Archive for May, 2009

The Royals took 2 out of 3 on the road against the Minnesota Twins. Kansas City is now 14-11 and remains in 1st place. Friday 5/1 Matchup: Sidney Ponson vs. Kevin Slowey Result: 7-5 Loss The Sidney Ponson who was almost passable as a fringe major league pitcher has left the building. In his place we were subjected to a scrub pitcher with little left in the tank. Apparently Sidney thought he was at the Metrodome to throw batting practice to the Twins hitters. In 4.1 innings, Ponson “allowed” 9 hits, 7 runs, 2 home runs and 1 walk. He [...]

The first month of the season has recently concluded, so I thought now would be a good time to look at how some of the Royals top prospects are faring in the minors.  For this edition I used Baseball America’s top ten list.  Stats listed are as of May 2nd, 2008.

A while back I wrote, in passing, that Billy Butler should be the starter at 1B and Mike Jacobs should be the starter at DH.  My statement was based on their defensive ability more than anything else, but I decided to take a look at their offensive numbers as well.  I found their splits to be surprising and more pronounced than I expected and thought I would share them. The Royals have now played 23 games this season.  Both Butler and Jacobs have had only 3 games where they weren’t in the starting lineup, meaning that each has 20 starts [...]

The Royals won 3 out of 4 against the Toronto Blue Jays.  They are now 12-10 on the season and are in 1st place. Monday 4/27 Matchup: David Purcey vs. Brian Bannister Result: 7-1 Win Brian Bannister pitched 7.0 innings and gave up only 1 hit and 1 run.  He struck out 2 and walked 6.  It was his second good start in a row, but even if he had pitched poorly, it still would have been better than another Horacio Ramirez start.  The 6 walks and the fact he threw only 53 of 103 pitches for strikes are a [...]