Just as a quick point of reference, Kevin’s Royals Blog went over 10,000 hits late yesterday afternoon, a milestone I’m quite proud of. My thanks goes to every last one of you who take the time to load up and read this page every day. Here’s to many, many more thousands of hits down the road. Now, some links to Royals-related items:
Royals GM Allard Baird (who is one of my heroes) did a very interesting interview with MLB.com during yesterday’s game with the Chicago Cubs. I never walk away unimpressed after listening to him on the radio or watching him on TV because he’s extremely well-spoken, clearly has a good head on his shoulders, and seems like a guy who’s always prepared. In this particular segment, Baird repeatedly stated that using the team’s small-market status as an excuse for not winning is a cop-out, and that the Royals just have to find ways to make it work despite the reality of their situation. It wasn’t but five years ago that the Royals frequently whined about a lack of money, providing further evidence that although his team hasn’t won anything during his tenure, Baird has this organization in a better position to win than they’ve been in for years.Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star wrote an informative piece that pretty much eschewed the notion that the Royals have been one of the worst teams in baseball at keeping their players off the disabled list. An unnamed scout bashing Tony Muser and Bob Boone for ruining Jose Rosado’s career is also a part of Dutton’s article, which will always bring a smile to my face. Boone and The Gunnery Sergeant just can’t be degraded enough, if you ask me.Bradford Doolittle of Royalties & Cardinalate did an outstanding Royals season preview over at The Hardball Times, complete with detailed answers to five questions the Royals will have to answer in 2005.You know, there are a lot of statistically-minded baseball fans out there who don’t think Zack Greinke’s going to be anything special. Royals fans know better, and the Star's Joe Posnanski detailed why. For any of the non-believers out there, Zack’s an anomaly, a young pitcher whose results are outweighed by how he achieves those results. If Jedi Mind Tricking opposing hitters into swinging at a curve in the dirt isn’t on his list of things to do this season, I’d be surprised.The Runelvys Hernandez Clown Perm Watch has reached critical mass. Here’s to Elvys keeping that badass haircut for the rest of the season.Not that the Royals need any more below-average defensive outfielders, but I’d love for them to trade Ken Harvey to the Devil Rays for Jonny Gomes. As John Barten of ‘Till You’re Blue in the Face wrote, Gomes is the ultimate Three True Outcomes hitter, meaning the length of his Major League career will depend on how well his employer tolerates record-setting strikeout totals. Unfortunately for Gomes, a man with the baseball intellect of a cheese sandwich is running the Devil Rays, so he probably isn’t going to get a chance to show off his power unless the Royals or some other saber-minded organization free him.
Hell, it probably wouldn’t even take a player as “good” as Harvey is to pry Gomes away from the cheese sandwich himself, Tampa Bay GM Chuck LaMar. Maybe Baird could sell them on the merits of Emil Brown’s outstanding spring training…
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 3/22/2005 12:00:00 AM.
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