SB Nation User Blog: powderbluepower

35 percent report

powderbluepower — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:33:20 -0000

You know what? I'm pissed. I spent 2 hours writing a comparison of Royals and Mariners. I've been busy and I finally get a few hours to write one of these things, and then I hit one button and it's gone and I don't know what happened to it. Gah.

It's late and my dog is sleep-barking, so I'm going to do this all in short form.

The plan was to compare Royals v. Mariners, because the Mariners are behind us in the AL standings, it's the battle of Grass Creek, Wyo., it's Ibanez v. Meche, it's Guillen v. someone else, I guess... so I spent 2 hours comparing position players and everything. Here's my summation, because I don't have time to spend 2 more hours explaining it again. After the position is the team I decided has the advantage. The only one I'll elaborate on is the closer.

C: Royals, easily
3B: Mariners, by a bit, but it's open to discussion
SS: Mariners, by a large amount
2B: Pick'em (Similar numbers)
1B: Mariners (Glad has slightly less power)
LF: Royals (Guillen has slightly more power)
RF: Royals (Teahen v. Balentien)
CF: Mariners (My original post said DeJesus is a poor man's Ichiro, not Ichiro by any means, but some close numbers)
DH: Royals (Butler v. Vidro, Butler wins)

SP1: Mariners (closer than you'd think)
SP2: Mariners (closer than I thought)
SP3: Royals (not so much)
SP4: Royals (not so much)

Yeah, it was all tied through this point. In my original post, I had explanations and stats and stuff. It was awesome.

Closer: Royals

Here's what I originally said about Joakim Soria: It's not close. My fiancee is neither a KC native nor a baseball fan. So she doesn't understand why I love the Royals so much. She doesn't get why I root for them if they're always on the bottom end of the standings. And during the 12-game losing streak, it was hard to answer that question to someone who doesn't have the background with the club. But then you look at someone like Joakim Soria. The Royals didn't just pay for a proven commodity developed by someone else. The Royals made a shrewd move to find this hidden gem. It's that difference between finding a diamond in the rough at a garage sale and using your fat wallet to simply outpay for something. There's just so much pride in the former situation than there is in any other situation. And Joakim Soria is a Royal. He is OURS. When he's on the mound with the lead, I can turn the game off because I know it'll be a victory. He is just that good. He is a reason why I am a Royals fan. Soria is proof that smart moves count for something in a world with fat wallets. And he is better than J.J. Putz.

25ish percent progress report

powderbluepower — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:19:01 -0000

I'm going to be gone this weekend looking for wedding locations in Norman. As a result, I won't be able to post the 25 percent progress report when it is appropriate (after Thursday's game). Since we're at a significant milestone, it's time for something different (also, repeating the line "pitching good, batting not so good" is getting tiring). Therefore, it's time for everyone's favorite 5-7-5 poems, HAIKU! I only used active players, so sorry Hideo Nomo, Luke Hudson and John Bale. No haiku for you. Maybe I'll spend a night coming up with some other form of poetry next milestone. I guarantee I/won't write a freaking sonnet /when the future hits.

We'll have a haiku about each of the 25-man roster's progress this year, starting with the pitching staff.

Pitchers:

His brain is like a gun
since his arm's not a cannon
Brian Bannister

Have you seen this man?
Introduce to Trey Hillman
"Turkey" Jim Gobble

The rotation's ace
A.L.-second ERA
Good job Zack Greinke

Got to like this kid
Solid after his first start
"Cool" Luke Ho-chev-ar

He's undefeated!
ERA's at 2-point-five!
Who now? Ron Mahay

The chin triangle
mixed results but not as great
Just so-so Gil Meche

The bullpen's surprise
has been this young set-up man
Lion-O Nunez

If he's in, we lose
Last ten games: nine team losses
Joel Peralta

Didn't we do him
About two haikus ago?
Ramon Ramirez

Zero ERA
Mexican Tough Save Machine
Joakim Soria

ERA sub-Meche
Not that good; not really bad
He is Brett Tomko

The worst ERA
on the team but nice nickname
Y. "Shake" Yabuta

Batters:

Did he have power?
I honestly don't recall
John Buck, are you real?

I AM THE POWER!
Not He-Man, but great slugging
Miguel Olivo

Hits more than Pena
But no hits in last six games
Mr. Callaspo

Trey is not a fan
Except as a pinch runner
Esteban German

His grit makes up for
Mediocre statistics
Or should it? Ross Gload

The future George Brett?
He can bat, but more pine tar
for Alex Gordon

I'm so glad I can spell
Hitting well last six games
Grudzielanek

The powers that be
don't make batting easy for
Pena the Lesser

He went to Rutgers
did not know that. Strong at plate
David DeJesus

Joey not Joseph
He's fast and that's about it
Speedy GonGathright

The Mendoza Line
is in the rear-view mirror
Go Jose Guillen

Is he good or not?
Low RBIs, high walk rate
Say what? Mark Teahen

Less runs than Pena
But he has a big boy bat
Big Billy Butler

Standings: 2.5 from top
one back from ChiSox, one
up on the Tigers

Eighteen/twenty-one
Is not a bad record at all
so LET'S GO ROYALS!

Twenty percent progress report

powderbluepower — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:20:44 -0000

So when do we decide we're to a significant point of the season? We're 1/5 of the way through the year. The Royals COULD do really well in the last 80 percent. The Royals COULD fall apart like a broken toy. But have we seen enough of the season to decide about the team by now? Here's the 20 percent report.

Pitching: Let's talk about the two studs and the young gun first.

Greinke is good. But he hasn't picked up the wins lately despite fairly dominant performances. He has only pitched once in the last several games, a loss, though he really shouldn't have gotten the L. He gave up four hits and 2 ER on solo shots. He also struck out nine. That's a winning performance most nights. Greinke's the ace right now.

In the last two games, Soria has not given up a hit. In two innings of work. In the only two games the Royals won in this period. He also struck out two. He's a hoss. I think that's about all I need to say about that.

Young gun: Luke Hochevar (pronounced Ho-Shaver, apparently, which makes me giggle) is doing pretty well. He's picked up two wins in two games thanks to going 6 innings and getting enough run support. In his last start, he pitched six innings, and gave up only 2 ER on 3 hits. If you throw out his poor first start, he's had something like a 2.25 ERA in his last two starts. Not bad, young man.

Now, two guys who went in opposite directions the last week. Gil Meche is starting to get his mojo going again. He had a great performance, going seven strong, giving up no walks on four hits and four strikeouts. That was "the performance [he] needed".

I hate saying this, but Bannister isn't doing so hot lately. I'm starting to get worried about him. His first three games were lights out. Then he sucked, then he had a two-run game with no run support (L) and then he sucked again recently. Tonight he... was below average. He gave up five runs. On 13 hits and two walks. Granted, all five runs were by Garret Anderson, but still: He's not doing well. I'm starting to wonder if teams are figuring him out or what exactly is going on. One more bad performance, and I'm officially putting him on my "watch carefully" list.

Sh.... Brett Tomko did well: 7 innings, 0 ER, 2 hits, 2 BBs, 7 Ks. I don't know what this means.

The bullpen has regressed some. They cost us one game, but then again, they didn't necessarily cost us the game, since we forgot to take our bats. But overall? Still not the best, not the worst.

HItting: Alex Gordon is the best hitter on the team. He hasn't done great in the last 5 appearances, though. 2 RBIs, 2 BBs, 3 hits in 20 plate appearances. But he's still leading the team in hits and total bases. .281/.346/.413

Billy Butler and Mark Teahen ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE, sort of. They are hitting well, but strangely with no power whatsoever. Between the two of them, they hit one extra base hit since I last wrote. It was a double by Butler. However, they're both hitting fairly regularly. Teahen's numbers remained almost exactly the same, at .271/.353/.381. But he's now leading the team in walks and is two hits behind Gordon for most hits. He's close behind in total bases, too. Butler, at .284/.349/.362. One hit shy of Gordon, the same amount of walks, and half the Ks. Only complaint? No power. You're big, bad Billy Butler. Bring the big, bad bat and it'll be better.

Other good hitters that need to be recognized: Alberto Callaspo (.350/.435/.425), David DeJesus (.318/.378/.424), Miguel Olivo (.273/.298/.582! Leads team in HRs, with 4... seriously. If this continues, the team leader will have 20 HRs). John Buck needs to be mentioned here. In his last seven games, his numbers are .313/.421/.563. His yearlong numbers are up to .238/.333/.363. Keep it up, Buck.

So-so: Grudzy's keeping up the wood (.280/.330/.333) but starting to lag a bit. Gload is exemplifying the sort of nondescript averageness that defines both the attractiveness and the problems with "grit." To say we need more production is to put it lightly.

The Guillen/TPJ Corner: Guillen's numbers are down from the last report. He's .now .165/.198/.306. He IS leading the team in RBI, though he didn't add any in the last week. He only has five walks and leads the team in Ks. I don't want to do this... I don't want to do this... But here are the stat's for Emil Brown in Oakland: .294/.321/.413. They have a 5 AB difference, so there's not a huge difference there. Brown has 17 more hits, 13 more RBIs, an equal number of walks and 1/3 the strikeouts. Also, he has three fewer extra base hits. Anyway... I hate doing that. Don't make me do it again, Jose. TPJ: .157/.174/.202. Again, that's slightly up. Good for you, TPJ.

The biggest issue is that the Royals just can't get runs on the board. The Royals didn't get more than 4 runs in the last 5 games. They averaged 2 runs a game. I don't know if there's a serious home run threat on the team. And there are few guys that are a threat for extra-base hits that become runs.

Standings: It seems this section is good news/ bad news every time. Good news: If you said the Royals were 2.5 games out of first place on May 7, you win a prize. They are 20th in the league in win/loss percentage. That's... an improvement, I guess. Bad news: They're 4 wins away from .500. The Royals are now in solid fourth, a game ahead of Detroit for fifth in the AL Central.

Summary: I can't help but think the Royals could be better than they are. The pitching is there. It's fantastic. It's exactly what we could have hoped for from them. But the offense is... staggeringly not getting enough runs. With a little run support, these Royals could be fairly dominant. Greinke is amazing. Hochevar looks for real. Meche looks like he got his Groove back. Bannister is struggling a bit, but even Tomko looked good. We just need more than 2-4 runs per game.

Wrap-up: 14-18, fourth in AL Central. 1 game behind Cleveland, one game up on Detroit. 2.5 games out of first and 1.5 games behind Chicago.

Slightly more than 15 percent progress report

powderbluepower — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:55:06 -0000

Well, I've been away planning a wedding and not really being able to keep up on the Royals as much as I'd like to, but I'll make up for it now with a long Royals recap. It's now 26 games into the season, or 16 percent of the season.

Pitching: Let's start with my favorite topics of conversation, Bannister and Grienke.

They both took a little bit of a hit this week, because they both gave up a few runs. We'll start with Bannister, as usual. Bannister hasn't won in the last two games. In his last two games, he's given up 7 runs over 11.2 innings. Not that good, but his last start, a 6.2 inning, 4 hit, 2 ER game is danged good, and just about what you could hope for out of a starter. However, the team's bats went out that day, and Banny was saddled with the 2-0 loss. He hasn't won since April 13, but in reality only had one bad game so far this year. His ERA is now 2.48, which I will take happily. Banny is playing better than most could have expected, he just needs to pick up a win or two to get back on track for everything.

Zack Greinke has really been the staff of this rotation. He hasn't had a game where you could say "He completely sucked in this game." In his weakest outing, he gave up two runs in 5 innings. He didn't really have great control, since he walked four, but still, that's not a great deal of suckage. Then, in his most recent start, he pitches a five-hit, 7-inning, 1 ER game. His ERA has ballooned a bit, up to 1.25, but he's 3-0, and the team has won four of the five games he's pitched. Keep it up, Zack. Until things change, let's just keep using my summations from the first of these: He's playing well and even if he regresses a bit, he'll still be darn good.

Luke Hochevar's debut wasn't too good. He went only 4.2 innings and gave up 6 ER. This is a bad thing. His second game was more what we expected. He went 6 innings and gave up only 1 ER to earn his first victory. Play more like your second game, and we'll like you. Play like the first, and we'll call you names.

The bullpen struggled a little bit in the last 10 games. Now, the only pitcher yet to give up a run is Joakim (aka Sueno -- The Mexican Dream) Soria. He's done well. I have nothing else to say about him, except he's been very, very good. He's a keeper.

Between Ramon Ramirez and Leo Nunez, they gave up 4 runs in the last 10 games. Quietly, though, Ron Mahay is at a solid 2.45 ERA in 11 innings of work. As a whole, they're no longer the Absolutely Deadly Force they once were, but they're still much better than a lot of other bullpens out there.

And, as always, Gil Meche update: In the last two games he's pitched, he's had one good game and one bad game. Unfortunately, both are recorded as losses on his ledger. Bad game: 8 runs in 3.1 innings. Ouch. Good game: 6.2 innings, 3 ER. Not bad, actually. However, the offense decided to only provide two runs of support that day, which was Sunday.

In all, the pitching started coming back to what you'd expect over a long season, but certain players are still doing well (Greinke, Soria) while others are struggling some (Meche, for instance). The bullpen's strong enough that if you take a lead to them, they likely won't lose it for you.

Hitting: It's funny how as it's warmed up, the team has cooled down.

Alex Gordon? Still hitting, just he's cooled off a touch. .296/.361/.449 is a pretty good line. He's leading the team in runs, total bases, and home runs. However, he's now leading the team in K's, even over Guillen. That's not so good. Alex, you can stop getting struck out. It's OK.

Teahen and Butler are bringing the wood with them to the plate. Teahen (.271/.358/.406) has a team-high 13 walks, and is close behind the team leaders in hits (also: strikeouts... gah). Butler is hitting .292/.349/.365. He's hit roughly the same number of hits as Gordon, with half the strikeouts. Other good hitters: Alberto Callaspo (.351/.415/.432) and Miguel Olivo (.233/.267/.512). Olivo is tied for the team lead in home runs with 3. Good job, Miguel. Grudzielanek hit three doubles today to boost his line, as well. His line is much nicer.

Productive/Uninspiring: John Buck, Ross Gload, Gathright. These guys are... just... I don't have anything horrible to say about them. But I don't have anything great, either. So, like last week, here's some random thoughts on these gents: Buck's 9 walks are second-most on the team, and tied with Gordon (ssh.... but Olivo's production is about the same as Buck's in about half the at-bats). ... Gload has made some nice defensive plays... Gathright is fast.

Have nots: Jose Guillen's line has improved! Yay! He's now .190/.221/.360. He's second on the team in strikeouts. It's not like he hasn't had opportunities, either. He's had the most at-bats of any player (100 even). However, he does have the fourth-most total bases on the team. Also, he's now leading the Royals in RBI with 15. Also, he's tied with Gordon and Olivo with the team-high 3 HRs. So... go explain that one. I don't know if he's getting hot like we want or what exactly it means. Color your own commentary here. Tony Pena, Jr. has also raised his line a bit. He's now hitting .139/.160/.181. He's spread five hits over the last ten games. Umm... thanks for the improvement, but I could appreciate those numbers at least doubled.

The Royals finally broke their 6-run ceiling with an 8-run game Friday and a 9-run win today. So that's good.

Standings: The Royals are in second place still! Yay! But they're tied with the Twins. Boo! The losing streak did not help, and put the Royals 2.5 games back from Chicago. The Royals are also 2 games under .500. The Indians and Tigers (where'd they come from?) are only a half-game behind the Royals. They're on pace for a 75-87 season. Would you be OK with that? I don't know. But will the Royals go 3-7 in a 10-game span all that often? Unlikely.

This period's roundup: Bannister and Greinke both had bad games. This is not good, as both are pitchers the Royals rely on for wins. The pitching as a whole regressed to what you might expect over a full year, but is still above average, or at least far above what Royals fans are used to seeing out of the pitching staff as a whole. The bats went a little colder, or maybe they just went down a bit as the sample size grew. I'll give my prediction for the next 6 games (back to the normal schedule a bit): I think with Bannister, Greinke and Hochevar on the mounds at least once, plus Meche/Tomko/Bannister again with only the second Bannister game at home, I think 3-3 would be good, 4-2 would be great and 2-4 would be disappointing.

Current record: 12-14, 2.5 games out of first place, tied for second with Minnesota, a half game ahead of both Cleveland and Detroit.

Ten Percent Progress Report

powderbluepower — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:33:17 -0000

Well, we're one-tenth of the way through the year. And, as promised, the second of our 20 progress reports, at each five percent mark (roughly eight games). While yes, the sample size is still small, it's still interesting to track the ups and downs in easily digestible segments. So, let's get on with it.

Pitching: Last time, I began by saying the team is SICK. Well, this time that's changed. It's no longer the team that is sick at pitching. It's now certain players that are sick.

On the list of "Sick and needing no cure": Brian Bannister (3-0, .86 ERA, 1 complete game). Bannister continues to exceed expectations. While yes, it's still early and everyone is waiting for that regression to happen, he's so far managed to toss 21 innings, giving up just 10 hits and 2 earned runs while working a 13-5 K:BB ratio. Bannister's got two of the top 5 AL pitching performances in Game Score this year, the only player who can say that. His latest performance was even better than his stellar April 2nd game. On April 13, Banny went a complete game, allowing three hits, no runs (the Guillen drop does not count against him), one walk and 3 Ks. I'll plagiarize myself here: Yowza. That can't last, but dang. It'd be nice if it could.

Zack Greinke: fighting for best pitcher on the staff, which is a good fight to have. Zack's currently insane, and not in the "missing a year" way, but the "holy hell, he's been good" way. Here are his game lines: Game 1: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K. Game 2: 8 IP, 6H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. Game 3: CG, 5 H, 1 ER, 1BB, 4 K. Those are some eerily similar numbers so far. He's rocking a .75 ERA. Until things change, let's just keep using my summations from last time: He's playing well and even if he regresses a bit, he'll still be darn good.

And in other great news, we still have four bullpen members who have yet to give up a run. Soria, Gobble, Ramirez and Nunez have yet to give up a run. Combined, those four have 21 IP, 10 H, 3BB, 28 K. In effect, they're a Bannister, but even better.

But in the bad news category, we've got this: Tomko and Bale do not get us wins. Bale gave up 3 runs in 6 innings (not bad), then 5 runs in 4 innings (bad). Tomko has not totally sucked, though. He's pitched, quite honestly, better than expected. He's pitched 11 innings as a starter and given up only 2 runs. Not bad at all. But for whatever reason, the offense doesn't show up when these guys pitch. More on that later.

Also bad news pitching, in quick-hit form because this is already going to be long: Hideo should pitch Nomo (see what I did there?)... Gil Meche has not been a No. 1 starter yet... and Bannister and Greinke only pitched once each in the last 8 games.

Batting: There are clear tiers being set up. Great, average and Boo/Hiss.

Great: Alex Gordon is still obscene (.333/.364/.540). Remarkably, he's only struck out just three times in the last eight games. He's now third on the team in Ks. Impressive job on not striking out. Still leading the team in hits and home runs (on pace for 30), RBI and total bases.

Teahen and Butler (.339/.403 (7 walks... nice)/.458)are still pounding it. Butler's league-leading 13-game hit streak ended, sadly. In other good batting surprises: Callaspo has hit .350/.350/.500 in just 20 AB and Miguel Olivo has been giving John Buck a run for his money with a .286/.318/.571 line. Nice. Grudzy's still hitting very respectable, too.

Average: John Buck, Ross Gload and Joey Gathright, welcome to the "Productive, yet uninspiring" category. I don't really have anything negative to say... Buck's drawn 6 walks to boost his OBP to .340... Gathright's got 7 steals, which isn't bad... Ross Gload has 5 walks to boost his OBP to .370, which is better than Gordon's. It's just that none of the three have any power whatsoever. None. 3 doubles and one home run between the three of them. Not bad, but not good... just meh.

Have nots: I have a feeling TPJ will reside here all year. In good news, he's more than doubled all his numbers. Sadly, his numbers are still .114/.130/.136. Yeah. It's thanks to two two-hit games, really. Guillen also is sucking. He now leads the team in Ks with 13. .169/.194/.262. It's time to start earning your biggest salary on the team, Jose. 90 percent of the season left, Guillen.

One last note: The Royals can't score more than 6 runs.

Standings: The Royals are in second. Boo! But only by a half game. Yay! The Royals are only four games out of last place. Boo! But the Royals are two games ahead of third-place Minnesota. Yay! And two games over .500! Yay again! The Royals went 3-5 in the last five percent and are now on pace for a 91-71 season. I can deal with that. I'd totally be ok with that.

This period's roundup: Bannister and Greinke get us wins, and Tomko and Bale don't. Meche is somewhere in between. Unfortunately, The B-Gs only pitched one time each (both DEVASTATINGLY good games). The next five percent should get each 2 starts, so we'll see what happens. And our singles-based attack continues to be like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Our good pitchers fortunately take the bullets out, and the not-as-good pitchers supply at least one bullet, which: still beats a knife. At 9-7 and just out of first, I'm totally OK with that. We need to remember that .500 seemed a dream, and we're still over that.

Current record: 9-7, half game out of first place, two games up on Minnesota.

Five percent progress report

powderbluepower — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:13:43 -0000

Five percent of the season has been completed. Small sample size you say? Well, I'm going to keep checking the stats and such every five percent (roughly 8 games) to keep a track of the yearly progress. We'll see the highs, we'll see the lows, and we'll see what happens with our boys in blue.

Observations through five percent of the season:

Pitching: This team is sick. The team ERA is 2.25, last I saw. The Royals have given up just 18 runs all year, which the Baseball Tonight guys said leads the league. I'm too lazy to question that. Twice in two weeks, they've said "Meche. Bannister. Greinke. You could do a lot worse than those three to start the rotation." Seriously. Twice they've said it. And strangely, Meche is the worst pitcher on the Royals right now. He's 0-1, with a team-high 6.94 ERA. That's horrible. What a slacker, despite his 10 Ks. Please note this is sarcasm, but I would expect his numbers to improve a bit.

Brian Bannister has been ridiculous. He currently holds the top game score in the AL (77) for his April 2 game, when he went 7 innings, 2 hits, 0 ER and 4 Ks on 86 pitches. Bannister's ERA is 1.50, he is tied with Meche for most Ks with 10, and has only given up 2 runs. Yowza. That can't last, but dang. It'd be nice if it could.

I can't go on without mentioning Zack Greinke. Zack has been simply phenomenal. Through two games, he looks like what Royals fans, officials and really anybody else, has expected out of him. Zack has a sickening .60 ERA. That's a case where italics are justified. And the game earlier today against the Yankees? Seventh best in the AL this year on game score (70). His games have been eerily similar. Game 1: 7 innings, 1 ER, 6 hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks. Game 2: 8 innings, 0 ER, 6 hits, 2 BBs, 2 Ks. Zack has been on his game, so much so that Baseball Tonight talked about how they think he's been good this year. No kidding. Can it last? Through five percent, who cares? He's playing well and even if he regresses a bit, he'll still be darn good.

Oh, and in news I think I am required to mention since I am a Royals fan: the bullpen is pretty good. Nasty good. Soria, Ramirez, Yabuta, Gobble and Nunez are a combined 15.1 innings, 7 hits, 0 runs, 3 BBs, and 21 Ks, 0.00 ERA. Yeah, 21 Ks. Slacker Ron Mahay has put in 4.2 innings, giving up a run and 3 hits and a walk for an ERA of 1.93. Brett Tomko, you ask? Well, because you asked, 7 innings, 1 run, 2 walks, 5 Ks and 7 hits. What does this all mean? The pitching has been FILTHY, DIRTY, SICK, LIGHTS OUT, FRIGHTENING and any other capitalized words you want.

Batting: If there's one thing you can say about the Royals, it's consistency. Here are the runs scored: 5, 4, 4, 3, 4, 3, 5, 4. What does that mean? 4 runs a game. Expect it.

Some players are doing absolutely great. Alex Gordon, for example: .303/.324/.545 (Or, for those of you who like traditional numbers, he leads the team in home runs, RBI, runs and total bases. Oh, and is tied for the team lead in strikeouts.... umm... err....). Billy Butler has been just unfair against pitchers, hitting .406/.424/.531. Other players of good note offensively include Mark Teahen (.286/.412 (6 walks!)/.571) and Mark Grudzielanek, who has quietly put together a .407/.488/.444 line. That's the good news.

The bad news? Jose Guillen (.152/.200/.182) and Tony Pena Jr. (.040/.077/.040) have both sucked. Hard (To wit: TPJ is tied with The Chosen One Alex Gordon with most strikeouts). Only 95 percent of the season left, gentlemen! Get it together! Time is running out! Joey Gathright is also not doing so well at getting on base: .219/.257/.250. He has seven hits on the short year. Luckily for him, he also has 6 stolen bases. If you combine his stolen bases and total bases for a fake stat I'm making up called "ACTUAL TOTAL BASES (ATB)", then he has a higher RTB than Grudzielanek (Gathright's at 14, Grudzy's at 13).

So overall, there are the haves and have nots for the Royals. Gordon, Grudzy, Butler and Teahen among the haves and TPJ, Guillen and Gathright in the have nots. Gload and Buck both have slugging around .375 (Buck's OBP is around .300 and Gload's is .387), so I guess they're the middle of the pack. But it's just interesting that there's such defined groups being created.

Standings: Hey, look at this! The Royals are in first place! I'm so proud of them. They're a game up on the White Sox. Two and a half games up on the Indians and Twins. And even more surprising, they're five games up on the vaunted Tigers. Royals are 6-2 and, yes, on pace for 122-40. Will that last? Unlikely is putting it mildly. But through five percent, the pythagorean is exactly what our record is.

This period's roundup: On the strength of an absurd bullpen (we need to give this bullpen a nickname if they're going to play this well. Any suggestions?) and solid, above average performances by the starters (including a competition between Bannister and Greinke for best starter on the staff), the offense hasn't had to produce a whole lot in order to get wins. Which is good, because 4 seems to be their magic number of runs. So at this point, the Royals are doing better than our craziest dreams. Will it last? I'll see you after game 16.

Current record: 6-2, first place in the AL Central (1 game lead on Chicago)

Saturday's game

powderbluepower — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:35:13 -0000

Was anyone else at Saturday's game at the K? It's been way too long since I've actually been to a game (4 years?), but it was just like I was a kid again.

I went with my dad for his birthday, and we had front-row seats in the second tier. In the (miserable) first inning, Hafner fouled off a ball, and I got to it. First MLB baseball I've ever snagged (I'm in my 20s). So that made me giddy the rest of the day.

And then, what to my eyes did appear? TV's Katie Horner and eight tiny reindeer.... but not that last part. She sat behind us with her family for about four innings. Anyway, my dad knew Katie Horner's husband, and there was a short introduction... it felt a little awkward, but it was a cool moment.

It was a beautiful night at the ballpark, even though Davies pitched terribly and Emil Brown fielded... awkwardly would put it kindly. But Buckner pitched well in his first game. And the stadium rocked for a little bit in the 9th as the Royals mustered a 2-run rally to make the game 9-4.

P.S.: While leaving, we saw a truck swipe a car in the parking lot. The driver then just up and left, even though there were about 10 of us who got his license #. I have never seen anybody do something like that. Idiot.

Lost in the shuffle

powderbluepower — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:04:54 -0000

A lot happened yesterday, no doubt.

First, the bridge tragedy that certainly made last night's game less significant than most average summer Royals' games.

Second, the Buddy Bell announcement certainly was an issue that creates a lot of speculation. (Was he forced out? Was he just tired of managing these Royals? Who will we get to manage next year? Will they get the team to continue improving? .... oh, and I think the answers to the first two were "no")

Third, the Royals game was exciting and interesting. Between the run scored by Emil Brown in the 8th to tie the game up to Alex Gordon's monster home run to win the game in the 10th to Bannister's strong day on the mound to Greinke and Soria's developments, it was a great game to be a Royals fan.

However, lost in the shuffle was the simple fact that because the White Sox lost, the Royals are now tied with the White Sox at 48-59 (also the Rangers).

Since the Royals game was postponed, does that mean we should ahem root for the Yankees against the White Sox tonight? Then we would be in fourth place for at least one day (though at this rate, it should be more).

Poll

Yankees-White Sox... who to root for?

Good news during a slump

powderbluepower — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 02:13:44 -0000

Well, I have two bits of good news on this, a dreary day (both in weather here and because of the Royals' continued string of Ls).

German turned out to be OK. Yesterday's problems seem to be no more, meaning we can keep our lineup from looking like a patchwork quilt.
I officially got a job today. Better news: It's in Royals coverage territory, so I can finally get local media for the Boys in Blue. I'll be within a few hours of the K, too.

P.S.: I think I'm now entering the second stage of grief referring to this slump (Anger). I already passed through the denial stage. Do you think Meche will pull through tomorrow afternoon?

2003-like contract lock

powderbluepower — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 22:14:19 -0000

I got to thinking about the magic of that 2003 season, and I remember one of the interesting subplots: If the Royals had a winning season, they got to lock up Sweeney for a while. Of course, they went 83-79 to secure the Blue Bomber himself.

No one on the team has a deal like that now, but who do you wish had a deal of that nature to potentially ride this year's optimism?

I can see good arguments for Teahen, Gordon, DeJesus, and maybe Greinke.