At 19-34 the Royals are now back where they belong; with the worst record in baseball, complete with the worst home record to boot. Thanks to their incredible string of multi-run losses (the PC term for "beatdowns") the Royals have now evened out their actual record with the pythagorean prediction, and are now projected to dangerously flirt (flirt dangerously?) with another 100-loss season.
Not surprisingly, the peasants and plebes are growing restless. And why not? Another winter and spring of getting roped back in, another summer of endless failure. Failure of the team and by implication intellectual and emotional failure for us. Honestly, its an invitation to self-hatred, as we collectively wonder, why do I waste my time with this trash and how could I be so pathetic to have ever believed in any of them? In time's like these, Royaldaddy's State of the Royals Address speaks to what so many of us surely feel.
According to BP's three daily updating projection generators, if you sim the rest of the season a million times...
-Playoff Odds Report: 65-97
-Playoff Odds, Pecota version: 61-101
- Playoff Odds Report, ELO version: 60-102
If we were of a skeptical bent, we might contend that Tuesday night's player's meeting didn't work. Although my larger question is why the offense felt somehow responsible for losing 10-2 (and the like). Ohh well, at least its something like a sign of life or discontent, whic, however ineffective, shows that at least someone still cares. Interestingly, it doesn't seem immediately clear if Buddisimo really had much to do with it.
(For more on meetings, I recommend Sam Mellinger's piece in the Star.)
Bell's primary gambit was a little lineup jiggle, moving Shane Costa into the leadoff spot and shifting DeJesus to fifth. Again, who really knows what the logic behind these class of decisions are, I don't have a problem with them at the micro-level, as it seems certain enough that basically all parties involved understand its just "what you do", a gesture falling somewhere on the spectrum of superstition-shaking things up-random changes event horizon. In the long term of course, more Costa is no kind of answer (he's a career .256/.288/.372 hitter in 366 MLB PAs), but I think thats a given. Why we're finding at bats for him over about three other guys... well, thats a more in-depth answer that only members of the brain trust truly understand.
Finally, the lineup juggling helped the Royals maintain their blistering pace (yes, so fast that blisters are being formed) in terms of playing time variety.
Through 53 Games:
-44 lineups
- 50 Batting Orders
50. I love that.
Futility Update: Team Stats Since May 24th:
Royals Batters: .193/.242/.250 (1 HR, 6 2Bs, 1 3B)
Opposing Batters: .329/.395/.531 (8 HRs, 20 2Bs, 1 3B)
Well, we have a good building block with tripling ability, and we know that Dayton Moore still has a plan, so no worries.
No worries at all.