance to bunch up walks and hits
He can't coast off stuff he did in the first two weeks of the season forever, can he?
by OnixConcepcion on Jun 5, 2011 5:48 PM EDT up reply actions
I figured that out after my comment.
I should realize everyone is joking just as much as I am with each comment.
by OnixConcepcion on Jun 5, 2011 5:53 PM EDT up reply actions
Unfortunately
What we call “joking” and “sarcasm,” Ned Yost calls “logical arguments.”
by Black and Gold on Jun 5, 2011 8:47 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Now that is a tournament we need to have
Least liked Royals
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
How about the least liked Royals based
on my wife’s opinions?
She hates Kendall (looks like a D-bag, tats, can’t smile), hated Mike Jacobs (too much chew), Guillen (ditto) and anyone with a soul-patch or other goofy facial hair (Adcock – “landing strip” below his lower lip).
She was asking a lot of questions about Crow. Then I told her about Ke$ha.
My wife's least faves--
Aviles, Kendall, Mazzaro (she loved DeJesus), Melky, Davies, and Yost.
by OnixConcepcion on Jun 5, 2011 9:34 PM EDT up reply actions
She says Yost looks like George W. Bush.
At least once a game.
by OnixConcepcion on Jun 5, 2011 9:34 PM EDT up reply actions
good post...
…and Betemit does make more sense than Cabrera.
If women only slept with nice guys...guys would only be nice. And they don't. And we're not.
Overpriced.
They need to start paying the fans who sit through shit like today’s game.
by OnixConcepcion on Jun 5, 2011 5:48 PM EDT up reply actions
I sat through the 19-1 game this year.
So, I’m perfectly fine with drunkenly sitting through whatever they serve up the rest of this year.
Nick Swisher is handsome.
Was meant to be a reply to a comment above
"That's fine wood from... somewhere."
by KeepItCopacetic on Jun 5, 2011 5:47 PM EDT up reply actions
because they'll fire McClure and Seitzer first
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bhindepmo
Chairman, The Melky Cabrera Seasoning Sauce. It's great on your outfield!
I think McClure is basically made of Teflon at this point
If they haven’t sacked him yet I don’t know why they would now.
Edgar knows best.
yeah
if not making Hochevar or Davies better in 3 years can’t kill him, anything short of Duffy, Montgomery, Dwyer, Lamb, and Odorizzi all being busts can’t stop McClureless
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bhindepmo
Chairman, The Melky Cabrera Seasoning Sauce. It's great on your outfield!
Do you have good reason to believe McClure is bad at his job?
Would a good pitching coach have “fixed” Hochevar and Davies? I know it is easy to say “fire the pitching coach” or “fire the hitting coach” but do we really have information which tells us that McClure is good or bad?
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jun 5, 2011 7:59 PM EDT up reply actions
proving negatives
do you have good reason to believe McClure is good at his job?
McClure has been the pitching coach for six seasons, which has to be one of the longer tenures in baseball, much less this organization, and there’s not a marquee success amongst starting pitchers. And we have dozens of stud prospects about to come up.
Someone is taking the fall for this season, Dayton doesn’t run his own ship, and much like how Hillman had to go, someone is getting fired this year
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bhindepmo
Chairman, The Melky Cabrera Seasoning Sauce. It's great on your outfield!
do you have good reason to believe McClure is good at his job?
No. And that was my point above. We have little information here. He’s helped some pitchers and not others.
McClure has been the pitching coach for six seasons, which has to be one of the longer tenures in baseball, much less this organization, and there’s not a marquee success amongst starting pitchers
He took Meche from being a barely average pitcher to being an excellent 4+ WAR pitcher. (He gets credit for this not just because he was the ptiching coach at the time. Meche talked openly about how McClure changed his mechanics which greatly improved his control and command).
Someone is taking the fall for this season, Dayton doesn’t run his own ship, and much like how Hillman had to go, someone is getting fired this year
Oh sure he might get fired. Seitzer too. Hell any and all of the coaching staff could go. I’m just saying that arguing that McClure is bad because the Royals have a lot of bad pitchers doesn’t make sense.
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jun 5, 2011 9:03 PM EDT up reply actions
Citing Meche...shouldn't he be held somewhat accountable for what happened to Meche as well?
Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.
Rock Chalk Talk
Only if there is evidence that he suggested, ok’d or supported Yost’s overuse of him.
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jun 5, 2011 11:32 PM EDT up reply actions
You mean Hillman? I thought he was the one who pitched him into the ground.
Either way, if he’s the pitching coach it is his responsibility to be in the manager’s ear and say “this is not a good idea”.
Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.
Rock Chalk Talk
Here are some very basic numbers:
2006 ERA: 30th, 2nd in BB (near worst), 30th in SO;
2007 ERA: 16th, 16th in BB, 26th in SO;
2008 ERA: 22nd, 20th in BB, 17th in SO;
2009 ERA: 27th, 6th in BB, 12th in SO;
2010 ERA: 27th, 7th in BB, 26th in SO; and
2011 ERA: 29th, 4th in BB, 29th in SO.
I recall that the Royals (through Dick Kaegel) made a point of bragging that McClure transformed the 30th place ERA in 2006 (WORST in team history) to middle-of-the-pack respectability in 2007 with over a one point ERA drop.
It is disturbing that team ERA would be 27th after Greinke’s Cy Young season.
Whatever the cause, the pitching stinks.
by kansasjohn on Jun 5, 2011 9:05 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
"the pitching stinks"
Do you think that is because of the talent of the pitchers or the pitching coach? Does McClure suck because he didn’t turn sow’s ears into silk purses?
Again, my point is that we really don’t know if he’s good, bad or just ok. Would a better pitching coach have “fixed” Davies, Hochevar and Bannister? How much credit and blame does he get for Meche? Did he help Greinke and Soria? Is he at all responsible for Chen’s resurgence?
I don’t know the answer to any of these questions. Neither do any of us. But simply saying “the pitching has stunk, so the pitching coach must be crappy” is pretty much saying nothing. It is the absence of analysis. It’s just emotional knee-jerkism.
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jun 5, 2011 11:36 PM EDT up reply actions
Sort of agree. But if McClure can't fix these guys, which he can't.
Maybe it is time to let someone else have a crack at them. Teams do it all the time, if something’s not improving it might be time to get someone else in to try something different.
Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.
Rock Chalk Talk
And I'm not saying that because teams do it all the time, it's the correct way to go about it.
Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.
Rock Chalk Talk
No. I did not say the coach was bad b/c of the results.
There is no emotional reactionary bs afoot (at least by me). I agree that none of us know why the pitching is dreadful, hence the precursory statement “[w]hatever the cause.”
The Cutter
I’ve been thinking this for a week now. McClure was big in getting Meche, Bannister, Davies, and Soria to through cutters.
A lot of people are saying that Soria’s problems this year are stemming from his overuse of the the cutter. Plus, on of the criticisms of the cutter is that you lose feel and control for you other pitches. If McClure pushed for Bannister and Davies to pitch cutters and they lost effectiveness with there other pitches he should share some blame.
The current Soria situation should make the Royals as an organization consider the wisdom of having McClure try to teach the Cutter to our young crop of pitchers.
If McClure pushed for Bannister and Davies to pitch cutters and they lost effectiveness with there other pitches he should share some blame.
They weren’t very effective before. I don’t know that those pitchers lost effectiveness after adding a cutter. Seems like the mostly stayed the same. (of course Bannister was up and down from year to year, so he’s hard to figure).
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jun 5, 2011 9:04 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, and I think Banny's 2nd wave of usefulness was directly due to the increased cutters.
Unfortunately the change in his arm slot also contributed to his early exit from the season, but honestly I’d rather have him good for 1/2-2/3 of the year and then out rather than just-this-side-of-sucking for all of it.
No proof that McClure is bad at his job
But firing pitching coaches every year was what helped the Royals become awesome in the early 2000s
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
Because they're the Royals.
And that’s all you deserve. Now shut up and go buy your tickets.
That was a Major League moment
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
by RoyalsRetro on Jun 5, 2011 9:21 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Lineup
I would much rather see
Cain
Gordon
Butler
Hosmer
Lough
Moustakas
Gio
Pena
Escobar
The Frenchy/Melky experience has underwhelmed. Time to move on.
I am a big Aviles fan, but it’s time for him to go too. Just cut him.
And move Crow to the rotation now. Even if he just goes three innings a start. Get him there and give him experience starting.
And get what you can for Betemit. His price will never be higher, especially if anyone else studies his at bats from today.
Id rather have
Ellsburry CF
Asdrubal SS
Crawford LF
Bautista 3B
Pujols 1B
Cano 2B
Bruce DH
Granderson RF
McCann C
Your 2010 Royals Review Fantasy Football Keeper League Champion
Since 2006: Royals win% = .4218, Chiefs win% = .3625
by averagegatsby on Jun 5, 2011 6:11 PM EDT up reply actions
Out of all the SS and OF's you took
Ellsburry and Cabrera and not Tulo and Hamilton/Braun/CarGo/Upton/Mccutchen/Bruce/Kemp?
by KCTiger on Jun 5, 2011 8:08 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I was going purely by fantasy numbers, I had ESPN's player rater open when I did it.
and FWIW check again, Bruce is in there
Your 2010 Royals Review Fantasy Football Keeper League Champion
Since 2006: Royals win% = .4218, Chiefs win% = .3625
by averagegatsby on Jun 5, 2011 8:33 PM EDT up reply actions
Id watch that lineup
"Stay Classy Kansas City"
by Mas Cervezas on Jun 5, 2011 6:22 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
this is the first time watching that it seemed that the team was just going thru the motions
kind of like the getaway games of the past two years. let me swing, pop up, and get out of here. very disappointing series.
"Things could always be worse." - Buddy Bell
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Royals Review
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- Eric Hosmer redefines the Baltimore chop with infield double (Video)
- College player makes impossible over the fence catch to save tournament game (Video)
- Security!: Camden Yards guard collides with Royals’ Mike Moustakas
- The Juice: Nelson Cruz matches career high eight RBIs, Pujols stays hot in Seattle
- Benches clear at Fenway as Red Sox-Rays rivalry heats up
