KC Royals - May

[SubGod22]

Soria slips against O's, leaving Duffy winless

BALTIMORE -- Is manager Ned Yost contemplating removing Joakim Soria as his closer? Does Soria know what has been causing his recent troubles?

The answers to those questions are no and no.

That came after Soria gave up three ninth-inning runs to the Baltimore Orioles, resulting in a 5-3 Royals loss on Tuesday night at Camden Yards. The game-ending blow was Adam Jones' two-run homer.

Lost in the Orioles' comeback was what seemed to be a 3-2 victory for rookie left-hander Danny Duffy in his second start for the Royals.

:banghead: Duffy pitched much better last night. It's a shame he didn't pick up the W.

[newshock1234]

Soria has to be injuried

[SubGod22]

Yost says if he was he wouldn't be pitching. But something is obviously wrong. If this keeps up, how long before Crow starts closing?

[SubGod22]

Yankees claim former KC reliever Texeira

Yost, McClure have full confidence in Soria

He's not far off from being right. His problem is, he was so automatic before that when he stumbles a little bit, people are gonna go crazy," Yost said.

"But that's the nature of being a closer. Your 4-hole guy can go 0-for-12 and nobody's going to say a word. They're not going to want you to get him out of the 4-spot. ... But your closer is expected to be perfect every single night and when he's not, it hurts. But they're not going to be perfect every night."

Tuesday night's loss was Soria's third blown save in 10 chances, matching last year's total when he converted 43 of 46 opportunities. His ERA slipped to 5.12 to go with a 3-1 record.

Hochevar pitched well last night if we take away the 4th inning. Hopefully Francis gets some offense behind him and we get one.

[SubGod22]

Joakim Soria Is Broken

It’s time for me to throw my hat into the ring, joining those who are worried about Joakim Soria.

After Tuesday’s debacle, I’m not just worried… I’m frightened.

For starters, Soria is falling behind in the count early. Baseball-Reference only charts the extremes, but even these numbers are staggering. Here is Soria’s percentage of plate appearances that begin with an 0-2 count since his rookie year:

2007 – 25%
2008 – 32%
2009 – 34%
2010 – 35%
2011 – 11%

Whoa. A full third of all plate appearances last year against Soria started with an 0-2 count. This year, he’s not just down… He’s waaaay down.

Now look at the percentage of plate appearances that start out 3-0:

2007 – 3%
2008 – 4%
2009 – 5%
2010 – 5%
2011 – 8%

[SubGod22]

The Next Call-up and the One After That

In a matter of weeks, maybe even days, the concern over promoting prospects to the majors and having them become eligible for arbitration as a Super Two will go away. While the Royals have shown a rather remarkable carefree attitude about early arbitration eligibility when it came to calling up Eric Hosmer and Danny Duffy, one would imagine that not having to worry about Super Two status will be one less impediment to calling up the next wave of promising young players.

That is not to say, however, that on some magical day in the near future (say June 8th) that we will wake up one morning to hear that Mike Moustakas, Mike Montgomery and Lorenzo Cain have all been promoted to Kansas City. If we truly lived in a Rotisserie world, one could do just that, but in real life there are personality, experience and clubhouse issues to be considered as well as the fact that there are actual humans occupying spots in front of these guys.

One of those ‘humans’ is Wilson Betemit, who just happens to be hitting .315/.379/.465 to follow up on his career best 2010 campaign. While Wilson has played everywhere but catcher in his career that does not necessarily imply that he actually ‘can’ play anywhere. That Betemit has played 19 career major league games at second base gets all of us thinking about Moustakas at third, Wilson at second and ’Man! That’s a salty batting order!’ Except for the fact that supposed defensive difference at second base between Chris Getz and Mike Aviles is likely unnoticeable when compared to the gap between either of them and Wilson Betemit should he wander out to that side of the diamond.

So, what do you do with Mike Moustakas? After a very tough April, Mike has hit .303/.386/.566 in May and has hit both left-handed and right-handed pitching along the way. He has not played particularly outstanding defense, but by all accounts will be passable for now at third. Keep in mind, the Betemit/Aviles combo in the majors has not exactly been defensive fine art this year.

Certainly, Betemit would seem to be a player that might provide value on the trade market, even if trading him would weaken, at least in the short term, any hopes the Royals have for a winning season in 2011. If a decent deal came along, it would make sense to move Betemit, promote Moustakas and have him get his rookie shakedown cruise over with so he is ready to contribute from the start in 2012.

Time Is On Melky’s Side

Mitch Maier is over two years older than Melky Cabrera. Alex Gordon and Jeff Francouer are within a month of being the same age: both are half a year older than Cabrera. Heck, Jarrod Dyson and Melky Cabrera are within four days of being the exact same age, which makes them both eighteen months older than Lorenzo Cain. Just for fun, everyone mentioned so far is still older than Billy Butler.

Of course, age isn’t everything. We think of Cabrera and Francouer as more veteran, not-part-of-the-future type players because, despite being the same age as Alex Gordon and perilously close to the age of the Royals’ centerfielder of the future (Cain), they ARE veterans. Cabrera is closing in on 3,000 major league plate appearances while Francouer is well over 3,600. Alex Gordon will not top the 2,000 mark until late June .

Technically, both Cabrera and Francouer are embarking on that magical ‘age 27′ season. You know, the year when it all comes together, but the truth is that we already know who and what Melky and Jeff are: 3,000 major league at-bats do not lie.

That said, both players are having seasons that currently border on being among the best of their careers. In the case of Francouer, he also brings excellent defense in rightfield and is an undeniable positive influence in the clubhouse. His situation is a discussion for a later time. Today, let’s talk Melky.

Cabrera wakes up this morning sporting a .281/.313/.459 slash line, which puts his current OPS (.772) and OPS+ (115) well above those of his previous best season which happened to be his rookie year. Melky has compiled these solid, for him, numbers a little differently than when he was younger: relying more on slugging and less on OBP, but the numbers are what they are.

[SubGod22]

Forgot the Royals played early today. They lost in 12 (Coleman) after Francis had a not so great start. The youngsters looked good until the 12th though. Hosmer went 0-6 :(

[SubGod22]

Adcock ready for second big league start

BALTIMORE -- Nate Adcock, who will make his second Major League start on Friday night at Texas, had an impressive first start against St. Louis.

"Five shutout innings against a pretty good hitting club," manager Ned Yost said.

Adcock will face another pretty good hitting club in the Rangers, who now have slugger Josh Hamilton back in the lineup from an injury.

Yost sticking with new lineup for time being

BALTIMORE -- The Royals' lineup with Alex Gordon in the leadoff spot was in place for the eighth straight game on Thursday against the Orioles, and manager Ned Yost has no time limit on how long he'll use it.

The batting order has Gordon, Melky Cabrera, Eric Hosmer, Jeff Francoeur and Billy Butler in the first five spots. Over the first seven games of that lineup, the Royals won just two games.

"We just kind of go day-to-day and see how it feels," Yost said. "We've got to swing the bats better. When we were winning ballgames, we had Billy hot, Frenchy hot, Melky hot, Alex hot. These guys have all cooled down a little bit. We've got to find ways to get these guys hot again and score some runs."

[lostshocker]

is it me or do those first two articles (the one about melky and the other about the next wave) sound more like throwing in the towel this year and planning for next than trying to win this year?

[wufan]

Winning next year was always the plan. The question arose "can we compete this year?" The answer; probably not.

I think we should bring up the young ens as soon as it makes sense and let the chips fall. Bringing Moose up is questionable as he is mediocre in the field and not batting for a high average (although I suspect he will be a .260 major league hitter), additionally, Betemit really is playing well. Cain is ready, but Francouer, Gordan, and Cabrera are all playing very well. There is no place to put Robinson. Our catchers and second baseman aren't reay yet. Montgomery is almost ready to come up.

[SubGod22]

I was gone this weekend and it sounds like they blew a few games...

Soria, Royals let another one slip away

Crow takes over as the new Royals closer

KANSAS CITY -- Joakim Soria had a very personal suggestion for Royals manager Ned Yost: Remove Joakim Soria as the closer.

Yost agreed after Soria blew his second save in two games on Monday and decided to use rookie Aaron Crow as the closer, at least temporarily.

Soria took a loss for the second straight day, giving up a two-run homer to Torii Hunter as the Los Angeles Angels rallied for three runs in the ninth inning to win on Memorial Day, 10-8. That was Soria's fifth blown save in 12 chances this season.

[Shocker85]

When you closer's success rate in .583, something is very wrong. It is a shame, too, because the Royals are scoring a lot and are fun to watch, but when games that should be "in the bag" slip away and the team drops to the bottom of the pack, the fans will start to lose interest.

Soria always seems like he's playing with fire, and now the Royals are getting burned. I hope there is something identifiable that can be corrected with Soria. The Cardinals has similar problems with Franklin early on - their new closer is 9 for 9.

--'85.

[SubGod22]

I don't know if it's mental or physical or what, but hopefully Soria gets it figured out.

Maybe it's because he wanted to do away with being called The Mexicutioner?...

[SB Shock]

It has been painful to watch how the royals have found a way to lose games. The one where the catcher can't bend over and apply a tag or block the plate was mind boggling.