CentralChamps2009
Mar 29, 2008 Dec 23, 2009 39 1559
Royals fan since '76. There's nothing else I've liked for that long in my life.
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a fan of
Kansas City Royals
Kansas City Chiefs
Missouri St Bears
Bobby Allison (that's right, I'm old school)
really?
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Now we know whose fault it was
It was John Mizerock's fault. He's the only coach shown the door for the fine performance of the Royals this season.
Accountability starts now!
Bill James said something a while ago that I thought was about as good a thought about bad baseball teams as anything I’ve heard. He said, "The future is not a plan." And I think that’s exactly right. Every baseball team has a future. Every one. Every team has "prospects" — Baseball America next year will list off 30 for each team. Every team is loaded down with players in Class A who, if things go well, can emerge as the next great superstar. Every team has pitchers who could, and hitters who might, and catchers who should, and base runners who conceivably can. Every team in baseball.
And because every team has a future, it’s easy to fool yourself. It’s easy to talk about how things will get better. This is not always a bad thing. This is what gives fans hope every spring training. This is what keeps players inspired. This is what keeps baseball people going forward. And sometimes, rarely, a team even might fool itself into believing that it is better than the apparent talent and play at that higher level, at least for a while.
But … more often than not, fooling yourself isn’t much of a plan for survival. And thus, The Hochevar Principle: The future comes to all teams. Some teams wait for it. Those teams finish in last place a lot.
The Onion on Jeter-love
A fitting tribute to the MSM's manlove of the MVP-elect.
Man, I wish I could get that picture framed.
Arizona Fall League players announced
Looks like they are sending everybody of note except Hosmer (who'll be resting his eyes and bruised finger).
A night with the Blue Rocks
by CentralChamps2009 on Aug 12, 2009 12:40 PM EDT
15 comments
I just got back from a vacation out east where, on Saturday night, I took in a Blue Rocks game on the road against the Potomac Nationals in the "Battle of Bryce Harper's Potential Future Teams." It was also a battle for 1st place in the Northern Division due to a Wilmington team-record 12-game winning streak. My presence turned out to be as unlucky as trying to win a 13th in a row, as the Rocks barely even showed up for the 9-0 pasting. As no one truly cares about the results of these games, here's a really-really-layman's opinion of what I saw amongst the individuals on the crown jewel of the current farm system:
Hitting: Both Johnny G. and Clint Robinson (the only player who looked good in all of his at bats) crushed doubles into the left field gap against a pretty-good-but-not-overpowering LH in 2008 10th round draft pick in Tom Milone. This was the extent of the positive observations of the offense). Apparently Milone's recently learned a cut fastball that spent most of the game just touching the left side of the plate and basically confounding everyone. Moustakas took a walk, but really never looked good in any of his at-bats--what contact he made was minimal, and I he struck out twice. Hosmer did get a hold of one to the opposite field which looked like it would carry for a long double, but the oppressively still air of Pfitzer Stadium (like apparently the entire Carolina League) seemed to push it back down for a line out (Robinson and Johnny were helped by a wind straight out to center earlier in the game which I could only visually verify with a flag--you could feel nothing in the stands).
15 comments | 5 recs
Rowdy back to AA
Hope lives on!
My night in NW Arkansas
by CentralChamps2009 on Jul 11, 2009 3:27 AM EDT
4 comments
I made my first trip to Springdale to see the NW Arkansas Naturals Friday night. Here's some observations:
4 comments | 3 recs
New international signing
This is the type of news that allows me to cope with the swing-and-miss assembling of this year's team. $1.5 million to get a 16-year-old player wanted by other teams is something that doesn't happen 3 years ago. I expect more good news as "international" (which I think is merely code for "Dominican") signing day is later this week and we're supposed to have money due to the weak draft market which led to a lot of college pitching (aka cheaper guys) being taken.
Disco's callup story
This guy is must reading when he gets a chance to write a longer post. Be forewarned: fecal matter has a prominent place in the story, and the term "poop stick" gets used more than once.
Bonus: his previous post informed us that Ponson took the whole team out to a Brazilian steakhouse while on the road, telling us: 1) Ponson's a nice guy, and 2) Ponson's structural girth is not an accident.
Undefeated Royals
The Arizona League Royals, that is. The rookie Royals won their season opener today over the AZL Padres 10-5 in come-from-behind fashion, scoring 6 runs in the 8th and 9th innings. Top offensive perfomers were 2009 19th-round pick Ryan Stovall of Thomas College (he's a 3b, DH'ed today--2-3, 2RBI, 2 R, 1 BB), 2009 10th-round pick Geoffrey Baldwin (1B and the only drafted HS signed yet--1-4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, 1 BB) and 2008 6th round draft pick Alex Llanos (2-5, 2 runs). 2008 Venezuelan signee Willian Avinazar had a rough-but-not-too-horribly-rough start (4 runs on 4 hits, 3K/1BB), and 2009 33rd round pick Claudio Bavera got the win, giving only 1 H and 2 BB and striking out 2 in 2.2 IP. Josh Worrell, 2009 30th rounder and spawn of Curse-of-Denkinger-related relief pitcher Todd Worrell, pitched a scoreless ninth with a K.
Rookie league teams Burlington and Idaho Falls open their seasons tomorrow night.
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