Prior to last night's
rain-shortened victory over the Devil Rays, Royals GM
Allard Baird held a news conference to discuss the search to find the next Royals manager, what qualities that individual will need to have to understand the team's direction, and where the Royals stand in general as an organization. Color me geeky, but it was probably the most captivating Royals press conference I've seen in a long time. How captivating was it? Well, I think an all-
Catherine Bell Girls Gone Wild would've only been slightly more interesting to me than Baird's remarks were.
Without me going into a lot of detail on what exactly was said, Baird continued to make the point that there is no timetable on finding a new skipper, saying that placing a one- or two-week deadline would be counterproductive. It's imperative that they find the right man for the job, or the one guy who's willing to understand the direction of the club. He also spent time addressing the negative press the organization's received this year, in essence saying that the national media just doesn't have the slightest clue of what's actually happening behind the scenes in Kansas City.
While I've admired Baird's work for a very long time, I now admire the man who does the work not only because of what I saw and heard him say to the Kansas City media, but how he said those things. Seriously, to those of you who were lucky enough to watch it, can there really be any argument that this guy is one of the elite individuals in all of sports? Allard has every trait a role model should have, including but not limited to a strong work ethic, confidence, honesty, determination, faith, and a clear plan of attack for how he's going to succeed in his job. The Royals don't need to spend any time finding the right man for the general manager's job, because Allard is that man.
Moving right along...
Jose Lima had another very rough outing, allowing five earned runs in 5.1 innings of work. But perhaps more disturbing than his inability to protect a 5-0 lead is the four walks he allowed, furthering my point that Lima's control has seriously eroded over the course of one offseason. He's now issued 21 walks in 43.1 innings this year, a rate of 4.39 walks per nine innings pitched. Stellar control was the only thing separating Jose from being a completely worthless pitcher before, so if that's left him too, he needs to work on promoting his singing career.Fortunately for the Royals, Devil Rays phenom Scott Kazmir was equally as bad, as the former Mets prospect only made it through four innings. Watching the game, it was apparent that Kazmir, a lefty, was having a much harder time throwing strikes to left-handed batters than he was righties. The box score proved me right; of Kazmir's five walks, four were issued to left-handed batters. By my count, he threw 38 pitches to the Royals lefties last night, only 16 of which being strikes.Mark Teahen continued to sparkle defensively, as he made several very nice plays to his left that most third basemen probably wouldn't. Oh yeah, he smoked what proved to be the game-winning double to dead center field in the bottom of the 6th too.Before Matt Stairs even started to compile his usual beer-league softball line complete with two walks, several swings with the Kauffman Stadium fountains in mind and the beer truck driver looks, my dad and I were busy disussing the many reasons why he rules as a ballplayer. Among the items brought up:
- He's fat
- To him, every pitch is a fastball
- Watching him run is VERY good television
Thankfully, we got the privelege of watching Matt score from first base on Emil Brown's triple. Hell, I don't think what he does could even be classified as "running." It's definitely quite a bit more like trotting.Just like 2004 (and 2003, 2002, 2001, and so forth), the pitching staff has suddenly been ravaged with injuries at the same time. Brian Anderson isn't allowed to pick up a baseball for two weeks because of elbow soreness. Kyle Snyder was placed on the 15-day disabled list because of an elbow strain. Denny Bautista experienced some tightness in his right elbow during his last start against the Blue Jays. Of course, only Bautista's a vital part of the Royals' future as they build towards 2007, but Anderson could be trade bait later on this year, and Snyder was supposed to have been healthy for the first time in a long time.
This entry was posted
on Friday, May 13, 2005 at 5/13/2005 12:00:00 AM.
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