Archive for May, 2010

I was fooled. I took to heart the claims of a new approach, a new focus in regards to Yuniesky Betancourt. For a while, he was going the other way, going up the middle and looking different from what you’d expect. He’s technically been about league average all told so far in 2010. Unfortunately it won’t last and he needs to get used to conversations with Willie Bloomquist and Brayan Pena on the bench.

After some (mostly) strong pitching at Tampa Bay, the Royals moved on to Chicago and Texas, spending all week on the road while shifting the makeup of the major league roster. Some of the bats that propelled Kansas City atop the majors in batting average cooled off as Jose Guillen, Yuniesky Betancourt, Jason Kendall and Scott Podsednik either slumped severely or witnessed a sharp decline in productivity.

Each Spring since 1969, I have high hopes for my Kansas City Royals. Ever the clear-eyed realist, I may have acknowledged on occasion that they might not win the World Series every year, but I am always convinced that this is the season they will at least be competitive again. And keep in mind this includes teams whose opening day roster has highlighted such baseball giants as Emil Brown, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Angel Berroa in starring roles. As Ricky Fitts said in American Beauty, “Never underestimate the power of denial.” Politicians and cheating spouses know that Ricky was right. And [...]

As anyone who pays attention to baseball would know, Zack Greinke had a phenomenal season last year when he was able to notch his first AL Cy Young Award. And while Greinke is off to a much more mortal start this year, there is another pitcher in baseball who is drawing comparisons to Greinke’s 2009 season — Ubaldo Jimenez of the Colorado Rockies. [...]

It’s been 23 days since I profiled prospect #7 on the KoK prospect list.  That means that this is going much more slowly than I ever anticipated and if I keep this up we won’t get to #1 until after the All-Star break.  I know I’ve said this at least once before, but I hope to get the rest of this list finished up soon.  Before I get sidetracked again for another month lets get to it. Tim Melville checks in at #6 on the 2010 Kings of Kauffman prospect list.

I’d like to welcome our newest contributor to Kings of Kauffman and the FanSided network.  With Wally focusing more on the increasingly popular Call to the Pen, the call went out  to ensure that our readers here on Kings of Kauffman would still get a diverse mix of opinions and voices.  And after a quick search we have found that new voice. Everyone join me in welcoming Tom Barkwell to the fold.  I know you’ll enjoy what he has to say in his contributions to our little part of the Royals world.  Wally, Jon and myself are glad to have [...]

MLBTradeRumors has a brief discussion today about the Reds and their lack of a solid leadoff presence. Cincinnati leadoff hitters are producing a .237 on-base percentage, worst in the league. While the article suggests the Reds are looking internally, it also tosses out Scott Podsednik as a potential fit for the Reds. So two questions for the Royals: 1) Should they trade him? 2) What would be a reasonable return?

I may be getting into unexplored territory here, but when I was younger, usually in the summer, I would stay up well past my bedtime. When I was nine, my parents let me have a cable box and TV in my room, so I would stay up until the wee small hours of the morning watching sports highlights, infomercials and the Disney Channel. (Did I hear a record scratch?) One of the films they would show with regularity was Pollyanna starring Hayley Mills (later of The Parent Trap and Saved By The Bell fame). If you don’t know the story, [...]

On Tuesday, the Royals traded Omaha outfielder Buck Coats to the White Sox for cash considerations.  Coats produced a .315/.377/.389 line in 62 plate appearances for Omaha. The White Sox assigned him to Double-A Birmingham. Coats was not considered a prospect in the Royals system, and lost playing time after the Royals claimed Jai Miller off waivers in late April. David Lough and Jordan Parraz, both generally considered top-30 prospects, took priority in the lineup over Coats. With Alex Gordon shifting positions to left field after his demotion to Omaha, Coats became expendable as roster depth. The Coats trade likely [...]

Mike Swanson announced this afternoon that Rick Ankiel has been placed on the 15-day DL with a right quad strain retroactive to yesterday. Ankiel had been bothered by the injury since April 24 when he left in the middle of the Royals 9-7 loss to Minnesota in Kansas City but had pinch-hit on May 1 and 2.

By now, you’ve heard the news of Alex Gordon’s demotion to Omaha. And now, the news is that the Royals organization wants him to work on learning the outfield and playing more at first base. So how did Gordon, 2005′s second overall pick, get to this point and where does he go from here?

It was about 15 months ago that I joined the FanSided.com Sports Network and became the lead writer for Kings of Kauffman (though it was known by a different name for the first month and a half).  Then back in November I became the MLB Director for our our network.  At the end of March I assembled a team of writers, from among our MLB staff, and launched our “general” MLB site, Call to the Pen. With my writing time split in three directions, I brought on Jon and Michael to help me out here on this site.  The growth [...]