How Getz, Butler & Yost cost us our first chance in decades

[petegz28]

Okay, okay, it was a long shot to begin with but we were making a serious run at making that long shot.

Enter the 3 Amigos: Chris Getz, Billy Butler, Ned Yost...

Backdrop:
It was a Saturday night in Detroit. The Royals had just swept the 1st place Tigers in a double-header the previous day. It was set for the Royals to take at least 3 out 5 from the 1st place team and at worst gain a game on them

It was a very playoff like atmosphere. Detroit took the early lead but Kansas City kept battling back to tie the game. Then it comes down to the last 6 outs of the game with the Royals trailing.

In the top of the 8th the Royals had scratched runs to tie the game at 5. With runners on 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs, David Lough pops out to the infield. Okay, Lough has been an over-achieving 4th outfielder, it's disappointing but acceptable and somewhat expected.

That brings us Eric Hosmer in the same situation with 1 out. The Tigers wisely walk him to load the bases and get to Billy Butler. Yes, that is correct, in a tie game the Tigers loaded the bases intentionally with 1 out to face what is supposed to be the best hitter on the Royals' roster.

Royals fans are thinking "the go ahead run is sealed, Butler will come through with the Sac Fly at least, right?", or were they??? Billy Butler, the DH, the All-Star, the man whose job is to do nothing but hit the ball....lines out to the 3rd baseman making it 2 outs with bases loaded, putting the odd squarely in the favor of Detroit and making them look like geniuses for walking Hosmer. Gordon grounds out, Royals don't score the go ahead run.

Onto the top of the 9th. With 2 outs and the go ahead runner on 3rd and the odds already favoring the defense, Chris Getz, at his direction or otherwise, puts down a bunt. YES! YES! A ****ING BUNT WITH 2 OUTS! Needless to say the runner on 3rd never scored and the Royals head to the bottom of the 9th tied at 5 to face the best hitter in baseball.

Enter Ned Yost. In a 3-1 count, Aaron Crow is somehow not told to pitch around Cabrrera. Instead he grooves a 3-1 fastball only to watch the game end as the ball went over the outfield wall. Royals lose, 6-5.

Game over. Season Over.

While there were no guarantees we would have won that game using more common sense, we would have had a much better chance at doing so.


I know there is plenty of blame to go around but later in life as I look back on this season I will look back to those 2 innings and those series of plays as to what finally broke the back of the Royals miracle run at the playoffs.

[BWillie]

Tired of hearing Butler sucks. If there is a better option by all means lets hear it, but there isn't. Dude is probably going to hit like .295 with 17 HR with a great OBP. Sure he lets us down some times with double plays and is slow, but Butler is hardly wrong with this team.

I'm still upset that we didn't trade Santana. I've been on record many times saying I didn't like the Schields trade & not trading Santana for something. You would have had a very nice return for Santana, and you would be selling high. Resigning him is not really an option and I don't know if overpaying to resign him is even worth it. The Schields trade basically screws this team for long term success. It is just a way for Dayton to keep his job, and unfortunately it looks like he will be sucessful with that. Even not taking into account THE NEXT 5 YEARS, the trade was BARELY in KC's favor this year. 5 years of Myers, Odorizzi etc would have been nice, instead of a Schields rental for ONE YEAR THAT WILL MATTER (2014).

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Tired of hearing Butler sucks. If there is a better option by all means lets hear it, but there isn't. Dude is probably going to hit like .295 with 17 HR with a great OBP. Sure he lets us down some times with double plays and is slow, but Butler is hardly wrong with this team.

I'm still upset that we didn't trade Santana. I've been on record many times saying I didn't like the Schields trade & not trading Santana for something. You would have had a very nice return for Santana, and you would be selling high. Resigning him is not really an option and I don't know if overpaying to resign him is even worth it. The Schields trade basically screws this team for long term success. It is just a way for Dayton to keep his job, and unfortunately it looks like he will be sucessful with that. Even not taking into account THE NEXT 5 YEARS, the trade was BARELY in KC's favor this year. 5 years of Myers, Odorizzi etc would have been nice, instead of a Schields rental for ONE YEAR THAT WILL MATTER (2014).

That's one way to look at it opposite the "win now" view. The only problem is we have heard "it's not about this year but the next X years.." for the last 25 years.

As for Butler, Deez I think puts it best when he says Butler means more to this team\lineup than he would on some other team. I was all for trading Bill the last 2 years and would have and brought up Myers. Instead we opted to stay with fails like Hoch and French.

What I am tired of hearing is how great our Farm system is and what not. It hasn't translated to the ML's. Other teams draft far beneath us yet somehow manage to get guys up quicker and see them perform better than our "stars".

[Mr. Laz]

dayton moore should of gotten a dam 2nd baseman


also we have too many slappy bats on our roster


when you have 3 or 4 guys in your lineup that have to bunt to get a hit. That struggle to get the ball out of the infield then you are in trouble

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by petegz28

Okay, okay, it was a long shot to begin with but we were making a serious run at making that long shot.

Enter the 3 Amigos: Chris Getz, Billy Butler, Ned Yost...

Backdrop:
It was a Saturday night in Detroit. The Royals had just swept the 1st place Tigers in a double-header the previous day. It was set for the Royals to take at least 3 out 5 from the 1st place team and at worst gain a game on them

It was a very playoff like atmosphere. Detroit took the early lead but Kansas City kept battling back to tie the game. Then it comes down to the last 6 outs of the game with the Royals trailing.

In the top of the 8th the Royals had scratched runs to tie the game at 5. With runners on 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs, David Lough pops out to the infield. Okay, Lough has been an over-achieving 4th outfielder, it's disappointing but acceptable and somewhat expected.

That brings us Eric Hosmer in the same situation with 1 out. The Tigers wisely walk him to load the bases and get to Billy Butler. Yes, that is correct, in a tie game the Tigers loaded the bases intentionally with 1 out to face what is supposed to be the best hitter on the Royals' roster.

Royals fans are thinking "the go ahead run is sealed, Butler will come through with the Sac Fly at least, right?", or were they??? Billy Butler, the DH, the All-Star, the man whose job is to do nothing but hit the ball....lines out to the 3rd baseman making it 2 outs with bases loaded, putting the odd squarely in the favor of Detroit and making them look like geniuses for walking Hosmer. Gordon grounds out, Royals don't score the go ahead run.

Onto the top of the 9th. With 2 outs and the go ahead runner on 3rd and the odds already favoring the defense, Chris Getz, at his direction or otherwise, puts down a bunt. YES! YES! A ****ING BUNT WITH 2 OUTS! Needless to say the runner on 3rd never scored and the Royals head to the bottom of the 9th tied at 5 to face the best hitter in baseball.

Enter Ned Yost. In a 3-1 count, Aaron Crow is somehow not told to pitch around Cabrrera. Instead he grooves a 3-1 fastball only to watch the game end as the ball went over the outfield wall. Royals lose, 6-5.

Game over. Season Over.

While there were no guarantees we would have won that game using more common sense, we would have had a much better chance at doing so.


I know there is plenty of blame to go around but later in life as I look back on this season I will look back to those 2 innings and those series of plays as to what finally broke the back of the Royals miracle run at the playoffs.

I blame Butler for having a fairly lame seaon overall, but I can't get too pissed over him smashing a liner that was caught.

[Nzoner]

In Billay's defense though he is 12th in the AL for times on base.

[Pablo]

We've been a piss poor team at the plate all ****ing year. I'd like to be able to hang it on one moment or a certain set of guys.

The reality is every single starter has ****ed this team long and hard at some point in the season. Butler has pissed me off quite a bit because I still believe in his potential, but I can't single him out.

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by Pablo

We've been a piss poor team at the plate all ****ing year. I'd like to be able to hang it on one moment or a certain set of guys.

The reality is every single starter has ****ed this team long and hard at some point in the season. Butler has pissed me off quite a bit because I still believe in his potential, but I can't single him out.

I see what you did there.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by petegz28

In a year that we were out of it by May. As it was stated earlier, Billy seems to do real good when the pressure is off. I won't take away from what he did last year as it deserves props but I have to view it in context as well.

He's hitting over .300 and OPSing over .850 with RISP.

Yeah, Billy sucks in pressure situations.

[siberian khatru]

Not just RISP. He's doing fine in high-leverage situations. He's not just hitting solo home runs in the 9th down four runs.

Billy should be hitting more doubles. That's been the biggest disappointment.

Otherwise: Billly. Is not. The problem.

[alnorth]

What a hilariously overblown thread title. We went from supposedly having a chance at the playoffs to being out of it....

... in 6 outs? 2/9 of one game in a 162-game season?

If we had, say 2% chance before the game, we may have had 1.9% or 1.95% after the game.

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

He's hitting over .300 and OPSing over .850 with RISP.

Yeah, Billy sucks in pressure situations.

It's Petetard. It's the umps. It's the refs. It's Butler.

This team made the run they did because of arms.

Had Dayton Moore been doing his ****ing job in the off season, 2nd base would have been addressed and there would be a power bat in the middle of this lineup. Christ what I wouldn't give for Adam Dunn.

One more thing Pete: Gordon's glove does not make up for his sick bat. It adds some value I guess. But he could make 10 errors and I'd accept them if he were hitting.

Pete you need to accept the fact that you're a reactionary idiot type fan. The rest of the board already does.

Love,

Will

[siberian khatru]

Yeah, let's talk about Gordon.

I love Alex. But his hitting for the last three months has been awful, and even worse since the All-Star break.

But he's not FAAAAAAAAAAT.

[WhawhaWhat]

Billy Butler OPS -
Low Leverage - .780
Medium Leverage - .814
High Leverage - .940

Bases Empty - .795
Men on Base - .823
Men in Scoring - .862

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

Pete you need to accept the fact that you're a reactionary idiot type fan. The rest of the board already does.

Love,

Will

[petegz28]

Butler's OPS? 46th in the league.