Since the Royals had yesterday off (Salvy gets some rest!),
there are no new statistics to marvel at so today I wanted to take a look at,
drumroll please… former Royals! Billy
Butler is coming to KC this weekend to celebrate his birthday and get his AL
Championship ring with his red hot Oakland A’s, so I wanted to see how some of
the former players for KC are doing. By the way, I had no criteria for who I decided to look up.
I just randomly selected some former Royals of interest from the past few years.
To start, I will begin with one of the greatest players KC
ever had, and the person all of baseball celebrates today: Jackie Robinson.
For those of you that did not know, the 1947 Rookie of the Year
and 1949 MVP who died in 1972, was given a contract to play for the Kansas City
Monarchs of the Negro Leagues. In 1945, he played 47 games at shortstop for KC and
appeared in the All-Star game. His wife is still alive today.
Billy Butler is third on the A’s with 6 RBI’s, a .371
batting average, a .543 slugging percentage, and is second on the team with 3
bases on balls. He does lead the team with 13 hits and is tied for the lead
with 1 home run, although he also leads them with grounded into 3 double plays.
In comparison, Kendrys Morales has 2 home runs, 5 bases on balls, a .724
slugging percentage, and 0 double plays grounded into. It is a small sample size but I
currently prefer Morales.
James Shields, who brought swagger and confidence in the
trade that shocked the world in 2012, now pitches for the San Diego Padres.
After two starts, he has thrown 13 innings, given up 9 hits and 3 earned runs
(including 2 home runs), with 15 strikeouts, all of which currently rank in the
top 10 among starting pitchers in the National League.
Wil Myers, once thought to be the Royals superstar of the
future, now also plays for the Padres and has 10 hits and has scored 7 runs in
9 games playing right field. I wonder if Shields and Myers are friends.
Ervin Santana, who signed with the Twins this offseason, was
suspended for 80 games in 2015 after testing positive for steroids. He was
projected as the Twins #2 starter this season. Oops. Last season he had a 3.95
ERA in 31 games, pitching 196 innings and allowing only 16 home runs, while
compiling 179 strikeouts for the Atlanta Braves. What a waste.
Johnny Giavotella, who was also supposed to be a star for
the Royals, was announced the starting second basement for the Angels after
Spring Training, and is currently batting .273 with 6 hits (all singles). In
comparison, Omar Infante is batting .179 with 5 hits (all singles), although he
is riding a 5-game hitting streak. Infante has battled injuries in his short time with KC, and right now, it is a toss-up regarding who I would rather have between these two playing second base for the Royals.
Bruce Chen, who has played for 10 teams in the MLB in his
career, is currently on the Cleveland Indians AAA team Columbus Clippers. He
has a 0.75 ERA in 2 games, giving up only a solo home run in 12 innings. He is
not on the Indians 40-man roster so I doubt he ever plays in the MLB again.
David Lough, who was traded to the Orioles before last
season to provide third base depth for Mike Moustakas, has been on the disabled
list with a hamstring strain, and will likely serve as a fourth outfielder for
the Orioles.
Nori Aoki, who provided lots of entertainment in the form of
baseballs to the crotch last season, currently plays right field for the Giants
(what a traitor – doesn’t he know that the Giants cannot win a championship in
odd numbered years?!?) and is hitting .405 with 15 hits and 2 stolen bases. His
replacement, Alex Rios, was batting .321 with 9 hits, 8 RBI’s and 2 stolen
bases before being placed on the disabled list after breaking a finger on
Monday.
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