Vazquez was a steal this year for us.. When he is on he can dominate...

Yeah, I was actually surprised that we were able to scratch two off of him on only four hits....his stuff was pretty sick as usual against us. I actually feel we have a better chance to get some runs off of Buehrle than against Vazquez right now.....not that we'll put up a lot of runs tomorrow either, but he's more hittable I think than the stuff Vazquez is throwing now.

05/07/06-Kansas City Royals (7-21) vs. Chicago White Sox (21-9); 1:10 CT

Starting Pitchers: Mark Redman (0-2, 7.00) vs. Mark Buehrle (3-2, 3.76)

Starting Lineups:

Royals

3B Esteban German (15 G, .500 BA, .583 OBP, 0 HR, 5 RBI, 1.117 OPS)
2B Mark Grudzielanek (25 G, .276 BA, .314 OBP, 0 HR, 4 RBI, .692 OPS)
1B Tony Graffanino (16 G, .143 BA, .200 OBP, 1 HR, 5 RBI, .483 OPS)
LF DEAD TO ME (28 G, .226 BA, .306 OBP, 1 HR, 11 RBI, .650 OPS)
SS DEAD TO ME (28 G, .240 BA, .248 OBP, 1 HR, 8 RBI, .568 OPS)
RF Aaron Guiel (2 G, .167 BA, .286 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .619 OPS)
C John Buck (22 G, .204 BA, .267 OBP, 0 HR, 5 RBI, .581 OPS)
DH Justin Huber (1 G, .000 BA, .000 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .000 OPS)
CF Kerry Robinson (7 G, .276 BA, .276 OBP, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .586 OPS)

White Sox

LF Pablo Ozuna (13 G, .524 BA, .583 OBP, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 1.393 OPS)
2B Tadahito Iguchi (27 G, .342 BA, .387 OBP, 3 HR, 15 RBI, .852 OPS)
DH Jim Thome (29 G, .299 BA, .465 OBP, 13 HR, 32 RBI, 1.207 OPS)
1B Paul Konerko (30 G, .339 BA, .414 OBP, 7 HR, 24 RBI, 1.005 OPS)
3B Joe Crede (29 G, .314 BA, .362 OBP, 6 HR, 22 RBI, .914 OPS)
RF Rob Mackowiak (18 G, .192 BA, .300 OBP, 0 HR, 4 RBI, .531 OPS)
SS Juan Uribe (25 G, .161 BA, .202 OBP, 3 HR, 12 RBI, .512 OPS)
C Chris Widger (7 G, .211 BA, .292 OBP, 0 HR, 4 RBI, .555 OPS)
CF Brian Anderson (26 G, .160 BA, .265 OBP, 3 HR, 7 RBI, .562 OPS)

2-0 Royals going into Bottom 5th...back to back HRs by Graffanino and DEAD TO ME (LF)...Redman looking pretty sharp thus far...lot of game left though, things will probably change.


...and DEAD TO ME (SS) gets things back to normal with a rediculous quick strikeout....


...and all this with the umpires giving a much different strikezone for the two teams...of course it is the Redman's zone that is getting the squeeze, while Buehrle gets some "benefits"....but that just comes with the territory....happens every single game.

2-2 now, going into Top 6. Could've been worst...Iguchi pops into double play on attempted suicide squeeze..Thome and Konerko don't get a chance...

God this umpire is giving Buehrle a big zone...he's good enough on his own.......why don't we ever get a zone this big??? Pretty fishy....but that's how it goes.

Pretty good ballgame so far.....2-2 going into the Bottom of the 7th....at least we are putting ourselves in position to win 2 of 3 from the ChiSox at Chicago...that's better than usual..doesn't mean we'll be able to pull it off..but at least we're playing good competitive ballgames for the most part.

2-2 going into the Bottom of 8th.

Runner was on 3rd with two outs with John Buck up..but he got caught looking on an EXTREMELY questionable strike call..........I don't mind a generous strike zone...but I sure wish we'd get it too.......

and Thome with his second broken bat fly ball to center that finds the PERFECT hole.....wow........what do we have to do to catch a break..........


intentional walk to Konerko now...runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs...2-2 in 8th...

Dessens vs. Crede.....here we go.




3-2 ChiSox now....unreal......a goddamn broken bat wind-aided fly ball hit by Thome is gonna cost us this ballgame....wow...I guess when you have luck and the umpire's strikezone working against you, just not gonna win on the road......guess we "suck" again......f*cking bullsh*t.

05/07/06--Royals 2, White Sox 3

Winning Pitcher: McCarthy (2-1, 5.40)
Losing Pitcher: Dessens (2-2, 3.12)

Box Score: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/boxscor...kcamlb_chamlb_1


Game Recap: A bull$hit loss for us today. Chicago got pretty lucky and got some help from the umpires today...pretty fishy. In the bottom of the 8th, noone on with two outs, Thome hit his second broken bat pop fly that the wind just happened to push right to the perfect spot so that it dropped...and that led to the game winning rally. Give them credit for getting the run in after that, but they got pretty lucky to even have the opportunity. The bigger thing though was the home plate umpires strike zone...it was SIGNIFICANTLY different for the two teams. With the ChiSox pitching, the zone was HUGE, with a TON of pitches that were off the plate and low being called strikes.....including a lot of strikeouts in key spots with the bogus zone. I don't mind a big zone if it is for both teams, but it was not the case, as the KC pitchers had those exact same pitches called balls all game. It was extremely obvious, but of course nothing will ever be said about it because they are the champions and we are the Royals....just bullsh*t. As for the rest, Redman was good through 7 innings, our offense was a little bit better, but DEAD TO ME (SS) and DEAD TO ME (LF) left a lot of runners on base in big spots.....at least we were in position to take 2 of 3 though, so we're playing better, but when luck and the umpires are against you as well on the road, pretty tough to win I suppose.

WOOOOOOOOOOO. Sorry I had to.

No, it's okay. I'm happy with the series overall, we pitched well again today and got a bit unlucky, but at least we managed to take 1 game in the series, which I said I'd be happy with before the series started, so I'll take it. We played well enough to win today's game with better fortune, so as long as we keep pitching well and keep games competitive, I'll be satisfied for now.

THIS JUST IN!! THIS JUST IN!!

Peter Gammons, the Hall of Famer don't ya know, just reported that Allard Baird, the Royals GM, may be fired soon.


No sh*t Sherlock.

Peter Gammons = person I strongly dislike

I like Gammons more than others like Berman and Kruk...

05/08/06--Cleveland Indians (17-15) vs. Kansas City Royals (7-22); 7:10 CT

Starting Pitchers: Paul Byrd (4-2, 7.11) vs. Denny Bautista (0-1, 4.09)

Starting Lineups:

Indians

CF Grady Sizemore (32 G, .297 BA, .361 OBP, 3 HR, 14 RBI, .803 OPS)
LF Jason Michaels (28 G, .263 BA, .336 OBP, 1 HR, 11 RBI, .666 OPS)
SS Johnny Peralta (32 G, .261 BA, .320 OBP, 3 HR, 18 RBI, .693 OPS)
DH Travis Hafner (30 G, .330 BA, .453 OBP, 11 HR, 29 RBI, 1.131 OPS)
C Victor Martinez (31 G, .364 BA, .429 OBP, 5 HR, 21 RBI, 1.005 OPS)
1B Ben Broussard (28 G, .393 BA, .440 OBP, 5 HR, 22 RBI, 1.071 OPS)
2B Ronnie Belliard (30 G, .270 BA, .323 OBP, 2 HR, 15 RBI, .679 OPS)
3B Aaron Boone (30 G, .241 BA, .311 OBP, 2 HR, 16 RBI, .691 OPS)
RF Casey Blake (30 G, .371 BA, .450 OBP, 3 HR, 12 RBI, 1.012 OPS)

Royals

CF Esteban German (16 G, .429 BA, .512 OBP, 0 HR, 5 RBI, .969 OPS)
2B Mark Grudzielanek (26 G, .284 BA, .321 OBP, 0 HR, 4 RBI, .703 OPS)
1B Doug Mientkiewicz (26 G, .236 BA, .303 OBP, 0 HR, 5 RBI, .640 OPS)
LF DEAD TO ME (29 G, .227 BA, .304 OBP, 2 HR, 12 RBI, .675 OPS)
DH Matt Stairs (14 G, .226 BA, .333 OBP, 1 HR, 5 RBI, .688 OPS)
3B Tony Graffanino (17 G, .196 BA, .245 OBP, 2 HR, 6 RBI, .593 OPS)
RF Aaron Guiel (3 G, .100 BA, .182 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .382 OPS)
SS DEAD TO ME (29 G, .240 BA, .248 OBP, 1 HR, 8 RBI, .575 OPS)
C John Buck (23 G, .193 BA, .266 OBP, 0 HR, 5 RBI, .564 OPS)

This just in....Twins-Rangers playing on TV, announcers are talking about how the Twins offense is struggling, and then they say "well, the only time the Twins offense did get it going was this past week in a series against the Kansas City Royals where they broke out, but then again, that's against the Kansas City Royals pitching staff..."

F*cking idiot....since when is SPLITTING a two game series 1-1 AT HOME against us, including being SHUT OUT in one of the games..since when is that "the offense really breaking out" against our "sh*tty" pitching staff.....just retarded.........f*cking Sutcliffe (sp?) doesn't have a f*cking clue what he is talking about. Boy, he's right, our 3.20 ERA against the Twins this year...that is just atrocious..what the f*ck are we thinking.......

God, why can't these people at least look at their own damn webpage to see the numbers before just blindly declaring that the Twins offense has only "broken out" against Kansas City's "pathetic" pitching staff.......idiots.

05/08/06--Indians 3, Royals 4

Winning Pitcher: Wood (3-0, 2.78)
Losing Pitcher: Byrd (4-3, 6.52)

Box Score: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/boxscor...clemlb_kcamlb_1


Game Recap: Great win today. Bautista returned from the DL today and started the game, and his stuff looked pretty good, but he had little control of it and only lasted three innings, giving up one. Mike Wood came in after that and gave up only three hits over 4.1 innings after that to earn the win...very nice outing from him once again..lowering his ERA under 3 and picking up his third win in the long relief role. The offense was better, with German going 2 for 3 with a BB from the leadoff spot to start a few nice threats. Burgos was a little shaky over his 1.1 inning save, but he put a couple mistakes behind him and got the job done. Good win for us, we're playing pretty decent baseball lately, with the exception of our offense being pretty bad.

If only you guys could face Paul Byrd every game...

Byrd and Garland seem to be the pitchers we do well against..lol....hopefully we'll see them a lot more.

Funny thing about this series...and this may be the first time this has happened for us in a while....but our starting pitchers have the better ERA in EVERY matchup of the three game series......pretty unusual for us in that regard.

Now if we can only get Sanders healthy and back in the lineup...and DeJesus...and Costa......

Wow that is weird..

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5586802


Article on how bad we are.


He says we're giving up 5.8 runs per game. Funny how he doesn't mention that the combined ERA of our current pitching staff is actually 4.35.

He points to our anemic offense. Okay. Too bad that he doesn't mention that our best hitter is injured. (Sweeney). Or our starting CF (DeJesus). Or another starting OF (Costa). Or our starting RF (Sanders). Or our most talented starting pitcher (Grienke). Or our closer (MacDougal).

Take all that away from ANY team and see how they fare. We aren't a good team, but we aren't nearly as bad as our record indicates. Our pitching has been good ALL YEAR besides three guys who are no longer here, and our offense will be better once we get back THREE starting outfielders who are all better hitters that those currently in our lineup......

Funny he doesn't mention all that though..I guess that would require looking at more than just a team's overall record. Guess we wouldn't wanna force the sportswriters to do some research. I ain't saying we're good, but their arguments are just weak. It ain't our entire team that is THAT bad..it's just DEAD TO ME (SP), Luke Hudson, and Steve Stemle. They are no longer here, and now we're a better team for it.


Also funny that he doesn't mention Alex Gordon or Justin Huber or Billy Butler or J.P. Howell or Chris Lubanski or Andres Blanco when talking about how "doomed" we are for the future. Guess all those tiny little details don't matter....guess he thinks we're sticking with Doug Mientkiewicz for years to come...

05/09/06--Cleveland Indians (17-16) vs. Kansas City Royals (8-22); 7:10 CT

Starting Pitchers: Jason Johnson (2-2, 5.08) vs. Jeremy Affeldt (2-2, 4.94)

Starting Lineups:

Indians

CF Grady Sizemore (33 G, .301 BA, .363 OBP, 4 HR, 15 RBI, .838 OPS)
LF Jason Michaels (29 G, .260 BA, .331 OBP, 1 HR, 12 RBI, .656 OPS)
SS Jhonny Peralta (33 G, .261 BA, .322 OBP, 3 HR, 18 RBI, .692 OPS)
DH Travis Hafner (31 G, .336 BA, .458 OBP, 11 HR, 29 RBI, 1.139 OPS)
C Victor Martinez (32 G, .358 BA, .420 OBP, 5 HR, 21 RBI, .989 OPS)
1B Eduardo Perez (18 G, .304 BA, .353 OBP, 4 HR, 15 RBI, 1.027 OPS)
RF Casey Blake (31 G, .370 BA, .444 OBP, 3 HR, 23 RBI, 1.008 OPS)
2B Ronnie Belliard (31 G, .265 BA, .328 OBP, 2 HR, 15 RBI, .679 OPS)
3B Aaron Boone (31 G, .232 BA, .301 OBP, 2 HR, 16 RBI, .667 OPS)

Royals

LF Esteban German (17 G, .447 BA, .533 OBP, 0 HR, 5 RBI, 1.007 OPS)
2B Mark Grudzielanek (27 G, .292 BA, .327 OBP, 0 HR, 4 RBI, .724 OPS)
1B Doug Mientkiewicz (27 G, .253 BA, .324 OBP, 0 HR, 7 RBI, 675 OPS)
DH Matt Stairs (15 G, .200 BA, .300 OBP, 1 HR, 5 RBI, .614 OPS)
3B Tony Graffanino (18 G, .204 BA, .264 OBP, 2 HR, 6 RBI, .611 OPS)
RF Aaron Guiel (4 G, .071 BA, .133 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .276 OPS)
SS DEAD TO ME (30 G, .231 BA, .239 OBP, 1 HR, 8 RBI, .553 OPS)
CF Kerry Robinson (8 G, .242 BA, .242 OBP, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .515 OPS)
C John Buck (24 G, .217 BA, .284 OBP, 1 HR, 6 RBI, .650 OPS)

2-2 in the Top of the 4th.....two on and two outs...

Hafner at the plate 0-2 count.....Gobble with the pitch...FASTBALL INSIDE CORNER STRIKE THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Oh, but wait a minute....the umpire decides that this one time that pitch is not a strike..............WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! It was RIGHT over the plate......holy sh*T!!!!!!!!!!!! That's just blatantly horrible right there....


and of course the next pitch is hits it off the wall and drives in two.....

so the score is now Indians 2, Royals 2, Cleveland's umpires 2......holy f*cking sh*t what are the umpires doing??? Big time hosing right there.....jesus...

05/09/06--Indians 7, Royals 10

Winning Pitcher: Peralta (1-0, 3.18)
Losing Pitcher: Graves (2-1, 5.79)

Box Score: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/boxscor...clemlb_kcamlb_1

Game Recap: Awesome game once again today. Our pitching walked too many batters (5) and the Indians got their share of hits, but our offense came to play today and outslugged them, so that's a nice change of pace. Leading the charge was John Buck, who had been hitting into some tough luck..but not tonight. He homered for the second night in a row to give us a 7-6 lead and overall was 3 for 3 with a BB and 4 RBI.....everyone in the offense contributed and the bullpen, while giving up a few runs, did a pretty good job of avoiding the big innings....the only negative on the game was Jeremy Affeldt, who had real good stuff but just no control..and him pitching behind in the count cost him..as he served up a lot of hits....so not a good outing today for him, but he had an ERA of 0.50 for his last three starts, so maybe he was due. Still though, the best offense in baseball only has 10 runs on us for two games and we've won both games, so I can't complain too much about that. Once again, our team is now playing much better and hopefully we can keep it up..and hopefully some of our hitters can get hot.

05/10/06--Cleveland Indians (17-17) vs. Kansas City Royals (9-22); 1:10 CT

Starting Pitchers: Jake Westbrook (3-2, 5.23) vs. Scott Elarton (0-4, 3.86)

Starting Lineups:

Indians

CF Grady Sizemore (34 G, .302 BA, .361 OBP, 4 HR, 15 RBI, .851 OPS)
LF Jason Michaels (30 G, .268 BA, .340 OBP, 1 HR, 12 RBI, .671 OPS)
SS Jhonny Peralta (34 G, .259 BA, .338 OBP, 3 HR, 18 RBI, .704 OPS)
DH Travis Hafner (32 G, .331 BA, .449 OBP, 11 HR, 31 RBI, 1.127 OPS)
RF Casey Blake (32 G, .372 BA, .442 OBP, 3 HR, 23 RBI, .999 OPS)
1B Ben Broussard (29 G, .395 BA, .447 OBP, 5 HR, 22 RBI, 1.075 OPS)
2B Ronnie Belliard (32 G, .270 BA, .331 OBP, 2 HR, 16 RBI, .683 OPS)
3B Ramon Vazquez (15 G, .160 BA, .185 OBP, 0 HR, 3 RBI, .345 OPS)
C Kelly Shoppach (6 G, .300 BA, .417 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, .717 OPS)

Royals

CF Kerry Robinson (9 G, .297 BA, .297 OBP, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .649 OPS)
2B Esteban German (18 G, .405 BA, .490 OBP, 0 HR, 5 RBI, .918 OPS)
1B Doug Mientkiewicz (28 G, .242 BA, .315 OBP, 0 HR, 8 RBI, .652 OPS)
DH Matt Stairs (16 G, .200 BA, .289 OBP, 1 HR, 5 RBI, .589 OPS)
LF DEAD TO ME (30 G, .220 BA, .293 OBP, 2 HR, 13 RBI, .653 OPS)
RF Aaron Guiel (5 G, .158 BA, .200 OBP, 1 HR, 3 RBI, .568 OPS)
3B Tony Graffanino (19 G, .241 BA, .293 OBP, 2 HR, 7 RBI, .682 OPS)
SS DEAD TO ME (31 G, .234 BA, .248 OBP, 1 HR, 8 RBI, .563 OPS)
C Paul Bako (13 G, .133 BA, .161 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, .295 OPS)

Mark Gredzulanek was a great pick up

i do think that allen baird does a pretty good job considering the kind of money he can spend

i really think the royals need new owners who arent cheap bastards.

Royals turning the power on. Look poised to beat Cleveland again.

No...ALLARD BAIRD...does NOT do a good job........he isn't a bad baseball guy...but he just doesn't do very well in terms of pitching...things are getting better now....but we need a new GM to take us farther....he's a good baseball scout, but just hasn't been a good GM for us.

You are right about Grudz though...he's been much better with the bat than I expected so far..and his defense has been nearly flawless.







SWEEP!!!!!!!!!

Royals win 10-8. Someone please tell me this team sucks now!! Yeah, we struggled early, but we've been better lately despite a ton of injuries.....woohoooooo....



05/10/06--Indians 8, Royals 10

Winning Pitcher: Burgos (1-0, 3.31)
Losing Pitcher: Mota (0-2, 6.14)

Box Score: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/boxscor...clemlb_kcamlb_1


Game Recap: GREAT game for us today, and great series. Elarton started off horribly, giving up 3 runs before getting an out, but then settled down to pitch brilliantly into the 6th, before tiring and allowing two more runs. Despite his numbers, he was GREAT for us today, as our bullpen was BIG time worn out and we desperately needed innings, so Elarton did a great job of gutting it out without his best stuff. After Elarton, Andrade wasn't very good, but he was the only guy available beside Burgos, so we had to go with our weaker guy there, and then Burgos came in and blew the save by allowing the inherited runner to score, but pitched a perfect 9th to close the game out. As for the offense....they put up 10 on Cleveland again..making it 24 runs scored in the series, as opposed to 18 given up. Robinson and German at the top of the lineup, despite only being 1-for-8 officially, had 3 RBI and had a lot of good at-bats and moved runners nicely. Everyone else got contributed, and in the botton of the 8th with the game tied, my man Aaron Guiel hit his 2nd HR of the year (he's only been here 5 games) to put us ahead for good, followed by an Angel Berroa home run. Berroa has been hitting a LITTLE bit better recently and his play in the field has been better...so for now, he has earned his way OFF of my DEAD TO ME list. We've been playing much better lately and hopefully we can keep this up in Baltimore on Friday.

Us Royal's fans have been wondering why backup Paul Bako has gotten so much playing time for us, when Buck is swinging the bat much better this year and has been GREAT behind the plate for us.....well maybe we now have our answer...

ahh I see Berroa is off the dead to you list.. How long will that last? not long?

Given his tendency to botch routine grounders and to strikeout on two pitches, I am confident it won't be long....but who knows, maybe this time he finally has figured things out and will improve as a ballplayer and will stay off my DEAD TO ME list........


.....yeah he'll be back on by Sunday.

Berroa is pretty pathetic defensively.

I like how Koop basically has 90% of the posts in this thread.

(since i know koop will take this as a literal statement, im going to point out that i am exagerating)

Berroa has a FANTASTIC arm....one of the strongest in the game at short and is capable of making the spectacular play on a regular basis, but he botches so many routine plays and such that it just doesn't make up for it....so overall, yeah, he just doesn't cut it....and his offense is the same. He is capable of going 4 for 4 with a HR, 2B, and 4 RBI every now and then, but then he'll go 10 games batting .120 with an OBP of .120 and 19 Ks and just flat out suck...and then he'll hit well for 2-3 games and then go back to swinging at every pitch and sucking again......he could be gone by next year though if Andres Blanco plays well enough...so hopefully that happens or Berroa figures something out...

And yeah, you're right, I do have probably close to 90% of the posts in this thread..but hey, it's my thread....I like it that way.

57%. I read this thread, but haven't really been following the Royals, so I have nothing to say right now.

Lol...did you actually go through and calculate??

Also, I'd like to dispute that.....as I have made plenty of posts in succession..but they get combined and don't count as seperate posts...RIGGED!! RECOUNT!!! RACISM!!!

Oh, sorry, the Jason Whitlock in me came out there for a second.

Haha. If you click on the number of replies next to the thread it tells you how many posts each person has made in that thread.

Sweet. I guess ya really do learn something new everyday.

I did not know that..

Neither did I.

Hobbes you are a wealth of knowledge.

05/12/06--Royals 5, Orioles 6

Winning Pitcher: Williams (1-0, 2.00)
Losing Pitcher: Dessens (2-3, 3.26)

Box Score: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/boxscor...kcamlb_balmlb_1

Game Recap: Didn't get to follow the game, so I can't really provide a good game recap. Dessens got the loss by giving up a run in the 8th. Our starter Hernandez has his second straight poor outing after two straight good outings, so that's not very good, but maybe he can get back on track next time. John Buck continues his improvement at the plate, only going 1 for 3, but raising his OPS to nearly .800. Also, Justin Huber got only his second start and was 1 for 3 with a RBI double...no clue why he isn't getting more playing time....poor managing on Bell's part, as he only starts against lefties during his time with us, despite the fact that A. his development as one of our best hitting prospects is slowed by him sitting on the bench, and B. he has better numbers in his career against righties.....so just stupid there. Hopefully he'll either be sent back down to Omaha to play 1B or will at least become our full time DH...I don't hate Matt Stairs as our DH if Huber is in Omaha, but he shouldn't be forcing Huber to the bench....Buddy Bell's practice of always favoring the veterans is starting to p*ss a lot of Royals fans off......

Apparently, Berroa made a TON of mistakes in the field today and failed to get down a key sac bunt and hit into a big double play.....so...that's it, I'm sick of him. Back to the DEAD TO ME list it is!

Is the DEAD TO ME list in order of how much you hate the player, or just in the order you thought of them?

Yes. The #1 player on the list is the most hated.

05/13/06--Kansas City Royals (10-23) vs. Baltimore Orioles (16-20); 3:35 CT

Starting Pitchers: Mark Redman (0-2, 5.76) vs. Kris Benson (4-3, 4.89)

Starting Lineups:

Royals

CF Kerry Robinson (11 G, .311 BA, .311 OBP, 0 HR, 4 RBI, .711 OPS)
2B Mark Grudzielanek (29 G, .304 BA, .346 OBP, 0 HR, 5 RBI, .745 OPS)
1B Doug Mientkiewicz (30 G, .242 BA, .319 OBP, 0 HR, 9 RBI, .652 OPS)
RF Reggie Sanders (24 G, .256 BA, .277 OBP, 4 HR, 14 RBI, .743 OPS)
DH Matt Stairs (18 G, .205 BA, .300 OBP, 1 HR, 6 RBI, .618 OPS)
3B Tony Graffanino (21 G, .267 BA, .333 OBP, 2 HR, 9 RBI, .767 OPS)
LF Aaron Guiel (7 G, .217 BA, .250 OBP, 2 HR, 4 RBI, .772 OPS)
SS DEAD TO ME (33 G, .252 BA, .264 OBP, 2 HR, 10 RBI, .617 OPS)
C Paul Bako (14 G, .176 BA, .200 OBP, 0 HR, 3 RBI, .376 OPS)

Orioles

2B Brandon Fahey (9 G, .297 BA, .316 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, .613 OPS)
3B Melvin Mora (35 G, .294 BA, .369 OBP, 6 HR, 18 RBI, .865 OPS)
SS Miguel Tejada (36 G, .352 BA, .385 OBP, 9 HR, 29 RBI, .943 OPS)
RF Jay Gibbons (35 G, .281 BA, .313 OBP, 9 HR, 23 RBI, .867 OPS)
C Ramon Hernandez (32 G, .310 BA, .377 OBP, 4 HR, 20 RBI, .842 OPS)
1B Jeff Conine (28 G, .255 BA, .321 OBP, 5 HR, 14 RBI, .772 OPS)
CF Corey Patterson (27 G, .288 BA, .325 OBP, 4 HR, 16 RBI, .804 OPS)
DH Javy Lopez (19 G, .221 BA, .284 OBP, 1 HR, 8 RBI, .651 OPS)
LF Luis Matos (13 G, .119 BA, .159 OBP, 2 HR, 2 RBI, .445 OPS)

05/14/06--Kansas City Royals (10-24) vs. Baltimore Orioles (17-20); 12:35 CT

Starting Pitchers: Denny Bautista (0-1, 4.50) vs. Daniel Cabrera (2-2, 5.30)

Starting Lineups:

Royals

CF Kerry Robinson (12 G, .286 BA, .286 OBP, 0 HR, 4 RBI, .653 OPS)
2B Mark Grudzielanek (30 G, .311 BA, .341 OBP, 0 HR, 5 RBI, .753 OPS)
1B Doug Mientkiewicz (31 G, .235 BA, .316 OBP, 0 HR, 9 RBI, .640 OPS)
DH Matt Stairs (19 G, .229 BA, .315 OBP, 2 HR, 7 RBI, .711 OPS)
LF DEAD TO ME (32 G, .231 BA, .298 OBP, 3 HR, 15 RBI, .706 OPS)
RF Aaron Guiel (8 G, .200 BA, .259 OBP, 2 HR, 4 RBI, .739 OPS)
3B Tony Graffanino (22 G, .254 BA, .319 OBP, 2 HR, 9 RBI, .732 OPS)
SS DEAD TO ME (34 G, .246 BA, .258 OBP, 2 HR, 10 RBI, .602 OPS)
C John Buck (26 G, .258 BA, .333 OBP, 2 HR, 10 RBI, .788 OPS)

Orioles

2B Brandon Fahey (10 G, .293 BA, .326 OBP, 0 HR, 2 RBI, .618 OPS)
3B Melvin Mora (36 G, .304 BA, .376 OBP, 7 HR, 20 RBI, .903 OPS)
SS Miguel Tejada (37 G, .351 BA, .391 OBP, 10 HR, 31 OBP, .966 OPS)
RF Jay Gibbons (36 G, .271 BA, .303 OBP, 9 HR, 23 RBI, .837 OPS)
C Ramon Hernandez (33 G, .317 BA, .385 OBP, 5 HR, 23 RBI, .885 OPS)
1B Jeff Conine (29 G, .255 BA, .325 OBP, 5 HR, 14 RBI, .778 OPS)
CF Corey Patterson (28 G, .289 BA, .333 OBP, 4 HR, 16 RBI, .807 OPS)
DH Javy Lopez (20 G, .225 BA, .295 OBP, 2 HR, 11 RBI, .703 OPS)
LF Nick Markakis (33 G, .204 BA, .282 OBP, 2 HR, 7 RBI, .604 OPS)

New addition to the DEAD TO ME list...Denny Bautista. Has pretty good stuff, but absolutely refuses to challenge hitters whatsoever. Will under no circumstances throw first pitch strikes. Until he starts going after hitters, he will no longer be mentioned on this thread. Just a complete waste of good stuff.

Complete joke of a game today..just inexcusably stupid by Burgos and Bell. Not worth my time to do a game recap today. Mark my words though, this is the beginning of a long downswing for us. I predict we won't win another game until we are 10-36. Mark it. This team has been playing pretty decent the past 3-4 weeks, but this series ended all that....noone playing hard, the manager seemingly doesn't care about winning enough to sit bad players and try to correct mistakes, and the pitchers are now refusing to challenge hitters whatsoever. Just a complete joke today and yesterday. Hopefully this is what leads to Baird being fired and hopefully Bell will be leaving with him.

Tough tough loss today...

I know Sisco has gotten hit hard at times but have they thought about putting him in as closer? Also, do you know when McDougal is expected back?

I can see them getting new a new manager etc.. soon

Sisco is not a closer..he's more of a candidate to be a starter in the future than a closer. MacDougal is anywhere from 1-2 months away....Burgos has done a pretty good job overall as closer..but the past couple times have been bad.

A new manager is also badly needed......

Commentary from rotowire.com (Jeff Erickson) below - this is from one week ago so not sure if Huber is still sitting on the bench.

One topic that's been gnawing at me has been the treatment of prospects once they get called up by their parent clubs, especially when their parent clubs are bottom-half teams. Take the Royals. Yes, I know I beat up on them a lot, and doing so can be as easy as taking candy from a baby (although that turned out to be not so easy), but they are just aching for someone to rip on them. I just have no patience for teams that make mealy-mouthed excuses as to why they can't win, when they consistently make stupid mistakes. The Pirates were the object of my scorn last week, but the Royals are in a universe to themselves in this category. If teams like Minnesota, Oakland, and Florida can have competitive teams at least occasionally, there's no reason for the Royals to have been so consistently awful. Did you know that they took in $60 million in revenue sharing last year? That's just astounding to me - no wonder the likes of George Steinbrenner and John Henry are so upset about the current collective bargaining agreement.

A microcosm of their ineptitude has been their handling of Justin Huber. They had Huber fall in their laps in what was actually a really good trade made by GM Allard Baird, after the Pirates insisted upon getting Jose Bautista when moving Kris Benson to the Mets in a trade-deadline deal in 2004. Bautista was a Rule 5 pick originally from the Pirates, who spent 2004 with the Orioles, Devil Rays and then the Royals (who got him for a nominal amount of cash from the Devil Rays). A knee injury helped force Huber to move from catching to playing first base, and he thrived offensively because of the move, slugging over .500 at both Double-A and Triple-A last year, as a 22-year old. In other words, he's a legitimate hitting prospect.

Instead of giving Huber the first base job to start the year, they went out and signed Doug Mientkiewicz, citing the need for Huber to work on his defense at Triple-A for at least half the season. They also signed Mark Grudzielanek, Reggie Sanders, Joe Mays and Scott Elarton, as part of their "win 70 games with crappy veterans" campaign. While that's heinous enough, that's not even the worst of their transgressions. When Mike Sweeney went on the DL (again) last week, they called up Huber. That seems perfectly sensible - it's a good chance to see what they have in Huber, who already had seven homers in Triple-A at the time of his callup. So in the week that he's been up, over seven games (as of Monday night), how many at-bats does he have? A whopping three, with only one start during that span. Even his token start was strange - with the Royals facing a lefty on the mound, Mientkiewicz was out of the lineup, but Huber was still used as the DH, rather than starting at first base. I wonder how they plan on getting him to work on his defense that way? Instead of playing Huber every day, they've been starting Mientkiewicz at first and 38-year old Matt Stairs as the DH. Even if Stairs does hit better right now, what's the point? How does that help them develop Huber and build a franchise? Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I don't see Sisco as a starter. Doesn't he throw pretty hard? I can't see him being able to go very long.

Yes.

Nothing more for me to say. Baird (our GM) wants him playing, but Bell wants to get veterans all of the playing time. Just retarded. Hopefully with our new GM comes a new manager at some point..and then our youth movement can REALLY start. We have the guys to keep on getting better...but not when our manager is gonna keep throwing out Matt Stairs in the lineup...etc. etc.







Ehhh..yeah, he throws kinda hard..but nothing too spectacularly hard. And no, he couldn't be a starter NOW, but the general line of thinking with him is that he will either be a lefty setup man for the rest of his career..which is okay, or we can put him back in the minors to build up a lot more arm strength and come back with KC as a starter. He has a good arm and is still really young (23) and was a starter for all of 2003 and 2004 in the minors in the Cubs organization before we got him...so he CAN go longer if we can get him in the minors to get his arm strength up. He throws hard..but not REALLY hard like a closer would...so hopefully at some point in the future we try to make him a starter...as we need as many starting prospects as we can get.