FtFP: Kila Ka’aihue, John Buck, and some Sluggerrr Snacks

In this edition of From the Fish Pond; some stuff on Kila, the new Monty, and a bunch of other stuff to pass along.

Yesterday’s This Week in Prospects (TWiP) column over on Call to the Pen touched on two Royals, Mike Montgomery and Kila Ka’aihue.  TWiP wasn’t the only place that Kila’s name came up recently.  Marc Hulet (FanGraphs) wrote an article today about how Ka’aihue would fit in with the Mets or Orioles.  Both articles speculate that it wouldn’t take much to pry Kila away from the Royals organization, but I completely disagree with this notion.  Clearly the Royals haven’t given him the chance that he deserves, but if Dayton Moore thought that little of Kila’s ability I think he would have already been dealt at some point in the last season or so.

In Toronto, John Buck mentioned the no-no.

"Buck had just broken one of baseball’s oldest and most-respected taboos. No-hitters are like Fight Club. The first rule: You don’t talk about them in the dugout."

Beyond breaking one of baseball’s golden rules, Buck has been scuffling a bit at the plate.  He’s got 4 doubles and 1 home run in his first 34 plate appearances, but he also has 13 strikeouts to go with only 1 walk.  His slash stats amount to 0.226/.265/.452.  The SLG is solid, and his OPS+ is 92, but that OBP makes Yuniesky Betancourt look like … ah … never mind.

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Some Tasty Sluggerrr Snacks:

• The first Baseball America Prospect Hot Sheet of 2010 was published today and the Royals were well represented.  Lefty Mike Montgomery took the top spot.  1B-Eric Hosmer earned a mention in the In The Team Photo and 1B-Kila Ka’aihue was featured as a Man Among Boys.  Speaking of Montgomery, he is the ace of the Wilmington Blue Rocks rotation which Baseball America recently ranked as the best in the minors.
• Memo to Matthew Clemmens, stay classy.  Memo to everyone who will be quick to judge this moron as representative of all Phillies fans, he’s the exception and not the rule.
• Jose Guillen and Scott Podsednik are the 4th most productive offensive duo thus far this season.  Who knew?
• Speaking of Jose Guillen, many think his early season performance is due, at least in part, to the fact that he is in a contract year.  Turns out the general concept could be more fiction than fact.
• Kris Benson is back as a starter in the majors, at least he will be on Saturday as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Why is this relevant?  Because he beat out former Royals 2nd round pick Billy Buckner.  Dayton flipped Buckner for Alberto Callaspo back in 2007 in what has proven to be an outstanding trade for the Royals.
• Ben Nicholson-Smith takes a look at the business and timing of calling up top prospects.
• Jeff Zimmerman (Beyond the Box Score) gives us a “rant” on the Royals bullpen that is visually pleasing.  (It’s the post that is pleasing, not the Royals bullpen)
• Jeff Parker (Royally Speaking) provides us with historical precedent to Jason Kendall’s hot stretch.  In a nutshell, he’s done this before and of course, it’s not going to last.
• Want more bullpen talk?  Rany’s got us all covered.
• So does Will McDonald of Royals Review with some catchy alliteration in the title to boot.
• Wil Myers loves catching.  How do I know?  Because he said so of course.
• 14 for 77 breaks down the CF prospects in the Royals minor league system.

(Wally Fish is the lead writer for Kings of Kauffman, Call to the Pen and is also FanSided’s MLB Director.  You can keep up to date with all of his work by following him on Facebook, Twitter or by way of the Kings of Kauffman RSS feed.)