Archive for September, 2010

For those of you watching tonight’s series finale against the Twins, you’ll have just seen Kila Ka’aihue hit his eighth homerun of the season. For those of you watching last night, you also saw his sixth and seventh homers. Oh, and a triple, too (that was just about his third homer of the night). Kila is free. And he’s on a rampage.

Back on August 3, I discussed the impending shift by Gil Meche from the starting rotation to the bullpen as an alternative to right shoulder surgery that could have held him out of a large chunk of 2011, and potentially the whole season.  There were concerns that if he didn’t recover well (and Meche has never seemed to recover well), it could threaten his career. And thus the Gil Meche Experiment was born. At the first mention of it, I did not like the idea at all.  Fortunately for Meche and the Royals, my opinion was wrong.

Buddy Bell once quipped “I never say it can’t get worse,” a prudent outlook given the sorry state of the team during his tenure as Royals manager. As bad as this season’s Royals team has been, it has shown some signs that better days are ahead. As all fans do, I have some preferences for who we should keep on the big league roster, and who we should jettison as we look toward next season:

Well, it’s that time.  The last week of the baseball season for the Royals.  It’s been a hectic year, to say the least.  We saw the firing of Trey Hillman, the demotion of Alex Gordon and the first steps towards the realization of the Process in action. There’s still a week to go, so we’re not at the end of the road yet. Though it may not be pretty.

I’m a graduate from the University of Kansas, home of one of the most successful basketball programs in the history of college basketball.  I’ve been a fan of the basketball team since 1988 after they’d won the National Championship behind Danny Manning.  I’d thought “Hey, Kansas! I’m in Kansas!  And we WON!?” and was hooked from there. And holy cow, there’s a lot of heartbreak in those years.  Years when we were ranked in the top five all season, only to blow it in March.  Years where we had talent but it didn’t mesh.  Years where bad basketball bounced us [...]

The Royals will send seven minor leaguers to the Arizona Fall League, beginning play on October 12. The seven, along with seven players each from the Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers and Detroit Tigers, will comprise the roster of the Surprise Rafters.  Should the team play well enough to reach the championship game, they’ll play until November 20. You’ll recognize the names of the Royals representatives…

It’s winding down the the final days of the season.  The Royals have staved off 100 losses, but may still finish dead last in the AL Central.  That being said, the winter months and start of 2011 will be focused on prospects and hope for future success. Jim Callis at BaseballAmerica.com had a Royals-centric prospect chat on Wednesday, and the impression I get is that the Royals should land at least five and perhaps as many as seven prospects in BA’s Top 100 when their Prospect Handbook comes out. (Which, if you enjoy looking at prospects at all is a [...]

On September 7, Jarrod Dyson made his major league debut, entering in the ninth inning, walking in his only plate appearance, and scoring a run.  On September 13, he got his first career start, leading off and playing centerfield and also collected his first major league hit, a double. Then over the weekend he went from interesting September callup to the early favorite for starting centerfielder. Wait, what?

The Royals have signed a 2 year player development contract with the Kane County Cougars in Geneva, Illinois to serve as Kansas City’s Low A minor league affiliate.  The Cougars were an affiliate of the Oakland A’s since 2003. The move keeps the Royals Low A players and staff in the Midwest League, and could provide some additional exposure for the club.  Kane County has had strong attendance at Philip B. Elfstrom Stadium since being built in 1991 and recently completed $10.5 million in renovations.

Zack Greinke talked with mlb.com’s Dick Kaegel recently about motivation and his disappointing follow up to a stellar 2009 Cy Young campaign. We heard back in August about how Greinke just wasn’t sure about the direction of the franchise.  The Royals fanbase online went crazy with fear that Greinke wanted to walk at the end of his contract in 2012, no matter what.  Kaegel’s discussion seems to indicate that Greinke has at least softened his stance. Still, the point in the article is that Greinke’s having trouble getting motivated in 2010 – maybe he’s relaxed after a successful year, maybe [...]

Since the Royals are still up, I may as well pass this along now. Run, don’t walk, to Call To The Pen and read Wally’s epic on Willie Bloomquist, mistakes, and the legend of Boomquist. I don’t mean to pick on the man.  I really don’t.  He did a lot with limited talent, and at least tried hard.  But I agree that his contributions were highly overrated and could have been provided by any bevy of minor league or replacement level (i.e., league minimum) talent. Bloomquist was traded from the Royals to the Reds last Monday. You can stay current [...]

Congratulations go out to manager Brian Poldberg and the Northwest Arkansas Naturals who defeated the Midland Rockhounds 2-0 tonight to win the Texas League Championship Series three games to one. Will Smith pitched 6.2 scoreless innings with six strikeouts to earn the clinching win.  Smith, you’ll remember, was one of the arms the Royals got from the Angels in return for Alberto Callaspo.