2015 MLB Season

[ShockTalk]

Have the Royals and Cardinals hit a brick wall? After both being the top dogs in their respective leagues, neither are currently finishing the season in a positive manner. In fact, both may give up the home field advantage throughout the playoffs which is most serious for the Cards as that would mean dropping from the best to a one game playoff.

KC has dropped 5 of 6 and 7 of their last 10 which included their longest losing streak of the season. This has been totally unexpected given the late season pickups. While Zobrist had been nails, Johnny Cueto is a total mystery. GodCuetoGod who was to lead the Royals not only to the promise land of the WS, but win the whole shootin' match is putting up worse than Guthrie-like numbers. His last 4 games: 20 innings, 37 hits, 21 earned runs.

While the Royals problems are a surprise, the only surprise about the Cardinals problems is why didn't this happen much earlier in the season. With all their key injuries, they had been defining the odds. They have now lost 6 of their last 8 and the league leading pitching staff is cause #1. A pitching staff, that until 11 games ago, had an ERA in the 2.50s, a half a run better than anyone else, has now allowed 65 runs in those last 11 games or 6 runs per game. Over those last 8 games, St. Louis has been outscored 50-20.

[RoyalShock]

Have the Royals and Cardinals hit a brick wall? After both being the top dogs in their respective leagues, neither are currently finishing the season in a positive manner. In fact, both may give up the home field advantage throughout the playoffs which is most serious for the Cards as that would mean dropping from the best to a one game playoff.

KC has dropped 5 of 6 and 7 of their last 10 which included their longest losing streak of the season. This has been totally unexpected given the late season pickups. While Zobrist had been nails, Johnny Cueto is a total mystery. GodCuetoGod who was to lead the Royals not only to the promise land of the WS, but win the whole shootin' match is putting up worse than Guthrie-like numbers. His last 4 games: 20 innings, 37 hits, 21 earned runs.

While the Royals problems are a surprise, the only surprise about the Cardinals problems is why didn't this happen much earlier in the season. With all their key injuries, they had been defining the odds. They have now lost 6 of their last 8 and the league leading pitching staff is cause #1. A pitching staff, that until 11 games ago, had an ERA in the 2.50s, a half a run better than anyone else, has now allowed 65 runs in those last 11 games or 6 runs per game. Over those last 8 games, St. Louis has been outscored 50-20.

Such is baseball.

[ShockerEngineer]

Such is baseball.

Yeah, I'm trying not to panic about it. I wouldn't be surprised if the Royals just catch fire again, seemingly out of nowhere. Hopefully it's at the right time.

[ShockdaWorld]

I think Ned is making some weird tweaks, making sure guys get playing time before the playoffs, others get rested, etc. I like the strategy, as long as he didn't start it too early and end up costing himself home field throughout.

[ShockerDropOut]

I was thinking about the home field throughout. In actuality we are talking about 1 game. ALCS game 7. The Royals will have home field for the ALDS. Well you would hope they would. Houston or Texas would have to catch them. The way they are playing right now, that is entirely possible. But barring that, only in the ALCS would home field come up. Granted we would have to start the series on the road, so there is that disadvantage, but usually, the Royals are a very good road team. For the World Series, the AL won the All-Star game, so AL gets home field.

I am not in panic mode yet. It is a long season and the Royals have just picked a not very opportune time to play as poorly as they have all year. The bullpen that was a very strong point all season, has been very hittable. Hopefully they can get it turned around and get hot again to end the season. I agree that Yost seems to be trying to get everyone in the games and the starters rested. You can always second guess some of those moves, but he has been pretty good all year so i will give him the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, just hoping we can get back to playing the type of baseball we have seen so far all year.

[shoxlax]

Yost has been the best manager in baseball for the first 130 games. For the last 13 or so he has been the worst, hands down. Same for the front office. Yes, its been done before in KC. See Marty Schottenheimer

The Royals approach at the plate of not drawing walks and being aggressive makes them prone to junk throwing lefties. This has now been figured out. When they do find somebody they can hit their pitching sucks or else the starters have thrown 100 pitches by the 5th inning because they are nibbling. Combine all of that with weird personnel moves that had to impact chemistry, resting half the team on a given night and not pitching guys like they have all season and you have the ingredients for one of the biggest choke jobs in baseball history. Losing home field to the Blue Roids is a given and the division title is starting to be in play. I hope I am wrong, but this next month could be Bill Buckneresque for KC fans.

This is exactly the same thing Yost did in 2008 that caused him to be fired. He shut it down and started screwing with things way too early. You cannot do that in any sport until the goals are reached, period. Can you imagine HCGM having a 3 game lead with 5 to play and sitting three of his starters the entire game? Or deciding to play Evan Wessel at PG to give FVV a rest for one of those games? Because that's what Yost has done.

[Shock Top]

Yost has been the best manager in baseball for the first 130 games. For the last 13 or so he has been the worst, hands down. Same for the front office. Yes, its been done before in KC. See Marty Schottenheimer

The Royals approach at the plate of not drawing walks and being aggressive makes them prone to junk throwing lefties. This has now been figured out. When they do find somebody they can hit their pitching sucks or else the starters have thrown 100 pitches by the 5th inning because they are nibbling. Combine all of that with weird personnel moves that had to impact chemistry, resting half the team on a given night and not pitching guys like they have all season and you have the ingredients for one of the biggest choke jobs in baseball history. Losing home field to the Blue Roids is a given and the division title is starting to be in play. I hope I am wrong, but this next month could be Bill Buckneresque for KC fans.

This is exactly the same thing Yost did in 2008 that caused him to be fired. He shut it down and started screwing with things way too early. You cannot do that in any sport until the goals are reached, period. Can you imagine HCGM having a 3 game lead with 5 to play and sitting three of his starters the entire game? Or deciding to play Evan Wessel at PG to give FVV a rest for one of those games? Because that's what Yost has done.

Agreed. #Yosted is back.

[RoyalShock]

I get the temptation to want to rest your guys. But do it one at a time, not two or three, like he started to do almost two weeks ago. Did he learn nothing from last year? They had the "pedal to the metal" from July through September and they mostly rolled through the post-season over teams who tried to rest their guys and lost their edge. It's no guarantee, obviously (this is baseball, afterall).

[Cdizzle]

I have been an ardent #Yosted user for the past few years. The guy can't manage his way out of a wet paper bag.

Having said that, I think he is very clearly in a 'damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't' situation right now. With such a large lead and the division decided with weeks to go, he faced two options:

1. Continue to play your everyday starters all the time, put up a great record that assures home-field advantage; and pray that everyone is still healthy and full-strength by the playoffs.
2. Cycle your everyday starters through the lineup, hoping to give everyone enough time to keep their timing, but significantly reduce their risk of injury and hopefully refill some tanks before the playoff run; and pray that you win just enough to hang on to home-field advantage.

The problem with option 1 is that the minute somebody gets hurt, he's the biggest moron ever. At that point, no fan would care about home-field, just that Yost is such a moron to play his everyday players when they are already assured a playoff spot.

The problem with option 2 is that the team might suck for a month, drop home-field advantage, and might not even recover their form and chemistry once the playoffs start.

Yost is actually even now in line to walk down the middle, limping to the finish line, maintaining home-field advantage, and resting his starters.

The bigger issue to me, is what the heck happened to the guys that haven't had their schedules changed? The pitching staff has gone to crap.

[RoyalShock]

The bigger issue to me, is what the heck happened to the guys that haven't had their schedules changed? The pitching staff has gone to crap.

That's the 100 million-dollar question.

I hope it's just the weird way that a confluence of factors can somehow line up to produce a string of outliers in a 162-game season. If it is, things should start turning around this week. If it extends beyond this Cleveland serious it will be time to officially worry that KC is turning into last season's Anaheim Angels (after Sept. 13th, when they went 5-9 after a 25-6 stretch).

[1972Shocker]

My expectations for Royals' post-season success at this point is not very high. The acquisition of Ben Zobrist has been outstanding. But nothing else seems to have worked out, in fact, the opposite is true. Unfortunately, the Royals may have mortgaged their future for a shot at a World Series title this year when it looks like they most likely will not even make it to the WS this year. Right now they stink. Maybe they can turn it around but they are showng any signs of doing that.

[ShockTalk]

I get the temptation to want to rest your guys. But do it one at a time, not two or three, like he started to do almost two weeks ago. Did he learn nothing from last year? They had the "pedal to the metal" from July through September and they mostly rolled through the post-season over teams who tried to rest their guys and lost their edge. It's no guarantee, obviously (this is baseball, afterall).

That's the 100 million-dollar question.

I hope it's just the weird way that a confluence of factors can somehow line up to produce a string of outliers in a 162-game season. If it is, things should start turning around this week. If it extends beyond this Cleveland serious it will be time to officially worry that KC is turning into last season's Anaheim Angels (after Sept. 13th, when they went 5-9 after a 25-6 stretch).

Such is baseball.;)

[RoyalShock]

Such is baseball.;)

A wise man once said that, roughly four days ago!

;)

[WstateU]

Such is baseball.;)

[WuDrWu]