That’s the record James Shields had after his first 8 games started in 2012.

We talk all the time on here about how overvalued the “W’ is as a statistic, but unfortunately, the world we live in still hasn’t seemed to consider the ridiculous ways an individual gains a “win” or a “loss.” Michael talked last week about the way Shields’ record seemed “Grienkesque” in the way he’s compiled a 2-3 record despite an ERA of 2.48 with 53 strikeouts and 14 walks

Guess what Shields’ record was after his first 8 games in 2011?

3-1 (ERA – 2.08) 51 SO and 13 walks

There are some conflicting statistics here. Shields’ 2011 and 2013 stats are very similar and yet the discrepancy in record is pretty glaring. 7-1 to 3-5.

However, in the first 8 games of 2012, James had an E.R.A that was actually more than an entire run higher than his current progress. The difference? In 2011 and 2013, Shields was getting an average of 4.125 runs per game from his offense. In 2011, it just worked out that he was on the right side of the fence. In 2012, Shields, though still good, wasn’t anywhere near his current progress. However, his offense was averaging 5.125 runs a game.

All of this to say, I’m kind of bummed out that James has been getting slapped with so many losses. Not because I think anything of the “win,” but because I hear too many people talking about “wins” and “losses” as if they are the one thing that defines a pitcher’s success.

It gives me a headache.

So to all of you people, Shields has had a great start to the year. Don’t be morons. If a pitcher is good, it makes sense that he would probably have more wins than losses when the season ends. If he pitches well and his team provides him any sort of offense, he’s likely to do all right in that department.

However, if his team is struggling offensively (as the Royals have been this season, though it looks like they brought their bats to the game against the Angels last night) then it’s not too unbelievable to see James hang a 3-5 record through the first 8 games of the season.

Just stop acting like his record is important and have faith that the bats will start to pick up and help steer the course of his record back onto the straight and narrow.

I think this is just as important for the fans as well. We all have our rituals that make us feel as if we somehow hold sway over the outcome of a game. There’s the effervescent rally cap, a classic maneuver a fan makes when his team is struggling late in the game.

Down here in Bolivar, there are two bros that watch/follow Royals games with me and we all have our own rituals for coaxing victory out of they guys. We all went on a stadium tour a few months ago and at the end, we got some Royals swag to take with us. The hats we got were a little bit crummy. They weren’t even snap-backs. They were like those lame belt-loop ones that hardly anyone our age wears.

Anyways, after mocking these hats incessantly, my buddy Trev has started rocking his during the game because every time he wears it, we start scoring runs. It’s a little eerie, really.

My other buddy Jake has a bat signed by Amos Otis that he likes to hold during the games. It makes the players play better. For reals.

I, myself have this awesome Royals light that I turn on after each Royals win. Much like, Paul Revere….or something.

What do you guys do?

I want some weird traditions, man.

Naturally, the worry is how the team will stack up against the rest of the A.L. Central. So far, the results are positive. They’ve played each team this month and, regardless of a win or loss against Cleveland tonight, will only have LOST one series against a division foe. That series loss came in the first three games of the year. Overall in the month of April, they’ve gone 7-4 against the division.* They dropped two out of three to the White Sox, swept the Twins, split with the Tigers and will either take three out of four from the Indians or split with them.

*Again, pending tonight’s game

Let’s take a look at how the rest of the division is faring in-house:

Cleveland Indians - As of yet, the Indians have only played the White Sox and us. They’re 3-2 against the Sox (one game got rained out) and they’re currently 1-2 against us for a record of 4-3 against the division.

Minnesota Twins- The Twins have actually won series over both the division favorite Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox this month. What’s hurt them was getting swept by the Royals earlier in the month. They haven’t played the Indians yet and currently hold a record of 4-4 against the division.

Chicago White Sox- The White Sox won their first series of the season against the Royals, but have struggled against the rest of the division ever since. They have lost series against both the Indians and Twins. They have yet to play the Tigers. Their divisional record is currently 4-6

Detroit Tigers - The (mostly) consensus pick to win the division, the Tigers lost their first series of the year against the Twins and split their series with the Royals for a divisional record of 2-3. They haven’t played the Indians or the White Sox yet.

The Royals are the only A.L. Central team to have played against each of their divisional foes. As stated above, aside from a slight sputter out of the gates against the White Sox, they’ve played well in these games. It’s going to important for them to have continued success against these teams as they push forward into May.

CURRENT STANDINGS

1. Kansas City Royals – (13-9)

2. Detroit Tigers – (13-10)

3. Minnesota Twins – (11-10)

4. Chicago White Sox – (10-14)

5. Cleveland Indians – (9-13)

Six of the Royals ten wins have occurred in games where the opposing team has drawn first blood. That is six wins out of eleven games where the other team has scored first.

This may not seem like a big deal until you look at the first seventeen games of last year and notice that the Royals dropped all eleven games in which their opponents scored the first run(s) of the game. Granted many of these losses were achieved during the great winless drought of April 2012.

There has been plenty of talk about the struggles of this team. Hey, it comes with the territory. We KC fans are generally only happy when we’re miserable. People are worried about Holland after all of twelve games….he comes in and blows through the Red Sox for 2 saves in the doubleheader today. People worry about the unfortunate location of Kelvin Herrera‘s pitch yesterday and he comes in and goes two strong innings in the doubleheader’s nightcap. The small sample size rule is still in effect and the outcry I see on social networking (specifically Twitter) makes me cringe.

On the other hand, the struggles of Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer are legitimately troubling. I hope they can pull it together. If not, something needs to happen.* I would say that seventeen games is too small of a sample size for them too, but their struggles date back to last season.

*The amazing thing about saying that “something needs to happen” is that you can just say it without really having to back it up. Ok, maybe that’s not true. I guess the most logical option would be to send at least Moose down, if not both of them. The only problem with that is you are faced with starting Tejada, Johnson and/or Falu (if they called him up). I think I’d rather ride the Hosmer/Moose train for just a little while longer. Good grief, they need to get it going, though.

Yeesh, I got off track there.

I think the above stat is very important because it signifies that the Royals are still capable of coming from behind and winning tough games. They were unable to do this last April during that debacle of a losing streak and thusly, had an awful record at this point last year.

I think the capability of winning tough games like these will be a make or break factor for the 2013 Royals. So far, they’ve proven that they’re up to the challenge.

April 08, 2013; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals pinch runner Jarrod Dyson (1) reacts after getting tagged out attempting to steal second base by Minnesota Twins short stop Pedro Florimon (25) during the eighth inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

It’s never too soon to watch the scoreboard though, and every week, we’re going to try to keep up with the AL Central across the FanSided Network by going right to the guys who know the most about each team. In this week’s installment, we’ll collectively wrap up the first week-plus of the season. For the Royals, that included two matchups with division opponents, the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins.

A lot of things have gone right in the early going. The starting pitching has been solid, Alex Gordon and Billy Butler have been very good, and even Jeff Francoeur hit a ball out on Wednesday. The end result is a 6-3 record through Thursday’s off day.

But how about the competition?

Second place Detroit, as discussed by Motor City Bengals editor Matt Snyder:

The Detroit Tigers’ bullpen has been awful early on this season; through nine games (26.2 innings) they’ve accumulated a 6.41 ERA (second worst ERA in baseball). A lot has been made of the Tigers’ troublesome closer situation (mostly being that they don’t have one), but the current relief issues aren’t necessarily directly tied to that — they’ve had trouble even getting the ball to the ninth inning in a save situation. They’ll continue to have trouble in the middle and late innings unless they can get their starters to go deeper into games.

The tied-for-third-place Chicago White Sox, brought to you by Matt Adams of Southside Showdown:

The White Sox started off the season looking decent, albeit against teams without proven track records, and watched it catch up to them once they faced a reigning division champ in the Nationals. Their inability to hit with runners in scoring position has left them relying on solo home runs to carry the scoring load, which needless to say isn’t always enough.  The pitching staff has been faring well despite the spotty run support even with John Danks beginning the season on the DL.  The Sox will enter the next week with two infielders that were recently thought of as utility players manning full time positions in Conor Gillaspie and Jeff Keppinger due to an injury to starting second baseman Gordon Beckham.

 The also-tied-for-third-place Minnesota Twins, reeling from a sweep at the hands of the Royals, as evaluated by Ben Noble of Puckett’s Pond:

The Twins sit at 4-5 after a week and a half of play, taking series from the Tigers and Orioles to begin the season before being swept by the Royals in three games. Aaron Hicks has struggled mightily after coming up from AA to begin the season as the Twins starting CF following the off-season trades of Denard Span and Ben Revere. He has two hits in 35 at bats, has struck out 16 times, and has walked just twice. The Twins boast one of the top minor league systems in all of baseball, however, and prospects have been raking.

And, in last, the Cleveland Indians, who can’t seem to keep teams off the board in the early season. Lewie Pollis from Wahoo’s On First has more:

The Indians had a great first couple games of the season, beating the revamped Blue Jays 4-1 and 3-2 in a pair of good, close games. Then came trouble: they lost five of their six subsequent games to the Blue Jays, Rays, and Yankees before a pair of storms washed out the second half of the home opening series. In each of those losses the Indians gave up 10 or more runs and/or scored one or fewer runs, but on the plus side the one win was a 13-0 rout of reigning AL Cy Young winner David Price and the Rays. So while it’s way too soon to panic, it hasn’t exactly been a fun week in Cleveland.

It’s been a pretty fun week in Kansas City though, despite crummy weather (other than the home opener). By this time next week, will that fun feeling stand?

The rankings for the Royals are mostly fair, but before I discuss where I think they are off I want to talk about the win projection.  In the end this system has a projection of 80 wins for the Royals.  This is exactly what I predicted in the Kings of Kauffman prediction article earlier this week.  You would think having projections systems along with some good writers over at Fangraphs agree with me would lead to a greater confidence in my original prediction, but that is not the case.

There are a couple of things that I disagree with a little, but can’t argue too much with, in that I think projections are a little low on Alex Gordon and Billy Butler.  These don’t change my mind though, since I think the optimism on Salvador Perez is probably a little too high.  Where this really affected my thinking was in two spots, right field and starting pitching.  The right field WAR is calculated with Jeff Francoeur receiving 630 plate appearances at a total WAR of 0.4, and that is almost surely not going to happen.  If Francoeur is bad then the platooning being discussed will likely become a reality quickly in some form, either acquisition, David Lough coming up, or Jarrod Dyson playing more in center with Lorenzo Cain moving over to play right.  The only other option is that Frenchy does get a full season of PAs, and that will likely only happen if he is producing at a better clip than 0.4 WAR per season.  It would surprise me a lot of the Royals don’t get better production out of right than is being predicted by Fangraphs, so that should add a win.  Possibly more, but I’ll call it one.

The second part, starting pitching, will likely be an even bigger deal.  Here are their projections:

They have James Shieldsat 4.4 WAR, which is fair and possibly even a little too high sinc

September 20, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals center fielder Jarrod Dyson (1) and team mates celebrate with first baseman Eric Hosmer (35) after the game against the Chicago White Sox at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals won the game 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

e 4.5 is his career high even if his ERA and FIP could end up better than what is shown.  I would be shocked if Jeremy Guthrie, Ervin Santana, and Wade Davis all end up in the four and half ERA/FIP range, and that is the first part of my disagreement.  Obviously, since they did this things have changed too.  Luis Mendoza is now the number five starter, and will not be getting 40IP.  He will be an upgrade over Bruce Chen, which is why everyone has been hoping for Mendoza to get the spot and the Royals evidently agree as well.  My guess is that this staff will end up with another 2+ wins worth of value at the least.  Especially when I look at rotations like the Rockies getting a better projection.  Jeff Francis got projected at 2 WAR, and I would rather have anyone in the Royals staff, and Jon Garland got 1.4 WAR in projection in 90 IPs which is just plain crazy.  The only way that rotation is better is if guys like Drew Pomeranz bump Garland out of the rotation.

Just adding Mendoza and making it clear that the Francoeur is not going to be given much leash has made this Royals team better than I, and Fangraphs, originally thought a couple of weeks ago.  That is probably another 3 or 4 wins, which is starting to push the Royals toward an expectation of contention.  If they can move into the mid-80s for wins, then I think we are in for a fun September.  Sure, Detroit was projected as the best team in this same article at 94 wins, but Detroit has failed to live up to their hype a couple of times in the past few years.  Monday cannot get here fast enough.

If you follow the Royals’ minor league system at all, there is one theme.  Wilmington is a tough place to hit.  Being a position player in the system and getting a promotion to high A ball is the equivalent of the Royals Brass telling you that they would like to see how you handle failure.  It is a pitchers park of nearly epic proportions.  Cuthbert’s 2012 line of .240/.296/.322 is definitely scary, and maybe completely meaningless as well.  I went back and looked for Royals in Wilmington going back to 1994 to see who hit well there.  Plenty of players, including Johnny Damon, Mike Sweeney, and even Ken Harvey had nice seasons for the Blue Rocks, but there is a consistent similarity among them all, and that is that they were all in their early 20s.  Only one player under age 20 had a significant amount of playing time in Wilmington and had good hitting numbers.  Wil Myershad a nice half season in is age 19 season.

Cheslor Cuthbert via Jen Nevius

The best parallel for Cheslor is Carlos Beltran.  Beltran was actually a year older at each stop, but had a similar path of decent rookie ball year and a pretty good line between low A and A ball.  Then he arrived in Wilmington and struggled to a line of .229/.311/.363 as a 20 year old.  The following year he repeated his time at high A, and did much better, getting a promotion to AA where his numbers exploded.  That is the hope for someone like Cuthbert in 2013.  Getting a chance to age and repeat could lead to similar growth as a player.  Not only that, but the fact that he is following a similar path at a younger age means that the ceiling for him may be very high.

Digging into last season there were some good signs.  Away from his home park, Cuthbert’s average was similar, but his OBP was 20 points higher and his slugging was 60 points higher.  Also, after three really awful months, his OBP in the last two months (a little over 100 PAs) of the season were .343 and .364 with the usual small sample size caveats.  Everyone is loving up Adalberto Mondesi this spring, and for good reason, but don’t forget about Cheslor Cuthbert.  It would not at all be surprising to me if next year he was in AA and/or AAA and creating questions about how to handle the log jam at third base.

Let’s look at the main reasons Escobar is being tabbed for regression first.  His walk rate did not change last year, but his strike out rate went from 12.2% in 2011 up to 15.4%.  That is not generally what you would like to see.  Additionally, he posted a BABIP of .344 after being below .300 in his first two full seasons.  This is actually in line with his minor league BABIP results, but maintaining that high of a number at the major league level takes a lot of skill.  Finally, one of the main factors that contributed to this high BABIP and the increase in power, mostly due to more doubles, is his line drive rate.  Alcides’ LD% increased from 18.1 up to 23 in 2012, and that’s a good thing.  The problem is that line drive rate has a very low correlation year to year.  In fact, of all the hitting metrics tested, it has the lowest correlation at 0.293, which means we can’t count on it being sustained.  The last piece here is the increased strike out rate that came from lower contact rates, and just keep in mind that his swing rates and pitches per plate appearance, so he wasn’t more selective.

That is a lot of evidence that suggests Alcides Escobar’s 2012 was partially luck driven, but there are a couple of things he did a lot better.  One thing that makes me think he is getting better is that last year he maintained his ground ball rate while increasing his line drive rate.  That means that he avoided fly balls posting his best FB% ever at 23.7%, and that is highly correlated year to year.  If he

March 6, 2013; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Kansas City Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar (2) hits a double in the first inning during a spring training game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

hits fewer line drives this year it may mean his number of ground balls may increase rather than them turning into fly balls.  This is imperative for a hitter with so little home run power because almost all of his fly balls will end up being outs.  The second thing in Escobar’s season that stands out to me is his change in pitch values.  Last year he crushed fast balls compared to prior seasons, and he has been getting better at this over time.

In case you are unfamiliar with these, wFB is runs above on fastballs, while the wFT is two seem fastballs, wFC is cutters, and wFA is four seam and unclassified fastballs.  What these show is that Alcides was an above average hitter on fastballs last year for the first time in a full season, and that he improved from 2010 to 2011 as well.  Just for reference sake, Billy Butler’s wFB last year was 27, and Billy saw a fastball about 53.5% of the time last year versus Escobar’s 58.6%.  That means pitchers could start throwing fewer fastballs to Alcides, but even extreme fastball hitters still see a fastball 45% of the time.  He does not fit this category as these tend to be dead pull hitters with lots of power, think Ryan Howard.

At his age, Alcides Escobar’s improvement last year could be mostly due to development as a player through hitting the fastball well and avoiding fly balls.  If that development continues in his 26 year-old season this summer it could offset the regression from a little luck last year, and keep in mind that his BABIP and such don’t point to a crazy amount of luck either.  There is no reason that he cannot repeat, or even better, what he produced at the plate last summer

First, there are 4 players in the Detroit line-up that could end up as liabilities:

Andy Dirks just turned 27 and has only two partial years in the majors.  Last year he looked good in the 344 plate appearances he received.  Two things jump out at me though.  A BABIP of .365 is probably not sustainable, but more importantly how he has been used.  Of those plate appearances 261 came against righties and 83 against lefties.  They plan to platoon him due to his splits, but the other side of the platoon is uncertain.   Also, his power is limited with a career high of 15 homers between AA and AAA in 2010 and he rates out negatively defensively as well.

Torii Hunter had an incredibly lucky year at the plate last year with a BABIP of .389, and he is now 37 years old.  His aging has been showing slowly with power ticking down over time.  His average is likely to drop back to the .260s or 70s and 15 HRs is likely the max.  His walk rates and K rates got significantly worse last year.  He was always a defensive stud, but his legs aren’t what they used to be although he rated out very well last year by UZR for the first time in a number of years.

Victor Martinez is now 34 and just sat out a whole year.  His power looked diminished two years ago even though he put up a stellar batting average.  Projections see him taking a big step back overall this year.  He will probably still be useful as a hitter, but not a significant piece you want in the middle of your line-up.

Jhonny Peralta hit .239/.305/.384 last year.  He used to hit for power, but those years seem behind him.  His average will probably come back a little, but the rest of what he offers is pretty mediocre.

Based on these the Royals are obviously better than Detroit at Left Field, DH, and Short Stop.  Jeff Francoeur is still worse than a diminished Torii Hunter.  It would not surprise me if Second Base was similar for both teams as Omar Infante is nothing special, and Salvador Perez should be significantly better than Alex Avilatoo.  Those six positions will need to be decidedly in the favor of the Royals for run production between the two teams to be similar because the other three positions are solidly in Detroit’s favor.

February 22, 2013; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera (24) at bat against the Atlanta Braves during spring training at Disney Wide World of Sports complex, Champion Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

In the last nine seasons Miguel Cabrera has been very, very good.  Good enough that he is heading toward certain Hall of Fame territory and that Triple Crown is quite a feat.  Prince Fielder is pretty good too in case no one had noticed.  Austin Jackson is not in that rarefied air, but he is better than Lorenzo Cain unless Cain takes a large step forward.  Still, a big year out of Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer, which is not out of the question, could make the offensive difference between the Royals and Tigers negligible.  Just to clarify though, this means the Royals would need to close up a 50 run gap from last year, which means the Royals need to take a big step forward (as they should) and the Tigers take a small step back.

On to the second problem for the Tigers, defense:

Over the years I have gone from loving the new defensive metrics, to looking at them askance, to checking multiple sources hoping to find a consensus.  The Tigers corner infielders are Miggy and Prince, and their defense last year, and every year, has been bad.  For some reason though, UZR has like Jhonny Peralta the last two years at short after making him look terrible for most of his career.  At the same time UZR hates Alcides Escobar in 2012.  I have no idea how to process Jhonny Peralta being two WAR better than Escobar based on defense.  Baseball Reference had them closer to the same last year, but I am starting to believe Jeff Zimmerman’s  theory on shifting helping out Moose and hurting Alcides in the advanced stats.  Everything I see tells me Omar Infante is the only decent defender in the infield for Detroit.  In the outfield, Dirks had negatives last year, for what it’s worth, and Hunter is not what he used to be due to age, so center is the only place with a plus defender.  Avila seems to be a decent catcher, but catcher fielding is even harder to quantify than the others, so I won’t try and give a sweeping pronouncement.  Here I think the Royals have a significant advantage in LF, 3B, SS, 1B, and Catcher.

The third problem for the Tigers is the bullpen:

Let’s get the good out of the way first.  Joaquin Benoit and Brayan Vilarreal are probably pretty good.  I only say probably because Vilarreal only has 54 2/3 innings of quality relief to his name in the bigs.  Even last year, when Vilarreal established himself, his xFIP was 3.96, so he may not actually be good.  Benoit, on the other hand, has been good for the last three years and is their best relief pitcher.  After those two you have a lot of questions.  Bruce Rondon is supposed to be the closer, but he has major control problems and is probably not going to be taking care of the 9^th inning this year if his spring continues as at began.  Phil Coke and Darin Downs are not impressive in any way along with Octavio Dotel who is 49 and has been consistently middle of the road.  Maybe Al Alburquerque is a stud, but he still hasn’t done it over a whole season.  This is a bullpen that would be lucky to have three really solid guys.  The Royals have Greg Holland, Aaron Crow, Tim Collins, and Kelvin Herrera at the back end, and this is a huge advantage.

Now for Detroit’s huge advantage:

The rotation for the Tigers is much, much better than the Royals.  In fact, it is better at each of the five rotation spots.  Justin Verlander is better than pretty much everyone, Royal or not, and James Shields is not in that stratosphere.  Then Detroit has three somewhat indistinguishable guys in Max Scherzer, Doug Fister, and Anibal Sanchez.  Scherzer is probably the riskiest since he has been inconsistent.  Fister has had solid seasons the last two years.  He is likely to be good again, but without the upside of Scherzer.  Anibal Sanchez has put up sub-4 ERAs in the past three seasons, four seasons if you include a partial season in 2009.  Sanchez puts people on base at too high of a rate to be dominant, but he has been consistently good.  I think the Royals could match these three with Jeremy Guthrie, Ervin Santana, and Wade Davis, but that will take some luck and on an expectation basis the Tigers are well ahead.  If I were ranking these six I would probably go Fister, Sanchez, Guthrie, Scherzer, Santana, and Davis.  The first three are the most solid, and the other three have the highest upside.  Finally, the fifth spot.  The Royals are bound and determined to make Luke Hochevar fifth, while Detroit has Drew Smyly and Rick Porcello.  I will be honest. I hate Porcello, and always have.  In my opinion he is only marginally better than Hochevar, so I hope that’s who gets the job.  He cannot strike anyone out, and is not a great control pitcher either.  Drew Smyly on the other hand is a giant ball of potential.  He blew through the minors and struck out everyone on the way.  There are still some control issues, but nearly a K per inning can make up for some walks.  He is a question mark due to the limited time at the major league level, but he is likely better than anything the Royals can put in the 5^thspot.

September 26, 2012; Detroit, MI, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Luis Mendoza (39) pitches during the first inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

It is unlikely that the Kansas City rotation will find a way to outperform Detroit’s.  The main hope will be trying to match their starters and hope to take advantage of the other weaknesses.  For that to happen, Ervin Santana will need to be like his last couple of months last year rather than the atrocious start.  Hopefully being in Kauffman will help him keep the home runs down a bit.  On the bright side it is unlikely he will have an 18.9% HR/FB rate again…unless he is done as a major league pitcher.  KC will also need Davis to smoothly transfer back to the rotation and post an ERA near or below four.  Those are both possible, and coupled with Shields being what he has been and Guthrie doing the same, minus the Coors Field Experience, that would be a decent front four.  The fifth spot being Luis Mendoza would make me feel like this is an average rotation with some upside.  Instead we will likely see Hochevar, and that makes this a slightly below average rotation, so any of the other pieces breaking down could lead to a lot of problems, at least until Danny Duffy and Felipe Paulino get back.  Those two make me very optimistic about next year’s rotation.

Overall the Tigers are the favorite due to their top end talent, which is second to none.  There are enough questions on this Detroit team though, that I don’t think they will go out and win 100 games and run away with the division  That means the Royals have a shot, but they will need to have a few things go their way with the rotation, and have the hitting disappointments of last year turn into positives.

They’re still chasing the Detroit Tigers who won the division last year (despite a disappointing 88 wins) and went to the World Series and only got better this offseason by bringing in Torii Hunter to replace Brennan Boesch and got Anibal Sanchez to stick around. Detroit has the best starting rotation in the division (and not just because of Justin Verlander) and the best middle of the lineup as well.

It’s a steep hill to climb.

And the Royals aren’t climbing alone, either. The difficulty in overcoming so many losing seasons isn’t just in that the Royals have to get better themselves, they also have to get better than the teams they’re lagging behind and, even further, they have to improve at a greater rate than those teams are improving themselves as well. It’s not a vacuum and it’s not easy.

The Minnesota Twins are rebuilding while they wait on their farm system to start shuttling talent back to the big leagues, but trading good pieces like Denard Span and Ben Revere for pitching prospects with upside helps them while they wait on Miguel Sano, Brian Buxton and Oswaldo Arcia to reach the majors. They’re in a different position than the Royals who’ve already graduated most of their big prospects to the big leagues and are waiting on the so-called second wave to rise up.

But Chicago and Cleveland are in the same boat as Kansas City.

Here’s a (not so) fun fact: The Royals have never finished higher in the American League Central standings than the Chicago White Sox. The last time they did finish higher was in 1989 in the AL West. Even when the White Sox were bad, they were better than the Royals. The White Sox may have a better rotation than the Royals, but they were quieter this offseason, only adding Jeff Keppinger and Matt Lindstrom. Both are alright acquisitions, but neither are game changers. The White Sox were just a few games from overtaking the Tigers last year, so the question is if the Royals improvements have been enough to push them past Chicago. At least they’ve played well against the Sox in recent history, if nothing else.

Dec 5, 2012; Nashville, TN, USA; Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona answers questions from the media during the Major League Baseball winter meetings at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Mandatory credit: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports

The Cleveland Indians never seem to know if they’re rebuilding or not. After winning just 68 games last year, they picked up Mike Aviles and changed managers, bring in Terry Francona to lead the team. They didn’t do much in October or November, and then, in the second week of December, they changed it up.

While rumors swirled around Asdrubal Cabrera as a trade candidate, they ended up as part of the three-team deal that sent Shin-Soo Choo to Cincinnati and brought Trevor Bauer to Cleveland. Turns out they were able to keep Cabrera, got a top pitching prospect and also brought in Drew Stubbs. They didn’t stop there, adding Mark Reynolds and Nick Swisher, then they added some more arms to speculate on by signing Brett Myers (a one-time Royals target) and Scott Kazmir (who’s drawn solid reviews for his winter work).

They kept adding potential roleplayers by signing Ryan Raburn, Jeremy Hermida and Rich Hill before they landed the big one. Michael Bourn was one of the big names at the start of free agency, but after Atlanta made him a qualifying offer, the prospect of giving up a draft pick to sign him became a poison pill and most teams shied away, not willing to spend the money AND give up a pick (and the draft pool money that comes with it). But Cleveland had no fear. Bourn gets on base at a good rate and will be among the league leaders in stolen bases while providing great defense in center field. The Indians also added Jason Giambi and Daisuke Matsuzaka in their shopping spree.

Not all of those players will pan out, but Myers should help them and if Kazmir can regain command, he could be a nice addition as well. For a time, he looked like one of the best lefties in the game. Matsuzaka’s worth a gamble as well. Both he and Kazmir are on minor league contracts, so they’re basically lottery tickets. If they don’t pan out, the Indians aren’t saddled with a big deal.

June 5, 2012; Bronx, NY, USA; Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher James Shields (33) pitches during the first inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Chasing the Tigers is tough. Catching up to the White Sox and pulling away from the Indians at the same time looks like it’s just as difficult, and the Royals have mostly sat on their hands since acquiring James Shields*. They upgraded the backup catcher spot by claiming George Kottaras and they got Elliot Johnson, but otherwise, they’ve signed only fringe players like Blaine Boyer and Xavier Nady, neither of whom are expected to make the team at any point this year. There weren’t any indications that the Royals were in on Kazmir or Matsuzaka or other minor league free agent types that could turn into serviceable starters (not unlike Bruce Chen or Luis Mendoza over the past couple of seasons). It’s no tragedy to miss out on them, but a gamble with little risk is worth taking.

*I did find it interesting that Cleveland didn’t start doing anything until AFTER the Royals had acquired Shields and Wade Davis. I wonder if they saw the move and realized they needed to keep up and started going after upside players. The Twins made some starting pitching signings as well by getting Kevin Correia, Rich Harden and Mike Pelfrey after the Shields trade. Anibal Sanchez was 99.9% a Chicago Cub according to reports but Detroit jumped back in and outbid them. That deal also came after the Shields trade. Part of that is the market opening up after the Winter Meetings, but some of those moves might have been made with the Royals big trade in mind.

The reviews are mixed. The Royals should be better in 2013, but by how much? Enough to jump over Chicago finally and to hold off Cleveland? If things fall the right way, do they even approach the Tigers this year? Some in the industry like the aggressive improvements and think they can get Kansas City close. Many pundits disagree. Many projection systems aren’t impressed either. Divisions aren’t won in the sports section, nor are they played out in spreadsheets, so we’re stuck waiting to until April and Opening Day to start finding out.

The Royals are spending more on payroll this year. A lack of willingness to shell out the cash is typically a mainstay complaint for most Royals fans. They move from just under 61 million dollars (27th out of 30 MLB teams) in 2012 to app. 78 million dollars (20th out of 30 MLB teams).

Many people will look at this as a step in the right direction for the Royals as they’re shelling out more money than they ever have before. In fact, as the above Yahoo article states, the Royals were the #5 overall team in positive payroll percent change at +28.04%.

However, if you look back at the Royals payroll ranking in the past 5 years before 2012, you may find that the jump is not very awe-inspiring.

2011: 30th in the MLB (36,126,400)

2010: 20th in the MLB (72,267,710)

2009: 21st in the MLB (70,908,333)

2008: 24th in the MLB (58,245,500)

2007: 22nd in the MLB (67,116,500)

So while many less-informed fans may be excited about more money being spent than ever before, it once again comes down to one thing:

Allocation, allocation, allocation.

Seriously. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that spending money pales in comparison to spending money wisely. And yet, when I and other Royals fans I’m familiar with complain about the way the club spends money, I continually get the same response.

“Well, at least they’re finally spending money.”

No, you idiot. That doesn’t guarantee you a winner.

Okay, I’m not naive enough to believe that JUST spending a crapload of money doesn’t always get you very far in professional sports. But wasting money makes me even angrier than not having any to spend. That’s why, to me, paying over 4 million dollars to Luke Hochevar is a waste. That’s why I can’t figure out the Miguel Tejada contract.

You can tell me it’s good that the Royals are spending a little more money and I will agree with you, but it’s hard to fully back Dayton Moore on some of the ways he chooses to spend that money.

I’m not saying that being the Royals’ G.M. is an easy job. I’m sure it’s more difficult than I can even imagine, but without a legitimate explanation for moves like these, I continue to be wary.

Spring Training starts in a month and there are a lot of hopes riding on this season. I’m just not sure how these recent moves have helped the team.

On a last note, The Los Angeles Dodgers’ estimated 2013 payroll is increased 123.9% from their 2012 payroll. That figure is mind-boggling to me. The combined payrolls of all 30 MLB teams this season will surpass 3 billion dollars.

That is insane.

My high school was small enough that there was not a baseball team. We had track, cross-country, basketball, and eight-man football, but no baseball. I really started following the Royals passionately during my freshman year of high school. It wasn’t long before I felt I had the authority to act supremely snobbish whenever someone started talking about the team. I knew who Alex Gordon was. I knew Hochevar was going to be the next coming of Zack Greinke.*

*I didn’t know as much as I thought.

It wasn’t long before I realized that judging and mocking people who I think are “lesser fans” than myself was a waste of time.* Anymore, I think are willing to call yourself a Royals fan, you deserve no mockery from people who have, perhaps, followed the team for a couple more years than you have. You’re not really jumping on the bandwagon of a winning team. Heck, when and if the Royals ever amount to anything, I’m going to be so ecstatic about the state of things, I don’t think I’ll have time to get annoyed by “Royals fans” suddenly appearing out of the woodwork.

*Unless it’s a fan of another team telling me about how dumb Royals management is. Look, the Royals often make foolish decisions. But if I hear the “the Royals traded Carlos Beltran and Jermaine Dye!” argument, I will ignore you. It proves to me that you haven’t been tuning in for about ten years.

Anyways, this spiel actually comes from watching that new Dick’s Sporting Goods commercial that was released a few weeks ago. If you haven’t seen it, watch it here.

This reminds me of why I love sports in general and specifically, baseball. As an individual who majored in English and is currently a high school English teacher, I enjoy things for the stories they tell.

The reason I’m a fan of baseball? All the stories I’ve gotten to be a part of. Each game I’ve watched was a story. Each game I’ve attended was a story. Stories that I experienced with family and people close to me and that makes each story special.

The reason I love baseball is because when I’m sitting in the stands watching Alex Gordon lace a double into the corner to drive in two runs, I am immensely happy. And when Hochever gives up 7 earned runs in the first inning of a game, I am sick to my stomach.

“Well, uh….Luke has got good stuff…..and toughness….grit….words.” (Don McPeak-USA Today Sports)

Baseball tells a story and that is why I come back to the Royals year after year. The stories may not always be happy. But they are MY stories and that’s a connection that can’t be broken by how well the team plays.

Although, it’d be nice if the team could be good.

1) The first news article I saw was entitled “Getz returns to Royals with one-year deal.” This isn’t necessarily so funny in and of itself, but a quote by Chris Getz regarding his injury-plagued season made me chuckle:

You kind of know if you’re going to be around .300 and there are other years where you’re kind of inconsistent and battling to be around .250,” he said. “That was the hardest part, because I felt I was having one of those around-.300 years, but I just kept being knocked down by injuries.

I don’t exactly know where Getz is coming from. I find it doubtful that a player comes into a year thinking, “Man, it feels like a .250 year,” or “Man, there’s no way I’m hitting anything less that .300 this year.” Mostly this is funny because in all the years Getz has been in the league, he only sniffed .300 in 2008 as a member of the White Sox where he batted .286. So here’s to hoping that Getz “feels like it’s another .300 type of year.”

2) The next article that caught my eye was entitled “Glass keeps future in mind as Royals eye upgrades.” There are plenty of amusing quotes to tickle your innards as you read, but I chose this one:

What we’ve said is we need to be in the $70 million range to break even, and our goal is to try to continue to break even,” Glass said. “We’re not interested in making money, but we don’t want to subsidize it to any great extent.

I could sit here and discuss with you the issues with this statement, but as luck would have it, Rany just posted an article that discusses the budget and he does it in a much more knowledgeable way than I ever could. The article doesn’t strictly deal with the financial straits of the franchise, but he does hit on it at the end and his posts are always worth a read. Take a look at it here and smirk cynically at the idea of “breaking even” with me.

3) The final article I’m taking a look at is “Royals uniform numbers a Powerball coincidence.” I’m originally from St. Joseph, Missouri, which is near Dearborn and when I originally heard that one of the Powerball winners up there had used Royals uniform numbers to pick numbers, I thought it was a pretty good story and was hoping that it proved true. My hopes were, however, dashed:

The Hills, from Dearborn, Mo. (pop. 496), near Kansas City, did not pick their winning Powerball Lottery numbers by summoning up the uniform numbers of Royals stars of the past. It was a nice theory bounced around the Internet for a while on Friday.

Apparently these guys are Royals fans, though, so maybe they’ll donate some of their winnings to payroll?

I don’t think that’s unreasonable.

Obviously, Jake Odorizzi has arisen as the primary pitcher to make a splash at the big league level in the upcoming season. After spending the primary part of the 2012 season in (AAA) Omaha, where he went 11-3 with a 2.93 ERA, Odorizzi got a brief glimpse of the majors to the tune of 7.1 innings pitched with 4 earned runs, 4 strikeouts and 4 walks.

This year, hopes are riding pretty high on Odorizzi’s success. But what about the farm’s now tarnished former golden boys, Mike Montgomery and John Lamb?

Montgomery is coming off a fairly ugly year split between (AA) NW Arkansas and (AAA) Omaha. He went 2-6 with a 6.67 ERA at (AA) ball and 3-6 with a 5.69 ERA at the (AAA) level. Maybe he’ll come to spring training and blow everyone away. Maybe he will continue to be awful. He seems to have taken a giant step back and I will be surprised if he makes any kind of noise this season. I’m hoping he’ll surprise me anyways.

I don’t want this guy to fall off the map. (Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE)

I’m really intrigued by John Lamb, though. Spring training in 2013 will mark just under 2 years since Lamb went down with Tommy John. It’d be wonderful if he came out and pitched adequately enough to make the big league squad.

It’s true that the only reason Lamb looks better at this point is due to the fact that he didn’t have the chance to be as bad as Montgomery was. It’s possible that given the same opportunities that Montgomery had last year, Lamb might have tanked as well. Fate saw differently, though, and now I’m ready to see if Lamb is up to the task.

In my mind, it’s likely that Lamb and (definitely) Montgomery will probably need some more time honing their stuff in the minors, (if they don’t completely flop that is) but if one of them could shoot out of the gates this year and prove themselves worthy of a spot in the rotation, how great would that be?

I think we are in desperate need of some solid arms moving up the pipe to the big leagues and I think Montgomery, Lamb, and Odorizzi are the closest to making a splash. If 2 out of 3 can surprise us in 2013. That’d be huge.

I just want to see one of these highly touted arms actually come to the major league team and have success.

In 2011, Escobar hit: .254/.290/.343/.633. He also had 73 SO, 25 BB, stole 25 bases and was caught 9 times.

In 2012, Escobar hit: .293/.331/.390/.721. This was coupled with 100 SO, 27 BB and 35 stolen bases while being caught only 5 times.

I don’t consider myself a player-analysis guru. Far from it, in fact. I originally thought that Escobar’s improvement must have come from a increased amount of patience at the plate. However, I don’t know that that’s true. Escobar only walked 2 more times in 2012. I generally look and see if there was a significant change on the kinds of counts a player swung on throughout the season.

Alcides’ “first-pitch swinging” percentage went up from 24% in 2011 to 25% in 2012. His “swinging-strike percentage” went up as well from 12% to 14%. I don’t know if these are stats that are big factors or what the league average of such statistics is, but I expected to see significant change in these advanced statistics and others, and I”m not seeing much of a bump.

One reason for the uptick in production probably has something to do with Alcides’ somewhat inflated BABIP of .344. The traditional idea is that a BABIP should average out around .300. Escobar’s BABIP from 2011 was .285, so, if you believe in sabermetrics, it’s reasonable to imagine that Esky’s production should be expected to fall somewhere near the median of the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

Even if that’s so, and Escobar hits somewhere in the “.270″ area, his ability to steal bases has shown growth and that makes him even more of a danger. Stealing 10 more bases in 2012 while getting caught 4 FEWER times is nothing to sniff at.

Escobar has shown an increased ability to steal bases. Or Yost just sent him more in 2012. You make the call. (John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE)

In my opinion, Escobar’s ability to swing the lumber and become an offensive threat is merely gravy upon the meat and potatoes of my estimation of him as a player.

Escobar has great range and is capable of making highlight-reel plays. He is, in my opinion, one of the best defensive shortstops in the A.L., if not baseball. He made a few more errors in 2012 than he did in 2011, but his incredible ability to get to the baseball makes up for that slight bump.

And if he is somehow able to maintain this sudden outburst of offensive prowess?

It’s gravy, Baby. Gravy.

The Tampa Bay Rays are a team that have been connected with the Royals as possible player-swap partners. There’s a wealth of pitching talent in the southeast and it’s been postulated that the Royals could afford to give up a bat which said Rays have indicated they’re in need of.

I’ve been thinking a lot regarding how I would feel about shipping Billy Butler somewhere. I love Billy. He’s a great hitter and he’s a long-standing statesmen on this team, but he’s also a designated hitter that doesn’t really have the ability to excel at any other position. This makes it easier for me to see us parting with him. But that fact also lessens his value to other teams, particularly of the N.L. persuasion.

You can sit there deciding the happy medium where the Royals can give up something valuable but gain something valuable in return, or you can completely ignore it and resign yourself to heartache.

I generally am pretty intimate with resignation, but find it increasingly hard to be so when prestigious sports magazines comment on trade possibilities for Kansas City. That happened in this week’s copy of Sports Illustrated Magazine. A cousin of mine asked me if I’d read the article about the Royals getting David Price. I assured him I hadn’t and proceeded to do so.

It was one of those “5 Deals That Should Happen” type of lists and the #1 deal was David Price for Alex Gordon, Johnny Giovatella, and Mike Montgomery.

Are you kidding me? I think you pull the trigger on that deal in a heartbeat.

Gordo is one of my favorite Royals, but considering management’s refusal to utilize Giovatella, Montgomery’s struggles, and the Royals desperate need for an ace , I think this is a no-brainer.

Now, obviously this is just some sportswriter’s analysis of what HE thinks would be a good deal for both teams. I believe the likelihood of this happening is embarrassingly low. That being said, apparently one writer finds it worthwhile enough to list it in Sports Illustrated.

I know better than to be hopeful. The off-season is a time for wild possibilities. I honestly don’t think the proposed situation would be a good deal for the Rays.

What do you think about that idea? Would you put your stamp of approval on that trade for the sake of acquiring David Price?

That’s why I’m interested in what fans have to say about Hosmer after the season he’s had this year. Here’s a link to a year-old article about Hosmer’s extension candidacy. Look at the first comment. It’s crazy how a year can change things, huh?

During last year’s offseason, we here at Kings Of Kauffman wrote various articles about ways the Royals could attempt to entice Hosmer to sign an extension and attempt to buy out years of Hosmer’s arbitration and maybe a year or two of free-agency. Now, it remains to be seen whether Hosmer’s sophomore slump is a fluke or a sign of things to come.

Looking at Hosmer’s slash line runs the risk of melting your face a la “Raiders of the Last Ark,” but I’m willing to do it anyways.

.232/.304/.359/.663

I’m still able to draw a few positives from his season. He took more walks this season. He took 56 walks this year compared to 34 last year. And it wasn’t like that stat is swollen based on more plate appearances this season. He only had 35 more PA’s in 2012 than he did in 2011.

His BABIP was also significantly lower in 2012 (.255) as opposed to 2011 (.314). Using that .300 benchmark that most individuals like to use for an average BABIP, it seems safe to say that Hosmer could be due for a bit of a bounce-back.

I hope this happens because honestly, I think I’ve finally come to the conclusion that it’s unlikely that Hosmer will sign an extension with the Royals. He’s a Boras client with huge, if somewhat tarnished, potential and as we don’t and likely never will have the monetary capacity to retain Hosmer’s services in the long-term, I’m fairly sure he will migrate to a wealthier climate when his indentured servitude is complete.

Now, if the Royals somehow prove that they have some remote shot at contending between now and his release date, I think it’s possible that we may have more of a shot at keeping him around. He has seemed to jell with his teammates and winning makes everyone happy.

Either way, I want Eric Hosmer to make paper.

If the Royals actually make good on their promises of contention in the short-term, it will raise the possibility that Hosmer will want to post up in Kansas City for the long-term. I’m betting that if the Royals are successful next year, it will be partly a result of Hosmer having a comeback year.

However, I’m okay with the other scenario as well. Hosmer could turn things around and make it clear that he has no intention of sticking around, regardless of the Royals’ success or lack thereof. If this happens, it will mean that (hopefully) the Royals will be able to spin Hosmer for a wealth of talent.

So, in my mind, Hosmer making  money will be a win-win situation. It means that he broke out of this crummy slump. Whether it’s a (reasonable) amount of dough coming from us in the form of an extension or whether it comes from another team that we trade him to in the next few years, I think I’ll be at peace.

Unless we trade him for a Jermaine Dye-like return.

Then….there will be no peace in this heart.

The Royals Fell Flat as the Month of September Ended.(Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE)

Going into the last full month of the season, the Royals had some nice momentum and the phrase “.500″ was even starting to creep back into some people’s vocabulary. They had just swept the Detroit Tigers and put together their best month of the season. Any momentum was quickly halted with a disappointing doubleheader defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Twins on September 1st. They continued with their poor start to the month, losing 5 of their first 7 games. They also ended the month with a thud, losing 7 out of their last 8. However, sandwiched nicely in-between disappointing streaks was a pretty good stretch. They beat up on the first place White Sox and won 9 out of 14 through the middle of the month. They looked like a different team during that stretch, one that could beat anyone. However, towards the end of the month, the Royals seemed to be falling apart at the seams. An influx of injuries, mental mistakes, multiple errors, and mindless mishaps were all signs that pointed to a team that looked to be completely exhausted. Here’s a look at what happened in the Month of September…
I. Record/Standings
a. September Overall Record: 12-17 (.414)
Season Record: 71-88 (.447)
AL Central: 3rd (of 5)
American League: 10th (of 14)
Major League: 22nd (of 30)
b. September Home Record
7-9 (.438)
Season Home Record: 36-42 (.462)
c. September Road Record
5-8 (.385)
Season Road Record: 35-46 (.432)
d. September Streaks
Winning: 4 (9/19-9/22: White Sox, Indians)
Losing: 6 (9/23-9/28: Indians, Tigers, Indians)
Current: Lost 1
e. September Opponents
Twins: 3-3
Rangers: 1-3
White Sox: 4-2
Angels: 1-2
Indians: 3-3
Tigers: 0-4
II. Ned Yost Quote of the Month
9/12-after being “determined” to get Luke Hochevar his first win since July 31st. Hochevar gave up 5 ER in 5 IP, but the offense gave him a lead and the Royals ended up winning 10-5.
“He hasn’t won a game in his last seven starts and I wanted to get him over that hump,” Yost said. “He was working hard out there, maybe a little too hard, but he was trying with everything he had to get over that hump, too. I was bound and determined to give him every opportunity to do it. Part of my job is to get guys in a frame of mind so they can go out and compete and be successful. Sometimes you’ve got to let ‘em work through some things.”
III. High Point
Beating the Angels with Late Inning Power on 9/15
Zack Greinke took the mound to face his old team in his old stadium and kept the Royals in check for 8 1/3 innings. Jeremy Guthrie nearly matched him, pitching 8 full innings but giving up a single run in two separate innings. The Royals had scattered just 5 hits throughout the game, and things looked bleak. However, after a leadoff strikeout by Alcides Escobar in the 9th, Alex Gordon stroked a single and chased the former Cy Young Winner. Ernesto Frieri replaced Greinke and on the first pitch he threw, Billy Butler hit a long home run to the deepest part of the park. Just like that, it was a tie game. Salvador Perez came up next, and three pitches later, hit a walk-off home run to end the game. Like a skilled ninja, the Royals lured the Angels deep into their lair, then swiftly dispatched their opponent in dramatic fashion.
IV. Low Point
Getting swept in a four game series by the Tigers on 9/27
After playing tough against the first place White Sox, the Royals went to Detroit to take on another contender. I saw it as a chance to see how the Royals could stack up against the Tigers. Well, it turns out that they really didn’t. The Tigers won the first 3 games, then in the 4th, the Royals looked completely worthless. In the game, the Royals made 5 errors, including 3 by the usually slick-fielding Mike Moustakas. Doug Fister tied an American League record by striking out 9 Royals in a row. It was just embarrassing. The loss meant a rare 4-game sweep, and a 5-game losing streak for the Royals.
V. Surprises and Disappointments
1) Hosmer’s Forgettable Season.(Disappointment) Things just never really got going for our talented first baseman in 2012. His early struggles that everyone thought he’d be able to shake have refused to go away. Hosmer hit .179 during the month of September and ended the month, and maybe his season, by diving for a ball and partially tearing his rotator cuff. Here’s hoping that the disappointment of 2012 serves as motivation for him to work harder than he ever has during this offseason so he can try to redeem himself next year.
2) Going Streaking. (Surprise) During September, the Royals went streaking in both directions. While this might be fun to watch on a college campus, it can be frustrating as a baseball fan. The disappointment in this is that the losing streaks outweighed the winning. They had a losing streak of 6 in a row that came immediately on the heels of a 4-game winning streak. While the losing streak seemed long, it was still only half as long as their losing streak in April. They’ve got to find ways to not lose so many games in a row.
3) Picking Favorites. (Disappointment) I know it’s not over yet, but the Royals can be credited with giving the Detroit Tigers the AL Central crown. They played with a vengeance against the then-first place White Sox, and then rolled over against Detroit. It’s got to infuriate the White Sox, who have imploded over the past month or so. Losing to the Royals is never a good thing, but it’s something they’ll be thinking about all winter. Did the Royals decide that they wanted the Tigers to win the division? Maybe – I mean, wouldn’t you rather see the Tigers win than the White Sox?
4) No Walking. (Disappointment) The Royals drew just 59 walks for the month of September. That’s almost half the number of walks that the Yankees drew and the least in the Major Leagues. This contributed to the Royals having the 2nd worst OBP in the AL, better only than the Boston Red Sox. Going into Saturday’s win at Cleveland, the 5-game road trip had produced just 1 walk and 45 strikeouts. That must have been brought to their attention, because they drew 5 walks in that Saturday game.
VI. Transactions
1) 9/1: Recalled OF David Lough from AAA Omaha and C Manny Pina from AA Northwest Arkansas.
2) 9/4: Recalled RHP Jeremy Jeffress from AA Northwest Arkansas.
3) 9/14: Recalled OF Jason Bourgeois from AAA Omaha.
4) 9/16: Called Up RHP Jake Odorizzi from AAA Omaha. Recalled RHP Nathan Adcock, INF Irving Falu, C Adam Moore, and LHP Tommy Hottovy from AAA Omaha.

Billy Butler Continues to Mash in 2012. (Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE)

VII. Player of the Month
Billy Butler
Billy just continues to have a great season. He played in every game during the month of September, and hit .336 with 11 doubles and 24 RBI. Billy had 8 multi-hit games in September, including 5 games where he had 3 hits. His consistent bat hammered out streaks of 6, 10, and just ended another 10 game hitting streak. All in all, he hit in every one but three games during the month. He’s putting up numbers comparable to those that he put up in 2010, but with 30 more RBI and almost double the amount of Home Runs. He heads into the final homestand of the year hitting .312, slugging .511, and with 107 RBI. He has filled the team’s need for a full-time designated hitter, and is definitely one position that won’t be in question going into 2013. It will be nice to stand up and applaud Billy for his finest season this coming week.
Honorable Mention: Alex Gordon. Despite being moved out of his leadoff spot, Gordon has continued to hit – and field. While Alex’s average was down in September, he continued to hit doubles. He’s now got 51 on the season, which ties him with Butler in 2010 & is just 3 behind Hal McRae’s club record of 54. Gordon also gets kudos for drawing 11 walks in a month where it seemed like the Royals forgot how to do so.

The Results Were Usually Good When Kelvin Herrera Took the Ball in September. (Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE)

VIII. Pitcher of the Month
Kelvin Herrera
Herrera was the most opportunistic pitcher out of the Royals bullpen in September. He appeared in 14 games throughout the month, and the Royals won 8 of those games. Herrera walked away with a 3-1 record and a 1.84 ERA. He collected Saves in both opportunities on September 22nd & September 29th. In the latter, he got to come in and pitch the bottom of the 14th inning after the Royals were able to break the tie in the top of the inning. Herrera has been a solid Right-Handed arm for the Royals in 2012. His 2.38 ERA over 83 1/3 innings is impressive. Also impressive is his Walk to Strikeout ration of 21/75. In a month where the starting pitching wasn’t all that great, the bullpen has had to carry the weight. That’s something that isn’t solely a September issue, and we’ve got to give credit to the guys in the bullpen for helping out the starters all year. For Herrera, he earned his spot on 2013′s roster in September.
Honorable Mention: Jeremy Guthrie. Despite only having a 1-0 record in 5 outings, the Royals won 4 of those games. He pitched at least 7 innings in four of those outings, and never gave up more than 4 earned runs. His ERA for the month was an impressive 2.25. He’s gotten better as the season has progressed & he’ll get one more start on Tuesday night.
IX. Compare to September 2011
The 2011 Royals came together to form their “team of the future” by the time September hit. As a result, they wowed Kansas City fans by playing well and having their best month of the entire season. At 15-10, they outscored their opponents by 29 runs. The month also included their longest winning streak of the season (7 games). The Royals lost their final home game of 2011 on September 21st before going on the road for the final 6 games of the year. They won 3 of those games before dropping the final 2 games of the season in Minnesota. The games in September were heavily weighted to AL Central opponents, and the Royals were 2-1 against division-winning Detroit. They were good against Chicago again, going 5-2 against the White Sox. They also went to the West Coast to play the Mariners and A’s, going 4-3.
Royals starters had a good month, with several guys compiling good records, good ERAs, good walk-to-strikeout ratios, yada, yada, yada. Joakim Soria (remember him?) had 4 saves, Greg Holland had 2. Offensively, Salvador Perez had arrived in full, and hit .375 with a .513 Slugging %. Mike Moustakas had figured things out, and hit .352 with 4 HR. Eric Hosmer hit .349 with 19 RBI. Even Jeff Francoeur was on fire, hitting .329 for the month and pounding 5 HR.
September 2011 saw just one call-up by the Royals, probably because everyone else was already in Kansas City. Kelvin Herrera took to the mound in the top of the 8th against the Tigers on September 21st. He promptly hit Ryan Raburn with the first pitch. He’d proceed to give up a double and a home run, allowing 3 runs in his 1 inning of work. He pitched just one other time 5 days later and would fare much better, not allowing a hit.
X. October Outlook
The Royals have just three games left, a final series at the K against the First Place Detroit Tigers. The Tigers dominated the Royals last week, sweeping a four game series. The two teams have swept each other in each of their last four series. We’ll see what everyone has left in the tank, and if they can top their win total from 2011. They currently sit at 71 wins on the season, which is exactly how many they won a year ago. With just one win against the Tigers, the organization can claim that “progress” is being made. If the Tigers can beat the Royals just once, they’ll win the AL Central, so they’ll definitely have something to play for.
During this final homestand, there’s really only one promotion left in October at the K: They’ll be handing out Early Bird Schedules and Team Photos at all three games.
XI. Summary
There are three games left in a season that began with such hope, such promise. A lot has happened in 2012, including having the nation’s eyes focused on our stadium for the All-Star Game. There have been many ups and downs as we’ve gone. There were signs of success and signs of strife, but we mostly saw signs of a young and inconsistent team. Hopefully, with another year of experience under their belt, they will come back stronger and more seasoned in 2013. For now though, they should focust on these remaining three games. We’ll see how Ned Yost is able to motivate them for this final homestand. I know that they don’t really have anything to play for, but I hope that pride still exists, and the guys will come out and give the home fans something to cheer for this week.

Adam Moore behind the plate in Omaha (Photo Courtesy of Minda Haas)

After being on the roster for twelve days, Adam Moore has caught only once and Manny Pina hasn’t played at all.

Adam Moore made quite an impact in his Royals debut. He was tabbed to catch Jake Odorizzi in his big league debut last Sunday. This was primarily because he’d been catching Jake in Omaha for a good chunk of the summer. After leading Odorizzi through three scoreless innings against the Indians, Moore stepped to the plate for his first Royals at-bat in the bottom of the third.

He promptly deposited the third pitch he saw over the Left Field wall.

He became just the fourth Royal ever to accomplish the feat in their first at-bat. He was the first to do it since Calvin Pickering back in 2004. We all know how his career panned out. I actually got to witness Pickering’s debut & can remember thinking that he was a monster who was going to hit a million home runs for the Royals. He ended up hitting eight.

That bomb last week was Moore’s first major league home run since September 7, 2010. In all fairness, it was his first major league at-bat since April 6, 2011.

He also walked, grounded out, and struck out to go 1-3 on the afternoon. Not a bad debut, but he hasn’t seen the field since. I’m of the opinion that if you call them up, you play them. At this point, we’ve seen enough of Salvador Perez to know that he’s a stud, and after missing the first part of the season with an injury, it might not be a bad idea to give the kid some rest. We also know everything we need to know about Bryan Pena. We know that he’s a servicable backup, but not much of a first baseman. Either way, if Pena, Pina, and Moore are going to compete to backup Salvy in 2013, this is a good chance to start the competition.

Manny Pina saw some time in Kansas City last summer. He caught four games in August and had 15 ABs. He had two hits (including a double) in his debut, and then went back to Omaha for the remainder of the season. After a knee injury in February of this year, he spent most of the season at AA Northwest Arkansas. He hit .260 with 5 HR. Before spring training, he was expected to compete for the backup job.

As far as Adam Moore goes, he caught for Odorizzi last week – will he catch for him again on Saturday? I sure hope so. I’m interested to see some more at-bats out of him so we can see if it’s worth trying to keep him around for next year. With just five games left in the season, it will be interesting who gets the starts behind the dish.

The Royals Celebrated 12 Wins over Division-Leading Chicago in 2012.(Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE)

Not as a contender of course, but as the pesky underachievers who could spoil the party. Their play over the next 10 days will determine the winner of the American League Central Division.

To the Chicago White Sox fan’s relief, they and the Royals are done seeing each other for the season. The Royals beat up on the Sox again this year, going 12-6 against the self-proclaimed “Good Guys”. (The Royals were 11-7 against them in 2011) The Royals played a big part in Detroit’s run at the Division Title by winning these games, and by winning 4 of 6 against the Sox in September. Going into today, Chicago finds themselves at just 9-12 for the month, in the middle of a five-game losing streak, and clinging to a one-game lead in the Division.

Of the Royals’ remaining 10 games, seven of those will be against the team that has been chasing the White Sox for most of 2012 – the Detroit Tigers. This could either be good news or bad news for Tigers fans. Up to this point, the Tigers hold a 7-4 advantage over the Royals this season. However, in their most recent matchup, the Royals swept Detroit in a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium. Before that, the Tigers were the ones doing the sweeping, winning their three-game series in Detroit back in July. All in all, the Tigers are 4-1 vs. the Royals at home and 3-3 at Kauffman.

It shapes up to be an advantage for Detroit, considering that the first four games are in Detroit, with tonight’s game being a make-up of a rainout on April 30th. Justin Verlander will face the Royals tonight, and if the rotation holds true, the Royals would not have to face him again. However, it’s likely that if Detroit’s playoff chances come down to needing a win on the final day of the season, they’d move the Cy Young winner up a day to face KC on October 3rd. Verlander on the hill does not mean an automatic win for the Tigers though – the last time he faced the Royals, he was roughed up about as bad as he ever has been. You know that will be on his mind when he takes the ball tonight.

While the Royals & Tigers are battling in Detroit, Chicago will be facing Cleveland for three at home, then will welcome in the Tampa Bay Rays for a four-game set. Chicago is a healthy 8-4 against Cleveland this year, and are 3-0 against Tampa Bay. With seven straight home games, they’ve got to like their odds. Advantage Chicago?

After this first four-game set between the Tigers and Royals, Detroit will travel to Minnesota for a three-game series. The Tigers are just 8-7 against Minnesota this year, but are 5-1 in the Twin Cities.

The final three games of the year will come down to Chicago at Cleveland and Detroit at Kansas City. Depending on what happens over the next week, the race could come down to these three games. Royals fans should treat this as our World Series. These will be games that Detroit will HAVE to win, so they’ll be all business. It will be great experience for the Royals to strap it on and go toe to toe with the Tigers to see how they match up. In a season of disappointment and underwhelming achievements, it will be good to see how our guys measure up against a team in the hunt for the playoffs.

Chicago definitely has the home field advantage going into this final stretch, getting to play 7 of 10 at home. Detroit is playing better baseball right now, but not by much. They’re just 10-11 in September and have lost 3 of 4. As a matter of fact, at 11-11, the Royals record for September is better than both contending teams. If they’re able to keep it up, Chicago will win the division.

As for the Royals, they’ll finish in third place, their best finish since 2003. That was also their last winning season. They won’t break the .500 mark again this year, but they will have a say in which team raises a banner as the 2012 AL Central Champions.

August 5, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals players Jeff Francoeur (21) and Brayan Pena (27) celebrate after Francoeur brought in the winning run against the Texas Rangers during the tenth inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE

A few days ago, I spoke to the class I teach about this very lyric: “The future’s so bright I gotta wear shades.” I used it as an example of how frequently we take something out of context and make that thing mean what we want it to mean. For those of you who do not watch those VH1 countdown shows about one-hit wonders, this song is often misunderstood as a song of hope for the future. It’s actually a song about nuclear escalation told through the excitement of a young scientist who knows his business will keep booming.

While the deepest parts of my heart want to look at the Royals’ success over the last couple of months and see a bright, bright future, this song and the idea of how people used it force me to rethink.

I don’t mean to be the wet blanket, and I want people to have enthusiasm about the Royals. But we’ve seen this story before. The Royals’ inconsistency digs deep holes they’re never able to get out of, but then, they play well when the games mean absolutely nothing. Last season, the Royals were (15-10) in September, their only winning month since April. Some thought this was a positive sign that after a season of ups and downs, they’d finally found the lineup that would lead them into the future.

This season clearly proved that hope a pipe dream. Why? Because, just like our favorite 1980’s one-hit wonder, people took that time out of context. It was September, a time when if you’re playing for nothing, winning gets a little easier. It’s also a time when teams with comfortable leads start using players who they otherwise wouldn’t to rest players for a playoff push. But to have a winning record in September while out of contention is like dominating in a recreation softball league. It would mean something … if it weren’t a recreation softball league.

It’s easy to see why fans do this. We really want a winner. We want a winner so bad we’re willing to see one in a team not ready to start winning. Coming into this season, fans knew that the starting pitching wasn’t good enough, but we allowed ourselves to believe the lineup would be great. It hasn’t been. It’s been slightly below average (18th in runs scored). We allowed ourselves to believe that a great lineup could give us a .500 season. Sure, injuries and ineffectiveness have plagued the Royals, but that’s the thing about the fantasy scenarios we construct, nothing goes wrong in them. Injuries and ineffectiveness happen to everyone. That’s reality.

Since August 1, the Royals are 24-19. That’s a respectable record, and for the Royals, it’s a very good record. The team is playing well. Jeremy Guthrie has looked like an All-Star. Eric Hosmer is turning things around. Some of the young players, like Tony Abreu and David Lough, are doing well during their opportunity. And what does all of this mean? Not very much actually. In a game built entirely on consistency over the course of an entire season, playing well for two months means virtually nothing.

Does that mean the Royals will be bad again next year? Not necessarily. But we can look at the roster and very safely say that it won’t be that much better than this year’s. Maybe the Royals have the good sense to resign Guthrie. Maybe Jake Odorizzi makes the team out of spring training and is effective immediately (though I’m increasingly thinking this won’t be the case). Maybe, the Royals sign a starter in the offseason (I doubt they sign anyone of significance). But what will be significantly different?

Well, Hosmer might not slump the entire year like he did this year. Perhaps Luke Hochevar will no longer be on the team. Maybe Jeff Francoeur will finally be asked to just stop, and Wil Myers will get his chance.

These are all ‘maybes” and “what ifs.” So, I guess what I’m getting at is that if we are to avoid the let down that this season feels like, we need to see the future through shades that are more tinted with realism. Hope is good. We should feel hope. But let’s not let hope invade the territory of how we see reality. They can be separated, I think, and as someone who hates the let down of a 12-game losing streak and terrible Hochevar performances, I’m going to try to do that. I’ll root very hard that they play well, and I’ll hope. But I won’t see moments of Royals success and assume this means overall success is just around the corner.

"We've Made the Big Time - Omaha!" (Matt Ryerson-US PRESSWIRE)

The Royals should put all of their effort into making the Omaha Storm Chasers the most dominant Minor League Baseball team in History. Forget about the Royals. Let them be the doormat of the American League for the foreseeable future. Put forth zero effort into their success.

Now, I’m not ignorant. I know that the purpose of the minor league system is to develop future major league talent. However, it’s also to entertain. Within the Royals organization, Omaha is where our players perform best. Once they make it to Kansas City, something happens and they are all of a sudden not the player that we thought they were. What’s worse, if they are that good of a player, the Kansas City Royals are often considered the minor league team for MLB’s big spenders. Good players pack their bags and move on to better things. Mediocre players spend their careers being mediocre in Kansas City or driving back and forth to Omaha.

It’s a Jeckyl & Hyde situation for the Royals. In Omaha, they are world beaters. In Kansas City, they are beaten by the world. (See: Kila Ka’aihue)

So, my proposition is to turn things on their head and just try to win as many games in Omaha as possible. Even Ned Yost said earlier this week that they weren’t going to pull any players up to Kansas City until after the AAA Playoffs are over. “We don’t want to take away from their chances of winning.”

So why do we ever? Why don’t we beef up their roster instead? That way, the Royals could be a roster filled with experienced, underachieving, aging Major League players, and the Storm Chasers could be filled with our best and brightest talent. Make Omaha the goal, not Kansas City. Leave them there in AAA, let them win championships year after year, and pay them accordingly. It would take a change in philosophy, some understanding by all involved, but I think that it would ultimately be embraced by the fans and the players.

What you would avoid is the annual frustration that we experience here in Kansas City. Instead, in the Storm Chasers, you have a team that is currently plowing their way through the 2012 Season. They are the defending Pacific Coast League Champions. They’ve got the second-best record in the entire PCL and are just two games behind Sacramento for that mark. With just four games to go before the playoffs begin, they are 82-58. 24 games over .500 and Back to Back American Northern Division Champions.

That kind of success is unfathomable here in Kansas City. Instead, we’re questioning Jeff Francoeur’s existence, complaining about the price of parking, and counting the number of fans at the K each night. In Omaha, they’re playing in front of sell-out crowds in a new stadium, prepping for a “Blue Out” for the first two games of the playoffs, and headlining the All-PCL team. They’re finishing with their third straight winning record. Manager Mike Jirschele is in his 10th straight season at the helm. He’s secure in his job and surely would never want to manage the Royals. The players need to follow his lead.

And all of this success comes without their best stars from recent years.

I’m talking first of all about Moustakas and Hosmer. These are two guys who could do no wrong in Omaha. They have shown flashes of brilliance over just about two seasons in Kansas City, but it’s nothing compared to how good they were at AAA. So why not send them back? Think about how stacked that team would be with just those two guys added to the roster. Mike Moustakas hit .290 with a .531 slugging percentage in parts of two seasons in Omaha. In 107 games, he hit 25 HR & drove in 92 runs. With his improved defense over the past couple of seasons, he’d enable Wil Myers to go back to playing the outfield where he belongs. And, on that note, the stress & wondering that Myers is going through right now over when he’d be called up to KC would immediately dissipate. He would be right where he needed and wanted to be.

For Eric Hosmer, he played just 26 games in Omaha, but hit .439. He’s hitting .241 in Kansas City this year.

Keep going down the list. Guys like Salvador Perez and Billy Butler had great experiences in Omaha. Let’s get them back there so the Storm Chasers can dominate. What’s so great about keeping them in Kansas City? Their greatest hope is that they might be selected for an All-Star Game (one guy per year) or that they might be able to hit over .500. Wouldn’t playing for a Pacific Coast League Championship on a yearly basis be more exhilirating?

Ned Yost thinks so. He said earlier this week that, “winning a championship is probably a greater experience than coming up here and playing in the big leagues.”

I could not agree more.

Eric Hosmer Watches 2012 Fly Past Him (Bob DeChiara-US PRESSWIRE)

Has anyone seen the Royals today? Nope – because they’re hiding again. Oh – wait…there they are! Taking the first two games from the Tigers as they try to fight their way back into first place.

All year long, this team has been playing Peek-a-Boo baseball. Plain & simple – when the stakes are low and all is lost, the Royals play their best. When people start paying attention, they coil up and run for the hills.

You know the trend. The team gets off to a promising start, then craps out quickly, struggles to find an identity, struggles with a youth movement, falls miles out of first place, then rallies in September to give you hope for next year. I know it’s not in the same exact order every season, but in general, this is the fate we are dealt on a yearly basis.

I’m tired of it. And I say that as I watch it all happen again.

This year seems to be even more harsh than usual. I’m sure it has something to do with the way we all bought into the youth movement, thinking that these guys had accumulated enough major league experience over the second half of last year to show up in 2012 and dominate the AL Central. I admit, I was on board. Like everyone else, I want SO BADLY to see a winner in this city.

With the precursor of “Our Time”, I sat in the upper deck during the Home Opener and watched the Cleveland Indians score seven runs in the top of the first inning. My first Opening Day landed with a gigantic thud. That loss helped spiral the team into a 12 game losing streak and an 0-10 start at home. The bullpen struggled, the much hyped offense sputtered, and just like that, Royals fans had to laugh at everything they’d been sold and call the season a loss.

The Royals sat at 6-15 after the first month of the season. After everyone else went searching for another team to root for in 2012, the team came out of hiding and started to figure things out. Alex Gordon started hitting again out of the leadoff spot, the bullpen found its good stuff, and we even got good starts out of the rotation from time to time. While nobody was watching, the Royals put together back to back winning months in May and June.

I wrote an article on June 28th because I had been awoken from my 2012 slumber and noticed that the team was playing good baseball. In this article, I saw a path to where the Royals, just five games under .500 and five games out of first place could be both of those things in time for the All-Star Game. I believe that everyone woke up around this time and the excitement for the All-Star Game and the potential of what the team could accomplish by then had the city buzzing. The team must have sensed this, because they promptly dove underneath the bed.

The team went just 3-8 over their next 11 games and found themselves watching the festivities 9 1/2 games out of first place. The losing continued, and the team finished the month of July with a 7-19 record. The team found themselves with the worst record in the American League. They were 13 1/2 games out of first and sat 18 games under .500. Frustrated fans were joyous for the start of football season, for school to start up, or for anything else that would help them forget about the so-called baseball team that occupied the K.

Once again, sensing that the coast was clear, the Royals showed up again. We’re almost to the end of what has been a fantastic month of August for this team. A couple of personnel changes has rid the roster of most of their black holes. The starting pitching has come around with the help of Dave Eiland. The team has fought hard and pulled out some amazing wins. With two games left, the Royals are 16-11 this month and find themselves in 3rd place in the AL Central. Are they within striking distance of the White Sox & Tigers? No. But they have a chance to finish in a respectable manner.

This will be the team’s first winning August since the year 2000.

So what will happen in September? We all know the trend. Typically, the Royals play well enough during September to raise some eyebrows and generate a lot of buzz heading into next season. There are tons of possibilities as to why – people are watching football, the young guys figure things out, or we’re playing more games against other young guys who are just now making their way to the major leagues.

In the past four seasons, the Royals have put together records over .500 in three of those. They are a combined 58-48 over those four seasons. In 2008, they went 18-8 to close out a season in which they only played .500 baseball in one other month. All four were losing seasons, but three of them ended on a high note. It was enough to keep people hanging on for high hopes when Spring Training rolls around.

Any way you slice it, it is incredibly frustrating. You see glimpses this year of a team that is good enough to compete, but those possibilities are overshadowed by horrendous failures at the times where it matters most. If these guys were able to avoid the gigantic pits that they so predictably fall into each year, they’d be right in the hunt for what all of a sudden is a winnable division.

Was this the year? Was it “Our Time”? It’s possible. If the team had not played .382 baseball for two months of the season, they’d be gunning for 1st place right now. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter. I was raised on “ifs” when it comes to the Royals. “If…Johnny Damon“. “If…Ewing Kauffman”. “If…National League Central”. It only matters what they DO. If they DO finish strong this year, hopefully it will bring improvement in next year’s team in the same way that we saw over last year’s team and the hiccups and hiding won’t be as prominent in 2013.

Color me hopeful…or just a sucker for hide & seek.

Nate Adcock took the loss, as he allowed those six runs on seven hits in just the 2nd inning. After that, he only allowed two hits.

Jake Odorizzi was named the Pacific Coast League’s Player of the Week. Infielder Christian Colon, who fouled a ball off his face after a promotion to Triple-A, will miss the rest of the season.

NW Arkansas scored a run in the first inning, but went on to lose to Frisco, 6-1. Mike Montgomery was in trouble in every inning but the third, and lasted just five innings. The five walks and a three-run homerun did him in.

In the loss, Paulo Orlando went 3-for-4.

Blue Rocks first baseman Matt Fields

With big league GM Dayton Moore in attendance in Frederick, Wilmington lost both games of their doubleheader. Their lead in the Northern Division in the Carolina League dropped to just a 1/2 game. The games got started late, as rain pushed back the start time by about an hour.

Game 1 was picked up in the 3rd inning, as it was suspended from a July game in Wilmington (in which Dylan Bundy started). Anyway, it was a back-and-forth affair late and the Blue Rocks had a chance in the bottom of the 9th inning. With a run in, a runner on first base, and just one out, Angel Franco grounded into a game-ending double play.

Matt Fields went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored.

Game 2 was so much worse. The long ball once again came back to haunt Blue Rocks starter Jason Adam. The Keys scored five runs in the first inning as Adam allowed back-to-back homeruns, one was a three-run shot. He was in-and-out of trouble throughout his five innings of work.

Shortstop Orlando Calixte was hit by a pitch in the 4th inning and immediately was replaced.

Brooks Pounders was named the Carolina League’s Pitcher of the Week.

Kane County was the only KC Royals affiliate to win on Monday night, as they defeated Burlington, 5-4. Down 3-1 heading into the top of the 8th inning, the Cougars scored four runs and held on. Chris Elder hit a grand slam, just his second homerun of the season (first with the Cougars).

Alex Llanos and Tim Ferguson each collected two hits in the win. Angel Baez made the start and allowed an unearned run over five innings of work. He gave up four hits and three walks, but struck out six.

Bubba Watch: Bubba Starling went 1-for-5 with a solo homerun in Burlington’s 5-4 win in 12 innings. The second game of their doubleheader was postponed. He reached on a fielding error in the 12th inning and scored the winning run.

The Royals’ Patrick Conroy was named the Appalachian League’s Pitcher of the Week.

Burlington

Mark Threlkheld has cracked the top ten in hitting in the Appy League (tenth) with a .294 batting average. He has 33 RBIs, which ranks him ninth (in a tie). He went 6-for-23 (.261) with five runs scored and four RBIs. Patrick Leonard is tied for second in the Appy League in RBIs with 42 and dropped to second place in homeruns with 13 (he hit just one last week). He did hit .333 (8-for-24) last week. Fred Ford is third with 12 homeruns (one of his three hits last week).

It was another tough week for prospect Bubba Starling. He went 4-for-23 (.174) with 12 strikeouts.

Daniel Hernandez is ninth in the Appy League in ERA (3.64) and he leads the Royals in innings pitched (59.1 innings). He’s been getting roughed up a bit as of late. Last week, he allowed six runs on 11 hits over two starts (12.2 innings). The strikeout to walk ratio still continues to be great (13 to 2 last week). Yender Caramo is right behind Hernandez in innings pitched (59). Last week, he made one start and allowed just one run over six innings. He did allow nine hits, but did not walk a batter while striking out four.

Reliever Daniel Stumpf has been dominant throughout the 2012 season for the Royals. It was no different in his two appearances last week. Over four innings, he allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out four.

Idaho Falls went 3-4 last week. The Chukars are tied for second place in the South Division of the Pioneer League at 11-10. They also return home for a nine-game homestand (around an off day). Of the Chukars losses last week, only one was by more than three runs.

The top offensive performers for the Chukars have cooled off a bit. Ethan Chapman dropped to .322, as he only played in three games (3-for-11 with four RBIs). Nick DelGuidice dropped his average to .298, as he 4-for-17 with three RBIs. Adalberto Mondesi‘s average dropped to .285 after going just 4-for-26 with 13 strikeouts.

The one positive on offense for the Chukars last week was third baseman Diego Goris. He went 7-for-20 (.350) with seven runs scored and six RBIs.

Check out MiLB’s feature on 2012 second round draft pick Sam Selman, who leads the Pioneer League in ERA (1.31) and strikeouts (73). In his one start last week (August 14th), he allowed one run on five hits and a walk over six innings. He struck out 11.

Cory Hall made two relief appearances last week and allowed three hits over 2.1 scoreless innings. He struck out three.

July 8, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; USA pitcher Jake Odorizzi delivers a pitch during the first inning of the 2012 All Star Futures Game at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

They also rode the arm of Jake Odorizzi, who improved to 10-2 in Triple-A. He allowed one run on four hits and two walks over seven innings.

If you’re interested in checking out the Storm Chasers celebration on Saturday night, check out Minda Haas’ site Royal Blues for photos.

NW Arkansas lost the first game of their doubleheader in Frisco, 3-0. The Naturals collected just two hits.

Noel Arguelles waited three days to make his next start (after two rainouts). He took the loss, as he allowed two runs on four hits and three walks over five innings. He struck out six.

The Naturals also lost the second game, 3-1. They actually out-hit Frisco 6-4, but went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. They had a chance to win the game (or at least tie it) in the top of the 7th inning. They had the bases loaded and one run already in, but Carlo Testa grounded out to end the game.

Whit Merrifield went 2-for-4 with a triple. Justin Marks took the loss, as he allowed all three runs on four hits and a walk over four innings.

Wilmington couldn’t complete the sweep over Lynchburg, as they lost 3-2. The Blue Rocks scored both of their runs in the first inning. Three of their four hits came in that first inning.

With the game tied at 2-2 in the top of the 9th inning, Braeden Schlehuber reached on a fielding error in center field and moved all the way to third base. He came around to score when the Blue Rocks middle infielders tried to turn a double play (but couldn’t).

The Blue Rocks had the tying run on third base with two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning, but Murray Watts flied out to end the game (he ended up 2-for-4).

The Wilmington loss dropped them to just 2.5 games ahead of both the Hillcats and Frederick. The Blue Rocks now head to Frederick for five games and then to Lynchburg for three more games.

Kane County led 4-3 heading into the 8th inning, but lost 7-4 in Burlington. The Bees scored four runs in the bottom of the 8th inning aided by three singles, three walks, and a wild pitch.

Alex Llanos went 3-for-4 and Chris Elder went 2-for-4 with two RBIs in the loss.

Bubba Watch: Bubba Starling went 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts in Burlington’s 8-4 loss in Greenville.

Tonight, superfans collide, as the Baltimore Orioles version of a superfan will be a guest via Skype on the Royalman Report. Tune in to see what happens when Carne Cabeza aka the LuchadOriole (aka Neal Moorhouse) joins the show as a guest. Will he be friend or foe? Will team alliances create conflict or will the two find common costumed ground? Tune in to the Royalman Report – same Royalman time, same Royalman channel!

Also, the Royals managed to win a few games, going 5-1 on the homestand and Jeremy Guthrie flirted with a no-hitter. It’s been a pretty good August, so maybe there’s some good feeling still to be had.

Finally, we’ll have an announcement about the future status of the podcast.

The chat room and livestream broadcast will be below for you to chime in and interact with us in the studio as well as fellow listeners:

The Royalman Report is brought to you by Kelly’s Westport Inn at 500 Westport Road in Kansas City, Missouri.  Tell them the Royalman Report sent you.

(more…)

Blue Rocks shortstop Orlando Calixte

Saturday night’s Wilmington Blue Rocks game was considered boring for the first eight innings. Well, boring for those who do not like pitcher’s duels. It got exciting quick in the bottom of the 9th inning when Cheslor Cuthbert led off the inning with a single off Lynchburg reliever Juan Jamie. He moved to second base on a wild pitch and Nick Van Stratten moved him to third base on a ground out. Van Stratten had squared to bunt but pulled back and slapped it up the middle.

The Hillcats elected to intentionally walk the next two batters to load the bases with one out. Luis Piterson hit into a force out (the out came at the plate), which brought up shortstop Orlando Calixte with two outs and the bases loaded.

The 2-2 pitch was VERY close. So close that the entire Lynchburg infield began exiting the field. The catcher triple-clutched his throw because he couldn’t believe the home plate umpire did not call the pitch a strike.

Anyway, with new life and a 3-2 pitch, Calixte took the fastball into left field, just out of reach of the diving left fielder for the game winner. While the Blue Rocks were celebrating and chasing Calixte around the field, the Hillcats coaching staff was going nuts at the umpire. I don’t blame them and I’m pretty sure any other coaching staff in baseball would have been freaking out (the pitch looked that good).

After the game, Calixte talked (through interpreter Angel Franco, the Blue Rocks utility fielder) about the game winning hit, facing a pitcher who throws so hard, how many game winning hits he has had in his career, and how he took that 2-2 pitch. He, like Pounders, was also pied in the face during the interview, but kept on going. Pounders was kind enough to wipe some of the shaving cream out of his face.

Following all the shaving cream pies, Blue Rocks manager Vance Wilson wanted to make sure he was facing the hallway just in case a pie was coming his way. He talked about the throws by Brett Eibner, the start from Pounders, his bullpen duo of Chase Boruff and Robinson Yambati, the defensive abilities of Lynchburg shortstop Nick Ahmed, and how well his team is finally playing with the playoffs about two weeks away.

Jul 17, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Ryan Verdugo (62) delivers a pitch in the first inning against the Seattle Mariners at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Omaha returned home and beat Nashville, 5-3. The Storm Chasers also clinched the American Northern Division of the Pacific Coast League.

Ryan Verdugo was solid yet again, as he allowed two runs on seven hits and a walk over seven innings. He struck out seven.

Anthony Seratelli went 4-for-4 in the win. Rey Navarro made his Triple-A debut at second base and went 1-for-2 with a walk and a stolen base.

NW Arkansas was postponed for the second straight night. They will make up Saturday night’s game as part of a doubleheader on Sunday in Frisco.

The game of night in the KC Royals farm system was in Wilmington, as they walked off 1-0 winners over Lynchburg. They increased their lead to 3.5 games in the Northern Division of the Carolina League in the second half.

It was a well-pitched game between Brooks Pounders of Wilmington and Dimasther Delgado of Lynchburg. Pounders lasted seven innings for the second straight start and allowed just three hits and one walk while striking out seven. When he did get into trouble, he was bailed out by two GREAT throws from centerfielder Brett Eibner to end back-to-back innings. Delgado allowed just four hits and a walk over six innings.

It came down to the bottom of the 9th inning with hard-throwing Juan Jamie on the mound for the Hillcats. With the bases loaded and two outs, shortstop Orlando Calixte came to the plate. With a 3-2 count, he ripped the fastball just out of the reach of the diving Dan Brewer in left field and the Blue Rocks began celebrating and chasing Calixte all over the field.

Pounders talked after the game about his back-to-back great starts, the throws from Eibner, and his pickoff move. He was then pied in the face to end the interview by catcher Juan Graterol.

Kane County pounded out 14 hits and beat Burlington, 7-3. Five different Cougars had multi-hit games. Only one of those hits went for extra bases.

Kyle Smith picked up his fourth win, as he allowed an unearned run on three hits and two walks over 5.1 innings. He struck out nine. Cody Fassold followed with 2.2 perfect innings of relief. He struck out five.

Bubba Watch: Bubba Starling went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in Burlington’s 2-0 loss at Greenville.

Judy Johnson is a Hall of Famer and the namesake of the field at Frawley Stadium. His statue stands outside the ballpark. He was a key member to some of the best teams in Negro League history. You can find out more about Johnson HERE .

The thing that disappoints me is that they have dropped the ball over the years with honoring the Negro Leagues in Wilmington (just like they have in Kansas City). Back in the day, both teams used to wear Negro League uniforms (I am a sucker for old school uniforms). Then their game worn hats would be auctioned off to support the Negro Leagues. They do have auctions going on throughout the concourse of autographed memorabilia tonight (which are drawing some crowds).

This year is no different. It is also Star Wars Night, with Star Wars characters set to be in attendance. It seems as if the promotional team is more interested in pushing that than the history of the Negro Leagues and Judy Johnson.

Anyway, to the game (and enough of my rambling).

First half Northern Division champion Lynchburg (the High-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves) is in town and the Hillcats are 2.5 games back of the Blue Rocks in the second half standings. The Blue Rocks have taken the first two games of the four-game series, as the pitchers have allowed just two runs to the Hillcats. In Game 1, the Blue Rocks won 2-1 and walked off on a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the 10^th inning. In Game 2, the Blue Rocks scored ten runs in the bottom of the 2^nd inning and rode the arm of Matt Ridings to another victory.

Taking the mound for the Blue Rocks tonight is Brooks Pounders, who the Royals acquired this past offseason from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Despite the fact that Pounders has been with Wilmington since June, this will be the first time I will be seeing him pitch. With the Blue Rocks, he is 5-4 with a 4.83 ERA in 13 games (12 starts). He has allowed more hits (74) than innings pitched (63.1). His last start at Potomac was a great one: 7IP, 4H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 5K.

The Hillcats will be sending Dimasther Delgado to the mound. Overall he is 6-6 with a 4.35 ERA in 20 starts. He, like Pounders, allows more hits than innings pitched (125 hits in 107.2 innings). Delgado faced the Blue Rocks in back-to-back-starts (June 29 and July 5) and allowed three runs in each game.

Lineups:

HILLCATS: Mycal Jones (CF), Nick Ahmed (SS), Dan Brewer (LF), Chris Garcia (1B), Edward Salcedo (3B), Adam Milligan (RF), David Rohm (DH), Emerson Landoni (2B), and Chad Comer (C).

BLUE ROCKS: Orlando Calixte (SS), Brett Eibner (CF), Lane Adams (RF), Matt Fields (1B), Cheslor Cuthbert (3B), Nick Van Stratten (DH), Geulin Beltre (LF), Juan Graterol (C), and Luis Piterson (2B).

(more…)

August 16, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals second baseman Chris Getz (17) gets the force out on Oakland Athletics right fielder Josh Reddick (not pictured) at second base and throws to first for a double play in the fourth inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Getz was having his best year as a big leaguer in 2012, despite two previous trips to the disabled list during the season. His season ends with his batting average, slugging percentage and OPS all being career highs and, had he been healthy most of the year, would have likely been able to reach career highs in hits and doubles.

Instead, it’s cut short.

There hasn’t been a move to replace Getz on the roster yet, but all signs point to Johnny Giavotella replacing him. Giavotella was hitting .323/.404/.472 in Omaha. After the Royals announced that Getz would miss the rest of the year, Giavotella was pulled from Omaha’s lineup against Las Vegas. Earlier this season, Giavotella  spent a month with Kansas City and hit .217/.260/.261.

The Getz versus Giavotella debate has worn on all season, going back to spring training. Giavotella didn’t take advantage of the first opportunity to win the job and went to Omaha to continue to work on his defense. He was also working back from offseason hip surgery and as the months have gotten warmer, so has his bat. With Getz performing adequately at the plate and displaying good defense, the Royals hadn’t been compelled to make a change.

Since being drafted in the second round in 2008, Giavotella has drawn questions about his defense. Despite extensive work in Triple A, he’s probably only going to be average at his very best at the position. The Royals will accept that if he hits. Despite hitting everything in the minors, he hasn’t been able to translate it to major league success and the Royals have seemed timid about giving him an opportunity to sink or swim. If he hits like many scouts think he can, he’ll be a good offensive weapon in the lineup and should balance out any problems with the glove. If he doesn’t hit, the next man in line is Christian Colon, who was recently promoted to Omaha and got seven hits in his first 17 at bats, including a double and a homer. He recently fouled a ball that hit the ground and then hit him in the eye, so he’s currently on the DL.

I see it playing out with Giavotella getting the rest of this year to see if he can hit big league pitching. If not, we may see more of the Getz/Giavotella merry-go-round while Colon spends some time in Omaha waiting to step in (assuming the Royals don’t involve Giavotella or Colon in a deal this offseason).

Veteran Doug Davis courtesy of Minda Haas (Royal Blues)

It was a matchup of Doug Davis against former Storm Chaser Sean O’Sullivan and O’Sullivan won the battle. Davis allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks over seven innings. He struck out eight, but allowed two solo homeruns. O’Sullivan allowed just one run on four hits and three walks over seven innings while striking out six.

The Storm Chasers lone run came via Mitch Maier‘s 4th inning solo homerun. Anthony Seratelli went 2-for-3 in the loss. In case you were wondering, Johnny Giavotella did not play.

NW Arkansas‘ game in Midland was postponed due to bad weather. However, the Naturals were eliminated from the postseason, as Springfield beat San Antonio.

Where did all of Wilmington‘s offense suddenly come from (and where has it been all season)? They scored ten runs in the 2nd inning and cruised to an 11-1 victory over Lynchburg. The Blue Rocks hold a 2.5 game lead over the Hillcats for the second half Northern Division title (the Hillcats won the first half).

The Blue Rocks collected 12 hits, but just three doubles, so they singled the Hillcats to death and capitalized on three Hillcats errors. Five Blue Rocks hitters had multi-hit games.

Matt Ridings was the beneficiary of all that offense, though he didn’t need a whole lot. He allowed an unearned run on three hits and a walk over seven innings. He struck out seven.

Kane County and Clinton took their scoreless duel into the 10th inning when the LumberKings scored two runs. The Cougars got a run in the bottom of the 10th inning on Justin Trapp‘s solo homerun (he went 3-for-5). However they could not complete the comeback and lost 2-1.

Remember Tim Melville? He started for the Cougars in his return from the DL (where he has spent most of the season) and allowed just one hit and two walks over four innings. He struck out four. Andrew Triggs followed with four perfect innings of relief with four strikeouts.

Bubba Watch: Bubba Starling went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts in Burlington’s 5-1 loss to Greenville. Playing shortstop for the Astros (in just his sixth game), the top pick in this past June’s draft, Carlos Correa, went 2-for-4 with a homerun.

We also spoke with former KC A’s First Baseman and six time All-Star Jim Gentile about his time with Kansas City, being a member of the Orioles Hall of Fame and the famed summer of 1961, when he went toe to toe with Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.

We’ll be back next week with more discussion of Kansas City baseball, past, present and future on ESPN 1510 Thursday at 6 p.m. CST.

You can catch up on old episodes of the Kansas City Baseball Vault here on Kings of Kauffman. Episodes of the Royalman Report are available on the site as well.

Follow the Kansas City Baseball Vault on Twitter and Facebook for future programming updates. Also follow Kings of Kauffman for article updates, discussion and other information.

Kings of Kauffman – How do you explain the White Sox struggles at home against the Royals at home but being successful largely in Kansas City?

Matt Adams– Mostly chance. This team, as is the case with most, go through hot and cold streaks.  It just so happens that some poor games have been strung together against the Royals.  It would be nice to have some extra consistency against a less experienced team but the White Sox haven’t exactly been able to turn that into an advantage.

Jeremy Guthrie will face the White Sox for the second time in just over a week on Sunday at the K. Photo Credit: Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE

KOK – What is the team’s plan for Chris Sale at this point of the season? 

MA – The idea at this point is to keep him fresh through the year so that he’ll be primed for a playoff run.  It’s tricky with a guy who hasn’t even approached this sort of workload before.  You want to protect him but at the same time you don’t want to miss out on the value that he provides.  Sale is arguably this team’s ace, and you feel much better about winning games when your ace is on the mound.

KOK – On a scale to 1-10 how surprised are White Sox fans with Robin Ventura at this point?

MA – I’d put it at maybe a 2.  Nobody knew what to expect out of Robin before the season started so there isn’t much to be surprised about.  Everybody is psyched about the job he’s done.  The team is in first and the players appear to be pretty relaxed out there.  There are some gripes about his x’s and o’s here and there but overall he’s got the fans feeling good.  A manager doesn’t really need to change his style for fan opinion of him to change.  All that has to shift is the team’s record and the fan opinion will go along with it.

KOK – What’s happened in the brief time since these two teams met last week at the Cell?

MA – Since last we met there was a bit of a moral victory to accompany some big wins.  The White Sox had been notoriously bad playing in the Rogers Center and managed 3 of 4 there.  Again, likely it was just a timing thing along but feels good to not have that hanging over the team.  Paul Konerko has missed the entire week after hitting the 7-day DL from a concussion inadvertently delivered by Jarrod Dyson.  He’s available for the series for the first time since the two teams last played.

For the other side of the conversation check out Southside Showdown

Probable Starters this weekend –

Friday 7:10 pm, Chris Sale (14-3, 2.60) v. Luis Mendoza (6-8, 4.37)

Saturday 6:10 pm, Jake Peavy (9-8, 3.04) v. Bruce Chen (8-10, 5.56)

Sunday 1:10 pm, Jose Quintana (5-2, 2.77) v. Jeremy Guthrie (5-12, 5.75)

The Nationals were 69-93 in 2010. They were 80-81 last year. Today, they have the best record in the big leagues and, not coincidentally, their starting pitching has given up the least amount of runs in the league. Similarly, Tampa Bay, Oakland and Pittsburgh are all in the top ten among starting rotations in runs allowed per game and are in the playoff hunt.

The Royals scored more runs in 2000 than any other Royals team in franchise history. Their 879 runs scored eclipsed the old record of 856 runs set in – wouldn’t you know it?  - 1999. In those two seasons, they scored 1735 runs. They won 141 games and lost 192. The offense was around the top third in all of baseball, but the pitching staffs gave up the second most runs in the majors in 1999 and the third most in 2000. A strong offense can’t erase awful pitching.

Now, the Royals find themselves with a lineup that feels like it should be able to produce runs over the long-term (or at least, that’s what the scouts say), but the key to success will be pitching, specifically starting pitching.

That’s as true today as it was on the last day of the season in 2011 as it was on the first day that pitchers and catchers reported. The Royals entered 2012 needing pitching and in the middle of August, they still need starting pitching. Injuries have hurt. If all goes well with recovery, they should see Danny Duffy and Felipe Paulino return next July or so, but their contributions may only have an impact if he Royals can manage to piece together some winning months prior to the duo’s return.

The team’s relative inactivity in the offseason to add significant depth to a potential rotation gives me pause about hoping for significant upgrades in the rotation, although some may be on the Royals radar this winter. The Royals ideal situation is to develop pitching via the farm system as the Rays have done with James Shields, David Price, Jeremy Hellickson et al; like the Nationals have done with Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman and Ross Detwiler. Hopefully, the Royals go after some of the arms available in free agency or through trade because, in the meantime, while there are a number of strong performances in the minor leagues by pitchers who compose what could be the next wave of talent, most aren’t ready to make the jump yet.

Jake Odorizzi has a rotation spot waiting for him in KC. (Photo Credit: Minda Haas)

Jake Odorizzi has performed well since his promotion to Omaha, allaying concerns that he might struggle early in a tougher league. Last year, he’d racked up 108 strikeouts in 78.1 innings for Wilmington, but became homer-prone in the Texas League and ended his 12 start stint in Northwest Arkansas with a 4.72 ERA. He started his 2012 season back in Double A, put in seven good starts and earned a promotion.

Since then, he’s been putting up good numbers in Omaha, capped off by an outing on Tuesday where he went 6.2 innings before allowing a hit. In 89.1 innings in Triple A, he’s got a 2.92 ERA (though his walk rate is up and he’s giving up more hits, so there could be some good fortune in that ERA). He’s a flyball pitcher, so it will likely make him home run prone once he gets to the big leagues, but he can miss enough bats and should have pretty good control to allow him to limit damage. He projects as a number three starter with some upside and should get to Kansas City in September for a couple appearances.

Another prospect to dream on is John Lamb, who has finally made it back to the mound. He underwent Tommy John surgery last June and in the process of maintaining his conditioning, aggravated a tendon in his ankle and had to hold off on game action.

On Tuesday, he started for the Arizona Royals in Surprise, throwing a scoreless inning and striking out two. A batter reached on an error, but Lamb gave up no hits or walks.

The Royals will probably be very patient with him for the rest of this season, just getting him worked back into game speed. I think we’d all like to see him make a start at each level until he got back to Double A, but I think he’ll work within the rookie levels, then into instructional leagues. J.J. Picollo said on a recent Royals TV broadcast that they’re looking for Lamb to start in Double A next year and be on the fast track. Lamb’s got a good shot to make that happen – he’s been touted for his temperament before even being drafted, and has come back from significant injury before. He might see Kansas City late in 2013, possibly on a similar path as Odorizzi has been on this year of a few starts for the Naturals, a long stint in Omaha and then Kansas City in late August or as a September callup.

Yordano Ventura

Yordano Ventura is another guy to keep an eye on. He’s possibly got the most upside of any starter in the system, but those types usually have some risk. In his case, the Royals are probably going to have to resist the urge to turn him into a reliever if he encounters any bumps in the road. He’s small (listed at 5’11″ 140 pounds, though he looks like he’s filled out since) and the perception is that smaller pitchers are fragile or can’t hold up to the rigors of 200 inning seasons.

That being the case, he has the potential to be a high strikeout pitcher if he starts, has shown decent control, and has the type of stuff that misses bats. He can hurl a fastball into the triple digits, his curveball is developing into a solid secondary pitch and his changeup could be more than adequate. He’s currently on the disabled list in Double A with carpal tunnel symptoms in his wrist, but should finish the year there, start back there next year and hit Omaha in the summer months.

Of course, Kyle Zimmer should be in this discussion. The Royals first rounder in 2012 is only 20 years old coming out of college and has already started to shine in Low A Kane County’s rotation. He’s made eight pro starts, building up 33.2 innings, striking out 39 batters and walking just seven. He’s also been getting a decent amount of grounders in his short pro career. Strikeouts plus low walk totals plus groundball tendencies are great components for a future star to have. He’s had one rough start of those eight, but all of his others have been dominant. He’ll start next year at High A Wilmington and might be up in mid-2014 if he keeps rolling.

One pitcher who needs a new challenge is Sam Selman. The lefty from Vanderbilt has been destroying the Pioneer League and will hopefully get a shot at a higher level to see how his dominance continues. He’s striking out 13.9 batters per nine innings at Idaho Falls.

Kyle Smith struck out 11 batters in five innings in his first pro start for Idaho Falls and was moved to Kane Country afterwards. He’s continued to perform well there, making nine starts and striking out 58 batters in 45.2 innings. He has nearly a 5/1 K/BB ratio as a pro. He’ll turn 20 next month and isn’t the big, tall pitcher the Royals usually go for as a starter, but he deserves a look as he moves up the minor league ladder. His best start came two weeks ago when he went seven scoreless innings, gave up just three hits and struck out 12 while walking none against Cedar Rapids. More of that, please.

Jason Adam

Another good arm in the system is Jason Adam. He started the season off well for Wilmington, hit some rough patches in May and June, but has righted the ship and is pitching well. His 5-11 record is deceiving, as he’s hardly gotten any run support in most of his starts, best demonstrated by a May 19 start when he went six innings, struck out seven and gave up two runs, and the Blue Rocks got no-hit. He’s surpassed seven innings in six starts to lead Wilmington and has a good share of 6+ IP starts as well.

As a result, he’s probably thrown too many innings to get anything more than a courtesy start in Double A. At 141 innings this year, he might be shut down soon. He’s a strong candidate to start the year in Double A next year after demonstrating enough ability to miss bats (7 K/9) and prevent walks (2 BB/9) this year while also inducing his share of ground balls. He has good stuff, but it’s not dominating, though he’s been adding velocity recently. He’s hit the mid-90s with his fastball before, and if he can build up to that level, it gives him more upside. He’s another guy who scouts suggest could be a #3 starter down the line.

Unfortunately, for the moment, this is all just dreaming on these guys, because Odorizzi’s the closest to the big leagues and won’t have much time in the big leagues if at all by next spring and it may keep him from making the team out of Surprise. Lamb and Ventura will probably hit Triple A next year, but among Zimmer, Adam, Selman and Smith, there’s not a single pitch at the Double A level yet. That puts them some ways away from the big leagues.

Ideally, the Royals will be able to add these arms to the mix in the future. They won’t have much impact next season so if the Royals are to build up their rotation (which they need to do), they’ll have to go after those free agent targets. They may have to put one of these arms into a trade to get a better return on a starter with another team. The Royals want to bring their star starters up from the minor leagues and have a homegrown staff, and that’s commendable, but for the moment, unless Mike Montgomery (5.71 ERA in 41 innings after his demotion to Double A) or Chris Dwyer (6.21 ERA in Omaha) figure things out – sooner rather than later – the homegrown pipeline of pitching talent will remain a pipe dream.

The top of Omaha’s order, Falu and Anthony Seratelli, went a combined 5-for-12 with three RBIs. Derrick Robinson went 3-for-5 with three runs scored in the win.

NW Arkansas was battered in Midland, 13-3. The RockHounds led 11-0 after three innings. JC Sulbaran, who the KC Royals received from Cincinnati for Jonathan Broxton, continues to struggle with his new team (3IP, 9H, 11R, 5BB, 3K, 3HR). His ERA climbed to 10.64.

The bright spot for the Naturals was the relief outing from Ryan Dennick. He pitched four shutout innings and allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out five.

The Naturals scored three runs, but only picked up five hits, two from Paulo Orlando.

Blue Rocks reliever Nick Rogers

Wilmington and Lynchburg were locked in a pitcher’s duel and carried it into extra innings. The Blue Rocks came out victorious in ten innings, 2-1. They walked off on a bases loaded walk (the third walk of the inning).

Andy Ferguson started for the Blue Rocks and allowed just one run (on a 6th inning solo homerun) over six innings. He allowed four hits and two walks while striking out nine. Nick Rogers, who seems to have rebounded from his struggles over the last two months, pitched three scoreless innings of relief (just one hit and one walk while striking out five).

Kane County beat Clinton, 5-3. 2012 first round draft pick Kyle Zimmer pitched another gem for the Cougars. He allowed two unearned runs on seven hits and two walks over seven innings. He struck out three. Zimmer also picked a runner off second base.

On offense, Jack Lopez went 2-for-3 and Michael Antonio scored two runs and drove in two runs in the win.

Bubba Watch: Bubba Starling went 1-for-4 with a run scored and two strikeouts in Burlington’s late inning loss to Princeton. He also threw a runner out at the plate.

Tonight we continue an exciting new venture for Kings of Kauffman and its podcast, the Royalman Report.

Jeff Logan of the Kansas City Baseball Historical Society joins forces with us to form the Kansas City Baseball Vault on Kansas City’s ESPN 1510 AM from 6-7 p.m. every Thursday night. Listeners can tune into traditional radio or streaming live on 1510.com.

Tonight’s first guest is “Diamond” Jim Gentile, a former All-Star and runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 1960 and an MVP candidate in the 1960s. He played in Kansas City with the Athletics in 1964 and 1965 after strong years with the Orioles.

We’ll also talk with Randy Herr, longtime Kansas City baseball fan and father of co-host Jeff Herr.

It all starts at 6 p.m. CST on ESPN 1510 AM in Kansas City or 1510.com if you’re out of the area.

Follow the Kansas City Baseball Vault on Twitter and Facebook for future programming updates. Also follow Kings of Kauffman for article updates, discussion and other information.

Cabrera was having a great season, challenging for the batting title while being a key part of the Giants offense, being selected to start the All-Star Game, and winning the exhibition’s MVP award. This followed up on a breakout year in 2011 when Melky turned an opportunity with the Royals into a career year, registering 200 hits, one of just five batters to do so.

Now, much of that is called into question.

Nobody knows when Cabrera may have started using an illegal substance. It certainly could have been one time and he happened to get caught. There will be suspicions though. Cabrera came into 2011 having lost a lot of weight and performed better than ever after a career of mostly mediocre to average seasons. Until other information comes out, I’m going on the assumption that he used one time, perhaps to continue the strong performance he’d happened upon in 2011.

August 31, 2011; Detroit, MI, USA; Kansas City Royals center fielder Melky Cabrera (53) in the dugout during the game against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE

That’s not going to stop the questions, though. Cabrera had never had a season with an OPS above .752 in a season. He’d never surpassed 30 doubles until 2011. He had more than 50 additional hits than his next highest season. That sudden spike in performance won’t go unnoticed by those who want to point fingers. For the sake of giving someone the benefit of the doubt, I hope there’s only smoke and no fire, but I wasn’t the only one who thought his performance was a fluke most of last year (and at a certain point, I just had to accept what was happening despite my previous skepticism).

It’s unfortunate. Cabrera seemed to be a fit in the Royals clubhouse last year and fans took to him in San Francisco.

But he broke the rules.

The Royals traded Cabrera in the offseason for Jonathan Sanchez and while it looks like an awful trade today, at the time it was reasonable for both sides. Few expected Cabrera to maintain his success much less improve upon it, and Sanchez had shown potential in the past. It ended up going as badly as possible for the Royals with Cabrera’s big year, Sanchez’s awful season, and is only somewhat improved by getting good performances from Jeremy Guthrie after the Rockies took Sanchez off the Royals hands.

Some have said that this indicates that the Royals “won” the trade since Cabrera is out for the rest of the regular season.

They didn’t get any of Cabrera’s 159 hits in 2012 and the suspension sure doesn’t take away Sanchez’s stinkbomb starts. There turns out to be no winner in this deal and the Royals are fortunate to have gotten any kind of return to salvage anything after such poor results.

These situations tarnish the game and the accomplishments of the players involved. Last year, the Royals outfield performed as well as any in baseball history at the plate. It was one of few high points in another losing season. Now there’s a question mark over it. Still, no matter how disappointing it is to any 2011 Royals marks, it’s more disappointing to Giants fans and teammates, who are fighting for a playoff spot and now lost a key producer for a third of the year for something he may not have even needed to do.

Nate Adcock started for the Storm Chasers and left in the 8th inning with a runner on second base and one out. Vin Mazzaro entered and allowed the runner to score (and took the loss).

On offense, the Storm Chasers only had five hits, with Max Ramirez picking up two hits. He also drove in both runs.

Christian Colon was placed on the DL due to an eye injury. He spent a good chunk of his season in Double-A on the DL already. You can find out more HERE (the bottom of the article).

Clinging to a 4-2 lead, Midland scored five runs in the bottom of the 6th inning to defeat NW Arkansas, 7-5. The Naturals made it interesting in the top of the 9th inning, by scoring a run and putting runners on first and second base with just one out. However Whit Merrifield and Brian Fletcher struck out to end the game.

Yem Prades went 3-for-5 in the leadoff spot and Paulo Orlando went 2-for-4 in the loss.

Jason Adam

It was the Adam & Adams show for Wilmington on Wednesday night, as they beat Potomac, 9-1. Lets start with outfielder Lane Adams. He drove in the Blue Rocks’ first run in the top of the first inning and came around to score another in that seven-run inning. In the end, he went 3-for-5.

Jason Adam made another dominant start for the Blue Rocks, as he pitched six shutout innings. He allowed four hits and struck out five. He didn’t allow a hit until the 3rd inning and only had multiple base runners in one inning (the fourth, but with two outs).

Clinton scored all ten of their runs from the fourth to the sixth innings to beat Kane County, 10-4. This was after the Cougars had a 3-0 lead.

Every starter for the Cougars, except Justin Trapp had at least one hit. Alex Llanos went 2-for-4. Chris Elder, who has been on the move all season, went 3-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs.

Bubba Watch: Bubba Starling went 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored in Burlington’s 2-0 win over Princeton. Each team collected just three hits.

As bad as a situation like this may be, what would you think about this individual if he had made almost the same exact mistake previously, and learned absolutely nothing from the experience?  You might say he was a mad lunatic, hell-bent on self destruction.  You might think he was a subversive implant on a mission to destroy.  You might say his name is Dayton Moore.

Let me take you back a few years to explain how we got to Dayton Moore’s last stand.  No doubt you are aware that Dayton Moore spent the first several years of his administrative baseball career with the Atlanta Braves.  After becoming the Royals General Manager in 2006, he made three trades with his former organization within about a year, sending a couple of guys you never heard of plus Octavio Dotel to the Braves in exchange for another guy you never heard of plus Tony Pena, Jr. and “dum, dum, DUMMMM!” (that’s my weak attempt at ominous movie mood music), Kyle Davies.

You remember Kyle Davies, right?  He’s the guy that many believe is possibly the worst starting pitcher in the history of the major leagues, by a long shot.  And what normally happens when a team brings up a pitcher who goes down in flames on the mound?  If he’s had success in the minors, as Davies did, they’ll probably give him a few chances, several more starts to get accustomed to the speed and talent level in the majors.  If he still isn’t successful, the player will soon be demoted back to AAA or released.  But that’s not what happened with Kyle.

In 2007, Davies came to the Royals in mid-season, pitched 50 innings and posted a 6.66 era.  Let that soak in for a moment – a 6.66 era.  To put that in perspective, the Royals current embarrassing group of starting pitchers all have era’s of 5.50 or less.

What do you think was the result of Davies near historically poor performance in 2007?  Was he chased out of Kauffman and demoted to Omaha?  Was he placed on the waiver wire?  No, he was shockingly rewarded with another season in the Royals rotation.  And another.  And another.  And another, until July 2011 when the Royals finally gave Kyle and his 5.59 lifetime era his walking papers.  And by the way, Luke Hochevar’s lifetime era is 5.29 – don’t get me started.  That will need to be the subject of a future story.

Do you remember how Dayton Moore was mercilessly vilified for his decision to keep running Kyle Davies out to the mound year, after year, after year?  Kyle had only one somewhat promising season in 2008 when he threw for a 4.06 era, and Dayton rode that train of possibility all the way to the end of the line and beyond.  There really is no explanation for the blinders DM wore when reviewing Davies unless you believe he simply could not admit he had made a mistake.  He was like the man who keeps doubling down at the roulette wheel thinking the odds have to land in his favor eventually.

Dayton Moore will need to make a decision soon about Jeff Francoeur (Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE)

History appears to be repeating itself with Jeff Francoeur.  If you don’t know this already, Frenchy is another product of the Atlanta Braves system that DM is so fond of.  I think Moore believes so strongly that the Braves talent evaluation process is infallible that he refuses to give up on any product of their system until his reluctance to do the right thing drives the Royals fan base to the brink of insanity.

Jeff Francoeur was a first round pick of the Braves in 2002.  He was relatively successful in the minor leagues, although he never lit the world on fire anywhere he went.  He eventually received a call-up to the majors in 2005, as all first round picks eventually do, whether they deserve it or not.

Francoeur has shown flashes of promise, particularly in his 2007 season when he batted .293 with 105 RBIs.   However, “flash” is a particularly accurate description of Frenchy’s talent.  For example, during a couple of his full seasons in the majors, he has batted .239 in 2008, .249 in 2010, and he strikes out a whopping 118 times per year.  Aside from the fact that he may have the greatest outfield arm of our generation, there is very little to like about Francoeur’s performance.  Yes he has a great attitude, yes he is a clubhouse leader, yes he purchases pizza for the fans in the bleachers, yes he had one respectable recent season in a Royals uniform, yada, yada, yada…  But you know what?  That simply isn’t good enough.

Wil Myers will eventually be the Royals right fielder. Well, someday, right? (Credit: Mindy Haas)

I am sick and dang tired of the Royals settling for mediocrity.  If a player isn’t cutting it, then trade him, demote him, or DFA him – I don’t care what you do and I don’t care how much money you’re paying him, just get him off the field.  Particularly when he’s blocking the path of a young stud like Wil Myers.  I know Wil has struggled since the All Star break, but you might struggle too if you had put up super-human numbers, led the minor leagues in home runs and done everything expected of you to receive your call-up, and then the promotion never came because Dayton Moore’s favorite son inexplicably continues to play every day.

Once upon a time, Dayton Moore made a stand with Kyle Davies.  I don’t think any of us truly understand why he did it, or why he didn’t learn anything from the experience.  It appears that he is making another stand now with Jeff Francoeur.  Except this time, based on the teams’ underwhelming performance and lack of any real direction or focus, it could be Dayton Moore’s last stand.

Jake Odorizzi (Photo Credit: Minda Haas)

Omaha beat Las Vegas in the first game of their four-game series, 7-0. The Storm Chasers had two 3-run innings to go along with a no-hitter watch from Jake Odorizzi. He carried a no-hitter into the 7th inning before a walk and a Jack Cust single with two outs broke it up. Overall, Odorizzi allowed that one hit and two walks over seven innings. He struck out four. Brandon Sisk got into trouble in the 8th inning (two hits) before inducing an inning-ending double play. He cruised through the ninth 1-2-3.

Every starter for Omaha had at least one hit, except Wil Myers and Derrick Robinson. Irving Falu and Johnny Giavotella each collected two hits, while Max Ramirez went 3-for-4.

Wilmington‘s winning streak came to an end in Potomac with a 7-5 loss. The Blue Rocks held a 5-0 lead heading into the 5th inning when the P-Nats scored two runs off Leondy Perez, and another five more in the 6th inning.

The Blue Rocks couldn’t capitalize on ten hits and six P-Nats errors. It didn’t help that they went just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and struck out 13 times.

*Both NW Arkansas and Kane County had off on Tuesday.

Bubba Watch: Bubba Starling went 1-for-4 with a solo homerun and three strikeouts in Burlington’s 8-2 win over Princeton.

Jeremy Guthrie, dominating. Photo Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

That means that in his last three starts, Guthrie has gone 21 innings, given up just three earned runs and allowed only 18 baserunners while striking out 18.

Not bad for a guy the Royals got for Jonathan Sanchez.

Some fun facts about the game:

• Guthrie has thrown 15 straight shutout innings for the Royals. Sanchez has thrown 11.1 innings total for the Rockies in three starts.
• All eight of Guthrie’s strikeouts tonight came on a swing and a miss.
• After two rough starts as a Royal, Guthrie’s ERA has went from 6.68 to 5.75. He has a 4.02 ERA as a Royal. If you could cherry-pick a couple of innings out of those starts (like the third inning against the Twins and first two against the Mariners – and no, of course you can’t, but let’s dream a little), he could have a 1.58 ERA. I know, I know. That’s cheating.
• Tim Collins struck out the side in the eighth inning. He leads the team in relief appearances with three strikeouts or more with eight now.
• Collins also set a new team record for strikeouts in a season by a left-handed reliever with 77.
• David Holtzman from the Royals pointed out that Collins (5’7″), the shortest pitcher in team history, broke a record set by Andrew Sisco (6’10″) in 2005.
• The Royals pitchers struck out 12 batters, the third time they’ve done so in a nine inning game this season.It’s the ninth time they’d struck out 12 overall.
• By shutting out the A’s tonight, the Royals have more team shutouts (9) than the Washington Nationals (7) who lead the majors in team ERA.
• The Royals team ERA was 25th in the league coming into the night.
• Tonight’s was the fourth shutout thrown by the Royals against the A’s.
• The only wins the Royals have against the A’s have been those shutouts. The Royals haven’t won in the three games in which the A’s have scored against them.

What do these facts mean? Not a lot, but Guthrie has been a welcomed addition to the team, especially considering how bad Sanchez was and that the Royals were ready to dump him for nothing in return. Tim Collins has been a solid piece in the bullpen.

Also it’s fun to get a win behind very good pitching. It’s been too rare this season.

Better times. Photo Credit: Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE

Betancourt was signed in the offseason to be a sort of utility player and a right-handed hitting option. The Royals said he’d only play a couple days a week to spell infielders, but after an injury to Chris Getz and with the Royals suspect of Johnny Giavotella‘s abilities, he started through most of June and July.

The Royals cited an unwillingness to accept his role, which had diminished with Chris Getz playing adequate baseball and left Betancourt on the bench more often. Nevermind that his WAR ranked him among the least valuable players in baseball.

That leaves the Royals with Chris Getz assuming the everyday second baseman job right now, and he’s running with it. He’s doing just what he needs to do, and that’s be okay. He’s hitting alright. He’s fielding alright. He’s not hurting anything. He’s the equivalent of oatmeal for breakfast. Sure you’d like the stack of pancakes, the bacon and eggs, but oatmeal, well, it’ll hold you over. My gut is to be upset about his playing time, but he’s effectively inert right now, and given the struggles of other players, Getz doesn’t deserve my complaints.

Now, it’s a waiting game to see when (if?) the Royals will call up Johnny Giavotella. Yes, he’s struggled in the majors so far, but the Royals haven’t committed much energy to finding out if their second round pick from 2008 can adjust and learn at the major league level. Maybe he never pans out, but what do they have to lose right now in the middle of August? I think that if they can give Betancourt TWO stints in Kansas City and can stick with Getz through the first mediocre 700 plate appearances of his Royals career, then they can at least let Giavotella have more than 260 to show that he might be able to handle the job.

Regardless, our best wishes to Betancourt. We’ll always remember the magic grand slam season of 2010, the sideways one-handed popup flubs and the statement “plus hands and plus hands“.

Jul 17, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Ryan Verdugo (62) delivers a pitch in the first inning against the Seattle Mariners at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Omaha completed their four-game sweep at Tuscon on Monday, 5-2. Their magic number to clinch the division is now just five.

One day after picking up 33 hits, the Storm Chasers collected 11 more. Wil Myers, Max Ramirez, and Derrick Robinson each collected two hits. Five different players drove in runs.

Ryan Verdugo picked up the win despite not being great. He allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits and four walks over six innings. He did strike out seven. Donnie Joseph pitched two perfect innings of relief to pick up the save (his best game as a Storm Chaser).

NW Arkansas overcame three errors to beat Frisco in a late comeback, 4-3. The Naturals also went 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position and hit into two double plays.

The Naturals stole six bases. Yem Prades led off and went 3-for-4. Carlo Testa and Michael Liberto each collected two hits.

Justin Marks returned to the rotation for the first time since June 21st (he was on the DL). He lasted just 3.1 innings and 58 pitches. Michael Mariot followed and picked up the win, as he allowed an unearned run (and one of Marks’ runs) on four hits and two walks while striking out four over 4.2 innings.

Wilmington has won four in a row since manager Vance Wilson‘s closed door meeting on Thursday night, as they beat Potomac 4-2 in the first game of the three-game series. Brooks Pounders picked up the victory, as he allowed just an unearned run (in the first inning) on four hits over seven innings. He struck out five.

Things got interesting in the bottom of the 9th inning. The P-Nats had two runs in and runners at second and third base with two outs, but reliever Robinson Yambati picked up a strikeout to end the game.

On offense, the Blue Rocks collected ten hits, but went just 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position. The newest Blue Rock, Nick Van Stratten, went 3-for-3.

Cedar Rapids scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning and cruised to the 5-1 victory over Kane County. The Cougars collected just three hits.

Aaron Brooks dropped to 9-12  on the season. Kellen Moen followed with 2.1 perfect innings of relief while striking out three.

July 8, 2012; Detroit, MI, USA; Kansas City Royals relief pitcher Everett Teaford (61) is one of the pitchers who make up the revolving door known as the Royals starting staff. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE

Apparently, it’s important to strike hitters out without walking that many. Can we check to see if the Royals starters have gotten this memo? MLB.com posted an article yesterday explaining that this year’s strikeout to walk ratio is at its highest since 1884. That’s right 1884, not 1984. Back when Willie Nelson first started owing the IRS a ton of money and Teddy Roosevelt rode a dinosaur during his charge on Hitler’s bunker (I minored in revisionist history).

The SO/BB ratio is super high: 2.42. That means on average pitchers get 2.42 strikeouts for every walk. So, for a game if a pitcher has three walks seven or eight strikeouts. The upturn, seems to reflect a trend in pitching evaluation. Nowadays, with the prominence of statistical analysis, sabermetrics, and an emphasis on peripheral statistics for pitchers, more people are searching for strikeout pitchers, with the hopes of lowering their walk numbers if need be.

I think many people, and I count myself among them, look at the strikeout and the walk as polar opposites (even if they’re really not it’s easiest to understand them as such). A strikeout guarantees the hitter will not get on base (as opposed to a ball in play). A walk guarantees the runner will reach base (again as opposed to a ball in play). What a high SO/BB ratio means is that the pitcher is controlling that game in the positive. What a really low SO/BB ratio means is that the pitcher is also controlling that game in the negative.* If a pitcher has low strikeouts and low walks, they are kind of abdicating control of the game … kind of.

*Please note that I do believe the pitcher controls batted balls to a degree, but let us assume for the moment that he does not.

When I read the article on MLB.com, I wanted to see how the Royals’ pitchers are controlling the game with regards to their SO/BB ratio. As a team, the Royals’ SO-BB ratio is 2.08, which is below league average by a significant amount. A small section of the problem is that the Royals don’t strike that many guys out, 17th in MLB with 808. The big problem is that they walk way to many hitters, fifth most MLB with 388. Part of that was a certain terrible pitcher named Jonathan Sanchez (44 BB in 53 IP), but part of it is the high walk rates of Greg Holland, Tim Collins, Luis Mendoza, and the sometimes starters like Will Smith, Everett Teaford, and Danny Duffy.

Looking at the data, the picture is a little fuzzy but seems to point to the fact that Royals pitchers are not controlling the game in a positive way. Of their current starters, only Bruce Chen and Jeremy Guthrie have a SO-BB ratio better than league average (and they both serve meat balls with high HR/9 and BABIP numbers to prove it). Mendoza, the teams best starter for the last couple months, has a frightening 1.5 SO-BB ratio, but is saved by low HR/9 totals and good ground ball numbers. Smith also has frightening SO-BB numbers at 1.70.

In comparison, the best pitchers in the AL hang out from 3.70-4.00 for their SO-BB ratio: Justin Verlander (4.05), Jered Weaver (3.75), Felix Hernandez (3.70), Chris Sale (3.91). Right now, the Royals have none of these types of pitchers (not even Duffy as he has been so far). Guys like Mendoza, pitchers who keep the ball low and get a lot of weak groundballs, can work as fourth and fifth starters. But to compete at a playoff level, the Royals need pitchers who can be in the 3.70-4.00 range with their SO-BB ration. And those guys can’t be anomalies like Guthrie who are in the zone all the time but only to the hitter’s delight.

Looking down the road, it doesn’t look that much better. Jake Odorizzi’s got a 2.29 SO/BB ratio, which isn’t very good. Again, he strikes out a fair amount but walks too many (gives up too many hits as well). Kyle Smith in Low A has been good at 4.5 SO/BB, but that’s Low A. Yordano Ventura is another pitcher who could use fewer walks; he’s struggled since being called up to AA.

Right now, it looks pretty grim, especially if you believe that the Royals need someone who can serve as an ace, which I do. But we’ll see. Duffy has that potential if he stops walking so many hitters. Kyle’s Smith and Zimmer have that potential I think. But potential can’t play a game. It can’t win a pennant. When it can, the Royals will be set.

*All data from Aug. 11, 2012

Burlington

Outfielder Alex Hudak joined the Royals from the AZL and has been on fire over his first six games. He went 7-for-16 with four doubles, four RBIs, and two runs scored. Bubba Starling has struggled a bit at the plate, as he went 6-for-25 (.240) with a double, a homerun, two runs scored, and four RBIs. He struck out 12 times and broke his strikeout streak on Sunday (six straight games).

Patrick Leonard still leads the Appy League in homeruns with 12 (though there is now a tie). Fred Ford is third with 11 and Kenny Diekroeger and Starling are tied for fourth with eight homeruns. Terrance Gore still leads the league in stolen bases with 27 and has only been caught twice. He also leads the league in runs scored with 41.

John Walter made three appearances this past week and picked up two saves (he now has eight). Two of those appearances (2.1 innings) were perfect. Over 4.1 innings, he allowed one run on two hits while striking out two.

Idaho Falls sits in second base in the second half (9-8), one game back in the South Division of the Pioneer League. The Chukars went 4-2 last week. They begin a seven-game road trip against Billings tonight.

Ethan Chapman continues to be the Chukars top hitter (.325), but struggled last week (5-for-27). Adalberto Mondesi has surged over .300 (.307 to be exact). He went 8-for-22 (.364) last week with five runs scored. Shortstop Nick DelGuidice has also surged over .300 (.308). He went 9-for-19 (.474) with four doubles, a triple, five runs scored, and six RBIs.

2012 draft pick Sam Selman leads the Pioneer League in strikeouts with 62 (compared to just 15 walks). He made one start last week and allowed just one hit and two walks over five scoreless innings. He struck out 11.

Joe Lopez made two appearances for the Chukars last week. He allowed three hits over four shutout innings of relief. He struck out four and did not walk a batter.

The Royals just had a decent road trip but still came away with a loss on Sunday, so the Royalman Report tried to hearken back to better days, then tried to come up with how to bring those good days back.

We talked with our own Kevin Scobee of Kings of Kauffman about the Royals hints about converting some relievers into starters. The conversation led to talking about Luke Hochevar and what’s gone wrong, Kyle Zimmer and what’s going right and what attributes of some relievers work best if they were asked to become starters.

We also talked about Billy Butler‘s power surge in 2012 and marveled at his consistency even in the middle of a breakout. Then we set our sights on Steve Balboni‘s record – and wallowed in the fact that we’re still Royals fans, left behind while other small market teams challenge for playoff spots. Year Six…

Don’t forget the Royalman Report is on every Sunday at 7 and catch our new show, The Kansas City Baseball Vault on ESPN 1510 AM Thursday’s at 6.

You can listen below or download the mp3 directly.

The Royalman Report is hosted by Troy “Royalman” Olsen with co-host Michael Engel and features Chris “Fake Ned Yost” Kamler and 610 Sports blogger Jeff Herr and airs  live Sundays at 7 p.m. central time at RoyalmanReport.com as well as on Livestream.com/RoyalmanReport.

Subscribe via the RSS feed and get updates when new episodes are uploaded.

Stuck in a cubicle, on a road trip, or using your smartphone?  Stitcher is a multi-platform radio app that’s available on Apple products, Droid, Blackberry and other phones.  Find us here on Stitcher.

You can also subscribe via iTunes: JUST CLICK HERE (and iPad, iPhone, iTouch users can get the Livestream app here to watch live or archived shows).

Follow the Royalman Report on Twitter.  While you’re at it, track down Kings of Kauffman on Twitter as well.

Omaha outfielder David Lough courtesy of Minda Haas (Royal Blues)

Omaha blew out one of the worst teams in the Pacific Coast League (Tuscon), 20-3.  The Storm Chasers pounded out 33 hits (that is not a typo) and every starter had at least two hits. The game was over after the third inning when Omaha scored eight runs in the 2nd and seven more in the 3rd. Mitch Maier hit a two-run homerun in the 2nd inning. Wil Myers hit a three-run homerun and David Lough hit a two-run homerun with two outs in the 3rd inning.

Myers (5-for-7 with four runs scored and three RBIs) and Lough (3-for-5 with five RBIs) fell a triple short of the cycle. Clint Robinson fell a homerun short of the cycle (5-for-7 with three runs scored and two RBIs).

The onslaught of offense made a winner of veteran Doug Davis, who allowed three runs on seven hits and a walk over six innings. The Storm Chasers bullpen trio allowed just two hits over the final three innings.

Leading 4-2 heading into the top of the 9th inning, NW Arkansas lost to Frisco, 6-4. The Rough Riders scored four runs on a Chris McGuiness one out grand slam. In the bottom of the 9th inning, the Naturals went down quietly, with three strikeouts.

That blast negated the solid start by Noel Arguelles, who allowed two runs (one earned) on seven hits and five walks while striking out five over seven innings.

The Naturals collected nine hits, with Paulo Orlando and Mario Lisson each picking up three (Lisson hit a homerun).

The Naturals welcomed Justin Marks back from a long DL stint, but placed Yordano Ventura on the DL (he has minor carpal tunnel).

Wilmington beat Salem 5-0, as they swept Salem over their final three-game set. The Blue Rocks rode the arm of Matt Ridings, who did not allow a hit until the 6th inning. He pitched a career-high seven innings and allowed just three hits while striking out three and hitting two batters. He also had good defense behind him, as he induced ten ground ball outs.

Murray Watts and Luis Piterson provided the bulk of the Blue Rocks offense, as both collected two hits, scored a run, and drove in a run (Watts hit a homerun).

For more on Ridings’ outing, check out this article on milb.com.

Kane County pounded out 15 hits, as they beat Cedar Rapids, 9-5. Five Cougars had multi-hit games. The bottom two in their order, Henry Moreno and Kevin David, went a combined 5-for-8 with four runs scored. Moreno hit his first homerun.

All of that offense made a winner of Kyle Smith, who allowed four runs (three earned) on five hits and a walk over five innings. He struck out four.

Bubba Watch: Bubba Starling went 2-for-2 with two walks in Burlington’s 8-0 loss to Bluefield.

July 8, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals former player Mike Sweeney (right) celebrates with George Brett (left) after a home run during the 2012 Legends and Celebrity softball game at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE

Recently, there’s been some discussion on the Kansas City Baseball Vault about these sorts of matters. We’ve discussed what four players would comprise a Royals Mt. Rushmore. Our latest episode considered the case of Joe Randa and others as potential members of the Royals Hall of Fame.

The players who’ve already been elected have solid cases. Ranking them by bWAR makes Cookie Rojas (5.4) the most suspect of Royals Hall of Famers, but he also played during some of the Royals first winning seasons and made four All-Star teams as a Royal.

So what makes a player worthy of his team’s hall of fame? Number help, and someone in the top five all time would be a shoo-in, but what about the fringe cases? What about the group of players who played after George Brett retired? Players like Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye and Carlos Beltran have good numbers in the years when they were Royals, but Dye’s best years were with the White Sox. Damon was a key figure in the Red Sox 2004 World Series season. Beltran hasn’t been in a Royals uniform in nearly a decade. They also played on teams that didn’t win a lot of games and obviously didn’t make a playoff appearance.

Does that discount the efforts of Mike Sweeney, who played in more games as a Royal than Royals Hall of Famers John Mayberry and Freddie Patek? Does never making the playoffs make Randa, who’s seventh all time as a Royal in base hits, an easy no?

Also, does it matter that a player like Randa wasn’t the key player on those teams?

Then, how do you rank someone like David Cone, who only threw 448.1 innings as a Royal but is one of three Royals to win a Cy Young Award?

So many questions.

To me, numbers matter and a player who put up good ones as a Royal should get consideration. To an extent, tenure matters too. A player is better off being more recognizable as a Royal than a member of another team. Mayberry is more known for his strong years as a Royal than those as a Blue Jay.

That makes the cases for Damon, Dye and Beltran pretty tough to make. They had the numbers, but most merely doff their cap at their Royals years, while their time on other teams stand out. What, then, happens if Damon, with over 2700 career base hits, were to make the National Baseball Hall of Fame? Can a team have a player start their career with them, spend years in the organization and on the team and then make the Hall but not their own team’s?

Here are some other cases that interest me:

Charlie Leibrandt spent time in a Royals uniform from 1984 to 1989, accumulating 21.5 WAR in 1257 innings. That’s more WAR than Paul Splittorff, more innings than Steve Busby. Leibrandt also made two strong starts in the 1985 World Series after finishing in the top five of Cy Young voting that season. He was never a star, but was a solid starter in his time.

Mike Sweeney finished his career as a Royal with the same on base percentage as George Brett, though in less than half as many games. Still, in the late-90s and early 2000s, Sweeney was a premier slugger in the AL. After trying to keep his career going with the Mariners, A’s and Phillies, he’s still recognizable as a Royal first. He’s always been active in the community and well-liked. Based on that, he’s the obvious next choice to be inducted, but the teams he played on were rarely any good. Is a good player on a crummy team worthy of such recognition? Probably so, but I’d listen to someone who had a strong argument against it.

Danny Tartabull spent just five years with the Royals but ended with the highest OPS+ of any Royal with significant playing time. He drove in 100 runs three times in those five seasons, surpassing 30 homers twice as well. Does playing on teams where he was overshadowed by Brett and Bo Jackson impact his standing in franchise history? It shouldn’t, but it does.

David DeJesus was solid in his Royals career, but never a star. He never excelled in any offensive category, but simply got on base, hit the ball and played adequate defense. He just happened to stick it out with the Royals long enough to end up in the top ten of multiple offensive categories, but he never made an All-Star game and never considered much of a star, but his ranks within the franchise’s history look impressive relatively. He had more WAR than Damon (though in two more seasons).

What about Mike Macfarlane, a solid catcher and often one of the few power threats in some weak Kansas City lineups? What about Tom Gordon, who is more recognizable as a member of the Red Sox, but who threw more innings than Royals Hall of Famers Jeff Montgomery and Dan Quisenberry (and nearly as much WAR as Busby)? What do you do about Zack Greinke when he retires? He’s probably not signing back with the Royals, but only Kevin Appier, Bret Saberhagen and Mark Gubicza (all of whom had more than 500 innings as Royals) have more pitching WAR than Greinke.

You don’t want to let just anybody in, but at the same time, there could be a huge gap in potential inductees given the lean years since the early-90s. I see some merit in going after Damon, Dye and Beltran, though, because for a time, they comprised the most talented outfield in baseball, gave hope for a resurgence and are always in the minds of Royals fans. They have a lasting impact on the organization, for their on-field contributions as well as their historical significance within team history (even if it’s a painful significance).

That trio and Sweeney should have a spot one of these days.

Just for fun, I made a list of some potential inductees, ranked them by WAR as a Royal and included the amount of time they spent with the team and their number of plate appearances or innings pitched: Players in italics are already inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame.