Results tagged ‘ Gil Meche ’
Deja Vu, Part 2!
The title even rhymes! Happy Father’s Day, first of all, to any fathers reading this.
You all know (or may not know) that my last post covered the fact that we lost 12-5 twice in a row. That hurts. Well, it happened again. We lost today by a score of, yes, 12-5. There were no errors; that was a bit of a shock, but I still feel like punching my computer. Even more annoying is that our number one pitcher, not Zack Greinke, but Gil Meche, lasted 3 and 1/3 innings and gave up 9 runs on 9 hits (remember, no errors, and he only gave up two walks). Even more frustrating is the fact that Albert Pujols knocked in half of the Cardinals’ runs. Yes, I know he’s arguably the best player in the game, I still hate it when somebody knocks in 6 runs and gets his team their second grand slam of the series. When will it end? The lone light at the end of the tunnel is that we aren’t the Washington Nationals, who just recently won their 20th game. We’re only 8 1/2 back! We aren’t 16 games back like the Nats! Oh, wait, what’s that? The Diamondbacks are 16 back, too? That’s irritating because they managed to knock in 24 runs to our ten in their last two games of the series.
The loss today brings our run total in the last five games to:
Them: 53
Us: 21
Now, scoring 21 runs isn’t bad, but giving up 53 is. Our average runs per game is 4.2, which is very respectable. Our average runs given up per game is… let’s just say much less respectable (10.6).
I’m too aggravated to go on, let me just say congratulations to Tony La Russa for his 2500th win, even if it did come against… *cough* the Royals.
The Odd Blog Week In Review (Week 3)
Zack Greinke’s streak ends at 38
Last night, the Detroit Tigers did something no else has done this season: scored a run against Zack Greinke. But when his shutout streak ended, he didn’t throw his glove in the dirt or get angry with his catcher for dropping the ball that could have prevented the run. He just walked back to the mound grinning. Why? “That was almost the best play of my entire life,” he said, “but I
didn’t quite get it. That’s what makes it exciting pitching out there
– doing stuff like that actually. And after that happened, I just got
a big boost of energy.” (The full story is here.)
It’s not all that bad. I can still keep track of another streak- Zack Greinke hasn’t allowed an earned run in 43 straight innings. The run was scored on a throwing error by Mike Aviles, so it was unearned. That also means that Greinke still has a 0.00 ERA. And while were on the subject of ERAs, let’s take a look at the Royals’ current rotation’s ERA.
Gil Meche: 2.63
Greinke: 0.00
Kyle Davies: 2.89
Sidney Ponson: 7.04
Brian Bannister: 0.00
The combined ERA for the rotation: 2.51. That’s one of the best in the league. Let’s compare, shall we?
The New York Yankees (you knew I’d pick them first) has a rotation with a combined: 9.80 ERA.
The LA Angels: 4.88
The Boston Red Sox: 4.73
and the league-leading Toronto Blue Jays: 4.08
Anybody notice how the Royals are at least one and a half points better?
*All stats subject to change… drastically… as the season goes on.
No game recaps for my week in review, just highlights.
Albert Pujols gets very close to 1,000 career RBIs
With 21 already this year, the Cardinals’ first baseman has 998. Just two away. Good luck, Pujols!
Yankees/Sox
This is so much fun to watch… and laugh at the losing side. Of course, it’s a lot worse if you lose on an 11th inning walk off homer.
NFL Draft? Here’s my mock draft
I only have one selection so far…
With the first overall pick, the Detroit Lions select… me! It’s not called a mock draft for nothing. I think maybe next somebody might choose the president. Or maybe Zack Greinke, at quarterback. I see here that the commissioner is giving twitter updates. That’s a first.
That’s all for now. Next time I write, I’m hoping Zack Greinke has got it to 52 innings w/o an earned run.
The Odd Blog Week In Review (Week 2)
As amazing as this sounds, the Royals are in first place. Not the White Sox, not the Twins, not the Tigers, and not the Indians. The Royals. Just incredible. And Toronto is in first in the AL East, the Seattle in the NL West, and the Padres in the NL West. And the Pirates are ahead of Atlanta 10-0 as I’m writing this. Obviously, not the year everyone’s been predicting, but I’ll take it.
Royals 6, Yankees 4
It would have been bad if the Royals had been swept in their first home series. But thanks to poor playing conditions that apparently don’t exist at the amazing, Mount Olympus-esque stadium the Yankees play at, the Royals averted the sweep.
Royals 4, Indians 2
I touched on this in my last post, but Zack Greinke is really good. He has the lowest ERA in the league, 0.00. That’s not too bad. Tonight he goes against the second place pitcher in ERA, Kevin Millwood, who has an ERA of 0.64.
Royals 9, Indians 3
If the Royals could just hit like this every night, we’d be undefeated. Of course, a grand slam from John Buck helps a lot. There seem to be a lot of grand slams going around; there was another one last night. Not only that, but the guy who hit it finished the cycle AND brought his team back to win.
Indians 5, Royals 4
The Royals lost this one thanks to their amazing imploding pitcher, Kyle Farnsworth. You come to expect this from a Yankee, though. One high note: the hockey playoffs started tonight, so another year of great NHL action is about to end. (Go Columbus!)
Thursday: An off day
It was a great day for baseball, too. I think it felt like that because someone down the street was grilling some hot dogs.
Friday: The NEW Yankee Stadium
I hear it’s replacing the Grand Canyon as one of the 7 wonders of the world. It took up half the headlines on MLB.com. Even the new Mets stadium didn’t do that, and the Royals stadium, obviously much nicer, barely got one! It’s nice, yes, but not as nice as the White House or something like that. Or the Grand Canyon. That gives me an idea; let’s play a baseball game in the Grand Canyon! Or we can just throw the Yankees in there and watch them fall into the river.
Royals 12, Rangers 3
It was 12-0. Then I turned on the radio to listen to the game, and Texas promptly scored back-to-back homers. I then turned the radio off. Gil Meche, Zack Greinke, and Kyle Davies are all undefeated. That’s my kind of rotation.
Pittsburgh just won. They’re above .500 as well. I’m going to go find out what got into them.
Vote!
It may be early, but…
A lot of people don’t realize it, but KC has some of the best pitching around. Some teams have a one-two punch. We’ve got a one-two-three punch. Gil Meche, Zack Greinke, and Kyle Davies have been excellent so far this year, and our bullpen hasn’t blown any saves yet. We may not rival some other big-market teams, but we can certainly beat a few. Let’s have a rematch, New York. Our best three pitchers versus your best. I seem to recall Meche beat you in the final game…
That’s all for now. Next time I campaign for the Royals, I’m spelling the names right.
Maybe this year the Royals are using real bats…
…Because it seems like they’ve been using toothpicks the last few seasons. Here are some stats:
- The last Royal to hit 30 home runs in one season was Jermaine Dye, in 2000.
- The Royals hit just 120 HR last year, 27th in the league and 2nd last in the AL to the Twins. In 2007, the Royals were in last place in this category.
- KC scored 691 runs last year, 25th in the league.
- The Royals were dead last in total walks last year, so it appears no one is afraid to pitch to us. (Actually, the Tigers, A’s and Nationals had less intentional walks, but it makes my case sound better if I don’t mention those.)
All this must mean that the pitching must be the thing that kept us from losing 100 games last year. The stats don’t show it, but those are just on paper; I’m going to be bold and say that the Royals will be one of top 10 pitching teams in 2009. What?! Yes, and if not this year, within 2 years, 3 at the most. You’ve got Gil Meche, the veteran; Zack Grienke, already a top pitcher at 25, Brian Bannister, who, despite having bad luck last season, has a good work ethic; Kyle Davies, who was hot at the end of last season; and Joakim Soria, the All-Star, who was a good pickup last year for my fantasy baseball team, with 42 saves in 45 opportunities and an era of 1.60.
I want to get in an argument with somebody over this, so please leave a comment. You know where I stand, I want to know your thoughts on the Royals’ rotation.
By the way, sorry I haven’t been living up to this blog’s name. I’ll try to be more odd in the coming weeks.
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