MVN - a Kansas City Royals blog
Royals Authority
Reckless Running
The Kansas City Royals continue to win despite doing their best to give games away on the bases.
With the Joey Gathright pickoff in the first, Alex Gordon out in the third trying to stretch a single into a double and the Gathright caught stealing in the seventh that’s now 18 outs the Royals have made on the bases this season. That number does not include bone-headed plays like Billy Butler not running out a pop up that ended up as a double play. But it does include pickoffs, caught stealing and outs made while trying to take an extra base.
I know that Trey Hillman wants his team to be aggressive. I’m all for that. But I’m really for winning baseball games. And even though the season is just two and a half weeks old, they’ve already sacrificed several potential big innings because of blunders on the bases.
To paraphrase Nigel Tufnel, there’s a fine line between aggressive and stupid.
Royals Overcome Weaver’s Mullet
I haven’t seen a haircut that bad since the Phil Spector, E! True Hollywood Story.
Without looking at Jered Weaver’s Pitchf/x data, I’m thinking that his fastball is straighter than string. His change up is pretty nice though. It’s made effective because of his violent delivery that is exactly the same no matter the type of pitch he’s throwing. With all his movement on the mound before he releases the pitch, his change up just seems to glide to the catcher. But the problem is, for the change to be effective he needs to establish a fastball. And as I mentioned, a straight fastball at 88 mph isn’t going to bother anyone.
Through the first two innings, it looked like the Royals would have their way with Weaver and get into the Angels bullpen extremely early in the game. With a 5.67 ERA, the Angels pen is the second worst in the American League. With Weaver on the ropes and his pitch count rising, it looked as though the Anaheim relievers would enter this game much earlier than Mike Scoscia would like. It’s frustrating that the Royals would fail to put this one away.
Kansas City hitters should be ashamed that Weaver threw fewer pitches through the first five innings than Gil Meche. Weaver threw 53 pitches in his first two innings of work. Over the next three innings he needed only 23 pitches to get through innings three through five. As we will discuss, there were many reasons for this.
Meche’s Night
The Angels were able to get back into the game because Gil Meche wasn’t finishing. What I mean is he was unable to find that one pitch to close out both an inning (specifically the fourth when the Angels had three consecutive two out hits) or an at bat.
At several key moments of the game, Meche jumped ahead of the Angel hitters, only to lose them. With two outs and a runner on first in the fourth inning, Torri Hunter doubled on an 0-2 pitch to put runners on second and third. Meche then jumped ahead of Casey Kotchman 0-2 before he lined a single that brought both runners home. Then in the fifth with a runner on first, Meche started Chone Figgins with two strikes before he doubled.
Later in the inning with runners still on second and third, Meche was finally successful getting Vladi Guerrero to ground out on an 0-2 pitch.
The Bullpen
When Hideo Nomo doesn’t pitch, these guys are outstanding. Ramon Ramirez, Jimmy Gobble, Leo Nunez and Joakim Soria are a starters best friend. Soria is a monster.
Strange Start
I hope you tuned in early because the first inning was bizarre from top to bottom. Five of the first six Royals reach base, but they can only score two runs. That’s thanks to another out on the bases when Joey Gathright was picked off. I’ll give Gathright a pass because I’m still laughing about Weaver’s hair, and because the reprieved Mark Grudzielanek poked a ground ball just out of the reach of Angels shortstop Erick Aybar. If Gathright had still been on first, then Aybar is shading more toward second and that is a double play. So instead of nobody on with two outs, the Royals follow the Grudz single with three of the next four hitters lining singles to right. The final tally: The first four hitters of the game hit singles, and five of the first six. And with all those base runners, the Royals score two runs.
First Pitch Swingers
After striking out on three pitches to end the first, Miguel Olivo swung at the first pitch in his next two at bats to make an out. In the fifth inning, Mark Teahen and Butler both swung at the first pitch and thanks to Butler not running on his pop up, those two pitches netted Weaver three outs.
Quote of the Night
“Tony Pena has his first hitting streak of the season. It’s a two gamer.”
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 9:17 pm 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.
THE AUTHOR
RECENT ARTICLES BY DIVISION RIVALS
ARCHIVE
SPONSORS
Online Seats
Kansas City Royals Tickets Kansas City Chiefs tickets
Ticket Specialists
KC Royals Tickets Chiefs Schedule
Tickets4U
Kansas City Royals Tickets All Star Tickets Kansas City Chiefs
Coast to Coast Tickets
Kansas City Royals Tickets Kansas City Chiefs Tickets Tickets to Concerts Tickets MLB Baseball Tickets World Series
Great Seats
Kansas City Royals Tickets Kansas City Football Tickets Michigan Football Tickets Final Four Tickets Country Music Tickets
25 Responses to “Reckless Running”
April 16th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
1. Base Running: It’s a matter of time before this base running will cost us a game, a series, or a season. Clearly there are positives from being aggressive, like throwing the pitcher off and getting in scoring position, but I will never understand why a guy as fast as Gathright is trying to steal third. I thought we went over this?
2. First-Pitch Swinging: I called it the first couple games in, and its still a problem. My official rule if I was manager: if you keep an OBP over 400, swing whenever you want. If you can’t keep up the OBP, you’d better not be swinging even if its a T-ball.
3. Intentionally walking: You know you’re bad when the other team intentionally walks ROSS GLOAD to get to you. I’d start looking at a different career.
4. Very very impressed with our bullpen. Would you trade Soria? How much will it cost to keep him? He’s the type that could command a MAJOR trade (for a big bat?) some time late in the season. Not sure if I’d do it though, I love his uni-brow-beard.
5. Noticeable improvement (overnight, no less!) between Splitt and Lefevre. I loved the exchange they had about the first batter he’d ever faced. Great stuff.
6. I realize that its easy to point out the good things when you’re winning, that’s why I focus on opportunities for improvement. That being said: Gathright actually was 3/5 tonight, and Teahen is doing excellent. If he would have farted on that last at bat it would have been a home run. Meche returned to form. Awesome!
April 16th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
“Rule Nine” is lookin’ mighty fine. Just how long will Soria remain unstoppable?
Look, the Angels had plenty of chances tonight, but we made the big pitches again. I’m still waiting (albeit barely) for us to let one slip away, but maybe it’s time to fully embrace the success. How long do we wait before we stop wondering when we’ll wake up? This is a fun start.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Additional Comments:
If you want to know how great our pitching has been this year (and how bad our batting/base running really is), look at this:
KC is currently 3rd-to-last in RUNS SCORED with 52. Who’s down there with us? San Fran (horrible), San Diego (500), Washington (horrendous), Houston, and Cinci. Colorado and Detroit are around 56 and 63 respectively, but they’re Colorado and Detroit (they’ll move up).
KC is currently NUMBER FREAKING ONE in RUNS ALLOWED at 44. That’s 5 ahead of a just-ok Mets team (one game more than them), ahead of STL who is off to a great start, and ahead of the Dodgers, Arizona, and Toronto–all good teams.
What’s the point? When you look at our averages for qualifying players (40 AB), exactly half of them are hitting above 300. That’s pretty good!
I think this means a couple things:
We have some MAJOR holes in our line up, and we’re losing A TON of guys on stupid base running errors. Clean this trash up now. We’re not going to get past April at 500 if things don’t change.
April 17th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Is an out not an out no matter where it is made? I like the Royals’ being aggressive, while sometimes stupid, on the basepaths. Think what that does to opposing pitchers and defenders who know the Royals are going to make the D execute. Think about what that does to the rightfielder who has to make a perfect throw to not be embarrased that someone turns a single into a double. Ya, its not perfect, but, its the new Royals, and right now, they have a 9-6 record.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:38 am
The only base-running error that really bothered me was Butler not running out the pop-up. He obviously thought it was going to be a foul ball, but still-that caused two outs. Can somebody explain to me why the infield-fly rule wasn’t invoked? It was clear that Kotchman (smart man) intentionally let that ball drop to get the DP. Isn’t that the whole point of the infield-fly rule?
Gathright got picked off taking too big a lead from 1st. Gordon got tagged trying to take second on a long single. Gathright got picked off trying to steal 3rd. That’s aggressive baseball by young guys, and I will give them a pass on that.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:01 am
You guys do a great job - I read your posts instead of the newspapers, etc. One suggestion - at the end of each post, list the final score of the game - or maybe at the beginning.
I’ll often read old posts to see how a pitcher performed in their last outing and it’d be a helpful addition. Keep up the great work.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Great win. After the A’s rallied with 2 outs against Ramirez, I was afraid we were going to let it get away.
If Butler runs his on his pop-up, he could have gotten in Kotchman’s way while still staying in the basepath. I would think that thought would be instinctive to a highly competitive player.
April 17th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Interesting point, Ewing. In the same category, did you notice that late in the game with Guillen on second and two outs, he intentionally tried to get in the way of a grounder to the shortstop instead of just running on to third? I’ve been hard on Jose for some of the little things he does not do on defense, but I thought that was a headsup play. Didn’t work, but worth a try with two outs.
April 17th, 2008 at 6:46 am
Not an infield-fly since no one was on second. Only applies if first and second are occupied.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Chris, is right. No infield fly rule. Seems like a minor flaw in the game. Of course, if Butler runs it out, it doesn’t matter. Grudz would be out, but Billy would be on first.
Two intentional walks to Ross Gload. I guess he IS better than all of us think. ;)
Time for Pena to go again. It’s just embarassing.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:15 am
Also, I like Olivo as our catcher more than Buck.
Finally, Paul and Ryan aren’t nearly as annoying as the Angels’ broadcaster Rex Hudler. That guy is obnoxious. I’m pretty sure he just makes things up as he goes. Olivo’s name was pronounce OH-liv-oh
April 17th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Great post, but you misspelled RECKLESS.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:44 am
It would have been horribly embarrassing to get shut down by a pitcher who looks like David Spade.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Clark - I was watching the game in pieces and must have missed Guillen’s efforts. Glad to hear it though.
So what’s everybody’s opinion on the big picture with respect to the Royals’ base running? In the long run will Hillman properly calibrate aggressiveness with prudence or is what we’re seeing going to continue (some very good moments and some very bad moments)? I believe MTH will get it better calibrated and we will mold into a smart, aggressive base-running team.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Steve Levy (on Espn earlier today) said Joakim Soria’s name wrong. That shows how the Royals are not paid attention to. Sad.
Thank me
April 17th, 2008 at 10:37 am
I like the aggressive base running. I love the risk-taking. It’s a high risk, high reward strategy. There will be GREAT moments and UGLY moments. The team will likely improve their base running skills and become more efficient, but I suspect there will still be times that frustrate many. I do believe that the base running and steals will force many defenses to make mistakes. Vlad Guerrero made an outstanding, perfect throw to gun down Gordon. Most RFers don’t make that play. Gath stealing third was a weird decision. I think he chose to go on his own b/c Teahen remained at first. So, instead of having a runner in scoring position, we have only a runner at first. A double steal still puts Teahen in scoring position.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Running plays only look really smart or really dumb in hindsight. It’s natural that there are miscues this early, but they’re trying to get runners into scoring position more and that’s what it will take to bump up the run production.
On the same theme, is it me? Or does Gathright not steal as well as he should given his speed? Is it a matter of technique?
April 17th, 2008 at 11:06 am
You can’t have it both ways in terms of being aggressive.Either you instill that attitude early making corrections as you go along, as a means of teaching or the players lose the mindset. Let’s have faith in Hillman and staff. If this is still a problem the middle of June, it should be revisited.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
PH - Thanks for the catch. That’s what I get for filing a post at 1 am.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
All I know is the past Royals would have lost that game last night, 95 times out of a hundred.
Only three runs, despite 13 hits, 3 walks, and a batter reaching by error? That’s sorta hard to do - unless you run the bases pitifully, like the Royals did last night.
I thought the decision that was going to ultimately lose us the game was Meche not pitching around Kotschmann with 1B open and 2 outs in the 4th. I was SCREAMING at the TV for him to be careful, because M Izturus was the on deck hitter.
Still STUNNED that we didn’t lose that game. For me, from the 4th inning on, it was two plus hours of feeling an impending doom. An impending doom that never came.
Maybe something truly magical COULD happen to this team this year!
April 17th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I say be aggressive. Unfortunately, managers have seemingly phased out the art of stealing bases and taking the extra bag. Its the Moneyball mentality, and I’d be more than happy if the Royals go exactly opposite of that strategy like they are right now.
I wish Soria would get talked about like Joba does, but, oh well, I’ll take that hes a Royal.
April 17th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Guys, we have to quit kidding ourselves about the Royals being “aggressive” on the basepaths. What they are being is stupid. Gathright getting thrown out stealing was absolutely stupid. The downside of being out vastly exceeded the upside of being safe.
Another great effort by the boys in relief. The Nunez-Soria tandem has been magnificent.
April 17th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Looking back, this isn’t one of the clearest posts I have ever written, but hopefully this will make sense.
I do like that the Royals are being more aggressive on the basepaths, but I think they are being foolishly overaggressive a lot of the time. Being aggressive isn’t about running recklessly, but rather, about picking your spots and taking good, calculated risks.
There is only one reason why Gathright, or any runner for that matter, should want to steal third with one out…so he could score on a sac fly, wild pitch, passed ball, or balk. The likelihood of one of those events happening seems to be quite a bit lower than the chances that one of two guys would get a base hit to score him from second base. He should have remained at second and taken his chances that the guys behind him will come through with a hit.
The fact that Gathright felt he needed to get to third base with one out would suggest that the Royals don’t have a lot of confidence in their offense, and they feel that they needed to play for the sacrifice fly. With guys like Guillen struggling at the plate, I can understand why they might be tempted to take that approach, but I don’t agree with it. Playing for the sacrifice fly with one out will generally mean you will have one and only one chance to get that fly ball. Depending on the pitcher and his ability to keep the ball down, it may be exceedingly difficult for the batter to hit the ball in the air, especially if the pitcher is trying to prevent that very thing from happening.
I’m not at all against being aggressive on the bases, but with a runner of Gathright’s speed on second base with one out, there’s no overwhelming need to take third. He was already in scoring position and could score on just about any base hit to the outfield. He also had other, relatively safe ways of being moved up to third, such as the possibility of a wild pitch or a groundout to the right side. On the other hand, the chances of a plodding runner, such as Billy Butler, being able to score from second base would be considerably lower than a fast runner such as Gathright. Since Butler would have no business whatsoever in trying to steal third, he would have to wait for an extra-base hit or a long single to drive him in or for someone to hit a grounder to the right side and move him up.
Certainly, it matters what kind of baserunner you have on second base in that situation, but in either case, stealing third would be a high-risk, low-reward proposition.
April 17th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
ghost had you ever run base paths yourself, doubt you’d post that gathright trying to steal 3rd as “stupid”. If he’d stolen it, what would you write, that it was “stupid”? as other posters have alluded “aggressive play” is a mind set coaches instill, and that in a particular instance a player might miscalculate is part of the equation. fact is every attempt in an “aggressive”, as opposed to “defensive”, posture puts pressure on the opposition the next time the runner is on the base. Gathright get’s thrown out but now the pitcher worries about what the guy on first base has on his mind, and so on. i agree with those that it’s early and the team will become better at implementing the strategy. I’d think it more worthwhile to question Hillman and the strategy than individual blunders.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
What I want to know is if Gathright has a green light 100% of the time, and if his steal attempt at 3B was put on? Remember when Frank White and George Brett would bait the OF’ers with a lazy jog on the turn at 1B, only to turn the gas on and gaffle second? Seems to me that at least Alex Gordon is attempting to revive that baserunning attitude and for the most part, I like it. It sure is refreshing to see this Royals team do things different than the Buddy/Pena teams of the past. I have to actually watch the game because I don’t have any clue what’s going to happen next.
Leave a comment