Welcome back Kevin Appier! Kevin has demonstrated that he will fit in very nicely with the Royals by giving up 5 earned in 3 innings, walking 3 with 2 wild pitches. After Matt Stairs pops out to short left field, we can officially update the Start-O-Meter. But I just can't wait:

Quality Start-O-Meter Current Count: 2

4-7. 2 decent starts in 11 games. SABR-types would point to the "small sample size" problem, noting that 11 games is not enough to get a representative picture of what to expect for the rest of the season from the starting pitching. But just for fun, let's go to the tote board:

-- 11 starts
-- 0 (ZERO) wins
-- 7.54 ERA (which will actually go up after Planet Ape's brilliant performance)
-- 25 walks to 24 strikeouts
-- Opposing batters have a .560 slugging .392 OBP (.952 OPS), suggesting that everyone who bats against the Royals is Albert Pujols, but not quite Barry Bonds

Is there ANY reason to be optimistic at this point? ZERO wins for starting pitchers in 11 games. ZERO. Is too much to ask this line?

6 IP, 5 hits, 4K, 1 BB, 2 R, 2ER

On the other hand, Carlos Beltran is demonstrating to rest of the league just how great he is. It'll be fun to watch him playing center field for the Yankees in August...
ds