Kansas City Royals Week Two Review: Who’s Hot, Who’s Not

Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

To say that it has been an interesting week for the Kansas City Royals would be an understatement. After starting the season as the last undefeated team in baseball, the Royals lost two consecutive games to the lowly Minnesota Twins before the Oakland A’s turned Billy Butler‘s homecoming into a mission of vengeance. Yes, it was quite the interesting week.

Through it all, the Royals managed to go 3-3 while losing Alex Rios to a fractured left hand and Greg Holland to a strained muscle. Alcides Escobar is day to day due to a late slide from Brett Lawrie, turning the A’s third baseman into Public Enemy Number One for the rest of the weekend, and probably beyond. However, the Royals still managed to persevere with their brand of baseball.

So, as the 2015 Kansas City Royals continue on their quest to take care of their unfinished business from last year, we continue to look through those who, each week, impact those chances, be it positively or negatively. In fact, one does not even need to be a player to have an impact on the Royals chances, either positively or negatively.

And so, let us look through which entities were hot, and which were not, for the second week of the season. Considering the week that the Kansas City Royals just came off, it should prove to be quite the interesting list.

*statistics are as of Sunday night*

Next: Exorcising the demons of the second half

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2. Yohan Pino

After Yordano Ventura was ejected for drilling Brett Lawrie in the elbow on Saturday, it seemed as though the Kansas City Royals bullpen would find themselves overworked this weekend. Then, Yohan Pino, making his Kansas City Royals debut, bit the bullet and put the team on his back.

On a night that coincided with his usual turn in the Omaha rotation, Pino saved the Royals bullpen. He pitched 4.2 shutout innings, allowing only three hits while striking out three. Even though the Royals were unable to get their bats going on Saturday, Pino gave them a chance to come back in the contest.

In all likelihood, baring another injury, Yohan Pino is here until Greg Holland comes back from the disabled list. Pino may make another couple of appearances here or there, likely in a blowout one way or another. Yet, his appearance on Satuday saved a bullpen that was sorely needed on Sunday, as Danny Duffy only lasted five innings. This weekend could have been a disaster.

Instead, Pino made sure that the Kansas City Royals bullpen was saved. It may not resonate on the stat sheet, but he truly helped make the victory on Sunday possible.

Next: The wrath of Cain

Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

1. Lorenzo Cain

What doesn’t Lorenzo Cain do? He tracks down virtually everything in the outfield. He has been driving the ball all around the yard. And, he even helped ignite the already volatile Kansas City Royals relationship with the Oakland A’s again yesterday, after getting hit by Scott Kazmir (more on that later).

When he was able to avoid being hit by hurled spheroids, Cain continued to set the pace as the Royals hottest hitter in the early going of the season. Over the past week, Cain has produced a .435/.481/.652 batting line with two doubles, a home run and two stolen bases. Inserted as the third hitter in the lineup over the first two weeks, Cain has truly been driving the bus for the Royals.

Defensively, it seems as though the Kansas City Royals are cognoscente of why Lorenzo Cain was not nominated for a Gold Glove award last season. Instead of shifting him to right while Rios is out, they have kept Cain in center, where he continues to track down anything not sent into the stratosphere. Perhaps this will be the year he gets his Golden due.

As hot as the Kansas City Royals have been, no one on the team has been hotter than Lorenzo Cain.

Now, let us look at who has been cold over the past week.

Next: Pitching to the score

Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

3. Jeremy Guthrie

It seems that, no matter the situation, Jeremy Guthrie has an innate ability to pitch to the score. In those hard fought low scoring games that the Kansas City Royals had been wont to play in over the past few years, that can be a blessing. However, when the Royals are putting runs on the board, Guthrie’s still pitching to the score.

The downside to that was on display Friday. Victimized by the long ball, and the career day of Stephen Vogt, Guthrie gave up four runs on seven hits in six innings, including three solo home runs. That last one was truly tough, as the Royals had taken a 4-3 lead and had Kelvin Herrera warming in the bullpen at the time.

However, we need to realize that this is exactly what Jeremy Guthrie does. He is the perfect fifth starter, someone that can take the ball every time through the rotation and give the Royals six or more innings. He is very good at what he does, and is a perfect fit at the back of the rotation.

Guthrie will have his excellent games, and his not so great games. This week was one of the latter.

Next: Var-gassed

Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

2. Jason Vargas

Sometimes, a pitcher just does not have anything when they go to the mound. That was the case for Jason Vargas in his second start of the season against the Twins on Thursday.

What had been an essentially dormant Minnesota offense came to life against Vargas in the Kansas City Royals 8-5 loss. In his three innings of work, Vargas allowed five runs on ten hits and a walk. It actually could have been much worse, as Vargas left the game with the bases loaded in the fourth without recording an out, but Jason Frasor escaped further trouble.

This outing was definitely not the norm for Jason Vargas last season, when he slid perfectly in to the Royals rotation after signing as a free agent. As the season goes on, we should once again see the solid middle of the rotation starter that Vargas is, eating innings and saving the Royals bullpen. Unfortunately, this outing is also magnified as it began a streak of four rough, or short, outings for the rotation.

Yet, as bad of an outing as Vargas had, he still did not have the worst performance of the week as far as the Kansas City Royals were concerned.

Next: What were they thinking?

Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

1. The Umpiring Crew during the Royals-A’s series

It appears as though the Kansas City Royals and the Oakland A’s are developing a fairly intense rivalry. What is unfortunate is the way this has come about.

Let us review the steps. Brett Lawrie slid late into second base on a force out, seemingly targeting Alcides Escobar. Fortunately, Escobar only suffered a minor knee injury and is day to day. However, as Lawrie was not ejected for what was obviously an intentional slide, with cleats up, into Escobar, retaliation would be coming.

It came in the form of a Yordano Ventura fastball to the elbow the next afternoon. As Ventura had just given up a home run to Josh Reddick, he was ejected. Warnings should have been issued, but fine. This should have been the end of the situation.

Instead, Scott Kazmir hit Lorenzo Cain with a pitch in the first inning, right after the A’s proclaimed that everything was not over. Kazmir was issued a warning, which prompted an ejection spree as Ned Yost and Dave Eiland were tossed from the game. This likely fueled Kelvin Herrera’s fastball behind Lawrie in the eighth, leading to three more Royals ejections.

The shenanigans on Sunday could have been nipped in the bud if the umpires began the game by warning each dugout. They could have been avoided if something had been done about Kazmir, as unintentional as his hitting of Cain seemed to be. They could have been avoided if Ventura was issued a warning. Instead, we had a terrible throw by Herrera close to someone’s head and the continuation of the bad blood. Just a bad job by the boys in blue all around.

Next: Kansas City Royals: Who's Hot, Who's Not for Week One