Darrell May

Darrell May has not had a good season by anybody's standard. He's 9-15 with a 6.24 ERA. With that said, I respect him for two reasons.

1. After getting hit hard last night, he said. “I feel like I know what I'm doing out there, but the results are not there. I've been horrible. No excuses.” How often do you hear players take responsibility like this for a poor season with lame excuses? Of course, one could say that if he really took responsibility, he'd give some of the money back from the contract he signed during the off-season. That's not realistic though. Players are always playing, for the good or bad, for the next contract.

2. Several times this year May has looked distraught after giving up too many hits and runs. I like that. A guy could probably go overboard with it, but I don't think he has. He cares about pitching well and he cares about winning. I know it looks more professional to not show any emotion whether a player pitches well or poorly, but I'll take a guy who shows a little fire any day. It makes me feel for him during the bad times—like May is going through right now.

The Royals continue to talk about trading him to a team for the stretch run, which implies that he has cleared waivers. I hope it doesn't happen. As poorly as he has pitched, he has ability and he has pitched some great ball games for us—including this season.