tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299040043346360552008-05-10T01:29:51.086-05:00Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-57876789970608636852008-05-09T16:16:00.002-05:002008-05-09T16:31:58.525-05:00

(As always, dissemination of the SNotD with attribution is welcome.) Despite a terrific start to his season, including a 1.25 ERA in his first five starts, Zack Greinke was not dominating opposing hitters in the strikeout category; he struck out no more than six batters in any of his starts, and more than four hitters just once. That all has changed in his last two starts. Last Thursday, The

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-10521076480828965012008-05-06T16:34:00.004-05:002008-05-06T18:28:51.296-05:00

Wherein I weigh in on some of the debates taking place in the comments section, while wondering why Barack Obama doesn't just end this thing by naming Joakim Soria as his running mate. Because no one closes the deal like Jack. - Should Soria have come in to pitch the 9th last night? I said no at the time, for the simple reason that he had pitched two nights in a row, and I really don't like

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-35966311408371104122008-05-05T23:08:00.002-05:002008-05-06T00:15:58.540-05:00

So it's come to this: the Royals start the longest homestand of the season by getting seven brilliant, shutout innings from their fifth starter...and it's completely wasted. For the fourth time in their last 23 games, the Royals were shut out. They've scored one run four times in that span, and two runs four times. Which means in 12 of their last 23 games, the Royals have been held to two runs

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-66853422184659345772008-05-03T18:06:00.002-05:002008-05-03T18:10:40.184-05:00

I had this idea of doing a summation of where the Royals stand at the end of each calendar month, only to find when I woke up yesterday that Sam Mellinger had pretty much the same idea. Which goes to prove that great minds think alike. Also, that Sam can be very annoying. (On the other hand, his take on the Bissinger mess was excellent. If you guys aren’t Buzzed out by now, I might give you

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-15475085827630333632008-05-01T13:08:00.003-05:002008-05-01T17:35:20.393-05:00

Sometimes, you sit down to write a column with an idea of where the column is going, only to find that the evidence veers you off course. You had an axe to grind, a vendetta to fulfill, but the data simply didn’t cooperate. What do you do? If you’re, I don’t know, Gerry Fraley or something, you just plow on ahead, logic and facts be damned. But the whole creed of sabermetrics is that you

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-75829191972065850562008-04-29T18:13:00.003-05:002008-04-29T18:28:51.826-05:00

I know there’s a lot of topics I should cover since we last spoke, but first things first. 129 pitches? Really? Even before the season began I was a little worried that Trey Hillman might bring with him, of all the philosophical differences between Japanese and American baseball, the one Japanese viewpoint that I disagree the most vehemently with: the cavalier attitude towards pitcher

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-34435875843875789312008-04-25T10:02:00.002-05:002008-04-25T12:20:45.898-05:00

The Royals sure know how to kill a buzz. Eight years ago, the Royals were the talk of baseball in early April. They started the season 8-3, the last three of those wins coming in succession on walk-off home runs, the last (by Rey Sanchez) provoking Denny Matthews' "What is going on?" call. They were tied for first place on April 13th, and spirits were high as they embarked on a nine-game road

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-74093756542641387012008-04-23T19:57:00.001-05:002008-04-23T19:59:11.967-05:00

Well, that really sucked. If there’s one weakness I have as an analyst – humor me here, I know I have a lot more than one – it’s that no matter how hard I try, I always give early season results more meaning than I should. This is a weakness that carries over into other areas of life as well – in any kind of debate I’m always inclined to agree with the last argument. I’m a little too

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-30344467915979559962008-04-22T00:41:00.004-05:002008-04-22T09:18:34.494-05:00

Well, that sucked. A sweep at the hand of the mighty A’s – don’t you ever get the feeling that Billy Beane exists purely to make life hell for Royals fans? – exposed the team’s gaping chest wound of a flaw for all the world to witness. Namely, the team can’t score runs, and if the starter has an off-day (like Friday), or the bullpen is less than perfect (like Saturday), or the defense lets a

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-37249309128235396292008-04-18T17:48:00.001-05:002008-04-18T17:49:42.500-05:00

My criticism of Hillman’s decision to pinch-hit for Gathright with Olivo has attracted a fair amount of response, not all of it positive. I stand by the point I made – that it was the wrong move to make – but dedicating an entire post to the move gave it a prominence that it didn’t really deserve. It was the wrong move, but it wasn’t an egregious one; it might have lowered the Royals’ chance of

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-57294315522670558782008-04-17T23:49:00.004-05:002008-04-18T00:18:11.363-05:00

Trey, Thanks for taking the time to read this. I know you're a busy man. I really love the way you use everyone on your roster. I really love the fact that you manage without fear, that you're willing to use your backup catcher as a DH, or the fact that even after you've pulled your starting center fielder earlier in the game, that you're willing to pinch-hit for his backup with the same

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-54557341259369382532008-04-16T13:53:00.001-05:002008-04-16T13:55:30.696-05:00

Like there was ever any doubt. There’s little to say about Dayton Moore that hasn’t been said before, and probably said by me before. But nearly two years after he was hired, it is undeniable that the day the Royals hit rock bottom was the day before they hired Moore. (True story: there was a rumor going around shortly before Moore was hired that the Royals were prepared to offer the GM

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-13307958478387766602008-04-15T15:15:00.003-05:002008-04-15T16:48:49.527-05:00

Updating y’all on our stat nugget from yesterday…the Royals have now allowed 33 runs in 13 games. Going back to 1982, here’s a list of every AL team which allowed 33 or fewer runs in its first 13 games: 26: 1988 Cleveland Indians, who finished 78-84, sixth in the AL East, and 8th in the league in runs allowed. 28: 1982 California Angels, who led the league in runs allowed and went 93-69,

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-77552312361404611962008-04-14T17:12:00.001-05:002008-04-14T17:15:19.479-05:00

(Every once in a while I will come across a statistic regarding the Royals that I think is worth sharing with a larger audience. While I post it here on my blog, I also welcome all of my media friends to disseminate this in their respective mediums; I only ask for proper attribution. So Sam, Bob, Joe, Jeff, my friends at 610 and 810 and elsewhere: feel free to use the Stat Nugget of the Day as

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-86262848637032208722008-04-12T21:49:00.003-05:002008-04-12T22:29:26.372-05:00

Who: The Kansas City Royals' offense. Last seen: April 10th, 2008, in the first inning. Twenty-six innings ago. Prime Suspect: Jose Guillen, who after he drove in Mark Teahen with a double was seen walking away with the team's offense handcuffed to his bat. Witnesses report seeing him holding the offense hostage on multiple occasions since: when he grounded into a double play in his following

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-14845490034058288362008-04-10T22:17:00.003-05:002008-04-10T23:17:02.380-05:00

A quickie today: - The Royals were due for a game like this, when the bats went silent and no amount of speed or manufacturing was going to change that. This ends a streak in which the Royals scored between 3 and 5 runs for eight straight games. According to my colleague Jason Pare at Baseball Prospectus, the Royals tied the longest such streak in their history: from April 14th to April 22nd,

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-52826231231007430142008-04-09T23:29:00.002-05:002008-04-09T23:35:23.544-05:00

Look, any team can start 3-0. And any team can start 6-2; the odds are about the same. (Using simple binomial theory, the odds that a .500 team will win its first three games is 1 in 8, or 12.5%. The odds that a .500 team will win at least six of its first eight games is 37 in 256, or 14.4%.) But in eight games, the Royals have surrendered 18 runs. They have surrendered more than four

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-82972752781622753882008-04-08T15:44:00.002-05:002008-04-08T17:13:18.438-05:00

Sorry for turning the lights out over here at RotR the last few days. That's going to happen every now and then in my line of work. Anyway, my friends over at Royals Review and Royals Authority have been busy keeping up with the plot lines over the past few days. To wit: - The bullpen is ridiculous. - The edict to take more walks has, um, been slow to sink in. The team went an entire series

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-53291956021032130702008-04-05T00:14:00.002-05:002008-04-05T00:19:34.543-05:00

We were going to lose eventually. It’s never fun to lose by one run, because you can always find half a dozen ways in which the game result turned on a split-second play or a questionable ball/strike call or a groundball with eyes. We beat the Tigers by one run on Opening Day, so call it even. And since the Tigers are more likely to be in the thick of the division race, so long as we’re all

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-34898170507460292672008-04-04T00:13:00.007-05:002008-04-04T00:30:01.432-05:00

(Thoughts on the Game(tm) is an unregistered trademark of Rany on the Royals. Any use of the term "Thoughts on the Game" without my express written consent will upset me greatly. There may even be tears.) Ahem. Three and oh. Five runs allowed in 29 innings, against one of the most feared offenses in baseball. Mark Grudzielanek is third in the league in batting average, Alex Gordon is tied

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-28887270633280051542008-04-03T00:01:00.003-05:002008-04-03T00:15:53.833-05:00

(I meant to get to this sooner, but the Royals have been distracting me with their winning ways. So go blame them.) I have no animosity toward Buddy Bell, and wish him well. He is, by all accounts, a decent and good man, devoted to his family, and there are a lot of star ballplayers you can’t say that about. I am happy he appears to have made a full recovery from throat cancer, and I hope he

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-32016620887568518482008-04-02T16:38:00.001-05:002008-04-02T16:39:56.307-05:00

It’s just two games. It means nothing. Tony Pena will not continue to bloop game-winning hits in extra innings. Brian Bannister will not go the entire season without allowing a runner to reach third base. Trey Hillman will not continue to get away with putting slow runners in motion with a low-contact guy at the plate to make something happen. (Yeah, Trey, you made something happen –

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-15637967902377446572008-04-01T16:18:00.002-05:002008-04-01T16:20:27.903-05:00

So…are we excited yet? One of these years the federal government is going to wise up and declare Opening Day a national holiday, but that’s of scant comfort given that my idiot of a boss would not give me yesterday off. My frustration is only slightly dimmed by the fact that I am self-employed. Somehow, once I got MLB.tv to work – which took until the fourth inning – I was able to steal

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-31556569576366075272008-03-31T00:15:00.005-05:002008-03-31T01:35:14.047-05:00

(With all due respect to the original speech, the words of which move me still, and I pray always will.) I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest miracle season for a sports team in the history of our nation. Two score years ago, a great American, whose name adorns the stadium in the shadow of which we sit for every home game, signed the Kansas City

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129904004334636055.post-7837616408942542322008-03-29T17:26:00.008-05:002008-03-29T17:49:25.200-05:00

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a friend I had not heard from in some time, a well-known national sportswriter - many of you would recognize his name, though you might not be aware he's a Royals fan. With his permission, I'd like to share it with you on the eve of Opening Day. "Rany, So it's like this... The night the Royals won the World Series, I was in XXXXX, attending graduate

Ranyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09713226276377020284noreply@blogger.com