Powered by the malaise of another school year the time wasting power of Tetris... Its Notes!
-The Star has broached the unspeakable topic of another 100 loss season. Like many of you, the first 100 loss season is actually still a fresh memory, complete with hopes and fears throughout the last two weeks of the year that it would be avoided. This was around the time that the franchise went below .500 all-time, which was something of a major event, despite the triviality of the record. The Royals were the only Expansion Era team with a lifetime winning record. Two decades of winning were slowly erased by a solid 7 year post-strike run of awful baseball. The franchise went below .500 for the first time since the 1970s with a loss to the Mets at Shea on June 21, 2002.
The lineup that day?
Carlos Febles
Neifi Perez
Carlos Beltran
Mike Sweeney
Joe Randa
Brian Berger
Raul Ibanez
A.J. Hinch
Darrell May
Febles & Neifi 1-2? Don't you miss Tony Pena's lineups?
- This year's team? Still pegged at 59-104 by BP's simulations.
-Thanks to the Grudz extension, the Royals have very few free agents next season. As Dick Kaegel pointed out in a Q&A, the only free agents in the offseason are Mark Redman, Paul Bako and Dougie Mientkiewicz.
Buy that Paul Bako jersey while you can.
-Thanks to the power of the bobblehead, the Royals drew well over the weekend. Attendance Update? Still in the 17,00 range at 17,844. The Royals don't have much of a shot at catching those rascals in Pittsburgh, who sit at 27th with 23,220 a game. The Devil Rays still have 4 home games left with the Yankees however, so the battle for 29th should stay interesting. Right now the Royals are nursing a 400-fan a game lead over the Tampians.
-The Royals best position player this year? In terms of VORP its none other than Royals Review favorite Mark Teahen, who's .287/.361/.519 line in 379 PAs edges out David DeJesus. Teahen's VORP? 24.1. He's been about one win better than DeJesus, who's seen his doubles power tail off (he's slugging .447), producing a 19.3 VORP. Third place? Grudz at 17.4. More rhetorical questions? Hell no. You can read more about VORP here.
-Regarding everyone's favorite topic. So who's on first? Here's the breakdown by PAs of the 1B/DH guys:
1) Dougie (361)
2) Stairs (262)
3) Sweeney (133)
4) Shealy (87)
5) Huber (11)
Eleven trips to the plate, people!. Are you kidding me??!?!?! We've found a way for Affeldt to bat twice, Mike Wood to bat three times and Ducky even made 4 PAs. And... I'm not even mentioning Kerry Robinson (67). OK, I am.
