Royals 2012 Kansas City Royals Repository Thread - Page 196

**alnorth** · 10:54 PM

2012 Slogan: Our Time

A better, more accurate 2012 Slogan: It is Finally Next Year
(from Great Expectations)

An alternative slogan if you don't like that one: Someone has to win this crappy division
(from alnorth)

With the beginning of a new year, it is time for the 2012 version of the Royals Repository Thread. We've got Hosmer, we've got a 2011-dominating Gordon, we've got Moose, we've got hopefully a killer bullpen, we've got a stereotypical slow slugging DH, we've got easily one of the best defensive shortstops in the AL, we've got a promising catcher in Salvador Perez. Hell, we've got offense and promising prospects galore.

We do not have starting pitching.

Oh yeah, we've also got this:

Get ready for, (as of January 2012 anyway), one of the most confusing puzzles of a baseball season in recent Royals history. Will they suck? Maybe, I don't know. Will we be given a year of 0.500 baseball? Possibly, I don't know. Will they win the division and go to the playoffs for the first time in 27 years? For the first time in a long time, it could happen, I don't know. 92 losses, 92 wins, or anything in between would not surprise a lot of us.

Everything goes here except Gameday threads and really big news. If a giant story breaks, the Royals achieve some awesome milestone, or we sign/lose a highly significant player/coach/mascot/whatever, then it might also deserve its own thread. This being Chiefs Planet, please do not clutter the board with new threads about trivial Royals news or you will only annoy those who come here for just Chiefs football. If you aren't sure and its not a Gameday thread, it goes here.

What sort of stuff often goes here? SPchief explained it well, so I'll just copy that:

Quote:

If you locate something of interest.. ANYTHING.. deals on apparel, best ways in/out of the stadium, giveaways, great stories from this season or from seasons gone by, rumors, trades, anything.... feel free to post it here.

**lewdog** · 05-25-2012, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChiefsandO'sfan

Good Luck tonight 5mins away

I am ****ing serious. Start the thread. No one around here has any good mojo, maybe we need an opponent to start game threads.

And if anyone gives you shit, don't worry, I got your back.

stonedstooge · 05-25-2012, 05:05 PM

Do it

**chefsos** · 05-25-2012, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stonedstooge

Do it

this

**lewdog** · 05-25-2012, 05:06 PM

ChiefsandO's fan, hurry the **** up. We are about to start and I wanna post stuff.

stonedstooge · 05-25-2012, 05:07 PM

Or you can do it chefsos. We like you guys

Al Bundy · 05-25-2012, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

He has never developed consistent secondary pitches. This was a kid that had the frame and arm to really develop into a special guy, but he was extremely raw from the slider/curveball/change aspect. I think the Royals' organizational edict against the slider, pre-Rick Knapp, might have hurt his development. I always thought his arm slot/delivery would be much more consistent with that pitch than a curve.

He has struggled as a starter but can probably be an MLB relief arm, if nothing else.

Hopefully they Knapp can fix that.

**chefsos** · 05-25-2012, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stonedstooge

Or you can do it chefsos. We like you guys

I'm game.

Al Bundy · 05-26-2012, 07:42 AM

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/25...s-once-in.html

Pitching in majors was once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Villacis

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/25...#storylink=cpy

It is 2004, and a 24-year-old pitcher is flying high above New York City. He pulls up the window shade and gazes down at the skyscrapers below. It is a Friday, the final day in April, and in close to 24 hours, this young right-hander will take the mound at Yankee Stadium. He has thrown only 181/3 innings at Class AA Wichita this season, never more than 59 pitches in a game, but this is his time. Ever since he was a kid in Venezuela, when he idolized Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams, he has dreamed of this day.

Now he sees the buildings, steel running into steel, lives stacked on lives, and Eduardo Villacis begins to think about his career debut.

“You’re on your own,” he says to himself. “You’re on the mound tomorrow.”

It is 2012, a Thursday in May, and you’re not exactly sure where you’re calling. It may be Bilbao, Spain, or Bern, Switzerland, or some home in Venezuela. Eduardo Villacis is a tough man to track down.

You pick up the phone, dial a 15-digit number, and wait for the sound. Within a few seconds, a friendly voice picks up.

“Hello?”

“Is this Eduardo?”

“Yes.”

“Eduardo, I’m calling from Kansas City …”

“Oh, hi,” he says. “I didn’t expect you to be calling.”

The conversation begins, and he listens while you tell him why you’re calling. On Wednesday evening, the Royals started a rookie left-hander named Will Smith at Yankee Stadium in his major-league debut. Smith gave up five runs and six hits in 31/3 innings, his career ERA setting at 13.50 after one start.

You tell Villacis that in the history of the Kansas City Royals, there are only two starting pitchers who have ever made their career debut in New York: Will Smith … and Eduardo Villacis.

From his home in Venezuela, he listens to the explanation, the words about the past, and the memories from the best (and most bittersweet) day of his life crash into each other. But for now, he’s thinking of Smith making his big-league debut.

“Wow,” he says, “Good for him.”

Eight years later, and you’re probably still familiar with the Villacis story. In the opening weeks of the 2004 season, with the Royals in a tailspin and manager Tony Peña still offering up daily doses of bumper-sticker optimism, the Royals needed a spot starter for a Saturday game at Yankee Stadium.

Two pitchers with major-league experience — Jamey Wright and Kris Wilson — were waiting at Class AAA Omaha, and a 20-year-old Zack Greinke was dominating hitters in the minors. But the Royals picked Villacis, a 24-year-old who had never been to major-league spring training — and had spent most of his minor-league career as a middle reliever.

“I don’t know too much about this kid,” Peña would say.

The thoughts permeated the Royals’ clubhouse. Who was this kid? And why was he starting at Yankee Stadium?

“I felt like a stranger,” Villacis says now.

It was the strangest of baseball stories, a tale that has come to define a certain era of baseball in Kansas City. The no-name kid showing up at Yankee Stadium to face a lineup of future Hall of Famers and All-Stars … and then disappearing back into the cornfields of minor-league baseball, a ghost to hang over the Royals’ organization for the next eight seasons.

This, of course, is where the stories and coincidences diverge. Smith is not another Villacis. He is a mid-level prospect, a 22-year-old with a solid slider and close to 50 starts at the Class AA level or higher. Even after his beating on Wednesday, he will get another chance, starting Tuesday in Cleveland.

For Villacis, it’s a second chance that never came.

The first pitch was a ball to Derek Jeter. If there was one thing Eduardo Villacis had always counted on, it was his ability to throw strikes. Baseball men called him a strike-thrower. He liked that.

So when that first fastball to Jeter moved out of the strike zone, Villacis took a deep breath, trying to calm the nerves.

“C’mon, man,” he told himself. “You cannot walk the first guy of the inning. C’mon, C’mon, throw strikes!”

The next pitch was a fastball. A strike. And Jeter knocked it into center field for a single. It was an ominous start. But for Villacis, it was a relief. He had thrown a strike. That was out of the way. Now he was ready to pitch.

For Villacis, a kid who had once signed with the Rockies for $4,000, the hours leading up to the game had been surreal. He had warmed up near Monument Park. He soaked in the atmosphere. He marveled at the plush clubhouse. This was a fairy-tale — until it wasn’t.

Veteran players openly wondered why Villacis was there. Players quietly asked reporters about the mystery pitcher.

“Nobody called me like, ‘Hey man, congratulations, welcome to the team,’ ” Villacis says. “And it was tough. Because the impression that you get when you move up is like, ‘Nobody gives a (expletive).’ So, you’re there on your own.”

In the first inning, Villacis allowed singles to Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield. Jason Giambi and Ruben Sierra walked. And the Yankees scored two runs.

In the third inning, Villacis walked two more batters, and Sierra crushed a three-run homer. And that was it.

The Royals fell to 7-15 with the loss. And after the game, Villacis walked into Peña’s office. “Well, we didn’t expect you to throw a no-no,” he remembers hearing.

The rest of the conversation was a blur. His chance was over. He had walked four guys — “my biggest enemy,” he says — and now he was leaving, back to Wichita, back to the minors, unsure if he’d ever get another chance.

In a few weeks, he would be put on waivers, a move to create room for Greinke on the 40-man roster. He was claimed by the White Sox and posted a 5.84 ERA at three different levels in 2005. By 2006, he was out of minor-league baseball.

It is the spring of 2011, and Saturday morning comes early in Bern, Switzerland. Villacis must be at the field by 8 a.m. He is just 31 years old, but his baseball career is hanging by a thread. To continue playing, he’s chased the game to this lush green park in Switzerland, 12 miles north of the Bernese Alps.

He is a starting pitcher on the Bern Cardinals, the reigning Swiss League champs. But that’s not all. He is also the manager … and a member of the grounds crew … and pretty much everything else. He must arrive at 8 a.m. so he can help wheel a cart of equipment from one side of the park to the place where they play baseball.

“It was a nature park,” Villacis says, “like Central Park in New York.”

The players must help paint the lines, and set up the scoreboard, and drive little stakes into the ground that prop up the plastic netting that makes up the outfield fence.

“It’s like a circus,” Villacis says. “You have to create your own stadium.”

If most Americans saw this scene, Villacis says, it would look closer to a softball picnic than a professional baseball game. The Swiss care about baseball the way Americans care about test cricket. Which is to say, they don’t.

Still, Villacis was looking for a way back. In 2007 and 2008, he was a pitching coach in the Colorado Rockies’ system, working in the Pioneer League. But in 2009, the Rockies didn’t renew his contract, and he was left to move on.

He knew an old Venezuelan friend in Switzerland, and he was tipped off about the job. So here he was, managing a team of Cubans, Dominicans, former American college players and a few locals. He pitched once a week, too.

The Cardinals would repeat as Swiss League champions. And whenever Villacis’ name showed up on the team’s web site, it usually came fixed to the following words: “Former major-league pitcher …”

Villacis returned to Europe this year to pitch for San Inazio Bilbao, a team in a Spanish League. But the experience wasn’t great, Villacis says, so he returned home to Caracas. He’s still looking for a way back in.

“I think I still have something to give baseball,” he says.

Eduardo Villacis has been on the phone for nearly 30 minutes. It’s evening in Caracas, and Villacis has big plans. He has a fianceé in Houston, a lifelong friend from Venezuela, and he hopes to get married this year.

If all goes as planned, he’ll be with her in the United States later this summer, and then he’ll search for another job in baseball. This is his dream now.

“I think I belong to the baseball family,” he says.

He hopes that some organization takes a chance on him as a low-level coach or scout. He mentions the Royals. He’s still thankful for the opportunity, he says.

That Saturday in New York was one of the defining moments of his life. But for so many others, the day is the perfect representation of all that went wrong for the Royals during the last two decades. A baffling move. A bad team. Pena guaranteeing that his team would win the AL Central — only to lose 100 games.

Now, more than eight years have passed, and the Royals are mostly beyond the dark days of the last decade. But with the franchise dealing with a difficult start to the season, it’s sometimes hard to escape the ghosts of the past.

You ask Villacis about this. Does he mind that people remember him this way?

“Reality is reality,” he says. “If that has to be the way to be remembered, I don’t know if it would be the correct one, but I try to be remembered as a good player.”

He pauses for a second.

“Hey,” he says. “I made my mark.”

Villacis remembers a conversation with Frank White back in 2004, after the Royals had put him on waivers.

“I wouldn’t like to let a player like you go,” White told him.

Villacis, now 32, still hangs on to those words. How many people have heard that from Frank White? He still remembers pitching alongside Greinke at Class A Wilmington. Greinke was the future Cy Young winner, a first-round pick with otherworldly talent. And Villacis was just a guy, a durable right-hander with a solid frame. And yet, Villacis beat Greinke to the big leagues.

“I got a chance to be there before him,” Villacis says.

This is baseball. Chances come and go. Pitches are made. Batters swing. And life moves on. A young player comes in. And an older one gets shipped out.

Villacis always felt like he deserved one more chance. But eight years later, the hope is faded, the game moves on, and his career statistics are frozen in time:

One game, 31/3 innings, five runs, six hits, four walks. Career ERA: 13.50.

“It’s just one of those things,” Villacis says, “where you have a chance to do it once in your life.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/25...#storylink=cpy

**gblowfish** · 05-26-2012, 09:23 AM

Eduardo should be our team ambassador for the All Star Game instead of Brett. He represents the true nature of Royals Baseball over the past 10 years much better than GB does.

Marco Polo · 05-27-2012, 08:27 AM

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports that "there’s a feeling that Alex Gordon could be had in a deal."

Cafardo cautions, though, that "it would take an overwhelming package, one that includes a front-line starting pitcher." Gordon signed a four-year, $37.5 million contract extension with the Royals just before the season, so it would be a surprise if they moved him. They'd also be selling low, as Gordon is batting just .226/.322/.356 this season following a breakout year in 2011. We suspect that he'll stay put.

Sure-Oz · 05-27-2012, 09:51 AM

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/26...sung-hero.html

Posted on Sat, May. 26, 2012
Sam Mellinger | Billy Butler is the Royals’ unsung hero
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star

Someday, if things go right, the Royals will have the kind of ballplayer that Kansas City will fall in love with. He will have a good nickname and be the kind of guy who never imagined anything other than baseball, who makes a point to be active in local charities and sign autographs and talk ball with fans.

Someday, if we’re all lucky, the Royals will have the kind of player who loves being drafted by Kansas City and signs almost immediately, for less than he could otherwise command, and when he becomes a rising star accepts one of the first contract extensions he sees.

Someday, if the baseball gods are kind to Kansas City for once, the Royals will have a player who not only signs to stay here long-term but outperforms that contract, never gets hurt, develops into one of the best in the world at what he does and is even better in the most important situations.

Someday, if we’re patient, maybe this player can develop into the kind of slugger who puts up bigger numbers than Prince Fielder and Jose Bautista and Miguel Cabrera.

Or someday, if we keep our minds open, maybe we’ll realize the Royals already have this player and that his name is Billy Butler.

“He’s going to be remembered as one of the best right-handed hitters of his era,” an American League executive says. “I’m serious. The numbers are there.”

Billy Butler is hitting for a higher average (.301) than Joe Mauer, getting on base more (.358) than Carlos Peña, and slugging more (.534) than Robinson Cano.

He turned 26 years old last month and is on pace for the best season of his career, better even than 2009, when he hit 21 home runs and 51 doubles, or 2010 when he hit .318 and walked nearly as often (69 times) as he struck out (78).

This is a slugger maturing, a man they used to call Ichi-Billy for his pop-gun singles power now on pace for 36 home runs and 119 RBIs — both would be career highs.

He is hitting for more power in part because he is swinging with more force, comfortable enough to sacrifice some walks (lowest rate of his career) for power (highest home run rate of his career).

This is the year that Butler takes some misguided criticism one night for killing a rally with a double-play grounder, and then the next night hits a 94-mph fastball into the left field fountains for the game-winning home run.

Before the season, when we were all caught up in Mission 2012 expectations, it was easy to miss that Butler was the Royals’ only player anyone in baseball could be absolutely certain would hit.

Because he always hits, rarely slumps, a quality born from a middle-of-the-field swing, balanced legs, endless video study and a natural gift for sensing a pitcher’s approach that led a former coach to call Butler “a hitting genius.”

In a season so far marked by a 12-game losing streak, too many underperformances and way too many injuries, Butler (along with Mike Moustakas and Felipe Paulino) has been the exception. He’s started every game, taken out only for pinch runners, his batting average never dipping below .284 since the first week.

This is a legitimate All-Star candidate in a star-stuffed position, a former hitting prodigy now in the prime of his career. This is a man on track for the kind of career that ends with a spot in the team Hall of Fame, maybe a retired number.

Moustakas is having a more valuable season than Butler because he is a third baseman instead of a designated hitter, but people around Kansas City seem appropriately aware of that. Moooooose yells fill Kauffman Stadium whenever he makes a play or reaches base.

It has never been quite like that for Butler.

Back before Royals fans knew the young man as anything more than a name in the pages of Baseball America, then-manager Buddy Bell was talking one day in spring training about his young slugger’s baseball-centric life and wonderfully simple given name of Billy Ray Butler.

“People back in Kansas City,” Bell said, “they’re gonna love this kid.”

There have been moments, sure. The “Country Breakfast” nickname was fun for a while. He got some attention in 2009 for joining Hank Greenberg, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera and Grady Sizemore as the only players since 1901 to hit 20 homers and 50 doubles in a season by the age of 23.

But those moments are drowned out by the Royals averaging 94 losses the last three seasons, or ridiculous talk about him “clogging the bases,” or leading the league in double plays two years ago, or his mediocre defense immortalized by Ned Yost’s classic “astronaut” line.

The longer we watch players, the more we tend to pick them apart, and Butler has had his own rough edges, of course. The Royals sent him to Omaha in 2008 — he’d occasionally been the team’s cleanup hitter as recently as that month — more to work on maturity than baseball.

You might’ve heard a couple of stories. Once, his buddies razzing him about striking out against his mom in Wii baseball, Butler replied, “Yeah, she struck me out. But then I proceeded to hit three jacks off her.” Another day, early in spring training, coaches said batting practice was to be half-speed, opposite-field type stuff and when Billy walked away he said to nobody in particular, “First pitch I’m raking.”

But by now, those rough edges have long smoothed into what can generally be described as a lovable and well-intentioned comrade.

“Even if you don’t like Billy you can’t not like him, if that makes sense,” a teammate once said. “Honestly, he has one of the best hearts of anyone I know.”

Because beneath the easygoing swagger is a grown man obsessed with his craft. That’s why he takes time in the batting cage, giving himself plans of 100, 300, sometimes 500 swings a day. That’s why he moved his offseason home to Arizona, so he could be closer to coaching, closer to equipment, closer to baseball, and isn’t that what you want from your ballplayers?

Butler has been this guy for four years now, even if the focus on him has often been about what he can’t do. Thing is, that means too often missing what he can do.

Al Bundy · 05-27-2012, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sure-Oz

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/26...sung-hero.html

Posted on Sat, May. 26, 2012
Sam Mellinger | Billy Butler is the Royals’ unsung hero
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star

Someday, if things go right, the Royals will have the kind of ballplayer that Kansas City will fall in love with. He will have a good nickname and be the kind of guy who never imagined anything other than baseball, who makes a point to be active in local charities and sign autographs and talk ball with fans.

Someday, if we’re all lucky, the Royals will have the kind of player who loves being drafted by Kansas City and signs almost immediately, for less than he could otherwise command, and when he becomes a rising star accepts one of the first contract extensions he sees.

Someday, if the baseball gods are kind to Kansas City for once, the Royals will have a player who not only signs to stay here long-term but outperforms that contract, never gets hurt, develops into one of the best in the world at what he does and is even better in the most important situations.

Someday, if we’re patient, maybe this player can develop into the kind of slugger who puts up bigger numbers than Prince Fielder and Jose Bautista and Miguel Cabrera.

Or someday, if we keep our minds open, maybe we’ll realize the Royals already have this player and that his name is Billy Butler.

“He’s going to be remembered as one of the best right-handed hitters of his era,” an American League executive says. “I’m serious. The numbers are there.”

Billy Butler is hitting for a higher average (.301) than Joe Mauer, getting on base more (.358) than Carlos Peña, and slugging more (.534) than Robinson Cano.

He turned 26 years old last month and is on pace for the best season of his career, better even than 2009, when he hit 21 home runs and 51 doubles, or 2010 when he hit .318 and walked nearly as often (69 times) as he struck out (78).

This is a slugger maturing, a man they used to call Ichi-Billy for his pop-gun singles power now on pace for 36 home runs and 119 RBIs — both would be career highs.

He is hitting for more power in part because he is swinging with more force, comfortable enough to sacrifice some walks (lowest rate of his career) for power (highest home run rate of his career).

This is the year that Butler takes some misguided criticism one night for killing a rally with a double-play grounder, and then the next night hits a 94-mph fastball into the left field fountains for the game-winning home run.

Before the season, when we were all caught up in Mission 2012 expectations, it was easy to miss that Butler was the Royals’ only player anyone in baseball could be absolutely certain would hit.

Because he always hits, rarely slumps, a quality born from a middle-of-the-field swing, balanced legs, endless video study and a natural gift for sensing a pitcher’s approach that led a former coach to call Butler “a hitting genius.”

In a season so far marked by a 12-game losing streak, too many underperformances and way too many injuries, Butler (along with Mike Moustakas and Felipe Paulino) has been the exception. He’s started every game, taken out only for pinch runners, his batting average never dipping below .284 since the first week.

This is a legitimate All-Star candidate in a star-stuffed position, a former hitting prodigy now in the prime of his career. This is a man on track for the kind of career that ends with a spot in the team Hall of Fame, maybe a retired number.

Moustakas is having a more valuable season than Butler because he is a third baseman instead of a designated hitter, but people around Kansas City seem appropriately aware of that. Moooooose yells fill Kauffman Stadium whenever he makes a play or reaches base.

It has never been quite like that for Butler.

Back before Royals fans knew the young man as anything more than a name in the pages of Baseball America, then-manager Buddy Bell was talking one day in spring training about his young slugger’s baseball-centric life and wonderfully simple given name of Billy Ray Butler.

“People back in Kansas City,” Bell said, “they’re gonna love this kid.”

There have been moments, sure. The “Country Breakfast” nickname was fun for a while. He got some attention in 2009 for joining Hank Greenberg, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera and Grady Sizemore as the only players since 1901 to hit 20 homers and 50 doubles in a season by the age of 23.

But those moments are drowned out by the Royals averaging 94 losses the last three seasons, or ridiculous talk about him “clogging the bases,” or leading the league in double plays two years ago, or his mediocre defense immortalized by Ned Yost’s classic “astronaut” line.

The longer we watch players, the more we tend to pick them apart, and Butler has had his own rough edges, of course. The Royals sent him to Omaha in 2008 — he’d occasionally been the team’s cleanup hitter as recently as that month — more to work on maturity than baseball.

You might’ve heard a couple of stories. Once, his buddies razzing him about striking out against his mom in Wii baseball, Butler replied, “Yeah, she struck me out. But then I proceeded to hit three jacks off her.” Another day, early in spring training, coaches said batting practice was to be half-speed, opposite-field type stuff and when Billy walked away he said to nobody in particular, “First pitch I’m raking.”

But by now, those rough edges have long smoothed into what can generally be described as a lovable and well-intentioned comrade.

“Even if you don’t like Billy you can’t not like him, if that makes sense,” a teammate once said. “Honestly, he has one of the best hearts of anyone I know.”

Because beneath the easygoing swagger is a grown man obsessed with his craft. That’s why he takes time in the batting cage, giving himself plans of 100, 300, sometimes 500 swings a day. That’s why he moved his offseason home to Arizona, so he could be closer to coaching, closer to equipment, closer to baseball, and isn’t that what you want from your ballplayers?

Butler has been this guy for four years now, even if the focus on him has often been about what he can’t do. Thing is, that means too often missing what he can do.

Great article. I wonder what kind of frontline ace type of pitcher Billy would bring in a trade?

Sure-Oz · 05-27-2012, 10:05 AM

Butler is the modern time Edgar Martinez, probably with more power.

He is undervalued by us all....dude never slumps.

**lewdog** · 05-27-2012, 10:11 AM

I have never understood the knocks on Billy and I think most of them are born our of frustration with a losing franchise. Dude seems like he is a crafty veteran at the plate with years upon years of experience.....then you read he is only 26. He approach at the plate this year has been fun to watch. He rarely looks lost. Maybe if we had more good hitters like Butler, this team would be more...........how do I say it....."Clutch?"

Sure-Oz · 05-27-2012, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lewdog

I have never understood the knocks on Billy and I think most of them are born our of frustration with a losing franchise. Dude seems like he is a crafty veteran at the plate with years upon years of experience.....then you read he is only 26. He approach at the plate this year has been fun to watch. He rarely looks lost. Maybe if we had more good hitters like Butler, this team would be more...........how do I say it....."Clutch?"

Royals would win alot more for sure.

05-25-2012, 05:05 PM	#2927
stonedstooge Arf! Arf! Arf! Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: North Casino cash: $6074173	Do it __________________ 2013 ADOPT A CHIEF Eric Kush "Often is a word I seldom use"--JP
Posts: 25,283

05-25-2012, 05:06 PM	#2929
lewdog Mod Team Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Valley of the hot as **** Casino cash: $1921900	ChiefsandO's fan, hurry the **** up. We are about to start and I wanna post stuff.
Posts: 45,567

05-25-2012, 05:07 PM	#2930
stonedstooge Arf! Arf! Arf! Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: North Casino cash: $6074173	Or you can do it chefsos. We like you guys __________________ 2013 ADOPT A CHIEF Eric Kush "Often is a word I seldom use"--JP
Posts: 25,283

05-26-2012, 07:42 AM	#2933
Al Bundy Damnit Peg Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Overland Park Casino cash: $5391831	http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/25...s-once-in.html Pitching in majors was once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Villacis Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/25...#storylink=cpy It is 2004, and a 24-year-old pitcher is flying high above New York City. He pulls up the window shade and gazes down at the skyscrapers below. It is a Friday, the final day in April, and in close to 24 hours, this young right-hander will take the mound at Yankee Stadium. He has thrown only 181/3 innings at Class AA Wichita this season, never more than 59 pitches in a game, but this is his time. Ever since he was a kid in Venezuela, when he idolized Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams, he has dreamed of this day. Now he sees the buildings, steel running into steel, lives stacked on lives, and Eduardo Villacis begins to think about his career debut. “You’re on your own,” he says to himself. “You’re on the mound tomorrow.” It is 2012, a Thursday in May, and you’re not exactly sure where you’re calling. It may be Bilbao, Spain, or Bern, Switzerland, or some home in Venezuela. Eduardo Villacis is a tough man to track down. You pick up the phone, dial a 15-digit number, and wait for the sound. Within a few seconds, a friendly voice picks up. “Hello?” “Is this Eduardo?” “Yes.” “Eduardo, I’m calling from Kansas City …” “Oh, hi,” he says. “I didn’t expect you to be calling.” The conversation begins, and he listens while you tell him why you’re calling. On Wednesday evening, the Royals started a rookie left-hander named Will Smith at Yankee Stadium in his major-league debut. Smith gave up five runs and six hits in 31/3 innings, his career ERA setting at 13.50 after one start. You tell Villacis that in the history of the Kansas City Royals, there are only two starting pitchers who have ever made their career debut in New York: Will Smith … and Eduardo Villacis. From his home in Venezuela, he listens to the explanation, the words about the past, and the memories from the best (and most bittersweet) day of his life crash into each other. But for now, he’s thinking of Smith making his big-league debut. “Wow,” he says, “Good for him.” Eight years later, and you’re probably still familiar with the Villacis story. In the opening weeks of the 2004 season, with the Royals in a tailspin and manager Tony Peña still offering up daily doses of bumper-sticker optimism, the Royals needed a spot starter for a Saturday game at Yankee Stadium. Two pitchers with major-league experience — Jamey Wright and Kris Wilson — were waiting at Class AAA Omaha, and a 20-year-old Zack Greinke was dominating hitters in the minors. But the Royals picked Villacis, a 24-year-old who had never been to major-league spring training — and had spent most of his minor-league career as a middle reliever. “I don’t know too much about this kid,” Peña would say. The thoughts permeated the Royals’ clubhouse. Who was this kid? And why was he starting at Yankee Stadium? “I felt like a stranger,” Villacis says now. It was the strangest of baseball stories, a tale that has come to define a certain era of baseball in Kansas City. The no-name kid showing up at Yankee Stadium to face a lineup of future Hall of Famers and All-Stars … and then disappearing back into the cornfields of minor-league baseball, a ghost to hang over the Royals’ organization for the next eight seasons. This, of course, is where the stories and coincidences diverge. Smith is not another Villacis. He is a mid-level prospect, a 22-year-old with a solid slider and close to 50 starts at the Class AA level or higher. Even after his beating on Wednesday, he will get another chance, starting Tuesday in Cleveland. For Villacis, it’s a second chance that never came. The first pitch was a ball to Derek Jeter. If there was one thing Eduardo Villacis had always counted on, it was his ability to throw strikes. Baseball men called him a strike-thrower. He liked that. So when that first fastball to Jeter moved out of the strike zone, Villacis took a deep breath, trying to calm the nerves. “C’mon, man,” he told himself. “You cannot walk the first guy of the inning. C’mon, C’mon, throw strikes!” The next pitch was a fastball. A strike. And Jeter knocked it into center field for a single. It was an ominous start. But for Villacis, it was a relief. He had thrown a strike. That was out of the way. Now he was ready to pitch. For Villacis, a kid who had once signed with the Rockies for $4,000, the hours leading up to the game had been surreal. He had warmed up near Monument Park. He soaked in the atmosphere. He marveled at the plush clubhouse. This was a fairy-tale — until it wasn’t. Veteran players openly wondered why Villacis was there. Players quietly asked reporters about the mystery pitcher. “Nobody called me like, ‘Hey man, congratulations, welcome to the team,’ ” Villacis says. “And it was tough. Because the impression that you get when you move up is like, ‘Nobody gives a (expletive).’ So, you’re there on your own.” In the first inning, Villacis allowed singles to Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield. Jason Giambi and Ruben Sierra walked. And the Yankees scored two runs. In the third inning, Villacis walked two more batters, and Sierra crushed a three-run homer. And that was it. The Royals fell to 7-15 with the loss. And after the game, Villacis walked into Peña’s office. “Well, we didn’t expect you to throw a no-no,” he remembers hearing. The rest of the conversation was a blur. His chance was over. He had walked four guys — “my biggest enemy,” he says — and now he was leaving, back to Wichita, back to the minors, unsure if he’d ever get another chance. In a few weeks, he would be put on waivers, a move to create room for Greinke on the 40-man roster. He was claimed by the White Sox and posted a 5.84 ERA at three different levels in 2005. By 2006, he was out of minor-league baseball. It is the spring of 2011, and Saturday morning comes early in Bern, Switzerland. Villacis must be at the field by 8 a.m. He is just 31 years old, but his baseball career is hanging by a thread. To continue playing, he’s chased the game to this lush green park in Switzerland, 12 miles north of the Bernese Alps. He is a starting pitcher on the Bern Cardinals, the reigning Swiss League champs. But that’s not all. He is also the manager … and a member of the grounds crew … and pretty much everything else. He must arrive at 8 a.m. so he can help wheel a cart of equipment from one side of the park to the place where they play baseball. “It was a nature park,” Villacis says, “like Central Park in New York.” The players must help paint the lines, and set up the scoreboard, and drive little stakes into the ground that prop up the plastic netting that makes up the outfield fence. “It’s like a circus,” Villacis says. “You have to create your own stadium.” If most Americans saw this scene, Villacis says, it would look closer to a softball picnic than a professional baseball game. The Swiss care about baseball the way Americans care about test cricket. Which is to say, they don’t. Still, Villacis was looking for a way back. In 2007 and 2008, he was a pitching coach in the Colorado Rockies’ system, working in the Pioneer League. But in 2009, the Rockies didn’t renew his contract, and he was left to move on. He knew an old Venezuelan friend in Switzerland, and he was tipped off about the job. So here he was, managing a team of Cubans, Dominicans, former American college players and a few locals. He pitched once a week, too. The Cardinals would repeat as Swiss League champions. And whenever Villacis’ name showed up on the team’s web site, it usually came fixed to the following words: “Former major-league pitcher …” Villacis returned to Europe this year to pitch for San Inazio Bilbao, a team in a Spanish League. But the experience wasn’t great, Villacis says, so he returned home to Caracas. He’s still looking for a way back in. “I think I still have something to give baseball,” he says. Eduardo Villacis has been on the phone for nearly 30 minutes. It’s evening in Caracas, and Villacis has big plans. He has a fianceé in Houston, a lifelong friend from Venezuela, and he hopes to get married this year. If all goes as planned, he’ll be with her in the United States later this summer, and then he’ll search for another job in baseball. This is his dream now. “I think I belong to the baseball family,” he says. He hopes that some organization takes a chance on him as a low-level coach or scout. He mentions the Royals. He’s still thankful for the opportunity, he says. That Saturday in New York was one of the defining moments of his life. But for so many others, the day is the perfect representation of all that went wrong for the Royals during the last two decades. A baffling move. A bad team. Pena guaranteeing that his team would win the AL Central — only to lose 100 games. Now, more than eight years have passed, and the Royals are mostly beyond the dark days of the last decade. But with the franchise dealing with a difficult start to the season, it’s sometimes hard to escape the ghosts of the past. You ask Villacis about this. Does he mind that people remember him this way? “Reality is reality,” he says. “If that has to be the way to be remembered, I don’t know if it would be the correct one, but I try to be remembered as a good player.” He pauses for a second. “Hey,” he says. “I made my mark.” Villacis remembers a conversation with Frank White back in 2004, after the Royals had put him on waivers. “I wouldn’t like to let a player like you go,” White told him. Villacis, now 32, still hangs on to those words. How many people have heard that from Frank White? He still remembers pitching alongside Greinke at Class A Wilmington. Greinke was the future Cy Young winner, a first-round pick with otherworldly talent. And Villacis was just a guy, a durable right-hander with a solid frame. And yet, Villacis beat Greinke to the big leagues. “I got a chance to be there before him,” Villacis says. This is baseball. Chances come and go. Pitches are made. Batters swing. And life moves on. A young player comes in. And an older one gets shipped out. Villacis always felt like he deserved one more chance. But eight years later, the hope is faded, the game moves on, and his career statistics are frozen in time: One game, 31/3 innings, five runs, six hits, four walks. Career ERA: 13.50. “It’s just one of those things,” Villacis says, “where you have a chance to do it once in your life.” Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/25...#storylink=cpy
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05-26-2012, 09:23 AM	#2934
gblowfish Be Kind To Your Pets Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Glorious Independence, MO Casino cash: $17686178 VARSITY	Eduardo should be our team ambassador for the All Star Game instead of Brett. He represents the true nature of Royals Baseball over the past 10 years much better than GB does.
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05-27-2012, 08:27 AM	#2935
Marco Polo Veteran Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: 41°59.4′N 87°39.6'W Casino cash: $5818908	Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports that "there’s a feeling that Alex Gordon could be had in a deal." Cafardo cautions, though, that "it would take an overwhelming package, one that includes a front-line starting pitcher." Gordon signed a four-year, $37.5 million contract extension with the Royals just before the season, so it would be a surprise if they moved him. They'd also be selling low, as Gordon is batting just .226/.322/.356 this season following a breakout year in 2011. We suspect that he'll stay put.
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05-27-2012, 10:11 AM	#2939
lewdog Mod Team Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Valley of the hot as **** Casino cash: $1921900	I have never understood the knocks on Billy and I think most of them are born our of frustration with a losing franchise. Dude seems like he is a crafty veteran at the plate with years upon years of experience.....then you read he is only 26. He approach at the plate this year has been fun to watch. He rarely looks lost. Maybe if we had more good hitters like Butler, this team would be more...........how do I say it....."Clutch?"
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