Posnanski..Positives keep getting harder to find

[Deberg_1990]

Very well said....

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...s/14402334.htm


Notes from a columnist held hostage: Loss No. 11 in a row.

Today is a good day to ask the question — what exactly did Kansas City do to deserve this? Was there some 19th-century Kansas City gunman who shot a baseball player in the back? Did Tony Peña cut some sort of deal with the devil to help the team get off to that great start in 2003? Does this have anything to do with Lin Elliott?

The Royals lost to Cleveland 6-5 on Friday night. That’s the 11th straight loss. There was nothing especially interesting about this one. The Royals fell behind by three, clawed back to tie it up, immediately fell behind by three runs again. The Royals then rallied in the ninth but lost by one. Mike Sweeney got four hits and barely missed two home runs. Royals starter Mark Redman pitched six solid innings without ever throwing the ball faster than 12 mph. Mustard won the condiment race on the scoreboard, sparking the loudest cheers of the night.

And the Royals tied a team record with four sacrifice flies.

It was, all in all, another depressing night.

These continuous losing streaks can be officially filed under “Way Past Ridiculous.” Long losing streaks — like long winning streaks — are supposed to be rare events. Baseball is a break-even game — the best teams lose two or three times a week, the worst teams win two or three a week, and it all works out over a long season.

And yet, since the beginning of the 2004 season — so we’re talking about just a little more than two seasons — the Royals have had (deep breath): Three eight-game losing streaks, one nine-game losing streak, one 19-game losing streak, and, as of this moment, one 11-game losing streak. That’s absolutely amazing.

I want you to think about this for a minute: The Atlanta Braves have not had even one eight-game losing streak since 1989.

OK, let’s go to the streak totals: The Royals have been outscored 78-32 during the streak. … Hey, what about some good news? You got it. You already know about the sacrifice flies record. Well, there’s more. The Royals broke a 20-inning scoreless streak. For the second time in six home games, the Royals got at least 12 hits and won everyone in the stadium Krispy Kreme doughnuts. And the postgame fireworks were good.

Meet the newest Royal: Welcome Joe Nelson. He was called up Friday when the Royals sent David DeJesus to the disabled list. Nelson is a 31-year-old relief pitcher who came into the game with a career 25.07 ERA in the major leagues. But he pitched a scoreless inning Friday night, already dropping that ERA to 20.65. Fun fact: Nelson met his wife, Teresa, when he got Tommy John surgery. Teresa was a radiologist at the hospital.

Buddy Bell’s uplifting quote of the day: “I’m not feeling great, but I can’t look at it any other way except to be positive.”

Beyond all that, it’s getting harder and harder to know what to say about this club.

I think the general feeling around Kauffman Stadium during the offseason was that the Royals would pick up some solid veteran players and buy a few wins, get some momentum going. It sounded reasonable enough at the time.

The trouble is, you don’t win that way. A good baseball team has to be about something. There has to be a purpose. It’s not enough to say, “We’ve got a few good players, let’s go win games.” No, you have to go into a game saying: “We’re going to win tonight by getting more guys on base” or “We’ve got the more dominating pitcher,” or “We have superior speed and defense” or “we will crush them with the long ball.” You have to be better than the other team at something to win with any regularity.

And the Royals, for all their efforts, have never been able to develop any purpose, any sort of winning personality. They’re just not very good at anything. They don’t have power, but they don’t have speed, but they don’t play especially good defense, but their pitchers don’t get a lot of strikeouts, but they don’t have great control, but the hitters don’t draw a lot of walks, but …

The Royals just are. And because of that, they are losing a lot of games in a row again

[Sure-Oz]

Originally Posted by Vlad Logicslav

Yup I used to be a huge fan, but after the strike in the early 90s I have hated MLB with a passion and enjoy seeing the small market teams fail. I hope they are all contracted.

So basically anything negative with baseball you thrive on? Dang that shit hit ya hard huh?! I agree baseball is very twisted and alot needs to be done to make it an even playing field. I think alot want to see MLB fail.