MVN - Most Valuable Network

20 Responses to “Open Thread Funtime”

1. Minda says:
   

   July 4th, 2008 at 11:36 am

   I think I might go and re-watch last night’s game. What a trip. Happy Independence Day, everyone!

2. Jake says:
   

   July 4th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

   Is it time to worry that Gordon is going to be nothing more than Joe Randa at third?

3. Gene says:
   

   July 4th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

   Happy 4th of July everyone, version 232. Happy birthday to Calvin Coolidge as well, our 30th President. Go Royals.

4. steve y says:
   

   July 5th, 2008 at 5:17 am

   Jake, it would be interesting to see how Gordon’s numbers compare to Randa’s, Brett’s, and his peers that came in the same time, I recall that we chose him over some other 3rd basemen that year, and I think that one or more of them are surpassing him, that one or more are really starting to have, or already have, an All Star shine to them. Someone commented this last week that he seems to be a sucker for a certain pitch or two, that if he can overcome that he can still be really good. If not, then we may end up being the suckers as well. Happy 4th weekend to all.

5. steve y says:
   

   July 5th, 2008 at 5:32 am

   Brian Bannister is the clear winner this week for the Scotty Elarton I Really Did Well Even Though I Got Shelled Award, this guy is a loser and I wish we had been smart enough to see that and move him when it looked like he might be okay. At least it is good to see that, compared to the last shelling, that Hillman called it like it is, instead of winning the Buddy Bell Man Crush Award For Scotty Elarton and Other Poor Players award, maybe there is hope for Trey. No need to paraphrase, the award winning words speak for themselves in the KC Star article:

   “Bannister . . . didn’t think he pitched that poorly.”

   “Today . . . I was very successful. I got a lot of swings and misses.”

   Hillman saw it differently: “Banny didn’t pitch well, didn’t locate.”

6. royalsfan7 says:
   

   July 5th, 2008 at 10:30 am

   Gordon is pretty much nothing like Joe Randa. He is halfway through his 2nd season and already is just 5 home runs less than Randa’s career high. He is also about only 15 walks off Randa’s career high. Stop comparing him to ex Royals just because he is a Royal.

7. chad says:
   

   July 5th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

   We have 6 baseball players (i don’t think everyone on our team qualifies as a baseball player) on our team that are good. Soria, Grienke, Rameriz, Mahay, Dejesus, Guillen. When in the freak are we gonna finally give up on Teahen as an everyday player (is mitch maeir any worse)? Teahen as a 4th outfielder and hitting occasionally against right handers is okay, but this guy sux. Speaking of Sux why isn’t dejesus batting 3rd and gordon 5th. aviles leads off (maybe) gathright 2nd. Why must I watch ross gload start at 1st base? I hope JP Howell does not strike out the side tonight. I hope brian bannister can quit lying to himself! 7runs in 4 innings and says he pitched all right. Who is this knucklehead? Meche at least keeps us in most games can’t really complian about him. Hochever may actually turn into a quality 4 guy in the rotation. I believe Davies has been living on borrowed time, but who knows. B butler has not made one base running mistake since being colled up. Maybe there is hope for a fat slow kid who seems to be an above average hitter. Gathwright and Pena can never be in the line up at the same time! Never. Aviles quit watching Pena tapes and quit swing at balls out of dave winfields strike zone. Grudz I love you but 14 rbi. You gots to man up old man. Joey you need to practice hitting more. a lot more. I assume we will trade olivo what will we get for him? Will we trade Mahay? Would anyone want teahen? Good to see emil brown playing like emil brown now. Just needed to vent after that sleep inducing game against tampa. Why did we play a night game the day before and not get a travel day. come MLB we suck and don’t need your help in losing amymore games. I check out the minor league stats and seems like we are starting to get some depth. Maybe some players in Burlington. and one or two in willmington. Pimental has fell off the earth like Lumsden. During our 12 game losing stretch I actually said maybe buddy bell wasn’t as bad as I thought. Please forgive me. Is trey hillman gonna start kiking ass and taking names if players can’t get the job done? Why did we stick with the guy from japan so long. he sucked in spring ball too. we wasted 6 million…move on and be done with it. Why would hiiman start buck after he got that shot in the nads just 40 hours earlier? c’mon trey use some common sense. Hurt knee okay, hurt arm okay. hurt nads no way.

8. Jon says:
   

   July 5th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

   Chad,
   That was the most impressive rant of the season! Congrats!

9. Terry says:
   

   July 5th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

   To compare Randa & Gordon one must remember Gordon also struckout 56 times more in his rookie season then Joe ever did in a season too.

   Gordon has ways to go to reach Randa and his career .284 ave.

10. Patek to Rojas to Mayberry says:
    

    July 5th, 2008 at 4:58 pm

    Terry - Agreed. By all rights, Randa should have hit closer to .300 for his career, and if he had been more consistent, he might have come close to doing exactly that. Randa was a very streaky hitter. If I recall correctly, he was AL Player of the Month in July 1999, which tells you something about the “good” Randa; usually the POTM has to put up some pretty gaudy numbers. But for every long hot streak, he would have a long slump as well.

    At the moment anyway, Gordon is still south of Randa territory, although he does have more power. But Gordon has only 1.5 ML seasons under his belt. There are plenty of great ML hitters who struggled (comparatively) when they first came to the bigs. George Brett and David Ortiz immediately come to mind. Also Ozzie Smith, and to a letter extent, Frank White come to mind as players who hit markedly better as they progressed (although I wouldn’t classify either of the latter two as a “great” hitter; sorry, Frank). Luis Gonzalez probably falls in that latter category. Carlos Beltran won the ROTY in 1999, but his 2000 sophomore season numbers were worse than Gordon’s are, and were bad enough to get him sent to the minors. Even Willie Wilson scuffled when he first came up. Gordon still has time.

    Gordon’s problems against lefties and his high strikeout ratio are related to his poor recognition of breaking balls. He seems to be making a little progress in that area, and if he continues to do so, he should definitely become an above-average ML third baseman.

    Looking back on how Mark Teahen, Billy Butler, and to a lesser extent Beltran responded by being sent to the minors, I think it would be a good idea to send Gordon down to Omaha for a few weeks. But the Royals would never do it. I think his average would have to drop into the .220-.230 range with lots of K’s and very little power production before they’d send him down. I think it would be good for him, though.

11. Patek to Rojas to Mayberry says:
    

    July 5th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    chad - Howell just struck out the side. Amazing. I’m glad Gathright got on base against him (and stole third), but that doesn’t exactly qualify as redemption.

12. Patek to Rojas to Mayberry says:
    

    July 5th, 2008 at 5:41 pm

    The question on my mind (and probably everyone else’s) is, what is Gload doing hitting sixth???

    What is Gload even doing on this ballclub?

13. gbewing says:
    

    July 5th, 2008 at 7:22 pm

    2 random thoughts-tonights moment of broadcast idiotacy- my man man Ryan L -lamenting how the problem with tonights game and Grienke’s season is he’s striking out too many hitters- he needs to watch Banny pitch and pitch to contact-BOOB

    I am reading the Dodgers GM openly stating he may need to trade a prize young player to get a SS since Furcal is out long time- Matt Kemp-Laroche mentioned as available

    TP Jr for Matt Kemp- deal me

    ugh we obviously don’t have a SS match to trade with Dodgers but oh what a pretty match they are

14. Mike Roth says:
    

    July 5th, 2008 at 7:57 pm

    Anyone hear about the incident prior to tonight’s game between Guillen and McClure?

    http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080705&content_id=3072642&vkey=news_kc&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc

15. Terry says:
    

    July 5th, 2008 at 9:01 pm

    Great, why can’t a replacable guy like Gload or Pena go nuts instead of the team leader in HR, doubles & RBI.

    They need a happy medium someplace between Guillen going crazy and Teahen & Gordon darn it attitude.

16. steve y says:
    

    July 6th, 2008 at 6:09 am

    How about Gobble for Johnny Gomes, let Gomes DH and Billy Batter play lst? Well, at least the Sonnestein guy gives Bannister a road map that it is possible to be successful as a non-power righty, Banny’s “I can beat BABIP” did not work, now him as a big strike out guy does not work, Banny is a smart guy, I bet he was transfixed by watching Sonnestein and now has a possible path to long term success, let’s hope so (I would think Sonnestein is a fluke because anyone can do that to our hitters, but since it is his 10th win I think it might not be). Right now Aviles is looking like a One Time Wonder, let’s hope not, it is disturbing to see how his and Guillen’s success just vanished, plus Aviles is starting to show bad throws as well. I wonder if we will ever find out what was really behind the Guillen/McClure flare up, sounds like the coaches were trying to be too controlling (at least in Jose’s mind), he was made at them “trying to get in our business,” maybe a little late night drinking?

17. awitt says:
    

    July 6th, 2008 at 9:34 am

    Randa’s a nice guy and his career numbers would look great if he played 2nd, but he was a slightly above average major league player. Like a Joe Crede with less pop and less arm. (I didn’t even use the obvious “average joe” pun, you’re welcome)

    Gordo could be a 25-30 HR sooner rather than later and I think his average will go up with time as he is still learning how to hit good leftys. Not to mention he leads the team in walks (and Ks, too damn). He could be a game changing offensive player before the end of next year, and while solid, Joe “The Joker, AKA Smiley” Randa was never an offensive force.

    Note to Glass:
    Please give Hosmer and Melville and any international guy we have a shot at a bunch of Wal-Mart $$$$$$$$$ ASAP

18. Eric says:
    

    July 7th, 2008 at 5:19 am

    What’s happened? The starting pitching is so inconsistant its nauseating. Could we just once finish off a batter down 0-2 or retire a batter with 2 outs and someone on? Can Alex Gordon be any more disappointing. It so disgusting watching teams like Minnesota and Boston parade solid player after solid player from their system out. Our guys always seem to either really suck or just be average. Come on, we’ve only had top ten picks since the dawn of time. Can’t we do anything right?!?!
    And Brian “Three-run-homer-with-2-out” Bannister. Ugh. I can barely watch him any more. After his 6 walk performance against Colorado he said he didn’t care about the walks. He then proceeds in his next start (against STL) to TWICE walk a .250 hitter with two out and then surrenders a homer and triple to Jason freaking Larue. Jason freakin Larue!!! That’s four gift-wrapped runs, Banny - in a game we lost by three. Oh, but I guess the walks don’t matter. I thought this guy was smart.

19. CanoSpinach says:
    

    July 13th, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    New poster here!

    Great site.

    I am just now poking around and looking at everything.

    I have to say i appreciate the opportunity to share and post feedback here.

    Thanks, best of luck moving forward.

    CanoSpinach

20. WelveEreple says:
    

    August 22nd, 2008 at 3:56 am

    As newly joined member i just wanted to say hi to everybody, even though i know that nobody really gives a damn :-)

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