Royals Mulling Draft Options

Joe Posnanski has a great article in the Star today about the Royals' options regarding the draft tomorrow. Everybody expects them to pick Andrew Miller—a tall, slender lefty, who throws a 96 mph fastball and a wicked slider. But the Royals are also considering Brad Lincoln from Houston who is known to be a consistent performer and "more polished." And they are still thinking about Luke Hochevar, the Scott Boras client—that's all you need to know about Hochevar.

According to Ryan Lefebvre's pre-game interview yesterday with Derek Ladnier, the Royals Senior Director of Scouting, the Royals are also considering Tim Lincecum out of Washington. According to Ladnier, Lincecum throws 98 mph, but he's struggling with his command a little right now. The Baseball America website lists Lincecum as having the best fastball in the entire draft as well as having the best command in college, and it proclaims him to be the "closest to majors."

The wildcard in the draft for the Royals, who have the first pick, is Drew Stubbs, an outfielder from Texas. Here's what the UT website says about Stubbs: "a five-tool player who can not only hit for both power and average, but also possesses tremendous speed and a plus outfield throwing arm…expected to be UT’s starting center fielder for a third straight year in 2006." Baseball America's website lists Stubbs as the best college athlete, the second fastest college baserunner, the third best college arm, and the best college defensive player.

We'll find out what happens tomorrow.

Royals Going for Split in Seattle

The Royals got off to a slow start in Seattle, dropping the first two games of the series 4-0 and 12-1. Seth Etherton was awful in his second start for the Royals (in the 12-0 loss) and we were down 7-0 after the third inning as a result.

The Royals bounced back yesterday and picked up a 9-4 in Seattle and put themselves in a position to get a series split tonight and to go 5-5 on the road trip. If it happens, you've got to feel pretty good considering how atrocious we've been on the road this season.

Mark Redman didn't exactly pitch well yesterday, but well enough to put us in a position to win. He gave up 4 ER in 5.2 IP. And he walked three guys. But he left the game with the Royals leading 9-4. Redman was helped by a two-run home run by John Buck, a solo shot by Emil Brown, and three RBIs by Reggie Sanders. In fact, everybody in the lineup had at least one hit and five guys (DeJesus, Grudzielanek, Sanders, Brown, and Teahen) had two hits.

Elmer Dessens was outstanding in relief, going the final 3.1 innings without giving up any hits or runs. He picked up a save for his efforts and he saw his ERA drop to 4.02. Dessens effort will surely help an already weary bullpen. The Royals won't get another day off until June 19.

The Royals send Mike Wood (3-0, 5.12) to the mound tonight against Gil Meche (4-4, 4.87).

Berroa Walk Watch (the quest for double digits): Angel Berroa shocked the world by picking up another walk this series and now has 3 in 51 games.

Odds n' Ends

How about Greinke throwing five innings in Wichita the other night and only giving up one run? His mechanics were reportedly "the best he's ever had." His fastball was clocked at 94 mph. And his curve ball broke a ton. All of which is highly encouraging. Let's hope that he can keep it going.

Mark Teahen hit his way back into the major leagues. He hit .387, with 2 HR, and 14 RBI in 23 games from Omaha. Hopefully the confidence he gained there will translate into higher output at the major league level. Unfortunately, Teahen's return to Kansas City led to Andres Blanco's return to Omaha. I liked having somebody to push Berroa a little for playing time. Hopefully we'll see Blanco again soon.

Denny Bautista has already been moved to the bullpen after seven unsuccessful starts. He was 0-2 with a 5.63 ERA. The real issue was his control. He walked 16 batters in 32 innings. He also hit four guys. As much as I understand where the Royals are coming from in the decision to move Bautista to the pen, I disagree with them. If we believe that Bautista is part of the future, then you have to allow him time to grow into the role of a starter. He's only has 19 career starts. He needs more time.

RR Poll #2

Here are the final results of Royal Reflections Poll #2. The question was: "What Should the Royals do with Alex Gordon?"

50.0% (9 votes): Leave him in Double-A all season
33.3% (6 votes): Bring him up to KC in September
11.1% (2 votes): Bring him up to KC after the break
5.6% (1 vote): Bring him up to KC now

A new poll will be up shortly.

Greinke Returns

All eyes will be on Wichita tonight as Zack Greinke makes his first start of the season. Frank White says that Greinke will be on a 65-70 pitch limit. And it sounds like he'll be there for more than one start. According to this article, he can only be in Wichita for 20 days. The Wranglers aren't going to make Greinke available to the media today. I'm sure the Royals want him totally focused on baseball and they don't want him to have to answer the same question(s) about his health or mental state over and over again. RR wishes Greinke well in his start tonight.

Reporting from the 'Blatt

Not a lot to say about the Royals 7-0 defeat in Oakland this afternoon. The A's took the lead in the first inning and didn't look back. Joe Blanton only gave up five hits and he pitched a complete game shutout.

I decided to catch an Omaha Royals game tonight. They took on the New Orleans Zephyrs (the Nationals Triple-A team) and won 6-4. Omaha jumped ahead early. Justin Huber tripled to lead off the second inning and Ricky Bell got him home on a sacrifice fly to center field.

Here's how the lineup looked (by the way, the scoreboard looked much better this time--it's not littered with nearly as much advertising, and all of the stats were displayed):


David Elder started for Omaha and he pitched five strong innings, only giving up three hits and 1 walk. He tends to overthrow his fastball when he gets into trouble and when he does that he leaves it way up. He has a nice change and he doesn't appear to be afraid to throw it early in the count. I don't sense that he has the confidence to throw it late in the count though. Here's a picture of him in action:


As you can tell from the picture of the scoreboard below, Mark Teahen continues to knock the cover off the ball in Omaha. He was 1-for-3 tonight with an RBI and he drew an intentional walk.


Here's a shot of Mark at third base:


And here's a shot of Teahen at the plate early in the game, facing former major leaguer Pedro Astacio:


Alberto Castillo is now the catcher for the Zephyrs. He was 2-for-4 against us tonight. Here's a shot of him after he doubled in the fifth inning:


Here's Casey being Casey:


Dee Brown was 2-for-3 with a walk. Paul Phillips was 2-for-4, including a bunt single. Kerry Robinson was 3-for-4. Ruben Gotay looked awful at the plate. By my count, he failed to get a bunt down four times in two different plate appearances when we needed to move runners. And his fifth attempt was so bad (with two strikes) that the pitcher was able to jump on it and force our runner out at third.

Ryan Baerlocher was tough in relief. But Shane Loux almost blew the game in the ninth, even though the Royals had a five run lead going into the inning. He gave up three runs, but in the end, he finally got out of it and the Royals won.

Royals Hire Dayton Moore

It's official. The Royals have hired Dayton Moore. Here are several links if you want to read more about the hire:

Royals name Moore new GM (Royals Website)
Royals struggled under Baird (Royals Website)
Royals replace GM Baird with Dayton Moore (Fox Sports)
Royals fire GM Baird; Moore hired (ESPN)
Royals hire Braves' Moore as new GM (CNNSI)

Baird Fired

The Star is reporting that Allard Baird has been fired and that assistant GM Muzzy Jackson will take over on an interim basis pending the hire of Dayton Moore. According to the article, Moore is expected to take the reins next week—after the draft. How odd is that? I'm assuming that Moore will be in constant contact with Jackson prior to, and probably during, the draft itself.

Thus ends the Allard Baird era in which the Royals won 381 games and lost 576 games.

Royals Considering Hochevar, Miller

With the draft just a week away, and the Royals owning the first pick, the Star reported yesterday that the Royals are showing late interest in Luke Hochevar, a former Tennessee stand out who was 15-3 with a 2.26 ERA in 19 starts last season. But not so fast. He's represented by Scott Boras. The Dodgers drafted him last year and then offered him $2.8 million, but he refused it. After our dealings with Boras regarding Carlos Beltran, I can't see the Royals wanting to do that again.

According to the article, Andrew Miller, a lefty from North Carolina appears to be the Royals' first preference. They are also showing interest in Brad Lincoln from Houston. But all bets could be off if Baird is fired and replaced by Moore.

Moore Still Mulling

An article running in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that Dayton Moore is still "mulling an offer…to take over as Royals general manager, sources in Atlanta and Kansas City confirmed to the Journal-Constitution." The same article also reports that the Royals have offered Moore a five-year contract worth one million dollars per season.

[Unfortunately, you need to register with the Journal-Constitution to read the complete article.]

[Hat tip to Absolutmizzou over at RoyalBoard.com for the link.]

Timely Hitting Propels Royals

The Royals have more than their share of free swingers. But we also have some guys who can flat hit. Matt Stairs is one of them. With the Royals trailing 7-6 in the top of the ninth with two outs and two guys on base, Stairs pinch hit for Esteban German and worked the count full against A's closer Houston Street. Street didn't want to throw a fastball. In fact, he threw very few to other hitters he face in the inning. He wanted to throw his wicked slider. But Stairs forced him to throw a strike, so Street came with a fastball and Matt lined the ball up the middle and tied the score. A great, great at bat. One that I hope some of our younger guys can learn from.

Mark Grudzielanek is the other guy who knows how to get it done at the plate. In the top of the tenth, with the score tied 7-7, Berroa doubled off of Matt Roney to lead off the inning. Buck laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt up the third base line to advance Berroa. And the A's elected to give DeJesus a free pass to set up the double play. Grudzielanek came up to the plate with one goal in mind—to find a way to get Berroa home. He shortened his swing and knocked the ball over the head of Mark Ellis at second base for an RBI single. And even though Burgos tried to give the game away in the bottom of the tenth, the Royals prevailed 8-7.

The Royals gave Denny Bautista four runs in the first inning, but he still couldn't get the job done. He gave up 6 ER in 4.1 IP and he saw his ERA climb to 5.63. Not good, but in this rotation, good enough to keep his spot for now. Speaking of the rotation, Jeremy Affeldt has been moved to the bullpen and Bobby Keppel has been inserted into the rotation, joining Seth Etherton, Mark Redman, Scott Elarton, and Denny Bautista.

The Royals go for the sweep in Oakland this afternoon. Scott Elarton (1-5, 4.76) goes against Joe Blanton (4-5, 6.02).

Berroa Walk Watch: (the quest for double-digits): 2 walks in 47 games.

Etherton Gets the Win

So, did you get as nervous as I did when Bell turned to Burgos to close the game in the ninth last night? Yeah, we were up 6-3, but as wild as Burgos has been, no lead is safe. He got Kendall to fly out. But then he fell behind Nick Swisher (not a good idea, just for the record) and Burgos really only has one pitch when he's behind—a rather flat fastball. Swisher didn't miss it. He hit a solo home run to bring the A's to within two runs. But after giving up a single Kotsay, he was able to wiggle off the hook by getting a double play ball, and the Royals won 6-4.

Seth Etherton made his first start for the Royals and he found a way to win—giving up 1 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, and 1 HR in 5 IP. He wasn't all that impressive en route to the victory though. He threw 100 pitches and he doesn't have much on his fastball. He also seems to love throwing his change up (which is really an old fashioned palm ball) and on more than one occasion he left it up in the zone. Thankfully he got away with a few. But any time one of our starters wins a game, it's reason to celebrate.

David DeJesus was in the line up last night for the first time since April 18. Aaron Guiel was sent back to Omaha to make room for DeJesus, who looked out of sorts at the plate, going 0-for-5. But having a guy in centerfield that you don't have to worry about defensively is a nice feeling. Hopefully his hamstring problems are behind him because we could really use him at the top of our lineup.

Emil Brown had three hits and an RBI. Grudzielanek picked up two more hits. Mientkiewicz and Costa had two hits as well. Blanco was 1-for-3 playing short and he did something that Berroa certainly wouldn't have done—he walked once.

The Royals send Denny Bautista (0-2, 4.55) against Brad Halsey (1-2, 3.60) tonight.

What Happened to all the Money?

A few weeks ago, Ken Rosenthal wrote an article that appeared on FoxSports.com called Royals are far from a K.C. masterpiece in which he made the following comment: "The Royals received $64.5 million from MLB last season, according to the New York Times — $30 million in revenue sharing, plus the $34.5 million payment that each team received from national TV, cable, radio, Internet and the sale of merchandise."

If this is true, the $12 million increase in payroll by David Glass this past off season looks paltry. In fairness to Glass, we didn't have a lot to choose from when it came to free agents, but $64.5 million was certainly enough to pull the trigger on a trade (or two) for a solid starter because we could have taken on some salary. And it certainly ought to give us enough money to pay a potential topnotch GM whatever it takes to get him here—assuming of course that he has control over personnel.

And that seems to be the rub between the Royals and Dayton Moore right now. You can hardly blame the guy. Surely, he's watch from afar as we've bounced back and forth between youth movements and the signing of second and third-tier free agents in an attempt to compete. And how could he not wonder why Glass didn't spend the money he received in revenue sharing and various other means to improve the team when he had the chance?

Comeback Falls Short

Runelvys Hernandez's awful start in New York yesterday (5 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, in 0.2 IP) cost him his spot in the rotation, and his spot on the team. He's been optioned to Omaha with a 1-4 record and a 7.44 ERA. Maybe we're finally reaching the point where nobody is safe. That would be a good thing—especially when it comes to our rotation. Time after time, our starters go far less than five innings and the bullpen is being worked to death. And you have to wonder if Jeremy Affeldt is the next to be sent to Omaha.

At this point, we might as well give guys like Jimmy Gobble and Mike Wood a shot. And while we're at it, let's call up a starter or two from Omaha and see what they've got. The Royals did trade for Seth Etherton who was in Triple-A with the Padres organization where he was 2-2 with a 4.38 ERA. He'll start for the Royals tonight in Oakland. I hardly think he's the answer. In brief stints at the major league level with the 2000 A's, the 2003 Reds, and the 2005 A's, he's a combined 8-6 with a 6.08 ERA in 21 starts. But for now, Bell would be happy if Etherton could give us six innings on a regular basis.

After Hernandez put us in a huge hole yesterday in New York, the Royals could have rolled over and played dead, but they didn't. Keppel, Sisco, Peralta, and Dessens stopped the bleeding—only giving up one run over the next 7.1 innings—and the Royals fought their way back. Emil Brown was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Tony Graffanino and Doug Mientkiewicz both had two hits. And Grudzielanek, Sanders, Stairs, and Berroa each had an RBI to bring the Royals to within a run at 6-5. But the comeback fizzled out and they lost yet again.

Etherton goes against Dan Haren (4-4, 3.91) tonight in Oakland.

Berroa Walk Watch: (the quest for double-digits): 2 walks in 46 games.

Royals Trounced in NY

And now back to your regularly scheduled program called losing. What can you say about a 15-4 loss that hasn't already been said? Jeremy Affeldt gave up 10 earned runs and saw his ERA rise to a horrific 7.80. Mike Wood gave up five runs in 0.2 innings and saw his once good ERA skyrocket to 5.04. I guess if you're looking for a pitcher to be happy about, it's Joe Nelson, who threw two more scoreless innings and his ERA looks woefully out of place at 1.13.

Graffanino and Guiel both had two hits—and neither guy is even supposed to be in the starting line up.

This afternoon, we're running another guy out to the mound with an ERA over 6.00—Runelvys Hernandez (1-3, 6.19). He goes against Jaret Wright (2-3, 4.18).

Berroa Walk Watch (the quest for double-digits): 2 walks in 45 games.