Archive for April, 2011

When a major league team has a stacked farm system supporting it, prospect hawks come out of nowhere to watch all the young guys play. Reports start emerging from a huge array of sources to update fans on their potential future stars. It’s almost more difficult to be uninformed than to be knowledgeable about the prospects’ performances. Of course, that’s where the Royals are now. While prospect discussions are always fun and can be interesting, the recent acclaim the system has generated have boosted prospect news to heralded status. Great sites like Greg Schaum’s Pine Tar Press have folks out [...]

After five innings, Luke Hochevar had shut down all 15 Cleveland hitters he’d faced.  Going back to his start against the Mariners, he’d retired his last 31.  Dozens of baseball writers, bloggers, tweeters and commentors were cracking their knuckles, ready to start discussing the finally realized potential of the first overall pick in the 2006 draft. After seven innings, Hochevar had been chased from the game, giving up six runs. Um, ouch.

2011 so far, for Bruce Chen: TEAM IP ER HR BB SO ERA VS ANA 5 5 3 2 3 9.00 @ DET 6 0 0 1 7 4.09 VS SEA 8 0 0 1 1 2.37 VS CLE 7 2 0 3 5 2.42 What a refreshing start to the season Royals fans have in Bruce Chen. Not only is he giving us 5+ solid innings of low scoring play, he is giving us this in surprising fashion because most teams don’t believe he’s capable of such feats. “Chen is pitching tonight, going to be a breeze,” they probably [...]

Joakim Soria struck Carlos Santana out with the bases loaded to secure tonight’s win over the Indians.  He worked another shaky inning in which the Royals allowed a base runner in almost every way possible. Austin Kearns reached on an error.  Michael Brantley singled.  Asdrubal Cabrera was hit by a pitch and Shin Soo-Choo walked. The Royals snuck away with the win following another solid start by Bruce Chen. Shaky defense, iffy relief pitching, silent bats after the fifth inning – none of it is as interesting as the night by Alex Gordon.

It’s been written, rewritten, and rewritten again how this 10-5 start is something to relish as Royals fans because we don’t often get starts to the season like this. It’s been written, rewritten, and rewritten again how this team looks different than the ones in years past because they’ve started out winning games they wouldn’t ordinarily win. But amidst all this positivity we would all be very foolish to think there aren’t some very dark clouds forming in the distance. The Process has been the topic of discussion, and the butt of all jokes, around these parts for a number [...]

In two series against the Twins and Mariners this week, the Royals went 4-2 and have yet to lose a series this year. After a 6-3 start in the first string of games, they now sit in second place in the AL Central and are one of the few double digit win teams in baseball.  The team defense is making plays that teams of the past few years couldn’t, the pitching staff is showing great control, and the offense is in the top third in many categories.  Alex Gordon is hitting, Luke Hochevar is looking like he’s figuring things out. [...]

Jeff Francis will probably say all the right things, but he has every right to be a bit frustrated so far in 2011.  In four starts covering 27 innings, he’s walked just four, carried an ERA of 3.00 and has received a robust 14 runs of support in the games he’s pitched. He’s left games with scores of 1-1, 5-0, 3-3 and 1-1.  The Royals are 1-3 when he starts, and from the bench he’s seen Joakim Soria blow a save and Robinson Tejeda get rocked by the Twins. He pitched well enough for the win, but was matched by [...]

What a difference two years can make. I was at a Royals/Mariners game on a Wednesday night, two years ago. A year where I was watching a Royals team much different than the team I’m watching this year. A year where Miguel Olivo split time with John Buck calling games for the Royals instead of the M’s, hit 23 homers…and struck out….a lot. Ken Griffey Jr. was still hacking for Seattle and, though I obviously wanted the Royals to win, I couldn’t help rooting for Ken every time he came to the plate. I had to. I’ve always been a fan of his….always [...]

One of the murky questions in baseball, despite the cadre of researchers and baseball minds out there, is finding a universal way to define a catcher’s ability to, well, catch a major league game. Catcher is a position that requires physical skill, game knowledge and a keen feel for the game and players, especially the pitchers involved.  The last two elements are what lead to many former catchers becoming coaches and managers. We can measure things like fielding percentage (even if it’s fairly weak way to judge a fielder’s true ability, sabermetrically speaking), caught stealing percentage, passed balls and wild [...]

On paper, this one’s not even close.  Sean O’Sullivan, all of 23 years old and coming in with a 5.81 career ERA facing off against Felix Hernandez, reigning AL Cy Young Award winner. Backed up by some great defense and working out of a couple of jams, O’Sullivan went five innings, shutting out a feeble Mariners offense.  The bullpen combo of Tim Collins, Jeremy Jeffress and Aaron Crow came in for the final four innings, striking out six and maintaining the shutout. The Royals have now won four in a row and are 10-4. Today, there were a lot of [...]

When I found out that Mitch Maier was going to get his first start of the season on Friday night, I tuned in to see how ol’ Mitch was doing. Ned Yost said on Friday that he was going to try & give Mitch and Jarrod Dyson some playing time this weekend to give each of his outfielders a day off. Now, I’m sure that this is the kind of thing that makes Cal Ripken roll his eyes, but it’s part of Major League Baseball as we know it. The unfortunate thing for Mitch was that Friday’s weather was the [...]

Talk about a role reversal. Coming into the season, the starting rotation was pegged as the weak spot of this 2011 Royals team.  Through 12 games, the bullpen was garnering the attention, led by a crew of rookies who’ve been nearly untouchable. On Friday, it was the other way around.  Luke Hochevar gave up a leadoff double to Ichiro Suzuki and didn’t allow another hit.  Period.  The bullpen, on the other hand, walked four, gave up four hits and four runs.  Were it not for a leaping catch of a line drive by Mike Aviles, Joakim Soria would have blown [...]