Alright, time for the new season of Kansas City Royals Baseball.

My official prediction(s):
-Royals finish 4th in AL Central at 73-89.
-NL Playoff teams: Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers, and Mets (WC)
-AL Playoff teams: Yankees, Indians, A's, and White Sox (WC)
-World Series: Indians over Braves



Royals Overview

25-man roster
# Name B/T Height Weight DOB
48 Jeremy Affeldt L/L 6-4 225 06/06/79
27 Denny Bautista R/R 6-5 190 08/23/80
50 Ambiorix Burgos R/R 6-3 235 04/19/84
47 Elmer Dessens R/R 5-11 200 01/13/71
37 Scott Elarton R/R 6-7 255 02/23/76
41 Jimmy Gobble L/L 6-3 205 07/19/81
34 Luke Hudson R/R 6-3 195 05/02/77
22 Joe Mays S/R 6-1 200 12/10/75
51 Andrew Sisco L/L 6-10 270 01/13/83
36 Steve Stemle R/R 6-4 200 05/20/77
46 Mike Wood R/R 6-3 220 04/26/80
Catchers
6 Paul Bako L/R 6-2 215 06/20/72
14 John Buck R/R 6-3 220 07/07/80
Infielders
4 Angel Berroa R/R 6-0 190 01/27/78
3 Esteban German R/R 5-9 165 01/26/78
2 Tony Graffanino R/R 6-1 190 06/06/72
15 Mark Grudzielanek R/R 6-1 190 06/30/70
11 Doug Mientkiewicz L/R 6-2 205 06/19/74
29 Mike Sweeney R/R 6-3 220 07/22/73
24 Mark Teahen L/R 6-3 220 09/06/81
Outfielders
35 Emil Brown R/R 6-2 210 12/29/74
32 Shane Costa L/R 6-0 200 12/12/81
9 David DeJesus L/L 6-0 185 12/20/79
16 Reggie Sanders R/R 6-1 205 12/01/67
12 Matt Stairs L/R 5-9 215 02/27/68


KK's prospects to watch

-Billy Butler (19 years old; will start year in AA ball. Extremely good offensive numbers in both his years in the minors...will likely be on the Royals team at the start of next year...needs to work on OF defense a little bit....but his bat is very very highly regarded.)

-Alex Gordon (22 years old; Royals #1 draft pick last year out of Nebraska. Had a very impressive Spring Training..and could probably play in the Majors this year. Will start year in AA, but will likely be called up in August or September, as he appears to be almost MLB ready right now. Very strong bat and very strong glove and more importantly, a great attitude and work ethic. Unsure whether he will play 3b or whether he will be groomed for an outfield position.)

-Justin Huber (23 years old; the future first basemen for the Royals...whether he takes that position next year as a starter or not depends on whether or not his defense is up to par...will likely be called up mid-season and will be given adequate playing time. Will likely replace Doug Minky come next season. Very highly acclaimed bat. Will open up in AAA)

-J.P. Howell (22 years old; got some starts with the Royals last year in his first year out of college. He will be the first starter called up from the Minors should the Royals need pitching. Very good stuff..needs to harness control a little bit. Had some poor outings with KC last year, but also had some extremely impressive outings with the Royals. Needs probably 15 starts or so in the Minors to develop, but will likely be a regular in the starting rotation next year, as the Royals are very high on Howell. Will likely open up in AAA).

Who's their starting pitcher today?

04/03/06-- Tigers vs. Royals; 3:10 p.m. CT.

Starting pitchers: Kenny Rogers (DET) vs. Scott Elarton (KC)

Projected starting lineup for Royals (2005 numbers):

CF David DeJesus (122 G, .293 BA, .359 OBP, 9 HR, 56 RBI, .804 OPS)
2b Mark Grudzielanek (137 G, .294 BA, .334 OBP, 8 HR, 59 RBI, . 741 OPS)
DH Mike Sweeney (122 G, .300 BA, .347 OBP, 21 HR, 83 RBI, .864 OPS)
RF Reggie Sanders (93 G, .271 BA, .340 OBP, 21 HR, 54 RBI, .886 OPS)
LF Emil Brown (150 G, .286 BA, .349 OBP, 17 HR, 86 RBI, .804 OPS)
1b Doug Mientkiewicz (87 G, .240 BA, .322 OBP, 11 HR, 29 RBI, .729 OPS)
SS Angel Berroa (159 G, .270 BA, .305 OBP, 11 HR, 55 RBI, .680 OPS)
3B Mark Teahen (130 G, .246 BA, .309 OBP, 7 HR, 55 RBI, .685 OPS)
C John Buck (118 G, .242 BA, .287 OBP, 12 HR, 47 RBI, .676 OPS)

Scott Elarton (31 games, 11 wins, 9 losses, 4.61 ERA, 182.2 IP, 103 SO, 48 BB, 1.30 WHIP)

That lineup is horrible - I cringe at those OPS numbers. Only Burgos got drafted in my bb league (8 teams 30 roster spots); even Sweeney got passed over..

I get a kick out of reading Rob and Rany at www.robneyer.com - two suffering KC fans.

It'll be better. Royals had an extremely good offensive spring...so they are getting better.

I love Rob and Rany.

I think DeJesus will be good.

What's the deal with Greinke? I thought that he was going to be a stud but last year was a disaster and now he's on the DL due to personal issues?

I agree that DeJesus has the potential to move up to the next level plus he's at the right age for a breakout season.

They should have traded Sweeney to a contender at some point around past trade deadlines; could have picked up some young talent.

Not to mention that most of those players are young and on the upswing.

I think people were just too high on him to start with. No strike outs plus a lot of fly balls equals a lot of trouble. The only guys who can get away with not striking out hitters are guys with incredible control and throw a lot of ground balls.

The Royals are undefeated! The Royal are undefeated!

Yes...the Royals hyped him up way too much and rushed him to the Bigs. He'll be back though and he'll be fine. He's got awesome stuff...he just needs to get the mentality down. Will he ever be a Cy Young candidate? Probably not. But he will be a very very good pitcher in the Bigs.




The real fun will be when Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, and Justin Huber are all regulars in the lineup....then our offense will actually be good for once. Remember them names....especially Gordon.

It's friggin alphabet city out there this year.

Just can't wait to see it....."Ground ball to short.. Berroa to Grudzielankeek to Mientkevwhatthe****icz??? Double play!!!"

um...you sure about that one?

They didn't increase the number of games in the schedule?

LOL....caught my f*cked up math skills there...kinda funny.

73-89 is what it should say...

04/03/06--Game Recap

Tigers 3, Royals 1

Winning pitcher: Rogers
Losing pitcher: Elarton

Well-played ballgame. Couple cheapie homeruns to the shortest parts of the park by Chris Shelton...and then two big blasts by John Buck and Emil Brown to the very deepest part of the ballpark that the wind barely kept in the park...game might have been different with a little more luck..but that's baseball. Even though we lost, I thought we were okay. Elarton looked decent..struggled with control a little bit, went 5 2/3 innings..only two runs given up on two short homeruns..can't complain about that too much. Elmer Dessens was extremely impressive out of the pen..with 4 Ks in 1 1/3 innings. Ambiroix Burgos was impressive in the 9th. Our offense struggled a bit, but again hit three or four really good shots that on lots of other days would be homeruns and doubles...but not today. I'll take a well-played 3-1 loss anyday over last year's usual sloppy 7-3 and 9-5 losses.

Off day tomorrow. Afternoon game on Wednesday.

Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

Yeah..that was a nice streak..but what I'm actually most proud of is the fact that we are undefeated on the road this year. That's where we really shine.

better if its a groundball to macdougal or ambriorix.

and something tells me a team won't have much "luck" with scott elarton as their opening day starter.

go KC!

Elarton was fine today. Is he a great pitcher? No. But I'll take 5-6 innings of two run ball from him every time and be happy with that. Now, of course...I hope he doesn't end up being our best pitcher for the year...but I don't think that will be the case.

lolol You're killin me smalls. Keep up the good humor

Good luck to the Royals this year

Lol....yes, thank you. Clearly...we could use all the luck we can get.

lol...only here would you ever find a "official royals thread"

lmfao...funny how there's an official thread of the worst team in mlb...

Guarantee we won't have worst record in baseball.

Yeah the Marlins are looking to be the runaway worst team. The Devil Rays also still suck.

Rosenthal, in Sporting News:

"The Royals could be the first team since the expansion Blue Jays in 1977-79 to produce three straight 100-loss seasons. Only 10 teams since 1900 have lost 100 games in three or more consecutive years. The 1938-42 Phillies hold the record for ineptitude--five straight 100-loss seasons. . . ."

They have something to shoot for, if they try hard enough they just might get there.

Uh.....yeah okay. Just because some person writes something down doesn't make it true. A lot of people wrote down that the ChiSox weren't going to be very good last year, right? We played a lot better baseball yesterday than we did for the most part last year, and if we keep that up, we won't lose 100.

Just sayin... there's really nowhere to go but up.

LOL!!!! wow, u must be proud to gurantee ur team not having the worst record~

it's amazing how a homer is sooooo blind...

So what is he supposed to root for the ****ing Cardinals just because they're good?

Yeah...I'm a homer because I think my team has a lot of young talent throughout the orgainzation (which we do) and I think we can win 73 games....lol. Good one.

04/05/06 -- Tigers (1-0) vs. Royals (0-1); 1:10 p.m. CT

Starting pitchers: Jeremy Bonderman (DET) vs. Joe Mays (KC)

Starting Lineup:

Tigers-

CF Curtis Granderson (1 G, .000 BA, .000 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)
2B Placido Polanco (1 G, .250 BA, .400 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .650 OPS)
C Ivan Rodriguez (1 G, .000 BA, .250 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .250 OPS)
RF Magglio Ordonez (1 G, .000 BA, .000 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)
DH Dmitri Young (1 G, .000 BA, .000 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)
1B Chris Shelton (1 G, .750 BA, .750 OBP, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 3.000 OPS)
SS Carlos Guillen (1 G, .667 BA, .667 OBP, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2.417 OPS)
LF Craig Monroe (1 G, .250 BA, .250 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .500 OPS)
3B Brandon Inge (1 G, .500 BA, .500 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1.000 OPS)

Royals-

CF David DeJesus (1 G, .250 BA, .250 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .750 OPS)
2B Mark Grudzielanek (1 G, .000 BA, .000 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)
DH Mike Sweeney (1 G, .000 BA, .250 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .250 OPS)
RF Reggie Sanders (1 G, .250 BA, .250 OBP, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .500 OPS)
1B Doug Mientkiewicz 1 G, .333 BA, .333 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .667 OPS)
LF Emil Brown (1 G, .000 BA, .000 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)
3B Mark Teahen (1 G, .000 BA, .000 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)
SS Angel Berroa (1 G, .333 BA, .333 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .667 OPS)
C John Buck (1 G, .000 BA, .000 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)

04/05/06--Game Recap

Tigers 14, Royals 3

Winning Pitcher: Bonderman
Losing Pitcher: Mays

Box Score: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=260405107

Poor ballgame. Joe Mays was actually pretty good when he kept the ball down, but every time he made a mistake up, he got crushed..and he left it up way too often, so he wasn't good at all today. Luke Hudson from the pen was good. Stemle from the 'pen, who has NO business being on this team and won't be here for long, was atrocious, Gobble was okay, Wood was atrocious, and Sisco had a 3 strikeout dominant inning. So..not all our pitching was bad...but those who did pitch poorly today really stunk it up bigtime. Made two errors on defense and Berroa made a baserunning mistake. Offense was a little bit better, home runs from Emil Brown and our young stud Shane Costa were good to see..but other than that we couldn't get anything going against Bonderman. In particular, Sweeney and Grudzielanek have been atrocious both games. That should change..hopefully Friday.

Mays needed a good showing to show that he even belongs on the team...because when Redmen is healthy..which will likely be around April 20th or so...one guy is leaving and Mays looks to be the odd one out right now...he'll probably get one more start and if he doesn't impress..hopefully we never hear from him again.

Off-day tomorrow and ChiSox come to town for three starting Friday.

04/07/06--Chicago White Sox (1-2) vs. Kansas City Royals (0-2); 7:10 p.m. CT

Starting Pitchers: Jon Garland (CHW) vs. Jeremy Affeldt (KC)

Starting Lineups:

White Sox:

LF Pablo Ozuna (1 G, .000 BA, .333 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)
2B Tadahito Iguchi (2 G, .571 BA, .600 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 1.314 OPS)
DH Jim Thome (3 G, .333 BA, .571 OBP, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 1.571 OPS)
1B Paul Konerko (3 G, .077 BA, .133 OBP, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .210 OPS)
3B Joe Crede (2 G, .167 BA, .286 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .619 OPS)
SS Juan Uribe (3 G, .111 BA, .250 OBP, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .361 OPS)
C Chris Widger (0 G, .000 BA, .000 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)
RF Rob Mackowiak (3 G, .250 BA, .400 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, .650 OPS)
CF Brian Anderson (2 G, .250 BA, .333 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, .708 OPS)

Royals:

CF David DeJesus (2 G, .250 BA, .250 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .875 OPS)
2B Mark Grudzielanek (2 G, .000 BA, .000 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)
DH Mike Sweeney (2 G, .000 BA, .125 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .125 OPS)
RF Reggie Sanders (2 G, .167 BA, .167 OBP, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .333 OPS)
1B Doug Mientkiewicz (2 G, .333 BA, .333 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .833 OPS)
LF Emil Brown (2 G, .143 BA, .143 OBP, 1 HR, 2 RBI, .714 OPS)
3B Mark Teahen (2 G, .000 BA, .000 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)
SS Angel Berroa (2 G, .400 BA, .400 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1.000 OPS)
C John Buck (2 G, .167 BA, .167 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .500 OPS)

KK's prospect watch:

-Alex Gordon: In first game for Double-A Wichita...Gordon was 2 for 7 (game went 16 innings) with a double and an absolute mammoth three run homerun. Also, made two great plays at third base, showing good range to both his left and his right.

-Billy Butler: Still only 19 years old (for a few more days), Butler began his season as the left fielder in Double-A and went 4 for 8 with a double and two runs scored.

-Mark Redmen: Not really a "prospect," but he made a rehab start at Wichita and went five innings, giving up one unearned run on three hits, walking one and striking out two. Should make one more rehab start and then be ready to return to the KC rotation.

do you watch the Wichita games? get replays? just curious

I was able to listen to a lot of it on the radio. But usually I just get that kind of stuff from various reports/blogs/box scores and such. This year's Double-A team is going to be VERY interesting to watch from an offensive standpoint...as there is a TON of potential...while more of our good arms are in Triple-A.

Lol.....Jeremy Affeldt's been complaining and whining about how he should be a starter for three years now.....and what does he do now that he finally gets hit wish? Gives up 4 runs before he even gets one out. Pathetic. He's got a lot of talent...but his mind sucks bigtime...just doesn't seem to know how to get it done. F*cking retard.

What's the latest on Greinke? It said in SI's baseball preview that he was considering quitting because he didn't have a passion for baseball anymore.

???

Our GM and manager have said that he is already talking to them about wanting to comeback..but he's on the 60-DL....so he won't be around until midseason.


04/07/06 -- Game Recap

Chicago-7, Kansas City-11

Winning Pitcher: Wood
Losing Pitcher: Garland

Box Score: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=260407107

Game Recap: Great game for Kansas City. Good to get the first win and show some good character. An atrocious start for Affeldt, giving up five runs in the first, but he actually came back after that and threw three much better innings and kept us in the game. Offense finally exploded for five runs in the fourth inning and scored in every single inning thereafter, which was a pretty good showing against Garland...including two huge hits from John Buck...who has struggled offensively for pretty much his entire Royals career. Sweeney only had one hit, but hit the ball very hard three times..including a nice double. Pitching was actually good overall...despite the ugly numbers. Atrocious first inning..but after that Affeldt actually threw well...only giving up three hits and one run in the next three innings. Wood threw well for two innings to get the win..Elmer Dessens looked extremely impressive for the second straight outing...and Burgos worked a decent scoreless inning. Defensively...Teahen started an extremely good double play, with a great turn by Grudz, and Minky made three very nice plays at first base to take away a hit and to save a couple throws from Berroa and Teahen from being errors. Overall....the first inning was ugly, but from that point on we played a pretty good ballgame all around and if we can play like that more often we will be just fine. Hopefully this effort carries over to the weekend. It'd be pretty sweet to win our first series against the ChiSox.

Nothing like coming back from a large deficit against the reigning world champions to give a team some confidence.

04/08/06 -- Chicago White Sox (1-3) vs. Kansas City Royals (1-2); 1:10 CT

Starting Pitchers: Javier Vazquez (CWS) vs. Denny Bautista (KC)

Starting Lineups:

White Sox:

LF Scott Podsednik (3 G, .000 BA, .071 OBP, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .071 OPS)
2B Tadahito Iguchi (3 G, .455 BA, ..533 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 1.079 OPS)
DH Jim Thome (4 G, .333 BA, .579 OBP, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 1.412 OPS)
1B Paul Konerko (4 G, .222 BA, .250 OBP, 0 HR, 3 RBI, .528 OPS)
C A. J. Pierzynski (4 G, .333 BA, .429 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, .845 OPS)
3B Joe Crede (3 G, .271 BA, .333 OBP, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .788 OPS)
RF Rob Mackowiak (4 G, .273 BA, .429 OBP, 0 HR, 3 RBI, .701 OPS)
SS Juan Uribe (4 G, .286 BA, .353 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, .710 OPS)
CF Brian Anderson (3 G, .250 BA, .308 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, .641 OPS)

Royals:

CF Shane Costa (2 G, .333 BA, .333 OBP, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1.667 OPS)
2B Mark Grudzielanek (3 G, .167 BA, .237 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .564 OPS)
DH Mike Sweeney (3 G, .100 BA, .308 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .508 OPS)
RF Reggie Sanders 3 G, .300 BA, .364 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, .664 OPS)
1B Doug Mientkiewicz (3 G, .200 BA, .182 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, .482 OPS)
LF Emil Brown (3 G, .273 BA, .333 OBP, 1 HR, 3 RBI, .970 OPS)
3B Mark Teahen (3 G, .091 BA, .091 OBP, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .182 OPS)
SS Angel Berroa (3 G, .444 BA, .444 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 1.111 OPS)
C Paul Bako (0 G, .000 BA, .000 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)

Koop, about how many games do you go to in a year?

Unfortunately...the combo of me living nearly four hours from the ballpark and me being a college student limits my ability to go. I probably get to three games a year....but hopefully I'll be able to get to a lot more once college is over. For now, I have to settle for listening to the games on the radio...since I live in "Cardinals country" in terms of TV coverage.....

Sucks, but I can relate. I went to school in "Yankee country." The YES network is the most loathesome station ever.

KC doesn't deserve it's own thread

How about you quit wasting your energy here and start focusing on praying for your team to actually scratch together a little offense against our "crappy" pitching...lol.


Also...one comment I'd like to make...I'm watching the game on WGN...and EVERY time a fly ball is hit by Chicago into the outfield it is "Oh..that ball is crushed..and oh boy the wind is blowing in so hard and it dies down...I tell ya, on any other day that ball would be way outta here..." but funny thing.....EVERY SINGLE TIME the Royals do that EXACT same thing...."oh....he jammed him.....the wind has died down now..hardly blowing at all right now..nice pitch....didn't get good contact..." and blah blah blah. God I hate the ChiSox homer announcers...all they do is b*tch about EVERY little thing that goes wrong for them.....but when they get lucky it's all skill.

I hate every announcer that openly roots for a team to win. Cubs and White Sox seem to be the worst though.

Agreed on that first point.

I HATE it when announcers do that. It's pretty much why I hated the YES broadcast team so much. Michael Kay....god, I can't even TYPE his name without being brought to the boiling point. Since it's the Yankees, they treat everyone on the team like he's a god among men. Especially when they were playing the Red Sox. They'd always talk up their team, while bringing up all the faults of the opposing team, real or imaginary. Thankfully, the Red Sox announcers, while favoring the Sox of course, do a good job of praising opponents for their skills and pointing out problems with the home town team.



And I'd like to add that I hate just about every announcer associated with Fox or ESPN. They're all retarded. Except for Al Leiter....he knows his stuff and can communicate it well. Oh, and Tony Gwynn whenever he does a game. Tony Gwynn's the man.

Vin Scully is the man.

Clearly you don't watch a lot of TBS.