Archive for March, 2011

It starts with two shutout innings against the 2010 American League champions.  Three strikeouts scattered around one hit.  No walks. The next time out, it’s another two innings, with two runs surrendered and yes, a walk.  But just the one and after four early innings, you’re looking at a four-to-one K/BB ratio.  The two runs are bad, but overall it’s a 4.50 ERA, which isn’t terrible. Oh, but then you get the fun outing.  Three scoreless, three more strikeouts. Out of nowhere, Kyle Davies is sitting there with a 2.57 ERA, seven strikeouts and just two walks over seven innings. [...]

The Royals claimed left-handed pitcher Robert Fish off waivers from the Yankees today.  He was a Rule 5 pick from the Angels. Fish is 6’2″ and a former 6th round pick in 2006 with a 95 mph fastball and a big but inconsistent curveball.  In 365.2 innings in the minors Fish has a career ERA of 5.05 with 9.1 K/9 and 4.2 BB/9.  It looks like he could be a bit nasty with the fastball, but the curve is the key.  Greg Schaum noted that if he tweaked his delivery here or there, he could be an Andy Sisco type [...]

The Royals made some more moves to trim the players in camp, optioning Clint Robinson and David Lough to Triple A and sending Derrick Robinson and Jeff Bianchi to Double A. The Omaha assignments were expected, with Clint Robinson getting his first shot at Triple A and David Lough returns after a decent 2010 with the (then) Royals.  Clint held his own in spring training, hitting .389/.400/.889 with two homers and nine RBIs in 19 plate appearances.  Lough hit .235/.350/.235 in 20 appearances. Derrick Robinson returns to Northwest Arkansas to follow up on a season where his hitting finally started [...]

Hopefully you’re familiar with the Aaron Sorkin series Sports Night.  If not, here’s the quick synopsis – it’s a dramatic comedy (or comedic drama or dramedy) about the anchors and producers of a national sports television network. In one episode, the network is undergoing turmoil about content choices and differences between the owner and Isaac Jaffe, managing editor of the Continental Sports Channel.  The chaos brings on a sense of foreboding doom to Casey McCall, lead anchor:

This morning, the Royals optioned pitchers Kevin Pucetas and Everett Teaford to Triple A Omaha and assigned Chris Dwyer, John Lamb, Steven Shell and Will Smith to minor league camp. With starters starting to go deeper into games and numerous candidates vying for bullpen roles, players like Dwyer, Lamb and Smith are shifting to get more innings in minor league camp. “It’s better for them to go over [to Minor League camp] and get their innings, so that when we need them over the course of the year, they’re prepared and ready to step back up,” Yost said. From kansascity.royals.mlb.com (share [...]

To pass the time before the season starts, the baseball writers of the FanSided network have been coming up with teams to represent each division, featuring the best players going into 2011. There’s one more step before we crown a champion. After fan votes, the NL East and AL East are both in the running for the recognition as the best divisional lineup  in baseball. To read Nathaniel Stoltz’s breakdown of the two lineups and to make your choice, head over to Call to the Pen: Clipped from: fansided.com (share this clip) Even though there are no former Royals to [...]

It’s really been a while since national baseball writers mentioned something about the Royals that wasn’t directly related to the farm system.  I’m just not used to a humble team in the Midwest getting attention from national media like they have today (at least when a Cy Young Award winner wasn’t on the trading block.) Imagine my surprise this morning that while catching up on my Twitter timeline, three such names were dropping rumors about the Royals.

I was in Baltimore for a conference this past weekend and beginning of the week, which left me with almost no internet access, so I’ve been trying to catch up with all of the Royals stories. There’s a surprisingly large number of them for this time of year, but one this morning caught my eye. The Royals are interested in acquiring a young catcher. Now, maybe this isn’t all that surprising. Many thought the Royals might sign another elderly catcher over the offseason to fill Jason Kendall‘s spot until he returned. I originally bought into this, but it soon seemed [...]

Chase Utley is a damn good baseball player. He’s one of the best hitters in the game, both for power and average, while playing a defensively-focused position, and doing it well.  With a career .293/.380/.514/.894 line and a 2010 Fielding Bible Award at second base on his resume, he’s a big piece of what the Philadelphia Phillies hope will be a world championship team. That’s the hope. The reality, however, is quite different.  Baseball greatness aside, Utley’s hurt and might be for some time.  Nobody really knows yet.  The words “knee” and “surgery” are floating around, so the timetable for [...]

With every passing day, we get closer to the start of baseball.  I’m a cheapskate and have an awful computer, so any MLB.tv or At Bat subscriptions are out of the question for me, so while I can follow the Gameday play by play on MLB.com or check a boxscore, I still prefer to watch or listen.  Personally, I can’t wait.  I’m sure you’re in the same boat. I figure it’s a good time to get caught up on a few things that have been happening over the past few days.  Kila Ka’aihue is killing the ball.  Mike Aviles is [...]

It’s time to take a step back from all the “Royals minor leaguers are super-unbelievably-awesome” talk and bring everyone back to earth and take a second to remember that we are after all, Royals fans, and good things don’t happen to us. Negative? Sure. But what has been lost in the rainbows and butterflies over Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas so far in spring training is that we still have a full season of nonsense and losing to put up with before we get to the good stuff. Or at least, what we hope is the good stuff. Some of [...]

The Royals have a split-squad double-header today, first against the Diamondbacks and tonight against the Padres. It’s significant because a few big-time prospects will get a taste of major league spring training action.  With all the talk about prospects all winter, getting a chance to see some of them (at least in the boxscore in my case) who weren’t original invitees is exciting. The notable additions to today’s lineups are: Today vs. Arizona: Wil Myers Christian Colon Kurt Mertins Geulin Beltre Tim Smith Paulo Orlando Tonight vs. San Diego: Brett Eibner Nick Francis Jamie Romak Rey Navarro Alex McClure Adrian [...]