Good News, Bad News, #FakeNews: KC Royals Off-day Observations

Bad News

Alex Gordon still can’t hit

The open grousing about Gordon from the fanbase (“He should go to Triple-A! He should move to the bench! He should think about wearing a barrel and selling apples instead of trying to play baseball!”) is ludicrous. He’s on the Mount Rushmore of All-Time Royals. Maybe he’s not the player he once was, but he still shows up, works his tail off and doesn’t complain. Not every team captain would move to the lower part of the order without a little public griping, but Gordon did.

That said, what in the name of Willie Wilson is going on with his bat? At this point, his poor performance has carried on too long to just be an aberration. He’s less of a hitter than he was; where do we go from here?

Ditto Brandon Moss

Gordon’s status as franchise-face, leader and captain will (should?) buy him a little goodwill. Brandon Moss has none of that attached to him, but he’s got many of Gordon’s problems.

Moss has made 103 plate appearances entering Tuesday. He has six home runs, 10 walks and 37 strikeouts. That’s more than half his times at the dish ending in one of the three true outcomes, which would be fine if the high number was walks or homers. With the two Jorge’s coming around, Moss has to be on a short leash moving forward.

Chris Young

Chris Young seems like a very nice man and a fine reliever and probably a real pillar of the community. And if he makes another start for reasons that aren’t, “The scheduled starter was kidnapped by Armenian separatists and the rest of the bullpen got food poisoning at Chipotle,” or “We’ve found the next Bryce Harper and are throwing the season in order to get him,” I can’t be responsible for my actions.