Royals Review

Buck on bereavement; Tupman up

RoyalsRetro — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:06:44 -0000

Buck will be out the Florida series, not for sad reasons, but because he is the new father of twins! They came early, so although they're fine, there were some minor concerns so Buck will be with his wife Brooke. In the meantime, Matt Tupman will be with the team. Congrats to John Buck! http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080516&content_id=2711497&vkey=news_kc&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc

Bannister on the source of his day/night splits

devil_fingers — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:28:39 -0000

Hopefully, regulars at this blog ready JoPo's as well, but I just loved this quote: "The hitters tell me my fastball looks faster when they’re still a little hungover." Plus, more creepy texting from Bannister and his writer-in-home-port Posnanski. http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/05/15/night-and-day-you-are-the-one/

Self-made nicknames

devil_fingers — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:02:27 -0000

Ah, Gerald Laird... Surely we can try to guess what different Royals would "name" themselves. http://thebiglead.com/?p=5835#more-5835

Mellinger Interview With Hochevar

royalsreview — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:57:52 -0000

He's boys with Colquitt. http://royalsblog.kansascity.com/?q=node/114

Twinkie Town Interview with Twins Asst. GM

royalsreview — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:32:18 -0000

Remember all those big interviews I've pulled on RR? This is a good read... http://www.twinkietown.com/2008/5/13/508728/twinkie-town-q-a-with-rob

Rany Needs Your Nickname Ideas

royalsreview — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:50:40 -0000

The Royals need some good nicknames, don't they? Please head over to Rany's blog and throw in some suggestions. I like this idea a lot. http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/2008/05/nicknames.html

Fielding Bible Plus/Minus

RoyalsRetro — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:59:54 -0000

ACTA Sports shows us baseball's top defenders at each position. Sadly, no Royals. The Fielding Bible is now available at www.billjamesonline.com. The only Royal in the top ten at his position is Mark Grudzielanek, 8th at 2B. Look like thus far we're pretty mediocre, no one really great, no one really awful. Gload -1 Grudz +3 Pena +1 Gordon -3 DeJesus -2 Guillen +2 in LF, -2 in RF Teahen - 4 in LF, +2 in RF http://actasports.com/sows.php

Plate Discipline is not the Problem

RoyalsRetro — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:33:49 -0000

Interesting theory by Craig Brown over at Royals Authority. He claims that the Royals lack of plate discipline is not the issue. His study finds that the Royals are generally good about not swinging at pitches outside the strike zone (with the exception of Olivo and Pena). The problem, he says, is (a) our power hitters fail to make contact at sufficiently high rates; and (b) we are lousy with men on base. Really interesting read, check it out. My feeling is plate discipline isn’t the problem for this team. I don’t have a problem with the Royals being among the bottom as far as pitches seen per plate appearance, because the data says they’re not swinging out of control. Part of the problem is the fact they’re not making enough contact on pitches in the zone. If they’re swinging and missing at pitches, they’re either falling behind in the count or they’re striking out. Either way, it’s not a good situation. And what compounds the lack of contact is the fact they can’t move runners around the bases. The best contact guys are hitting at the top of the lineup which is ideal. But the meat of this lineup is woefully inadequate. Guillen, Gordon and Butler have been underperforming in RBI opportunities and Teahen no longer has any business hitting in the heart of the lineup. There’s no easy solution to this. Guillen is supposed to warm up with the weather. Whatever. Butler and Gordon are in their second year and still developing so the jury’s still out on what their limited track record means. For better or for worse, these are our guys. But simply put, this is not a lineup that is capable of scoring runs. It’s just not. Dayton Moore has done an outstanding job repairing a pitching staff that was in tatters. It’s time for him to turn his attention to the lineup. http://mvn.com/mlb-royals/2008/05/12/this-offense-is-offensive/

Top Five Tears for Fears Songs

royalsreview — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:07:31 -0000

0Sowing the Seeds of Love1Everybody Wants to Rule the World2Head Over Heels3Break It Down Again4Closest Thing to Heaven

Jose Guillen turning it around (I think)

NYRoyal — Wed, 14 May 2008 04:08:02 -0000

0Over the last month(ish) (since 4/19) - .268/.307/.493/.8001Over the last week(ish) (since 5/7) - .556/.579/.833/1.412234

Dice-K 2.0 segment on espn w/ appearance by Hillman

AtTheWall — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:57:31 -0000

Our man Hillman offers some insight in this long video on Yu Darvish a pitcher on his old Japanese team. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=darvish

Tonights Pitching Matchup

focs — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:05:40 -0000

http://img26.picoodle.com/img/img26/4/5/13/focs/f_ZackGreinkem_33148a0.jpg Tonights Pitching Matchup

It was like that. Banny was mostly working fastball as he does when he’s successful, but his seco...

raefzilla — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:03:41 -0000

It was like that. Banny was mostly working fastball as he does when he’s successful, but his secondary pitches were generally not coming in the red-zone 84-85 mph range. Plus, it looked like Banny had a really good fastball. He got 11 swinging strikes, which is a lot for him, and most of those came on fastballs. He had his command too. I sent him a text after the game, and he wrote back to say: "Just had to let my Babip regress before I started dealing again." Seriously, how can you not love this guy? Joe Posnanski

Carlos Rosa promoted to Omaha

RoyalsRetro — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:41:06 -0000

Under the old regime, Omaha was the Siberia of baseball, a place where prospects dared not dwell. Instead, the Royals preferred to jump their prospects from AA straight to the big leagues, sometimes to start a game in Yankee Stadium! No pressure! Under a more sane administration, Omaha is actually being used for its intended purpose - to develop prospects! How novel! In this strategy, the Royals have seen fit to promote Carlos Rosa to AAA after he posted a dominating 1.20 ERA in 45 innings for Wichita (I know they relocated but I refuse to acknowledge this fact). The 23 year old struck out 42, while walking just seven, and allowing just 30 hits. Awesome. Good luck Carlos, we look forward to seeing you in KC next season! http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080512&content_id=397835&vkey=pr_t1350&fext=.jsp&sid=t1350

Carlos Delgado's agent is insane

RoyalsRetro — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:35:31 -0000

Not Royals-related, but I thought this was kinda funny. "Sorry I missed your 'joke.' This is what I wrote: 'the Mets are paying Delgado $12 million in salary this year plus a $4 million buyout on his 2009 option' I won't hold my breath waiting for your apology." Glad I didn't. Because it didn't come. What did come was a total descent into immature madness by somebody who purports to be a major league player agent. Sloane wrote back at 12:40 p.m.: "Apologize this retard, he's making 16 this year WITH an option for next year @ 16 or a buyout @ 4. Nice research by you but then I guess that whole concept of fact finding escapes you huh? They didn't teach that on the short bus did they?" Seriously. Not making this up. I cut-and-pasted it..... Anyway, maybe I should have resisted, but I couldn't. I wrote him back again: "That a joke too? You're a funny guy." And then, at 12:46 pm, in apparent celebration of Mother's Day, David Sloane, the agent for Carlos Delgado, wrote back the following e-mail, which I present to you in its entirety: "So's your Mom." Oooh, BURN! http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2008/05/breaking_news_delgados_agent_i.html

Remembering Felix Jose

jonfmorse — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:20:51 -0000

I left the TV on the same channel after the game today because I was too busy doing stuff to change it, and on my cable system the channel they use for MASN2 is actually the Cox Sports Channel. So this American Association game between Lincoln and Pensacola came on. Felix Jose is actually playing for these guys! And Pete LaCock is their hitting coach, working for former Blue Jay liar Tim Johnson. The star of the team, though, is Dustin Yount. Yes, Robin's kid. http://www.saltdogs.com/

Tonights Pitching Matchup

focs — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:40:57 -0000

http://img30.picoodle.com/img/img30/4/5/10/focs/f_BrettTomkoMm_b166200.jpg Tonights Pitching Matchup

Tonights Pitching Matchup

focs — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:07:23 -0000

http://img27.picoodle.com/img/img27/4/5/9/f_GilMecheMaym_483d000.jpg Tonights Pitching Matchup

One stat that Jeter dominates for sure

devil_fingers — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:54:46 -0000

Whatever you want to say about how his defense at SS cancels out his offensive firepower, this is surely impressive on some level. Or it says something about how Hollywood-land isn't that much different from every high school in North America. http://deadspin.com/388682/all-hail-derek-jeters-golden-baby-arm

Thank you Joel Peralta for keeping out beloved Joakim Soria's ERA at 0.00 really means a lot to me :D.. YOUR STILL BETTER THAN JOBA "The Hut" CHAMBERLAIN!

focs — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:40:13 -0000

http://mlb.mlb.com/images/2007/01/20/YJjGCo2V.jpg Thank you Joel Peralta for keeping out beloved Joakim Soria's ERA at 0.00 really means a lot to me :D.. YOUR STILL BETTER THAN JOBA "The Hut" CHAMBERLAIN!