Royal Speed
Posted: July 3rd, 2009 | Filed under: Baseball | 21 Comments »
These are the sorts of things you think about when it’s early July, and you’re watching a dead team that has BOTH Luis Hernandez and Tony Pena in the same lineup. Where’s Tug Hulett?
Here is a little thought experiment … the Royals have a preposterously bad lineup out there on this Friday night, I mean PREPOSTEROUSLY bad. But the thought experiment was to rank the Royals speed, 1 through 9. Here’s what we came up with here in the press box.
1. Mitch Maier. Comment: MAYBE league average speed. Maybe.
2. David DeJesus. Comment: Probably beats Maier in a race two out of five times. Major League Average or so. Had been a good base runner until catching the flu that’s been going around the clubhouse the last couple of years, but has never been fast. I remember once talking to a Royals official about how David could steal more bases. “Shorten the distance between the bases,” he said.
3. Miguel Olivo. Legitimately above average speed for a catcher. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he could beat Maier or DeJesus in a race.
4. Luis Hernandez. Royals specialize in no-hit middle-infielders who can’t run.
5. Alberto Callaspo. STUNNINGLY slow. Showed a stat on him in my column Friday, Callaspo is 1 for 15 going first to third on singles this year. That’s just flat incredible. As I wrote, Jim Thome goes first to third more often. … And it’s no fluke either. Callaspo was 1 for 10 going first to third last year.
6. Tony Pena Jr. (see Hernandez, Luis). And you KNOW he has to be slow to be behind Alberto Callaspo.
7. Billy Butler. Positively glacial. He has yet to steal a base in his big league career … His streak of 277 consecutive games to start a career without a stolen base ranks 49th on the list since 1954 — and it’s 15th among non-catchers. Bob Horner is in his sights at No. 14.
8. Mike Jacobs. Doesn’t give the appearance of being slow by his body type, but yes, looks can deceive. He is actually ZERO for 10 going first to third.
9. Jose Guillen. He has always been slow, but injuries and age have taken that lack of speed away from him.
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I can’t believe that Jacobs and Guillen could actually be slower than the Fatkid. I sometimes think Butler has a chance to develop into Mike Sweeney as a hitter.(pre bad back), but Sweeney (even with all the crap he took from Muser-leading to me being forced to watch Dave Mccarty make errors as a defensive sub) was a much better first baseman and was ALOT faster (and he was not exactly a burner)
We obviously have the slowest team in the majors. Bloomquist is kinda fast, but I think we were still the slowest on days that he and Coco were in the lineup. Butler will NEVER steal a base, so he will end up #1.
Joe, I like the old format better, but you do what you have to do. However, I miss the little link at the bottom of each post that would take you to the next of previous post!
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God, this is great stuff. Posnanski is back and funnier than ever.
I swear, when I read these types of columns, I almost hope the Royals don’t get any better.
I never get to laugh this hard any more.
I’d swear that I’ve seen Jacobs score from 1st at least 2-3 times this season, and on plays where there were less than 2 outs (so he wasn’t running on contact). He’s gotta be above Billy on that alone.
Using my speed score formula (developed in SABR’s “By the Numbers” newsletter) from the 2008 season:
(league average is zero)
Maier and Hernandez did not qualify
DeJesus: +0.10
Olivo: +0.45 (so he probably would beat DeJesus!)
Callaspo: -0.21
Pena: +0.61 (not a misprint)
Butler: -1.70 (that’s downright awful in this system… 4th slowest in MLB last year among qualifiers)
Jacobs:-1.04
Guillen: -1.01
I’m not familiar enough with the speed score to compare those numbers to players on other teams. Where does Ichiro, say, end up? Gomez? What’s a historically good number and what’s shockingly bad?
Pizza Cutter (#5) … who were the three guys slower than Butler? I’m guessing at least two of them wore a White Sox uniform.
Yes, I’m also curious about the guys that were worse than Butler last year. And while we’re at it, how about the top 5 speed scores as well?
Spud — I bet it is actually the Molina brothers.
This reminds me of a pick-up basketball team I often joined in the evenings many years ago. One night one of the better players looked over his squad (me included) for that evening and said, “Well guys, we may be short and old compared to those other teams, but at least we’re slow.”
Speaking of MLB speed guys, was there a faster guy from first to third back in the ’60s than the Dodgers Willie Davis? Who is that guy today? The Pirate rookie McCutcheon looks like he can motor or is that more flash than substance? Also, the Rockies CF Fowler is built sort of like Willie Davis, maybe a shade taller and he can move too.
Royals addendum: In the current 4 game losing streak, the Royals have scored 3 runs and allowed 4 unearned runs, which means their offensive/defensive players have allowed more runs than they have scored, thus making it impossible to win no matter how good your pitching is. Disgusting!
Yay! I can see the website again! And I’ve missed a lot…
The Royals called. They’d like to send the Posnanskis on another vacation.
Great stuff, Joe – It’s good to have you back!
i’m really hoping for a boatload of trades this month… and not all selling… maybe some strategic buying as well.
Billy Butler at least is the one Royal who’s been hitting consistently, so I’ll put up with his lack of speed. The Sox don’t seem to mind that Thome is slow. Now if only Billy could hit for a little more power.
And btw Joe, what’s wrong with your column in the online version of the Star about poor base running? When you click on ‘next page’ there’s no text on the next screen. Does the column really end that abruptly, or is the display messed up?
Our family was at the game last night, the July 3rd 5-0 whitewashing at the hands of the White Sox.
My two daughters and I commented on the Royals lineup, which was completely devoid of recognizable big-league names with the exception of Greinke. My daughters look to me for some insight on the Royals players, but I had to plead ignorance because…I just don’t know anything about these guys (although I quickly learned whoever is playing 2B for the Royals cannot play).
Every year we go to a couple Royals games. Every year the opponent has some quality, recognizable players. Last night, for instance, we recognized Dye, and Thome, and Pierzynski…even Podsednik. The Royals? No name guys. It’s kinda embarrassing. Every other team in the AL has some quality, recognizable names. Why can’t the Royals go out and get a couple? (And, no, I do not count Jose Guillen as a recognizable, quality MLB player).
The stadium, though, is great. As were the fireworks after the game.
Paul
I too was at the game Friday night (and Thursday’s and Wednesday’s too) and I came all the way from Montana with a friend no less. I’ve followed the Royals since the day of their birth, through thick and thin; post-Mr. K it’s obviously been mostly thin. I have to agree with Joe’s sentiments precisely in his Saturday morning column (really a post-mortem) of Friday’s night game. It was about the lowest I’ve felt watching a Royals game EVER (even after Yankees playoff losses). And I wanted to have some fun. My friend wanted to have fun. And it wouldn’t have taken much, really. It wasn’t simply that the players looked positively catatonic in front of 39,000 fans who wanted something, ANYTHING positive to happen, or that they looked as thoroughly overmatched as practically any team I’ve ever seen play a major league baseball game, or the fact that I’d driven 1,100 miles to witness this (with another 1,100 to go back to Big Sky country) or that there was a sewer vent directly below my otherwise great seat in Section 419 which seemed, now that I think about it, perfectly in harmony with what I was witnessing on the field, or that I’d just finished watching 27 innings over three days in which the Royals made more errors than runs, or that they had run/hit into nearly as many double plays as they had hits in the entire three games, or that their baserunning gaffes were things that even the 18 year-olds in the rookie leagues don’t make. No, it was simply that, as Joe wrote, so utterly discouraging after all of the money spent, after all of the great improvements at the stadium, and after years of loyal fan support and patience which is above and beyond what should ever be expected of even long-suffering fans, this should NOT be happening. The Royals put an inferior product on the field in front of 39,000 people and it seems that no one–not the players, not the manager, not the general manager, not the owner, seem to be held accountable for any of it. Somebody (but who??) needs to do something! After all of the rebuilding and restructuring of the team, the supposedly strategic trades and “key” free-agent signings, the team, as Joe wrote, simply looks lost. Yeah, for a long-time fan who was hoping maybe there was a legitimate possibility late last year and then early this that this franchise was finally pulling itself out of a fifteen year morass, small-market dynamics be damned, it is just, well, as Joe said . . . depressing.
Looks like we have a new #1? Freel? The guy did have 36, 37, 37 SB’s from 2004 – 2006, but that was when he was healthy.
Wow, that’s quite a lineup the Royals have put together…awful OBP (last in the AL), poor power (2nd to last in the AL in HRs), AND slow on the basepaths.
I used to think the Royals suffered from a lack of a central organizational philosophy, but I think I’m starting to get it: their goal is to assemble a roster of mildly recognizable names that taken together are in fact not good at anything at all.
miguel olivo stole a base tonight.