Kansas City Royals @ Chicago White Sox Opening Day Game Thread (4/1)
 

<table border=3 cellpadding = 4>
<tr><td>Final</td> <td> 1 </td> <td> 2 </td><td> 3 </td><td> 4 </td><td> 5 </td><td> 6 </td><td> 7 </td><td> 8 </td><td> 9 </td><td> R </td><td> H </td><td> E </td></tr>
<tr> <td> KC (0-1) </td> <td> 0 </td> <td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 7 </td><td> 0 </td></tr>
<tr> <td> CWS (1-0) </td> <td> 0 </td> <td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 1 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> X </td><td> 1 </td><td> 8 </td><td> 0 </td></tr>
</table>

http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/ima...s/80x80/kc.png

Loss, (0-1) James Shields 6IP 1R 1ER 0BB 6K 1HR
Aaron Crow 1IP 0R 0ER 0BB 1K
Kelvin Herrera 1IP 0R 0ER 1BB 2K

VS.

http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/ima.../80x80/cws.png

Win, (1-0) Chris Sale 7⅔IP 0R 0ER 1BB 7K
Nate Jones 0IP 0R 0ER 1BB 0K
Hold, (1) Matt Thornton ⅓IP 0R 0ER 0BB 1K
Save, (1) Addison Reed 1IP 0R 0ER 1BB 1K

Home Runs

KC

none

CWS

Tyler Flowers, (1) - Bottom 5th solo shot to left

AL Central

Final: DET 4, MIN 2

Starting Lineups

KC

1. Alex Gordon, LF
2. Alcides Escobar, SS
3. Billy Butler, DH
3. Jarrod Dyson, pr/DH
4. Mike Moustakas, 3B
5. Salvador Perez, C
6. Eric Hosmer, 1B
7. Lorenzo Cain, CF
8. Jeff Francoeur, RF
9. Chris Getz, 2B

CWS

1. Alejandro De Aza, CF
2. Jeff Keppinger, 3B
3. Alex Rios, RF
4. Adam Dunn, DH
5. Paul Konerko, 1B
5. Conor Gillaspie, 1B
6. Dayan Viciedo, LF
7. Alexei Ramirez, SS
8. Tyler Flowers, C
9. Gordon Beckham, 2B

BRING THE PAIN. THE SEAS WILL RUN RED WITH HAWK HARRELSON'S BLOOD.

Predictions for the season, fellas?

In it to be in it in June!

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Chatted with Ryan Lefebvre at a party yesterday afternoon... and he's pretty optimistic. The pitching staff is pretty solid.

We just need to get off to a good start.

Come to play bitches! Excited for the season and for tomorrow. I'll be listening to the first couple of innings while finishing up at work and driving home, then I'll join in on this thread.

88-74

85-77

IN!

87 games

131-31

That's what I'm going with.

Got done reading the Star's royals section in the paper while on the shitter awhile ago, it was like reading a ****ing eulogy. At first it was a little humorous, than it just got depressing.

A lot of the Royals futility makes sense now.

In for 91 wins!

Let's go Royals!

84-78

Miss wildcard by 4 games.

84-78

North of .500 likely keeps us in the race until the last month of the season. It's all about the starting pitching. Hopefully Shields makes GMDM look like a genius.

89-73

85-77 for me as well.

I just really want to see Salvy, LoCain, and Hos play up to their potential this year.

I'm going with 89 wins...

or 74 wins. :-)

This year just feels different then the previous years, it feels like the guys are confident and everybody just expects us to lay down as Tigers win the division. That's not going to happen as we will at least be close to Tigers. I'm going with a 90-72 record which will at least give them a wild card, I hope!

This year would have been perfect for the "Our Time" theme than last year.

While the Royals season hasn't started, here's a avatar in case the season becomes a train wreck. I know I used it several times.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...eyesroyals.gif

161-1

Lets go White Sox!! Time for the pale hose to whip some ass

#1 of our 90+ wins!

The wind chill will be around 30 degrees at first pitch.

yeah, it has been pretty decent the last few days, but it turned cold last night. 26 when I got up this morning.

92-70

anything less than .500 is a waste of wil myers.

let's blow up the central!!!

playoffs or burste

Game Time Temp looks like 38 Degrees, but Sunny.

Your my boy's, BLUE!

**** the White trash Sox!!

Can't wait for the game to start!

83 wins. Today won't be one of them.

90 wins this year. In the hunt all year, for once.

I don't understand how the White Sox would ever get scheduled at home for an opening series. We still have snow on the ground in places that were piled from the plowing.

To those who might be ready to explode with anticipation and may be prone to disappointment, don't be surprised if we lose today. Its opening day at the Cell and Sale is really F'ing tough.

If we do lose, then I think we'd still have a decent shot at taking the series on Wednesday and Thursday.

95 wins and it starts today.

81-81 from a pessimist

LET'S **** SOME SHIT UP!

GO ROYALS!

Prediction: Royals win 86 games (86-76)

Here are the things MOST critical to the Royals' success (I realize Rany just did this, but I have a different outlook in some areas).

1) Hosmer or Moustakas must take a "next step." Quite simply, the Royals can survive with one of these guys being league average IF the other becomes a legitimate star. If both hit, well, the offense goes from "good-enough" to scary.

As Rany pointed out in his final preview piece, Eric Hosmer is in elite company when you look at his performane as a 21-year-old. This is a good sign.

Hosmer's upside: .290/25/100/100/15 SB/.350 OBP/.500 SLG. If he does this and the Royals get expected contributions from Gordon, Butler, the Royals offense will be productive (because it will be getting great production from the 1, 3 and 4 spots - the three most critical in a batting order).

Moustakas' upside: .270/35/100/100/.320 OBP/.500 SLG. We saw this in the first half last season. He couldn't sustain it (partly due to an injury).

2) How good is James Shields? The Royals need James Shields to be one of the 20 best starting pitchers in major league baseball. The good news is that he has easily been one of the top 20 over the past two seasons. The bad news is that he wasn't before then.

Shields made a major approach change before the 2011 season (I have broken this down before, but short way to say it is that he started relying more heavily on his change and his curve, pitching backwards a lot of the time), so there's some reason to set his pre-2011 pitching to the side. If Shields is indeed the second-best pitcher in the division, the Royals will be in good shape.

3) Health. Most notably, Lorenzo Cain, Sal Perez and Mike Moustakas. The Royals have no real replacements in-system who can match what these three guys can do. An injury to Cain weakens the Royals' bat in CF and also makes it harder to sit Francoeur if/when he sucks. An injury to Perez takes away a 4-5 WAR player, which is tough to replace. And an injury to Mike Moustakas probably means starts from either Miguel Tejada or Elliott Johnson, neither of which is ideal.

4) The rest of the rotation. Santana, Guthrie and Davis are a key cog in this machine. We can be pretty confident those guys are going to eat about 600 innings. 2 of the 3 must eat them at at least a solid No. 3 starter level to really make this whole thing work.

The Royals blog community doesn't see it. I can. I don't expect a full season of Jeremy Guthrie at 3.16 ERA and 1.15 WHIP, but I can see a full season of 3.75 ERA and 1.20 WHIP, which is just fine as a No. 3. This is based on Guthrie's past performances, especially when he was an Oriole pitching away from Camden Yard. When he's in a park that is not overly HR friendly, he has been a pretty successful guy.

On Santana, the guy is so inconsistent it's hard to say anything with certainty. But I look at his second-half performance, his unlucky HR/Flyball rate, and his contract year status... and think there's a good chance we see at least "good" Ervin this year. If "at-his-best" Ervin shows up, you're talking about a true No. 2 starter, not a No. 3.

And finally, on Davis... the guy has shown he can pitch at least at a No. 5 starter level. If he has improved at all with age and with the lessons he learned in the bullpen a season ago, that jumps up.

Let's take out the garbage today, boys....

I hate the White Sox. The White Sox and Angels are the two teams that bring out my wrath. Let's do this.

I promise not to call Gordon "Alice" this year unless his average drops below .240.

What if he goes 1 for 5 today?

Then Alice will have to do much better on Wednesday!

I am going to start saving money for airline tickets/playoff tickets now. If they crash and burn I have a shit ton of beer/whiskey money to drown my sorrows. If they do make the playoffs I will see you there.


http://imageshack.us/a/img850/3789/royalsg.jpg Uploaded with ImageShack.us
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/850/royalsg.jpg/
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80-82

That won't happen. ;)

**** your tampon bay

Dems fightin' words boss

You are a White Sox fan? Aren't you also the poster that is a UNC fan as well?

You going to attack our first base coach over it? ;)

I'm going with 88-74.

Just hope they keep it interesting.

I'm on board. The Royals don't really have an obvious rival, but I think if you forced every Royals fan who goes to more than a couple games a year to vote in a poll, then the White Sox would probably win as our most hated team in the division.

Which franchise has more felons in its respective fanbase?

White Sox or Raiders

94 wins.

Ya i am

Only if were losing LMAO God that was so ****ing crazy i remember thinking WTF?

Depends, if you are talking about T-shirt fans who don't actually follow the team, then probably the Raiders. If you are talking about fans who go to games, it'd be close.

No doubt it's the Whitesox for me. Especically when A. J. Pierzynski was playing for them.

I hate that guy!

White Sox fans arent fellons lol. Not even close. Hell they dont even have that good of fan atttendance lol and theyre always at least decent team

AJ is the shit. Guy is great, great catcher and leader

I agree, but I was kind of hoping that Indians pitchers would continue aiming at Billay's ear hole. Stuff like that makes these young players scrappy and tough.

spoken like someone with a shady past...

Its the south side of Chicago. If not felonies, then at least a third of the fanbase must have serious misdemeanors.

Douchezenski can **** himself right in the ass with a barbwire wrapped baseball bat. All splintery and rusty.

What does everyone think about potentially trading Santana at the deadline if he's pitching well? Duffy and Paulino will be set to return at that time and it's possible we'll still have holes in 2B and RF.

It's nice to have the option, if nothing else.

Its pretty doubtful that either will be back to 100% this year. If making (and hopefully winning in) the playoffs this year is the goal, then we shouldn’t be jettisoning a good starting pitcher.

Went ahead and updated the lineups to what will more than likely happen.

I have hated them with a passion since Ed Farmer ruined Al Cowen's career by hitting him in the head and broke Frank White's jaw.

Up until that time, they were like the Cleveland Indians, they didn't matter.

Ed Farmer was pitching for the Rangers (I'm pretty sure) at that time. Both Cowens and Frank White got knocked onto the DL being hit by pitches in one game.

Farmer hit Frank White on an inside pitch and broke his hand. Then he hit Cowens and broke his jaw. In the same game.

William Ligue begs to differ...
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documen...-comiskey-park

You mean he's the same in real life? I would be the eternal pessimist outside of work if I had to be that big of a homer on the air.

79 wins

I'm hoping that we're buyers (renters) rather than sellers at the deadline for a change.

That's one option...

There will also be the option of trading a young, surplus minor-league guy (Orlando Calixte?) at the deadline as part of a package for a difference maker.

This was on Ed Farmer's Wiki Page. (and like I thought, in 1979, Farmer was pitching for the Texas Rangers. He hopped around to a bunch of teams in his career):

A notable feud started between Al Cowens and Farmer early in the 1979 season. On May 8 while playing the Kansas City Royals, a Farmer pitch thrown in the top of the 5th inning fractured Cowens' jaw and broke several teeth;[2] Cowens would miss 21 games. Farmer also hit Royal Frank White in the same game and broke his wrist[3] and caused him to miss 33 contests. The next season on June 20‚ 1980 while playing Detroit‚ the now-Tiger Cowens hit an infield grounder against Farmer at Comiskey Park. While Farmer watched his infielder make the play, Cowens ran to mound and tackled the pitcher from behind, instead of running to first base; getting in several punches before the benches cleared and the two were separated.[3] Cowens was suspended for 7 games and a warrant was issued for his arrest in Illinois‚ forcing him to skip the remainder of the series. Later Farmer agreed to drop the charges in exchange for a handshake‚ and the 2 players brought out the lineup cards before the game on September 1. However, future appearances for Cowens in Chicago were greeted with a "Coward Cowens" banner.

Do you just throw darts at a map to pick your sports teams or what?

So you are a Chiefs fan, UNC fan, and White Sox fan? How does this work

Lineups are out, there were no unexpected changes for either team.

I live in charleston sc dumbass. Kc has felonies too you ****ing moron

You can suck his championship ring