The losing streak is now one of the main news stories on Yahoo's mainpage, as the national attention to our plight grows. Tonight, against Barry Zito (11-9, 3.65 ERA) its the big loss #20 game, as the losing streak continues to reach epic proportions.
The weird thing is, last night had the foundations of one of our better offensive games: the Royals managed 3 doubles and drew (somehow) 5 walks. David DeJesus even managed to attempt a stolen base without getting caught or picked off. Problematically however, the famed Water Torture Offense couldn't augment the attack with more than 2 singles. Of course, a team total of 9 strikeouts might have something to do with that.
Here's Buddisimo with some sage commentary:
``It seems like every game we play we get behind early and we just can't -- we don't have any kind of consistent offensive attack,'' Bell said.I'll ask it again: what exactly does Buddy's managerial job entail??
He doesn't have any explanations for the team's failures. He doesn't have any plan of attack -- short or long term -- for getting better. And worst of all, he seems perfectly willing to admit this, in fact, it's his nightly excuse.
But wait, I know, I know, he's a "great teacher" and a "great baseball guy". Sounds wonderful, but what does he actually do? The defense, baserunning and "clutch" hitting have all been awful under his watch: all areas of game-play that Buddisimo's supposed great teaching ability and old-school approach were going to solve.
It would be stupid to ask for his firing, because honestly it doesn't matter. Someone has to be paid to be the Royals manager this season, and, in the eyes of the establishment inside and outside the game, Buddy's a great "baseball guy". He's spent most of his managerial life leading teams through horrible seasons, and in both previous spots, Detroit and Colorado, its arguable that he made the team worse.
Its almost as if he's insulted by the possiblity of any form of accountability for the team's fortunes, as evinced by the pseudo-lineup-card scandal against the White Sox, and the continued supply of idiotic play.
Buddy Bell's schtick is getting old, but in an organization that sees fit to send Angel Berroa to the plate every freakin' day to produce errors and outs, while numerous young players continue to get jacked around on a daily basis (see the month-long fascination with pinch-hitting Super Joe for Teahen in the 9th inning), its clear that the Glass business model is one almost total devoid of attention to merit. But we all knew that, since his son is the team's President. Hmmm... how'd that happen?
We'll need a minor miracle tonight, but Zito's always good for an occasional bad game... Besides, a broken clock is right twice a day.