WTG Soria as the early clear-cut favorite for the Royal's rep at the All-Star game. I've loved him since he has came up and I hope he won't be the next "star" of our team that has a short stint in KC. Miguel Olivo as our power guy? Oh really??

At this rate, Greinke is a good candidate too. It's early though...and I don't really like the All-Star game anyways.....doesn't matter to me who goes. Rotation is looking pretty good for the forseeable future.....especially if Greinke really emerges as the ace he can be. Hard to believe he's still only 24 as long as he's been around.

Really it's only a 7 inning game because Nunez dominates the 8th inning except for that 1 blow-up against Toronto. Meche for 7, Nunez and Soria wrap it up. Amazing.

Who says they only have to have 1 in the All-Star game? Greinke and Soria both deserve to go right now and because they're pitchers they're not subject to the idiotic fan vote.

No chance two Royals get picked. Too many other good "names" in the league.

Agreed. Think how long it's been since there was more than 1 Royal invited to the All-Star Game. I have no idea, but I'd be willing to guess 15+ years.

In 2003 they had both Sweeney and MacDougal......MacDougal got off to a ridiculous start that year....

Yeah, I forgot about ol' Mike MacDougal having a good half a season before he got hurt. My favorite Royals all-star in the most recent past has to be Ken Harvey in his only real year in the big leagues.

Edit: And I just looked and Jermaine Dye and Sweeney both went in 2000, too.....so, obv. my guess went to shit real fast!

No Royals All-Star discussion is complete until Mark Redman is mentioned.

I'm gonna go cry now.

LOL, very true. At least we won't be embarassed by whoever gets sent this year, imo.

Blah. What a waste of a good start by Tomko. I guess it's one of the few times this year the bullpen has let us down, so I guess I'll take it in stride.

Yeah, the bullpen can't be perfect. Man, this division is just begging for someone to take control of it....and if weren't for us having the worst offense in baseball we might be in the lead right now. Outside of a couple blowouts, the pitching has been outstanding and should keep getting better as we have a lot of good prospects in the system....but man we gotta get someone who can swing a bat. We have a couple young bats that should develop into impact bats......but man we are the absolute worst right now. I've never seen an offense this bad. We've had the same hitting coach for 2+ years now and we've gotten worse and worse offensively.....time to make a change. It won't "fix" the offense, but we gotta do something...this is just embarrassing.

Yeah, I was hoping this would be the take-off year for Gordon. He showed flashes the first few weeks of the season, but he's kinda leveled off as of late, it seems. One thing hurting us is Guillen was brought in to be a good bat for us in the lineup and he's been far less than expected in that aspect. I'm just hoping the offense does enough this year to at least make July, August, & (GASP) September exciting baseball to watch, for a change.

The Royals offense is the worst offense I've ever seen. All these schoolgirls get so scared at the plate when a runner is on base. Simply pathetic, these pre-teens bitc&es ought to be ahsamed of themselves. 3.3 runs per game over 32 games now....just pathetic.

The Jose Guillen signing is looking awful.

This team has no hope unless Butler and Gordon hit like stars. And I dont think that will happen any time soon.

Guillen is definitely way overpaid. His numbers will be there in the end, but definitely overpaid.

Gordon has been hitting a TON of hard outs lately...he'll be fine. I've never seen a hitter hit so many absolutely crushed line drives right at an outfielder in my life...pretty surreal.

Butler, on the other hand, is struggling..but did look better yesterday.

The offense will come around, the exact same thing happened last year...couldn't score worth a $hit in April and most of May..then got hot for a while. We'll be fine and win 75ish games...we're still only 2.5 games out despite the offense.....so I wouldn't say we have no hope..every team in the AL Central looks like they could be in for a long summer if they don't fix something soon.

Teahen sucks. I can't take it when he comes up this year with RISP, I just know he's going to swing right through a fastball down the middle for a K. It's his 4th year in the league and his numbers suck (.271 avg. 1 HR 8 RBI .353 OBP .381 SLG) Gordon is better in every catagory except OBP (.346 so barely). I think that the position change has affected him at the plate severely, and I'm not sure its going to get better any time soon. I don't remember a player who swings and misses as much as he does that didn't hit 20+ HRs. BTW I like Teahen, seems like a great guy, I just think he's never going to amount to anything other than an OK utilityman.

Teahen needs to batting 8th or 9th...he's a good OBP guy and nothing else. He is a terrible, awful, horrible middle of the lineup hitter. His approach is simply to try and get on base.....he's a singles hitter in a power hitters body.

Nice to see a good outburst tonight though. Gordon and DDJ with bombs.

Great outing last night. Gordon's bomb was a sweet no-doubter. And dare I say it? Could Guillen be busting out? Doubles down each line in a 3 for 3 performance.

I don't think it's quite time to be so harsh on the kid. He's still only 26 and has played a very good outfield. I agree he should be towards the bottom of the lineup (i'd say 6th or 7th), but I could still see him coming around to being a solid 5-hole some day.

I am glad my O's know how to beat somebody. Tied for the longest winning streak for any team against any other team with 10 in a row vs KC.

Ugh, such a frustrating game to watch tonight. Alex Gordon is quickly becoming 75% of our total offense. So gross. Can we hit into a few more double plays in key spots please??

Bannister pitched a gem the yesterday, more of that please. In other news Carlos Rosa has been promoted to AAA Omaha. McClure stated in spring training that he thought Rosa and Greinke had the best fastballs in the organization, so the fact that Rosa has dominated AA, and is only 1 step away from the bigs is somewhat exciting.

I liked the Teahen at the 2 spot in the order experiment the other day, much better there then 3/4/5/6.

1/4 from the Orioles who'd lost 5 straight coming in....ouch.

We have quite a few pretty good pitching prospects at various levels...there is gonna be an AWFUL lot of competition for the #5 spot coming out of ST next year...Greinke, Bannister, Meche, and Hochevar look like locks for the rotation for the next three years at least (of course you never know what could happen)....gonna be Rosa, Davies, talks of MAYBE trying Soria as a starter...guys like Cortes and Pimentel behind them..not even mentioning any potential FA arms that might be brought in...all for one spot.

On the offensive side...not a whole lot in the system...Lubanski is doing okay in AAA..Moustakas in A-ball....gonna need Gordon and Butler to keep developing..Buck is a nice catcher...Guillen is getting hot now....but the offense is just way way way too inconsistent to contend this year....hopefully they will just get better. I still say 75 wins this year...which would be a nice improvement and maybe even good for 3rd the way this division is going.

..and yeah, Teahen needs to be hitting 2nd or 7th I think. He is absolutely awful at 3-6. He simply doesn't hit for any kind of power anymore...it seems like anyways. He's tough to figure out...one day he'll look like he's driving the ball and has the best plate approach in MLB, and then for the next week he'll look like he's a 6'3" slap hitter who can barely get the ball out of the infield. He needs to step it up if he wants to stay in KC...because people are becoming more and more aware that his 06 was just a fluke and he really isn't a very good hitter for a corner outfielder..........

Good win tonight. Offense hit into some tough luck and still managed to get 12 hits....still just barely getting by though. The pitching, on the other hand, holds strong. Six good innings from Greinke despite not having his good stuff tonight...the bullpen was lights out again. Joakim Soria is just unreal. Automatic. 3 games back in the division. Good that we haven't buried ourselves already.

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gg

Wonder which version of Verlander will show up tonight?

I will suspect it will be the 1-6 Verlander.

Hernandez has no idea what the hell is wrong with his entire staff, he says he has theories but he will keep them secret which I take as "I have no idea, I am as confused as anyone, let's go get a cheeseburger".

We'll see. Our pathetic offense has a habit of making terrible pitchers look golden...we made Robertson look pretty good for seven innings. Sucks to know that if we had even a slightly below-average offense we might be leading the division right now. Crazy AL Central so far...I think the Indians will be the ones to get hot and run away with it eventually.

Joakim Soria...omg so filthy.

Gil Meche for the sweep tomorrow afternoon. The offense still can't put it altogether....but only 2.5 back in the division and you have to think the offense will get hot at some point. We'll see.

I agree with the Indians. If they can get their bat going then it's all over.


Well you are going to have to get through our Ace Kenny Rogers to do that. Tee hee heee

I don't mean that if we had close to a league average offense we'd win the division, just that we'd probably be in 1st right now b/c of everyone else struggling.

Any pitcher can dominate this offense right now....so a sweep is far from guaranteed. Gil has struggled so far this year, so we'll see what happens.

3-0 in the first.

I am just so baffled by all of this. So baffled. At least I have the Wings and Pistons to keep me occupied as the Tigers crap it up across the country.

19-21 now. The Kansas City Royals are not that bad. The pitching remains strong and the offense is starting to get a LITTLE better. Guillen is coming around...Gordon's decent. Farm from a good offense, but if it can just improve a little bit, we might just flirt with .500 for a while.

Time for a massive 11-game road trip against some decent teams (Florida, Boston and Toronto). This will say quite a bit about the team. If they can finish this trip off and still be within shouting distance of .500 then that could give them the confidence to have a pretty good season.

I'd be happy with 5-6 on the road trip.

I'd be happy if my team didn't SUCK!!!

I will say after watching KC in this past series, this team has great potential. The pitching looks really good and the offense could be decent. Soria is sick. GL the rest of the way.

Offense might be decent by next year....this year they are just way too inconsistent..but they have been slightly better lately.

The Tigers will recover at some point..at least offensively. It sure doesn't look like it now..but unfortunately, that's just how baseball is sometimes.

Got to love yet another intentional walk of Tona Pena, Jr. I guess the Marlins haven't seen any film of his at-bats. I wouldn't walk him even to get to the pitcher.

Bullpen shaky tonight..but Royals hold on for the 7-6 win to start the road trip. One game under .500, 1.5 back in the division..it's only May...but way better than we are used to. Hopefully the offense can get rolling a little bit........

Tampa Bay Rays with the best overall record in the AL......the Royals 1.5 games out of the 1st in the central.....Yankees last in the East and w/ the 3rd worst record in the AL......yeah, I'd say it's still kinda early in the season. but, obv. it's fun to watch as I do think these young Royals could develop into a contender in a few years if the front office doesn't find a way to screw it up.

Yeah..it's kinda early...but 41 games in...nearly a .500 record.............I think it's safe to say we're at least a semi-decent team......I don't think we're legit contenders this year, but we might be able to hang around for a while with our pitching.

As for when we are going to be legit contenders for the division.......well, Cleveland will very likely be losing CC next year and their offense all of a sudden has some question marks in it.....Detroit looks like garbage (not that it will necessarily stay that way), Minny is kinda meh...I think the ChiSox are in trouble eventually this year and for the forseeable future.........in '09, I could see it being anyone's division..and with our pitching only getting better over the next few years and hopefully some of our younger bats getting better...and with some money to spend in the offseason..who knows, we may be legit contenders next season. We'll see if Gordon and Butler can keep developing....if Guillen can prove to be a good bat.....if we can pick up another bat in the offseason perhaps. We need a lot of young guys to keep developing this year...but things are looking pretty good, finally.

Looks like Soria will be a Royal for a good long while.

Soria Signs Multi-Year Deal

3 years guaranteed with 3 club option years, starting next year. He could be here thru 2014.

It's a good sign that maybe the ownership will start locking up these good young players and won't let them get away (Beltran Damon etc.) I'd really like to get Greinke signed soon.

Let's keep those bats coming around. Guillen on a tear currently, with the bat, leading the league in doubles after a horrible start. Teahan showed a little rare power today. Good pitching, yet again. 1 game under .500 1/4 of the way through the season. Yep, my interest is definately peaked now.

If we can just maintain a hot offense for a while.....we can hang around in this division. I thought the Indians were getting ready to run away with it, but now they are in a funk. I have no faith in the ChiSox this year...I don't think their pitching is all that good and their offense is an aging one...I think we can easily catch them. I still think the Indians will run away with it....but the longer they let us and the Twins hang around....you never know what can happen.

Either way, good to see some offense, good to see a young player get signed to an extension, good to see Greinke keep rolling.....things are definitely looking up.

I'm pretty worried about Hochevar's next start in Boston..he's issued a lot of walks so far and that will kill him against Boston. When he throws strikes he is extremely effective because his fast ball has magnificent movement...but all that movement causes him to lose control sometimes. I have faith he will learn to control it a bit better..he has had only 7 or 8 major league starts....but for tomorrow....I think he could be in trouble. Hope he proves me wrong.

I didn't know Buck was out all weekend until I saw it today. He might not have a job after Olivo's nice weekend against his old team. Man, were the Florida announcers mad after Olivo's bomb Friday. They had just said you can't throw him a fastball here again and BOOM.

Good to see some patience out of the Royals with 13 walks this weekend. Something that had certainly been lacking previously.

What a crazy league. The Yankees, Tigers and Seattle are the only teams in the AL more than 1 game below .500.

4 games at Boston and then 4 at Toronto. Let's keep it rolling.

Buck's job is safe because he handles our pitchers VERY well..and that is very important to Hillman/Moore....and Buck's not a terrible hitter either for a catcher...11th in OPS among catchers last year. Yeah, Olivo is hot and I want him to get ABs (especially against LHPs), but once Buck comes back..Olivo will go back to catching just once or twice a week and being our DH regularly. Olivo will get his ABs...but Buck is the starter for a while. He's pretty solid...Olivo's career numbers and numbers last year aren't very good.....he's older...I'll enjoy the hot streak while it lasts, but he'll come back to Earth soon enough. He does crush lefties though..so no matter what, he has value.

The plate discipline was great this week...we need to carry that throughout the entire season. We aren't gonna hit a ton of HRs, so we need as many baserunners as we can get.

I have a random player question Koop:

What is the status of Luke Hochevar? Considering the whole fiasco between him/Boras and the Dodgers, I have always kept some interest in him. By his minor league stats, it doesn't look like he is progressing like people thought, but I don't follow the Royals nearly close enough to know what the deal with him is.

EDIT: Actually taking a closer look, he's made 4 starts for you guys this year, so I assume he's up in the rotation now? How has he looked?

Hochevar has made 6 or 7 starts I believe. His fastball has amazing movement...but he has control problems....tonight is the first night it has really hurt him though. He's looked pretty good...just has to get his control a little better...which certainly isn't unusual for a young pitcher. He's in the rotation for good.



LOL, we got no-hit tonight. The offense had been much better lately, but definitely not tonight, lol. Oh well...21-23 record, I ain't gonna complain about that while we develop these young players. Hopefully can bounce back tomorrow....6-2 over our last 8 games...hopefully we can avoid a skid.

GG Lester

We certainly are playing bad so far in this Boston series.....but my GOD we've had a lot of hard hit outs in this 2nd game so far.............I've counted 5 lineouts directly at a fielder already..and it's only the 5th inning. Bad play and bad luck...not a good combo.