SB Nation User Blog: raefzilla

Video of the Penacutioner! This has the whole inning. We need to make this the #1 video...

raefzilla — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:14:26 -0000

Video of the Penacutioner! This has the whole inning. We need to make this the #1 video on youtube!

It was like that. Banny was mostly working fastball as he does when he’s successful, but his s...

raefzilla — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:03:41 -0000

It was like that. Banny was mostly working fastball as he does when he’s successful, but his secondary pitches were generally not coming in the red-zone 84-85 mph range. Plus, it looked like Banny had a really good fastball. He got 11 swinging strikes, which is a lot for him, and most of those came on fastballs. He had his command too. I sent him a text after the game, and he wrote back to say: "Just had to let my Babip regress before I started dealing again."

Seriously, how can you not love this guy?

Joe Posnanski

Jenn Sterger officially fired by Sports Illustrated

raefzilla — Sun, 04 May 2008 15:57:52 -0000

Jenn Sterger officially fired by Sports Illustrated

If this had only happened a week ago they could have had a whole segment about it on CostasNow. What's a great journalist like herself gotta do to make it in this crazy messed up world?

JoePo on the Royals "Championship Caliber Guys"

raefzilla — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:27:52 -0000

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/03/02/ccgs-a-whole-different-look/

Part of a much longer blog entry, but earlier in the post, JoePo outlines his theory of how many Championship Caliber Guys (Players who have more than 12 Win Shares) it takes to win a pennant. This probably shouldn't be taken too seriously, but I thought it might be interesting discussion fodder nonetheless. Below is an excerpt from the section where he looks at the Royals' CCGs.

Conclusion 3. You really want four All-Star type players.

The Royals can at least give people something to think about here. They did not have a single player with more than 16 Win Shares last year but ... I think Gil Meche can move into the 20+ realm this year. I had another scout email me the other day to predict that Meche will break through: "I saw him two or three times last year, and twice he was about as good as anybody I saw all year. ... He had the best curve I saw all year. ... He's always had great stuff but I think he's figuring it out."

Gordon certainly has the talent to step into that All-Star level.

Billy Butler ... everyone here knows how much I love Billy Butler's bat. The guy can swing the bat.

Jose Guillen had 20 Win Shares last year, so he could repeat or do a little better.

And then ... Mark Teahen could certainly step into that 20+ Win Shares category... David DeJesus could do it ... I still love Zack Greinke's talent ... Brian Bannister is my favorite player in the game right now, and he had 13 win shares as a rookie ... Joakim Soria has the look of lockdown closer ... Luke Hochevar is impressing more and more people at camp.

So, wit a little imagination, you might find what Lou Brown called "three or four potential All-Stars" in there. Trouble is, none of them have actually done it yet.

Conclusion 4. You could really use 10 or 11 Championship Caliber Guys.

This is where Royals fans can really begin to hope, I think. The Royals only had six CCGs last year -- DeJesus, Teahen, Meche, Gordon, Bannister, Mark Grudzielanek. But Bill James has been saying this during the off-season -- and of course, I agree -- that for the first time in a while it looks like the Royals are BEGINNING to get to that critical mass of good players that you need to win.

I mentioned 10 players in the section above, all with, I think, the potential to be pretty good players. That's a much higher number than years' past. Mark Grudzielanek had 12 Win Shares last year, so he's an aging CCG. That's 11 potential CCGs. Tony Pena won't hit much, but his glove is good enough to possibly move him up into the CCG category. That would be 12.

The problem is the Royals right now have no margin for error, then really need 11 out of 12 guys to have good years, and it never works out that way (except for the 1991 Minnesota Twins). Someone gets hurt, a couple of guys have bad years, someone doesn't develop like you expected, someone else has a crisis of confidence ... you're never going 11 for 12 in baseball.

Still, this is why there's some hope in Kansas City -- you can at least see where the Royals are going, and how they're trying to get there. The plan is to keep adding CCGs to the team and keep developing them in the farm system. And it's a good plan.

Posnanski: Royals Leading Santana Race?

raefzilla — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:10:58 -0000

I thought this was pretty amusing...

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/01/24/royals-leading-santana-race/

KANSAS CITY -- Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore on Wednesday did not deny that his team is very close to completing a trade for Minnesota Twins ace Johan Santana.

"That's a ridiculous question," he said, when asked why his team just didn't go out and trade for Santana.

Santana won Cy Young Awards in 2004 and 2006 and is widely regarded as the best pitcher in the game. His presence in the Royals rotation would give them their first true ace since Kevin Appier in the 1990s. it is widely believed among baseball sources that if the Royals had a rotation featuring Johan Santana, Gil Meche, Brian Bannister and Zack Greinke, they would be better than they have been the last few years.

Over the last few weeks, several teams -- in particular the New York Yankees, Mets and Boston Red Sox -- have been rumored to be close to acquiring Santana, so it would be quite a coup for the "small-market" Royals to beat them to the bunch. As one scout who would prefer to remain anonymous said on Tuesday when first told about this potential Santana-to-the-Royals trade, "Are you drinking and taking medication at the same time?"

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Update [2008-1-25 0:7:39 by royalsreview]:

Probably should clip a bit of of this. Bit too long.-RR

Powder Blue Alternate Uniforms for '08

raefzilla — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:47:48 -0000

This comes from this forum: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2631077

Flanagan reported this as well in the Star. Says the tops could also be worn on the road with gray pants.

Personally, I like it! It was only a matter of time before they had to try and do this. Their marketing campaigns have been based around the appeal of powder blue for a while. Powder blue is always better than black. I do sort of wish they would have sprung for the blue pants like the Blue Jays, though.

In other news, the Devil Rays are changing their name and color scheme. I'm still going to call them the Devil Rays, though. They can't stop me.

Harry Potter and the Royals

raefzilla — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 18:55:37 -0000

Great article by Rany over at BP in which he compares the Royals to characters in the Harry Potter series. Blissfully, you can read it for free.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=453

This is one of those odd crossovers of geekiness that immensely appeal to me. I'm just mad that Rany thought of it before I did.

Poll

Which Royals player bears the closest resemblance to the character?

Gil Meche = Sirius Black

5 votes

Joakim Soria = Ginny Weasley

3 votes

Zack Greinke = Luna Lovegood

7 votes

Alex Gordon = Harry Potter

7 votes

Emil Brown = Gilderoy Lockhart

1 votes

Mark Teahen = Ron Weasley

5 votes

David Dejesus = Hermione Granger

0 votes

Billy Butler = Hagrid

6 votes

Dayton Moore = Albus Dumbledore

5 votes

Buddy Bell = Severus Snape

3 votes

42 votes | Poll has closed