Seattle Slew

Series Analysis

Kansas City @ Seattle

Friday April 27 KC 4-7 SEA

Saturday April 28 KC 8-3 SEA

Sunday April 29 KC 1-5 SEA

And slew the Royals were. This series really but into perspective why the Royals are 8-17 and not any better. Berroa-eske errors, piss pour batting with runners on base and a leaky bullpen that gets down on its knees and blows if the game is anywhere near close.

Is Tony Pena Jr. any better than Berroa? So far this year Pena has 7 errors, whereas last year at this time Berroa only had 4. Also at this time last year Berroa was hitting .280 and TPJ is hitting a weak .200. TPJ seems like the same player as Berroa. He has a penchant to make the outstanding plays that are nearly impossible, but botches the simple routine grounder just as Berroa used to do. TPJ had an error in all three games in Seattle this weekend and is starting to wear thin on my patience.

On to the game analysis:

At least the Royals got the busted game out of the way on the first game of the set. The Royals trailed all game. De La Rosa struggled(6 1/3 Ip 5ER 3K 1BB 2HR), but his line looks a bit worse then it was. Ryan Braun came in to pitch in the 6th inning with 1 out and let the runners left on base by De La Rosa to score with this wonderful sequence: wild pitch-single-wild pitch. Well done son, well done. Last year De La Rosa struggled with both walks and surrendering homeruns. On Friday he only regressed with the latter and that I can deal with. The Royals made the game close Friday night with a 3-run pinch hit homerun by Ross Gload bringing the game to within 1. Then on came David "Gas Can" Riske who promptly surrendered 2 runs putting Seattle up for good.

The Saturday night game turned out good for Gil Meche's return to Seattle(6 IP 0ER 3R 5K 2BB). Meche didn't have his best stuff, tossing 110 pitches in 6 innings and only surrendering 3 unearned runs. The more he pitches the more he seems like an ace. Meche was also supported by a 6 run first inning from the Royals and locked up the Royals 8th win of the year.

The series finale from the Royals was terrible offensive output and a good start from Brian Bannister(6 2/3 IP 3ER 4R 1K 2BB). The Royals didn't even get a hit until the 6th and only scratched out a run. They also struck out 11 times. If you watched this game please send a note to the Kansas City Royals and they will refund your wasted time.

Overall, I know...err I think this Royals team is better, but are they? They just seem to be missing something...oh yeah offense, defense and a bullpen. The starting pitching is really doing well, but you can't win if you can't score. These Royals would have trouble scoring with an `80's Madonna.

Other Notes

- Todd Wellemeyer did not pitch in this series: His ERA still stands at 10.13

- Ross Gload hit his 2nd homerun of the year

- Tony Pena Jr. has 7! errors so far this year

- Mark Teahen is tied for first in the AL with the most strikeouts: 28

- David "Gas Can" Riske season line: 0-2 6.97ERA

- The Royals left 28 men on base for the three game set...

Royals Fact: The Royals are now tied for 4th in the majors with 188 strikeouts

-b

Royals 2007 Record: 8-17

Splitsville

Series Analysis

Kansas City @ Minnesota

Wednesday April 25 KC 4-3 MIN

Thursday April 26 KC 0-1 MIN

Wednesday nights game was a bit of an unusual phenomena for the Royals. The bullpen held the lead...no joke they really held the lead. Before the game was turned over to the relief core Royals starter Odalis Perez turned in his best game of the season(6 IP 3ER 2K 2BB) and his longest outing of the year. I'm not sure where this start came from, but it could have something to do with both Scott Elarton and Luke Hudson on the horizon. Regardless, he pitched his way to his second win of the season. More exciting then the start of Perez was the 3 innings of scoreless ball from the bullpen. Brandon Duckworth, David Riske, Jimmy Gobble and Joakim Soria combined for 3 IP and oER! The Royals runs both came from 2 2-run homeruns, Mike Sweeney in the 1st and David DeJesus in the 4th, which was all the Royals needed to complete the win.

The Thursday night game was a bit different. Zack Greinke labored through 7 innings, 108 pitches(7 IP 0ER 1K 4BB). He struggled with his command all night, but even when he didn't have his best stuff, he still kept the Twins out of the runs column. The offense had the same problem. No matter what they did they couldn't get into the run column. Royals hitters left 14 men on base and ended up losing in 11 innings. Aside from the poor offense, the bullpen put together its second straight decent outing, except Todd Wellemeyer who got the loss(1/3 IP 3H 1ER) and has become my official whipping boy. The offense had plenty of opportunities to win the game and didn't, so its not all Wellemeyer's fault.

Other Notes

- The Royals struck out 13 times on Thursday...and struck out 17 totals times for the series

- David DeJesus is Red-Hot! His season line .315 4HR 4Doubles 9RBI 10BB oSB

- But he did go 0-6 on Thursday...and went 3/4 HR DB 2RBI 1BB on Wednesday

- Todd Wellemeyer's season ERA- 10.13

- Alex Gordon went 2-2 with 2BB on Thursday and only struck out 1 time during the series

-Mike Sweeney hit homerun #2 on Wednesday

- Soria picked up save number 3

The Royals are off to Seattle next for a 3 game series

Royals Fact: Tony Pena Jr. still leads the AL with 4 triples

-b

Royals 2007 Record: 7-15

That Really Sucked

Series Analysis

Chicago @ Kansas City

Monday April 23 KC 4-7 CHI

Tuesday April 24 KC 7-9 CHI

A quick two game series in Kansas City with Chicago resulted in a quick sweep. The worse part about the two game set was that the Royals had a chance to win both games, but came up with a goose egg...a big fat zero.

The Royals offense continued hitting, putting up runs while the bullpen continued deteriorating, giving up runs and costing the Royals games.

Bullpen Stats for the two game set: 7 2/3 IP 9.39ERA 8ER 4K 5BB 2HR

Is that pathetic or what. The bullpen couldn't get Mario Mendoza out. A weak bullpen has been the Royals downfall the last couple of seasons and apperently this is no differnet. There are several "key" members of the bullpen that started the season on the DL: Octavio Dotel, John Bale and Joe Nelson. Those names don't really strike confidence, but anything is better then this.

2007 Bullpen Stats through the first 20 games

Ryan Braun: 0-0 8 2/3 IP 5.19ERA 8K 7BB

Brandon Duckworth: incomplete-Only 1 game out of pen 2 IP 4.50ERA 2K 1BB

Jimmy Gobble: 0-1 6 2/3 IP 2.70ERA 5K 1BB

Neil Musser: 0-0 1/3 IP o.ooERA 0k 1BB

Joel Peralta: 0-2 11 1/3 IP 7.94ERA 11K 5BB

David Riske: 0-2 9IP 6.00ERA 6K 4BB

Joakim Soria 1-1 10 1/3 IP 3.48ERA 13K 5BB

Todd Wellemeyer 0-0 7 2/3 IP 9.39ERA 5K 8BB

If the above numbers don't make you queazy, you may have a problem. That's enough of the bullpen, my blood pressure is high enough and the bullpen raises it another 10 points or so...

Other Notes

- The bullpen sucks

- Brian Bannister made his first carrer start for the Royals. He was given a 3-run lead, but couldn't hold on. He nibbled a bit to much getting behind the White Sox hitters and they made him pay. His final line: 4 1/3 IP 4R 3ER 4K 3BB

- Seriously, the bullpen sucks

- Royals had a good offensive series: 18/70 .256BA 11RBI 14K 7BB

- John Buck hit his 4th homerun of the year

- Teahen's batting average is up to .281, but still leads the AL in strikeouts with 24

- Gil Meche had a decent outing on Monday: 7 IP 3ER 3K 0BB 1HR...the Royals gave him leads of 2-0 and 3-2, but he couldn't keep the White Sox off the board and left with the game tied at 3-3.

The Royals are off to Minnesota for 3 games.

Royals Fact: The 2007 bullpen is off to the worse start in Royals history.

-b

Royals 2007 Record: 6-14

Riske Blows Another Game

Another Meltdown

If David Riske was an Italian chef, his speciality would be meatballs. On Monday night, a 4-7 loss to the White Sox, Riske surrendered his third homerun of the year.

Sure, the box score says that Jimmy Gobble got the loss, but he didn't earn the "L." Gobble came in to the game in the 8th inning with the score tied at 3-3 to be a lefty specialist against Jim Thome. Thome hit a single right up the middle. Buddy Bell promptly removes Gobble and brings in a righty, David Riske, to face Paul Konerko. With the count 2-2, Riske lofts his speciality, a meatball, right down the center of the plate and Konerko easily deposits the ball over the left field fence giving the White Sox the lead for good.

Granted the rest of the bullpen wasn't very good either...the bullpens stats from Monday night: two innings, four runs, four hits and three walks.

I just expect more from David Riske, not much, but more. He's a veteran pitcher who was brought in to be the setup guy and help the Royals maintain a lead in the late innings and he has done anything but that. He has become a firefighter that uses kerosene instead of water to fight a fire.

Riskie's 2007 Stats: 0-2 2SV 6.00ERA 3HR 6K 4BB 1Blown Save(BLSV) .281 Opponent BA

---$2 million dollars for those stats---

Royals Bullpen Stats

2007
-29th out of 30 teams: 1-6 4S 5BLSV 6.05ERA 9HR 50K 35BB .286 Opponent BA

--Seems familiar doesn't it. And this bullpen is supposed to be revamped.

-b

First Series Win

Series Analysis

Minnesota @ Kansas City

Friday April 20 KC 11-7 MIN

Saturday April 21 KC 5-7 MIN

Sunday April 22 KC 3-1 MIN

As the weather warms so do the bats. The Royals achieved their first series win of the season over reigning AL Central champion Minnesota Twins this weekend. It has to be a relief to finally come out on top of series.

All three pieces of the baseball puzzle came together for the Royals this weekend: Pitching, Hitting and Defense

The Royals bats came alive for the first time this season, aside from the Opening Day win. During the previous 16 games the Royals hit 10 homeruns, but during this 3 game set they cranked out 10 homers.

The bullpen held leads on two different days, granted they did blow a lead on Saturday, but 2 outta 3 ain't bad. The starting pitching was also the same formula, but reversed two not-so-good outing and one dominant performance.

Last, but not least, how about that Royals D! Tony Pena Jr. really flashed some leather and has made a "Web Gem" in each of the last three games, but Pena wasn't the only one playing D. The Royals turned 6 double plays this weekend.

Fridays game marked the beginning of the bats resurfacing. The Royals scored 11 runs beating Minnesota 11-7. Sweeney, Grudzielanek and Sanders all went deep helping pickup Odalis Perez's mediocre start(5 IP 4ER 2K 1BB). The other positive sign that arose from Fridays win was the bullpen holding a lead. Braun, Gobble and Wellemeyer all helped keep the lead and Riske came in a earned the save.

The Saturday game was another mediocre start for Kansas City. Greinke( 5 IP 4ER 2K 1BB) struggled his way through 5 innings, but managed to leave the game with a lead thanks to homeruns from Teahen and Gordon, before Joel Peralta blew his 3rd game of the year. Overall the game was pretty sloppy, but the Royals should have came out on top, but didn't.

If you happen to see Jorge De La Rosa out before his next start make sure you buy him a beer. De La Rosa(8 IP 0ER 1R 4K 1BB) pitched his butt off. He only surrendered one unearned run and after a rough first inning retired 16 straight Twins. After 8 innings from De La Rosa, Joakim Soria came in a nailed down the save striking out 2 in the process. The offense cooled down Sunday afternoon, only scoring three runs, but it was enough to earn the win.

Other Notes

- Sweeney had a good series at the plate 6/11 .545 BA 1HR 1DB 3RBI, bringing his season BA to .260

- Teahen did as well 6/11 .545 1HR 1DB 2RBI, raising his season BA to .268

- Gordon hit his second homerun of the year. His season BA is still only .136, but he did take 2BB this series

- DeJesus injured his ankle on Saturday afternoon and missed Sunday's game...he's not expected to miss extended time.

- Todd Wellemeyer's ERA is now at 9.49

- The Royals optioned Jason Standrigdge to AAA and brought up lefty Neil Musser

- Musser's MLB debut- 1/3 IP 2HA 1Unearned Run

- Royals batters struck out 21 times during the three game set

- Ross Gload hit his first homerun in a Royals uniform

- Grudzielanek also hit his 1 homerun on the year

- Reggie Sanders hit his 2nd of the year

Coming up next...a two game series against the White Sox

- Mark Buehrle who threw a no-hitter against the Rangers on April 18th pitches Monday night

Royals Fact: De La Rosa's 8 innings pitched is the longest outing of his career.

-b

Royals 2007 Record: 6- 12

Royals Avoid Sweep...

Series Analysis

Kansas City @ Detroit

Monday April 16 KC 5-12 DET

Tuesday April 17 KC 6-7 DET

Wednesday April 18 KC 4-3 DET

On Wednesday afternoon the Royals finally broke the 6 game losing streak and picked up their 2nd road win of the year. Overall the Detroit series was a disappointment, but the Royals at least came away with a win. This series had it all: A blowout, a blown save and a come from behind win.

The Royals are still struggling mightily at the plate, batting a paltry .228 and they are even batting worse with runners in scoring position, .224. Also the strikeout numbers are getting worse. The Royals lead the league in K's with 131.

Zack Greinke earned his first loss of the season Monday night. Greinke didn't even make it out of the first inning( 2/3 IP 4ER 1K 3BB). It was by far his worst outing of the season. He struggled with his command and ended up surrendering a Grand Slam homerun to Pudge Rodriguez. The rest of the game was just as bad, but hey the Royals got 5 runs.

Now for the hearbreaker and Tuesday's game was it(still have one bad loss each series). By the end of the 5th inning the Royals were already down 4 runs and the game seemed over. The came the 4 run outburst from the Royals in the top of the 6th inning. Then the inevitable happened...the bullpen. After the Royals take the lead in the 6th the bullpen, Peralta and Riske, each give up one run in consecutive innings to blow the game for the boys in blue. David Dejesus really carried the team in this game(4/5 3R 2RBI).

Gil Meche is looking like an ace. He pitched a stellar game on Wednesday afternoon(8 IP 0 ER 6K), but still didn't get the win. He did what an ace is supposed to do. He kept the team in the game and hell the Royals even ended up winning. Down 2 runs going into the 9th inning, an RBI double from Teahen and a sure fire double play ball that a hustling Ross Gload beatout scoring Teahen tieing the game. Then another miracle, the bullpen held the game! The bullpen held the game! Joakim Soria came in and didn't allow a single run, getting the Royals to the 10th and allowing John Buck to put the Royals on top for good with a lead off homerun over the left field wall.

To Royals ended the road trip with a solid win and can hopefully carry this momentum into the next series

Other Notes

- David DeJesus is my favorite Royal and is off to a great start .339 4 doubles 3HR 7RBI

- Joakim Soria picked up his first major league win on Wed.

- John Buck hit his 3rd homerun of the series. The first game winner of his career.

- Gil Meche's season stats 1-1 2.22ERA 21K 7BB

- Alex Gordon in starting to get comfortable at the plate hitting 2 doubles this series.

- The bullpen blew another series, this one came courtesy of Joel Peralta

- Mike Sweeney is also starting to hit getting 2 hits and an RBI on Wed.

- David Riske is becoming a risky option out of the bullpen getting his 2nd loss out of the bullpen

Royals Fact: Before Wednesday's game the Royals’ bullpen had allowed runs in nine straight games: 26 earned runs in 33 2/3 innings

-b

Royals 2007 Record: 4-11

Rain helps Royals

Series Analysis

Kansas City @ Baltimore

Thursday April 12 KC 1-2 BAL

Friday April 13 KC 1-8 BAL

Saturday April 14 KC 4-6 BAL

Sunday April 15 Rainout

Mother Nature is the Royals savior of the week causing the 4th and final game of the series to be rained out. Sunday's rainout surely had to be a good thing for the Royals giving them their first off day of the year and a break from the monotony of losing. Before the rainout the Royals had dropped their last four games in a row. The Royals offense continues to struggle, but showed signs of life for the first time since the first week, scoring 4 runs before thebullpen blew it's second game of the series.
Thursday's game was an overall disappointment. Again the Royals had another excellent quality start to begin the game from Gil Meche(6 IP 0ER 5K) before he left with a tight hamstring and turned the ball over to the bullpen with a 1-0 lead. Jimmy Gobble (2/3 IP 3H 1ER) came in and immediately let the Orioles back into the game ultimately leading to the loss in 10 innings. Granted the Royals offense didn't score enough runs, but is disheartening to waste a good start.
Game two of the series was never even close. Brandon Duckwork( 5IP 4R 2ER 4K 4BB) got the start and struggled with his command most of the game. A 1st inning error by Esteban German led to two runs and the O's never looked back. The low light of the game was in the 8th inning when guess who...Todd Wellemeyer( 1 IP 3H 4ER 1BB) came in and surrendered a Grand Slam to Nick Markakis. Wellemeyer has really struggled so far this year and continues to do so. I only feel comfortable seeing him in mop-up roles until he gets his head on straight.
It seems as though every series has a heart breaker and Saturday's game was it. The Royals bats had finally awoken from their slumber, getting 4 runs in the first 5 innings before the usual bullpen implosion. Granted it wasn't all the bullpens fault. Some fault lies with Buddy Bell for not pulling starter Odalis Perez(5 IP 4ER) before the 6th, another 1/3rd of the fault lies between Reggie Sanders , David DeJesus and Tony Pena Jr., who let a routine fly ball drop between them. The final 1/3rd of fault lies with Joel Peralta who surrendered the go-ahead Grand Slam, second of the series, to put Baltimore up for good.
I really thought that the Royals would come away with at least a series split from Baltimore, but the anemic offense and the shoddy bullpen really did them in this series.

Other Notes

- As a team the Royals only batted .236 for the series in Baltimore
- They also struck out 27 times during the 3 game set
- DeJesus, Sanders, Gload and German are all batting over .300 so far this season
- Todd Wellemeyer's season ERA 15.43
- Teahen showed signs of breaking his slump on Sat going 2/4, but still had 2 K
- Gordon, Teahen and Shealy each have 14K already this season

Upcoming series is 3 games in Detroit

Royals Fact: In 1969, the Royals inaugural year, the Royals team batting average was .240, the lowest it has ever been.

-b

Royals 2007 record: 3-9

Offensive Offense

The Royals offense is leaving Royals fans and Buddy Bell scratching our heads. When the Royals broke camp this spring they had a team batting average of .301 and all seemed right with the baseball gods, but Buddy Bell knew the truth.
The Royals currently hold the 6th worst batting average, .237, in the majors. The next lowest is Baltimore who is currently spanking us 2-0 for the weekend set. In the Friday night game the Royals left 10 men on the bases and they were also 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position.
Batting Averages of the 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 hitters for the Royals this season are:
Mark Teahen- .161
Mike Sweeney- .179
Alex Gordon- .091
Emil Brown- .133
Ryan Shealy- .103
If that's the batting average of the meat of your order, your team has a serious problem.
Although the Royals are not on the bottom of all statistical categories. They actually lead the majors with the most team strikeouts(not including the 10K they had in the Friday night game).
Someone besides Reggie Sanders, hitting .500, needs to figure out how to hit the ball and get te Royals off this trend.
The poor offense wouldn't standout as much as it does right now for several reasons...First of all it has only been 11 games, so the sample size it quite small. Also the starting pitching so far has been decent unlike in previous years making the offensive weakness a glaring problem. Granted they only have 3 wins to show for it, but Royals starters do have 6 quality starts already this season.
In past years Royals fans have been let down so much by the pitching that we haven't paid that much attention to the offense.

They say "hitting is contagious," but the Royals bats must have Gonorrhea because they sure don't want to catch it.

Toronto Series Recap

Series Analysis

Kansas City @ Toronto

Monday April 9 KC 1- 9 TOR

Tuesday, April 10 KC 6- 3 TOR

Wednesday April 11 KC 4- 7 TOR

Toronto was the third series of the year for the Royals and the third series loss. The Royals need to get off this trend of winning one game and losing two. If they keep up that pace whey would only get 52 wins this year. It’s still too early to panic and by no means is this a trend, but the Royals need to do something to get over the games where they have less then stellar starting pitching. The Royals are still leaving to many men on base, but are getting better as the season progresses.

AJ Burnett over matched the Royals on Monday. He was good, Odalis Perez was not good (1 IP 1/3IP 4ER). When Perez can’t find his spots he becomes very hittable as the Jays showed during game 1. Enough said.

Game number 2 was quite the showing by up and coming young Royals. Zack Greinke was outstanding for the second game in a row (6 IP 1ER 5K), Alex Gordon hit his first major league home run and Joakim Soria notched his first major league save (2 IP 3K). Except for a hiccup in the 7^th, a 2-run home run given up by Peralta, the Royals played good solid baseball.

In the final game of the series and another less then stellar pitching outing for the Royals. Jorge De La Rosa (5 1/3 IP 4ER 3K 1BB) is showing better command so far this season, but it still leaving too many pitches up in the strike zone, which were pounded for doubles, the Jays hit 4 doubles off De La Rosa. The other flaw in the Royals game was the defense. The Royals misplayed too many balls allowing the Jays to extend their lead resulting in the 6^th loss of the season.

Other Notes

- DeJesus hit well again this series 5/14 1HR 2RBI and is batting .378 for the season

- Gordon’s strikeout numbers are declining…3 K for this series, so he’s making contact!

- Todd Wellemeyer did poorly again in relief Wed…1 IP 2ER 2K 2BB…

- Mike Sweeney is starting to press and is only batting .200 for the season

- Teahen’s switch to RF might be affecting his bat .192 12K 1HR, although he has 8BB

- John Buck hit his 2^nd homerun of the year on Monday off Burnett

- Tony Pena Jr. hit his 4^th triple of the year

- I heard a disturbing stat on Crunch Time this morning. When Buck catches a game the pitchers are averaging 2.8BB a game and when LaRue is catching pitchers are averaging 3.6BB a game. The host Dave Stewart believes it has to do with LaRue not offering a target with his mit. Keep an eye on that.

Next the Royals are headed to Baltimore for a 4 game set.

Royals Fact: Willie Wilson holds the Royals record for most triples in a season, 21, in 1985.

-b

Royals 2007 Record: 3-6

Detroit Re-cap

One thing that we at heycameraman.net have learned from the first 7 days of the baseball season. 90% of area t-ball players have a better batting average than Alex Gordon.

Here is Brett's recap of the Detroit city recap.

Series Analysis

Detroit @ Kansas City

Friday April 6 KC 3-1 DET

Saturday April 7 KC 5- 6 DET

Sunday April 8 KC 2- 3 DET

Overall the series was a disappointment, falling 1-2 to Detroit. The Royals should’ve/could’ve won all three of those games, but that’s not how it turned out. The losses were especially troubling, not because of the offense, but the lack of pitching caused the Royals to blow the series

The statistical trend that’s starting to develop that will haunt the Royals this season if it continues is men left on base. During this three game series the Royals batters left 47 men on the bases. Come on guys knock get the RBI! The opposite end of that stat is a good one. The Royals are obviously getting on base and that in theory equal more runs.

The most frustrating loss of the series was the finale on Sunday. The Royals or I should say Mark Teahen( 2/3 HR, 2 RBI) and Brandon Duckworth(6 1/3 IP 0ER), played very well against the Tigers. Jeremey Bonderman is an outstanding pitcher and for the Royals to have him beat is excellent and the bullpen comes in. The Royals were leading 2-0 going into the 9^th and then stand-in closer David Riske comes in. Next thing I know he lays a room service fastball to Pudge Rodriguez and he promptly knocks it out of the park. After the game when asked about the pitch Riske replied “I thought he was going to bunt, so I threw one right down the middle. I was thinking about fielding a bunt and getting the next guy out instead of making a high-quality pitch.” That is unacceptable for a veteran pitcher. Get well soon Dotel.
Game two was frustrating as well. That Saturday afternoon we got to see the other side of Gil Meche( 7IP 6ER 3HR.) Aside from Meche’s poor afternoon the Royals offence really battled hard for him getting 5 runs, but fell just shy. Reggie Sanders had a great game(3/4 HR, 2B, 2 RBI,) but it wasn’t enough to overcome the poor outing from Meche. A few positives from Meche’s outing, he went 7 innings and struck out 4.

The lone win from the series was the cause of an outstanding pitching effort from Jorge De La Rosa(7 IP, 1ER, 5K, 3BB.) The walk total is a bit high, but we will have to expect that from De La Rosa because his command is a bit shady, but I will take a start like that every time from him.

Other Notes

- Alex Gordon continues to struggle, batting .053 with 3 K

- Mark Teahen hit his first homerun of the season

- David DeJesus had an outstanding series 7/11 3BB, 3 Doubles

- Joakim Soria and Joel Peralta each pitched well in relief

- David Riske blew a save

- Esteban German is still a hitter 2/4 2 RBI

Coming up next…3 games in Toronto

Royals Fact: Hal McRae holds the record for most doubles in a season, 54.

Royals 2007 Record: 2-4

“Royals Baseball is on the Air.”

Everyone Stay Calm!!!

Series Analysis
Boston @ Kansas City

It was an anticlimactic end to the Red Sox series for the Royals. KC came out of the gate firing on all cylinders on Opening Day beating the Red Sox 7-1, then they fell on their faces losing consecutive games 1-7 and 1-4.
There were several bright spots, such as

the starting pitching, but alas as with every year the bright spots are just an eclipse of the sun and eventually the truth comes out.
Don’t put to much emphasis into the first series numbers because of two reasons. First of all it’s the first series of the year and two it was against perennial contender, Boston.
A few offensive trends that showed in the final numbers that bother me are the strikeouts. The Royals totaled 28 K’s in 98 at-bats, that’s a strikeout every 3 ½ at bats, which is awful. Granted, the strikeout stat is number that needs to be taken with a grain of salt for now. The hitters are still getting their timing and the Royals faced Schilling, Beckett and Dice-K and they probably won’t face a three like that the rest of the year.
The other troubling trend was the lack of key two out hits. The Royals did an excellent job of this on Monday and they won, but the other two days they didn’t and they lost. They are currently batting .241 with runners on base.
The worst and final problem for the Royals this weekend is the number of walks issued by the bullpen. The bullpen is supposed to be rebuilt yet issued 6 walks in 7 innings. That Must Stop!
One problem the Royals didn’t have was poor starting pitching. The Royals had decent, nay, good staring pitching for the series
Gil Meche 7 1/3 innings 1ER 6K 1BB
Odalis Perez 5 1/3 innings 4ER 3K 3BB
Zack Greinke 7 innings 1ER 7K 1BB
When you look at those numbers you’d think the Royals would win two of three and if these pitching numbers keep up they will win some games.

Other Notes

- Alex Gordon got his first major league hit…he also struck out 5 times.
- Sadly, Gordon’s 5 K’s weren’t the most on the team, Teahen’s 6 were
- Even with those strikouts Teahen is still batting .300
- DeJesus and Buck both had solo homeruns
- Grudzielanek had 3 RBI for the series
- Tony Pena Jr. is batting .200, but had two triples on Opening Day
- Joel Peralta had 5 K in 2 2/3 innings
-Todd Wellemeyer was awful in his season debut, 1 inning 3ER 3BB and gave up a dong

Upcoming next, three at home against the reigning AL champion Detroit Tigers.

Royals Fact: In 1989 Bo Jackson struck out 172 times, the most in Royals history and is 15th all-time.

-b

Royals 2007 Record: 1-2

“Royals Baseball is on the Air.”

Opening Day Recap

Opening Day Win!

There is one thing better then Opening Day and that is an Opening Day win. The Royals defeated the powerhouse Red Sox 7-1 on Monday. The fact that the Royals limited the Sox to just one run is really quite a feat. The entire team played well and below are a few game notes

Gil Meche pitched like the ace we paid him to be. 7 1/3 innings, 1 ER and 6 strikeouts. Great outing, hands down


Mark Grudzielanek picked up the Royals and put them on his back. 3 hits and 3 RBI.

Tony Pena Jr. hit 2 triples, 1 walk today and even good defensive play. Bye, bye Berroa

Mark Teahen and Mike Sweeney each pitched in a couple of hits a piece. Sweeney didn’t get hurt and Teahen looked decent in right

Alex Gordon had a rough day 0-3 with 3 strikeouts and a couple of poor throws, but it’s the first game. Look for a good rebound Wednesday




Non-Royals note…Manny Ramirez is a bum. Sure he can hit. But he is a lazy outfielder and a bad teammate. On a hit to left, he just strolled over to the ball on his own time reached down and picked it up letting John Buck stroll into 2nd on a single



John Buck also had a great game. A double and a home run

Joel Peralta pitched very well in relief 1 2/3 innings and 4 strikeouts

Not a season does one game make, but its still fun to take the opener from the Red Sox. This win also puts the Royals one game over .500 on Opening Day.

During the season I plan on doing series breakdowns so the Red Sox Series will be next

Royals Fact: Meche worked 7 1/3 innings — the longest by a Royals starter on opening day since Bret Saberhagen went eight innings on April 4, 1988, in a 5-3 loss to Toronto

-b

Royals 2007 Record 1-0

“Royals Baseball is on the Air.”

Next Year is here!!!!

Kansas City Royals
Final Analysis
25 Man Roster and Spring Stats

The unofficial, official holiday is upon us. Opening Day hath arrived! I have taken a vacation day from the news business and will be in attendance when the parking lot opens and the game starts…noon and 3:10 respectively.
The feeling coming out of the south is pretty good for the start of the season. Some questions have been answered, some left unanswered and new questions have arrived. Below is the 25 man roster in KC for the time being, along with their spring stats

Opening Day Lineup (batting average/homeruns/RBI/On-base-percentage.)

1.David Dejesus-CF- .321/01/03/.345- missed almost 2 weeks with a stomach virus
2.Mark Grudeizlanek-2nd- .286/00/01/.333- missed about 3 weeks with knee surgery
3.Mark Teahen-RF- .329/04/17.385- looks to have adapted to RF, hit well in spring
4.Mike Sweeney-DH- .277/02/11/.333- missed a 1st week of spring as precaution
5.Alex Gordon-3rd- .317/02/12/.419- earned spot with bat, Rookie of the year?
6.Emil Brown-LF- .302/02/08/.387- will platoon with Gload, has ‘d’ improved?
7.Ryan Shealy-1st- .299/02/10/.373- 1st full season in the majors…had good spring
8.John Buck-C- .297/01/02/.409- will rotate with Jason LaRue
9.Tony Pena Jr.-SS- .130/00/00/.200- terrible spring numbers…is this Berroa??

Pitching Rotation (Wins- Losses/Earned Run Average/ Strikeouts/Walks.)

Gil Meche- 0-3/7.31/11/06- lets hope he does better in the regular season
Odalis Perez- 0-0/4.70/06/07- had some blister problems this spring
Zach Greinke- 1-0/3.00/27/02- excellent spring…let’s hope it carries over!
Jorge De La Rosa- 0-0/4.70/11/05- severe control problems, keep fingers crossed
Brandon Duckworth- 1-0/4.02/17/02- filling in for injured Luke Hudson

Bullpen
Ryan Braun- 0-2/3.48/05/04- long shot to make the team, may earn setup role
Octavio Dotel- 0-1/6.23/15/02- had a great spring…hitting 97mph, closer for now
Jimmy Gobble- 2-1/3.46/10/03- only lefty in the pen so far
Joel Peralta- 0-0/3.86/10/00- no walks this spring
David Riske- 0-0/4.15/11/03- in the setup role, 7th and 8th innings
Joakim Soria- 0-0/3.12/18/03- pitched his way on to roster…will be fun to watch
Todd Wellemeyer- 2-1/6.75/08/04- pitched his way off the staring rotation

It should be a fun couple of days out at the “K” against the Red Sox. I am predicting a series win, taking two from the BoSox. This will be an interesting year for the Royals. A revamped pitching staff and plenty rookies, this season could go either way.

2007 Prediction...Overall Record 73-89…Teahen will hit 25 HR…Gordon Rookie of the Year…Reggie Sanders and Mike Sweeney Traded…Grienke will win 12 games
Royals Fact: The Royals are 19-19 overall on Opening Day and are 0-2 against the Red Sox.

-b

“Royals Baseball in on the Air.”