The Conservative Cave
The Bar => Sports => Topic started by: franksolich on May 07, 2009, 09:12:42 AM
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http://www.kansascity.com/sports/royals/story/1183038.html
Oh yes.
Royals are whetting fans’ appetites
To review: The Royals win a wild, back-and-forth game at Minnesota in which they commit defensive mistake after base-running mistake after defensive mistake.
Then they win again in Minnesota in a game in which they were being no-hit into the seventh inning.
Then Zack Greinke continues his Pedro Martinez-circa-1999 routine.
And then the Royals beat the White Sox in a game in which KC’s starting pitcher gives up six runs in four innings and the Royals trail 4-0, 5-1 and 7-3.
Trey Hillman pointed out that Tuesday’s 11-inning win came in the Royals’ 15th consecutive game without a day off.
Nobody should or will ever feel sorry for professional baseball players having to — gasp — play baseball games every day, but Hillman does bring up a valid point.
This, my valued readers, is how a very interesting baseball summer begins. Some other observations:
•Coco Crisp was very leadoff, going one for two with four walks and two stolen bases. Incredibly, he did not score a single run.
According to Baseball Reference’s very cool Play Index, that has happened only 26 other times since 1954.
It’s an interesting list. Not every day you can find a set of criteria that pulls up only 26 names but includes Vince Coleman, Willie Bloomquist, Barry Bonds and Jeff Bagwell.
•Jamey Wright is proving to be a fantastic pickup. Guy struck out three in three scoreless innings made tougher by his defense, lowering his ERA to 1.45 while throwing — by far — the most innings of any reliever.
He came to Royals camp on a minor-league contract and is making $800,000 this year. That’s not far from what Kyle Farnsworth has made already this season.
Can’t imagine there are many offseason pickups making $800,000 or less who have made this kind of impact.
•We keep saying, along with lots of others, that Kyle Davies is a big key to the Royals’ season.
He is now 2-1 with a 5.88 ERA, and last September feels like a long time ago.
Taken as a whole, he’s been a bit disappointing. That’s been masked so far by Greinke’s brilliance and a good first three starts by Brian Bannister, but the truth is, the Royals need Davies to be better than this.
•Talked to Buddy Bell for a story I’m working on for the weekend. Here’s what he said about Greinke:
“It’s just an absolute thrill to watch him do what he’s doing. That’s why you get into coaching, to see (stuff) like that.â€.....