Weekend Revue
Uh boy. A sweep at the hands of the historically hot Chicago White Sox has left the Royals with a historically cold 5-14 record. The Royals are suffering from a near-complete inability to put together a complete game. When the starting pitching does well, the offense and bullpen fails. When the offense provides a rare spark, all pitching fails. The defense has been comically bad all season (and I was underestimated how bad it was a few days ago).
(Dated reference forthcoming...)
What, me worry?
Yes, its disheartening to watch so many bad offensive players day-in, day-out, but at least we all expected this. The Royals are bottoming out offensively this season with a mixture of youth and marginal veterans. It'll get better, and at least we get watch Matt Diaz do his best Mark Quinn impersonation.
Yes, its demoralizing to watch the infield defense make so many mistakes. It seems like the teams isn't prepared to play half the time. And defense IS such a big part of pitching that we have to worry about the effect it will have on our pitching staff.
True, the Royals' starters haven't won a game in ages....
OK, now I'm worrying myself.
Wait! Silver lining(s):
-- Two strong starting performances, after working out 1st inning jitters.
Zack Greinke's Saturday Line
Inning 1: 1H, 1ER, 0BB, 2K, 1 balk, 1 weird catcher's interference
Innings 2 - 7: 4H, 1ER, 2BB, 5K
Denny Bautista's Sunday Line
Inning 1: 1H, 2ER, 3BB, 1K
Innings 2 - 7: 1H, 0R, 1BB, 3K
-- Continued brilliance from Andy Sisco (so he gave up two hits on Sunday; Cerda put 'em on first!)
-- Tony Pena's overmanagement slowly increasing his odds of dismissal.
-- Day off today, zero chance of playing poorly.
Roster Move Outlook
1) Pickering's demotion. When a one-tool player doesn't bring his one tool to work, he has nowhere to go but Nebraska. Can't blame the Royals for this one.
2) Diaz' ascension. Sure, why not. He destroys AAA competition, so either he's a AAAA journeyman or a functional major league rightfielder. Best to find out now.
2) Burgo's ascension. A true head-scratcher. He's very talented, he's very young, he has control issues, he's not ready. What exactly do the Royals hope to accomplish by bringing him up? Even if he performs well, is he going to any kind of difference to the Royals' record this season? Will more fans come out to watch a closer? Just when you think the Royals have an actual blueprint for success, they panic in a situation that calls for a shrug of the shoulders.
posted by DL @ 9:34 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
In my humble opinion, the Pickering move was a panic move as well.
You can't give someone just 27 AB's, especially with wife's difficult childbirth thrown right in the middle, and just thrown him away.
In his last game, he did strikeout three times, but he also did walk twice, once in front of Emil Brown's homer.
Are we going to give Diaz just 27 AB's. From the first 11, I don't see anything better...
I view the Pick demotion as a panic move as well.
Are we really going to say Pick was given a fair shot? With just 27 AB's, with his wife difficult pregnancy thrown right in the middle of it, are we going to say that we got a good look at him?
Shallow vision from a shallow franchise.
Are we going to give Diaz just 27 AB's? From the first 11, he's worse than Pickering.
Yea, I agree that the White Sox are lucky. They aren't nearly as good as their record says they are.
Regarding Pickering, I agree that 27 ABs aren't enough to evaluate Pickering. I do think that Pickering is better off getting straightened out in AAA than with the big club, and I HOPE that the Royals plan to bring him back when (if) he finds his batting stroke. They can send down one of their 3 or 4 terrible 12th pitchers to make room for Pick.
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