It's interesting that one of the concerns on Holliday was how he would perform outside of Coors, since his home/away splits weren't that great.

I think he'll snap out of it and become the hitter he's always been throughout his career, but it does raise eyebrows that he's out of Denver for the first time and off to a slow start.

Incidentally, 27 games is exactly 1/6th of the season (6 x 27 = 162). If you project the Royals with 16 wins in 1/6th, you get an expectation of 96 wins versus 66 loses. That's THIRTY games OVER .500

Gordon is going to have to ride the pine a bit when he comes back

Insofar as I can tell, we have good problems at every position except shortstop. Who are some candidates we could look at at that position? Hell just a viable option so we could send aviles to AAA to work on his bat would be tremendously valuable, imo.
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Pardon me for lapsing into Yankee fan mode and thinking we could acquire anyone we'd like, but there are probably some SS's who could add punch to our lineup that might be available from teams who will likely be out of the race come trade deadline time:

Edgar Renteria, SF
Orlando Cabrera, Oak
Miguel Tejada, Hou

I'm not a huge fan of any of those guys but they'd be an improvement over what Aviles is doing. Hopefully this month he can turn it around. It would be huge if he could.

"Bucket"'s (we call him that because he steps in "the bucket" everytime he swings) swing is just unbelievabley bad.

Listening to Frank the other night, it sounds like he tried to help Mike correct it when he had him in Witchita without much avail.

It looks to like me like he's been able to get away with that fucked up approach, even into the majors, up until scouts got a complete book on him.

Now he's screwed. He's basically stepping towards third and fliging the bat at the ball every swing he takes.......

Aviles showed so much potential last year and now I get that sinking feeling when he comes up to bat, kind of like when TPJ bats. I like the kid and I know that he can play at this level of ball, but he's gotta figure out how to hit the ball more.

I don't disagree that his front side has been flying all year, and Buckets is an apt name for him.

I'd have to look at some tape, but his approach had to be different last year because he was successful taking the ball the opposite way all season, with power at times, and he couldn't have been doing this without taking his shoulder toward the pitcher.

I think he steps out more this year than last which negates his shoulder. Lower body going one way, upper body going another. I mean even when he makes solid contact the ball rarely leaves the infield. How many times have you seen him hit the ball and it looks like it will be a solid hit coming off of his bat only to see it die right in front of an infielder? It is because he is taking all of his power out of the swing and he is all arms. That is why the only HR he has hit was pulled down the line.

Swirling the bat around is another problem but to a much lesser degree. But he has bad footwork. He also stands so far up in the box that he can't jump on anything inside, if you ask me.

Shoulder flying is just another way of saying stepping in the bucket because if you're stepping directly toward the pitcher, you're more apt to stay closed on the front side.

aviles has to cheat inside, but not that much man. Low and away he is meat unless he bloops one in

I agree except I think his problem is he is stepping one way and leaning another. Therefore getting no power on hits the opposite way that he actually gets good wood on.

I agree that he's completely asses and elbows right now.

alot of time what you can do and it looks like he is already do is take your left foot and point your toe towards the pitcher. When you stride you will torn it back but it will be so drastic it will close your shoulder