SB Nation - Willie Bloomquist

Who Was Your Least Favorite Royal of 2009?

royalsreview — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:37:10 -0000

More photos » by Lori Shepler - AP

7 months ago: Kansas City Royals right fielder Jose Guillen can't catch the ball as Los Angeles Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick (47) hits an inside-the-park home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, May 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Lori Shepler)

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Despite Zack Greinke's greatness, nobody really liked the 2009 Royals. Dayton made a number of bizarre signings during the off-season, then responded with even stranger ones in-season.

So who was your least favorite Royal of 2009?

The Nominees:

Kyle Farnsworth: A brilliant symbol of both Dayton Moore and Trey Hillman's weaknesses. Signed to a 2 year/$9 million dollar contract in the off-season that everyone hated. Was inexplicably named the setup-man/8th inning guy on Opening Day Eve by Hillman. Everyone thought this was insane. Farnsy gave up game-losing bomb the next day. Hey continued to fail until he was demoted, then he went on a long scoreless innings streak. Farnsworth ended up posting his lowest HR/9 numbers in ages, and still was below average.

Mike Jacobs: Jacobs didn't replicate his career year, another stroke of terrible luck to befall Dayton Moore. Gloriously managed a sub-.300 OBP. Could not handle the easiest position on the field. Frequently swung hard. Chewed gigantic amounts of tobacco while at the plate.

Jose Guillen: Ended the debate about his suckitude by achieving near perfect negative value. Hit .242/.314/.367 with absolutely horrific defense. Showed tremendous ability to turn fly ball outs into home runs for the other team. Has potential to unknowingly play a key role in the next game-fixing scandal. Hated by half the teams in the game. Contract is among worst in professional sports. Bonus status as the captain of Dayton's Awful Ex-Mariners Team.

Josh Anderson: Acquired by Dayton Moore in July for no apparent reason. Anderson had not hit before and he did not hit as a Royal, posting a .237/.268/.288. (Let's be fair, he has the ability to post a .280 OBP in full-time action.) Was a favorite late-game toy of Hillman. Does not appear to have blood.

Yuniesky Betancourt: Mysteriously picked up by Dayton Moore mid-season. Has no apparent strengths as a player. Has bizarre name. Costs much more than the minimum salary. Played key role in letting fans know that team is run by people who are ... ah, what's the point?

Willie Bloomquist: St. Willie turned in the greatest .265/.308/.355 season by a guy without a position in history. This was the Dayton Moore move that "worked" and .308 OBP, in Royalsville, is nothing to sneeze at.

Ryan Freel: Owning a .140/.275/.140 line with the Orioles & Cubs, Freel was acquired by Moore leading up to the trade deadline. Absolutely tore the cover off the ball as a Royal (.244/.306/.289) and told many fantastic stories about how he avoided the Vietnam War.

Jamey Wright: Could not sustain 0.00 ERA through first five minutes as a Royal, in more bad luck. Although quickly earning trusted status in Hillman's bullpen, posted a 4.90 ERA in next 57 games. Appeared in tie games constantly (13). Actually, he just appeared constantly.

Tony Pena Jr: Took epic failure of 2008 to a new level in 2009, posting an incredible .098/.132/.118 line. Played crucial role in delivering the Yuni-Bomb to Kansas City. Amazing shift to a pitching career, a move straight out of a message board if there ever was one, hurts his hate-ability however.

Sidney Ponson: Provided Royals with valuable depth in 2009: you can never have enough bad pitchers. Poison pill contract and fate led to him starting the 2009 Home Opener, the opening of the newly renovated K. Against the Yankees. Surprised fans with better than expected 7.36 ERA.

Horacio Ramirez: Ho-Ram's ex-Brave, ex-Mariner, ex-mildly surprising 2008 move that sorta worked out status, earned him another contract and $1.8 million from Dayton Moore. Sucked from the beginning and was gone by early June. He'll be back.

Free Agent Profile: Miguel Tejada

davoag — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:00:13 -0000

by Alex Brandon - AP

The market for Tejada will be tough to ascertain.

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Lots to talk about since the last time we looked at the free agency market. In this profile of what kind of deal Miguel Tejada may get, I thought it prudent to look at two important facts. First, how much will the Astros have available to spend?

If, as Wade said, the Astros will reduce payroll in 2010, that means their number will be lower than the 102 million they spent on Opening Day 2009. How much less is up for debate. After arbitration raises to Hunter Pence, Wandy Rodriguez and others, the Astros will have about 80 million committed already in 2010. Assuming the Astros lop 12 million off last year's number, that leaves them with 10 million to spend. Seems about right, doesn't it?

It's still what we've been projecting as their available room since the offseason began, before Wade confirmed it was the case. We'll get to my theory on how much Tejada will cost, but that's not a lot of money to spend to fill a couple of glaring holes.

The second thing to look at is the current market for third baseman. It may not be a foregone conclusion that Tejada will have to switch positions, his bat seems to fit more in line with the corner of the infield market. Of that list, Tejada is probably not going to get the richest deal and possibly not the third-richest deal. I still think he commands a good chunk of change, though. The question is, does it make more sense for the Astros to spend on Tejada or a guy like Pedro Feliz? Just some things to think about when looking at last winter...

The Shortstops

Rafael Furcal, Los Angeles Dodgers

Contract Details: 3 years, 30 million (09-6.5m, 10-8.5m, 11-12m, 12-12m option)

Notes: Furcal entered last year's market after totaling just 164 plate appearances. Still, the then-31-year old posted a wOBA of .440 and a UZR/150 of -15.2. The Dodgers still rewarded Furcal with the richest contract any shortstop earned last winter. Furcal's defense has been all over the boards the past couple of years, but I think it's safe to say conventional wisdom shows he's was better defensively heading into last offseason than Tejada is now. Consider this contract the upper boundary of what Tejada can expect.

Nick Punto, Minnesota Twins

Contract Details: 2 years, 8.5 million (09-4.25m, 10-4.25m, 11-5m option)

Notes: The 30-year old got this contract coming off a season where he played 99 games. Punto hit pretty decently when he did play, posting a wOBA of .324 and had a UZR/150 of 17.9. Punto is a much better fielder than Tejada, but can't hit nearly as well. He's also younger, but couldn't get more than a two-year deal in last year's market.

Orlando Cabrera, Oakland A's

Contract Details: 1 year, 4 million

Notes: Cabrera couldn't have illustrated the plight of Type A free agents any better. With no team willing to give up draft picks for a 34-year old shortstop coming off a season where he posted a wOBA of .316 with excellent defense (by all accounts). Obviously, Cabrera falls into the same situation as Punto. Both players were good defense, bad bat types, which makes them the exact opposite of Tejada. Still, it may be hard for Tejada to get more than a one-year deal this winter.

Cesar Izturis, Baltimore Orioles

Contract Details: 2 years, 5 million (09-2.4m, 10-2.6m)

Notes: Another good defensive shortstop that posted a sub-par wOBA heading into his free agency period. Izturis got a multi-year deal and performed admirably for Baltimore. His contract is lower than the deals that Punto and Cabrera ended up with, but not for a lack of offense. In fact, the only difference tangibly between these three players is that the other two had a better defensive reputation and Izturis had a down year offensively with the Cardinals in 2008. Of course, I say 'reputation' about defense since there is not much difference in the three's defensive stats.

Edgar Renteria, San Francisco Giants

Contract Details: 2 years, 18.5 million (09-7m, 10-9.5m, 11-10.5m option)

Notes: While Renteria's defense wasn't as bad as Tejada's, at least by UZR, Renteria also didn't post as good a wOBA as Tejada's. It fits that Renteria would be the best shortstop comparable for Tejada, though by all accounts, his defense is good enough to stay at short for a little while longer. This deal, though, feels like something Tejada could end up with this winter.

The Third Basemen

Casey Blake, Los Angeles Dodgers

Contract Details: 3 years, 17.5 million (09-5m, 10-6m, 11-5.25m, 12-6m option)

Notes: Now we move into the third basemen that hit the market last winter. Blake had a great run with the Dodgers after being traded to Los Angeles and was locked up to a reasonable deal. Blake more than outperformed his contract in 2009, but his deal was the richest given to a potential third base free agent last winter. If Tejada moves to the hot corner, look for his deal to be in this range.

Ty Wigginton, Baltimore Orioles

Contract Details: 2 years, 6 million (09-2.5m, 10-3.5m)

Notes: Ahh, the dearly departed Astro, Wigginton signed with Baltimore for two years at a very reasonable 6 million. Wigginton probably was over-extended as a third baseman and only played 39 games there in 2009. Wigginton was close to as valuable offensively as Tejada but wasn't good defensively at third. Tejada's advantage over this deal is that he's moving from a premium defensive position to third, instead of moving off third like Wigginton.

The Utility Players

Ramon Vasquez, Pittsburgh Pirates

Contract Details: 2 years, 4 million (09-1.75m, 10-2m)

Notes: There is a lot of Wigginton here too, as Vasquez wasn't as good offensively as Tejada nor was he as good defensively (comparatively, that is). Still, Vasquez landed a role with the Pirates and a reasonable contract. This reminds me too much of a Geoff Blum signing instead of what Tejada will fetch.

Mark Loretta, Los Angeles Dodgers

Contract Details: 1 year, 1.25 million

Notes: At this point in his career, Loretta was going to be nothing more than a valuable addition off the bench. His contract reflects this and though he could still play third base in a pinch (Loretta played 23 games in 2009), but this is more like the contract Tejada may get in two years.

The Outlier

Willie Bloomquist, Kansas City Royals

Contract Details: 2 years, 3.1 million (09-1.4m, 10-1.7m)

Notes: Remember when we were talking about Jose Valverde? And we saw all the crazy stuff that Dayton Moore has done? Fit the Bloomquist signing into that vein. The utility player with the Mariners was given a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract and played mostly in the outfield for the Royals. This was just a weird signing all around.

Non-Free Agents of Note

Edwin Encarnacion, 3B, Toronto Blue Jays

Contract Details: 2 years, 7.6 million (09-2m, 10-4.7m)

Notes: This starts a couple of third basemen who recently signed contracts, before they get to free agency. With Encarnacion, the Reds were simply buying out a couple of arbitration years, but the numbers fit into the overall picture of what Tejada could command. Interestingly enough, the Reds traded Encarnacion to the Blue Jays mid-season for Scott Rolen.

Chipper Jones, 3B, Atlanta Braves

Contract Details: 3 years, 42 million (10-13m, 11-13m, 12-13m, 13-7m option)

Notes: Jones is the outlier of all outliers, since he's a franchise icon in Atlanta and could end up in the Hall of Fame some day. The Braves couldn't have let Chipper walk out the door, but after flirting with .400, his leverage was very high to get a huge deal done. Thus, this three-year deal, averaging 13 million per. Was an aging player worth this? I'm not sure, but it's definitely going to be the contract Tejada's agent bases his sales pitches around.

Ryan Zimmerman, 3B, Washington Nationals

Contract Details: 5 years, 45 million (09-3.325m, 10-6.25m, 11-8.925m, 12-12m, 13-14m)

Notes: Another deal which bought out part of Zimmerman's arbitration years. This also goes for Troy Tulowitski and Ryan Braun's new deals. Zimmerman got a nice bump and quite the salary security for the next five years.

The Breaking News

Jack Wilson, SS, Seattle Mariners

Contract Details: 2 years 10 million (10-5 million, 11-5 million)

Notes: Wilson avoided free agency by agreeing to a deal with the Mariners last Friday. Wilson is nowhere near the hitter Tejada is, posting a wOBA of .286, but is much better with the glove. The Mariners acquired Wilson midway through last season to replace the departed Yuniesky Betancourt. Wilson had an 8.4 million dollar option, which the Mariners didn't have to exercise by coming to terms with him on this deal. If a more one-dimensional player like Wilson can get an average of 5 million per year, it doesn't bode well for Tejada, who may be moved to a less premium defensive position.

Forecast for Tejada

Taking into account Buster Olney's latest comments from above and the market from last season, it's safe to assume Tejada will sign for somewhere around 7 million per year for two years. Some team may be willing to up that number to around 9 or 10 million, but only over one season. I could see the White Sox possibly making a move here, but I don't see Tejada getting more than a two year deal from anyone. Not at his age nor when he'd have to most likely move positions. It's also highly unlikely any team would commit serious money to him as a shortstop, but don't rule out the Royals.

Get Those Extra Checks Ready for Miguel Olivo, Willie Bloomquist, and Jamey Wright Please

royalsreview — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:15:09 -0000

Earlier this season we touched on Dayton Moore's odd proclivity for the playing time bonus. Dating back to the Ross Gload extension, the Royals have included a number of playing time escalators in contracts. Like anything else in a contract, these bonuses can be used in a variety of ways, for the benefit or protection of either party.

Three curious things jump out about Dayton's recent use of the tool: 1) they have been given to players who are seemingly already being overpaid, 2) the Royals have used extremely modest dollar amounts for their bonuses, yet also made them incredibly easy to reach and 3) the Royals have given playing time bonuses to players who had in the past not been full-time players, but who were quickly then made full-timers on the Royals (great negotiating!).

In 2009, Miguel Olivo, St. Willie Bloomquist and a number of pitchers each had playing-time bonuses on the table. Let's see how they did.

Miguel Olivo: 114 games played, 416 plate appearances

Here are Olivo's bonuses (reached bonuses in bold), in all their nickel-and-dimer glory:

performance bonuses based on games, plate appearances:

$25,000 each for 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100 games

$50,000 each for 105, 110, 115, 120 games

$25,000 each for 275, 300, 325, 350, 375, 400 PAs

$50,000 each for 425, 450, 475, 500 PAs

By sitting Olivo on the last day of the season, Trey Hillman saved his bosses $50,000, as Olivo was set to hit another bonus by playing his 115th game. All told, Olivo earned an extra $400,000 in playing time bonuses in 2009, in addition to his $2.7 million base salary, for a total of $3.1 million.

Willie Bloomquist: 125 games played, 468 plate appearances

Thanks to being employed by one of the dumbest management teams in the game, Willie Bloomquist set career playing time highs in 2009, by wide margins. Prior to 2009, his career high in games played was 102 games in 2006, and in 32 of those games he was a late-game sub. The 468 plate appearances in 2009 is more than he got in his final two seasons in Seattle combined (380), where he was also loved by everyone and valued for doing whatever it is that he does. Again, the Royals gave a guy with a .663 OPS 468 PAs this season. Blame Alex Gordon.

performance bonuses:

$50,000 each for 70 games or 280 PAs, 80 g or 320 PAs, 90 g or 360 PAs, 100 g or 400 PAs

$0.1M each for 110 g or 440 PAs, 120 g or 480 PAs, 130 g or 520 PAs, 140 g or 560 PA

Willie's contract is a little more standard, in that the games played and plate appearance bonuses are tied to one another, given that they are reflective of the same thing most of the time. The Sainted One hit all four of his $50,000 bonuses and two of his $100,000 bonuses, for a total of $400,000 extra in bonuses. Bloomquist's base salary in 2009 was $1.4 million, giving him a total payday of $1.8 million. In addition to the biggest contract of his career, Dayton Moore signed him to a deal which would allow him to add 25-35% (roughly) to his payday simply by showing up.

John Bale: 43 total points

Bale's contract for 2009 is interesting in that it uses a points system based on how he is used. (Bonuses met in bold)

performance bonuses based on points (2 points for a start, 1.5 points for 2-inning appearance, 1 point forappearance of less than 2 innings):

$25,000 each for 34, 36, 38 points

$50,000 each for 40, 42, 44 points

$75,000 each for 46, 48, 50 points

$0.1M each for 52, 54, 56 points

$0.125M each for 58, 60 points

By my count, Bale appeared in 43 games, and they were all non-starts, and all under 2.0 innings, leaving him at 43 points. Actually an impressive total for a guy who seemingly was injured and ineffective all season. The Royals bullpen, we're all in this together! If we all suck, we can all still play. Bale snagged an extra $175,000 dollars to go along with his base salary of $1.2 million.

Kyle Farnsworth: 18 games finished

Farnsworth's contract uses "games finished" as a bonus trigger, which could either mean "I got the closer role" or "I was good enough to sub for Soria sometimes" or even "I was bad but got mopup duty". Farnsworth somehow finished 18 games for the Royals, which amazes me.

performance bonuses: $50,000 each for 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 games finished; $0.1M for 45 GF; $0.15M for 50 GF; $0.25M for 55 GF

Still, no bonuses for Farnsy.

Jamey Wright: 0 starts, 65 appearances

Wright was supposed to be one of Moore's bargain signings this season, brought in for a minor league contract. Thanks to his near-constant use however, Wright did alright for himself.

performance bonuses:

starts: $50,000 for 5 GS; $0.1M each for 10, 15 GS; $0.15M for 20 GS

relief appearances: $50,000 each for 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 games; $0.1M each for 50, 55, 60 games

Wright was signed to a minor league contract, but he would have made the prorated minimum while in the Majors, and could have had extras thrown in as well. Cot's lists him as earning $800,000 in base salary in 2009. Thanks to his 65 appearances, he also earned an additional $600,000 in bonuses. Wright owes Trey Hillman a nice dinner.

Yabuta and Waechter had a number of bonuses, but reached none of them. Thankfully, in Yabuta's case. Yabuta appeared in only 43 games as a Royal in 2008-9. Did you know that if he had appeared in 155 games total over those years, he would have vested a player option for 2010?

When you look at these bonuses, the ones for the pitchers make much more sense, from the club's standpoint: if you make this team, Jamey Wright, and if you're healthy and good all season, Kyle Farnsworth, you'll make even more money for us. Maybe that gets them in the door for a little less money guaranteed, which would in theory be good, if we were talking about good players.

The Bloomquist and Olivo bonuses make less sense to me. Not surprisingly, Olivo was unhappy with a lack of playing time in 2008, and seemed to have an idea that he was "brought here to be a starter". Hmm... where'd that problem come from? Meanwhile, the extra Bloomquist money just adds less value to an already bad contract. When you include reasonable playing time bonuses, the Royals didn't sign him to a 2 year/$3.1 million dollar deal, they signed him to a 2 year/$4.1 million dollar deal.

Figures like these need to be kept in mind when discussing the Royals payroll. Are these contracts creative ways of staying under some set in stone budget number? There's no way of knowing. Reported figures for the Royals payroll tend to be all over the place. Sometimes the Royals want to stress how large it is, sometimes they want to point out how small.

Contracts like these are common in today's game, just not necessarily for position players with little injury history like Bloomquist and Olivo. Two is a coincidence and, with the Ross Gload contract, three is a trend. Maybe Moore just likes making these kind of deals. Maybe ownership wants a little injury insurance. Maybe it is a motivational tool for the player. Who knows? There are benefits to lots of small bonuses (like the Olivo contract) and there are benefits to ones which aren't reached until some large playing time number is hit, as in the Yabuta contract. Did Olivo know that Hillman's decision to play Pena and Buck on the final day of the season cost him $50,000? Did he care? Should he care? I don't know the answer to those questions. Yes, $50,000 is much less relevant to these guys than it is to most of us, but then again, Miguel Olivo also has many more expenses, taxes, etc. than most of us as well. He has had to move across the country like six or seven times during his career. He's got bills, he's got things he wants. If a guy I didn't really respect cost me $500 dollars (in my mind) I'd be really unhappy about it. I bet you'd feel the same way.

This is all just to say, there's quite a lot going on here. Since we aren't privy to these contract negotiations, and know nothing about anyone involved beyond their baseball stuff, we're left to guess. What do you guess?

Mauer's MVP Beats Greinke's Cy Young, Twins Stave Off Comeback

Jesse — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:12:08 -0000

More photos » by Jim Mone - AP

2 months ago: Minnesota Twins' Jason Kubel, left, Michael Cuddyer, center and Joe Mauer, right, celebrate after scoring on a three-run double by Delmon Young off Kansas City Royals pitcher Zack Greinke in the sixth inning of a baseball game Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009, in Minneapolis. It was the final series in the Metrodome. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

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Twins 5, Royals 4

There are no shortages of heroes in Minnesota tonight. A four-run sixth disappeared, but today the Twins weren't going to be denied.

For five and a half innings, Zack Greinke and Nick Blackburn traded zeros. The game's first hit didn't even come until Orlando Cabrera led off the bottom of the fourth, but for more than half of the contest it was a beautiful pitcher's duel. Stressful? Yes. But beautiful.

The Twins finally drew blood in the bottom of the sixth. Nick Punto drew an eight-pitch walk off Greinke to lead off the frame, before Denard "ideal leadoff guy" Span dropped down a made-to-order bunt on the first pitch he saw. With LNP standing on second base, Greinke's pitches began to sit high in the zone. He managed to get Cabrera to ground out to third base, but he wasn't able to keep Punto from advancing. With two out and the game still knotted at zero, up stepped Joe Mauer.

Greinke tried to bust Mauer up and in twice, with Joe taking atypical chances and taking cuts on them both and fouling them off. A pair of sliders just under the strike zone followed, leading to a 1-2 count before Greinke tried to come up and in with another fastball. This time, Joe did exactly what he meant to. He pulled it through the right side, and Punto finally scored to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.

Then the Royals ace came off the rails, just a little bit. Jason Kubel took an outer-half fastball and shot it down the left field line, for a moment saving Greinke from a run as it hit the turf and then bounced over the fence, keeping Mauer on third base. Then he hit Michael Cuddyer with a 94-mph fastball. For the third time in two days, the Royals loaded the bases for Delmon Young.

Maybe Greinke was feeling confident. Maybe he just didn't locate the ball where he wanted it to go. Maybe he and Miguel Olivo were over-thinking their strategy. For whatever reason, Greinke served Delmon a 95-mph first-pitch fastball somewhere between the letters and the belly button, and as everyone's favorite play-by-play guy likes to say, he didn't miss it. Young went the other way, dropping the ball into right field, clearing the bases to give the Twins a 4-0 lead.

Kansas City stuck with their man, even after Jose Morales singled on the next pitch. Even Matt Tolbert swung at the first pitch he saw, and he hit it hard. But this time the ball was blind, and Minnesota's rally came to and end. So did Greinke's afternoon.

A Mike Jacobs homer in the top of the seventh put Kansas City on the board, but it was the eighth that, if you were watching or listening or at this game, should have put the fear of the baseball gods right into you. Olivo led it off with a double, signaling the end of Blackburn's night. Jose Mijares replaced him, and I'm starting to wonder if he's inside of his own head a bit after throwing at Adam Everett on Thursday. Alex Gordon took the third fastball he saw and deposited it over the right field fence, cutting Minnesota's lead to one. Another single saw Mijares get the hook for Jon Rauch, who did his job one batter too late.

Willie Bloomquist singled, moving something called Tug Hutlett to third with no outs in the inning. Rauch got Mitch Maier to roll into a double play, but it scored the tying run. The Metrodome fell silent, and if you weren't having images of whatever playoff hopes you had crashing down in your subconscious, then I envy you. For a game that looked so well in hand to fall apart so quickly, it didn't look good.

You know who didn't care? You know who said "Get on my back, I have broad shoulders and really big dimples and the bat of a hero"? Michael Cuddyer. The same guy who Greinke nailed two innings prior watched a pair of pitches miss the zone before he decided to take a chance. Dusty Hughes threw a changeup, as straight as it could possibly be, right over the plate at about Cuddyer's knees. Cuddles turned on it, and lauched it into the home run porch in left field. He breathed life back into the season, into the team, and into the fans.

Joe Nathan struck out a pair in a perfect ninth inning to pick up save number 47, and once again the Minnesota Twins have won. It's not over yet, kids. No matter what happens tonight, tomorrow matters. And if by some miracle the Tigers lose tonight, tomorrow matters even more.

Holy crap. Can they do this?

Stars of the Game
#3: Delmon Young (2-for-4, 2B, 3 RBI, .154 WPA)
#2: Nick Blackburn (7+ IP, 2 R, 5 K, 0 BB, .305 WPA)
#1: Michael Cuddyer (1-for-3, HR, RBI, 2 R, .245 WPA)

Royal Embarrassment

Jeff Zimmerman (TucsonRoyal) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:35:04 -0000

It has been a tough season to be Royal's fan, but I read a stat today that put me over the edge. It wasn't Miguel Olivo's well documented plate discipline (here and here and here), Zack Greinke's WAR (8.3) being higher than the entire offense (6.0) or that of the bottom 5 players in WAR (>200 AB), the Royals take up 2 of them (Jose Guillen being #1 at -1.9 WAR). Nope none of that fazed me. My disbelief started by reading baseball-refence.com's Stat of the Day that stated the Royal's production from the clean-up spot is the worst in baseball. No surprise that the worst offense has the worst clean up spot. This is where it got worse. Fellow blogger, RoyalRetro, who has a great website of Royal history, took it one step further and found that it is one of the worst batting order positions in baseball period. He has given me his blessing to take his analysis and go a little further.

Let's begin by looking at the rankings of the 270 (9 batting positions * 30 teams) batting positions this season. The batting positions are ranked according to OPS and here are the low-lights (link to entire list):

256 to 270 - The 9^th batting spot for 15 of the 16 NL teams (OPS of 0.431 to 0.543)
255 - 9^th spot at Detroit (0.556)
254 -- 7^th spot at Seattle (0.566)
253 -- 4^th spot at KC (0.573)
252 -- 9^th spot at KC (0.574)
250 -- 9th spot at Colorado (0.599)
248 -- 2^nd spot at KC (0.600)
176 -- 8^th spot at KC (0.721)

The forth spot in the lineup is supposed to be one of the teams 3 best players, but it is the worst of the Royals Colorado's pitchers in the 9th spot hit better.

What sort of talented players take up this spot daily for the Royals? Jose Guillen and Mike Jacobs each batted 49 times in the cleanup spot and the ever dangerous Mark Teahen batting there there 26 times. Recently Guillen and Jacobs took it to a whole new level as they fought over who sucks the most in the cleanup spot (I am not sure what they fought over, but you never know). True to their baseball form, they both swung and missed.

The Royal's let an answer to the cleanup spot slip through their hands this past off-season when they traded Ross Gload and cash for a player to be named later. Since the trade happened on April 1^st, fans thought it was a joke. Once it was determined not to be a hoax, there was much rejoicing in Royal's land.The joke ended up on us Royals fans as Ross could have been an improvement to the Royals if he was used instead of Guillen and Jacobs.

I did a lineup analysis of the Royals if Gload, using his 2009 Florida numbers, had batted in the 4^th spot. Also, I swapped that 248th ranked #2 spot (usually Willie Bloomquist) with the 8^th spot (usually Miguel Olivo). I used the lineup calculator at baseballmusings.com to run the estimates. The runs per game total goes from an estimated 4.25 runs per game (actual season number is 4.10 runs per game) to 4.55 runs per game. Over the course of a season that would be 50 additional runs [162 * (4.554 - 4.248)] or 5 more wins (assuming 10.5 runs will yield one addition win). It is pretty sad when that just batting Bloomquist 8^th and replacing Guillen and Jacobs with Gload in the cleanup spot could lead a team to 5 more wins. Embarrassing really.

I know I am putting my reputation on the line by bad mouthing the Royals as they will not tolerate criticism. First Rany Jazayerli gets banned for bad mouthing the process. Last week Keith Law was told that he was banned. There has even been rumors of stadium ushers being fired at the stadium who were bad mouthing Hillman withing ear shot of his wife. I will wait my punishment from Dayton Moore like a man, but I can't take the complete front office ineptitude any more. I just hope they don't make me go across the parking lot and watch the Chiefs.

Angels Win in Extra Inning KC Pitching Duel

Rev Halofan — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:20:25 -0000

More photos » by ED ZURGA - AP

Blown call at the plate did not end up costing us the game.

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Final Score in Eleven Innings: Los Angeles Angels: 2, Kansas City Royals: 1

A marquee pitching matchup of John Lackey facing Zack Greinke lived up to its billing as both pitchers allowed each allowed one run, Greinke in 8, Lackey in 9. Kevin Jepsen got the win out of the Angels pen after pitching a quick bottom of the 10th. Erick Aybar singled home Torii Hunter to go ahead in the top of the 11th and Brian Fuentes got his 39th save of the season by allowing only one hit in a scoreless 11th.

In the top of the 8th, Chone Figgins hit a rocket by 2B Willie Bloomquist. Because he got some leather on it, the official scorekeeper called it an error, which it clearly was not, but anyway, Maicer Izturis then followed with a clean single. Greinke's ERA would be alright, but he was on the ropes. With one out, Torii Hunter singled home Figgins.

Lackey threw 106 pitches in 9 strong innings. He scattered 6 hits, allowed 1 earned run and struck out 4. Likely AL Cy Younger Greinke was just as dazzling, although he had to expend more pitches to get about the same results. He threw 125 pitches over 8 IP, struck out 8 and again, allowed a run that the official scorekeeper and Zach's parents would have called unearned but anyone else could plainly see was the result of a hit.

The Angels are 8-0 against the Royals this season. First pitch on Sunday is at 11:10 AM.

Poll

Panther of the Game

Aybar

59 votes

Hunter

29 votes

Lackey

259 votes

347 votes | Poll has closed

Today's Fun Fact

Jeff — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:42:02 -0000

Turns out that regular playing time actually makes Willie worse.

News Roundup: Reds Sweep Doubleheader, Ruin Daniel McCutchen's Good Debut

Charlie — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:29:51 -0000

More photos » by David Kohl - AP

3 months ago: Cincinnati Reds' Darnell McDonald, left, slides across home plate with the winning run after a wild pitch from Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jesse Chavez, covering home at right, in the bottom of ninth inning of Game 1 of a baseball doubleheader, Monday, Aug. 31, 2009, in Cincinnati. The Reds won 4-3. (AP Photo/David Kohl)

Browse more photos »

The Associated Press: Reds beat Pirates 4-3 before empty seats
There were less than 2,000 people in attendance for the day game today. Which is too bad, and it's also too bad about the way the Pirates lost it, because Dan McCutchen was actually pretty good, grabbing a quality start and five strikeouts while only walking two batters. Joel Hanrahan struck out four batters, too.

Except for a big homer by Andrew McCutchen, and some shut-down relief from Denny Bautista, the second game of the doubleheader today was downright forgettable, unless you're Jesse Chavez. (Who, uh, also won't be forgetting the first game.) So let's move on. But before we do, I want to good-naturedly suggest that we nickname Dan McCutchen "No Relation."

Moore will be extended through 2014 - Royals Review
This post from Royals Review about the ludicrous four-year extension Kansas City GM Dayton Moore just received reminds me of some of the unfortunate apologies for Dave Littlefield people stopped posting on the internet in, oh, about 2005.

Moore looked like a good GM in his first year or so when he was mostly just cleaning up the previous management's trash, but the decisions he's made at the big-league level since then have been terrible by the standards of today's GMs, who tend not to be idiots. When a GM sets money on fire the way Moore has with Jose Guillen, Yuniesky Betancourt, Mike Jacobs, Kyle Farnsworth, Willie Bloomquist and others the way Moore has, he deserves to be fired. When someone who spends as much on veteran players as Moore did this offseason and still finishes the season 30 games below .500, he deserves to be fired. And Royals fans who settle for 28th best or 30th best or whatever Moore is isn't aren't doing themselves or the team any favors.

It's true that Moore is doing a much better job than Littlefield at building through the farm system, but there's no reason to have any confidence Moore will be able to put together a good team even if he graduates a bunch of solid players from the minors.

I don't mean to pick on the blogger who posted this. It's hard to know how to respond to a tough situation. We've all been there. And the comment thread is hilarious.

Minor League Baseball: GCL Blue Jays 2, GCL Pirates 1
The Bradenton Pirates finished their season today. It was a decent season overall, I suppose. The hitters generally didn't fare that well, but most of them were very young, and outfielder Rogelios Noris and catcher Ramon Cabrera showed promise. Also, the GCL tends not to produce impressive-looking offensive performances. The Pirates' pitching, led by Trent Stevenson, Brooks Pounders, Jhonathan Ramos and Zac Fuesser, was very good, and I look forward to seeing some of these guys in full-season ball next year.

Also, 2009 bonus baby Zach Von Rosenberg made his pro debut today. He faced six batters, struck out two, got groundouts from three, and got one to pop up to the catcher. Not bad at all.

Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me that Jamey Carroll is So Awesome?

devil_fingers — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:03:17 -0000

Did you know that in just over 250 plate appearances this season that Jamey Carroll is at 1.9 WAR (Wins Above Replacement) this season? For perspective, with the way FanGraphs does it, we'd expect a league-average position player to be about 2.0 WAR over 600 PAs... And to think I was just mocking this guy the other night as a scrappy white utility guy a la Willie Bloomquist... So how good can we estimate Carroll to be at the moment?

Jamey Carroll

#11 / Second Base / Cleveland Indians

Height: 5-9

Weight: 170

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Feb 18, 1974

I won't got through Carroll's biography here -- if anyone has some juicy nuggets or good stories about him, feel free to add them in the comments. He was originally an Expo, spent a season in Washington, then a couple seasons with the Rockies, then 2008 and this season with Cleveland. From 2006-present, he has had 534, 268, 402, and 253 (as of this writing in 2009) plate appearances. You'd assume he'd be a replacement-level scrub, right? In his 0.1 2007, maybe, but in 2006 (the only season he had something approaching full-time play) he was 3.1 WAR. In 2008 he was 1.4 in 2004 PAs (about 2/3s of a season), and as mentioned, he's at 1.9 so far this season.

Maybe one season would would make you think it was a fluke, i.e., a random variation from his true talent. It happens. But three out of four seasons is different. While he's generally been a below average hitter, Carroll's a good defender, especially at 2B, which is what he came up as. But he's pretty good elsewhere. We'll leave his OF numbers alone, as he's played just over 60 innings there in his career, but his career UZR/150s by infield position are: 9.1 at 2B, 1.3 at 3B, -6.7 at SS. The biggest sample is at 2B, followed by 3B.

Carroll is in his option year for the Indians, making $2.5M while providing about $8.4M in value so far for Cleveland. He's a free agent after this season, and I thought it would be interesting to crudely estimate what his true talent is at the moment following the basic outlines of the method for calculating WAR outlined by Tom Tango.

As for his offense, his wOBAs from 2006-2009 are .339, .284, .319, .327. Weighting the seasons 5-4-3-2 and regressing against 220 PAs of league average as per The Book, we get an estimated wOBA skill of .325, or about -2 runs above (or below, in this case) average per 700 PA.

Defense is more difficult. Since this is an admittedly crude estimation, I won't go to the Fans Scouting Report, but will just use his UZR/150 numbers for 2B, regressed against 80 games of league average per season. I get Carroll as being about a +5 2B per 162 games.

He's a good baserunner, too. A very quick look at his baserunning numbers makes him look like about a +1 baserunner with steals excluded (they are included in wOBA).

Splitting the different between his Al and NL seasons, we'll use a replacement level of 22.5 runs (stand-in for 2.25 wins).

Adding it up: -2 offense + 5 defense +2.5 positional adjustment +1 baserunning +22.5 replacement level = 29 * 80% playing time = about a 2.3 WAR player at the moment. No, it doesn't adjust for parks. Nor do I really deal with aging -- we might expect him to drop by half a win a season, so maybe he's more like 1.8 WAR next season when he's a free agent.

Still, a quick look makes a guy I thought was a 26th man look like he's got the talent of a league-average player. No, he's not "awesome." But a lot of teams have starter who aren't league average at 2B, and certainly not at $2.5M. Nice job, Mark Shapiro. And nice job, Jamey Carroll.

Help me, Giants Fans! With Grumblings on Rios (sigh), Thome, and none on Strasburg

devil_fingers — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:10:28 -0000

A (self-promoting) reminder: Only does Driveline have it's own Twitter feed, but you can also follow me, devil_fingers, on Twitter as well for additional cleverness. For example, check this recent awesome tweet from me. That's the kind of exclusive brilliance you'll get pretty much every day if you follow me.

Help me, Giants fans and followers! I'm working on batting order optimization stuff for the Giants, but I'm a bit flummoxed about what the starting outfield is when everyone is healthy. I know that managers don't always put the best players out there, but I want to use the guys who are the nominal starters and optimize that group rather than argue about who "should" be starting. The outfield I have at the moment is Fred Lewis (LF), Aaron Rowand (CF), and Randy Winn (RF). But these guys haven't played much together recently. What's gong on? What's up with Eugenio Velez getting so many starts recently? What is Nate Schierholtz's role? Are the other guys hurt, just getting more rest? Is it okay if I assume that Lewis-Rowand-Winn is the primary starting OF down the stretch. If not, who should it be? Yes, I've looked around the internet, and just can't figure it out. I guess I'm too dumb. I'd really like it to be Lewis-Rowand-Winn given the time and effort I've spend estimating their baserunning and GDP skills ( also happen to believe this gives the Giants the best chance ot win), but if I have to make changes for Schierholtz and/or (shudder) Velez, I will. To repeat, I want to know who likely will play, not who should play.

After the jump: notes on some (somewhat) recent notes from Jayson Stark (Strasburg-free content!).

Rios the Underachiever: Sorry come back to Alex Rios after the topic's been beat into the ground on the internet the last week or so, but I when I read Stark's column, I couldn't help myself. It seems like there's a higher than usual amount of quotes about player "attitude" in quotes from (predictably) anonymous players, executives, and scouts in this Stark column. I'm not going after Stark on this one. It's his job to report this stuff. Without going through all of it (predictable "John Smoltz would be a great veteran influence on a young team!" and "Vincente Padilla is a loose cannon!" stuff), what caught my eye were the quotes on the recently-waived-and-claimed Alex Rios. Here are three quotes from ex-teammates from Stark's column followed by one from a scout:

• "He's not a winning-type player. He's a guy who just doesn't have that burning desire to win, or be great."

• "He was a guy who just didn't go after it. He'd be sleeping in his locker 10 minutes before he had to go out on the field. And not just once."

• "He wasn't the same player after he got that [seven-year] contract. It sure seemed like he was a lot more motivated when he was looking for a contract than he was since he got the contract."

Meanwhile, scouts we surveyed seemed dubious, too.

"This guy should be a perennial 30-30 [HR-SB] guy," said one. "But to me, he's a classic underachiever. If Ozzie takes the wrong approach, he's going to lose him. He's a guy you've got to go real slow with. But whether Ozzie has that kind of patience, boy, I don't know."

As tired as the "the guy just doesn't care" stuff is, the saber-backlash against it is also a bit played out. I don't want to totally dismiss the personal accounts of people in the game. Still, I'm curious. Who are the ex-teammates? Are they still with the Blue Jays? Maybe it's guys who played with him on Toronto but aren't there any more (Scott Rolen, Internet Sensation Gregg Zaun (a d_f favorite for a long time)? Former Locker Room Leader and Dry Erase Board Poet Shea Hillenbrand? When I hear phrases like "winning-type player" the first thing I think of is Willie Bloomquist's signing with the Royals... but that's another dead horse. Maybe Rios is sleeping in his locker because of "flu-like symptoms" (ahem). But the best one is the ex-teammates who said Rios wasn't the same after the new contract. The contract was signed in April 2008 (the beginning of the season). Here are Rios' seasonal WAR values from 2006 through 2008: 3.3. in 2006, 4.6 in 2007, and 5.5 in 2008. So after he "wasn't the same guy," he was among the best outfielders in baseball.

I remember hearing a lot of the same things about Robinson Cano who, after a 5 win 2007, got an extension before the 2008 season, then had a down season. Everyone said it was because they gave him the extension too early and that he backed off. Well, what do you know, still living off the guaranteed money, Cano has bounced back big time this season.

Maybe these guys got complacent or maybe they didn't. It will be interesting to watch. To me, it seems like Rios is just having a down year, and that the best bet is that he's around a 3.5 WAR player going forward (with the "normal " 0.5 WAR a year decline). I guess we'll see. Maybe he'll return to 2008 form, and we'll get a string of "change of scenery" or "Ozzie's a motivational genius!" stories. You know, because it couldn't just be that he was that good all along and 2009 was a deviation...

Thome (and friend): To end on a more positive note Stark notes that despite his age, Jim Thome still looks to be one of the better free agent DH options out there in free agency. And, hey, when I was doing some early projections for 2009-10 free agency, guess what? Thome was tied for the best 1B/DH out there at about 2.4 WAR.

Who was Thome tied with? You guessed it, your hero and mine

Russ F---ing Branyan