A Small Market Fan Held Hostage

STrat-O-Matic Musings and Stats

4/30/06 A Small Market Fan Held Hostage- Day 27

Oakland at KC. KC loses a rare win opp ahead 6-1 thru 3 and rain wipes it out-more importantly I lose a Reggie Sanders grand salamie in 2 leagues

Sunday family at the park- rain threatening wind-strong to RF and I tell the boy"Wind + Elarton usually bad- he better have control because wind + walks + Elarton = disaster. I tell him watch Oakland LH batters." After 3 Elarton is gone and Chavez and Swisher have gone deep set up by walks. I'm miserable in my HQ inspired savant knowledge of FB ratios and command but secretly releived I have Swisher on my KC Al league roster.

Issues I must raise with an uninspired franchise that refuses to get smart.

Lineup issues
1. Kerry Robinson called up and batting leadoff-I like the call up- ( could have been Guiel but what the heck we go speed over power)but Buddy Bell and the organization continue to play the game by the book- and their book is dated 1968 when a lead off hitter is "your fast guy" This is the Omar Moreno school of lead off hitters. This organization has no idea about on base -STILL! and the irony of the A's constantly bashing us with walks and homers. I think Robinson can have a role with this team but not leading off. Yes I know he had 3 hits blah blah blah but his on base is average generated and the concept off drawing walks especially when you are a Kerry Robinson type hitter is pretty important for a team like us. I like the concept of bookending speed guys ala Tampa Bay. Notice they put the weaker batter Gaithwright 9th- Crawford 1rst. E German has done nothing but play well offensively and is a better on base guy who also has speed-flip flop them. I realize Buddy and Allard don't have time to read but they might want to check out "3 Nights in August" some nice scouting on Kerry Robinson. A small quibble really but I'm sick of seeing this year in year out- Berroa leading off etc.

2. It's Sunday time to take out our good players.
This is my peave with virtually every ML manager. The Sunday day off for old guys. I don't object to the idea of resting players especially players vulnerable to fatigue and injury but can we be a little flexible and creative. Day game after a night game trance "Must sit Reggie Sanders"- ok cool Reggie is 37 and has a history of getting DL'd BUT he is our clean up hitter and pretty key guy especially when the Captain is hurting from moving away from a pitch sitting- and lets clarify Sanders didn't really play Saturday night did he. The game was rained out after 3 ings. His workout consisted of trotting around the bases after a grand slam and walking to 1rst on a walk. Could we stretch him this week? We batted Mienky clean up for God's sake. Reggies been slumping and the homer could have gotten him back on track let the man hit.or if we must sit him once a week can we counter what the rest of the league is doing and actually play our best guys on Sunday (Grundz/Buck also sat) and rest Sanders on Monday- hey pretty clever huh- The theme I am pushing here is the Royals are actually worse than other teams - thus we need to maximize the times we can get an edge like Sunday's- we play our top guys when everyone else sits theirs. Against the best we need to play our best- like Mike Sweeney in NY - but that's another beef- Reggie resting after a rainout- makes no sense.3. Playing infielders in the outfield:Esteban German in CF 3b error = 3 runs. Stadium booed him but I couldn't. I boo the manager for the repeated burning Buddy Bell gets from playing a 2b in the outfield. He needs to play but in the infield. It's not my problem Allard blew 2 mill on Graffanino and moved German out of a job. In my defensive +/- tally where fielders are rewarded and penalized for defensive plays that actually prevent or allow runs scored. German on 4/19 scored a -4 ( allowed 3 runs in plus the initial bad defensive play) Today with a 3base error he scored a -3. (fun fact it's 4/30 and the Royals have already had 3 3base errors) -7 is a scary number in 2 games. To further emphasize German's weakness he plays not LF but CF??? Bell actually maximizes German's weakness by putting him in the outfield position that involves the most action. Kerry Robinson and his weak arm in RF - could easily move to CF and Emil Brown in LF (the worst defensive outfielder in recent memory, -10 for the season) played RF all last year. It's a terrible defensive outfield but why not try and make it as painless as possible. This shows no skill at a key managerial componant- putting your players in their best position to do well.
BTW Sanders should have started in RF anyway right and because German is inexperienced in CF he took a ball off his head and had to leave the game forcing Bell to put in the guy he wanted to rest in the first place and the only thing missing was Sanders breaking his leg in the process- read the above line to keystone cops piano music for best effectThis game was over before the 1rst pitch.

Next Issue - bullpen management
1. In winnable games why pitch your worst pitchers over your best ones?
Point 1 - with rainout pen was rested everyone available.
Somehow the Royals fought back and took advantage of a bad Joe Blanton who had worse command than Elarton. Mark Teahan has a beautiful at bat with 2 on in the 5th and hits one dead center to tie the game- whoo hoo nice job - we have a great chance to win the game. Top of 6th Buddy goes to the pen in a tie game and chooses his worst pitcher. Why? Doesn't common sense say use your best arms in close games to maximize your chance to win. There's that phrase again "Maximize your chances to win" when given the opportunity. Hudson clearly has been the least effective reliever- no debate. Anyone was a better choice than him but why not Elmer Dessens- our most effective reliever outside our closer Burgos- why not? Well, the book says he's the set up guy Mr. 8th ing- can't use him until the 8th then your closer in the 9th- that's the way your typical bad donkey MLB manager does it.
Follow the bouncing insanity now.Hudson walks the 1rst guy (you know exactly where this is going when this happens)and fails to record an out on any of the 4 batters he faces and gives up a bases loaded HBP while ahead 0-2.
This is not a 1 time occurance. The 4/25 game vs Minnesota was virtually the exact same situation and he got shelled w/o getting an out. That was 5 days ago.
6-5 A's bases loaded 0 out and Buddy brings in Andy Sisco. There were lefty hitters coming up and Sisco hasn't been AS terrible last few outings but his main vulnerability is command and wildness. Bases loaded -0 outs is this the best spot for him? Does this put Sisco in the best scenario to fit his skills? No of course not-
It was 12-5 by the end of the ing. Wait it gets better... stay with me the punch line is coming.
8th ing- down 7 and Buddy goes to Elmer Dessens-
9th ing down 6 we go to our closer A Burgos.

Only in the bizarro world of the KC Royals by the book think tank do we use our worst pitchers in a tie and 1 run game our best pitchers down 7 late. It's madness and incompetance. The Royals are in a game at all maybe 3 days a week and there are plenty of opportunities to rest our best pitchers and use the other guys in less than likely wins- it's just mind boggling how a team has not a single person with a creative idea to make them better and how to maximize what they have.

If you have read this far you are in worse shape than I am and I thank you for listening. Send help- Mark Cuban please buy us and let us stay in KC