Berroa Says He's Motivated

Finally, we get to see a little fire from Angel Berroa. His wife had a baby last week in Kansas City, so Dick Kaegel at MLB.com interviewed him. Obviously, Berroa is thrilled to be a father, and he seems quite content now that he’s living in Kansas City. In the big scheme of things, such things matter infinitely more than baseball, so I’m happy for Angel.

I’m also happy to hear that he’s finally decided to take the game more serious. As soon as the season was over, he started a workout routine with a personal trainer to improve his mobility. He’s working out at Kauffman Stadium during the day and going to a health club at night.

And he’s vowing to silence the boo-birds. Here’s what he said in the article: “I’m going to show those people that the Angel Berroa from 2003 is back next year.”

I hope he does silence the boo-birds. But I don’t want the Angel Berroa of 2003 (the guy with a 100 strikeouts and only 29 walks). I want a guy who shows patience at the plate, runs the bases like his head is actually in the game, and a guy who makes the routine plays at shortstop.

Moore on LaRue

According to Dayton Moore, Jason LaRue will compete with John Buck for the starting catcher position in Spring Training. That makes a little more sense. Taking on so much salary for a back up catcher just wasn’t computing. But if Buck beats him out, we’ll still be paying $2.5 million of LaRue’s salary for him to catch 40 or 50 games. If I had to guess, LaRue is going to be the starter next season simply based on his salary.

John Buck hasn’t become the catcher everybody seemed to think he might be. His numbers at the plate have been mediocre. He has been in double digits in home runs all three years he’s been in a Royals’ uniform and he’s a career .242 hitter with a .292 OBP and a .692 OPS who strikes out too often. Pitchers seem to like him, but you can’t tell that by looking at their stats.

LaRue’s numbers are slightly better. He hits between 12 and 16 home runs every year. He’s a .239 career hitter with a .325 OBP and a .740 OPS. Like Buck, he strikes out way too often. But I don’t think that there’s any question that he’s a better defensive catcher that Buck. I’m hoping that he’ll be a slight upgrade, but I have concerns about his age (32) and his right knee that was repaired in March.

I do wonder though if we couldn’t have signed another veteran catcher for much cheaper, allowing Buck to start next season, and put the money toward pitching where we are in desperate need.

Royals Trade for LaRue

Paul Bako’s short stint with the Royals came to a close today when Royals’ GM Dayton Moore traded a player to be named later to the Cincinnati Reds for Jason LaRue. He’s in the second year of a two-year contract. According to The Baseball Cube, he made $3.9 million last season. That seems a bit pricey to me for a 32 year-old catcher who had knee surgery before last season.

Positives:

—He has a little pop in his bat. He’s had five double-digit home run seasons in his career.

—He’s been one of the best throwing catchers in baseball. He’s thrown out 36.9 percent (143-for-388) of attempted base-stealers in his eight year career—good for fourth-best in baseball over that span.

Negatives:

—He hit .194 last season and he’s a .239 career hitter.

—He strikes out way too often: 51 times in 191 AB last season, 101 times in 361 AB in 2005, and he’s been in triple digits five times in his career.

—Known to be a “free-swinger” and that’s the absolute last thing we need on this roster right now.

Player and Pitcher of the Year

By now you’ve probably heard that Kansas City baseball writers have named their Royals’ Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year.

Player of the Year: Mark Teahen

Teahen probably was the best player for the Royals this year, but how weird is it that a player who was sent to the minor leagues in early May ended up being our player of the year? That’s not a knock against Teahen. He wound up leading the club in home runs (18) and he brought his average up from a dismal .195 on the day he was sent to Omaha to .290 by the end of the season.

By the time he returned to Kansas City, he’d learned how to turn on the inside fastball and that opened up the field for him. He began to drive the ball all over the park and pitchers had a fit trying to get him out. I’m not all that sure anybody ever did figure it out. I’m hoping for big things from Teahen in 2007.

Pitcher of the Year: Mark Redman

I have mixed emotions about this one. The Royals’ pitching staff was the worst in baseball last season. Mark Redman, our supposed ace, put up extremely mediocre, if not poor, numbers (11–10, 5.71 ERA, 1.59 WHIP), but they were good enough for him to be considered our best pitcher. The writers probably shouldn't have even named a pitcher of the year, but Redman did have his bright spots.

In early August, Bob McClure taught Redman how to throw a cutter and it seemed to make all the difference in the world. He shutout the Twins on August 30—thanks mostly to his cutter. Then he followed that performance by shutting down the White Sox over seven innings on September 4. And then on September 17, he nearly pitched a complete game against the Mariners. But his ERA was still quite inflated by the end of the season.

So, there you have it. Let’s hope that the recipients of these awards next season have considerably better numbers and that those numbers help to fix a ship that has been slowly sinking for a long time.

Grudzielanek Wins Gold Glove

Congratulations to Mark Grudzielanek for winning his first Gold Glove in his thirteen year career. Presumably, he beat out Mark Ellis and Mark Loretta, who both had great seasons in the field as well. Ellis had a slightly better fielding percentage (.997 to Grud’s .994) and a slightly higher range factor (5.30 to Grud’s 5.13), but Grudzielanek had a better zone rating (.849 to .847). And Grudzielanek had a considerably higher zone rating than Loretta (.849 to .805).

Grudzielanek led all American League second basemen with 111 double plays and he only committed four errors on the season. The only other Royals’ second baseman to win a Gold Glove was Frank White—who won eight of them.

"It really means a lot because I felt I had a shot the last few years and kind of got overlooked even though I led most of the categories," Grudzielanek is quoted as saying in an article running on the Royals’ website. "So it's nice to have the votes and have them recognize that."

Hochevar Has Strained Shoulder

Good news about Luke Hochevar. The MRI revealed that he only has a shoulder strain. He won't need any further treatment, but the Royals still have no plans to have Hochevar return to the Arizona Fall League.

Technorati tags: KC Royals, Royals, Luke Hochevar

Pujols Article

As the Cardinals celebrate their World Series championship tonight, I thought I'd give you a link to an article I wrote about Albert Pujols recently for a Canadian newspaper. I was wearing my journalist hat at the time. The article is about how Pujols lives out his faith on and off the field. The article contains a couple of rather odd edits that I can't explain, but if you are still interested in reading it, here's the link.

Technorati tags: St. Louis Cardinals, Cardinals, Albert Pujols

Hochevar Shuts it Down in AFL

Hearing that Luke Hochevar has tightness in his right shoulder was all the Royals needed to hear to shut him down for the winter. He's been pitching for the Grand Canyon Rafters in the Arizona Fall League (AFL). His numbers haven't been impressive: 8.1 IP, 13 H, 8 K, 8 ER.

He was scheduled for an MRI yesterday. Let's hope that it isn't serious. Oddly, Luis Medina, the Royals' special assistant to the general manager, said that it was "probably just fatigue." After eight innings over three appearances? That doesn't make a lot of sense, unless he's been working a lot on the side.

I'll let you know when the MRI results become available.

Technorati tags: KC Royals, Royals, Luke Hochevar, AFL, Arizona Fall League

Comments Enabled

Comments have been enabled, but they are on moderate, and I won't always be able to approve them right away.

A McGuffy Award

A big thanks to Garth over at the Baseball Think Factory for naming a post I wrote called "The Making of a Royals Fan" as the best post in the "Non-mainstream media division" in his McGuffy awards.

If you haven't had a chance to check out Garth's page called Royal Ingenuity at the Baseball Think Factory, now would be a good time.

Gordon Named Topps Minor League Player of the Year

Alex Gordon added to his list of already growing awards recently when he was named the Topps Minor League Player of the Year. In September, he was named the Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year. In August, he was named the Texas League Player of the Year. And he was also named as one of the Royals' minor league players' of the year.

According to this article, he's been invited to Spring Training, and it sounds like he'll have a legitimate shot to make the major league club while he's there.

Technorati tags: KC Royals, Royals, Alex Gordon

Keep Teahen at Third

With the offseason in full bloom for most teams, baseball writers and fans are doing what we do best--we talk about the next season. On the Royals website recently, Dick Kaegel addressed the possibility of Mark Teahen switching to the outfield next season. Kaegel says that Teahen is "likely to be tried in the outfield during Spring Training to see if he'd adapt to a corner outfield spot..."

Given that Teahen missed so many games this season (either due to injury or his brief stint in Omaha), he didn't have enough chances at third base for to be ranked for his fielding percentage among third baseman, but if he did, he wouldn't have been toward the top. He committed 14 errors and had a .958 fielding percentage. Assuming his percentage would have stayed the say, he would have been ninth in the AL behind Melvin Mora, and miles ahead of A-Rod (who had a pitiful .937 fielding percentage). He would have been 13th in MLB if his percentage had remained the same, but such analysis is probably not fair since many other third baseman would have figured into the mix as well if they'd had enough chances.

So, Teahen is hardly a gold glove candidate at third base, but he did improve his fielding percentage from .947 to .958 from his first year to his second and his work with Buddy Bell seems to be paying off regarding his footwork--which was close to atrocious when he first came up. He's a natural at making the bare-handed throw. And he seems settled in to me. I only see him getting better, both on the field and at the plate. So, I'm not crazy about moving him to the outfield as he enters his third season. I'd much prefer to see Gordon taking fly balls this spring.

Technorati tags: KC Royals, Mark Teahen, Alex Gordon

Hey, Hey, Hey, Good-Bye

The general consensus after the Royals swept the Tigers to finish the season and to end their chances of winning the division was that Detroit wouldn't be able to come back and beat the evil Yankees. Their payroll was too high. They had 13 All-Stars on their roster. They had all that postseason experience. And they had Joe Torre.

They also had aging bodies, no pitching, and A-Rod hitting eighth (undoubtedly the most expensive number eight hitter in the history of the game at $25 million per season) on Saturday night. I like what he said after the game:

"You kind of get tired of giving the other team credit," said Rodriguez, who was 1-for-14 in the series without any RBI. "At some point, you just have to look in the mirror and say, 'I sucked.'"

He was in good company. With the exception of Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada, the rest of the Yankees didn't hit either (18-for-104). And their starting pitching didn't exactly shine. Jaret Wright pitched poorly in his outing. And Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina both lost their starts.

Now, the reports are saying that Joe Torre is about to be fired and A-Rod might not be back in pinstripes next year either. Somehow, Brian Cashman seems to be getting a free pass in this deal, and I guess it's hard to argue with that. He has assembled the best team that money can buy. But for the sixth straight season, the $200 million evil Yankees will not be crowned the World Series Champion.

And that is a beautiful thing.

Technorati tags: ALDS, Joe Torre, Yankees, NY Yankees, Detroit Tigers, A-Rod, KC Royals

Great Post about O'Neil

And while you are checking out articles about Buck O'Neil today, make sure you read this post over at Royal Authority.

Buck O'Neil, Dead at 94

Yesterday was a sad day. Buck O'Neil died at the age of 94 in a Kansas City hospital and Kauffman Stadium will never be quite the same. I was always amazed by the man's love for baseball. Whether it was 44 degrees in early April or 102 in mid-August, you could always find Buck O'Neil sitting in the stands watching the game, and the team, he loved.

He fought hard to keep the memories of the Negro league players alive. And nobody can think of the Negro League Baseball Museum without thinking about Buck O'Neil. O'Neil never got to play one inning of major league baseball because of his skin color. But during the 1930's and 1940's he played Negro league baseball during its heyday. It's a shame that such a league needed to exist, but at the same time, if it hadn't, guys like O'Neil wouldn't have been able to play. He led the league in hitting twice as a Kansas City Monarch, hitting .345 in 1940, and .350 in 1946. He was a three-time East-West All-Star. And he managed the team from 1948-1955. 

The baseball world celebrated as guys like Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, and Josh Gibson were inducted into the Hall of Fame mostly because of what they did in the Negro leagues, but we were in shock when O'Neil was not one of the seventeen players elected into the Hall in February of this year when a special vote was held to consider former Negro league players. To say that Buck O'Neil doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame after he spent seven decades in the game (many of which he spent working in the Chicago Cubs' organization) and continued to be one of its biggest advocates up until the end is ludicrous.

He went to the induction ceremony anyway on July 30, 2006 and he opened it by sharing memories of the Negro leagues. That was the kind of guy he was. He didn't hold a grudge. He just showed up whenever baseball was being played or discussed.

According to this article in the New York Times, O'Neil said this in his autobiography about not getting a chance to play Major League Baseball: “Waste no tears for me. I didn’t come along too early. I was right on time. You see, I don’t have a bitter story. I truly believe I have been blessed.”

And we were blessed to have you as long as we did Buck.

Here are some links to stories about O'Neil:

• Buck O’Neil, Negro Leagues Pioneer, Is Dead at 94
• O'Neil, Negro Leagues player, dies at 94
• Buck O'Neil dies
• Negro League great Buck O'Neil dies at 94
• O'Neil mortal, but not his legend
• O'Neil bigger than game itself
• Negro League Great Buck O'Neil Dies

Technorati tags: Buck O'Neil, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Negro leagues, Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson