15 Minute Rant - Another Day as a Royal's Fan

by Jeff Zimmerman on Apr 13, 2010 11:01 PM EDT

Today with one out in the 7th, the Royals were up 5-0. According to Fangrpahs, the chances for winning the for Detroit was 2.9%. As any Royal's fan knows, the real odds are much higher than that. That would be only 1 in 33 games lost given the game situation. With the craptastic bullpen Dayton Moore has put together, no lead is safe.

First we have this implosion from opening day:

Another great one from 3 days later:

And one not as bad 2 days later:

Even though the starter have been lights out, the relievers are straight up scary.

Split	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	BB	SO	SO/BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	ROE	BAbip	tOPS+	sOPS+
as Starter	7	173	159	22	45	11	1	6	2	1	9	26	2.89	.283	.331	.478	.809	76	6	3	1	1	0	2	.305	88	114
as Reliever	27	115	99	19	31	7	0	5	1	2	13	22	1.69	.313	.404	.535	.939	53	1	2	1	0	0	0	.361	119	154

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/13/2010.

At least when Dayton Moore trade away Ramon Ramirez, J.P. Howell and Leo Nunez he got some great hitters like Joey Gathright, Mike Jacobs and Coco Crisp to help the offense this season.

It is going to be another long season as a Royals fan.

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Comments

I feel for ya'll.

I don’t know what to say.

by ThundaPC on Apr 14, 2010 1:39 AM EDT reply actions

Let's be honest, Jeff.

Even if the pen was below average (instead of horrible), what would we be? We’d be a 5-3 or 4-4 team with a lineup tremendously outperforming even the most optimistic of projections, small sample sizes acknowledged.

I know the meme right now is to bag on the pen—and it’s certainly warranted. But let’s be clear. The bullpen is only a symptom of the problem. They are the Royals genital wart to Dayton Moore’s herpes.

See Data Differently. Beyond The Boxscore.
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by Justin Bopp on Apr 14, 2010 2:47 AM EDT reply actions

Someone at Royals Review needs to sig that last sentence.

And That Happened: Sports with a Hint of Sarcasm

by philkid3 on Apr 14, 2010 3:17 AM EDT up reply actions

I was going to post about last night's blow-up specifically. Here's the play-by-play:

Brian Bannister pitching for Kansas City KAN DET
C Guillen struck out swinging. 5 0
B Inge walked. 5 0
G Laird doubled to deep center, B Inge scored. 5 1
S Sizemore doubled to left, G Laird scored. 5 2
R Santiago fouled out to third. 5 2
A Jackson doubled to center, S Sizemore scored. 5 3
J Damon reached on infield single to first, A Jackson to third. 5 3
M Ordonez walked, J Damon to second. 5 3
M Cabrera walked, A Jackson scored, J Damon to third, M Ordonez to second. 5 4
C Guillen doubled to right, J Damon and M Ordonez scored, M Cabrera to third. 5 6
B Inge grounded out to shortstop. 5 6

From ESPN.

Rob Neyer and Aaron Gleeman mentioned it on Twitter: Soria needs to have been in the game at some point. My question is, when? If warm-up time isn’t the issue, I’d go with bases loaded and two outs, up 5-3. You can’t even give up a single without giving up the lead. First and third surrenders the lead on a double, so maybe you get Soria in then. But he needs time to warmup. So, two questions — when do you start warming him up and then when do you get him in the game?

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by Sky Kalkman on Apr 14, 2010 6:22 AM EDT reply actions

I'd say after the Jackson double.

See if he can get warmed up during Damon, then put Jack in to face Ordonez and Miggy

by AtTheWall on Apr 14, 2010 10:57 AM EDT reply actions

the problem is after the Jackson double, they had to pull Colon IMMEDIATELY

They brought in Hughes, who did a good job against Damon, but got unlucky as Damon ended up with an infield single (which was not well fielded). So while Hughes pitched to Ordonez and Cruz warmed up, they could have warmed up Soria instead. I would say that this qualifies as a situation to consider bringing in the closer early: tying run at the plate with 3-4-5 coming up. But also there were two outs, so going to one of your supposed setup men (Cruz) is not totally wrong.

by SagehenMacGyver47 on Apr 15, 2010 1:51 PM EDT up reply actions

Brings up a good point.

Bringing the closer in mid-inning probably requires a bit of gambling because of the warmup. If you start warming him up, but the third out is recorded, what then? Or what if the trouble doesn’t escalate?

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by Sky Kalkman on Apr 15, 2010 2:53 PM EDT up reply actions