SB Nation User Blog: kcscoliny

Helium Watch DAVID LOUGH, OF ROYALS Team: high Class A Wilmington (Carolina) Age: 22 Why He's...

kcscoliny — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:08:50 -0000

Helium Watch
DAVID LOUGH, OF ROYALS
Team: high Class A Wilmington (Carolina)
Age: 22
Why He's Here: .500/.542/.600 (10-for-20), 2 2B, 2 RBIs, 3 BB, 3 K, 1 SB
The Scoop: On most teams, David Lough would stand out as an athletic outfielder. But on a Wilmington team that includes Derrick Robinson, Adrian Ortiz and Paulo Orlando, all of whom are plus-plus runners, Lough looks like a scrappy overachiever, even if he is a former college football player. But unlike his three teammates in the outfield, none of whom has an OPS above .600, Lough is proving he can hit. He's hitting .341/.396/.449 this year, following up on a red-hot ending to the 2008 season at low Class A Burlington. Lough has the ability to play center field, although he's a corner outfielder with the Blue Rocks roster of speedsters, but his hitting ability could enable him to stand out from his fellow outfielders, even if he may finish last in a 60-yard dash.

Baseball America Hot List

Top 30 Prospect Retires

kcscoliny — Sat, 23 May 2009 16:02:36 -0000

Top 30 Prospect Retires

Kyle Martin a Top 30 Royals prospect prior to the season by Baseball America was listed on the transactions list as retiring. Surprising considering he hit well in A ball last season, Hawaii during the winter and in spring training prior to the season. Don't know the reason why but he struggled quite a bit this year in Burlington. It had to be quite a surprise that he got sent to Burlington in the first place.

Maybe the Most Important 6 games of the season

kcscoliny — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:56:44 -0000

Prior to the season all the experts had the AL Central as one of if not THE most winable division in the league. Well a month in a half into the season that was still hard to argue but as the month has come to a close the Detroit Tigers look like they have an opportunity to grab hold of the division by the short and curlies. While all the other teams in the Central play opponents from the NL Central the Tigers play the Colorado Rockies, losers of 6 of 8 and last place in the NL West. The Royals, Twins and Indians all play NL Central "local" teams with winning records.

The Tiggers are hot, six wins in a row, five quality starts in their last six games and with the D-Train tossing out a good performance possibly the makings of the strongest rotation in the division to go along with a solid offense. While Detroit has been hot KC has been reeling with some bad bp outings, shaky defense and questionable offense at best. These next six games could be the maker or breakers of the season if KC wants to contend in this division.

Pitching Matchups Detroit v Colorado
Rick Porcello 4-3 4.95 FIP vs Ubaldo Jimenez 3-4 3.51 FIP neither pitcher has given up more than 1 ER in last 3 starts.
Jason Marquis 5-3 4.56 FIP vs Armando Galaragga 3-3 5.62 FIP Galarraga has really stuggled with BB's this season giving up nearly 5 per 9ip.
Dontrelle Willis 1-0 4 ER 11 Ip vs Jason Hammel 0-3 4.53 FIP The D-Train looked pretty solid against Texas. If he or Bonderman turn in a solid season that could spell ruin for the other AL Central teams.

Colorado is 9-6 all time versus the Tigers unfortunately 3 of the losses came to last years Tigers that and past records are meaningless.

Detroit Matchups
Justin Verlander vs Gil Meche
Edwin Jackson vs Zack Greinke
Rick Porcello vs Kyle Davies

Detroit has built a 3 game advantage in the division and faces the worst NL record of the five AL Central teams this weekend. They have an opportunity to break away from the pack while KC has an opportunity to reel them back in. KC with a 6-3 record these last 9 games also has an opportunity to put back to back winning record months together since I don't know when.

Moose Hits #7

kcscoliny — Tue, 19 May 2009 00:28:58 -0000

Moose Hits #7

That's 3 in his last 4 games.

What the (BLEEP) is Goin ON?

kcscoliny — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:34:33 -0000

What the (BLEEP) is Goin ON?

JoGui has more Walks than Strikeouts.

KILAMONSTER UPDATE

kcscoliny — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:53:13 -0000

KILAMONSTER UPDATE

West PCL Road Trip improving Kila's Line During the 6 game road trip so far Kila is 10-24 4 Hr 3 2b's 6 Bb's Raising his season line to: .270/.439/.548 9(2b) 7 Hr 37/30 Bb/So

Moose Poppin

kcscoliny — Sat, 16 May 2009 18:09:25 -0000

Moose Poppin

GMDM calling Omar Minaya

kcscoliny — Sat, 16 May 2009 18:04:31 -0000

GMDM calling Omar Minaya

Mets considering trading for a First baseman. I wouldn't want to trade Kila but Shealy is an option to trade and get something in return.

That is if he is healthy enough to play. He hasn't played in a week.

Minor League Update - Promote Chris Nicoll Now

kcscoliny — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:29:53 -0000

It's promotion time in my mind. Disco, Nicoll and Bianchi don't have a whole lot more to prove at their levels and really no one standing in their way to be upped a level. Some of the bigger names are slowly but surely getting better. Kila and Hos have raised their average to .250 while Moose hit another HR last night after a slight Homer drought and extending his hitting streak to six games.

Eric Hosmer

Eric has raised his average to .250 coming into todays game. In comparison Moustakas didn't cross the .250 boundary until July sometime. I don't expect a HR title out of Hos but I would expect alot of doubles and maybe a higher overall line than Moose considering Hos has better plate discipline.

.250/.365/.354 7 doubles 1 HR 18BB/27So

Kelvin Herrera got skipped in his second start for the Bees. Hopefully it is nothing serious.
Blaine Hardy has a nice 35/0 K/bb ratio

Burlington Bees stats

Clint Robinson has continued his hot hitting in Wilmington ranking in the Top 5 of almost every offensive category in the Carolina league. Jason Taylor will be reinstated in about 25 games or so and if he(Jason) is gonna get to play this season then giving Robinson a promotion to AA at that time could make sense if he continues his hitting ways. This is probably the best Wilmington hitting performance by a Royal prospect since Dee Brown.
Moustakas hit his 5th Hr last night and Jeff Bianchi has proven enough to get promoted in my mind.
Giavotella might be the winner of this year Ka'aihue AWARD for most disciplined hitter in the minors. Little Italy is carrying a .347 OBP despite only hitting .200. Hopefully that BABIP starts to balance out and he raises that average soon.
Juan Abreu made his first appearance of the year the other night for the Rocks and while he did give up a run Abreu continued his strike out ways. Abreu had a 12.59 K/9 line last year in Burlington and fanned the side in his first appearance with the Rocks.
Danny Duffy dominated in his last start. Tonight he faces the First Place Lynchburg Hillcats(Pirates) who feature the '08 2nd overall pick Pedro Alvarez.
Wilmington Stats

NW Arkansas has some solid performers who might be pushing for promotions.

Jordan Parraz is proving to be a wise pickup for Tyler Lumsden. His current line is .347/.443/.505 10bb/10so. He's showing more pop in the last 10 games hitting 6 doubles and both of his HR's. Parraz needs to play for a while longer in AA before he is ready to be promoted but it is nice to see him performing well.
Chris Nicoll I don't know what else Chris needs to do to show he is better than this level. He's got a Whip under 1 19 K's in 20 IP and his FIP and ERA are down over a run each compared to last season. PROMOTE NOW !
Chris Hayes I might as well just type the same thing that I did about Nicoll. Disco is dominating, it's just a different type of domination and the scouts and management probably can't recognize it. 4/1 GB/FB RATIO !!! His LD rate is up 3% to a normal 16% but his GB rate is up 17% to 72%.

These two relief pitchers really can't prove anymore than they already have and guys like Josh Newman and Yabuta are taking up roster space in Omaha. Heath Phillips could also be inline for a taxi cab out of town as he has been rocked the last few trips out.
Kila 5 of his last 9 with a double and 2 homers. Brayan Pena is hitting .351 since being sent down and JR House and Ryan Shealy continue to hit well also. Surprisingly Shealy has not hit a HR this season and is only sluggling .425 with a .345 BA.

Omaha Stats
NW Arkansas Stats

While there isn't a whole lot of offensive help close to KC there could be bullpen help later in the season with guys like Nicoll, Hayes and Rosa.

Duffy lands #9 slot on BA Hot sheet

kcscoliny — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:14:27 -0000

Duffy lands #9 slot on BA Hot sheet

First Royal this season