Archive for April, 2011

Clubhouse Change Has Lead to More Victories, Better Play There is always talk about the “attitude in the clubhouse” and how certain players can be a “cancer” in the locker room, affecting the way a team plays and ultimately how successful they are.  I have never completely bought into this theory as I feel good players are good players, no matter their attitude, and the more good players you have, the better chance you have to win.  Did Randy Moss affect the Patriots in 2007?  Nope.  Did Manny Ramirez ever bring down the Red Sox with his antics?  Two World [...]

Your Weekly Minor League Update: In order to keep everybody in the loop about what is going on down in the minor league system we here at Kings of Kauffman have decided to start giving weekly minor league updates.  We will be giving you the results of all the games for all the minor league affiliates (at least Low A-AAA), with a couple of the players that stood out from the game and a small recap with some tidbits about how the game went.  It’s especially prominent now with all the attention the Royals farm system is getting but it’s [...]

In his first start of the season, Bruce Chen gave up three homers and five earned runs in just five innings.  His command was off and he left the ball up all day. It’s safe to say that he’s made some adjustments. In his two starts since, Chen has hurled 14 innings, surrendering one unearned run, walking just two batters and allowing just nine hits. On Thursday, he let his defense do the dirty work, getting solid plays from Alcides Escobar and Melky Cabrera in the field.  While it’d be better to see him get more ground balls than fly balls, [...]

I love baseball movies. I think I’m not alone in that statement. And, of course, one of my all-time favorites is Major League. It’s one of the best sports comedies ever made and I’m pretty sure that’s not just hyperbole. Anyway, besides the Wild Thing and Willie Mays Hayes, there’s a character in that movie that is always strangely endearing for all his bizarre quirks. I’m talking about Mr. Pedro Cerrano, the Cuban voodoo-practicing ballplayer that pioneered “hats for bats” and wanted to sacrifice a chicken before a game. In watching the beginning of the 2011 Royals season, I’ve come [...]

It’s this kind of day that we expected from Mike Aviles.  With a 2-4 day that included two doubles and three runs driven in, Aviles bounced back after sitting for the entire Detroit series. He’s still sitting on an ugly 5-32 start, but he showed better at bats on Tuesday night, working a sacrifice fly and drawing a walk.  Baby steps.  Chris Getz and Wilson Betemit continued to produce, so Aviles may still have to scrap for at bats, but Kila Ka’aihue‘s struggles against lefties might mean more DH starts for Betemit or Aviles.  Today, he was a big part [...]

Yes, the Royals are winning right now. We know this. It’s a fun time to be a Royals follower because this right here is one of the FEW reasons the Royals keep us interested. The simple fact that they are playing better than the teams they face. Maybe even the fact that they are playing better so unexpectedly. Maybe it’s the honeymoon phase of the 2011 season, it’s still early, and starting 7-4 doesn’t hurt the feeling. Is it that springtime is upon us, the winter season has passed and we are in a much better frame of mind? Who [...]

Stop me if you’ve heard this one.  The Royals travel to Minnesota, leave runners on in key situations and the Twins come up when it matters. Somebody on Twitter likened the Royals struggles with the Twins to Lou Brown talking to Indians General Manager Charlie Donovan in Major League – “One of these days we’ll figure out how to beat those guys.” It seems the Twins always have the Royals at arm’s length.  They don’t win all the games, but they win the blowouts and they win more of the close ones.  Tonight, they won one that they shouldn’t have, [...]

(Note: Due to a server change in May, this episode is unavailable indefinitely. We apologize for the inconvenience, but you can always check out new episodes and guests at RoyalmanReport.com.) This week on the Royalman Report I joined Troy “Royalman” Olsen and Brian McGannon (of Royals Kingdom) at the KC Icehouse to talk about Kevin Appier’s election to the Royals Hall of Fame, the Royals homestand and hot start to the season, and Troy offered some apologies to Alex Gordon, Ned Yost and others. To listen to the show, you can find it in the following ways: Go to RoyalmanReport.com Download [...]

Don’t look now, but the Royals have won two of their first three series and split the third.  They trail Cleveland for first place in the AL Central, and while it’s still early, what the heck, it’s been a lot of fun to watch. The Royals look to take another series in this young season, traveling to Target Field to take on the despised Minnesota Twins.  Is it me, or are the Twins kind of like the haughty, arrogant characters often played by Greg Kinnear or Ted McGinley (who, coincidentally played a pompous manager of the same Twins in Major [...]

The Royals are (after a White Sox loss tonight) in second place in the AL Central, and sure, it may be early, but it’s not a bad idea to keep tabs on the other teams in the division.  Consider it training for next season and beyond. Well here on the FanSided Network, the AL Central writers have teamed up to provide a weekly review of the goings on in the division.  Wally at Puckett’s Pond hosts the column this week, and it’ll rotate from there. I was happy to contribute my thoughts to the Royals side of things and you [...]

Well now, how much fun have the first nine games been? My journalism professor always gave us two rules to live by: Don’t use a question in your headlines and don’t use a question to start your lede. They’re both the lazy-step-brother of journo-writing and it was taught to us that it showed the apathy of the writer towards his or her own story. But, I don’t care, I’m going to go ahead and break one of those rules anyway. You see in breaking one of the hard-and-fast rules of Prof. Lofflin I’m not so much pointing to the negative [...]

After trading Zack Greinke, David DeJesus and Yuniesky Betancourt in the offseason, the Royals come into 2011 looking like a whole different team.  With 2011 looking like a transitional year, with little hope for anything but 70 wins while waiting for the vaunted prospect class to get further seasoning, the current crop of big leaguers gave fans something root for in the first week (plus) of the season. In this space last season, I would review the week for the Royals, trying to observe any kind of trends that might pop up as the year goes on.  With most games [...]