Al Yellon
Editor
It's Gotta Be The Hair - May 15
Grant Brisbee
Editor
Tarasco Sauce - May 16
Jeff Sullivan
Editor
Mission Accomplished - May 16
Rob Neyer
National Baseball Editor
Baseball is Unpredictable - May 12
Dan Moore
Contributor
Joey Votto And The Twilight Of The Giant First Basemen - Apr 14
Jason Brannon
Hot Corner Scribe
Len Kasper Has Been Over Into The Future... - May 15
Jim Baker
Contributor
eBay Item Of The Day - May 15
Marc Normandin
Contributor
The Royals And Pitcher Development - May 15
Wendy Thurm
Contributor
On Being Young And Brash In The Social Media Age - May 12
Jun 28, 2011 - So I spent way too long looking for an article on the Web I forgot to bookmark. Never did find it -- though I did find something that inspired this Hot Corner item, so it wasn't a complete waste of time -- so instead I'll just tell you that, as I remember it anyway, Francoeur essentially said the Royals are better than their (now) 33-46 record.
Are they, really? That record's good for a .418 winning percentage. Last season they won 41 percent of their games, and did virtually nothing over the winter to improve the club. Granted, they've added top prospects Aaron Crow, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Danny Duffy to the mix this spring. But only Crow has actually been good, and he's just a setup relief pitcher.
Essentially, the Royals are no better than they were last season, and shouldn't have been expected to be much (if any) better, for reasons I will outline in a moment. It should be said, though, that Kansas City's hitters have done exceptionally well. Relatively speaking, that is. Last year the Royals finished 10th in the American League in scoring; this year they've jumped to sixth, and it's not a complete fluke as they're also seventh in OPS.
Thanks largely to Alex Gordon, Billy Butler and (choke) ex-Braves Francoeur and Melky Cabrera, these Royals can actually hit a little. And they might hit a lot, if Hosmer and Moustakas ever get warmed up.
So the Royals don't stink because of their hitting, which is actually pretty good. They stink because of their pitching. Or, more specifically, because of their starting pitching. This was perfectly predictable, given the depth chart entering the season, but Kansas City starters' 5.11 ERA is by far the the worst in the league; there's a bigger gap between the Royals and the second-worst Blue Jays (4.41) than between the Jays and the sixth-best Yankees (3.84).
And now apparently this is going to happen:
The Royals plan to switch to a six-man rotation later this week when Kyle Davies returns from the disabled list.
--snip--
Manager Ned Yost said the club might stick with a six-man rotation for the rest of the season.
Because, you know, they're all so good.
Seriously, what's makes this so interesting is that it's exactly the opposite of what the White Sox have done: the Sox have so many good starters, they can't decide who to omit from the rotation, while the Royals have no good starters ... and still can't decide who to dump.
Of course, the obvious answer is Davies, who might actually be the worst starting pitcher in the majors. But he's also the highest-paid starter on the Royals' roster, and it's pretty apparent that GM Dayton Moore has a little (or maybe a big) man-crush on Davies. So he'll just keep on pitching until he gets hurt or his contract expires.
Given their rotation, the Royals never really had a chance of being competitive this season. And there just isn't anything that all of Frenchy's positive energy can do about it.
For much more about the Royals, please visit Royals Review.
5 comments
Mickey Hatcher, Angels Hitting Coach, Relieved Of Duties
Vance Worley Has 'Soreness', Will Miss Wednesday Start
Justin Morneau Will Be Activated From DL Wednesday
Manny Ramirez Rehab Assignment Will Start Saturday In Albuquerque
Jon Jay Heading To Disabled List; Shane Robinson Recalled
Troy Tulowitzki Day-To-Day With Deep Leg Bruise
Matt Kemp Goes On 15-Day DL With Sore Hamstring
Jeff Niemann Likely Missing 'A Few Months' With Leg Injury
VIDEO: Bryce Harper's First Career Home Run
Torii Hunter Placed On Restricted List Following Son's Arrest
More News »
Comments
Fun experiments ...
…like this might be the only thing that keeps the Royals watchable this year. I imagine they hope one or two of the starters get hot or at least lukewarm enough to draw some trade interest.
by bobulated on Jun 28, 2011 12:28 PM EDT reply actions
I don't know how true this remains...
…but it one of the Fangraphs power rankings a few weeks ago they mentioned that if you combined the Mariners pitching with the Royals hitting you would have the #3 team in baseball by fWAR. Merger, merger, merger…
(also if you combined the Royals pitching with the Mariners hitting that you would have a team so historically bad that it would make the 03 Tigers look like the 27 Yankees.)
by mkd on Jun 28, 2011 12:47 PM EDT reply actions
There is an upside to this plan
By using more bad pitchers, each bad pitcher will actually pitch less often. So, that’s a win.
It's all ball bearings these days!
by CentralChamps20?? on Jun 28, 2011 2:05 PM EDT reply actions
Which makes sense if you can't decide which is your worst pitcher
But if you have a clearly worst pitcher, he should be the first one fed to the sharks waiting just off Rotation Island.
But I could totally believe the Royals can’t see even a bad pitcher, let alone a worst one, in that bunch
by J0SER on Jun 29, 2011 5:45 PM EDT up reply actions
This seems like a worthwhile experiment
Teams moved from a four man rotation to a five man rotation because, at least theoretically, pitchers are more effective and less injury-prone on four days rest than on three days rest. A team like the Royals needs to find some market inefficiencies to be competitive, and there is no risk this year given that they’re not a contender, so why not find out if otherwise marginal pitchers might actually be more effective on five days rest than on four days?
by Preston on Jun 28, 2011 4:47 PM EDT reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed