Kansas City Royals @ Minnesota Twins Game Thread (5/2)

[teedubya]

Game 2 of 3 game series.

Bannister vs. LHP Glen Perkins

6:10pm CST Fox Sports KC

We SUCK in Minnesota for some reason, but hopefully "Banny" gets it together...

[CoMoChief]

Originally Posted by eazyb81

Most teams have shitty 5th starters, and Ponson is just keeping the spot warm until Hochevar comes up.

By keeping Hochevar in the minors through the first month, we get to keep him an extra year. I'll take a few spots from Ponson for that.

The trouble is we can't afford to just keep losing everytime our 5th guy comes to the mound, or late in the game when the game is close and its time for our worthless set up man to come out and serve up meat balls to the other team. We cant bat ourselves Wins. We need to pitch extremely well and play small ball. We have very limited consistant power from just a few players at most.

If we want to seriously become contenders (yes I said it) we need to make the move that makes the most sense........get rid of Farnsworth and Ponson. I cant even imagine what the Royals team ERA would be without those 2 clowns.



I dunno, I just ****in hate Farnsworth, my other half as a Cubs fan, I ****ing hated this guy when he was in Chicago. I almost had to pull my car over when I listed to 610 the day we signed this piece of shit and for how much we signed him for. I can't believe that the "baseball minds" we have in the front office would even think of signing this guy when avg Joe baseball fan knows that he's a complete train wreck as a pitcher. Jesus.
What a complete waste of a signing.

I'm too hard on Ponson, he's had some good and some really terrible outings, but thats the thing .....hes terribly inconsistant. Always has been. Everywhere he goes, doesn't matter. In NYY he had a 5+ ERA. I dont care if its a 5th starter or a 8th starter in little league thats just ****ing terrible. The only reason why I'm not too pissed about it is because of the little money he's making. He's on a minor league contract, which means that A: No one else wanted his ass, because he agreed to sign with one of the worse clubs in MLB for a min deal.

Hochevar needs to be brought up......period.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by tk13

I think Ponson has been better than expected, certainly not Scott Elarton bad. Going into last night he was a fine 5th starter, now his numbers look bad. He's had three decent starts and two bad ones.

The guy who was signed to be our ace bad.

Prior to the last couple of years, this ****ing franchise...

[eazyb81]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Kid hasn't done anything yet to make the "keep him another year" thing make any sense. If the organization was worried about this, a better approach would be to sign him to an extension, since it's likely that he'll never be cheaper.

Not all of Ponson's starts have been terrible, but if the team really sacrificed four games for the bottom line, I can't think of anything more chickenshit. That's old school Royals bullshit there.

Not sure what you're trying to say with the first part. I think it's common sense to trade one month of Hochevar at 24 years old for an extra year when he's in his prime in his late twenties. He hasn't done nearly enough to warrant an extension; hell, we just gave Greinke an extension after a year with a sub 4 ERA.

There's just no reason to push him up here right now. Just let him continue to improve and gain confidence, and hopefully he'll be ready to contribute meaningfully this summer. It's not focusing on the bottom line - it's being patient with players and not rushing them. THAT is old school Royals bullshit.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by eazyb81

Not sure what you're trying to say with the first part. I think it's common sense to trade one month of Hochevar at 24 years old for an extra year when he's in his prime in his late twenties. He hasn't done nearly enough to warrant an extension; hell, we just gave Greinke an extension after a year with a sub 4 ERA.

There's just no reason to push him up here right now. Just let him continue to improve and gain confidence, and hopefully he'll be ready to contribute meaningfully this summer. It's not focusing on the bottom line - it's being patient with players and not rushing them. THAT is old school Royals bullshit.

Rushing players was also part of the regular MO, so I also agree with your final sentence. Not sure if this was the case with Hoch, though. Of course, the reason players had to be rushed was that there were no viable alternatives at the ML level, primarily because Glass wasn't spending any money. So, it's a vicious cycle.

As a college pitcher with a year of semi-pro experience, Hochevar should have been ready to compete at the start of the season. Perhaps it will end up being the right move in the long term, but I have a hard time believing he didn't give the club the best chance to win.

Whatever, though. Water under the bridge, with the team still competitive and about to reap some practical value from the move. For the record, the team was late in getting that extension to Greinke, IMO.

[Mama Hip Rockets]

Originally Posted by CoMoChief

The trouble is we can't afford to just keep losing everytime our 5th guy comes to the mound, or late in the game when the game is close and its time for our worthless set up man to come out and serve up meat balls to the other team. We cant bat ourselves Wins. We need to pitch extremely well and play small ball. We have very limited consistant power from just a few players at most.

If we want to seriously become contenders (yes I said it) we need to make the move that makes the most sense........get rid of Farnsworth and Ponson. I cant even imagine what the Royals team ERA would be without those 2 clowns.

I dunno, I just ****in hate Farnsworth, my other half as a Cubs fan, I ****ing hated this guy when he was in Chicago. I almost had to pull my car over when I listed to 610 the day we signed this piece of shit and for how much we signed him for. I can't believe that the "baseball minds" we have in the front office would even think of signing this guy when avg Joe baseball fan knows that he's a complete train wreck as a pitcher. Jesus.
What a complete waste of a signing.

I'm too hard on Ponson, he's had some good and some really terrible outings, but thats the thing .....hes terribly inconsistant. Always has been. Everywhere he goes, doesn't matter. In NYY he had a 5+ ERA. I dont care if its a 5th starter or a 8th starter in little league thats just ****ing terrible. The only reason why I'm not too pissed about it is because of the little money he's making. He's on a minor league contract, which means that A: No one else wanted his ass, because he agreed to sign with one of the worse clubs in MLB for a min deal.

Hochevar needs to be brought up......period.

winner.

[Mama Hip Rockets]

Originally Posted by eazyb81

I think it's common sense to trade one month of Hochevar at 24 years old for an extra year when he's in his prime in his late twenties.

i guess i don't have any common sense, cause i have no idea how keeping him in AAA gives him an extra year in his late twenties. please explain.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by CoMoChief

he agreed to sign with one of the worse clubs in MLB.

Not any more.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by thurman merman

i guess i don't have any common sense, cause i have no idea how keeping him in AAA gives him an extra year in his late twenties. please explain.

It has to do with his ML service time, and thus the club's ability to stretch out the time before he hits arbitration and FA.

[Mama Hip Rockets]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

It has to do with his ML service time, and thus the club's ability to stretch out the time before he hits arbitration and FA.

thanks for the explanation.

that does not justify having sidney ponson in the major leagues, though.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by thurman merman

thanks for the explanation.

that does not justify having sidney ponson in the major leagues, though.

considering that we are now talking about 1 week, maybe it does. Or at least we need to start someone other than Hochevar.

If we wanted to not care about service time, then he needed to start at the beginning of the season. At this point we are committed and would be stupid to bring him up before the magic date.

In poker tournament terms, this would be like if you had a middle pair of sevens on the flop, someone raised you, you re-raised 95% of what you got, and they called. Maybe you shouldnt have done that, but you cant fold now.

[Chief Chief]

Originally Posted by alnorth

In poker tournament terms, this would be like if you had a middle pair of sevens on the flop, someone raised you, you re-raised 95% of what you got, and they called. Maybe you shouldnt have done that, but you cant fold now.

But you would certainly also have to consider the quality of the opponent; i.e., are you facing off against a championship-caliber player or are you taking on a 5-year old who has never played poker before? Also, is the dealer shifty-eyed and keeps winking at your opponent? And what exactly are the two cards in your hand? Are they the other two sevens or could they possibly be a couple of Pokemon character cards?

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by eazyb81

Most teams have shitty 5th starters, and Ponson is just keeping the spot warm until Hochevar comes up.

By keeping Hochevar in the minors through the first month, we get to keep him an extra year. I'll take a few spots from Ponson for that.

Hochevar starts today for Omaha.
Might be worth keeping an eye on his pitch count, just in case the Royals are thinking about giving him Wednesday's start in KC.

[SPATCH]

Originally Posted by tk13

I think Ponson has been better than expected, certainly not Scott Elarton bad. Going into last night he was a fine 5th starter, now his numbers look bad. He's had three decent starts and two bad ones.

you shall never speak of his name again

[Bowser]

Piss on the Twins. That is all.

[Mama Hip Rockets]

Originally Posted by Chief Chief

Are they the other two sevens or could they possibly be a couple of Pokemon character cards?