Its a getaway-day for the Royals in Detroit, and we're gifted with one of my favorite things: the weekday day game. If I wasn't five days away from a major exam, I'd probably find a way to sneak home and watch the game. Life would be good. Since Meche is pitching, I'd even listen to the Detroit radio broadcast, just so I could hear Round 455 of whether or not his contract was worth it.
Sadly, that ain't happenin'. I'll be in the library, irregularly following on the internet/RR game thread.
So here's where we stand fourteen games into the 2007 season:
-Our longest winning streak is a thrilling one-gamer.
-The Royals are 0-4 in one-run games.
-The Royals are 1-4 in blowouts (5+ runs)
-Already, the Royals have already managed to hit 1-7 on the road.
-Alex Gordon, the most anticipated Royal prospect in at least a decade has hit .133/.204/.244. He has not drawn a walk. He has more hit-by-pitches than RsBI.
-Our Opening Day favorite Tony Pena Jr. (jalepena) is down to .204/.250/.367 already. With a bad game today, he'll below .200.
-Ryan Shealy, who looked like a lock for cheap, league-average production at 1B is hitting .098/.156/.195.
I could go on, but you know the rest isn't much better, thanks to NHZ's breakdown of the horribleness yesterday.
We've also seen an endless parade of lineups from Bell, not inherently the end of the world in itself, but last night's benching of Teahen and Buck did little to help a lineup that doesn't draw walks, doesn't hit for power and doesn't hit for average. Ohh, and Jason Larue played most of a game at 3rd. Can't forget to mention that. Thats what happens when you devote 80% of your roster space to six different versions of Emil Brown.
Something "Marbotty" said yesterday has really stuck with me:
The more depressing it seemed.
Right now, none of the guys Moore has acquired via trades seem to be panning out: Gload, Pena, Shealy, and Perez, Gathright, etc.
Here's the kicker: that's not the depressing part. The poor individual performances don't really bother me that much -- it's the fact that in each of those cases, we traded for something we didn't need.
Did we need a no-hit, all glove shortstop? Isn't that what Andres Blanco is?
Did we need a 4th OF/1B/DH? Did we not already have Sanders/Brown to fill that role?
Did we need Ryan Shealy when we had Justin Huber?
Did we need Jeff Keppinger when we had Esteban German?
Did we need Gathright when we had David DeJesus?
Did we need Perez when we had Runelvys Hernandez? Okay, you got me there.
It's not like the trades were necessarily bad -- (and I would contend that we got the better end on the Perez and Shealy swaps) -- it's that they were in most cases unnecessary. If you're going to give up talent, get something back in return that will help your team and that you don't already have.
It's sort of like trading your spare microwave for a dishwasher, when you already own a dishwasher, and what you really need is a new refridgerator.