And It Gets Worse

It wasn't Lima time. It was losing time. Again. And the worst month (4-21) in the history of Royals baseball is mercifully drawing to a close this afternoon. But we still have a full month to go and this team is looking worse fundamentally by the day. Listen to what Bell said after the game last night:

"Some of the things we do fundamentally, just the intangible stuff we do, is just incredible at this level," Bell is quoted on KCRoyals.com as saying. "I just have a hard time watching it sometimes." He went on to say, "It's never really a lack of effort or anything like that. It's a lack of instincts and things we should have learned a long time ago."

Bell is right…this is hard to watch, but at least he's getting paid to watch it. As fans, we are actually investing not only our money but also our time on a team that has become a punch line. And to build on Bell's last statement—why didn't these players learn fundamentals a long time ago? How is it that players can go through high school and college, play rookie ball, then play at least a limited amount of time in Double-A or Triple-A and still not understand fundamental baseball?

One such player is Emil Brown—a better than average hitter, but also a guy who looks clueless on the base paths. He didn't score last week from third with less than two outs on a ball hit to a first baseman who was playing back. He didn't even look like he knew if he was supposed to try to score or not. Last night he was thrown out on the base paths twice by the pitcher. Emil Brown isn't a young pup. How has he come this far without understanding how to run the bases?

For some reason, Bell seems to think that going to a 6-man rotation in September is a good way to "shake things up." He's adding Jimmy Gobble as the sixth starter and the rest of the league is probably shrugging and saying, "Let me at him." His ERA is 6.42. He gave up the three run shot that cost us the game last night. But somehow he's seen as the answer, or at least, an answer. I'm terribly afraid to ask what the question is.

This afternoon, the Royals send Mike Wood (4-5, 4.12) to the mound against Kyle Lohse (8-12, 4.32).