We must be cursed. Our pitching is now decent, and we can't hit our way out of a wet paper bag.

Indians have a doubleheader with the Yanks today,if they can win 1 or even both I can see this place really start a meltdown. :)

ROFL

And just I submit my above post I get an e-mail from Royals ticketing for 50% off.

Maybe this Anaheim series will give us the reboot we need.

Losing 6-7 before a week of games that start after 9pm. Fairly smart marketing to keep people interested.

Something tells me Anaheim will get well against us. Just a hunch.

To be fair it looked like Escobar was trying a drag bunt. He dropped the barrel down and put the handle under is arm as opposed to squaring around.

It was a horrible bunt though.

We've got some guys playing basically home town games...so yeah, hopefully it will wake us up a bit.

The good news is that we're only 1.5 games behind after this shit-dickery that we've been trotting out for the last week.

We have an abundance of pitching in the bullpen and 2 guys who could be starters. Both the Dodgers and Angels need starting pitching. With Duffy/Paulino coming back in June/July, we can leverage pitching for hitting.

Gotta stay positive. Since 1985.............

Who does?

Fangraphs has him at 1.6 and so does Baseball Reference. That projects out to 6+ WAR, BTW.

Some food for thought:

1) Remember that the goal for the month of May needs to be staying around .500 for the Royals. THis is by far KC's toughest month in the season. If they can skate through it AT .500 or slightly above, they'll pick up ground in June, July and August as the schedule softens. I said before the month started that I'd be THRILLED to still be 5 games over .500 at the end of the month. That still is true.

2) It's still too early to trade for a bat. The earliest deals really won't start happening until June, because most teams won't "give up" on the season until that point.

Chase Utley will remain a prime target and should. Alex Rios is another guy that could be an option, if the White Sox continue to lag. He's got another year plus an option year at a decently-sized price, but Rios would look awfully nice in RF for 1.5 seasons. (Would also let them continue to slow-play Jorge Bonifacio, who probably is ready in 2015).

Ethier is not really an option, IMO. Not a huge impact guy but has a huge impact contract.

3) Billy Butler is not going to slump all season. When he does, the offense is likely going to struggle because of how thin it is.

4) Francoeur and Getz are black holes offensively. They seem to have realized this with Getz. I like Johnson getting PT, because at least he provide elite 2B defense. They are starting to realize it was Francoeur (who should sit except against LHP).

Good thoughts, Duncan. I guess getting swept at home sets off alarm bells with me that maybe take things out of proportion.

I was looking at the Cubs as being out of it, and the Angels/Dodgers in need of pitching.

But yeah, the deals probably won't happen yet. Until then, let's embrace a Dyson/Frenchy platoon and call up Giovatella to play 2B.

I hadn't thought about Rios. Yeah, that would be boss. But yeah, Utley at 2B is my top choice, even if you're only renting him for the rest of the year.

I have this hope that when I settle into my seat tonight at the big A, they announce Dyson's leading off.

Let's not eat the Rex Hudler rainbow & unicorn sandwich here. We suck right now. SUCK. 1-6 skid. Our offense has sucked balls all year. We just got humiliated by the Yankees "JV Team".


Seriously, a bunch of geezers like Vernon Wells, Ichiro and Lyle Overbay and Pettite and Rivera just swept us. Hilariously awful weekend.



PS: If I hear Rex say "Billy bomb" one more time, I'm storming the booth to have fisticuffs

"Hey guys, you know how bad Jeff Francoeur is?"

'How bad is he, Duncan?'

"Jeff Francoeur is SO bad, his current negative value (-0.5) is almost identical to the value Baseball Prospectus would project from Cheslor Cuthbert if he was playing a full season at the MLB level."

Seriously, Cuthbert is projected as a -0.7 WAR guy over the course of the full 2013 season, if he were in the majors.

This is a 20-year-old guy at High A who is still a project and still has a lot of work to do before he's ready for the majors.

The good news is that Cuthbert is starting to pick it up, and BP thinks he may be starting to put it together. He's putting up solid numbers in the hitter's hell that is Wilmington. If he continues to play well, we may see them move him to NWA later this summer.

Good news.

I'm pissed at the Royals Marketing and PR Wanks. Sunday they have "Let's kiss Mariano Rivera's Ass Day at the K". They give him flowers and give him a plaque and thank him for saving 30 straight games against us. You know, since half the weekend crowd's were Yankee Wannabe's, we have to kiss their ass in some fashion because they are so much more successful then we are. And in that same vein, we piss ourselves two straight games with the tying run on against Rivera, because, heaven forbid, we spoil his legacy of perfection in punking Kansas City.

Over the Fourth of July, they're having "Salute to the A's" weekend when Oakland comes here. Yeah, salute to Charlie ****ing Finley's A's. Because they loved Kansas City so much, they up and left to go to Oakland, then win three World Series. KC goes to Oakland next weekend. Do you think Oakland is having "Salute to the Royals" weekend? Hell no. It's 'Sweep these pathetic sad sacks of shit" weekend.

Maybe when the Cardinals come after Memorial Day, we can salute Albert Pujoles. Maybe let members of his family mow people down with their SUV in the parking lot? Or "Tribute to Scott Boras Day" since one of his former KC clients Carlos Beltran will be driving in runs to beat us?

QUIT BEING A PUSHOVER. QUIT DOING TRIBUTES TO YOUR OPPONENTS.

That is all.

Yeah, I'm sick of that shit too. We need to stop making KC a comfortable place for opposing teams to play. For having so much energy during the ASG, our fans sit through home games and don't make a damn peep until the 9th inning. It's lame as hell...

We're not in church.

It baffles me that it's the same people, for the most part, that attend Chiefs games.

Agree.

Stop being "nice" to opposing teams. That's the schtick of the fans on the other side of the state. Let them own it.

Let's be assholes.

Also, let's stop with the ****ing Garth Brooks every sixth inning.

Motivating?

Are they professional hitters and grown-ass men, or are they a first-grade T-ball team?

If you need to be motivated by your manager, then you are a terrible baseball player.

These

LOL, the Royals are bowing to Duffy's increasing internet popularity.

This is one item that I will most definitely agree with you on. I cannot listen to Hudler at all, having to turn off sound when he's announcing... that's how gawd-awful the sumbitch is.

Rany's tweeting about a rumor (and that's all it is) about the Royals trading Yordano Ventura to the Astros for Jose Altuve. Interesting?

I would take it in a heartbeat.

It's hard to talk when you have an advertising parade at 110 dBs in between every inning.

Hud and Phizz were kissing Yankee ass all weekend on our broadcast. Made me sick. You know they'll be doing the same thing when we're in Anaheim, because they both used to work for the Angels. We'll have to hear about how great Rod Carew, and Noland Ryan, and Torii Hunter, and Albert Pujoles, and yap yap yap yappity yap yap....oh and what a genius Mike Scioscia is.....

"Oh I've Got Friends in Low Places, where the Yanks and Orioles losses chases
first place away....

But We'll Be OK.... (we're used to it...)

Oh I'm not big on social graces
Guess we'll slide on down to the Central Basement

Oh I've got friends....in LOW PLACES!!!!"


BTW: Cleveland is now in first in the AL Central.
Guess that means next Cleveland series will be having Chris Perez Appreciation Day!

uhhh.... Yeah. I endorse this trade.

I won't believe it unless it happens, that looks like one of those message board trade proposals as drafted by a Royals fan.

Hey at least on the flip side, those of us on the West Coast get to hear Mark Gubicza talk positively about the Royals. Swap???

Not even a rumor, just a possible fit they were talking about on 810 today. They speculated on whether it would be a good trade IF it ever even came to be a possibility.

Ken Singleton and David Cone were kissing the Royals and Kansas City's ass all weekend too.

David Cone is one of Baseball's all time biggest paycheck whores. He's right there with Johnny Damon.

I don't have a problem with the Rivera thing just because he's the best that there has ever was. The Royals aren't bigger than the game and acknowledgement of a historic player seems alright with me. I seem to remember plenty of standing ovations from other parks for Brett final games.

Wait a second: we can get a 23-yr old 2B who is 4th in the NL in batting at .336 (who already hit .290 last year full season) for....a AA prospect?



I've heard some dumb rumors, but this is one of the dumbest.

It would be a very good trade and is exactly the type of trade that the farm system should be leveraged to enable.

Altuve is tiny and limited somewhat by that, but he's also a proven MLB player with decent OBP skills, a good glove, and - most important - 4 years of control after this one.

Exactly the type of deal you'd be willing to move a guy like Ventura for.

How good would .290/.350/.400 look out of 2B/the leadoff spot for the next 4.5 years? It also would allow them to leave Alex Gordon in the 3 spot long-term.

AL, AL!! the switch has had me confused at times this year as well...

Good catch. Point stands.

I'd be all for the deal, just clearing up that there aren't actual rumors circling. Just pure speculation.

Yeah? Think the Red Sox are going to have a "Kiss Rivera's Ass Night???"

I remember seeing Cal Ripken in his farewell tour at the K. I think something was done for him, although I don't remember flowers.

The Orioles never kept the Royals out of the World Series two years in a row.

We should never show the Yankees any kindness, ever.

Happens on the other team broadcasts as well. I get to see enough Cardinal broadcasts, their guys do the same thing for the opposing team.

They had a Cal Ripkin giveaway. So atleast we didn't give away riveria bobbleheads or something.

That last post wasn't from his last game. His last game they gave out black and white frame cards of him tipping his cap

Tim Collins approves!

Pretty cool.

If they kick in Brandon Barnes to play RF for us, we'll give them Frenchy and a lifetime supply of Boulevard Beer.....

We'd probably have to pay for Frenchy's salary, too. He's worse than valueless.

Let's throw in Hoch + his salary while we're at it.

Cleveland sends down 3B Lonnie Chisenhall. He was hitting .213 with 3HR. Chisenhall, 24, was ranked in Baseball America's top-25 overall prospect list and topped the Indians chart in 2011:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today...1/2610943.html




(I take it you are all smart enough to know where I'm going with this one)

We should send Billy to Arkansas.

Here's a fun game, try to guess which one of these players is Lonnie Chisenhall.

Hitting in May

Mystery Player 1: .211/.279/.447
Mystery Player 2: .205/.239/.295
Mystery Player 3: .295/.340/.409

edit: Frenchy in May: .133/.188/.167

Jarrod Dyson's slugging percentage is 168 percent of what Jeff Francoeur's is.

So not only is Dyson a far superior defender and baserunner, who hits for a higher average and is better at getting on base, but he has more pop than Francoeur, too.

Francoeur has 8 XBH in 117 ABs. Dyson has 7 in 37. That's less than 1/3 the at bats.

Adios, Frenchman. Adios.

How does dyson stack up on the grit metric?

He doesn't grimace-smile enough, so it's low.

Now I don't even want to ask about where Dyson lands on the "clubhouse leader" statistic.

Chisenhall being demoted kinda sorta destroys the laughably bad argument, "Moose needs to learn at this level!" Looks like other management doesn't agree whatsoever - that MLB is you know, about winning ballgames and not development.

One team's decision does not set a precedent for the rest of the league, especially when Moose has been performing significantly better over the month of May.

But when it's the IDENTICAL situation, it kinda sorta does. Especially when it's an organization who has had a ton of success developing bats is the one doing it, while we pull our puds and watch our guy flop around like a fish washed up on the shore.

You are being really damned dumb about this.

No one gets demoted in April. After April, no one, barring some hot blocked prospect, is going to get demoted when they have been doing well recently, especially when they have been working on what you told them to work on, and they immediately began to see results from that.

Saying Moose "doesn't care enough" is clearly wrong given how fired-up he gets, and he doesn't need to be "sent a message".

Like hell it is. He sucked from the opening whistle, and has consistently been doing poorly to the present day.

There is obviously the possibility that the last couple weeks are a mirage and Moose will be scuffling to a ~.500 OPS in June. If that happens, he may get demoted, but you won't get to say "finally" or "I told you so", since demoting him will not have made sense until then.

Whoa whoa buddy - are we allowed to talk about the facts here? You're living in a dream world if you think Moose has turned it on lately. He hit .195 in April and .211 so far in May. He had a 9-11 walk ratio last month that's dropped to 3-9 this month.



He's been a steaming pile of shit all year long. He has the exact same 0.1 WAR as Chisenhall does. Let the facts sink in before you respond.

Prison, if his average hovers around .220, would it be acceptable to send him down by the end of May?

Let's ask the following: when will it be acceptable to release Frenchy? Because essentially that's the question. If Moose is allowed to work through his hideous start why isn't Frenchy? I mean that guy makes $7M. If it's early for Moose it's early for Frenchy. You can't play it both ways here.


Will we improve without Moose? Hard to say. He's not producing any value right now above replacement anyway. The Indians decided Chisenhall wasn't producing either, but they don't have a GM who falls in love with players on a personal level and gets blinded by loyalty.

Ouch, the comparison is striking.

.200/.277/.348

.226/.322/.356

Frenchy has a big loop in his swing. He's a hacker, and an easy strike out. He is streaky, but doesn't hit more than hits. He does have a great throwing arm, but is not particularly speedy.

Dyson is the fastest guy on the team. He's been hitting lately, but will never have the kind of pop an everyday outfielder should have. He's an excellent fourth OF guy, great late inning baserunner. His defense is very spotty. He takes bad angles on balls, like he did in last night's game. His arm is average to below.

Dyson should be playing instead of Frenchy right now. Best thing to do with Frenchy is DFA him and eat his salary. Long term fix is needed. Same with second base.

That you are a ****ing idiot.
Posted via Mobile Device

Moustakas had a really nice two week stretch starting with the Cleveland series. He is 0-13 in his last three games, which has depressed his May numbers, but he still has a .725 OPS for the month of May because he has hit the ball with authority.

In the 2 weeks prior, he hit .378, slugged .757, and hit 4 HR. He also drew 6 BBs in that stretch, giving him a .465 OBP.

He struggled in the first three weeks of the season. The team identified some problems and asked him to change some things. He did and then immediately went on a tear over the last few days of April/first 10 days of May.

If this three game stretch becomes a protracted slump and he struggles throughout May, then it makes some sense to demote him, especially if it's a confidence issue. Demoting guys in April after a slow start to the season (especially after a red-hot spring training season) makes no sense.

Whoooops, I just realized I accidentally posted Alex Gordon's statistics at the end of May 2012 below Moustakas' current numbers. I really think Prison is on to something, guys, imagine how much better Alex's overall season could of been had he been sent to Omaha.

I know you love Moose. You're one of the geeks out there chanting MOOOOOOOSE! when he fields a grounder and thows (high) to get the guy out. Or when he slaps a single to right. MOOOOOOSE!


But he's not any good, and that's the point.

Mike Montgomery finally pitched again last night.

4 IP, 6K, 1 BB.

Have the Rays fixed him? Stay tuned...

Alex was sent down to Omaha at one point, you dope. So was Zack, so was Billy, so was George, so was.....(I can keep going until you get the point)

You were one of those people pining to trade Billy Butler in 2007-11, weren't you?

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0Tv4LfapLT...ken_record.jpg

You were one of those angry at Ross Gload being signed, but don't mind Hosmer putting up identical stats aren't you?

Will Nostra Prison Bitch talk shit about Butler today?

Yeah sure, but he was sent down in May 2010 for a positional switch and for some reason was given until June last year before any decisions were made.

Zack Greinke was NOT sent down because of performance, you dipstick.

Look, if Moose (and Hos) are putting up these numbers in June, by all means, send them down, but any major decisions now would be misguided and (over)reactionary.

Frenchy : 29 years and 4,476 ABs
Moose : 24 years old and 1,016 ABs

In Guth We Trust