This is what makes it so hard for a baseball fan. 122 games left in the season and no shot at the playoffs. Baseball is so regionalized that most people do not have a second favorite team or really a national rooting interest. It is disappointing that the Royals couldn't be even close to playing 500 ball at this point. Is there any shot at Bobby Witt Jr winning rookie of the year at least? Not following how other rookie players throughout MLB are doing.
Any shot? Sure, a great shot, but he's fallen behind. The guy is hitting .215/.260/.389. Right now he's behind Jeremy Pena, Julio Rodriguez and Joe Ryan for sure and lumped together with a bunch of others. The good news is the guy who wins Rookie of the Year tends to not be the guy leading the charge after six or seven weeks.
So…..yesterday was rough and it was the only game I watched on a busy weekend. I’ve already spilled my frustrations so no real reason to go over it again. I know you still believe but I’m most frustrated with this window getting pushed out another year. I just don’t see how if you finish worse than last year how you can say your are going to win 20 more games just on the backs on players getting better. Yes, some will get better….but that’s not how it usually works. Some will also digress or age (Salvy, Whit). The offense has been bad…but a path to get better. The starting pitching has been ok but it seems like some things might be starting to get figured out there….now we just need health. Bullpen….that was supposed to be a strength. It’s so damn frustrating to see the Cardinals bring up prospects and more often than not they start off relatively hot before cooling off.
Would love to see a 40 game analysis on the - starters, bullpen, offense, front office from you. Lol
It's all frustrating. I'm not sure I'd say that I still believe as much as I don't think this year was ever part of the "window." Whether they lose 83 games or 103 games, the record largely is irrelevant this season if they can find three or four bats out of their prospect base and go into next season with at least two of the young arms becoming consistent mid-rotation starters and one more fitting in at the back end. If you can start with three young starters, you've got something. As for the bullpen? Man, I don't know. They've fallen apart.
I probably won't do an actual analysis because I kind of do it every day. It's the sort of thing where you shouldn't need a review at work if your boss is actually communicating with you regularly, you know? But what I can tell you is that I'm encouraged by Lynch and now Singer. So that's a positive. I'm not worried about Witt even though he's struggled. Melendez looks like the real deal and it looks like among Isbel, Olivares and Rivera they're going to find someone. Pratto and Pasquantino are next, in some order. if one of those two click, I think the building for the future has been successful, but I'm not confident at all about those in charge putting it together to make it work.
There are pieces to be excited about for sure. I guess if this year isn’t part of the window I get it but the sales job was that they’d be better. I’m done with the entire front office. However, I will say this on Singer. he looks like a legit starter now with three pitches. I want Eldred gone….and DM too at this point. But I don’t think this with Singer is specifically on them. I think Singer had to fail to the point of job security before he made any changes. I think he is hard headed….which isn’t bad….but he had average success before with two pitches and clearly wasn’t listening. Now, the gloves off should have happened last year. But regardless, at least it happened. It’s just hard to demote a guy whose been ok on a team full of ok guys.
That's both a problem and it's not. I don't know if they actually believed they were going to win this year. I don't *think* they did because when your only real move is signing a solid but no longer great Zack Greinke and trading for Amir Garrett, that's not a sign that you actually think you're ready to win big. When there are actions to judge, they are always going to tell you more than the words they say.
And I totally agree on Singer. I don't think Cal was capable of helping him get to the point he's gotten to, but he wasn't going to let anyone help him before this season. And then he did and now we're seeing the results. There are still tests for him, but there are tests for Lynch too, especially after a rough start on Friday. I still feel much better about both of them than I did two months ago at least.
Outstanding article! I have been unhappy with Eldred for a looooong time. Time for the Royals to stop the BS and get some new management/coaches/manager. Does Sherman want a winning team? Do they want fans? Or are they waiting for a possible new stadium and tell us again everything will be fine?
If some changes don't come soonish, it's pretty clear the new stadium is priority A, B and C. Which, fine I guess. Good for him, but as I wrote a couple weeks ago, new stadiums draw people in for a season or two, but the product has to be good to keep them coming.
Going to Arizona is just going to make it even more painful that we didn't try to get Brent Strom on the staff. Probably wasn't a super likely scenario to begin with, since I think (?) he wanted to come to Arizona for location/family reasons, but I can still dream.
Yeah, I think Strom was Arizona or bust, but it still stings. And the reality is that the guy I really wanted, Ruben Niebla, went to San Diego and they're rocking. Yes, more talent, but still.
Thank you for always the voice of the truth David! It's why I've been a subscriber since the beginning! It is so painful to be a Royals fan these days and especially for us diehards. Been a fan since I was 6 years old in 1983 so we've been through a lot. My prediction this year was 77-85 with hope we'd have some of the veterans rebound from down years last year to go along with BWJ and improved pitching staff. That obviously hasn't happened besides Hunter Dozier, but then you have Salvy who has basically struggled from the get go and is now injured. The one positive with the injuries to Mondesi, Salvy, MAT and Santana when he was out is it has basically forced us to play some of the young guys which you know as well as I do wouldn't be happening otherwise. BWJ's struggles has proven why this is so important. Baseball is very hard and to expect all these young guys to come up and have success out of the gate is unrealistic. We need to see these guys, get them experience and get a better idea of who is going to be part of the the next run or where we might need to find an alternative. I'm hoping to see Pasquantino soon whether it's from cutting O'hearn or benching Santana. I'm all about cleaning house with the front office, Matheny and Eldred. It pains me to say that because Dayton seems to be a great human being, but if you take away the name and the personal side out of the equation that guy is getting fired by every other organization in baseball. Keep up the great work David and I'll continue reading/interacting with you from your column or twitter.
Good article, thank you. You pretty much said it all. If Methany is blocking the firing of Eldred, then he should go too. I like your ideal lineup also. One small question and one bigger one.
Small question: why Dozier at 1B and Pasquantino at DH rather than vice versa? Doesn't Pasq need to work on defense? And wouldn't it be better to have him in the field rather than on the bench except for his at bats? Seems to me Dozier is a mediocre first baseman at best.
Bigger question: With the death of Roger Angell, I wondered if he was a baseball writer that was important to you? He certainly was for me in the 80s and 90s.
I have thought for some time that Matheny needs to go as well as the pitching coach. I think the players are hitting better now that the hitting coach was fired. Ned Yost was a terrific manager and it may be difficult finding someone as good as he was. He started out being a bit hard-nosed, but soon figured out that the players cared about winning and was willing to listen to them. It is sad to see so many games the Royals had in the bag this year, but lost due to lousy decisions by management. Part of managing is knowing your team's strengths and weaknesses. Keeping a pitcher in the game when he is fading is just like gambling in Las Vegas--you eventually lose. Let's hope Mr. Sherman (maybe with a little help from his junior partner who knows more than a bit about baseball), can hire some competent leadership to help this team achieve it's potential.
This is what makes it so hard for a baseball fan. 122 games left in the season and no shot at the playoffs. Baseball is so regionalized that most people do not have a second favorite team or really a national rooting interest. It is disappointing that the Royals couldn't be even close to playing 500 ball at this point. Is there any shot at Bobby Witt Jr winning rookie of the year at least? Not following how other rookie players throughout MLB are doing.
Any shot? Sure, a great shot, but he's fallen behind. The guy is hitting .215/.260/.389. Right now he's behind Jeremy Pena, Julio Rodriguez and Joe Ryan for sure and lumped together with a bunch of others. The good news is the guy who wins Rookie of the Year tends to not be the guy leading the charge after six or seven weeks.
So…..yesterday was rough and it was the only game I watched on a busy weekend. I’ve already spilled my frustrations so no real reason to go over it again. I know you still believe but I’m most frustrated with this window getting pushed out another year. I just don’t see how if you finish worse than last year how you can say your are going to win 20 more games just on the backs on players getting better. Yes, some will get better….but that’s not how it usually works. Some will also digress or age (Salvy, Whit). The offense has been bad…but a path to get better. The starting pitching has been ok but it seems like some things might be starting to get figured out there….now we just need health. Bullpen….that was supposed to be a strength. It’s so damn frustrating to see the Cardinals bring up prospects and more often than not they start off relatively hot before cooling off.
Would love to see a 40 game analysis on the - starters, bullpen, offense, front office from you. Lol
It's all frustrating. I'm not sure I'd say that I still believe as much as I don't think this year was ever part of the "window." Whether they lose 83 games or 103 games, the record largely is irrelevant this season if they can find three or four bats out of their prospect base and go into next season with at least two of the young arms becoming consistent mid-rotation starters and one more fitting in at the back end. If you can start with three young starters, you've got something. As for the bullpen? Man, I don't know. They've fallen apart.
I probably won't do an actual analysis because I kind of do it every day. It's the sort of thing where you shouldn't need a review at work if your boss is actually communicating with you regularly, you know? But what I can tell you is that I'm encouraged by Lynch and now Singer. So that's a positive. I'm not worried about Witt even though he's struggled. Melendez looks like the real deal and it looks like among Isbel, Olivares and Rivera they're going to find someone. Pratto and Pasquantino are next, in some order. if one of those two click, I think the building for the future has been successful, but I'm not confident at all about those in charge putting it together to make it work.
There are pieces to be excited about for sure. I guess if this year isn’t part of the window I get it but the sales job was that they’d be better. I’m done with the entire front office. However, I will say this on Singer. he looks like a legit starter now with three pitches. I want Eldred gone….and DM too at this point. But I don’t think this with Singer is specifically on them. I think Singer had to fail to the point of job security before he made any changes. I think he is hard headed….which isn’t bad….but he had average success before with two pitches and clearly wasn’t listening. Now, the gloves off should have happened last year. But regardless, at least it happened. It’s just hard to demote a guy whose been ok on a team full of ok guys.
That's both a problem and it's not. I don't know if they actually believed they were going to win this year. I don't *think* they did because when your only real move is signing a solid but no longer great Zack Greinke and trading for Amir Garrett, that's not a sign that you actually think you're ready to win big. When there are actions to judge, they are always going to tell you more than the words they say.
And I totally agree on Singer. I don't think Cal was capable of helping him get to the point he's gotten to, but he wasn't going to let anyone help him before this season. And then he did and now we're seeing the results. There are still tests for him, but there are tests for Lynch too, especially after a rough start on Friday. I still feel much better about both of them than I did two months ago at least.
I put some of the blame for the bullpen situation on Eldred. He is just not the kind of guy to spot, analyze, and help pitchers fix problems.
Outstanding article! I have been unhappy with Eldred for a looooong time. Time for the Royals to stop the BS and get some new management/coaches/manager. Does Sherman want a winning team? Do they want fans? Or are they waiting for a possible new stadium and tell us again everything will be fine?
If some changes don't come soonish, it's pretty clear the new stadium is priority A, B and C. Which, fine I guess. Good for him, but as I wrote a couple weeks ago, new stadiums draw people in for a season or two, but the product has to be good to keep them coming.
Exactly!
Stadium shmadium. The way they are playing now I wouldn't go see them play in the Taj Mahal. So sad.
For what it's worth, the featured video on royals.com right now is "Pasquantino launches 10th homer"
Yeah, I noticed that. I think it's coming even if it's not today. At some point, you just can't ignore it.
Just.....................oooof.
Going to Arizona is just going to make it even more painful that we didn't try to get Brent Strom on the staff. Probably wasn't a super likely scenario to begin with, since I think (?) he wanted to come to Arizona for location/family reasons, but I can still dream.
Yeah, I think Strom was Arizona or bust, but it still stings. And the reality is that the guy I really wanted, Ruben Niebla, went to San Diego and they're rocking. Yes, more talent, but still.
Thank you for always the voice of the truth David! It's why I've been a subscriber since the beginning! It is so painful to be a Royals fan these days and especially for us diehards. Been a fan since I was 6 years old in 1983 so we've been through a lot. My prediction this year was 77-85 with hope we'd have some of the veterans rebound from down years last year to go along with BWJ and improved pitching staff. That obviously hasn't happened besides Hunter Dozier, but then you have Salvy who has basically struggled from the get go and is now injured. The one positive with the injuries to Mondesi, Salvy, MAT and Santana when he was out is it has basically forced us to play some of the young guys which you know as well as I do wouldn't be happening otherwise. BWJ's struggles has proven why this is so important. Baseball is very hard and to expect all these young guys to come up and have success out of the gate is unrealistic. We need to see these guys, get them experience and get a better idea of who is going to be part of the the next run or where we might need to find an alternative. I'm hoping to see Pasquantino soon whether it's from cutting O'hearn or benching Santana. I'm all about cleaning house with the front office, Matheny and Eldred. It pains me to say that because Dayton seems to be a great human being, but if you take away the name and the personal side out of the equation that guy is getting fired by every other organization in baseball. Keep up the great work David and I'll continue reading/interacting with you from your column or twitter.
Nothing to add, Jimmy, but just want to say thanks for reading and following and commenting and chatting!
Good article, thank you. You pretty much said it all. If Methany is blocking the firing of Eldred, then he should go too. I like your ideal lineup also. One small question and one bigger one.
Small question: why Dozier at 1B and Pasquantino at DH rather than vice versa? Doesn't Pasq need to work on defense? And wouldn't it be better to have him in the field rather than on the bench except for his at bats? Seems to me Dozier is a mediocre first baseman at best.
Bigger question: With the death of Roger Angell, I wondered if he was a baseball writer that was important to you? He certainly was for me in the 80s and 90s.
I have thought for some time that Matheny needs to go as well as the pitching coach. I think the players are hitting better now that the hitting coach was fired. Ned Yost was a terrific manager and it may be difficult finding someone as good as he was. He started out being a bit hard-nosed, but soon figured out that the players cared about winning and was willing to listen to them. It is sad to see so many games the Royals had in the bag this year, but lost due to lousy decisions by management. Part of managing is knowing your team's strengths and weaknesses. Keeping a pitcher in the game when he is fading is just like gambling in Las Vegas--you eventually lose. Let's hope Mr. Sherman (maybe with a little help from his junior partner who knows more than a bit about baseball), can hire some competent leadership to help this team achieve it's potential.