Royals Walk Update
Posted: June 12th, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball | 26 Comments »
Wednesday Night
Result: Loss 11-5 to Texas
Royals Walks: 3 … 19th consecutive gave with 3 or fewer walks.
Rangers Walks: 7.
19-Game Streak total: Opponents 79 walks, Royals 20 walks.
Record during streak: 4-15.
Royals led this one 5-1 going into the seventh inning. In the seventh, the Rangers’ Ramon Vazquez tripled, Ian Kinsler reached on an error, MICHAEL YOUNG WALKED, Josh Hamilton singled, MILTON BRADLEY WALKED, David Murphy hit the grand slam (the fourth the Royals have allowed in their last 20 games), and when it was all done the Rangers scored 7 and won this game going away.
I can’t help but feel it is just about time to temporarily come off sabbatical this Father’s Day for the depressing and yet totally necessary, “Yep, the season’s over,” column.
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Kill me now. Seriously, blugeon me in the head…
Say it ain’t so, Joe, Say it ain’t so
I really, really wanted to not get hyped about this season, but I foolishly did after the first few weeks. Also, I really wanted to give Jimmy Gobble the benefit of the doubt because I imagine it’s gotta be hard to play under that kind of pressure when you’re struggling, even if you are a professional baller. But still… I think it’s time for him to head down to the minors if we can. And I think Tomko needs to head on out as well. Soooooo depressed…
*sigh*
I meant to say “if we can” with wherever Gobble is in terms of his contract. Can you send guys down to the minors even if they’re veterans? You can, right? Even after they’ve acquired enough Major League service time to get past their arbitration, “Super Two” eligibility and all that stuff? Silly question, but I just started to get confused on how that works.
Even this Tigers fan feels bad for the Royals (except for the whole 0-6 thing against KC, which they’re bound to fix sooner or later).
I really thought they’d be better than last place this year.
Why do I do this to myself every year? I know the Royals will be crap, but I still let myself get sucked in.
I’d change allegiances, but childhood memories are hard to throw away. All I’m asking for is for the Royals not to be the laughingstock of baseball. It feels like being kicked when your already down.
I am done with the Royals. I can’t take it anymore. Their record is officially worse this year than it was last year at this point in the season which is really saying something considering we went 8-18 last April and 11-17 last May… last year in June we bounced back and went 15-12 and I just really don’t see that happening this June since we are 3-7 this month.
Since I can’t really stomach rooting for any other MLB team I guess I am done until NCAA football season…don’t even get me started on the Chefs.
Side note; I was in STL this weekend for the DMB concert at Busch and 3 or 4 times the crowd erupted in “F the Cubbies†chants and “Let’s go Cardinals†chants and the loudest cheer of the night (by far) was when they showed Beauford Page (drummer) in a Cardinals Jersey. I have to say, for the first time in my life I was more than a little bit envious of people who live in St. Louis.
This might be an all time low.
Sorry…Carter Beauford…not Beauford Page
I was a little upset when I wrote that.
I was watching it on MLB.tv last night and it was crazy. When the Royals replaced Davies and the Rangers got that triple…well, it wasn’t just a triple. It became a triple. Anyway, right then, I was like “Ok, here comes tonight’s crumble”. I became curious to see how it would happen this time, so I kept watching… but I didn’t finish watching the inning ’cause I knew the Royals would never come back and win it. They walked 3 times last night though. I just fail to grasp why most of this team is not in AAA…especially Tomko and Gobble
Just the other day my brother asked about the whereabouts of your annual, “The Season’s Over” column. Summer truly has arrived.
Joe,
If you come off sabbatical make sure you have a good column headline the Star can have up on their site for months. I swear everytime I go to the site I see “This loss defies explanation,” and I think you have just written about the previous day’s game. Kind of brilliant- kind of sad.
Nice sneaky placement of the Soul of Baseball link. Is that book for sale? I think it might be great for dads.
I just read Alan’s comments from yesterday about “This loss defies explanation,” so I guess a lot out there are thinking the same thing. Maybe the Star can leave that headline up for the rest of the season. I’m sure it will still apply in September.
Thank God it is Father’s Day this week. The guilt I have felt reading you blog everyday and not being able to buy TSOB was killing me. I believe my wife and boys have bought it already (and I think they bought it at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, at least that’s where I told her to get it, I mean, mentioned that they sold it) I’ll hopefully find out Sunday.
This has been like watching the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon as a kid and not having any money to donate even though they asked me every 20 seconds to PLEASE donate. I felt like I wasn’t entitled to watch Tony Orlando (with or without Dawn) sing unless I called once an hour.
I did go door to door to collect money and bring the jar down to the local TV station to dump it in the big fish bowl.
Luke-a-Duke:
You can always send a player to the minors, but he would have to clear waivers if he is out of options. Every player has three option years where they can be sent to and from the minors as many times as their team desires. Once a player is out of options, they can still be sent down, but every other team has a chance to claim him for a small waiver fee before he gets sent down. My guess is that Gobble, and certainly Tomko, are both out of options, but neither would probably be picked up off of waivers. Even if they were – no big loss.
If a player has a certain amount of service time he can decline the minor league assignment and become a free agent. Most guys don’t decline for the obvious reason that if you’re getting sent down to the minors you’re not going to make a whole lot of money as a free agent.
Don’t go, Joe. Some of us will be hanging in until September and we need you to make sense of it all. Or at least to validate our gloom.
I get the feeling that a sacrificial firing is at hand. Is there a special coach who works with the bullpen? And I emphasize “special.” If so, that due ought to start looking for work on Craig’s List.
Just a note on that 7 run meltdown… Those 7 runs came on 4 hits. I mean, really, give up 4 hits with a 4 run lead, even if they were all homers, you should still be tied. Talk about a perfect example of the damage of a walk.
I am the other Royals fan up here in Maine (with Mark L.) and I don’t want to throw in the towel yet, but the handwriting is on the wall, isn’t it? I will keep firing up the MLB package on DirecTV, but my optimism is waning quickly.
roarke & SMK,
Thanks guys – that actually clears it up a lot! The whole service time/waiver thing can be confusing. Either way, I think we need to show Gobble and Tomko the door (don’t know who we’d replace them with though). I mean, if even Yabuta has slightly improved lately, then what’s their excuses, that two former starters can’t effectively throw a relief inning when they haven’t gone through the order once or twice already to give the other team a chance to pick up on their pitching? *sigh again*…
Hey, Greg P. I had no idea. There are TWO of us up here? Two Maine morons who shelled out for the MLB package? Good deal. Your loyalty, however painful, goes to character. We have much more grit than those pansy pink hats who jumped on the Sox bandwagon around 2004.
Weren’t all 3 of the Royals’ walks last night in the same inning? And one was intentional? And there was also an error in the inning?
And they got one run out of it? And they left the bases loaded?
Just sayin’, it isn’t as bad as Joe puts it. It is worse.
Mark – I posted it in another comments section awhile ago, but I used to work with your Mom in Waterville. I still work at the same place, while I am quite sure she is enjoying retirement!
Wow, small damn world. Drop me a line sometime, let me know how you became a KC fan.
I’m down to listening to some of the Royal’s game, turning it off, turning it back on, turning it off, back on….. Once again, following the Royals is painful. I’m still thinking Dayton Moore has got us going in the right direction. I try to hang onto that as I follow this summer’s boys in blue.
Avilles with a two run dinger. They should be hammering this newbie on the mound. I’d like to see them pile on before I have to go to work, dammit.