Kansas City Royals- Optimism to frustration posted by Keri Kemmerer

Once upon a time, not so long ago, Kansas City Royals fans had a sense of optimism.  Remember back to the time when we thought this was going to be our break out year.....oh about 2 or 3 months ago.  A lot has changed since that time.  Injury upon injurry, game after game filled with multiple errors, and of course the lack of offense.  Frustration has set in.  Why oh why do we keep wasting good pitching performances by only scoring one or two runs?  There are times where they boys in blue will get on base...but how many times have we seen them stranded, inning after inning, never crossing home plate?  There are so many questions and so many places to point fingers.  Come on Royals, just pull it together and play some baseball.Continue reading "Kansas City Royals- Optimism to frustration"

What a Meche that was! Royals 9, Indians 0 posted by Brad VanFossan

Cleveland Indians vs. Kansas City Royals Preview/Recap

By Brad VanFossan

Wednesday June 10, 2009

Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio

Carl Pavano vs. Gil Meche

My favorite Indian is on the hill tonight looking to help lead the Indians to three in a row and push the Royals a little further into last place. Tonight’s stats of the night going into the game: Pavano has struck out 56 hitters while walking only 15 in 72 innings pitched this season, and he has gone 6-1 with a 3.00 ERA since the end of April. To put that into perspective a bit, CC Sabathia has struck out 61 in 86 innings pitched while walking 27. Am I saying that Pavano > CC? No, not quite, but when looking at the stats, one thing is for sure, 1.5 million < 15.2 million. Ok, time for the game and any other random thoughts that might come along.

Here are some things* that caught my script “I”:

*These things can be anything I saw during the game, anything that was talked about during the game, or anything that came to mind today in the world of sports, the Indians, and everyday life. Again, here are those things:

-This fall from behind thing worked last night, so what the heck, why not try it tonight? The Royals strike first on a walk, single, and sacrifice, taking the lead 1-0 in the top of the 2nd.

-Shin-Soo Choo showed flashes of Roberto Clemente, nailing Tony Pena Jr. at home from right field with a laser of a throw that was an on the money, money ball.

-An idea for a new drinking game: guess the color of Jimmy Hanlin’s pants before Tee It Up Ohio and whatever you choose to drink at that point would be up to you. Maybe you could do a shot for each putt Mike Cairns misses too?

Indians give General Lee the support he's been wanting. Cleveland Indians 8, Kansas City Royals 4 posted by Brad VanFossan

Cleveland Indians vs. Kansas City Royals

Cliff Lee vs. Brian Bannister

Tuesday June 9, 2009

Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio

The Indians are looking to win their second straight series vs. a divisional opponent tonight. With a win tonight, the Indians can also leap frog KC and climb into 4th place in the A.L. Central and climb out of the basement, hopefully for good. Some things that I kept my “I” on:

-I’m liking the navy alternate jerseys at home.

-Jamey Carroll’s hit streak sits at seven, we’ll see if he can make it eight tonight.

-Well that was quick, it’s now at eight, not too shabby for a utility guy.

-Before I forget, I would like to send my condolences out to Matt Underwood and his family for the loss of his mother.

-am/pm went from a bad commercial to possibly a worse one with this guy asking for a cart in what looks like a Randall Cunningham throwback Eagles jersey minus the name and logo.

-I’m feeling a 7-2 homestand coming up, with a sweep over the Royals, and then taking 2 out of 3 from the Cardinals and Brewers.

-Miguel Olivo gives the Royals a 1-0 nothing lead with a solo shot in the top of the 3rd.

-KC adds another run on a single then stolen base by Willie Bloomquist, who would later score on an RBI triple from David DeJesus.

-Cliff Lee pitches an important scoreless fourth after giving up two in the 3rd, now it’s time for some run support.

-This might mark the first time in my 32 years that I’ve seen a pitcher take their shoe off and put it back on in the mound during the game. Cliff Lee had on black socks by the way…a fab five fan possibly? Nah, I would have to say the Razorbacks for sure, at least from the mid 90s.

The Indians Win and the Cavs lose? Who Wood believe it? posted by Brad VanFossan

Indians @ Royals, Wednesday May 20, 2009

Tonight I’m going to try to write as the game is being played, or at least during breaks, we’ll see. For starters, I just want to say in a non-Indians related rant, it pisses me off that Sean Elliott said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd today that he thinks the Magic have a better roster than the Cavs, yes I’m biased but c’mon! Seriously? I guess when you are Sean Elliott you have to say things like that for people to remember who you are. I tried to find if Sean Elliott was doing any NBA analysis for anyone, but came up empty.

It’s one thing when Charles Barkley picks the Magic, and even for him to make that pick is turrible Ernie! I think Sir Charles is jealous of Lebron, and will always be bitter that he is ringless, at least on his hand, maybe not so much on his phone. I’m sure his fave five are calling all the time for gambling advice and to find out if there are any cool new mixed drinks he would recommend. Ok, back to baseball.

Things that made me go wa-hoo…..or wa-who? During the game or throughout the day, or as I was writing this. Things can be good or bad:

-Another Grady Sizemore strikeout was the beginning to a horrible ending in the 1st inning as Victor lined out to Gil Meche who then doubled off AstroCab at 2nd to end the inning. Really? This kind of start goes perfect with last night’s end.

-Fausto is wild to start the game and where the hell is David Dellucci? Two effing games in a row now? Wtf Wedge? Don’t you know by now that Dellucci is the line to Jamey Carroll’s Mendoza?

Foutain seats for $7 still available at Kauffman Stadium tonight. I think. posted by Brad VanFossan

Cleveland Indians (14-26) @ Kansas City Royals (21-18)

Fausto Carmona (2-4, 5.70) vs. Gil Meche (2-4, 4.60)

Can it get much worse for the Indians after last night? I think I should just copy and paste that question to use for the rest of the season. The season may already be lost, but a loss tonight will definitely cement that. This is a crucial game for the Indians tonight, win and stay on life support, lose and it’s sleeping with the fishes and or Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates of the world.

Let me take that back, the Indians need to win this series to stay on life support, but on an emotional level, they need to win tonight to have the fight it’s going to take to not only compete with, but beat Zack Greinke, the 2009 version of the 2008 Cliff Lee. If there is anything that is certain this season besides that the Indians bullpen should have a biohazard logo opposite the Herb Score patch on their jerseys, it’s that the Grady Sizemore of 2006, and the Fausto Carmona of 2007 are not returing. The case has even gone cold on David Caruso.

That being said, I think six good innings of Carmona (gasp!) will be good enough to win tonight. This team isn’t going to lay down and die, at least not yet. I’m not a homer, I called the Royals to win last night, but tonight is a must win, maybe one of the few in the history of MLB in the month of May, but it is. I like the Indians tonight, Cleveland 6, Kansas City 4. Aaron Laffey might get another three inning save, but more than likely, we’ll see Kerry Wood get a shot at redemption.

Jensen Lewis is laughing on the inside. posted by Brad VanFossan

Royals 6, Indians 5.

Where do I begin? Can we say epic meltdown? Or is it not so epic when it has happened time and time again this season? Well I was wrong on some of my predictions, but possibly only one. The Indians did score some runs for Cliff Lee and they did score all of them while he was in the game. What I wasn’t wrong about, but looked like I was going to be for oh, say 8 1/3 innings was that the Royals were going to win. I’m thinking I might have been right in predicting Cliff Lee melting down too. Even though we didn’t witness it, my gut tells me while Jensen Lewis is laughing on the inside, Cliff Lee is losing it at the exact same time.

Ok, so I’m not saying I blame Wedge for bringing Wood in to close the game, I mean that’s what you do with a guy you’re paying 10 million a year and who hasn’t gotten much work this year. But I do have proof that I thought Cliff Lee had complete game stuff tonight and even suggested leaving him in. Here’s what I said on twitter during the game:

-Damn, despite what I just said, I think you gotta bring in Lee to finish this thing off.

-Ok, looks like Lee's night is over, that is ok too, but I think he was in a groove. KWood can mow 'em down in the 9th. (This edit I’m making right now: not so much.)

I’m not claiming to be a know it all, I’m just saying that I thought Lee was in a groove. He breezed through the 7th and 8th innings and appeared to only be getting stronger.

The Kansas City Royals are out of first place, but for how long? posted by Chris Smith

So over the weekend we saw the Royals lose their first place title, and the Tigers playing well is not an excuse.  We went from 7 games over .500 to 2 over and I am sure most Royals fans thought "Oh no here we go now, the Royals are back to their old ways".  Royals fans, no it was not, but I admit I did think it for a little while, we still saw things you would have not seen last year. 

Zack was good once again, and some say he was not great, but what do you expect when you have to sit around for almonst three hours before you were supposed to pitch and then play into the next morning.  We saw comebacks that you did not see from the past years, and we finally saw a good bullpen, which we all know its been a while for that one.  Jose Guillen is hitting, we are seeing home runs, and small ball, what a great squeeze play that was, especially when the Orioles announcers said they would be crazy to try that two times in a row.

So Royals fans will we keep looking up and moving up in the win column.

GO K.C.

The Red Sox, the Blue Jays, and the LA Dodgers -- The Teams to Beat posted by HankHillRedsox

Okay, so what do the Boston Red Sox, the LA Dodgers, and the Toronto Blue Jays have in common? Right now these three teams have the biggest leads in the division with the Red Sox trailing Toronto by only 1/2 game. This interesting threesome has the MLB all turned around: we have Seattle in first; Oakland, who is supposed to be awesome, in last place. The Kansas City Royals are in first place…let me repeat that, the KC Royals and Cleveland, who I picked to go to the playoffs, are in last place. You have Florida giving NY (Mets) and Philly a run for their money. (But the Mets are going on a run of their own which, I believe, was expected.) And finally, we have St. Louis in first because A. Puljuos is on fire, and where is Chicago? But, as every die-hard Red Sox fan knows, this is just the beginning of the baseball season and things can and will change. But right now the Red Sox are amazing. Bay has been single-handedly winning games for the team; he just kills the ball. And we cannot overlook the fact that Dice and Youk have been out, and Beckett and Ortiz have been off. When everyone is up to speed we are going to be the team to beat.  Dice-K is supposed to be back in about a week; Youk is supposed to be ready for Wednesday's game. And last night I think I saw Ortiz starting to come around, and Beckett won't be off for long. So get ready for an intense baseball season. Sox Nation rules. Continue reading "The Red Sox, the Blue Jays, and the ..."

Breaking down your 2009 Red Sox (in context) posted by Charles Bisbee

The Sox are going to have a difficult time making the playoffs this year. I’m no sucker for the Jays quick start (they’ll start to slip once they deal Roy Hallady and realize Marco Scutaro is starting at shortstop) but I think the rest of the American League is better than most pundits allow.

The Royals are a dangerous team based not only upon the promise of their pitching (will Zack Greinke lose a game this year?) but also upon an underappreciated lineup that is dynamic at the top. Coco Crisp has reverted to his pesky former-self (he leads baseball with 4 triples). Alberto Callaspo, currently hitting a robust .378, follows in the two-hole and, if Jose Guillen, Alex Gordon and Billy Butler can at least hit their weight, Kansas City should challenge Detroit atop the under-appreciated AL Central.

Don’t sleep on the AL West either, where the Mariners pitch enough and field well enough to make up for a gawd-awful lineup. Ditto the Angels who, once Vlad returns, should muster enough O to put up a fight. The entire division, in fact, has potential. And if the Rays taught us anything last year, its that any team with legitimate talent can do serious damage given a little luck and some realized potential.

I see a lot of potential Rays throughout the American League this year. I really think if the Sox don’t take the division from the Yanks (or Rays, for that matter) they could be on the outside looking in come October. 

MLB's Top Five Bullpens posted by John Frascella

In this chapter, one focused on the bullpens, things are a little on the hazy side. What I mean by that is, evaluating a bullpen isn't an exact science like evaluating an infield, where the positions are first base, second base, third base, shortstop, and catcher. With a bullpen there are long men, middle relievers, setup men, and closers, but those roles are utilized and defined differently by each major league club, with the sole exception being closer.

When I ranked the bullpens using my personal mathematical system, I factored in each team's top five relievers, leaving out the final two spots because some teams carry six bullpen arms, while others may carry seven. In addition, the back-of-the-bully type guys have a tendency to change due to a lack of effectiveness and subsequent AAA or AA call ups. 

That said, here's the shakedown:

5-(Tie) Boston Red Sox: Justin Masterson (or Manny Delcarmen), Ramon Ramirez, Takashi Saito, Hideki Okajima, and Jonathan Papelbon.

and Kansas City Royals: Robinson Tejeda, Ron Mahay, Juan Cruz, Kyle Farnsworth, and Joakim Soria.

If you've been keeping up with my posts -- and if you have, I'm thankful but shocked -- then you know that this is the first tie to appear in the rankings. The reason for the tie is when I initially rated the bullpens it seemed that Justin Masterson would be one of the key cogs for Boston, but now there is speculation that he may (at the very least) begin the season as a starter in lieu of complications with both Brad Penny and John Smoltz.

Personally, I'm not a huge Masterson fan, but I can't argue with the success he had after moving from the rotation to the bullpen in '08. If he's not out there this season, Boston's relief core loses a little punch.

Royals send scuffling RHP Davies to minors

The Kansas City Royals have sent struggling right-hander Kyle Davies to Triple-A Omaha and activated reliever Robinson Tejeda off the 15-day disabled list.The Royals announced the moves on Saturday before their game against the St. Louis Cardinals.Davis (3-7, 5.67 ERA) finished strong in 2008 and had a solid start to this season, but has struggled recently with one win in nine starts. He allowed eight runs and nine hits in just 2 2-3 innings in a 10-5 loss to St. Louis on Friday night. [read full article]

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