Archive for August, 2010

It looks like the batch of September call ups may be pretty small when rosters expand tomorrow. The unofficial word for now is that Gil Meche, Luke May and Josh Fields will be the three players who join the Royals in Kansas City for tomorrow’s series finale. Noticeably absent from that list is Texas League Player of the Year Mike Moustakas.

First, before I get into the news, Mike Moustakas went 4-6 today with three homers, a 3-RBI double and 11 RBIs on the night. Wow.  Just.  Wow.

Rookie long reliever Kanekoa Texeira was placed on the 15 day DL this afternoon retroactive to yesterday with a right elbow strain. He’ll be able to return September 12. In his place, the Royals activated reliever Robinson Tejeda from the DL after nearly a month on the shelf with a strained tendon in his right biceps.

Jose Guillen was designated for assignment over three weeks ago and still leads the Royals with 16 homeruns.  The next closest is Yuniesky Betancourt with 13 after an inexplicable post-baby power surge in the middle of August.  Billy Butler, the Royals marquee hitter, has a mere 11 in 536 plate appearances. Why is this franchise so power starved?

As you should be aware, active rosters expand next month, providing the opportunity for a few players to make their debut with Kansas City.  Last season, Victor Marte and Dusty Hughes made their major league debuts in September.  The year before, Kila Ka’aihue hit his first major league homerun in September, taking advantage of the expanded rosters. So in 2010, what players will we see in KC?  Let’s take a look:

Okay, we’ve covered Eric Hosmer and Mike Montgomery and Tim Collins and the like, but the best development of the Royals farm system in 2010 has been the depth of talent with potential to play in the major leagues.  This installment of Down on the Farm is going to take a look at a handful of those players that have gotten overlooked but who still deserve their time in the sun (especially since they’re just as important to the future of the team as the Big Names).

Electronic sensor technology is amazing. It can detect and measure virtually any known event that takes place in the physical world, at speeds measured in nanoseconds, with degrees of accuracy that boggle the mind. An ever-expanding industry, the use of electronic sensor technology is becoming more common place all the time. According to a recent TV commercial I saw, some

Last week the Royals kept it close but only ended up winning two of six games.  This week, they hosted divisional rivals Cleveland and Chicago for a pair of three game series.  It went a little bit better, but not without a lot of drama and a heaping dose of free weekend baseball.

We’re chugging along, taking a look at some of the intriguing players in the Royals farm system.  Today, it’s a glimpse at the new players we’ve received and how they’ve done in their young Royals careers. The Royals were active at the trading deadline, turning Scott Podsednik, Rick Ankiel, Kyle Farnsworth and Alberto Callaspo into a group of young players.  Gregor Blanco, Sean O’Sullivan and Jesse Chavez are already with Kansas City, but the more interesting prospects – and those who I think Dayton Moore was wise to target – are still down on the farm.

Last night’s game against the visiting White Sox was postponed until today, causing a late season double header.  It only seems appropriate that I should recount one of my fonder memories from out at the old ball yard.

Who here remembers when the Royals would blast Cab Calloway’s version of “Minnie the Moocher” in the late innings back in the 80′s and 90′s?  If memory serves, they would typically bust it out over the public address during late inning pitching changes, or most likely, during the 7th inning stretch after “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” had already been played.

As promised, we’ll continue taking a glance at some of the players working their way towards the big league club, today focusing on The Big Names, specifically, the pitchers. Yesterday I took at look at some of the big name hitters and like many Royals fans, I’m excited.