Jeff Keppinger, we hardly knew ye.
Keppinger came to the Royals in a memorable 2006 challenge trade with the Mets, as formerly non-horrible Royals prospect Ruben Gotay was shipped to New York for the older, less good Keppinger. Now, Keppinger has been DFA'ed to make room for David Riske on the 40 man roster.
With the 2006 Royals Keppy eventually grabbed 65 PAs and managed a .267/.323/.400 line. Without question, the highlight of his season was the September 9th game against Boston, when he blasted a three-run homer in the 12th inning which keyed a 6-run Royal explosion.
Nevertheless, I have no problem with Keppy being shipped out (or to Omaha) in exchange -- more or less -- for Riske. In fact, its a great move, especially since Keppy was a Moore acquisition that the man has since shown he's not wedded to. Still, it does make one wonder why exactly the Royals picked him up in the first place. I guess the easy answer was that Grudz might have been traded and GMDM wanted someone AL-ready in a pinch. Perhaps we'll never know...
With 16 hits as a Royal, Keppinger is currently tied for 244th All-Time with Endy Chavez, Denny Hocking, and many others. He leaves the 40-man roster 3 hits behind most hated Royal Justin Huber.
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Always it is by bridges that we live- RR Links
Since I've been generally absent from the computer the last few weeks, I'd like to take this opportunity to pass along a few nice links.
-Marc Normandin profiles enigmatic Coco Crisp at BP
-Aaron Gleeman takes an early look at next year's Twins lineup. This should be a must-read, since we all know the Royals will go something like 5-13 against the Twins next season.
-Our own "JQ" has started posting regularly about KU baseball at Rock Chalk Talk, but even KU-haters will enjoy his in-depth descriptions of the sometimes mysterious college game. His College Baseball 101 Series has been truly stupendous.
-In a fascinating post, The Good Phight looks at the top offense/lineup positions in baseball in 2006. Not surprisingly, #3 for the Cardinals was the most productive lineup slot in the game. The top Royal slot? The #5 hole actually, which hit .293/.365/.498. Looking at the lineups, that was actually Emil Brown, Matt Stairs, Tony G and later doses of Shealy. Royals #5 was the only lineup slot to crack the top 100. The next most productive was Royals #3 at 122nd and Royals #1 at 126th. The worst non-NL-#9-lineup slot in baseball? #8 for the Devil Rays, although #8 for the Royals was the second worst , "hitting" .236/.289/.327. Thank you Berroa, Buck and Gathright. Expect more on this later.