MVN - Most Valuable Network

Can Anybody Here Hit?

Gil Meche was good. Eric Bedard was better.

Meche did his job. As the number one starter, he’s the guy who’s supposed to pitch well enough to stop losing streaks. For sure, he held up his part of the bargain. I’d argue he was left in the game a little too long – a leadoff walk in the eighth inning ultimately let to his downfall. But that gambit is understandable considering how awful the bullpen has been lately. Hell, every single pitcher has stunk it up, so I can’t be grumpy about the Royals sticking with a pitcher who could finally throw strikes and get outs.

Meche walked the leadoff hitter and then set down 16 of the next 17 batters. It was just what the Royals needed.

His line for the night:

7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 SO

That translates to a Game Score of 67 and bumps the Gil Gauge slightly higher.

The Gil Gauge

But the batters let him down.

For the series, Royals batters had 12 hits, six walks, 14 strikeouts and scored 3 runs. Those are the totals for three games. Craptastic.

For this seven game losing streak, the Royals are batting .186 as a team. They’re batting .129 with runners in scoring position. What’s amazing is they’ve actually had 31 at bats with runners in scoring position.

And in this losing streak, they’ve had a lead exactly two times. They promptly gave those leads back in the very next inning.

Other thoughts…

Anyone seen the hats for bats?

The struggling Royals had a “hitters only” meeting on Tuesday. Since it was for hitters, no Royals showed up. Thank you, I’ll be here all week.

Have they tried offering rum and cigars to Jobu? I hear that helps with the curveball.

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Just when you think you’ve seen everything…

It feels like awhile since we’ve discussed any actual news. Here’s a doozy:

Catching Platoon Established

Yes, that’s the headline direct from the Royals website. Here’s my reaction to that:

WHAT THE HELL?

Actually, that’s my censored reaction. My real, initial reaction is not suitable for this fine website.

All Buck has done is hit .272/.372/.553. Among catchers, his VORP is 13.1, which is the fourth best in the American League and fifth best in all of baseball. The Hardball Times credits Buck with 6.5 runs created per game, which ranks him fifth among AL catchers. Basically, the guy is hitting. And for a position which has been an offensive black hole (Jason Kendall, anyone?) Buck’s performance this season should qualify as big news.

But not in Kansas City. Not in the land of 100 loss teams, where we haven’t sniffed the playoffs in over 20 years. Here in KC, a hot-hitting catcher is reduced to a platoon where he’ll catch 60% of his team’s games.

Buck is playing out of his mind, and is enjoying the best extended offensive stretch of his career. I can see that. You can see that. The ticket takers and the beer vendors at the K can see that.

Everyone can see that except the man who fills out the lineup card: Buddy F’n Bell.

Now Buck (and everyone else with a bat) has been struggling over the last week. In fact, Buck’s numbers are down dramatically in May.

Month	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
April	.320	.426	.680	1.106
May	.234	.329	.453	.782

But I look at that more as a regression to the mean than anything else.  His April was sick – there was no way he was going to maintain those numbers.  He’s just not that kind of hitter.  And even though he’s dropped the pace, his May averages (batting average aside) are very respectable.  I’d argue they’re better than anything we could get from LaRue.  Hell, Iron Mike Sweeney’s slugging percentage in May is .432.  For some reason, we’re not talking about a platoon at DH.  Maybe we should.

Speaking of Buck

My colleague at Heater Magazine, Marc Normandin, has a profile of Buck online at the Baseball Prospectus website.  Normandin is a master at examining batted ball data and breaking down the numbers.  It’s a great read and highly recommended.

Draft Preview

My colleague at Baseball Digest Daily (I know, I sound like a whore.  I’m not.  A whore gets paid.  I’m a slut.)  Joe Hamrahi just published his interview with Royals scouting director Daric Ladiner.  Ladiner talks about where the talent is this year, signability picks and he sheds some light on the draft “war room.”  A must-read for you draftniks out there.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 12:34 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.