Since being called up April 21st when Doug Waechter was placed on the DL, Brian Bannister has made 2 starts for the Royals.
He has thrown 13.0 innings for the 2009 Royals and sports a shiny 2-0 record with a 0.69 ERA and 1.00 WHIP.  That is where the chocolaty goodness ends with his stats.  A couple important numbers indicate that Bannister’s start to the season is more mirage than reality.  The first is SO/BB ratio.  Brian Bannister has struck out 3 and walked 8 for a SO/BB of 0.375.  The other starters in the rotation have the following ratios; Meche [...]

The Royals finished the third week of the season with a 2-4 record. They are now 9-9 and tied for 2nd place in the division.

The Royals won 1 out of 3 against the Detroit Tigers.  They are now 9-9 on the season and are tied for 2nd place.
Friday 4/24
Matchup: Rick Porcello vs. Zack Greinke
Brilliance thy name is Greinke.  3 hits, 0 earned runs, 1 walk and 10 strike outs in 9.0 innings pitched.  The best pitching night for the Royals in the series was also their “best” night at the plate.  The offense hit .250 with a double and 2 home runs.  Coco Crisp and Miguel Olivo pitched in with multi-hit games, but in the end it was all about Zack.  The end result was a [...]

Jose Guillen was activated from the DL and was back in the lineup tonight.  He finished the game 0-2 with a walk.
To make room for Guillen on the major league roster, the Royals designated C-Brayan Pena for assignment.  The 27 year old Pena was hitting .286 with 2 doubles in 7 at bats this season.
It’s sad to see Pena go, but it makes more sense for the Royals to keep Maier.  Having a legitimate 4th outfielder, apologies to Willie Bloomquist, on the roster is more reasonable than keeping a 3rd catcher who has only been given 7 at bats in [...]

The Royals won 1 out of 3 against the Cleveland Indians.  They are now 8-7 on the season and are 3-3 against Cleveland on the year.
Tuesday 4/21
Matchup: Aaron Laffey vs. Sidney Ponson
We all knew it was coming.  With a 4.50 ERA and 1.50 WHIP in his first two starts, chances were good that Ponson was going to implode in his third start.  The positive for the Royals was the Indians were sending Aaron Laffey to the mound to oppose Sir Sidney.  Surprisingly Aaron Laffey threw extremely well going 7.0 innings and allowing only 1 run.  Ponson did not fare as [...]

Joakim Soria will be out 3-5 games due to tightness in his pitching shoulder and could end up on the DL.
This explains a lot.
It explains Hillman not using him very much the last week or so.
It explains why Soria has seemed a little more hittable this year compared to in 2008.
It also explains why his curveball hasn’t seemed as sharp or controlled this season.
The big question is what now?  According to Hillman in Dick Kaegel’s MLB.com piece:
“There is a problem, but it’s not a DL situation,” Hillman said.  “He doesn’t have any structural damage, but he does have a tight [...]

Now that I’ve broken down and ranked the individual components of each team in the division, it is time to tally the rankings, examine the teams as a whole, and think about what needs to go right for each team this season.

Part 2 of my AL Central preview focuses on the pitching staffs, benches and managers of each team. The staffs were broken down and ranked by starting rotation, closers, and the rest of the bullpen. I ranked them 1-5 with 1 being the best and 5 being the worst. For my 2009 stats I used an average of the projections from Baseball Prospectus, Bill James and CBS Sports.com with my own judgment sprinkled in. Age listed in parenthesis is the player’s age on opening day.

The Royals took 2 out of 3 against the Texas Rangers in the series.  They now sit at 7-5 and are tied for 1st place in the division with the Tigers and White Sox.
Friday 4/17
1st game of the series featured Matt Harrison vs. Gil Meche.  The Royals offense showed up in a big way as the Royals cruised to a big 12-3 win.  They pounded out 19 hits including 4 doubles and 3 home runs.  Teahen led the way with a 5 hit game but 6 other Royals had multi-hit games.  As a team they drew 7 walks, struck out [...]

The Royals finished the second week of the season with a 4-2 record.  They are now 7-5 and tied for 1st place in the division.

The Royals took 2 out of 3 against the Cleveland Indians in the series.  They now sit at 5-4 and are tied for 1st place in the division with the Detroit Tigers.
Monday 4/13
1st game of the series featured Fausto Carmona vs. Zack Greinke.  Carmona was bad, as expected, giving up 5 hits, 4 walks and 4 runs in his 5.0 innings of work.  Greinke didn’t have his best stuff and still managed 5.0 innings of shutout baseball.  He allowed 6 hits, 2 walks and struck out 9 hitters.  He was in and out of trouble most of the game, but [...]

The Royals finished the opening week of the season with a 3-3 record and tied for 2nd place in the division.