SB Nation - Kyle Davies

Monday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:18:55 -0000

by Jim Prisching - AP

Craig Counsell is expected to re-sign today.

Some things to read while John Tesh rocks the NBA on NBC theme (h/t Amy K. Nelson).

Randy Wolf is expected to undergo a physical this morning and once he does, expect his contract to become official sometime later today. That might not be today's only announcement, though: the Brewers are also expected to finalize a deal with Craig Counsell today. With Counsell, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, Alcides Escobar, Mat Gamel and Casey McGehee all on the roster, the Brewers' Opening Day infield is probably set, barring injury or trade.

Meanwhile, Mike Rivera is surprised to be looking for work after being non-tendered over the weekend. He thought the decision not to retain Jason Kendall would give him an edge as the only returning catcher familiar with the Brewer pitching staff.

As of this writing, roughly 4% of voters in the poll on your right listed the decision to offer Dave bush a 2010 contract as the one Brewer move from this weekend they would change. That's not exactly a large chunk of the fanbase, but In-Between Hops is taking on that vocal minority, making the case that the Brewers made the right move by giving Bush another shot.

If you missed Morineko's Weekend Mug, follow the link over to it for full coverage of the Brewers' arbitration decisions, and a link to this list of all the non-tenders leaguewide.

Looking back at last week, Jon Heyman ranked the Brewers among the Winter Meeting winners. Meanwhile, Marc Hulet of The Baseball Analysts listed Rule 5 selection Chuck Lofgren in the "Why Bother?" category.

The more I think about it, the more I think Lofgren will have a tough task ahead of him if he's going to make the team out of spring training. With Trevor Hoffman, LaTroy Hawkins, Todd Coffey, Claudio Vargas and Mitch Stetter back, there's only two bullpen spots left that are potentially available (barring injury), and Chris Smith, John Axford, Chris Narveson, Zach Braddock and now Lofgren fighting for them. I like Lofgren's potential and hope the Brewers will get an opportunity to realize it, but right now he might be the third or fourth best lefty in the bullpen competition.

If you have a vague interest in Brewer baseball, but wish there was less analysis and more profanity on this site, then Miller Park Drunk's RUNNING series might be just the ticket for you. Follow these links for bad Prince Fielder jokes, some fan fiction involving Ryan Braun trying to rap, and a vague musical reference to Rickie Weeks.

In the minors: Baseball Intellect has video footage of some at bats featuring Cameron Garfield, Cutter Dykstra and Josh Prince from a Pioneer League game back in July. They're pay-only, but there are worse ways to spend $2.95.

If you were gone this weekend, you didn't miss the opportunity to help select a center fielder and catcher for the BCB All Decade Team. Voting closes at 4 pm today for center fielders and 4 pm tomorrow for catchers. We'll open the voting for the final starting outfield spot later today.

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Signed catcher John Buck to a one-year deal worth $2 million, signed Joey Gathright to a minor league deal,
Braves: Signed Matt Diaz to a one year, $2.55 million deal, avoiding arbitration.
D-Backs: Re-signed infielder Augie Ojeda to a one year deal, and avoided arbitration with Blaine Boyer.
Dodgers: Signed pitcher Josh Towers to a minor league deal.
Giants: Signed shortstop-turned-pitcher Tony Pena Jr. to a minor league deal.
Indians: Re-signed pitchers Adam Miller and Anthony Reyes to minor league deals.
Marlins: Signed catcher Ronny Paulino to a one-year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Nationals: Re-signed Scott Olsen to a one year deal. Also signed pitcher Ryan Speier to a minor league deal.
Padres: Signed pitcher Kevin Correia to a one year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Pirates: Signed Ronny Cedeno to a one year, $1.125 million deal, avoiding arbitration.
Rangers: Signed infielder Esteban German to a one year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Rays: Avoided arbitration with catcher Dioner Navarro and pitchers Grant Balfour, Rafael Soriano, Lance Cormier and Randy Choate.
Royals: Avoided arbitration with pitchers Brian Bannister and Kyle Davies. They also signed pitcher Bruce Chen and catcher Vance Wilson to minor league deals.
White Sox: Signed J.J. Putz to a one year deal.

Meanwhile, the market heated up immediately for Yankees non-tender Chien-Ming Wang, with Ken Rosenthal reporting that six teams have already expressed interest. He doesn't list the teams, but I wouldn't be surprised to discover the Brewers are one of them.

I promise, I'm not going to mention it every time someone says something new about Jason Kendall. In fact, I might try to go the rest of the week without mentioning him at all. With that said, I thought these three links about him were interesting:

Joe Posnanski has a look at the potential Opening Day lineup for the 2010 Royals, now including Kendall.
He also compares Kendall to a superball on the field at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
Reminding us all how far and how fast Kendall has fallen, Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? named Kendall the Pirate Catcher of the Decade.

Weeks ago I linked to a post from minor league veteran Garrett Broshuis, mentioning the challenges in finding quality, healthy food in minor league clubhouses. It looks like that problem may be on its way to being resolved: After discussing it at the Winter Meetings, several teams are making an effort to provide healthier options, and remove the constant flow of junk.

If you're a fan of sabermetrics, or just want to learn more about them, I've got two links for you today:

TangoTiger has a look at OPS+, and some minor adjustments that could be made to it to make it more useful than some other advanced metrics.
That post links to this one, Big League Stew's beginner's guide to wOBA. I learned a fair amount by reading that one.

Gorman Thomas celebrated a birthday over the weekend, and while this probably isn't what he had in mind for a gift, David Chalk of Seventh Inning 'Stache has inducted him into the MLB Mustache Hall of Fame.

On this day in 1998, the Brewers acquired Alex Ochoa from the Twins for a minor leaguer named Darrell Nicholas. Ochoa spent one season as a Brewer, hitting .300/.404/.466 before being traded to the Reds for Mark Sweeney after the season.

Happy birthday today to:

Former Seattle Pilot and 1970 Brewer Greg Goossen, who turns 64.
Dave Nilsson, who appeared in 837 games as a Brewer and turns 40.
Marcus Jensen, who appeared in 18 games over two tours as a Brewer and turns 37.

Sean Forman, founder of Baseball Reference, is also celebrating his birthday today. You can help him celebrate by sponsoring a page. I know someone around here will want this one.

Drink up.

Royally Squandered: Royals 3, Tigers 2

Ian Casselberry — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:00:14 -0000

More photos » by Duane Burleson - AP

Carlos Guillen and the Detroit Tigers' offense just couldn't get up off the ground to score a run when they needed it. The Royals pounced on the opportunity and stole a 3-2 win on Sunday.

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Apparently, the run sponge was wrung dry last night.

Following Detroit's lineup exploded for 10 home runs (and four homers), was it utterly predictable that the Tigers would come back this afternoon with a two-run effort against a pitcher they'd destroyed in two previous meetings this season? This is the sort of effort that makes people say things like, "Hey, don't use up all your runs! Save some for the next game!"

It's not that the Tigers didn't hit Kyle Davies, however. They knocked out nine hits against him in six innings. But an all-too-familiar problem reared its head yet again, as batters just couldn't get that big one with runners in scoring position. One of the most egregious squanderings took place in the fifth inning. Adam Everett scored the tying run on a wild pitch, but with Placido Polanco on second base, Marcus Thames struck out and Miguel Cabrera followed up with a grounder to shortstop.

But maybe the blown opportunity in the sixth was even worse because the Tigers beat themselves. Carlos Guillen hit a leadoff double, but was then thrown out trying to steal third. Whose call was that? Jim Leyland's? Guillen's? Regardless of who was responsible, it was a huge out, as Ryan Raburn hit a single that would've driven in a run.

The Tigers also had a runner on second with less than two outs in both the seventh and eighth innings, but continually failed to get a key hit. It was just that kind of afternoon for the home team, and as a result, the Royals stole one on their way out of town. After 17 straight days of baseball, maybe all the Tigers could see was tomorrow's off-day, casting seductive glances at them from afar. But it's always frustrating to lose a game that was there for the taking - several times.

Roar:

Failing to drive in those runners from scoring position was even more shameful, considering that it wasted a surprisingly fine performance from Armando Galarraga. After missing his last turn with flu and a sore throat, a newly lighter (15 pounds, by most accounts) Galarraga pitched five innings and struck out six batters. Giving up two runs should've been good enough to get himself a win.

Whimper:

Oh, Marcus Thames. You thrill so many with your power, but also frustrate us with your inconsistency. Thames went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts, leaving a team-high five runners on base. He also got a bad jump on a fly ball by Willie Bloomquist in the fifth inning, resulting in the ball going over his head for a double and bringing home the Royals' second run of the game.

And though Raburn has made some plays while filling in at third base, he provided a glaring reminder of how much the Tigers miss Brandon Inge when he's not out there. Raburn committed three errors, two of them in the tenth inning leading directly to the Royals' game-winning run. (Josh Anderson gets his revenge!)

Comment of the Day:

0-16 with RISP. epic fail

by mrsunshine

56-51, Game Notes

Jeff — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 06:42:11 -0000

More photos » by Charlie Riedel - AP

Colon looks in, gets his sign, and readies for the pitch to CAT CAT THERE IS A CAT ON THE FIELD EVERYBODY PAY ATTENTION TO THE CAT

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I've learned something about myself these last two nights. Honestly, I don't know why it never dawned on me until just now. And what I've learned is that, for all the talk about how offense is exciting and chicks dig the longball and the Rockies kept selling out because there was non-stop action, for me - and I'm only talking about me, here - while high-scoring games can be a fun change of pace from time to time, they rapidly lose their appeal as they start to drag on. Which, in turn, means that duration is a bigger determinant in how much I enjoy watching a baseball game than the level of offense. In terms of an equation:

Enjoyment = Aα + Bβ + Cγ + Dδ +…

There are a whole lot of different factors that can affect how much I enjoy watching a baseball game. Leverage. Significance. Whether the Mariners win or lose. And so on. All of those things are included above as separate variables. But what I've learned tonight is that

If α = level of offense and β = duration

Then B > A

The first two games of this series have taken something like seven combined hours to complete. I'm glad the M's came out on top of both of them, but rather than happy and enthralled, all I've been for much of those seven hours is bored and annoyed. Congratulations, Mariners - your wins have taken so long that at several points I've lost interest and felt like a bad fan for doing so. That's not how this is supposed to work.

Thank you for winning. Winning is neat. Now just please do me the courtesy of hurrying up.

Reflecting on his performance and then looking at the box score, Luke French pitched a better game than his line would suggest. Both home runs were on pitches I imagine he'd like to have back - particularly Gordon's, which came on a high-80s 1-0 fastball literally in the center of the zone - but outside of those, I thought he looked pretty good for what he is. Though both the TV radar gun and the PITCHf/x reported velocities seemed high, French still got some fastballs up there at 90+ and he seems to have "sneaky" heat, in that his fastballs look faster than they really are. I don't know what causes that sort of thing, but that was my impression, and by and large he was able to put it where he wanted.

As for French's secondary pitches - for one thing, he threw them a lot. 43% offspeed on the game. And for another, they were effective. 26 of 38 were thrown for strikes, six missed bats, and only one was hit particularly hard. What's interesting is that, where he came in having excelled with his slider, tonight it was his changeup that stole the show. Although I guess that was mostly the doings of Miguel Olivo, who swung at five changeups and missed four of them. Still, Olivo's a big league hitter, and French's change threw him for a loop. It's encouraging to see him working off that pitch pretty well since it was a big part of his success in AAA.

When you look at French's fastball and tendency to pitch up in the zone, you'd think he's always due to get shelled. But throw in a pair of good offspeed pitches and an ability to move the ball around the zone and you get a guy who's better than being just another Garrett Olson. Olson couldn't even throw strikes today with a giant lead. French threw strikes with more than two-thirds of his pitches. A skeptic might call him "Garrett Olson with command," but Garrett Olson with command isn't Garrett Olson anymore, and that's why I think French could be a pretty good piece. When you can locate and work against both lefties and righties, you've got an excellent chance of contributing at the Major League level. Though hardly spectacular, what I saw from French tonight only served to confirm my moderately optimistic expectations.

I can't get over how uncomfortable and awkward Olson looks in a baseball uniform. I know that sounds weird but you'll notice it too the next time you see him, and then that's all you'll be able to see for the rest of the season. I don't like to wear shorts. However, I get hot really easily, so I went to try on some shorts the other day, but when I put them on I didn't at all feel like myself. That's how I see Garrett Olson in a baseball uniform. Like he doesn't have any confidence in his image because he's wearing something he doesn't think suits his body.

I think it's high time we give this segment a new name.

As if the 222 games of Major League experience weren't enough of a clue that Koplove isn't going to be making any prospect lists, Dave Sims chimed in with - and this is an exact quote - "Didn't even know he was still bouncing around baseball. Thought he hung 'em up."

Any act of building is building to the future. This is like Mitch Hedberg/every picture is of you when you were younger all over again.

In the top of the third inning, Michael Saunders ripped a 3-1 low-inside fastball down the right field line for his first ever Major League triple. As a starter, Kyle Davies has a career 5.92 tRA over nearly 500 innings. I wonder if it still counts as your first career Major League triple if you hit it off a AAA arm.

As evidenced by the promotion at Kauffman today, 80s Night is a popular phenomenon for people of all ages. It gives them an excuse to wear clothes they'd never wear, use words they'd never use, sing along to songs they'd never sing along to, and generally just celebrate a memorable but nevertheless thankfully distant decade that hasn't stood the test of time. It's an opportunity for people college-aged or older to reflect on all the stupid shit they used to like so many eons ago, and for people high school-aged or younger to look at their parents and wonder what the hell was wrong with them. Now here's a thought: the Royals haven't won more than 84 games in a season since 1989, and they haven't made the playoffs since 1985.

Miguel Batista inherited a 10-4 lead and threw 14 strikes out of 28 pitches. Garrett Olson inherited an 11-5 lead and threw 20 strikes out of 37 pitches. Without being able to record catcher glove location prior to each pitch, we don't have a real good measure of pitcher command. Strike rate in blowouts, however, might be a useful proxy, because there's no good reason to nibble around the edges. Hey, by that test, guess which relievers of ours who pitched today don't have good command?

Yuniesky Betancourt as a Royal:

OSwing%: 22.9% (25.0% league average)
ZSwing%: 67.5% (65.7% league average)
Zone%: 63.2% (49.3% league average)

Over the last 30 days, Yuni's Zone% - the percentage of pitches thrown within the strike zone - has been the highest in baseball, 4% above Jason Kendall. Pitchers are clearly just going right after him, not the least bit afraid that he's going to deliver much damage. In Yuni's defense, though, at least his discipline looks to be quite a bit better. I'm not going to jump to any conclusions because there are sample size issues here to take into consideration, but as a member of the Royals, Yuni has swung at fewer balls out of the strike zone than the average Major Leaguer. If you remember what he was like as an M, that's just a little bit flabbergasting. For them, this is an encouraging sign of progress. And I actually think that's pretty cool.

Jack Hannahan got to play two innings in the field at short in relief of Jack Wilson, diving at but missing a groundball single. I'm surprised the Mariners are giving him the opportunity to work on his versatility at the Major League level, but I'm also ecstatic, because the prospect of Hannahan as a utility player tickles me in all the right places, and this way I don't have to watch any Chris Woodward. Hannahan's approach to hitting makes it really, really hard for me to believe he's as bad as his numbers, and should his plus defense translate to other positions around the infield, he could very well turn out to be quite the find.

A cat running around the living room: not interesting. A cat running around the street and the sidewalk: somewhat interesting. A cat running around the living room of someone who doesn't own a cat: more interesting. A cat running around a baseball field during the middle of a game: maximum level of interest. Whenever something like this happens, the critter invariably ends up drawing a greater ovation than pretty much anything that happens during the game, which makes me think that zoos have it all wrong. The key to making an animal interesting isn't so much presenting the animal itself as it is presenting the animal in a situation in which people don't expect an encounter. I'd find our zoo way less boring if I only saw animals in surprising situations.

Reviewing Dayton Moore at the Deadline: 2007

royalsreview — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:51:04 -0000

Continuing our look back at Dayton Moore's performance at the trade deadline. For 2006, click here.

The 2007 Royals were the first Royals team since 2003 that did not lose at least 100 games, though at 69-93 they were hardly a factor in the AL Central. They reached the level of "not laughably bad", which is more or less where the Royals have stayed. In 2009, through 99 games, the Royals were 40-59. In 2007, they were 43-56. In a way, it should come as too much of a shock that this stagnation has occurred: after a very busy first year on the job, Dayton Moore has stopped aggressively shopping players.

The 2007 trade deadline was the beginning of this new phase, a phase that apparently will continue through 2009. Although the 2007 deadline did produce one of the better trades of Dayton's tenure, his inability or reluctance to do more makes the 2007 deadline an incomplete success

July 13, 2007: Dan Christensen traded to Tigers for Roman Colon. Christensen was one of the many Baird Era guys who found new addresses in 2006-7. A pitcher drafted in the fourth round of the 2002 draft, Christensen is now in the Seattle system. Considering the long odds that Christensen will ever contribute at the Major League level, snagging Roman Colon -- yes, a former Brave -- was not a bad move. Colon is no great shakes, but after spending 2008 in Omaha, he's appeared in 22 games with the Royals this season. He has a live arm, but little control (11 walks in 24 IP) and is your standard issue mediocre to poor bullpen arm. Then again, the Colon trade was less a case of Dayton's great scouting abilities than a case of the Tigers needing to part way with Colon. The Tigers likely gave Colon away for so little because he had punched Jason Kamuth -- who was trying to break up a fight between Colon and another pitcher -- so severly that Kamuth needed plastic surgery on his face. Cool!

July 25, 2007: Royals release Scott Elarton. Hours after a horrible Elarton start against the Yankees that had me questioning the meaning of life, Dayton parts ways with one of Allard's worst signings. Elarton was signed to a two year, eight million dollar deal for 2006-7. He was terrible. Moore showed a willingness to move on... from somebody else's mistake.

July 31, 2007: Octavio Dotel traded to Atlanta for Kyle Davies: An early high point of the Moore regime. Dotel had signed a one year, $5 million dollar deal, with a number of appearance escalators, in December. Everyone's assumption was that Moore had taken a chance on the oft-injured Dotel on the chance that, if healthy, he could be traded. Dotel made his first appearance with the Royals in late May, and eventually appeared in 24 games, notching 11 saves. On deadline day, this actually happened, with the Braves, yes the Braves, sending back the promising but inconsistent prospect Kyle Davies. Davies has started 46 games for the Royals since, but like JDLR and Odalis Perez, has turned in an ERA+ of 85. Davies has improved a little since his Braves days, though he hasn't made a great leap forward, and his numbers remain all over the place. His 1.8 WAR season in 2008 makes him one of Dayton's better pickups, especially considering the price paid was a partial season of Dotel.

That's it, two trades and a no-brainer DFAing.

The Colon trade was ok, but basically pointless. The Dotel-Davies trade was a very good deal however, probably the best trade of Dayton's career. (However, it's 2009 and Davies is in Omaha, so let's not go crazy.)

In spite of two ok-to-good trades, in retrospect, it is clear that a more aggressive approach would have better served the Royals long-term. The bottom line is that Dayton should have done more.

The biggest mistake was at second base. Not trading Mark Grudzielanek was an absolute mistake. It was a mistake at the time and it's a mistake now. Grudz was hitting .305/.346/.441 on July 30th, and was only owed ~2 million of his $4 million dollar salary. You have to find value for Grudz in that situation. And if you can't find the value you want, you settle for what you can get. Work with the salary and turn it to your advantage if you can in the form of another body. Whatever it takes. The Royals, of course, stuck with Grudz, and it worked out so well for them that they started 2009 with Mark Teahen playing second.

Dayton's second mistake at the 2007 deadline was holding onto David Riske. Riske had a 2.22 ERA with 11 holds at the deadline, and was only owed ~1 million in salary, with an affordable club option for 2008. Again, get something. Get a body. Take a bad contract from someone else, package it with Riske, and get two bodies. Now, of course, we know that Dayton loves collecting mid-tier veteran relievers.

Lastly, there's the possibility of buying at the deadline, as the Mariners just did. No, it wouldn't have been easy, but rebuilding the Royals was never going to be easy.

Supposedly, the Royals were going to rebuild around Dayton's scouting acumen. (Which frankly, should not be taken as a given anymore.) What better chance to display it than finding a 19 year old kid languishing in obscurity in some other system that turns into a useful player? Instead, Dayton quickly fell in love with his ability, real or otherwise, to scout 33 year old veterans, which is how we ended up with the Jose Guillen Generation.

Nearly all of Dayton's 2006 moves ended up being losing trades for the Royals, but most of them were chances worth taking. For whatever reason, after 2006, Dayton's mentality seems to have changed by 2007. Perhaps the success of the Meche signing convinced him he could win soon, especially with Greinke, Gordon and Butler lying around.

As it turned out, he was wrong then, and wrong now, and we're still paying for it.

31-42

NHZ — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:02:41 -0000

The Royals lose again. Everyone does realize that when myself and others were talking about the National League not being very good, none of actually said "but the Royals are much, much better!"? Good, glad we have that cleared up. Because right now more than ever, as the Royals drop a series to the NL Central cellar-dwellers, this team really isn't very good at baseball.

Bruce Chen made it through six-and-two-thirds, and would have had a quality start if the bullpen could've picked him up. Kyle Davies, you recall, had about negative three quality starts. I guess I should be encouraged, but it's hard to be when you're talking about a guy whose only good year came when he used voodoo, smoke and mirrors to go from journeyman to good starter in the AL East. Since then, Chen has reverted to journeyman. At least he'll always have 2005? But realistically, this was the Pirates he faced today.
"Journeyman" may actually have a hidden meaning "better than Kyle Davies, anyway."
Chen was 1-for-1 with a walk. He was infinitely better than DDJ, Olivo, Teahen, and Hernandez.
I know Trey doesn't care, but you could make a case for having neither Tony Pena Jr. or Little Luis on this team. And it'd be a pretty good one, too. We certainly don't need two utility guys who can't hit their hat size. Really, couldn't we at least give some of their PAs to someone marginally interesting such as Hulett. Oh right, he's not scrubby enough to be Willie Ballgame. Sorry, Tug.
Speaking of which, Bloomquist and Billy Butler had two hits each. The latter had two RBI, but he is terrible because he has clearly already peaked.
Brayan Pena had another hit in his only PA. With Olivo not going to be part of the next Royals competitive team, it's hard to see why BPJ shouldn't get more playing time. He's earned the right to fail, if he's going to fail.
I have only one thing to say about John Bale's pitching: was Terminator: Salvation any good?
Everyone congratulate Warden11 for correctly guessing Luis Hernandez's career SLG. It was .285 coming into this game.

Reds continue to lose in uninteresting ways, DC United claims sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference

Brendanukkah — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:16:09 -0000

More photos » by Charlie Riedel - AP

"How 'bout those Wizards? 3-1 over the Revolution. Davy Arnaud is a goddamn stud!" (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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I didn't watch the game tonight, and haven't checked any of the scores. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that our offense was unimpressive. We've now lost three straight games to teams that had the fewest wins in their respective leagues before playing us.

Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Josh Wicks. Commanded his box well, and came up huge in the second half, stopping a penalty kick from Brian McBride.

Other Notes

Jaime Moreno scored his MLS all-time career best 127th goal.
Christian Gomez enjoyed one of his best games of the season, notching his second goal of the year on a brilliant free kick. He also hit the woodwork on a long range shot that would have put the game beyond dispute.
DC United remains unbeaten at RFK this year. Its back line is gelling and holding on to leads that earlier in the season would have ended in draws.
A chippy game for Chicago, resulting in four yellow cards.
The previously unbeaten Chicago Fire have now lost their last three games.

Final - 6.13.2009	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Cincinnati Reds	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	6	1
Kansas City Royals	0	3	2	0	0	2	0	0	X	7	14	1
WP: Kyle Davies (3 - 6) LP: Bronson Arroyo (7 - 5)

Complete Coverage >

Jays 9, Royals 3

hugo — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:20:16 -0000

More photos » by Darren Calabrese - AP

6 months ago: Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Ricky Romero works against the Kansas City Royals during the first inning of a baseball game in Toronto on Friday, June 5, 2009. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese)

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Hi everyone! I'm back from the wilds of Shenandoah National Park. Lots of rain, but great times. And back just in time to write up the Jays victory over the Kansas City Royals.

The Jays got on the board early against Royals starter Zack Greinke, who was chasing Doc for the league lead in wins, with a Marco Scutaro double and a Vernon Wells non-clutch 2-out RBI single. They added a run on a Lyle Overbay home run to centrefield in the second - don't look now, but Lyle is having himself a nice little season in his platoon role. In the third, things got even better for the Jays: Alex Rios doubled in Marco Scutaro, who had hit his own double to start the inning, and after Rios scored on a Vernon Wells grounder, Adam Lind singled and then Lyle Overbay doubled in both Lind and Wells to give the Jays the 6-0 lead. The Jays never looked back, and added a run on an Adam Lind home run in the 5th and two more on a Rod Barajas 2-run shot in the 8th.

On the other side of the ball, Ricky Romero had a nice start for the Jays. Romero took a shutout into the 7th and ended the game with a 7-inning, 3-run, 5 K/2 BB evening. All runs against him were scored via the home run in the 7th, so it really was quite a good performance by the young ~~righthander~~ lefthander, and nice to see him come back with a nice start. Jason Frasor and Scott Downs did a nice job closing out the game.

With a win tonight against Greinke, the Jays put themselves in a great position vis-a-vis the rest of the series. Scott Richmond pitches tomorrow for the Jays against Luke Hochevar, and Doc Halladay goes Sunday against Kyle Davies. Let's go Jays!

Jays of the Day are Romero, Overbay, Wells, and Scutaro. And many thanks to Tom for carrying things whilst I was away. It's great to be back!

Series Preview: 6/2-6/4 Kansas City Royals @ Tampa Bay Rays

R.J. Anderson — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:26:57 -0000

6/2: Kyle Davies vs. Andy Sonnanstine (7:08 SS)

6/3: Brian Bannister vs. Jeff Niemann (7:08 FSF)

6/4: Gil Meche vs. James Shields (4:08 SS)

C John Buck/Miguel Olivo

1B Billy Butler

2B Alberto Callapso

3B Mark Teahen

SS Luis Hernandez

LF David DeJesus

CF Mitch Maier

RF Jose Guillen

No lengthy preview today; Davis is eh, Bannister is meh, and Meche is ... huh, a sub-3 FIP? Also, this is fantastic (h/t Eric Seidman):

Delmon Young: 117 PA, 1 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, .251 wOBA
Willie Bloomquist: 111 PA, 2 2B, 3 3B, 1 HR, .346 wOBA

You Say Porcello, I Say Polanco: Tigers 8, Royals 3

Ian Casselberry — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:50:33 -0000

More photos » by Orlin Wagner - AP

Doesn't everything go better with a hug? Miguel Cabrera and Fernando Rodney embrace as manly men do when they win baseball games and lead their division by four games in late May.

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As long as Zack Greinke isn't pitching, the Detroit Tigers have been doing just fine against the Kansas City Royals. And they do really well when Rick Porcello is on the mound.

The rookie won his fifth consecutive start for the Tigers, notching his team-leading sixth victory. If it's any consolation to the Royals, they became the first team in Porcello's last five games to score more than one run against him. And Mark Teahen became the first batter to hit a home run off Porcello during that span. Besides those two runs, Porcello allowed four hits in six innings, with four strikeouts and one walk.

And with Kyle Davies pitching for the Royals, the Tigers bats got back to pounding the baseball. Seven of the nine Detroit batters got hits today, and five different players drove runs in. For the day, Davies allowed eight runs (five earned, thanks to a Teahen error in the sixth) and 10 hits (two of them homers) in 5.2 innings. Against the Tigers this season, Davies is 0-2 with a 9.81 ERA. He's given up 18 hits - including four home runs - in 11 innings.

Roar:

The last time Josh Anderson batted leadoff (on Sunday vs. Colorado), he went 0-for-4. Perhaps he figured he should do better if given such an opportunity again. A 4-for-5 day, with one RBI and stolen base should make a pretty good case for him. (Those hits should redeem Anderson for the mental mistake he made in the first inning when he was picked off second base.)

After going 1-for-11 in his last five games, this seems like a fine time to throw out a Matrix quote: "Mr. Anderson - welcome back. We missed you." (It took me until the end of May, but I finally gave in.)

Placido Polanco hit his first home run of the season, as part of a 2-for-5 game with three RBIs. And Miguel Cabrera is catching up to Brandon Inge (12) and Curtis Granderson (11) for the team home run lead, after hitting his 10th of the year.

Comment of the Day:

anyone watching Champions' League?

sick game going on, barcelona is winning 2 – 0 over Manchester United!! :)
by RudeMood19

And with the series win, the Tigers add a game to their lead over the Royals in the AL Central.

AL Central Standings

	W	L	PCT	GB	STRK
Detroit	26	19	.577	0	Won 1
Kansas City	23	24	.489	4	Lost 1
Minnesota	23	24	.489	4	Won 1
Chicago	21	24	.466	5	Won 2
Cleveland	19	28	.404	8	Won 2

(updated 5.27.2009 at 5:40 PM EDT)

Braves Minor League Hot Sheet

yondaime4 — Mon, 04 May 2009 02:18:09 -0000

Alright, so continuing my stealing from Baseball America I am doing my first Hot Sheet of the year for the Braves minor leaguers. I am also going to try something new where I recap how some of our former prospects are doing for other teams.(Click the players names for their stats.)

Hot Sheet

Kris Medlen - It is hard to be better than Medlen has been this season with a .188 BAA and 28K in 23.2IP. He was dominant as a reliever and he has been just as dominant as a starter. The question is now where his future is? In the rotation or in the bullpen?
Tommy Hanson - Not much to say about Hanson that hasn't already been said. The guy is ready for the show and just needs a spot to open up for him. Someone will be trade bait in the next year to open up a spot for him.
Diory Hernandez - Hard not to vote for a guy who has been hitting around .400. He has never really hit like this before (his career minors OPS is .708 coming into the season) but he is trying to hit his way to Atlanta. He will be a decent backup INF for someone one day, but I don't think his defense is really good enough to warrant that either
Luis Valdez, Cory Gearrin, Benino Pruneda - I'm not really sure why Cory Gearrin got demoted to Danville because these three closers have been ridiculous. Observe their combined stats: 27G 17S 32.1IP 20H 2ER 41K 0.56 ERA. HAHAHA.
B. Canizares - Well he is flashing more power than he has in the past and is sporting a .963 OPS in the first month of the season. He did something similar to this last year though but he faded a little down the stretch. I hope he can keep it up.
Deunte Heath - I just don't like what Heath brings to the table, but damn he has been nearly as good as any pitcher in the system so far. He just needs to get his walks under control. He has also given up 4 unearned runs so we might need to keep an eye on him slipping later.
Zeke Spruill - He got roughed up a little today with his control finally failing him but the most impressive thing about this kid for me is his groundball ratio. He is getting 2.4 GBs vs every flyball he gives up. Nasty. If he had a good defense behind him his stats would be even better.
Gerardo Rodriguez - Rodriguez is a Yankees castoff that has been killing the ball for Rome this season. He has cooled off a little in the last few games but is still sporting a .921 OPS on the season. Take some more walks buddy and you could be a stud!
Jeff Locke - Locke's stats aren't quite as ridiculous as some of the other guys farther up this list, but that is because he had one really really bad game. His last two games however have been absolutely awesome and I think he is going to be our top pitching prospect at the end of the year.
Cody Johnson - This was an interesting one because part of Cody's stats don't look great but then the other ones look awesome. In the end he probably should be farther up the list. He is tied for second in HRs in the minors and his OPS is in the top 10 in the league. Also 7 of his 9 homers have come at home, in a notorious pitcher's park.

Requiem for a Brave

Elvis Andrus, Texas Rangers - Andrus was one of the big stufs in the Teixiera deal a couple years ago. I've never been sold on the kid, but he somehow made Texas' opening day roster and hasn't been horrible, posting an OPS a little higher than his minor league career. He has been trending down lately though so we shall see how he holds up throughout the season.

Jarrod Salty..., Texas Rangers - Salty struggled a little last year but finally got his chance this year even with all the competition among the Texas catchers (Ramirez and Teagarden) and became the regular starter in Texas. Now that he is getting regular time he is finally starting to hit a little with a .755 OPS on the season. I always liked Salty, but I think it had a lot to do with Jenny's portrayal of him in the old skits.

Matt Harrison, Texas Rangers - At one time Harrison was the Braves top ranked pitching prospect. Those were dark days indeed. He has given up at least 4 runs in every start this season (but is currently pitching well against the White Sox) and has more walks than K on the season.

Neftali Feliz, Texas Rangers - Feliz is the one guy who could really make or break the Teixeira deal (I know some of you believe the deal has already been broken) with his electric arm and studly 2008 season. So far this year he hasn't been as dominant in AAA with 14 BBs in as many innings. I've never been really sold on him, but I have to admit his arm is pretty nice.

Max Ramirez, Texas Rangers - Ramirez has a great bat but really isn't a great catcher. He was just recalled on Friday to replace Salty for a few days. He has gotten off to a rough start in AAA this year and may not have a place to play in Texas.

Kyle Davies, Kansas City Royals - Davies was the toast of Atlanta when he beat the Red Sox a few seasons back, but then Evil Davies appeared and ruined everything. Kyle started the season with a bang this year but it appears Evil Davies has returned and his ERA has ballooned to 4.85.

Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals - If I could have anyone back that we traded away in the past few years it would be this guy. Don't get me wrong, we got a great season from J.D. Drew (the best season of his career actually) but Wainwright is right on the border of being an Ace.

Blaine Boyer, St. Louis Cardinals - He hit an umpire in the face with a pitch.

Zach Miner, Detroit Tigers - Miner has been a great find for the Tigers having thrived as a swingman/reliever the past couple of seasons. He appears to be mostly starting this year though and he hasn't been quite as solid through the first month of the season.

Dan Meyer, Florida Marlins - I didn't even realize he was pitching for the Marlins until I saw him appear against us a couple weeks ago. Meyer was the guy I really thought we would regret losing when the Hudson deal happened, but that one ended up being one of our great fleecings. He has been solid as a reliever this season for Florida but was never fully healthy for Oakland.