Losing to Twins = facepalm

Last night the stupid Twins continued their ability to slow the Royals, winning 3-0 at Kauffman Stadium. It really made me angry. Here is an actual picture of my reaction:

The Twins already have 11 errors this season and they average only 3.2 runs per game. They hit two Royals with a pitch last night, not out of anger or animosity, but BECAUSE THEY SUCK. So understandably, I would rather have a paper cut on every finger than watch the Twins shut out the Royals. In fact, below is a list of things I would rather have than watch the Twins shut out the Royals:

-I would rather have half of my fingernails pulled out

-I would rather listen to Justin Bieber for 3 hours straight

-I would rather watch any of the following crappy Adam Sandler movies: Blended, Jack and Jill, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Grown Ups 1, Grown Ups 2, or That’s My Boy 

-I would rather have my eyebrows waxed

-I would rather give an important presentation at work with a visible booger in my nose 

-I would rather have to cover my arm in Livestrong bracelets

-I would rather be a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire but get the first question wrong, like this guy or this lady.

-I would rather go bowling and throw every single ball in the gutter

-I would rather have to carry a selfie stick around for an entire week 

-And finally, I would rather spend a day in Detroit, Michigan which is the most disgusting city in the world. If you do not believe me, check out the pics below:

The city is clearly not fit for normal human beings to live in. By the way, the Yankees destroyed David Price and the Tigers 13-4 last night so HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA the Tigers suck!!!!!!!!!!!

Next up for the Royals is a series in Chicago versus the White Sox. Beat the Sox Boys!

 

Murder by Kelvin Herrera

This past weekend was crazy. The weather here in Houston was wild, the Royals versus A’s series was almost out of control, and the NBA and NHL playoffs started getting interesting. Here is a quick recap:

Friday night: The Oakland Billy Butlers came to The K, probably hoping to avenge their 2014 Wild Card loss to the Royals. My wife and I were planning to meet with some friends to celebrate a birthday, but mother nature here in Houston decided to let loose with a crazy storm that set off flood warnings and knocked out electricity everywhere.  Just look how big the storm was:

Thus, I was forced to follow the Royals game on my phone. The essence of the game could be captured in the following image:

You will notice that Oakland A’s player Brett Lawrie DID NOT EVEN ATTEMPT TO SLIDE SAFELY INTO SECOND BASE, opting instead to cowardly slash Alcides Escobar, who had to be helped off the field. Lawrie would have been safe at second had he not been such an idiot. Please pardon my French, but what an arsehole. 

Meanwhile, my wife and I were scrambling to move our belongings in case the rising waters in the bayou adjacent to our first floor apartment rose high enough to submerge us. Fortunately, we did not have to see if our couch could float and the rain eventually stopped.

Saturday: Since Houston is one of the world’s largest cities, there is a constant stream of ethnic festivals and on this particular Saturday, there were two that my wife and I hoped to attend: the Japanese Fest and the Lebanese Fest. There was also a local music and beer fest at the House of Blues, and one of my favorite Texas country artists, Jeremy Steding, was performing that night. It was gray outside that afternoon and when we attempted to find parking for the Japanese fest, it started drizzling so we decided to skip that and eat lunch with the friends that we missed on Friday night. After a short nap, we headed downtown to check out the Lebanese festival, which included a ginormous hookah (see below), then we stopped by the House of Blues for the beer fest. 

Giant Hookah at the Lebanese Fest

The Houston Rockets had a playoff game at 8:30 and we decided to grab some Texas cooking for dinner and watch the game before the Jeremy Steding show. At the same time, the Royals were playing their worst game of the season but at least were able to extract revenge of Brett Lawrie when Yordano Ventura hit him with a 99 MPH fastball and was promptly ejected from the game. The Royals were shutout for the first time this season and lost 5-0 but at least Lawrie got punished.

Sunday: My wife and I headed to church Sunday morning, which ended in time to watch the Royals rubber game with the A’s. I tried to tune in and watch on the internet but the storm on Friday had knocked out the internet so I had to follow the game on my phone again. Since Lawrie had received his punishment, this game should have been all about baseball but Oakland pitcher Scott Kazmir, normally known for his control, hit Lorenzo Cain with a 2-seam fastball (Royals 14th HBP this season). Here is a look at the 2-seam fastballs that Kazmir threw on Sunday (pic from Hunter Samuels):

 It is pretty clear which pitch hit Cain and that it was intentional. Kazmir was given a warning, which caused Ned Yost to argue with the umpire since Yordano Ventura did not receive a warning after beaning Lawrie on Saturday. Yost was ejected then pitching coach Dave Eiland got ejected for yelling at Kazmir. Kazmir stayed in the game showcasing his good control and limited the Royals to 2 runs on 6 hits, but in the 8th inning, Kelvin Herrera decided to even the score once more and threw a 100 MPH heater behind Lawrie’s back. He was immediately ejected, along with Alcides Escobar and Don Wakamatsu, meaning a total of 6 Royals players and coaches were ejected in this series versus the A’s (Oakland had 0 ejections). Lorenzo Cain, the reigning ALCS MVP decided he had had enough and reached base on a double, then stole third. Kendry Morales drove Cain and Hosmer home helping the Royals win the game and the series. After the game, Oakland fans and media went ballistic over Herrera’s pitch.

And you know what? I DON’T BLAME THEM. I have previously written about how tough it is to face the Royals intimidating trio of relievers, and now we have an entire city afraid of Kelvin Herrera. In fact, some of them were even suggesting that Herrera could have murdered Lawrie and THEY ARE COMPLETELY CORRECT because Herrera throws pure fire and that 100 MPH fastball he threw at Lawrie could have easily defeated Smaug from The Hobbit. Oakland folks are also suggesting that Herrera was throwing at Lawrie’s head but that is utterly ridiculous for three reasons: 1 – look at the photo below. The red arrow is pointing at the ball and those are called ribs, not the head; 2 – Herrera could have easily hit Lawrie’s head if he wanted to. In fact, he can put the ball wherever he wants which is why he has not allowed a home run since 2013; and 3 – Herrera throws so hard he does not need to hit someone’s head to murder them. He could probably kill you by hitting your foot (which is where Cain was hit by Kazmir after he jumped out of the way) so hard that your body would literally combust from the heat.  

The funny thing is, the A’s are not accepting any blame for their role in this fiasco. They are just angry and scared. Josh Reddick said that the team was ready on the top steps of their dugout waiting for Ventura to hit Lawrie on Saturday, and the benches cleared although no fights occurred. Lawrie said that Herrera needs to pay for his pitch, and like a baby, he suggested that Herrera be suspended for as many as 15 games. Kazmir said that he did not intentionally hit Cain, but he left no explanation for how it happened, especially considering that Cain is currently the Royals best player and Kazmir otherwise had good control for the whole game. The A’s need to own up and shut up and the Royals need to let their game do the talking and stop instigating drama. AND THE MLB NEEDS TO STOP HITTING THE ROYALS WITH PITCHES.

As you can see, this was a crazy weekend and hopefully the Royals crush the Twinkies tonight. Never forget that KC is greater than Oakland.

Royal rememberances

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. 

It is fun to look back at the years those players had for KC, although I think the Royals are in a better place now. And since the Royals have been hit by 12 pitches this year, I think the only retaliation should be sweeping everybody. Good luck to Dem Roys tonight!

The Fantastic 4%

I normally don’t make two posts on this blog in one day, but I have been slacking off lately because I AM TOO BUSY WATCHING THE ROYALS WIN. Being undefeated will do that to a fan, so please pardon my laziness if you are one of the few fine folks who reads my words of Royals wisdom.

I have noticed a trend of growing Royals excitement on twitter and facebook the past 6 months or so, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to put out creative new ways to express my love for the team, while at the same time being able to provide meaningful statistics that I think are helpful for enjoying the beautiful game of baseball. My goal when I started this blog was simply to get a lot of thoughts out of my head so my wife didn’t have to sit and listen to my ranting, and also because I am fascinated with the statistics side of this sport and I wanted to share that fascination with anyone who bothered to read my writing. And that is exactly what I intend to do in this post. 

Earlier today, I shared my friend Kevin’s words about luck for all the Royals haters out there, and in this current post, I wanted to highlight some interesting statistics from the 7 games that the Royals have played so far. It is only 4% of the season, but what a fantastic 4%  (not to be confused with the Fantastic KC Four below) it has been!

First and foremost, the Royals remain without a loss for their second-best start in team history. Their best start was in 2003 when they went 9-0 (and got all the way to 16-3), before ultimately choking away a chance at the playoffs. Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen this year!

Second, the Royals are crushing the ball and have hit at least one home run in every single game this season. Their 10 home runs are second most in baseball (and more than the stupid Tigers have hit). Please watch this video of Kendrys Morales’ second home run of the season. It was massive. The Royals also lead all of baseball with a .532 slugging percent (suck it Detroit) and have scored the most runs in the league, including scoring at least 4 runs in every single game. If you recall last year, the Royals magic number seemed to be 4 as they won almost every game when they scored that many runs. Same thing this year, and they also have 2 games with at least 10 runs. 

Third, the Royals are getting on base in 40% of their at-bats (second-best in the MLB) and they are doing so from 83 hits (third most in MLB), 20 bases on balls (18th most in MLB), AND 12 HIT BY PITCHES. Yes, they have been hit by 12 pitches, including 4 each by Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas. I guess opposing teams hate the Royals now, and outside of Alex Rios needing an x-ray for his hand after getting hit yesterday, I will take those 12 free bases.

Fourth, the team has the fifth lowest ERA in baseball (2.57) and allow the fewest walks and hits per inning (0.86), have the second-most saves (4), have given up the fourth fewest earned runs (18), and have given up the fewest bases on balls (10). The pitchers are all benefiting from the fantastic defense behind them: As defensive wizards, the Royals are tied for fewest errors in all of baseball with only 1. Salvy Perez has thrown out all 3 players who have tried to steal a base on him. Don't run on Sheriff Sal. When are teams going to learn?

Sheriff Sal - don't get caught trying to steal!

 This team is so incredibly exciting to watch right now that if you haven’t tuned in to a game yet, you are missing out. The Royals have a few more games in Minnesota this week, then they head back to KC to welcome Billy Butler to town. Please get me one of the AL Champion replica trophies that they are giving out on Saturday. I will pay you back with many more blog posts about the Royals, k?

Luck

“Luck is a big word that is used, and we see it all the time in society and in life.” Rex Hudler 

Royals fans should be well-acquainted with the odd sayings and mannerisms from Rex Hudler, their TV color commentator. Although there are people who compile a list of the odd things Hudler says, I think his description of the word luck above is pretty spot-on. Luck is a word that, prior to the Royals’ absolute demolishment of the Twins yesterday, many folks were using to describe the Royals start to 2015, as well as their World Series run in 2014. Seems that some people felt that the little old Royals, everyone’s favorite punching bag for the 29 years prior to 2014, were just a bunch of lucky ducks.

Well guess what idiots? That ain’t no luck. The Royals are playing phenomenal baseball and my pal Kevin, who has provided a guest post here, has a few words about luck he wanted to share with you all:

I guess the best way to introduce what I want to write about is the obligatory rhetorical question. What is luck? Is it an amazing extra-inning win against the A’s? Is it the ability to go on a 8-game winning streak in October? Many ‘experts’ in baseball believe the Royals had luck last year. These self proclaimed gurus of baseball explained the Royals’ 2014 season as luck. For this reason, many ‘experts’ have picked the boys in blue to finish fourth in the AL Central. I have even heard the opinion that the Indians will win the central, Detroit in second, the White Sox in third, the Royals fourth and the Twinkies bringing up the rear in fifth. The thought of this is laughable because of the reasoning the Royals were lucky last year.

To me, luck is human error in your favor. If you think about this definition you will realize its truth resides in its simplicity. Luck is something that is out of your control. Luck is something that happens to go in your favor. In baseball, luck happens when an umpire blows a call in your teams favor. There are many scenarios in baseball where a close call or blown call by an umpire can swing a game in your favor. This could be a close call on a steal of second that goes in your favor, and the follow-up hit brings in the winning run. As you ponder the many scenarios that can bring luck to your team, remember luck no longer exists in baseball.

The adoption of instant replay in baseball has killed luck. No longer can an umpire’s missed call bring game changing luck to a team. Manager’s now reserve the right to question a call, and stop game changing momentum. With this in mind, it is ludicrous to think that the Royals’ history making 8-game winning streak in October can be attributed to luck. ‘Experts’ refuse to acknowledge the evolution of baseball the Royals are ushering in with the three-headed monster (Herrera-Davis-Holland) to finish games after the sixth inning. Instead, they are stuck in the steroid era of baseball where cheaters like A-Roid and McGwire set records. ’Experts’ would rather criticize the Royals lack of home runs rather than recognize the talents of a great team. Instead of appreciating a solid starting rotation and league leading speed that brings steals, the ‘experts’ are fixed on power numbers. The tunnel visioned opinion of ‘experts’ should be the fuel for the Royals’ fans. Let their astigmatic opinions be the fuel that ignites our mantra; “Be Loyal, Be Royal.” #KCPride