Many people have questioned Trey’s usage of the bullpen, but what he did against the White Sox was downright idiotic.  The case study for my assessment is John Bale.  You will recall that Bale missed spring training and the beginning of the season due to thyroid surgery.  Bale’s rehab assignment consisted of 6 appearances and 6.2 innings of work in double-A for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.  It was reported that he would make 5-6 appearances for Triple-A Omaha before being added to the Royals roster on June 3rd.  He was instead brought to the Royals early without making an appearance in Omaha.  I have no problem with Bale being added to the Royals roster when Tejeda went on the DL and Hochevar was sent back down to stay on regular rest.  Since the rest of the pen was in tatters, adding Bale and Colon to the team made sense.  What happened this weekend, however, will probably never make sense to me.

Friday night John Bale made his 2nd appearance of the year for the Royals.  In mop-up duty with the game already lost, he pitched 1 scoreless inning without issuing a walk or giving up a hit.  Considering he had pitched 6.2 IP in double-A and 2.1 innings in the majors, his Friday night appearance should have been the end of his workload for a few days.

Saturday night rolled around and Bale entered the game with a 3-2 lead having pitched the night before.  The results were predictable; Bale left the game with the score tied 3-3.  He pitched 1.0 inning and allowed 2 hits, 2 walks and 1 run.  For any normal ML manager the story would end there, but not for Trey Hillman and not this season.

Sunday John Bale inexplicably entered the game for a third straight game.  Again the results were predictable.  Bale failed to record an out, gave up 1 hit, 1 walk, and 2 runs.  The Royals lost the game and I have lost all faith in Trey.

Instead of turning to Bale, Hillman had other options including Kyle Farnsworth, Ron Mahay, or Sidney Ponson.  All three had only made one appearance in the series.  Also available was Roman Colon who did not pitch a single game in the series despite pitching 2.1 scoreless innings earlier in the week.  Sidney Ponson isn’t really an option and his fate would have been the same as Bale’s on this day, but at least they wouldn’t have risked overworking an injury-prone pitcher who they need to stay healthy under the present circumstances.  Horacio Ramirez remains on the roster but hasn’t pitched since Wednesday when he threw 2 pitches to one batter.  I don’t know what is going on with him.  I admittedly haven’t spend a lot of time figuring it out since it is Ho-Ram, so I am going to assume he was unavailable.

Hillman’s questionable decision-making in the White Sox series didn’t end with just John Bale.  With Coco Crisp sidelined with his sore shoulder, Hillman inexplicably turned to Willie Bloomquist to be his leadoff hitter instead of turning to David DeJesus.  After this weekend series in which he went 2-11 with a walk, Willie Bloomquist has a grand total of 35 plate appearances batting leadoff for his career.  In those 35 PA he is 6-33 with 2 walks for a .182 BA.  Incidentally Bloomquist’s best BA in the lineup is hitting 2nd.  If Hillman had batted DeJesus leadoff, he could have batted Bloomquist 2nd and both would have been hitting in the spots where they have had the most success throughout their careers.  It makes so much sense that someone should have staged an intervention with Trey before he turned in the first lineup card of the series on Friday.  It drives me even more nuts considering that when Coco Crisp was given a day off earlier in the season it was DeJesus who was penciled in at leadoff.

The only thing I am certain of after this weekend is that Trey Hillman will not be the manager of this team when it is legitimately competing for a division title.  If all goes well, he will be fired by the end of the year or during the upcoming offseason and we can all move on.

SS-Mike Aviles was placed on the 15-day DL due to his strained right forearm.  Not sure why this wasn’t done originally if Aviles really is hurt.  As someone commented on a message board, he was most likely placed on the DL due to “suckitis” which is consistent with my own feelings on the situation.  In reality I think he is heading to Arizona to rediscover his swing and rebuild his confidence.  Based on the other options the Royals have at SS, he better find his stroke if they are going to stay in the divisional race.  In his absence we will probably be subjected to the dreadful defensive stylings of Willie Bloomquist or the light bat of Luis Hernandez.

RHP-Robinson Tejeda was placed on the 15-day DL with tendinitis of his right rotator cuff.  Tejeda has been a pleasant surprise for the Royals this year and has been the primary strikeout force in the bullpen.  In 17.0 innings this year, Tejeda has a 2.65 ERA, 1.53 WHIP, and 12.18 SO/9.  His absence will be a major blow to an already exhausted and fading bullpen.

LHP-John Bale was recalled from Triple-A Omaha to fill one of the holes on the pitching staff.  They had planned on giving him 4 or 5 outings at Triple-A before activating him on June 3rd when his 30 day rehab assignment was over.  Circumstance obviously altered the Royals plans.  Bale made his 2009 debut on Sunday pitching 1.1 clean innings of baseball with 2 strikeouts in the process.  When he has been healthy the last 2 years he has been an effective member of the Royals pitching staff.  His presence can only help stabilize the bullpen.

The Royals also recalled RHP-Roman Colon from Triple-A Omaha to give the bullpen yet another fresh arm.  During Spring Training Colon pitched 14.0 innings with a 4.50 ERA, 1.64 WHIP, and 3.25 SO/BB.  For the Omaha Royals he had pitched 25.1 innings with a 2.84 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, and 3.25 SO/BB.  Colon has logged 127.0 career major league innings with Atlanta and Detroit from 2004-2006.  He has a career 5.03 ERA, 1.49 WHIP, and 2.02 SO/BB. If he pitches well he can certainly earn a season-long spot in the bullpen.

IF-Tug Hulett was also recalled from Omaha to take the roster spot of Mike Aviles.  In Triple-A, Hulett has played 2B, 3B and SS so he gives the Royals even more positional flexibility.  The Royals have been playing him primarily at 2B this season, but in 2008 he played over half of his game at SS while in the Mariners organization.  Statistically his best defensive position is at SS.  At the time of his call up yesterday Hulett was hitting .296/.381/.461 in 178 AB.  His 2009 minor league numbers are in line with his career numbers of .284/.393/.412 in 2111 minor league ABs.  I hope they give Tug a shot at playing SS with the end result of keeping Willie Bloomquist in the role of super utility player, but I’m sure we are going to see a whole lot of Willie at SS instead.