Tag Archives: Kansas City Royals

August 26, 2013

Spanking the Rays

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Tampa Bay made a one-day road trip to Kansas City, setting up the battle of the Jeremies as Jeremy Hellickson faced Jeremy Guthrie. Guthrie came out on top as the Royals win a laugher, 11-1. KC was an impressive seven for 15 with runners in scoring position as they kept the turning over base runners. Billy Butler had the big day at the plate, three for three with two walks, a homer and three RBI. Butler has 32 hits in his last 22 games, with 13 walks and only eight strikeouts.

The AL Wild Card race gets a little tighter.

August 18, 2013

Hanging with the Tigers

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Detroit beats Kansas City 6-3 Sunday afternoon as Max Scherzer wins his 18th game and Miguel Cabrera hits his 40th home run and drives in three. Max’s two runs in eight innings lowers his ERA to 2.82 while Cabrera is now just four home runs behind Chris Davis as Miguel tries for two triple crowns in a row. At this point he has a very high probability of winning both the batting and RBI titles, so if he can keep his current home run barrage going he could catch Davis.

The Tigers take three of five from the Royals, but the Royals should walk away with some confidence in the team. All the games were won by three runs or less, so the Royals were in them all the way. While I wouldn’t say they’re the equal of the Tigers, they are the type of team that could beat Detroit in a five-game series. They’re 5 1/2 games out of the wild card as I write this, so there is hope.

August 16, 2013

Duffy’s Day

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Danny Duffy takes a no-hitter into the sixth inning against the Tigers. This is a complete turnaround from his first start of the year, in which he allowed six hits in 3 2/3 innings. He’s not a great candidate to complete the no-no, as he allowed a .283 career opposition BA coming into the game. He’s walked three so far, and the Royals lead 1-0.

Update: Miguel Cabrera singles with two out in the sixth.

August 14, 2013

Which is More Remarkable?

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I’m trying to figure out if I’m more impressed with the Royals success in drawing six walks in five innings against Jacob Turner of the Marlins, or their failure in only scoring two runs in those five innings.

They are in the seventh with the Marlins leading 3-2, and KC is up to seven walks and four hits in the game, just 1 for 8 with men in scoring position.

August 10, 2013

Big Comebacks

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The leaders in the AL East, the Red Sox and Rays, each allowed big innings Friday night to turn victory into defeat. The Red Sox led the Royals 6-3 in the sixth inning, when Kansas City posted a six spot, and went on to a 9-6 win. Eric Hosmer, Billy Butler, and the recently acquired Justin Maxwell each collected three hits, Maxwell, getting two in the sixth inning, while Butler and Homer drove in the final three runs. Maxwell is 8 for 17 with three homers since joining Kansas City.

The Boston loss gave the Rays a chance to gain in the AL East. David Price pitched seven strong innings against the Dodgers, and left with a 6-1 lead. The Rays bullpen was not up to the task, however, allowing two runs in the eight, and four more in the ninth. The last scored on a Fernando Rodney throwing error for a 7-6 Dodgers win. The Dodgers pen pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings for the win.

Texas and Baltimore, in addition to Kansas City, all gain in the AL wild card race. The top five teams are separated by just 4 1/2 games.

August 3, 2013

Extra Extras

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The Royals beat the Mets 4-3 in 12 innings, the second day in a row the teams played extra innings. The Mets broadcast mentioned that the Mets have now played the most extra innings in the majors this season. With the three today, they are at 48 for the season, passing the Diamondbacks who are currently at 46. For the Royals, the game brings their total to just 16 innings in extra frames. Only Baltimore (12) and Cleveland (10) played fewer.

The Mets bullpen pitched great, giving up just one hit in six innings of work. The one hit, however, was a pinch-hit homer by Justin Maxwell in the twelfeth that proved to be the game winner.

July 25, 2013

Brett Steps Aside

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George Brett decided not to continue as the Royals hitting coach. Players are disappointed. Here’s Eric Hosmer:

“At the end of the day it stinks he’s leaving,” Hosmer said, “but the good thing is he’ll still around for home games. I’m disappointed. We’re going to miss him in the dugout. He’s expressed to us about he’s a phone call away.”

Pedro Grifol takes over as the full time hitting coach:

While Brett was fixing the mental part of the Royals, Grifol was doing the behind-the-scenes work on players’ mechanics, poring over video and tinkering with their swings.

The 43-year-old began his first season with the Royals as the hitting coach of the Surprise Royals. Before that, he was a manager for Class A High Desert in the Seattle organization, and had worked as an area scout, manager and minor league director over the past 13 seasons.

Now, Grifol has the chance to make a name for himself as the hitting coach.

Hosmer seems to be back on track. The rest of the team doesn’t seem to be much better.

July 25, 2013

The Last Lough

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David Lough singled and came around to score the walk-off run on an Alcides Escobar double as the Royals came back to beat the Orioles 4-3 Wednesday night. Eric Hosmer hit his second home run of the evening in the eighth to tie the game at three, setting up Lough’s big run from first to home for the winning run.

Hosmer appears to be back to the numbers of his rookie season. His 2012 season might have been the sophomore slump, as the league adjusted to the youngster. Now he’s adjusted back, and at 23 has two years before he hits his prime.

July 20, 2013 July 17, 2013

AL Central Review

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The AL Central should be the Tigers to win, but Cleveland is hanging close.

Detroit Tigers, 52-42, 1st place.

Strengths: On the offensive side, the Tigers are a great hitting team. They collected the most hits in the league despite playing fewer games than most teams. On the pitching side, Tigers hurlers own the highest strikeout and lowest home run rate in the league. That’s a deadly combination for opposing hitters. On both sides of the ball, the team has good walk rates, so the batters do a great job getting on base, and the pitchers do a great job preventing base runners.

Weaknesses: The defense is poor. That’s somewhat covered up by the strikeouts, but lots of balls get through for hits. For some reason, their errors lead to lots of unearned runs as well. Combine that with a poor bullpen, and the starting staff is sometimes not supported as well as it should be.

Outlook: The team is good enough to withstand their weaknesses. They have excellent table setters, an intimidating heart of the order, and a devastating starting staff. They don’t need any good luck to win the division.

Cleveland Indians, 51-44, 2nd place.

Strengths: The Indians rank fourth in the AL in runs per game due to a very good OBP and a lot of doubles. Like the Red Sox, the Indians are both prolific base stealers and high percentage base stealers. Their pitchers as a whole strike out a ton of batters.

Weaknesses: The Indians allow the most walks in the league, and with a league average home run rate, they have two weak legs to the three-true outcome stool. The walks would hurt less if the team was good at removing base runners, but their double plays and caught stealing numbers are nothing special.

Outlook: The Indians are 18-9 in one-run games, which accounts for their winning record. I would suspect their record in those games to be closer to .500 in the second half, so that may take away the juice they need to catch Detroit.

Kansas City Royals, 43-49, 3rd place.

Strengths: Defense. The Royals defense saved the most runs in the AL this year according to UZR. Not surprisingly, the Royals ERA is lower than their FIP. In this case, their low strikeout rate is okay, because opponents putting the ball in play tend to lead to good outcomes for the Royals.

Weaknesses: Royals hitters walk too infrequently and Royals pitchers walk a bit too many. On the offensive side, the lack of walks fails to compensate for a low batting average, and on the defensive side, it puts pressure on the by taking them out of position to hold runners or play for double plays. The Royals also hit the fewest home runs in the league, 26 fewer than the next closest team.

Outlook: The Royals ended the pre-break season with five straight losses. I would have thought the jettisoning of Jeff Francoeur would have improved the team. With their defense, and with some improvement from their young hitters, .500 is a real possibility for the Royals.

Minnesota Twins, 39-53, 4th place.

Strengths: It’s tough to find something good on the Twins. They have Joe Mauer at catcher, and they don’t hit into many double plays.

Weaknesses: The defense is poor, and due to the low walk, low strikeout pitching staff, lots of balls get through for hits. That helped them to the highest BA allowed in the league.

Outlook: This team needs to be reworked. One thing the Twins learned this year is that Justin Morneau can no longer hit like a first baseman. He wants a contract extension, but that would be folly at this point.

I highly doubt Minnesota makes the playoffs this season.

Chicago White Sox, 37-55, 5th place.

Strengths: White Sox pitchers strike out a ton of batters, especially the relievers.

Weaknesses: A team with Adam Dunn is last in the league in drawing walks. They’ve also been hit the fewest times, and while they don’t have the lowest batting average in the AL, .249 is not great.

Outlook: Gordon Beckham came into his own. We’ll see if the team builds around him and Chris Sale, or if they are used as trade bait to get new prospects. The White Sox will struggle to reach .500 this season.

July 11, 2013

Short Stay?

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The most likely time for a player to get injured is soon after he returned from an injury:

Derek Jeter left this afternoon’s game — his first of the season following the left ankle fracture — with tightness in his right quad. Joe Girardi didn’t seem too concerned after the game but indicated the Cap’n will go for tests as a precaution. They’ll see how he feels tonight and tomorrow before penciling Jeter into tomorrow’s lineup.

Jeter may join Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira as players whose return was short lived.

The Yankees did beat the Royals 8-4, and I’m sure Jeter’s infield single made all the difference. 🙂

June 30, 2013

Long Day for Lough

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David Lough went four of four with three doubles and a go-ahead home run as the Royals win a slugfest 9-8 over the Twins. Eric Hosmer supplied what at the time appeared to be an insurance run with a homer in the ninth. The Royals would need that run as Minnesota scored one in the bottom of the ninth. Lough scored four times and drove in three. He’s batting .314/.336/.471 providing a good replacement for Jeff Francoeur so far.

June 29, 2013

Good-bye, Francoeur

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It finally happened. The Royals designated Jeff Francoeur for assignment.

The Royals signed Francoeur to a two-year, $13.5-million contract extension prior to last season. He will earn $7.5 million total this year — Kansas City is still on the hook for that money unless another team claims him off waivers, which is unlikely — and was due to become a free agent this winter.

The Giants are rumored to be seeking a right-handed hitting outfielder and could be one suitor for Francoeur. The offense-starved Yankees could be another.

Yes, Francoeur will fit in perfectly with the cast of has-beens playing on the Yankees this season. If it’s possible to increase starvation, Francoeur would be the man.

June 18, 2013

Kipped in the Bud

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The Royals get seven strong innings from Ervin Santana, only to have the bullpen blow the game in the eighth. Cleveland came into the bottom of that inning trailing 3-1, but drove three runs across the plate, the last two on a double by Jason Kipnis. The Indians infielder is having an overall great year batting, but mostly comes up short with men on base and late in the game. Tonight, he got the big hit with both situations applying.

June 17, 2013

Royals in Second

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Carlos Carrasco out-pitched James Shields, but both starters allowed just one run to turn the game over to the bullpens. Carrasco was off to a horrible start, so the good news for Cleveland is that he found his groove. Fifty eight of his 90 pitches went for strikes. Unfortunately for Cleveland, the Royals loaded the bases in the ninth and scored on a wild pitch by Matt Albers for a 2-1 victory. The win moves Kansas City 1/2 game ahead of the Indians for second place in the AL Central. The Royals remain hot, winning 11 of their last 13 games.

June 14, 2013

Moore is Less

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On June 4, I wrote this about Matt Moore:

Moore allowed very few hits this season; his BA allowed comes in at .178 with a BABIP of .201. On top of that, opponents hit just .071 against him with runners in scoring position, 3 for 42. I suspect the Tampa Bay defense helped him a lot. If not, it’s going to be ugly when he regresses to his mean.

Moore is pitching in his third start since that post. He allowed five runs in the first five innings against the Royals Friday night, and allowed 20 runs, 19 earned, in 12 innings during those three starts. That includes 25 hits. I’d say that’s an ugly regression. We’ll see how far he goes in this game.

The Royals lead the Rays 5-2.

June 14, 2013

Short Term Brett

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Sam Mellinger write on how the current Kansas City road trip might decide George Brett‘s willingness to continue as the Royals hitting coach:

“When I retired, it wasn’t because I couldn’t play anymore,” Brett says. “I was still a good hitter. Not what I was, but I led the team in RBIs my last year. I retired because I got tired of the travel and being away from my family.”

One moment from back then particularly sticks in Brett’s memory. A road trip to Seattle, late in his career. He’d always told his wife how beautiful it was there, so she flew ahead to meet him. The Royals played the night before in another city – Brett can’t remember exactly where, which is sort of the point – and didn’t get to the hotel until 4 in the morning. He thought then this was no way to spend the rest of his life.

He thinks about that now, too.

If Brett’s coaching is working, I suspect he doesn’t need to be there all the time. He can do a lot of instruction in KC, and skip some of the trips. With all games broadcast, he’ll see what players are doing right and wrong during games. KC has an assistant coach, and he could make the long road trips. I don’t think it needs to be stay or go. There is a compromise position.

June 13, 2013

Royals Unload

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After scoring ten runs in their previous four games, the Royals pound the Rays for ten runs Thursday night. Ervin Santana pitched a good game also as Kansas City wins 10-1. The run for the Rays was unearned. Four Royals recorded multi-hit games as the team collected 14 hits. Five of those went for extra bases, including Eric Hosmer‘s second home run of the season, his first in over a month. He’s been hitting for a better average lately, and now it’s time to add some power.

June 12, 2013

Hosannahs for Hosmer

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Eric Hosmer led off the bottom of the ninth for the Royals with a single, and came around to score on Lorenzo Cain‘s home run. That tied the Tigers and Royals at two, sending the game to the tenth. With two out and a man on third in the bottom of that inning, Hosmer singled once again, this time to win the game. The Royals take two out of three from the Tigers and now trail them by 5 1/2 games in the AL Central.

Hosmer is hitting better this month, now 14 for 43, .326. He’s not hitting for power, but he’s no longer an out machine. Maybe George Brett is making a difference with Eric.

June 12, 2013

Pitching Around Cabrera

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With a man on third and one out in the first inning Wednesday afternoon, Miguel Cabrera drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch. Prince Fielder delivered the run with a single, but the trend appears to be developing that opponents are no longer willing to pitch to Miguel. On June 1st, Cabrera hit a grand slam. Through that game, he owned a .369 BA and a .445 OBP, both numbers outstanding. He had driven in 65 runs in 54 games.

Since that game, through June 11, Cabrera walked nine times with nine hits and a hit by pitch, giving him a .310 BA and a .487 OBP. So despite a nearly 60 point drop in BA, Cabrera’s OBP was up 30 points. That’s pretty much the definition of being pitched around. This, of course, puts his chances of setting an RBI record in jeopardy. The more Prince can deliver in these situations, the more teams will be forced to pitch to Cabrera.

Detroit leads Kansas City 1-0 in the top of the fourth inning.

June 10, 2013

Royals Stay Hot

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The Kansas City Royals win their sixth game in a row, once again getting better pitching than offense as they beat the Tigers 3-2. Doug Fister pitched all eight innings for the Tigers but takes the one-run loss. Jeremy Guthrie allowed a two-run homer to Miguel Cabrera, but that was it. Guthrie did not strike out a batter in the game, but the pen K’d 3 in 2 2/3 innings, allowing just one hit. The Royals allowed just 10 runs in their six game streak. They are now just 1/2 game behind Cleveland for second place in the AL Central after the Indians fell to the Rangers 6-3.

June 9, 2013

Not Scoring, But Winning

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The Royals hired George Brett as their hitting coach on May 30th. With a 2-0 win Sunday over the Astros, Kansas City owns a five game win streak and are 7-3 in their ten games with the Hall of Famer. While the team scored seven runs twice, overall they’ve scored just 35 runs in the ten games, or 3.5 per game. That’s lower than their 3.9 runs per game average for the season. They’re winning with pitching, which allowed 24 runs in the ten-game stretch. The move worked in terms of wins, but not in terms of improving the offense.

June 6, 2013

Evil Inning

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The Twins score three runs in the first inning on just one hit and no walks. The Royals committed an error and allowed another batter to reach on a wild pitch strikeout. The only hit was a two-run homer by Ryan Doumit. The Twins lead 3-0, but the Royals are threatening in the bottom of the second.

Update: The Royals score two off Mike Pelfrey, who came into the game with a 6.66 ERA. The Twins are down to a 3-2 lead.

June 2, 2013

Profar into the Future

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Jurickson Profar singled and homered Sunday afternoon as he continues to prove a valuable replacement for Ian Kinsler. His dinger helped the Rangers beat the Royals 3-1.

Jurickson Profar

Jurickson Profar trots after his Sunday home run, part of his great 2013 season. Photo: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

With the 2 for 3 day, Profar’s slash line stands at .324/.350/.514. He’s only 20, so like Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, his upside potential is huge. He’s hitting well enough that it will be tough to send him when (and if) Ian Kinsler returns. Given Kinsler’s injury history and strong bat, the Rangers might be better off moving him to a less stressful defensive position. The Rangers, however, are getting good production from both first base and designated hitter. Profar played a lot of shortstop in the minors, so Texas could go with a great offensive infield and see if they could trade Elvis Andrus for a missing piece. It’s the kind of problem GM loves to solve.

May 31, 2013

Pulling Out a Win

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The Royals waited until the last minute, but two extra-base hits in the ninth, a walk and a Cardinals error led to three runs and a 4-2 Kansas City victory. What’s even nicer for KC is that the power came from Jeff Francoeur and Eric Hosmer, two of the big underperformers on the team this season. Note that the Royals only collected four hits in the game; three of them were for extra bases.

More credit needs to go to Jeremy Guthrie and the bullpen, holding the Cardinals to two runs. The pen did not allow a hit in three innings of work. A win is a win, but it’s difficult to cast this as a positive start to the George Brett era, since I don’t believe four well timed hits is the way to win a ball game in general.

May 30, 2013 May 30, 2013

Someone Who Could Hit

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The Royals hired George Brett as their interim hitting coach:

Hall of Famer George Brett was appointed the club’s interim hitting coach Thursday and will join the team in time for their game against the St. Louis Cardinals. Brett takes over for Jack Maloof and Andre David, who have been reassigned to the minor league organization.

This will be Brett’s first in-season coaching role, though he’s been the franchise’s vice president of baseball operations since retiring as a player following the 1993 season. He’s also worked as a volunteer coach at spring training for years.

“I’m thankful that this organization has one of the greatest hitters and more importantly one of the greatest competitors our game has ever seen in George Brett, and he has accepted our offer to join the coaching staff on an interim basis,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said.

I can’t argue with the choice. Brett was one of the great hitters of his generation. He started out as a high average/OBP player, but by his prime developed excellent power, taking advantage of the extra-base hit opportunities at Kaufman Stadium. He hit 665 doubles and 137 triples, leading the league in the latter category three times. We’ll see what he can do as a coach.

May 29, 2013 May 29, 2013

Rights Go Wrong

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The Royals lost again on Tuesday night, falling 4-1 to the Cardinals. After winning their first three games of May, the Royals are now 4-18 since. Through May 5th, Kansas City hitters posted a decent enough batting line, .272/.329/.397. Note that most of this came from the right-handed batters getting on base, and the left-handed batters knocking out extra base hits. Starting May 6th, however, the RHB stopped hitting. The lefties are putting up similar numbers, but the righty slash line dropped to .239/.280/.319. Look who is bringing up the rear among the righties. Jeff Francoeur has a .151/.167/.208 slash line and played in 18 of the team’s 22 games. He went 0 for 2 on Tuesday, and was removed for a pinch hitter. We’ll see if this slump finally kills his time with the Royals.

Note that Jeff isn’t the only person slumping on the team. He is the worst, however, and has a history that tells us he’s not worth a roster spot. Most of the rest of the slumping players are younger, and should get the benefit of the doubt.

May 25, 2013

Angels Hit Their Stride

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The Angels extended their winning streak to seven games with a 7-0 victory over the Royals. The offense finally gelled as the team scored 54 runs during the streak, nearly eight a game. They were extremely efficient today, scoring their seven runs on eight hits, a walk and two hit by pitches. A Royals error helped as well.

The team is 26/61 in this stretch with runners in scoring position, a .426 BA. They were hitting just .220 in that situation before the streak started. It seems there was just too much talent on this offense for them to stay down long.

Despite the seven wins, the Angels are still five games under .500 and 9 1/2 games out of first place pending the outcome of the Texas game tonight. They are going to need to play at a torrid pace for a while to get back in the division race, although they are only 5 1/2 games out of a wild card position.