Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Royals 4, Orioles 3

and I didn't even miss any of the game due to near-lethal sickness. nope, I got a phone call in the seventh inning that for the most part made me miss the rest of the goddamn game. ah well, here's the statistics that count:

Mike Wood: 1 start, 1 win
john buck: at least 1 hit
shawn camp: 1 save

who knew it was that easy? throw strikes (70 of 108), no walks (don't get yourself into trouble), 3 strikeouts (uh -- good job pacing yourself), 3 runs (usually ok enough to win). hey, I'm not gonna argue with success. whoops, almost forgot, relaford got the game-winning RBI. um, keep up the good work desi. I'm sure you will.

brian Anderson goes tonight. I can't contain myself.

anyway, not much time today. I will say that, with the lineup he threw out there last night, pena finally got it right for the most part. Harvey ain't a #4 hitter. but, no matter where you stick him, this offense is still punchless as shit. are you sure playing by national league rules wouldn't help us out a little bit in the offense department?

and, oh yeah, apparently Jeffrey Flanagan, ever the optimist, has constructed a line-up for the 2006 royals using basically every early-round prospect we've drafted or traded for in the last couple of years. because those prospects will all totally work out. come on, Jeffrey, let's just keep it light and fluffy like usual. ok?

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Orioles 10, Royals 1

the royals, once again, made the opposing team's pitcher look like an ace, in an attempt to show...well, while, yes, this is embarrassing, can everyone please shut up about the royals being "winless since trading beltran"? beltran is not superman – in fact, he probably would have taken the last couple of games off, jogging to balls, stealing no bases – yes, he can be a very good player, but this team would have lost regardless.

fortunately, I came down with this horrible sickness last night, so I listened to the game sprawled out on the floor, fending off death. "fortunately" because I didn't hear much of the game, only waking up to hear the following:

"Baltimore 1, Kansas City 0"
"Baltimore 2, Kansas City 0"
"Baltimore 4, Kansas City 0"
"Baltimore 8, Kansas City 0"
"..and your final score, the Orioles win it 10-1."

and all I remember thinking was, "huh, they scored one.."

anyway, so, after battling fiercely through the night, I wake up to this:

“I'm still trying to figure out what happened,” May said. “I felt I had good stuff.”

shut up, darrell.

this guy is part of the problem – not just because he's a weak pitcher, but because he just doesn't seem to be able to figure out why in the world he's doing so awful. for all these guys that we're told have a "feel for pitching" or "great baseball instincts", it sure doesn't seem like many of them actually do. you have may (and his prodigy chris george) who, after every horrible game, say something like, "I was really throwing the ball well, sometimes you just have a game like that." yeah, every game. I don't know if it's better, though, to hear brian anderson talk about how much he's sucked so far, and how he hopes to turn it around. the problem is these guys need to pitch with a little intelligence. they put themselves into holes so many times that there's no way they'll be effective unless they just plain get smarter.

so, now, brian anderson is returning to the starting rotation. there's no reason for this, unless we're either planning on getting rid of him during the next month or after this year. otherwise, he's worthless right now. I don't think reyes will continue to be effective, but they know that they're not on the hook for a few million dollars with reyes, whereas anderson needs to come through with something. unfortunately, we have to watch him do that. they're just hoping and praying they can hoodwink someone into thinking he's somehow "regained his form". hey, maybe they could have some scouts out to watch him throw BP to the royals!

and, joe randa goes to the DL. are we missing anything? formerly, maybe a little defense, but not since he was hurt. and, is defense that hard to find? his hitting is awful. no matter how many times I hear the radio people talk about how well he handles the bat, he sure doesn't seem to. just a very average guy. but he's in with god and all, I'm sure there's something in that. at least now we get to hear desi relaford stop whining about never playing, since he'll be playing a LOT...for no particular reason.

have we reached the point where we're just supposed to pretend juan gonzalez never happened?

of course, with all the injuries around here again this season, we get these words of wisdom from 'ol darrell:

“It's a different team,” pitcher Darrell May said. “It's tough to take, and it's frustrating. You work hard, and this is the result.”

how's that groin holding up, darrell? it might not hurt to change the team up a little more..

Sunday, June 27, 2004

all right...as will be obvious very quickly, i'm not an expert on the html or blogging industry. i've put some links on the site tonight -- i figure, a few of you have been nice enough to include me on your sites, and i'd like to complete the circle of royals blogs and send a link back. i'm not entirely thrilled with the way the pre-made format of this looks, so if any of you have any suggestions on how i can make this site look a little better, i'd appreciate it. thanks! juntos podemos! etc..

you mean there's still over 3 months of this to watch?

what a...disappointing weekend.

in order:
Friday: St. Louis 5, KC 2

the royals, once again, made the opposing team's pitcher look like an ace, in an attempt to show...um, what are they trying to show again? well, greinke showed the fact that baseball is very reliant on unlikely chance and inopportune moments to highlight the difference between a win and a loss. greinke gets rolen to pop out with the bases loaded in the third? the game is anyone's. the royals pretend like they're playing in an actual game? a base hit or two together could have won it. but, no, another team's pitcher "regained his form", and the royals went down.

Saturday: St. Louis 3, KC 1 (10 innings)

the royals, once again, made the opposing team's pitcher look like an ace, in an attempt to, show...um, royals? whatcha doin' out there, anyway? despite denys reyes' best efforts to bowl the cardinals over with his ground game, this game, once again, had the unfortunate effect of highlighting the difference between a bounce here and there or two feet in either direction. I couldn't believe sweeney's hit and the subsequent outcome in the 9th, but, then again, I could believe he would be swinging 3-0 and dejesus would be running immediately on contact in order to win the game. I can't blame either, but neither ideas were exactly the best ones. what if sweeney drives the ball in the air on 3-0? a fly ball to the outfield would do no good, since we only have a guy as far as second. a hard-hit ground ball at someone would likely be a double play more than anything else. a line drive out is bad; a line drive double-play is worse. a base hit is obviously good, but that's the most unlikely outcome. a walk would load the bases with one out, with speedster ken harvey up next. not that I particularly have faith in ken harvey. despite the somewhat still high batting average and talk (ha!) of "batting crown", he just doesn't get enough good contact with the ball on a consistent basis to believe he won't revert back to his usual technique of swinging over a left-handed batter's box curveball, or skying a pop-fly to the first baseman. BUT, with harvey up, one out, and a runner on third, all the same variables come into play as with sweeney's at-bat, only any hard hit ball to the outfield is likely a game winner, a walk wins it, and the only things that completely kill you are hard hit balls at infielders. naturally, sweeney lined out, dejesus was trying to score, and it all fell apart, as the baseball gods have determined it should be this season. if sweeney takes that 3-0 pitch, it would have been 3-1, and then anything goes. it's hard to fault him, because he did hit the ball ridiculously hard, but the "green light" is given too many times, I think. beltran was another guy that always had a green light, and managed a great number of ineffective pop-ups to kill innings. I guess one good thing about having a lot of rookies and poor hitters is that management isn't likely to give the green light to almost any of the players. if only management knew how to use it, anyway..

Sunday: St. Louis 10, KC 3

the royals, once again, made the opposing team's pitcher look like an ace, in an attempt to, show...jesus christ, i gotta watch this?

sad. enough to make you pour a couple bloody mary's and write about it on the 'net. unfortunately, since trevor vance doesn't work for local softball leagues, my games were cancelled this evening, so I had more time to reflect on this one. and, this is what I came up with:

pitiful shit.

I was really disappointed with this game. I watched a couple innings, fell asleep after a few runs scored, and woke up to a 5-0 score. even as the royals scored 3 runs in the fourth, you knew this was never going to be close. other teams justify their investments in high-dollar players when they play the royals, as it seems every star player manages to shine through against our boys. the whole weekend it was scott rolen and edgar renteria and no-names 7-9 in the order...hell, it doesn't have to be star players. it just has to be players.

it's kind of sad to see that st. louis, a town that's only a little bigger than kansas city, manages to field a competitive team year after year, which, combined with a strong team history, continues to bring in a rabid fan base. kansas city has fielded a bunch of nobodies for years, and, despite having a shorter history, experienced great success for many years, and *should* have something to show for it. but, years of bad decisions and continual claims of poverty and aversion to "losing" money on this team on the part of ownership is sapping this team. I think last year's run at .500 is going to do worse for this year than if we sucked all the way through the last 10 years without a glimmer of hope. because the "success" of last year stirred long dormant hopes in the hearts of many of the small number of people in this town, and while most of them don't quite understand the gigantic economic differences, there's still the fact that the owners of these teams are absurdly rich, yet almost completely unwilling to actually spend any of their own money on a winner. god forbid that. but, being worth hundreds of millions and at the same time being afraid of spending a little of that money on something many people care about that you – and only you – have the power to change breeds a lot of anger and resentment. and while the royals baseball club screamed for your money in the form of season tickets, and the need for millions of fans to come out so that the royals could possibly, potentially, maybe-one-day-if-baseball-fixes-itself be competitive, it's kind of sad to see only a couple million dollars ever allocated towards free agents this year. the supposed oakland / minnesota / moneyball-ish philosophies right now are crap. these teams lucked out with the right players at the right time...it won't continue indefinitely. but, anyway, this is stuff I fully intended for another entry, so I will leave it at that.

I'll just say: watching scott rolen, a high-profile, formerly available third baseman beat you on consecutive nights while joe randa flounders in nowhereland certainly isn't doing anything to help your image in this city, mr. glass. by refusing to invest anything in this team at all at any point during your tenure, it sure does make it hard to keep watching this crap.

Friday, June 25, 2004

after wednesday night's mega-post, i figured you could use a little break from all that pesky reading. anything happen while i was gone?

well, there was thursday's 12-3 shellacking. pretty sad. at least it happened early, so you never got hope that the royals were actually in the game. that's the most you can hope for some days around here.

thursday also saw the re-emergence of the real chris george, apparently the victim of a comical set of circumstances that began with his apparent disbelief of the news that the major league royals had inexplicably decided that they couldn't afford a new uniform for a player that had never been with the club before, and opted to bring up someone that already had one. apparently the "chris george" we've seen the last couple of games before thursday's was nothing more than some light and sound magic, courtesy of the kansas city royal's special effects team. unfortunately, the real chris eventually made his way back, culminating in an actual appearance at kauffman stadium thursday afternoon.

and, just in time for a well-earned trip back to the minors, too! bye chris.

i think if you search around enough, you may be able to find a thing or two about our little carlos growing up and leaving home. my initial take: i think we made out pretty well, considering we had nothing upon nothing to build on except other teams' continued insistence that having one guy for a couple months will marginally improve their team enough to overcome all of the randomness and improbability that goes along with winning lots of baseball games. and it seems like we did pretty good with the guys we picked up. of course counting on prospects really sucks, and there's no way in the world to know how these guys will work out. but, right now, i think there's reason to have some hope.

note to david dejesus: lighten up a bit. you get to play a lot now, so stop trying so hard. and since we have new line-up cards in stock, you don't have to worry about tony glueing relaford's name in your spot. for a couple days, at least.

well, i'm off for the weekend -- back sunday night or monday. good luck against the cardinals, of course. just one question: why can't we just drop this whole cardinal rivalry and start picking on someone that isn't good every year? it sure would help to have a natural rivalry with someone that, um, sucks.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

this will be the first night since I cranked up this little site that I get to sit down and write as they play. it will, no doubt, be exciting. buckle up.

oh yeah: the royals won last night, 8-1. nate field continued on as the (interrupted) closer, closing a game they never would have allowed him to finish had the royals not scored 5 more runs in the meantime, and picking up save #2. way to build 'em up, tony. pitching successfully is never a way to get ahead, of course.

tonight I get to do what I love best: listen to the radio guys...uninterrupted! no matter how awfully boring the TV guys are, the radio team of Ryan and Denny is great! I'll hate to ever see it change.

but anyway, to the game..

6:55 – allard had to take a rain check on dinner last night. I was disappointed, but such is the life of everyone's favorite GM. some day, I tell ya. you'll have to keep in mind that I now have to finish allard's boulevard porters for him. can't let 'em go bad, ya know?

7:00 – is there anyone that needs a gift certificate for dinner for two to [insert plaza restaurant] less than major league baseball players? what a sweet gig:
Q: You hit the ball well last night. Do you feel like you're getting your swing back on track?
A: Yeah, I've really been seeing the ball well lately. I've battled through some injuries this season, but I've been working with pentland and I really feel like I'm doing better at being selective and waiting for a pitch I can drive.
Q: The Royals have made it known that they're listening to offers for many of the players. How does that make you feel?
A: Well, you know, we all know this is a business, and the Royals have to do what's best for them, and as ballplayers, we may not like it, but we know that's how it is.
Q: Well, thanks for your time, and good luck tonight.
A: Thank you.

how do I get hooked up for this? I knew those answers!

7:04 – starting lineup:
graffanino
beltran
sweeney
harvey
stairs
randa
brown
berroa
castillo

the good: tony pena finally managed to get both matt stairs and dee brown in the lineup. at the same time. playing, as they should be. I must mention: here at Royal Blues we pride ourselves in offering nothing but the *best* inside information we can gather. well, I learned earlier that, due to apparent budget restraints, tony's been using the same lineup card the entire season! yes, it's true. unfortunately, when filling out the opening day lineup, he accidentally wrote down "relaford" in pen! once he realized his mistake, it was too late – it couldn't be erased. and that's why desi and his .200+ average manages to show up in the lineup regardless of how little sense it makes. left field, right field, third base, pitc...err, ok, not pitcher (though, if it was on an anderson / may night, we might be better off), but still...you have a healthy stairs ready to go? there's relaford! call up dee brown to play some outfield? out goes desi! when desi landed on the DL, tony carefully took a pair of scissors and managed to cut out the square that says "relaford", and has ever-so-gently (so as not to draw much suspicion) been pasting it in different spots of the lineup card. at some point, he even managed to make "relaford" look like "gettis", which explains how byron ends up inexplicably, um, playing. on the field.

well, i'm glad to say, the royals finally stumbled upon a close-out special at the line-up card company, and are now working with a fresh set of cards! hopefully that whole "ink pen" thing won't happen again!

by the way, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate kelly stinnett. upon dee brown's return, kelly finally completed his coursework in the Dee Brown School of Completely Screwing Up the Only Chance You Had to Start by Getting Injured Immediately After the Team Gives You a Chance to Play (the DBSCSUOCYHSGIIATGYCP institute. highly prestigious.)

much has been made of this being Dee Brown's "last chance". when did he really get his BIG CHANCE? yes, every time he supposedly was going to get much playing time, he came up injured, but sometimes shit just happens. I don't think he's ever really had a legitimate chance. and, with the unfortunate "relaford" line-up card mishap, he has thus far remained relegated to the bench.

so, maybe he can make good buddies with mike tonis, in the "tony is really jacking with my confidence" club. because, playing every fifth game and late-inning pinch-hit at-bats are a completely ridiculous way to evaluate someone. there is no chance these guys will shine if they're only grudgingly allowed to play. I thought tony played all his players! maybe somewhere, in the translation of tony mumble-speak, I missed, "I play all my (utility) players." tonis is worse off than dee brown. he goes from "catcher of the future" to "low-grade prospect" to...in the majors! and, when stinnett went down – he kept his spot on the bench! seriously, why did they ever bother to bring him up if, when he would actually have to play, you're just going to call up castillo and have tonis continue to make sure the gatorade jug stays full? these guys, really, have almost no chance.

7:15 – darrell may: "I call this pitch the 'darrell may special'!"
ivan rodriguez (after depositing it over the wall in dead center): "shit, man, I can't believe they still let you throw that!"
darrell may: "well, honestly, that's basically all I've got."
end top 1st: tigers 2, royals coming up..

7:25 – graffanino strikes out to open the game. tony pena claps and pats his butt for inspiration.
– sweeney almost cranks one out. Dodgers? you listening? I really don't want to see sweeney go, but, at this point, the way baseball works (which is completely retarded, though that essay will come another time..), if the royals can get a) good prospects for sweeney and b) out from under sweeney's contract, why not?
– matt stairs walks. randa hits sweeney in with a double. um, dodgers?
– dee brown drives in randa and stairs with a drive to center. dee, back to the bench! who do you think you are, desi relaford? no, wait, there's that whole "hit" thing..
– berroa singles. he seems to have relocated "strikes", though in the field he unfortunately has the attention span of a goldfish. he's certainly no "wizard", that's for sure. and, since I can't come up with anything else: "the goldfish" it is.
– albert castillo walks on four pitches. his OBP is through the roof! allard: call billy beane!
– estaban yan begins warming up.
– graffanino strikes out for the second time. hey, what do you expect? he's just a utility player. tony grabs him and massages his shoulders to lift his spirits.
end bottom 1st: royals 4, tigers 2


7:55 – darrell may goes through the top of the second with no damage.
estaban yan continues throwing.
gary knotts goes through the bottom of the second with no damage.

then, everyone forgets to leave the field.

while they're standing around, I'll say: you know, carlos beltran is, definitely, a good player. but I can more easily see him fall off into averageness than make his way into superstar-land. the worst thing that could happen would be if the royals offer up some glimmer of hope (and, even at this point, they're honestly not out of the division race by any means..) and beltran ends up staying the rest of the year. if the royals are never, ever going to be able to outright sign a player you know is going to be at least good (rather than the plan offered up by every wanky journalist that's finally got around to reading "moneyball" of taking chances on rookies or undesired veterans as the ONLY CHANCE a "small-market" team can compete – what, it's unreasonable to expect every team to be able to have a chance at players that everyone already knows can play well at the major league level? – they might as well turn beltran into at least two players, whether they end up ever being good or not).
end bottom 2nd: royals 4, tigers 2

8:05 – darrell may goes through the top of the third with no damage.
end top 3rd: royals 4, tigers 2

8:12 – randa singles. wow, other teams, look at that!
dee brown singles – he's now 2 for 2. tony, what are you doing?? you see all those base runners? what a mess! get gettis in there!!
the goldfish sac bunts 'em to 2nd and 3rd. woo.
castillo grounds out to first, scoring nothing. good thing, that bunt there..
graffanino grounds out to second, scoring nothing.
no doubt tony consoles his players...positively. pena gives graffanino a haircut and a shave (rey sanchez, eat your heart out). looking dapper and smooth never meant more to a guy's confidence..
end bottom 3rd: royals 4, tigers 2

8:30 – darrell may goes through the top of the fourth with no damage.
end top 4th: royals 4, tigers 2

mike sweeney singles in the bottom of the fourth. other teams: that's the kind of production you need! hell, I'd be willing to pay 15, 17.5 million to get someone like that. what? he'd only be paid $12.5 million?!? score!
meanwhile, gary knotts goes through the bottom of the fourth with no damage.
yan eagerly waits for the bullpen phone to ring so he can stop throwing..
end bottom 4th: royals 4, tigers 2

8:36 – darrell may gives up a couple of hits, but goes through the top of the fifth with no damage.

you know, the thing about darrell may...well, of course there's the fact that half the time he *really* sucks, but still...like last year when he was so awful for a while that he got sent to the bullpen – he doesn't seem to understand that nobody in the major leagues wanted him, and, really, nobody in their right mind would want him for anything more than a space filler for a limited time still. yet, when you hear him talk, he seems to think he should have a permanent space in the rotation. like tony should write "may" in ink pen, too! he was mad when he was moved to the bullpen last year, he was mad that he wasn't the #1 starter this year, and he always has some nonchalant, arrogant statement to make when he's asked why he sucked on a particular evening. yet, he's a soft-throwing lefty that's not particularly smart. he just throws (the darrell may special, of course), and either gets hit or he doesn't. he never really does much to make you think that he actually understands if or what he does wrong, or that anything in particular ever actually goes wrong when he pitches. I mean, I like the crafty, soft-throwing guys. but I won't be sad to see darrell go, either.
end top 5th: royals 4, tigers 2

8:45 – gary knotts goes through the bottom of the fifth with no damage.
yan checks the calendar to see if it might be April 1 again.
end bottom 5th: royals 4, tigers 2

8:50 – darrell may throws his first 1-2-3 inning, going through the top of the sixth with no damage. he's obviously forgotten how to throw the "special".
estaban yan's arm falls off.
end top 6th: royals 4, tigers 2

8:55 – graffanino strikes out for the third time. tony grabs sluggerrr's gun and shoots a hot dog at him to pump him up. it works.
gary knotts then goes through the bottom of the sixth with no damage.
alan trammell calls the pen to see if yan is ready.
end bottom 6th: royals 4, tigers 2

9:07 – darrell may goes through the top of the seventh with no damage. pena positively encourages him to throw more "specials" next time out.
end top 7th: royals 4, tigers 2

9:13 – estaban yan becomes the first right-handed pitcher to throw a 1-2-3 inning without a right arm since jack "lefty" mcgee did it for the st. louis browns in 1912. jayson stark frantically researches all right-handed one-armed pitcher anomalies for his "wild pitches" column next week.
end bottom 7th: royals 4, tigers 2

9:16 – tony pena calls for utility player mendy lopez from the bullpen. after being informed lopez is currently in AAA, scott sullivan is allowed to pitch. darrell may pouts in the dugout, only to be cheerfully tickled by tony's mustache.
end top 8th: royals 4, tigers 2

9:20 – someone at baseball prospectus develops N.O.A.R.M. (natural one armed righty metric), a new tool used to measure right-handed one-armed pitchers' effectiveness. the oakland a's farm system, of course, comes out on top.

9:22 – play is halted as the tigers' trainer attempts to re-attach estaban yan's recently discovered arm. after an unsuccessful attempt, yan gives up an infield single to the goldfish and a bunt single/error to castillo.
– graffanino doubles/errors to a fallen alex sanchez. the goldfish swims home as tony pena prepares a milk bath to sooth graffanino's tired arms after that monstrous swing.
– sweeney is intentionally walked. (so i say D...i say D-O...D-O-D-G-E-R-S..)
– harvey singles in two runs. you walk beltran, sweeney kills ya. you walk sweeney, harvey kills ya. you walk harvey..."relaford" kills ya? um, suure..
– sluggerrr sneaks in and starts lapping up the milk bath on the diamondvision's "milk cam". a while later, after realizing he's on camera, he proceeds to wave to the side of the diamondvision screen.
end bottom 8th: royals 7, tigers 2

9:28 – affeldt enters. he gives up a triple and then a run. pena calls an escort for graffanino to help him forget about the night. it works.
pena scratches sluggerrr's chin for luck.
– affeldt closes out the game. nate field scoffs.
end top 9th: royals 7, tigers 3

tony pena then flashes a rare smile. royals win!

Monday, June 21, 2004

and now i know i'm making a difference..

orioles suckered tricked hoodwinked somehow come around to believe jason grimsley is a useful major leaguer. somewhere, an orioles fan just began his descent into male-pattern baldness. i hope the camden yards staff has plenty of chairs on hand for 'ol grims. a word of advice to the orioles: if there's anything in the clubhouse you don't want broken, just put a picture of a catcher's mitt on it. i guarantee nothing jason throws will come within three feet the entire season..

and, on a serious note:

thank you, allard.

a move of this magnitude should earn a GM at least one day off. so, if you're in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by tomorrow night: a nice boulevard porter and a bowl of beans is on the house! hell, this may even call for a batch of cornbread. i'm getting started as we speak..
am i not allowed to watch the games? those were some sad performances saturday and sunday. saturday, as we watched byron gettis wing the ball past third base, ken harvey take a lap around the field on his way to catch a fly ball, and angel berroa swiftly pull his glove out of the way of a grounder, my girlfriend said, "i didn't know your softball team was playing today!" i'm glad we were playing on sunday, though, as i didn't have to finish watching that debacle. i realize that beltran had never played in philadelphia's ballpark before this weekend, and playing that hit from jimmy rollins on a hop would most likely have allowed two runs to score anyway, but -- much like my softball team doesn't understand -- sometimes it's better to make sure the ball doesn't get past you and give up some bases than to try to make an impossibly spectacular play and completely suck the life out of the team. it was obvious he didn't get a good break or read on that fly ball, and his leaping attempt was a pretty silly effort. he would have had a hard time holding on to the ball as he crashed into the wall had he initially grabbed it anyway. and, oh yeah: "challenge jim thome and make him beat you" is also a poor strategy. i'm ready for allard to start selling! and, as much as the players cry -- heh, they won't be here anyway! if a tree falls..

Saturday, June 19, 2004

once again, i listen to one inning, and the royals win 10-4 (again). it's like at last year's chiefs-colts playoff game -- the chiefs were down, i get up to go to the restroom, and dante hall immediately returns a kick for a touchdown. when i got back to my seat, everyone behind me tried to kick me back out to the concourse. well, don't you try that now! i promise, until they stop winning 10-4, i'll keep my mouth shut. which, fortunately, won't be too hard, since i'll be away from the computer altogether the next couple of days. but i'll be able to watch the games while i'm away, due to the place i'm staying having, uh, "cable" (not that i would know what that is). the only drawback is that i can't do the "mute the tv, listen to the radio announcers" routine like i would at home (were i able to watch the games...at all), as the delay between the words and pictures drives everyone else nuts. how you can stand listening to the tv guys is beyond me, but after a couple more 10-4 poundings this weekend, i'm sure i'll be able to overlook it..

Friday, June 18, 2004

well, due to the 'ol "unforseen circumstances", your humble narrator here at Royal Blues has definitely been singin' 'em, since i've been able to listen to about 3 innings total of the last two games. one of those happened to be the 9th inning of wednesday night's game, during which i heard enough scoring to win the game just by that inning alone. and, hey, i was only one day short of posting for two days in a row! of course, with two royals victories since the grand debut of this little space - 10-4, 10-4 - what else is there to say? just: carry on..

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

curtis leskanic...released!

damn! the royals making all kinds of odd, um...huh?-type moves.

you're telling me you couldn't get anything for curtis leskanic? i know he's been injured, he hasn't been effective, and all that..but..

i mean, i don't know. it's one of those things that, well..i'm gonna take allard's word for it. i honestly have faith in the fact that he, seriously, couldn't get anything for him. though i still question it. the only thing i can believe is that there's a lot wrong with curtis leskanic that would have been revealed by a physical from another team. much like omar vizquel to the mariners, you just have to believe leskanic wouldn't have passed anywhere.

so...honestly, allard: don't forget grimsley! i'm really hungry for some beans..

so, i've been thinking for a while

and what better time to finally start a royals blog than now? (uh, blog? i hate that word. yes, i realize i'm on "blogger". no, i don't like it, either) anyway, my royals, uh, journal (i guess) wouldn't feel right if it didn't start on a totally disappointing note in a completely stupid season. royals lose 3-2 to the braves on a jason grimsley special -- either the sinker "wasn't sinking", or the hits "fell in place", or he "just didn't get the calls"...but, basically, i'm not sure i've ever seen grimsley really pitch effectively in a game when he actually needed to (i.e. when he comes in to protect the lead, which some people would refer to as the role of the "set-up man"). basically, the "sinkerball" never sinks. the "seasoned" veteran manages to substantiate his experience by proving that some players never learn much (but, remember that "seasoned" portion of it..) basically, i cringe when i hear he's warming up. i chomp my nails when he jogs in. i'm going bald because they actually let him pitch. i've heard he's a free-agent, and slight (very, very slight!) trade-bait. royals: please stop thinking of yourselves. save me! i can't take him anymore.

and so, in honor of trading jason grimsley, i offer some of the best deals made in the past (courtesy of "The Baseball Catalog" by Dan Schlossberg). allard, this is for you:

Another great hurler, Robert Moses (Lefty) Grove, got started toward the majors by being exchanged for a center-field fence...(ed: allard, you could have saved beltran from lurkingly killing your trade potential..)
The Wichita Falls, Tex., team once traded Euel Moore for a plate of beans. Dallas sent Joe Martina to New orleans for two barrels of oysters. San Francisco shipped first baseman Jack Fenton to Memphis for a box of prunes. But when president Homer Hammond of San Antonio agreed to trade infielder Mike Dondero to Dallas for a dozen doughnuts, he managed to keep Dondero and have his doughnuts too; before signing the agreement, he ate them all up."


allard, i would take a plate of delicious, seasoned beans to never hear the words "jason grimsley" again. as a courtesy for my research, i'll assume my reservation in the stadium club has been made..
i hate jason grimsley i hate jason grimsley i hate jason grimsley i hate jason grimsley i hate jason grimsley i hate jason grimsley i hate jason grimsley i hate jason grimsley i hate jason grimsley i hate jason grimsley i hate jason grimsley i hate jason grimsley

and so it begins.

(as an odd coincidence, i could have started this two years ago, and it honestly would have started the same way)..