Still Hanging Around

Another solid stretch in the books for the boys and blue. They are playing great ball at home, and bounced back nicely from a 6 game road slide. I’m very pleased with the start to this season. Oh, and Kyle Davies is terrible at baseball.


I want to jump right in to a couple reader comments…

Kneedlez – I agree completely with you about the makeup of the Central. The Twins pitching is very shoddy right now. Liriano’s 6 BB no hitter aside – there should be an asterisk by that for that many walks. Mauer is having leg/health issues – I still think that guy should just DH or move to 1B when Morneau leaves. No reason to beat up his body behind the plate. On second thought, they should leave him behind the plate and have him play every game, especially double headers – that guy scares me. I think Chicago is in for a rough couple years unless Kenny boy can make some stealthy moves, he has a tendency to do that. Detroit has old bats but nice young arms, that team needs an offensive overhaul. Cleveland is playing amazing right now but there pitching can’t hold up like this. No way, no how. Masterson and Tomlin? These guys are pitching out of their minds. Reminds me of when Banny had a 4-0 start a couple years ago and he was a lock for our #2 starter for years to come. Indians will fall off – but Minnesota is still the team to beat until someone beats them. Kneedlez also expressed concerns about Escobar’s bat – which is very fair considering his .513 OPS right now. That is really bad. I still think he’ll get that up to at least .650 this year, which is acceptable with his amazing glove. If he can just OPS at .700, then he is a very good ML shortstop. His glove has been insanely good. Two errors in 30 games – and one of those errors was a Betemit blunder at 1B. It’s still early, but he is playing like he wants some hardware this year.

Kelvin – I agreed with your comments about Kila when you made them and I still do to an extent. However, there is a problem for Kila. That problem is Eric Hosmer and his domination of AAA baseball. Hosmer has a current slash line of .439/.525/.582. He has a K:BB ration of 19:16. He has 7 multi-hit games in his last 10. He is just terrorizing that league. That being said, I’m not ready to bring him up. I’ve had some good debates with some fellow fans about Hosmer. I still want him in AAA for a while – the obvious reason is for service time and hoping to avoid super 2 status. It’s clear that Hosmer is going to be a star, and I am perfectly fine with playing the service time game with him. Sorry, Eric – its business. That being said, if he has crazy numbers come late June, it’s going to be nut-cutting time for Kila. The other big problem for Kila right now is that Yost has lost confidence in him. His playing time is being cut into by Wilson Betemit (and it should). Also - the other night, there were runners on the corners with one out in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth. All you need is a sac fly. Chris Getz is at the plate and Kila is on the bench. Chris Getz hits about 5 fly ball outs a year so naturally you’d pinch hit Kila to get a fly ball and win the game, right? No, Yost left in Getz and he hit a weak chopper to 1st. That had to hurt Kila that his coach wouldn’t even put him in for a routine fly ball. I’m worried about his confidence. I’ve always been a big Kila supporter, readers know that. However, the problem for Kila is that he just reached 300 plate appearances (PA’s) over the past two seasons. That is a decent sample size, not a great one, but decent. His line is .210/.303/.370. So, Kila cannot blame anyone but himself. He has stepped into the box 300 times and every one of those times is an opportunity to prove something. He just hasn’t done it. I hope something clicks in the next few weeks and he starts to play better ball. However, even if he does – you know Hosmer is here by September at the LATEST. Maybe he can increase his trade value in the next couple months, but I think there is a 5% chance he is on our team next year. Therefore, his clock is very limited and may be time to look at other pieces to the puzzle, like WILSON!...


Wilson Betemit has been a huge lift for our offense up to this point in the year. This guy was a great surprise last year and is proving that last year was no fluke. Betemit was once a very high rated prospect with the Atlanta Braves (yes, Dayton loves his former Braves). He had some health issues and bounced around but now seems to be finding his groove as a UT player. You see, Wilson has pretty shoddy knees and he just can’t play 3B for 160 games a year. That’s ok, we don’t need him too. I love the way Yost uses Betemit. Wilson seems to be ok with it, too. With his knees, he's probably good with playing 4-5 games a week and picking good matchups. Hell, what's wrong with that. It’s puts him in the best position to succeed, which makes him much more effective as a UT. He’s like Ross Gload, except he doesn’t suck at life.

In 410 PA's with the Royals he has an OPS of .882. Obviously, something has clicked with him because he is playing at a very high level for us. Some people have said we should cash in a trade him when he is playing this well. I disagree. At his age and health history, no one is going to give up a top 10 prospect in their system for him. Therefore, you are going to get a guy with a 5% chance of making it to the pros. Why give up a guy who can clearly hit the ball at the major league level for that?

Just keep him and use him the way we are now. If he finishes this year with an OPS over .800 and doesn't break down, then give him a 2 yr/$6M. I would work in a $750K buyout clause after year 1 and a $3.5M club option for year 3. This keeps him around as a UT that gets 300-400 PA's a year and we can afford that contract. I want to see more blood soaked Wilson volleyballs out at the K, like now. Someone makes this happen.


Ok, I want to talk about Jeff Francoeur. Some fellow fans have been baiting me lately about my knock on Frenchy in my last post. The main culprit is my brother, Q-Dart, who has taken a shine to Frenchy and his fun-loving attitude and gritty baseball style. Well, I’m afraid I’m slowly becoming an old baseball curmudgeon and little Q still has the zest for life that only a college student can possess. Has my aging, jaded view on the game kept me from enjoying this feisty player who is knocking the ball all around the park right now? Maybe. Or maybe it’s that in 3443 PA’s before this year, Jeff got on base 31% of the time. Or maybe it’s because he is known for torrid April starts, or that he only hits LHP... Though maybe, just maybe ol’ Seitzer has found something. I’ve obviously liked what I’ve seen about Francoeur to this point and I hope it continues. He will not become a .950 OPS player like his is playing right now, but maybe he can settle in around .280/.330/.480 and play stellar defense (a given) and be a great clubhouse presence (a given). When we signed Francoeur, I didn’t flip out like others in the blogosphere because it was only a one year deal. It’s hard to get livid about one year deals in baseball. I just don’t want people telling me we should lock up Francoeur to a 4 or 5 year deal. Hold your horses – there is a lot of baseball left to level off this start. That being said – I’m catching “Frenchy Fever”.


A couple other quick hitters…

Aviles has rebounded nicely from his slow start. People were calling for his head, but now love him again. Royals fans need to understand that Mike is very, very streaky. Sometimes he’ll look awful up there, sometimes he just plugs gaps with his eyes closed. Bottom line – you have to love that bat flip. No one looks more bad ass in the box than Mike. I still try to recreate that bat flip on the softball diamond, which is extremely pathetic.

I can’t wait to read this one morning on the interweb: Royals selected the contract of LHP Danny Duffy from Omaha (PCL). Released RHP Kyle Davies. Duffy is killing it at AAA. He really struggles in Spring Training, but he should be in the rotation this summer.

It’s fun having a dangerous Alex Gordon. He looks really good at the plate. Can’t wait until pitchers start working around him more and increasing his walk rate. More runners for Billy and company.

Our bullpen is nasty. 26 straight scoreless innings. All we need is for Timmy Collins to quit walking one guy per inning and we’ll be in great shape. Hat tip to Blake Wood for working out of some nasty spots last week. He is building confidence and getting some nice strikeouts with men on base.

The Royals are 2nd in the AL in runs. When our lineup is Aviles, Cabrera, Gordon, Butler, Francoeur, Betemit - that is a pretty good 1-6 right now. Seriously.

My favorite development so far: Jake Odorizzi. This is the 20 year old arm we got in the Greinke trade - he was Milwaukee's #1 pitching prospect. In high A ball, he is 2-0 with a 2.42 ERA. In 5 starts he has never given up more than 2 runs. He has 38 K and 5 BB through 26 innings. Very good numbers. He should be in AA soon. Aside from Crow - he is our #1 RHP prospect.


Exit Question: Ok, let’s hear your take on your Hosmer promotion date?