Reveal thine self

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Topics gleaned from various game chats this year that demand further research. The Kansas City Royals thank you in advance for your careful consideration and thoughtful response. The Kansas City Royals also ask that you please refrain from questions of any kind. We ask the questions around here.

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As we unwind the dirty end of winter towards pitchers & catchers reporting and spring training, many of you may be tempted to whittle the hours via HBO's new series, "Luck". The show is produced by David Milch, who is responsible for some remarkable television, a genius who has redefined the genre in many ways (Deadwood, Hill St Blues, LA Law). Luck is set at Santa Anita park in LA, one of the last bastions of big time horse racing west of the Mississippi. The series features some heavyweights, including Dusty Hoffman, Nick Nolte, Dennis Farina, and the brilliant mofo's who played Dan Dougherty and Jewell from Deadwood, among others. As per usual, the dialogue crackles with Milch's peculiar mix of eloquence, profanity, intelligence,and the patios of the alternately seedy and glamorous horse track culture.

Milch, never one to spoon feed or insult his audience, drops viewers directly down into the grandstands, with not much in the way of explanation for some of the arcane in's and out's of track life. From the nuances of betting a pick 6, to claiming races, to trainers betting on races, to why you wouldn't want a jockey yammering about being on a good horse, and the fickle relationship between owners, trainers, jockey agents, and jockeys; many of the plot threads in Luck appear to be buiding upon a flimsy grasp of some previous horse gambling knowledge.

As a degenerate horse player for many years. I'm here to help. Post your horse racing questions, handicapping tips, questions about WTF is character X doing in situation Y, etc.....let me be your Luck sherpa. I'm not Alan Sepinwall. I'm merely offering to flesh out horse stuff. Don't let your lack of interest or familiarity with a crooked, unforgiving, and virtually obsolete nook of sporting culture get in the way of enjoying some good television.

FWIW, Liasion was done well before he clipped heels and lost his rider Sat in the Robert Lewis Stakes. Which may be good for his odds next time out. Alpha has looked good in NY, but not sure if his competition amounts to much. I'll Have Another, upset winner of the Robert Lewis, is one to keep an eye on.

“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.”

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Curious if any of you literary types have checked out this book?  "Bad Sports" profiles owners from across the sporting spectrum, who thumb their noses at fielding competitive teams, and use all manner of chicanery to fatten up at the taxpayers expense.  I think the issue of owners bending over taxpayers for new stadiums, stadium improvements, and various subsidies deserves serious consideration, but the 'Bad Sports, How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love" is a little too flip and arch for my taste.  The transgressions under Glass are pretty well known:  some horrible child labor practices as Wal Mart CEO, ardent anti-union practices, willingness to use replacement players during the '94 strike, slashing budgets for things as minor as batting screens for minor league teams, not wanting to spend money on negro league appreciation day uni's, 1,000 dollar max signing bonuses for the majority of the draft picks during Allard's last days, etc.. etc...etc.... The chapter briefly touches upon the recent tax payer funded improvements to Royal's stadium, payroll cuts, and luxury tax bene's.  I think its fairly clear that Glass was a cost cutting prick with no regard for success on the diamond for many years.  Have things changed?   It seems feasible that the Greinke trade could have been done in part, with payroll as a consideration.  The Royals have spent handsomely in the draft the last 3 or 4 years, added a minor league team, and thrown some money at Latino teens the past few years.  Is that evidence enough that Glass gives a shit about fielding a winning team? 

I was fortunate enough to catch a few games at Surprise last week, and noticed The Duke coaching 1st base and generally prowling around.  Didn't see his name on the org/admin roster on the club website, curious if anyone knows what his official position is?  By the way, Brett was ubiquitous.  Maybe its just me, but the infamous pants shitting anecdote has made me wonder what the hell the club must think of him puttering around in Spring Training each year.  It used to bring me some comfort.  Now, I just want him to stay away from Kila.  And Hillman's mullet looks like it came from a hot tub time machine.

Like many of you, I've been devouring my 2010 Baseball Prospectus. I know its easy, and probably sensible, to detest many of the moves the Royals brass has made over the, ummmm, last 20 years.  However, I've noticed that peppered throughout several team capsules, and sometimes even in other teams player comments, are snide remarks about our beloved Royals.  It would be interesting to actually see how many times they piss on the Royals throughout the book.  Is it just me, or is it a tad overboard?  Sure, many of GMDM's moves are virtually indefensible.  However, I think a lot of the negativity is overblown by a couple of bad moves, or moves that turned sour.  Principally, the Kendall signing, the Yunitard trade, and the inability to repeat the 2008 feat of building a solid bullpen out of spare parts.  I know the bad moves outweight the good ones.  However, on the same hand, its undeniable that he's rebuilding the farm system, and has somehow convinced the odious Glass family to spend money on the draft and in the international market, added a farm team, and gave the pink slip to the old training staff.  In reality, KC hasn't had the likes of Montgomery, Melville, Myers, Moose, Hoss, Duffy, etc....in the minors, and a young-ish anchors in the bigs like Greinke, Butler, Soria, and maybe Gordon, to build upon in a long time.  No way a defense of GMDM, and I don't trust the process.  But despite the on-going stench, doesn't it realistically, in the big picture, seem to be less pungent?  I see green shoots.  Is BP stomping on the Royals necks so gleefully a product of my sensitive and tender nature, or have any of you bad asses picked up on it too?

I know you're all busy cramming fowl into your pumpkin pie holes, but where is the speculation, analysis, and dissection of the Tugger for a PTBNL deal with the dreaded BoSox?  Anytime GMDM deals with a team who obviously possesses a superior analytic, fiduciary, and common sense edge over our beloved Royals (Theo AND Bill James?  We're screwed), I feel queasy.  Curious if anyone has an educated guess as to what pool of PTNBL's we might be looking into  in return for one of the Royals many sporky types?  I know its Thanksgiving, but come  on people, Tugger's gone and tumbleweeds are blowing around here..........

I was at Surprise last nite for the A's game, and was delighted to see George Brett working in the batting cage with Mike Jacobs and Joguie.  He had some crazy assed tool I'd never seen before, basically a bat with a ball mounted on it......then he'd have Jacobs swing with the bat/ball mount  and try to hit a ball off a tee.....Brett was talking about how it helps with muscle memory and learning to square up the ball on the bat, etc....also mentioned that Robin Yount introduced him to the batt/ball thing, and Ortiz currently uses it.  Anyway, Jacobs struggeld making good contact.   So Brett stepped in and whack, whack, whack, it was just like 1980 all over again.  My first time at ST, I couldn't recommend it more to baseball fans.  Great atmosphere.  Ryan Shealy was swearing in the batting cage (I'm guessing that happens a lot more  without Rev Sweeney prowling the grounds like an assistant principal at a jr high sock hop) and John Buck half seriously scolded Shealy.  "Ryan, check out this chain link fence.  It has holes in it.  The fans can hear you."  Then he apologized to my wife and told the small group around the batting cage that they'd wash out Shealy's mouth with soap after the game.  Greinke had a nice game, trouble locating his off speed stuff early, but he got on top of it and dominated the last 3 or 4 innings.  A vile Snow had a line drive HR to center.  And Bloomquist was always the first guy in/and off the field between innings. 

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/12/royals-braves-t.html

Dearest God above...........Nooooooooo!  As the rock solid and well respected MLB Trade Rumours.com points out, this seems highly unlikely.  However, it still scares the beejesus outta me and Soren Petro.  MLBtraderumours posits that the Braves would likely need to add pitching to balance out this deal and make it more palatable for the tin eared palate of Dayton Moore (Dinty More?), but unless the arms added include Tom Smoltz vintage 1998, then I'm going to piss and moan until I'm powder blue in the face.