Damn near impossible to get 12 hits and only one run. Of course KC excels in hitting into Double plays as much as they do making errors.

Can it get any better for the Royals....one of our better pitching prospects (or he was supposed to be) hauled off to jail...i knew seeing his myspace db page that he was going to be an idiot.

http://www.wreg.com/sns-ap-bbm--natu...,6174482.story

Naturals pitcher Dan Cortes arrested, charged with disorderly conduct and public intoxication
By Associated Press
10:51 AM CDT, July 2, 2009

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Pitcher Dan Cortes of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals has been arrested.

Police took Cortes to the Washington County Jail early Wednesday morning after he was allegedly caught urinating on a fence near a bar on Dickson Street in Fayetteville. The 22-year-old Cortes is charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct. He's free on $655 bond.

Cortes is regarded as a top prospect. His record is 5-6 with a 4.00 ERA. Last season he was recognized as the Kansas City Royals' top minor league pitcher, posting a 10-4 record with the Naturals and a 3.78 ERA.

Naturals manager Brian Poldberg says any discipline will have to come through the Royals front office. The Naturals play in Springdale and are a Class AA affiliate of the Royals.

___

Information from: The Morning News, http://www.nwaonline.net/

it's cool to suck off the twins for being a great organization, wait until that 2 feet of snow falls in may and they have to play all their games on the road next year. Lets clamor to call them a franchise with forsight then

No changes are needed!!

Jeff Baker of COL got traded to the cubs today so i assume we can cross them off the list for Teahens services

I wouldn't expect us to do much at all on the trade front.

(Internal scream of ****ing agony.)

There better be some damn moves!

I know no one will believe me now, but i sort of predicted this back in March. I didnt think the team made enough moves this past offseason.

Granted, there have been injuries, but we just dont have enough bats.

The Royals just sort of stood pat and prayed Gordon/Butler/Aviles/Teahen/DDJ would develop into All-Stars.


Its like this huge vicious cycle the Royals are stuck in. Not many established players want to come play for us because we suck and yet the players we try and develop never become stars.

oh, the ones we did develop we let go: Damon, Beltran, Dye ( i include him because his bat truly blossumed with us)

Hope is on the way!

Moosetacos: .267/.306/.426 8 HR 44 RBI at A ball (advanced)
Hosmer: .247/.348/.368 3 HR 41 RBI at A ball

Even if they were lighting A-ball up, it'd be premature to say that their help is "on the way."

It's a good thing my sarcasm functions on multiple levels. Consider each of my posts an intricately constructed text that requires much unpacking.

I am unable to do that. J Diddy thinks me capable of only following other people's opinions like an automaton.

Cool.

You'll fit in fine here.

Here's the first inkling that the local media is about to call for Hillman's job, and it comes from an unlikely source, JoPo (http://www.kansascity.com/180/story/1303965.html):

One thing you can say about these Royals: They are reliable. I went out Thursday night with the tentative idea of writing about the remarkably bad base running they have exhibited this year. And it has been legendarily bad.

But here’s the thing about choosing a column topic before the game — the game has a knack of killing early ideas. I mean: If you go out to write about how well a team is pitching, the starter probably will give up nine runs. If you go out to write about how well a team is fielding, they’ll make three errors. It’s just how things work.

So, I had backup plans if the Royals ran the bases well on this night. I was open to writing something else if the Royals had given me something else. I should not have worried about it. First inning, Willie Bloomquist was on first and he took off on what looked like a hit-and-run play. Billy Butler hit a lazy fly ball to center field … Bloomquist did not see it. “Willie checked and couldn’t pick it up,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said.

White Sox center fielder Brian Anderson caught the pop-up, had plenty of time to set and throw out Bloomquist for the double play. First inning!

Second inning, Mark Teahen on first base, and he took off on what he said was a straight steal. Miguel Olivo hit a lazy fly ball to right field.

“Mark didn’t check,” Hillman said.

White Sox right fielder Jermaine Dye caught the pop-up, had plenty of time to set and throw out Teahen for the double play.

Like I say: These Royals are reliable.

•••

Here’s the thing about baseball in 2009: People count everything. Check swings? Someone’s counting those. Pitcher throws to first? Someone’s counting those too. And so, when I tell you that the Royals are by far the worst base-running team in baseball, that is not merely an off-the-cuff observation from the press box.

No, there are numbers to back this up. Bill James and his people have put together a system where they measure all sorts of base-running acts — how often a runner goes first to third or scores from second on a single, how often he scores from first on a double, how many extra bases a team picks up on wild pitches or sac flies, how many double plays they hit into, etc. — and tthey use that data to figure how many bases a team gains or loses depending on their base running.

For instance, the Colorado Rockies are the best base-running team in the game. So far this year, they have picked up 61 more bases than the average team. That’s pretty meaningful. The San Diego Padres are the second-worst base-running team in baseball. The have picked up 36 fewer bases than the average team. That’s pretty miserable.

The Royals? They are a mind-boggling minus-77 bases.

Minus-77. That’s like a whole other planet. No other team is even close to that kind of awful. The Royals are the Usain Bolt of terrible base running. How do they do it? Well, they hit into more double plays per opportunity than any team in the game by far. They have picked up fewer extra bases than any team in baseball by far.

They also don’t pick up the extra base — second baseman Alberto Callaspo, just as an example, is one for 15 going first to third on a single. One for 15. To give you a comparison, Chicago DH Jim Thome, who would plead guilty to being really slow (he has zero triples and one stolen base since 2005) is two for seven going first to third.

The Royals are terrible at a lot of things. They are a terrible defensive team — they have allowed more unearned runs than any team in baseball. They are a terrible hitting team — this is their biggest failing. They are 13th in the American League in runs scored, 13th in batting average, 13th in walks, 13th in home runs, 13th in total bases — they are a very unlucky 13 when it comes to offense. They have not scored more than four runs in a game in almost two weeks.

So, yes, you could say that, in the grand scheme of things, their inability to run the bases is one of their more minor problems. And that may be true except for this: It demonstrates just how lost this team is right now. It demonstrated the lack of direction right now. Because, hey, the Royals’ offensive problems can be explained at least somewhat: They have had some key injuries, and they undervalued on-base percentage (again), and Royals general manager Dayton Moore made some poor choices. The Royals’ defensive problems can be explained, too — the Royals are playing guys out of position and, with only a couple of exceptions, they have not brought in good defensive players.

But the base-running thing: Well, you don’t have to be an especially talented player to be a good base runner. You don’t have to be exceptionally fast to pick up extra bases. You don’t have to be a star to stay alive out there.

One day, Tony Peña stayed at third on what was clearly deep enough to be a sacrifice fly. One day, Mitch Maier hit a triple and then — maybe he hesitated, maybe he got a late sign — took off for home and was thrown out at the plate. One day, Miguel Olivo and Peña managed to pull off a magical shortstop-to-third-to-second rundown double play that would take too long to explain. And so on.

The Royals were a dreadful team from 2004 to 2007, but every single year they were a plus base-running team — plus-56 bases in 2005, plus-39 bases in 2007 and so on. Then last year — and yes, it has to be pointed out that was Trey Hillman’s first year as manager — the Royals were suddenly a minus-13 base-running team.

This year it’s been too sad to be laughable. The first eight innings on Thursday, against Royals killer Mark Buehrle, the Royals managed just four base runners. They were thoroughly overmatched. But what’s more, three of the four base runners were eliminated by double plays — two of those on routine fly balls to the outfield.

Bill James has been keeping base-running numbers since 2002 — and right now the record for worst base-running team is the 2003 Milwaukee Brewers; they were minus-91 bases. The Royals are on pace to shatter that number, maybe by the All-Star break. I’m not blaming Hillman or the coaches or any specific players for this. To be that bad at something, it takes a full team effort.