Wichita Wranglers up 6-0; prospect wet dream

[Reaper16]

Currently up 7-1, AA Wichita Wranglers can clinch a championship birth with a win tonight.

Billy Butler homered. Alex Gordon went deep twice! More importantly, Luke Hochevar made his AA debut tonight. His final line was:
IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
5.1 2 1 1 1 7 0 1.69

Awesome.

Royals are whooping the Red Sox, btw, too.

[hypersensitiveZO6]

sox = done

[Reaper16]

I do not believe in superstition.

[Reaper16]

release Dohmann. nao plz

[banyon]

This echoes the 2002 minor leaguers for the Twins who basically did the same thing in AA while their ML counterparts were in the cellar.

[Reaper16]

Hochevar threw 5 innings of no-hit ball in his AA debut. A debut in game 4 of the playoffs, no less. He has been nothing short of impressive.

[HemiEd]

Currently up 7-1, AA Wichita Wranglers can clinch a championship birth with a win tonight.

Billy Butler homered. Alex Gordon went deep twice! More importantly, Luke Hochevar made his AA debut tonight. His final line was:
IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
5.1 2 1 1 1 7 0 1.69

Awesome.

Royals are whooping the Red Sox, btw, too.

Thanks for posting this, I had read this morning about Hochevar starting. Things are really looking up for the Royals. Would love to see Wichita win it before they move the team to WalMart.

[tk13]

Wichita let Tulsa back into it.. but still ended up winning 7-6. They'll advance to the Texas League championship next week. I'm not sure who they'll play, but it's best of 5. First two at Wichita and then the next three on the road.

I know there's an off day in there too, so they could go with a legit 4 man rotation of Greinke-Lumsden-Hochevar-Buckner for that series.

[big nasty kcnut]

hope to go see them here. The wranglers will kill the little bitch hooks.

[HemiEd]

Is it coincidence that Baird is gone and the future looks so good for the Royals, or is the new GM doing things that well?

[tk13]

They play Corpus Christi for the championship, Houston's AA team. Games 1 and 2 are in Wichita on Monday and Tuesday. Games 3-5 are in Corpus Christi on Thurs/Fri/Sat.

[Reaper16]

Gordon & Butler > Hunter Pence.

And a 4 man rotation of Greinke, Lumsden, Hochevar, and Buckner sounds killer.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Is it coincidence that Baird is gone and the future looks so good for the Royals, or is the new GM doing things that well?Baird built the foundation (Gordon, Butler, Greinke)and Moore added some important pieces (Lumsden, Hochevar).

[tk13]

Is it coincidence that Baird is gone and the future looks so good for the Royals, or is the new GM doing things that well?
Well, a lot of these hitters are Baird's guys, but developing hitters was never our problem. Dayton has done a nice job with the starting pitching. Odalis Perez has shown flashes of brilliance. He was fantastic tonight. We actually look like we could form a decent starting rotation sometime in the near future. Baird was always more about finding the power arms in the bullpen. Dayton has taken some of those bullpen guys and turned them into starters. Perez looks better, Hudson had one bad outing but has looked great otherwise, De La Rosa has shown he can be dominant. Runelvys Hernandez may finally be getting back to 100%. And that doesn't include the four stud pitchers we have down at Wichita.

Plus, I don't know what it is, but I'm beginning to think Baird was just cursed. The Red Sox hired him, and their started dropping like flies. I mean really that's just a coincidence, but the Red Sox have had some of the worst luck I've ever seen since they hired him, haha.

[Sully]

Baird built the foundation (Gordon, Butler, Greinke)and Moore added some important pieces (Lumsden, Hochevar).

No one knows if Moore added Hochavvar or not, since he wasn't "with" the team during the draft. I guess it depends on if you believe him in that he had no say in the matter or not.

[tk13]

Moore did say that he had Hochevar number 1 on his board in Atlanta. But who knows. Hard telling if he might have whispered in Muzzy Jackson's ear or not. Either way I have to admit the pick has turned out way better than I expected so far. I thought he'd be good, but he's been fantastic, hardly any rust at all.

[HemiEd]

Baird built the foundation (Gordon, Butler, Greinke)and Moore added some important pieces (Lumsden, Hochevar).

Makes a lot of sense. I got really sick of the 1 to 4 million dollar "past the prime" players that Baird kept adding though, or was it Glass making him do that?


Well, a lot of these hitters are Baird's guys, but developing hitters was never our problem. Dayton has done a nice job with the starting pitching. Odalis Perez has shown flashes of brilliance. He was fantastic tonight. We actually look like we could form a decent starting rotation sometime in the near future. Baird was always more about finding the power arms in the bullpen. Dayton has taken some of those bullpen guys and turned them into starters. Perez looks better, Hudson had one bad outing but has looked great otherwise, De La Rosa has shown he can be dominant. Runelvys Hernandez may finally be getting back to 100%. And that doesn't include the four stud pitchers we have down at Wichita.

Plus, I don't know what it is, but I'm beginning to think Baird was just cursed. The Red Sox hired him, and their started dropping like flies. I mean really that's just a coincidence, but the Red Sox have had some of the worst luck I've ever seen since they hired him, haha.

Maybe the long streak of bad luck is over for the Royals now, they drafted lot of pitchers over the years. Good to hear Runelvys is getting back to form. The Beltran trade is looking better all the time. I liked Buck immediately and Teahen is looking great this year.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Let's be real here: Hochevar was Moore's pick.

[KChiefs1]

The Wichita/Tulsa game tonight was amazing. I can't wait to read the write-up on it. The future looks very bright indeed for the Royals. I'd just move all of these guys to Omaha next season & win the AAA Championship & have these guys ready for 2008.

[teedubya]

yeah, this is a very positive sign... .lets hope they win at least 63 games...

Man, that is one helluva pitching lineup. Brilliant not to bring Greinke up at all this year. Let him grow with his teamates.

[ChiefsCountry]

The Wichita/Tulsa game tonight was amazing. I can't wait to read the write-up on it. The future looks very bright indeed for the Royals. I'd just move all of these guys to Omaha next season & win the AAA Championship & have these guys ready for 2008.

That is what I would do.