Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Royals: In case you missed it…



Here are some observations based on the Royals game last night:

Kansas City Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas still does not have a hit. That makes 21 at-bats without safely reaching a base from a hit. As reported below, that is now tied for the longest hitless streak to start a season in the Royals history. He does have three walks, so there’s that... Can he keep up his futility? The major league record for consecutive at-bats without a hit is 46. Moose is a very likely candidate to extend that record. Heck, even Alcides Escobar finally got his first hit on Sunday. I think Moose is cursed.



Also, the Royals have still not hit a home run. As reported below, the last team to go 6 games without a home run was the 1993 Marlins. How pitiful. I bet the Royals regret firing Kevin Seitzer now! That’s not the worst ever, but I am guessing the Royals will challenge for it. I was unable to find the actual record for a homerless streak to start a season, but the 2012 Cleveland Indians went 11 games without a home run to start the season, and they went 14 homerless games in 1983. 



Billy Butler grounded into his 3rd double play last night. . This prompted changing the song lyrics to Naughty By Nature’s “OPP,” by Jeremy Sickel below. He lead the American League in Grounding into Double Plays (GIDP) last year. Why the Royals love him is beyond comprehension


“You down wit GIDP? Yeah you know me,
Who down wit GIDP (I wear Number 16)”

As always, I try to end on a positive note: The Royals did win yesterday, after a stellar outing from Jason Vargas. This is his second quality start of the season (which is when a pitcher lasts 6 innings and permits 3 earned runs or less). The Royals received a lot of criticism for signing Vargas to a 4 year contract this past offseason, and justifiably so, as Vargas has a career ERA of 4.25. It remains to be seen if he can keep up his fantastic start to the season. If the Royals can coax similar numbers from him as they received from Ervin Santana last year, they will be in good shape (although probably will not make the playoffs unless they can start hitting). 

Wil Myers had a quiet night last night, batting 0-4 with a strikeout. He hasn't played very well when visiting KC yet, much to the delight of Royals fans. Sam Mellinger from the KC Star wrote an interesting article about that here. Lastly, I will leave you with a nice thought: 102 MPH. That is how fast Yordano Ventura can pitch and he will start against the Rays tonight. Go Royals!




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