Archive for May, 2011

For this week’s podcast, we were without Troy “Royalman” Olsen, but thankfully, I was able to find help in hosting the Royalman Report.  Chris Kamler joined me to discuss the Royals – you might know him better as @fakenedyost on Twitter. We discussed the “Blog Your Way to the K” event, which Chris and I both took part in.  Other topics included the pitiful road trip, Joakim Soria, the passing of Paul Splittorff and his impact on the Royals. We also discussed the upcoming MLB draft and the Royals strategy and approach and finished up with talk of potential June [...]

So is now a good time to question the health of Joakim Soria? Fresh off an inning in Texas on Friday, an inning in which Royals fans could hope things had started to turn around for the All-Star closer, Soria entered yesterday’s game with a lead in the ninth inning looking to put a stop to all the worries about his health and effectiveness. With a little help from Brayan Pena, he did not. A homerun to Nelson Cruz and the lack of command in the strike zone that has been the 2011 season for Soria lead to another blown [...]

It’s been a rough week.  As I’ve mentioned before, I live in an area of Missouri where it’s pretty difficult to actually get to watch the Royals on the tube so I’m often forced to watch the gamecasts from the website. The Royals website has significantly improved this experience this season, but it’s still not quite the same as getting to watch games. Sadly enough, the week we’ve had has been hard enough to watch on the gamecast, let alone in real time. After we got swept by the Orioles, I determined that it would just be too painful for me to [...]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been shielding my eyes to the growing pains of the Royals and digging into the possibilities that this year’s upcoming Amateur draft could bring. Oh, what a time to be a prospect – especially one of the guys projected to go in the first round. On one hand, you’re staring the fact of becoming an instant millionaire directly in the eyes. You’re wrecked with anticipation of where the future will take you. While your friends wait to complete their college degrees and start fishing for a job in the real world, you’re grabbing the [...]

Ryan Wood and I’s fifth installment of ‘Feeling a Draft’ will profile our second offensive prospect, Anthony Rendon.  Rendon is the first underclassman to win Baseball America’s Collegiate Player of the Year award in a decade.  Rendon has been called one of the best natural hitters to come along in a long time and possibly the best natural hitter in this years draft.  Just the fact that being an underclassman he won player of the yaer puts him with elite company with the likes of Robin Ventura, John Olerud, and Mark Texeira.  Rendon doesn’t only do it with the bat though, he quite [...]

Kane County Cougars – 20-27 (7th place) Wilmington Blue Rocks – 28-17 (1st place) Northwest Arkansas Naturals – 22-19 (1st place) Omaha Storm Chasers – 26-21 (1st Place)

Sometimes, I feel like the Royals fan base (like most fan bases) is filled with people who hope for the progression of one player even when that player fails. We push so hard to promote how that player will improve and finally turn the corner. Every offseason is filled with these kinds of predictions, and most of the time, well, they just don’t come true. Luke Hochevar was my prediction this past offseason. I saw some things from him that I really liked before he was sidelined for much of the 2010 season. Sure, his ERA wasn’t great in that [...]

Paul Splittorff, all-time leader in wins by a Royals pitcher, passed away Wednesday morning from complications from melanoma. I wish I had a Splittorff story.  By all accounts, he was a class act and a great baseball ambassador for Kansas City, where he spent his entire career. The closest I came to meeting him – really MEETING him – was when I was eight years old.  Maybe you’ve been to your local mall or hotel lobby for a Royals Caravan in the winter.  One night, my uncle, a lifelong baseball fan, came by our house and told me we had [...]

It was a strangely cold day, in the middle of last December when the Royals lost Zack Greinke to the Milwaukee Brewers. It wasn’t so much that we felt empty after the trade, it was actually more of an overall relief- quite possibly, the last piece of the Royals dark side that finally got pulled from under rug. It was then we felt we could actually begin a new day…so we did.  The last resemblance of the past, out the window. Here we are now. In the midst of the youth upsurge. A moment in time filled with such accepted [...]

I feel like we’ve been down this road before. After 47 Royals games this year, Billy Butler has three homers and 18 RBI.  Considering that he’s batted cleanup most of the year and is coming off of a long-term extension signed in the offseason, the Royals and fans expected a lot more. This was expected to be a breakout season where Butler, now 25 years old, would start turning homers into doubles and jump towards All-Star levels among AL first basemen. Now, for anyone who’s are starting to warm up the Clint Robinson bandwagon and question Butler’s value, let’s look [...]

The Royals could have had a better homestand.  It seems that some of the luck from April just isn’t coming into play in May – a couple of breaks and the Royals would be coming off of a 4-3 homestand instead of 2-7. But the schedule goes on regardless and the Royals hit the road, stopping first in Baltimore for a three game series with the Orioles.  In Kansas City, the Royals took two out of three and hope to keep it up at Camden Yards. Joining me in previewing the series is Chris Raitzyk, staff writer at Birds Watcher [...]

Fresh off a 9-8 extra inning loss to the Cardinals on Sunday, a game in which Royals pitchers walked 13(!) batters, the unraveling of the hot start has taken full effect. Back-to-back pick-offs, a badly slumping Alex Gordon and Billy Butler, and a bucket load of questionable bullpen moves have clouded the once sunny start for this Royals season. The 13 walks could be considered a bit of an outlier – as they should be, that’s a huge number for just one game – if it didn’t happen just five days earlier against a Texas lineup without two of its [...]