SB Nation User Blog: antidecaf

Bell's pregame comments

antidecaf — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 22:13:11 -0000

I don't know if anyone caught the pre-game show today and Denny's interview with Buddy... it about made me vomit. He said in his opinion the Twins' have the best offense in the league! The team that is 23rd in OPS, 18th in runs scored. Bell went on and on about how much he loves the Twins' approach at the plate and how effective it is. He said over and over how you have to be aggressive at the plate and swing at first pitch strikes, and railed against the new fangled idea that plate discipline might be a good thing. He also said that this is/should be the Royal's organizational philosophy. That really worries me if Bell is going to be an active part of the front office even after he is gone. Ugh this man can not be gone fast enough.

more Billy Huber

antidecaf — Thu, 17 May 2007 19:34:40 -0000

I caught the tail end of Soren Petro's interview with Dayton Moore today in which he apparently asked him about the handling of Butler. Did anyone hear what he said? After the interview was over Petro mentioned something about injury/DL status/roster-something-or-other but I couldn't tell what it all meant. If anyone did hear it, can you tell us what was said?

I frankly can't believe the organization is going to move him to 1B now. First of all, and this has been said but bears repeating, if whoever is in charge of making these decisions thought Butler was ready to play LF in the bigs then either A) that person should be fired for allowing Butler to come up here and embarrass himself or B) that person was right and Butler just needed some time to adjust to the big league game. If the answer is A) then so be it, someone screwed up and everyone needs to move on. However, if the answer is B) then the problems with the Royals as an organization are only going to continue. Can they not see what is right in front of them? This situation with Butler is looking more like Justin Huber's every single day. I almost want to lay money down on one of Buddy Bell's batless sons getting called to Omaha next week to play first base, and Butler getting once again moved back to the OF.

I hope this is all just a lot of frustration over what will turn out to be nothing, but I can't say I am optimistic that it will turn out that way.

Billy Huber

antidecaf — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:03:53 -0000

I mean Justin Butler... I mean...

This situation makes me question whether Dayton Moore is the GM we thought he could be.

Why he hasn't fired Bell for this is absolutely beyond me. Between this and moving Gordon to 1st base, I have about lost all faith that the Royals will ever be able to be an organization in the same vein as Minnesota.

Berroa & Bell Blame Benighted Baseball Buffs

antidecaf — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 04:16:18 -0000

Recently in the diaries Buddy Bell was lambasted for his comments comparing shortstops Andres Blanco and Angel Berroa. Bell's comments seemed offensive at best and at least unnecessary in the eyes of most Royal's fans. However, Bell made other comments in the same articles that I believe are of interest:

"Four eyes see better than two," [Berroa] said. "Sometimes, I get down so easily. ... Right now, you [Bell] are my father and you can see better than me. Sometimes we're doing something and not doing it right."

The fact that Berroa gets down on himself so much is one of Bell's big concerns.

"There's a misconception around the city that he doesn't care," Bell said.

Indeed, Berroa has become one of the main targets of Kansas City's fans this year. Bell said that Berroa just worries about his game in excess.

"It just eats him up too much," Bell said. "He's got to get where he can forget about it. It just weighs heavy on his mind and his heart."

So basically the argument here is that Berroa sucks only because the fans are so down on him. As I see it there are 3 possible conclusions to be drawn from this:

Bell is right. Berroa is not playing up to his 2003 ability because of his emotional and mental weakness coupled with the KC fanbase's utter frustration with him.
Bell is wrong. Berroa had a fluke year in 2003, and does not have the ability to be a major league shortstop.
Bell (and more likely Moore) want other 'baseball guys' around the league to think Berroa is only struggling because of the KC situation. The idea being that a change of scenery is all he needs to perform to 2003 standards.

Which is it? Personally I believe it is 2), and the optimist in me wants to believe it is 3). However, 1) is still an intriguing theory to me as a baseball fan: can someone really play this bad for this long based solely on those factors? Is it possible for Berroa to improve by the fans loudly cheering him for every at bat? Would a sports psychologist be able to help? Buddy Bell certainly seems to believe it... and he is nothing if not 'experienced' with that type of baseball voodoo, one would think. At any rate, I find it somewhat fascinating.. so there it is. What do yall think?

lineup age

antidecaf — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 07:23:37 -0000

A probable lineup vs. right handed pitchers:

Dejesus - 26
Grudzielanek - 36
Teahen - 24
Brown - 31
Costa - 24
Shealy - 27
Buck - 26
Gathright - 25
Blanco - 22

That is an average age of 26.7. That is quite a bit better than the infamous lineups of earlier in the season with Sanders, Stairs, and Bako.