Eight Games Out Already?

This could be the longest season in Royals history. It's April 22nd and with the 8-2 loss at home against the White Sox tonight they are already eight games back. That almost doesn't seem possible. How can a team be eight games out of first after only seventeen games?

Beyond a number of already questionable managerial decisions, the Royals have major problems and there don't appear to be any fixes on the horizon. They are playing less than average defense. They haven't hit well. With a few exceptions, the starting pitchers have struggled—in seventeen games, they have only five quality starts, none of which have come from Jose Lima, the number one starter.

This is a young team that is going to make mistakes. We can all accept that. But the nonchalant attitudes are something we can't accept. We don't want to see flippant throws to first base. We don't want to see guys not running hard. And we don't want to see smiles after errors. At least I don't.

This isn't to take anything from the White Sox. They are in first place in the Central and they look like they deserve to be there. But the Royals line score tonight is unacceptable: 2 runs, 4 hits, 2 errors. They won't win many games posting numbers like this.

One thing I am happy about though—we don't hear the cheesy "believe" slogan on the radio. I don't even think Tony Pena believes any more.

The Royals declared that the Calvin Pickering experiment failed by sending him to Omaha and purchasing the contract of OF Matt Diaz who was hitting .373, 4 HR, 13 RBI in the PCL. How we are going to find time for another OF on the roster (he's number six) is anybody's guess.

The Royals moved Scott Sullivan to the 60-day DL.

Tomorrow night, Zack Greinke (0-1, 3.38) goes against Jose Contreras (0-0, 3.63). Let's hope that the Royals score more than their average 1.7 rpm when Greinke pitches this year.

I probably won't post again until Monday. I'm traveling to Kansas City tomorrow to catch the remaining games against the White Sox this weekend. I'll try to take photos and post them here next week.