Last night, as the Royals fell to those pesky Cleveland Indians, you could sense the rage of anti-Kila feeling growing. Judging from what I see on Twitter, Kila shouldn't merely be packing his bags for Omaha, he should look towards hiring a bodyguard.
Despite recent assurances from Ned Yost that the Royals would continue to play Kila, I'm no longer sure. He's batting just .160 thus far. He's now a guy that nobody believed in, who is confirming that bias. He could hit respectably well for a month, and his season stat line is still going to look terrible. Nevermind that he's still got a higher OBP than Melky Cabrera, Mike Aviles, or Alcides Escobar. For many people, including the Royals Front Office, after all, the walks don't matter. The silly thing is, if you turn half of Kila's walks into weak singles we're not having this discussion because he's hitting .200.
Now, I'd like to once again go on record that sending Kila down or limiting his playing time, anytime soon, is a bad idea. The Royals need to see what they have in Kila and I just don't think you can do that in two weeks. Kila should be playing every day at least until Moose is called up. Player development, a concept which the Royals are supposedly masters of, includes what you do with Major League players. If you punt on Kila now, he's more or less done forever as an asset to the team. If you stick with Kila, and he proves he can hit, then you have something you can use.
But alas, this isn't what the Royals should do, but what they will do.