Interesting fact. The Royals so far, in their 23 games, are 2-6 in one run games. Does that seem absurd to anyone else?

Those are the games the managers have the most affect on

Have the Royals set the single-season record for bunt attempts yet?

Which is almost none

:facepalm:

How about those are the games where you need someone to get a timely hit. Name anyone #1-9 and it hasn't happened. Ned can't bat for these turds.

I guess this is as good a place to put this rant as any...

The whole "one run games" stat drives me nuts, because I don't think it's telling of much. How many times is a team down by one run and wins by just one? Quite a few I'd guess, but the one run game stat doesn't take into account being down (or up) by one run, and then adding 2-3 more runs to that. Down by one, score three... But you don't get the credit for winning a "one run game."
I don't know, just seems off to me.

Amen. Our Manager could be Dick Howser, and we aren't going to win that or any game like that until we get some clutch hitting. 13 men reached base last night and we got 2 ****ing runs! That's ****ing pathetic and has nothing to do with the Manager. It does however speak volumes to how shitty and ineffective this lineup continues to be. Hot Garbage.

Absurd in the fact that over 33% of our games are decided by one run? Then yes.

The fact we've only won 2 of those. No. This team can't hit.

The amount of one run games explains more about the low-scoring affairs our offense\pitching put together in tandem.


It's really quite simple.

If you have a bunch of 3-2, 2-1, and 4-3 games... your pitching is doing the job... the other is not. Regardless of the outcome.

Its a good measure of luck. The expected record of 1-run games, whether you are a good team or a bad team, is about .500. (What seperates the good teams from the bad teams are blowouts)

If you win 93 games while going 29-9 in 1-run games (*cough* 2012 Orioles *cough*), then you benefit from an extraordinary amount of luck.

Yes, and you can't expect the bullpen to NEVER give up a run late in games. It will happen even for good bullpens. If you can't even score a run from the 7th inning on, your chances to win aren't good at all.

I'd like to see Al North with the game thread today.

I'm not gonna be home, I'll be in the car for most of the game today.

Damn bro. This team needs you now!

I got it covered.

xoxo

Butler Gordon Hosmer: 1 home run. TOTAL. It's almost May. I've never seen bigger pussies in my life.

Pretty much this. They can't keep this shit up......can they?

Well, they've been maintaining this course for 23 games- yes it's entirely possible to continue.

This entire team (save Esky) has fallen so far off the ledge offensively, that it's almost scary.

It's time for DM to call Butler and Gordon into his office and tear them new assholes for what they've become. It's just embarrassing how pathetic they both are. Punchless pussies at the plate. There is absolutely no reason these guys should've turned out like this. Not at their ages.

At least Gordon isn't an embarrassment at the plate like Butler has been. Not only that, but Gordon's D has been awesome. Butler? His only job is to hit and he ****ing sucks at it.

Agreed. Gordon and Butler are completely different conversations.

Gordon has been worth at least 2 wins already.

Butler's only job is plate production, and he's been absolutely insufferable to watch.

YUP....which is the reason why this team won't make the postseason.

You can't have that kind of production from your 3 supposedly best hitters.

Moose may crack 20HR's this season, but his BA is still going to be shit unless he starts getting hot.

To have horrible production coming from your corners is going to anchor this team down from reaching their potential.

These guys are nothing but hyped up AAA minor leaguers that can't cut it consistently in the big leagues.

*Butler should be a 30-35HR/90-100RBI hitter. You're getting paid to hit the ball over the fence and move runners around to score.

*Hosmer,Moose,Gordon should all be avg 20-25HR 70RBI, there's no reason or excuse why they shouldn't be able to produce these kinds of numbers at this point in their careers.

*Salvador Perez should be able to tease the 20HR mark, but he's a badass catcher that goes through much more wear and tear through the games/season so he gets a pass IMO.

*Cain/Aoki/Dyson/Escobar's jobs are to get on base, rattle the pitchers by being able to steal and advance, allowing the others to hit them home.

More concerning is how infrequent Butler & Gordon even hit the ball hard. Gordon had a long double today, but it's become such a rarity for him to even hit a ball into the gap. His power was prodigious as a prospect and even his first couple years he'd hit some really long HR. Now? He's a slap hitting Rusty Greer clone. He tried to cut his swing down and go more opposite field to reduce his Ks but guess what? He's still striking out 140x/yr. Only now there's no power to go with it.


Butler isn't even worth talking about anymore.

Butler is definitely worth talking about, because he is the epitome of the problem. It's the entire team... At what point does Pedro Grifol's philosophy and teachings begin to take criticism? Because these aren't just slumps for a couple of players... These are multi-season production voids from players that have had historical success. Half a season of productivity with Hosmer does not offset the sweeping failure from the rest.

Watching BBTN before the Angels/Yanks game since there isn't shit on made me wonder when the last time the Royals played baseball on ESPN was, if ever.

Opening day 2012 vs the Angels

Albert Pujols' first game in Anaheim.

I don't think we were the reason we were on ESPN. But we do have one national game on FOX this year and two games on Fox Sports 1 I believe.

It's worth examining what the future really holds for these 2. If we look at their comps on Baseball Reference, we see they all fell off the cliff after age 30. Alex' best comp is Jeffrey Hammonds (4th overall out of Stanford vs. Alex 2nd OVerall, , 3rd rated prospect in BB America vs. Alex at 2), good but not great career). Ray Lankford, Eric Byrnes, Ivan Calderon etc all fell off the map shortly after turning 30. Alex is 30 now making $10m. He makes $12.5m in 2014 with the same $ option for 2016. Like his comparables his physical play in LF is taking a toll on him. His 2016 option will not be picked up.


Butler is tougher. Olerud, Kruk, Loney, Hrbek, Baines. Very disparate comps so nothing to glean there. I think you can just look at him last year and so far this year and realize he's not ever getting back to 2012 form. He may be finished. He will not turn out to be our Edgar Martinez.

I was trying to day-dream ways that we might address this team's utter lack of power once the trade window opens up, and I was sort of at a loss.

Do we get a 4th OF type with some pop and start DHing him?

Might be prudent, especially considering Cain will probably break again. Play Aoki in CF and put the power bat in RF.

Good with this.

And not that he would have been an answer to our power problems, but we never should have let David Lough be traded.

Idk, Valencia probably going to be more useful in the end.

Gets me frustrated when I think about it, man. 1B, 3B, LF, RF, DH have to provide some pop. 5 total HRs from those players near the end of April. So ****ing bad. SOOOOOO ****ing bad.

Probably true, especially if Ned insists on going on with no extra middle infielder.

Can Aoki cover CF?

I'm fairly certain he has done it before.

I said in another thread, I would DH Perez once a week there. Give him a break from squating an extra day. Maybe on Chens starts. No reason for him to catch Chen.

ROFL

I would think it would be smart if we did rest him and pair a pitcher to our backup to primarily catch them. He could DH from time to time too...

I wanna see Salvy at 3B. Dude could crush with that arm and agility.

At this point the Royals need to be projecting these kinds of #'s (listed below). This is what they SHOULD be doing, and what we all expect from them. The only problem is, they're not who we all thought they were.


* This team should be hitting anywhere from 160-170 HRs a season, which would rank them approx 10th-15th (based on last season's ML team stats). For the past 20 years, Royals are always in the bottom 5 of this category...people need to stop blaming Kauffman Stadium for this.

* This team should be hitting around a collective .270-.280BA, which would rank them in the top5 (based on last season's ML team stats). Last season they were top 10 (9th), batting a collective .260, so there's no reason why this stat can't improve.

Folks, with our pitching staff, this is a WS team if our guys would be able to produce these kind of numbers:


1.RF-Aoki .285BA 7HR 55RBI 85R 15SB
2.2B-Infante .300BA 10HR 55RBI 65R
3.1B-Hosmer .290BA 25HR 85RBI 15SB
4.DH-Butler .300BA 35HR 105RBI
5.3B-Moustakas .285BA 25HR 80RBI
6.LF-Gordon .285BA 25HR 85RBI 15SB
7.C-Perez .290BA 20HR 80RBI
8.CF-Cain .265BA 10HR 55RBI 20SB
-->OF/PR-Dyson .260BA 40SB**
9.SS-Escobar .270BA 5HR 60RBI 40SB**

**Anytime when either Escobar or Dyson are on 1B with no one on 2B, with a RHP on the mound, these guys need to be stealing.

So if everyone achieves career highs in every category, this team turns into a WS team. Great insight.

Butler hitting 35 HRs. ROFL

In two and a half seasons, maybe.

So much :facepalm:

Not only is Butler not a 35 HR hitter, he never has been and he never will be.
No shit our team would be a WS team with a team that produced those kind of numbers, but our team isn't that team and if you're dreaming of them being that team then you should stop watching the 2014 Royals because you're going to be severely disappointed.

I know this will probably sound like a typical high school baseball player's opinion but my favorite player has to be either Bryce Harper, that being said, Jose Fernandez probably shares it to... Two opposing reason too. Bryce brings attitude and Jose Fernandez brings a crazy ridiculous work ethic.

But none of this really matters because Ventura, Salvy, Hosmer, Gordo, Infante, and Esky is in front of both, in that order.


random thoughts of the night btw ;)

No...just saying everybody on this team is underachieving. There isn't any reason why this team shouldn't have 5 players hitting over 20 HR's.

And it isn't career high in each category...these are reasonable goals

That's 6 more than what he hit in 2012.

I'll agree that Butler needs to be cut, traded, whatever...at least needs to be removed from the 4 spot. But he's paid to hit HR's and move people around the bases and drive runs in. That's all a DH is supposed to do. He's not doing that this yr for whatever reason.

But all of these guys where hot commodities coming out of the minors. Yet NONE of them have lived up to their potential....except Perez and at times Gordon, but he should be hitting for more power.

Moose and Hosmer (and this yr Butler) are killing this team offensively.

Gordon, Moose, Perez....

At this rate, Butler will be lucky to have 35 hits, let alone 35 HR's.

Right now I would settle for 3 HR's

No way do I think he reaches 35 HRs. Maybe, maybe break 20. He really needs to be gonzo after this year, he's wasting a very valuable roster spot.

I've said to trade him for the last few years and took a lot of heat for it. At this point I don't care of you platoon the DH spot with Valencia\Maxwell\Moose\Dyson\Cain, depending on who is playing and what not.

Butler right now is absolutely worthless. He had 1 good hit the other night where he "almost" hit a HR. We have enough "almosts" with Hos and Perez. Butler needs to be getting balls over the wall.

jfc we have a lot of ppl in this thread who can't read.

They can hit. They just can't hit when it matters (i.e. RISP)

I'll ask you be put back in the red for that reeruned signature picture.

I love the game of baseball. I love those who contribute to the great sport and respect the good in people. Jeter has been more then sensational for the game of baseball, his work ethic and his attitude towards the game is really something to advertise to the youth in the game. Although I'm not a fan of the Yankees as an organization, doesn't mean I can't respect those who made the game of baseball enjoyable for all of America.

Jesus, save the sob story kid.

My father taught me that you can like anyone but a Yankee.....or a Yankee fan.

Yeah, get that Yankee bullshit out of here, dude.

Different perspective on things, it's cool.

Add Cardinal to that list and everyone around here should agree.

loathe the Cards.

Good call....not!

I'm giving you the perspective, kid. It's ok to hate things.

Royals should've signed Cruz and left Gordon at leadoff, since he's doing that anyway

How do you feel about "the game of baseball," though?

The Cardinals.

Is Ned going to skip Chens start with today off?

I hope so.

You guys don't hate the Cardinals and Yankees. You're jealous of them.

:popcorn:

I don't hate either of the teams. Their fans annoy the crap out of me. Same with the Red Sox. (no offense MIAdragon)

I think the biggest problem with the lack of power is that the Royals' swings are so geared for the outside part of the plate, everyone seems to have lost the ability to hit the inside pitch.

Turning on inside pitches is the easiest way to drive the ball out of the yard.

We saw this yesterday with Hosmer... he drove that ball to the wall that Jones made the nice running catch on. It was a pitch right down central, and he got jammed by it a little bit.

I don't think it's as simple a problem as Pedro Grifol, though. It's becoming more and more clear that - just like with the pitching instruction guys were receiving - something was broken in the minor league system's hitting instruction (not surprising, considering that dumbass Jack Maloof was and still is involved at that level).

Moore had to make some changes with the pitching instruction when guys like Montgomery, Duffy, Dwyer, etc. started stalling at AA and above. It's probably past time to make a change with the hitting instruction, too.

Gordon, Hosmer and Moustakas especially were all the premium power-hitting prospects in their respective drafts. Somewhere along the way, they have lost that. Could it be all three guys just "busting" to a certain degree? Sure, it could. But when you're 0-3 on guys with that type of power as draft picks (and whose power still flashes in game action), clearly something is wrong.

Also: All of this shifting that teams are now doing is going to hurt teams that rely on balanced approaches/contact hitting/up-the-middle approaches more than anything else.

The speed and defense and contact game are going to be minimized with all these shifts. Can the Royals adjust?

It's an amazing deal that we've come this far and still at .500. Something needs to switch mentally or mechanically soon if we want to make something out of this season... We can't live off of 4 HRs a week for the whole year.

Where - LMAO - did you come up with these numbers?

Well, in Gordon's case, he seems like he's wanting to pull everything. Pitchers have been going on the outside half of the plate, and he's been breaking a lot of bats and rolling over on it and hitting slow rollers to 2nd. Hosmer's swing seems geared towards the middle of the field/opposite field. It's quicker than it was earlier in the season, but he's not getting any backspin when he makes contact.

As for Moustakas, he's the only one really showing any power at all, and almost all of it pull power. He looks like he's trying to make an effort to go to left field, but he doesn't strike me as the type who can just flare liners in that area. He needs to shoot for the left field gap. But the whole line-up seems to have the "opposite field" mind-set, and that's flawed as pitchers will tear you apart on the inside half of the plate. Aoki's finding that out right now.

Agree 100% with all this. Whatever it is, it's mind boggling.


Will Myers seems to be having a sophomore slump as well....

I grew up a Cardinals fan as did my dad. These days I'm a Royals fan, mostly because of this board and the guys here. I'm just not a hardcore baseball fan.

At any rate, I was poking fun...

:Poke:

Ouch.

Dude.

I irrationally hate your Sox, going all the way back to LaRussa and Hoyt and Dotson (although Prickzynski being gone is a point in your favor), but the Scott Carroll story from yesterday is ****in' win, completely.

<iframe src="http://player.theplatform.com/p/VHZQDC/white-sox/embed/select/P7p_vpAOOq1f" width="480" height="270" frameborder="0" seamless="seamless" allowfullscreen>Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe>

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-bi...010923773.html

Maybe you'll get in trouble for this shit being here instead of me. Heh.

One point that isn't being mentioned: management's acceptance of it. When they are allowed to swing wet noodles up there, it's tolerated and they keep playing. I'd start sending messages to these pricks that if they don't start driving the ball (like our damn 2B can even do), they're sitting. Period. I'd start by taking away some of Fatty's ABs beginning this weekend.

Just tell them. Tell them it's not acceptable, and tell them they'll start losing playing time if it doesn't change.

You are just a glutton for punishment.

Gordon has broken twice as many bats as anyone in the history of the game because of his popeye forarms. At this point our MO is just going to be to scrap runs together. No one is good enough to drive the ball let alone turn on one and yank it out.