I probably wasn't the only who noticed him praising Moose for last nite's game that finally got him over the Medoza line and past Getz in the HR total. Then turning right and mocking the very Orioles pitcher who gave up the hits as not MLB-caliber.

Alright...."End the losing streak rep" has been doled out....WE GOT THIS

normally stay at $50 or less, but I'm feeling confident tonight.....Royals are even money (+100), so I'm going for $100 on the money line

Roch Kubatko ‏@masnRoch 2h
#orioles acquire AAA Omaha 3B Brandon Woods for cash considerations. 1st reported by @Royals_Report

Lineup changed:

Escobar
Cain
Gordon
Butler
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AND HOOTIE FAPS

Call up Gio. Put Dyson in CF.

Call it a lineup.

Funny, on 610 last night after the game someone called in and said that should be our starting 4.

Ned Yost must be listening to 610 after the game? ROFL

Yost floated this lineup to the Star before yesterday's game.

I wish we could only hit those four.....of course the whole "ghost man" thing would have some folks yelling for reparations or something.


Edit:
Wait, no it wouldn't, both of them get to hit.....cool

Works for me.

I still don't think Escobar is an ideal leadoff man, but considering that a lot of the hitters that were being counted on in 4-5-6 spots have struggled so much, it's time to shake it up.

As long as Escobar, Cain, Gordon and Butler are getting the most at-bats, it should work out.

Full lineup:

6 - Escobar
9 - Cain
7 - Gordon
DH - Butler
3 - Hosmer
2 - Perez
5 - Moustakas
4 - Johnson
8 - Dyson

If they're going to focus on speed and defense to play to the K, Elliott Johnson should absolutely be the starter at 2B unless they bring up Gio or trade for someone else.

Johnson is truly a plus defender at 2B and his range is a real benefit/run saver. He also has a plus arm for the position, so he can make plays when ranging up the middle.

Gordon/Dyson/Cain should be a really elite OF defense. Francoeur can play against lefties. And that's about it.

Escobar's approach is not suited to leadoff hitting, imo.

I don't know enough about this player to comment, but there have been two short pop-ups in shallow RF/foul territory, and Johnson has been no where to be found.

Is he getting a bad break on these balls? He's not slow, so where in the **** is he on balls that he clearly has the best chance at?

I still don't like Hosmer and his .333 SLG hitting in the middle of the lineup. Hell, put HIM at leadoff, Esco 2nd, Gordon 3, Butler 4, CAIN 5, etc. I don't care that much about hitting righties back-to-back.

He's scared to death of frenchy's bumbling ass.

When do we see the Hosmer shift with 4 guys standing on the edge of the grass behind short?

I think those have been a combination of bad breaks and positioning at the pitch.

His range on IF ground balls is excellent. I'll take that trade off, I think.

I've been thinking the same thing with Hosmer. I actually thought maybe he should move to the 2 spot. His OBP hasn't been terrible, he's just not hitting for power. And he can steal a base here and there. Put him in front of Butler and Gordon and see what happens.
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For sure. I was wondering if these slight miscues were indications that he's not a particularly instinctive player.

This doesn't seem like a bad plan. My goodness if Hosmer doesn't hit into terrible luck on a consistent basis, though.

I don't know why we can''t call up Lough and give him a shot in RF. Dude handles CF in AAA just fine is 410/517/927 and he can't get a look? If there was ever a guy kicking down the ****ing door it would be him........especially with this organization. He's blocked by Dyson (hitting .250) and Frenchy? That's ****ing insane! We need guys that can hit at their position. The only guys on the big league club that do are Johnson (in his limited chances), Gordon, Cain, Perez, and Escobar. Butler-no.....Moose-no (but lookin better), Hosmer-no, Getz-no, and Frenchy-hell no.

Why the **** Frenchy and Getz are sacred cows I do not understand. This organization can't say they are serious about winning with these two in the starting lineup. Gio has done nothing with his chances when he's gotten them, but Getz is by no means a better option.

Release Frenchy and Getz and get Gio and Lough up. There is no justifying keeping anybody that isn't getting it done with the bat in the lineup for their defense because this "really good defense" is next to last in the AL. Give me some guys that can hit the ball.

THIS. When I've been able to see the games, Hos doesn't get many hits, but he hits the ball HARD. That's got to pay off at some point.

Well I know baseball so...duh.

I'd swap Moose and Hos and keep Elliot and Dyson in there for a bit. An on fire Moose will give Billy some protection.

Hosmer is waiting to explode offensively. It has to happen.

Pitchers HATE facing Eric. They know that the next ball has a very strong possiblity of being rocketed back at their feet.

Time to break this losing streak

How does Butler not hit his position?

I heard Mike Boddicker on 810 the other morning and he was talking about Hos, said with his stance right now he can ONLY hit it to left, and without power. He said if he keeps that up he won't hit more than 2 homers this year.

He also said it's something that's easily fixed, like in three days.

Dutton thinks they're just trying to get Hos to make consistent contact before they let him open his hips and pull the ball. I hope that's the plan. I hope it's not simply to keep his avg afloat with singles to left to buoy his confidence. At some point, for the team's sake, he has to hit with power.

I mean, look at his spray charts this year. He hit 19 homers his rookie year, and even in a bad year last year he hit 14. This year ... zip so far, hardly any long flyball outs either.

For the team to succeed, he's got to hit 20-25, IMO. If not that, at worst he'd have to hit .300 with 40-50 doubles. But a .275 singles hitter? Won't cut it.

HEY LOOK AT ME! YEAH, ME. GIVE ME ATTENTION. ERIC HOSMER SUCKS LOL.

Hopefully Gordon produces in the 3 spot. He hasn't in the past though.

is it wrong that I'm starting to get a Mark Teahen vibe from Hosmer? Maybe everyone was wrong and hes basically just a slap hitter with average power?
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I was surprised to find his stats were really similar in the 1 and 3 last year.
Batting 1: .379/.466/.845
Batting 3: .356/.462/.818

2011 is a different story though.

I'm fine with this. I would have put Gordon #1 or #2, but it is more important to me that we have Gordon, Escobar, AND Cain at the top, in some order.

I'm getting concerned about Hosmer. His power just inexplicably disappeared.

At least with Moose we always knew he had power, he wasn't great in 2012 but still slugged over .400 unlike Hosmer. Then this year the Royals identified a specific problem, followed by Moose rocking and rolling after working on said problem.

Whenever the Royals claim to have identified a problem, I cannot help but roll my eyes.

Its kinda hard to argue against it, unless you have some pre-determined desire to always call BS on that.

Its not like the Royals engaged in revisionist history, they called their shot, a lot of people said "yeah right" or "we'll see" and boom, Moose goes off. Moose struggled for quite a while, so it'd be a hell of a coincidence.

With this isolated example, yes.

How many times, however, has Hoch been "fixed"?

Hosmer IMO just needs time. He is only 23. Pro players don't hit their prime until 27. Gordon is a classic example of this. Just let him keeping hitting and it will eventually click.

Travis Lee is also a valid comparison if Hosmer's power never comes back.

ROFL

I like this.

I took an awful large amount of shit for this lineup and now suddenly everyone is on board...

I see.

And here we go.

If we are bumping Gordon out of the leadoff spot, he must be used to protect Billy, IMO.

Putting Butler/Gordon/Cain makes it much more difficult to pitch around either of our key bats. However, Esky in the leadoff spot is not a good call. He doesn't see enough pitches and only gets on base via hits.

He can't help it. It's his Diva personality.

Putting Butler BEFORE Gordon is ****ing stupid. Butler is slow as hell and will clog the bases and we won't score nearly as many runs.

So, is tonight game #4 of this season's inevitable 12 game losing streak / death march?

Ah, we have had this argument last year. Don't think you were the first to suggest it

You would rather the opposing pitcher not even have to worry about facing Butler? :shake:

I was hoping Ned would DH for Frenchy and let the pitchers bat

I care more about moving Cain, arguably our hottest hitter right now, to the 2 spot than moving Gordon to the 3rd spot. I like maximizing Cain's AB's.

Your reasoning (driving in runs) is still wrong.

If the new lineup means Cain gets more AB, its an improvement.

^ This :thumb:

Hochevar just needs more time. We have identified a flaw in his delivery.

COOL. You notice it on tape again Ned?

I gave you no shit.

Disagree. The object of the game is to score runs. You load your lineup so that the guys who get on base hit in front of the guys with the highest .OPS

Your highest .OPS guys need to be at 3 and 4

No shits were given by me.

Having more AB >>>> the very small benefit of having Cain and Escobar in front of him. Gordon won at least one game, precisely because he was at the top of the order and got the extra AB, and last night he would have been up as the potential game-winner with a man on base without the double play.

I'll sacrifice a few Gordon AB to get Cain up there more, if thats the furthest Yost is willing to go.

Escobar's OBP is hovering around .300, which isn't good enough for the lead-off spot. Ultimately, I think the Royals absolutely need to get Cain, Gordon, and Butler up in the first inning.

Still think Butler would be just fine in the two hole, too.

A little Country Breakfast.

<a href="http://s2.photobucket.com/user/doomy3/media/Billy.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/doomy3/Billy.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Billy.jpg"/></a>

What's with the Mr. T starter kit?

I am very happy that the Royals are a half game back tonight. The next 7 days will be tough; we have the Yankees and Angels while they have the Indians and Astros.

Is it just me or do players not steal bases like they used to 20-30 years ago?

Seems guys like Willie Wilson, Vince Coleman and Henderson used to steal like 80-100 a year.

I think it has to do with more of catchers these days today has a very strong arm than they did in the past, but I'm just speculating.

The umpires in the Angels @ Houston game just completely jacked up the rules.

In the 7th inning, Houston puts in a relief pitcher. Angels put in a pinch hitter in response. In response to that, Houston relieves the pitcher.

You can't do that. That is not an obscure rule, it is basic umpiring 101, and it is amazing that these MLB-level umpires screwed that rule up.

A relief pitcher must face one batter before being relieved, unless he's hurt. The game is currently being played under protest. The Angels just scored 3 in the 8th to take the lead so it might end up being no harm, no foul, but if Houston comes back to win, things are gonna get interesting. This was not a "judgment call" like that homer in the A's game, its a clear, blatant screw-up of the rules.

Escobar is 0-5 from the lead off spot, so far...

ROFL

Direct quote from the Angels manager to the umpires immediately before he filed the protest: "you gotta be shitting me"

Umps make mistakes all the time... but it's amazing we've had two of the more obvious screw ups in recent history on back to back nights.

ok, bottom of the 9th. Rooting hard for the Astros to score 2 runs here, I wanna see the hilarity of an upheld protest.

bah, Astros meekly went down 1-2-3, thats no fun.

I don't know if it's more disturbing that the umps missed it or a major league manager didn't know that was a rule.

The odd thing was that while the first reliever was making his warmup tosses and after the pinch-hitter went to the on-deck circle, the Houston manager went out and talked to the umpires for a long time. I don't know what in the world he said to convince them to ignore the rules, but when the umpires allowed him to bring in another reliever, then the Angels manager came out and had a long argument.

So, the umpires have some kind of explanation, but I don't see what it could possibly be. Once you start making your warm-up tosses, you are in the game.

could have the dude fake an injury.

How many times do they get to play the ****ing Astros?!?!

Insert long winded and overly worded Joe Torre statement that kinda sorta admits fault but does not offer any sort of definitive statement on preventing such a mishap in the future.

On Baseball tonight they had the Astros manager being interviewed and said he was in the rules committee last year and said that they changed the rule. It's not in the rulebook from what the guys on BT said so IDK what he was talking about. It'll be interesting to see how MLB handles this. The rule hasn't been changed, but the Astros manager said that it was last year.

How do the MLB playoffs work? Is it like the NFL where the winner of each division automatically gets a place, and the next two best seeds (in each conference) then get a spot too? Or is it a different way of deciding which teams make it to the playoffs?

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/
the Angels are 12-22 (and broke)