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Achtung! German Saves the Weekend for Royals
Trey Hillman has not wanted to play him and most fans have hoped to trade him, but on Sunday Esteban German came through with two doubles: the second of which brought the Royals from behind to win both the game and the series from the White Sox.
Who would have thought that Kansas City could get their first series win in Chicago in five years when:
- Only Gil Meche’s two hits over six plus innings was the only decent start of the weekend
- Jose Guillen would play only two innings
- Mark Teahen would bat lead-off in two of the games and go just 1 for 10
- The Royals would blow a 4-0 lead in the final game
It is easy to get too excited over wins in a long baseball season and read too much into some results, but I will say that this past weekend sure looked like a team that had matured.
How often have we seen the Royals get an early lead and simply stop hitting, eventually surrendering the game to their opponet? You don’t have that many fingers.
A bit of a skinny post for a Monday, but here’s some food for thought:
- With 22 runs scored in three games, is the Royals offense starting to come around?
- Billy Butler, at least for a few games, seems to have ‘it’ back. Is ‘it’ back for good?
- Teahen leading off? A lot of us have wondered about that, but the way he’s hitting right now…
- More time for German? You know, I’d be inclined to look at him leading off in left, with Guillen over in right and Teahen on the bench at least occassionally.
- Gil Meche has righted the ship, but what about Brian Bannister?
- Zack Greinke’s outing on Friday night ought to make it perfectly clear that we should all take strikeouts over pitch economy any day of the week.
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24 Responses to “Achtung! German Saves the Weekend for Royals”
July 21st, 2008 at 5:49 am
Always good to take two-out-of-three from a tough divisional opponent at their place.
I do wish the Royals would get over their Teahen fixation. Nice to see German get some playing time. You would thing with Callaspo on the DL and Gathright stinking up the joint he would get more time.
July 21st, 2008 at 6:00 am
I would support German in LF but the results are kind of brutal. I personally hope we can do something with Grud and put German at 2B for the rest of the year.
July 21st, 2008 at 6:18 am
I would keep German in the infield. His arm isn’t quite strong enough compared to the other fielders out there. Perhaps a Gordon, Aviles, German, Butler infield?
July 21st, 2008 at 6:19 am
I think this is the beginning of the end for the “Contender Pretenders” White Sox. The only reason they have been in first place for as long as they have is the general weakness of the rest of the division.
July 21st, 2008 at 6:21 am
Horacio Ramirez plunked Dye twice, putting him out of the game both times. Coincidence or payback for White Sox shenanigans earlier in the year?
July 21st, 2008 at 6:22 am
Oh yeah, one more thing. Aviles made Web Gems again last night. You go, Mike!
July 21st, 2008 at 6:31 am
What were the White Sox’s shenanigans early in the year? I am not generally in favor of my team’s pitchers throwing at other teams for small slights, but it is a sign of gaining some pride and self-respect. See Tampa this year versus the Red Sox and Yankees…
July 21st, 2008 at 6:59 am
I favor the Royals throwing at the White Sox for no reason at all, actually. I just wish they’d pick someone like Pierzynski to throw at.
And aim at the head.
Well, mouth, to be specific.
July 21st, 2008 at 7:02 am
German is a brutal fielder. He is a super utility player who you try to hide in the field. I think it might be time to bring Meier up and give Teahen a few days off. Meier is the leadoff in Omaha and is having the best season of his career. He deserves a nice long look.
Bannister has been very dissappointing ever since his outing in Texas. His K-rate is up, but guys are getting really good swings on him right now. This is very concerning.
July 21st, 2008 at 7:56 am
@ Chicago Royals Fan
There was an incident where Persnicketty mouthed off at Grienke for throwing inside. Then later (in the same game, I think, and later in the series), Olivo got HBP by Dotel.
July 21st, 2008 at 8:37 am
Banish Bannister to Bullpen and Banish Baserunning to Bleachers (there, say that real fast a few times in a row). My goodness, Bannister has stunk it up a few times in a row, can’t hold the good lead, he is lost in his approach and his results, needs to go to Omaha if he has options, to bullpen otherwise to see if he can reinvent himself as a successful pitcher, only good he seems to be doing now is waking up offense because they know there is no other way to win on the days he pitches. And baserunning coach and manager need to be fired asap if they cannot cut out the clowning that keeps costing us precious outs, 2 or 3 of those yesterday. Leadoff may be last hurrah for Teahan, I like idea of bringing up Maier, we need to see if he can be another Aviles for us (thank God for Aviles, with all the failures we are having, what a breath of fresh air he is). German has again proven his worth as a hitter, we need to find out for sure if he can or cannot be a starter at some position, because his bat would be worth more as a starter. For now, he should platoon with Gordon at 3rd base, Alex is stinking it up at the plate and starting to miss some ground balls as well, we have been too nice with him, too rough with Billy Batter, need to improve on how to treat them both.
July 21st, 2008 at 8:52 am
Simply put, the Royals looked like the better team for the last two games of the series. It wasn’t one or two sluggers coming up to change the game with a long ball, it was a lot of different players contributing. On Sunday, they overcame shaky pitching and refused to die after giving up the lead. They look to me like a team that’s rising to meet expectations.
Much as I like Teahan, gah! The man swings like he has no personal hope of making contact and just wants to get it over with.
Those who complain about Guillen batting for Gordon should remember that it was Guillen’s arm that made Pierzassface look ridiculous in that run to the plate. Nice. Very nice.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:06 am
Mark - no complaints from me that Guillen batted for Gordon, we are putting up with too much crummy play from him, glad to see Hillman’s quote that he did not like the way he was swinging the bat, I would start platooning German with Gordon, send him a message that we are looking for more than the stoic loser’s face and failure.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:11 am
steve y — Please. Gordon is not a failure, and taking potshots at his “demeanor” is bush league. He’s a second year player who has his ups and downs.
He also murders RHP much more than Guillen does, which is what makes Hillman’s substitution odd, even though it did work out in the end.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:48 am
Supposedly, Mike Barnett had Butler move away from the plate a few inches, and now he is seeing the ball better (http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080720&content_id=3160792&vkey=news_kc&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc). We’ll see if this was a fluke, or it yields consistently better results. So far, so good.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:52 am
I kind of put Teahan and Gordon in the same category. They win you over with a dramatic long ball, either inside or outside the park, and then go obediently back to slumping. I think Gordon will eventually figure out lefties and get his groove on, but right now, he’s living with Teahan in K-ville.
July 21st, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Adam - please, I won’t take pot shots at you if you don’t take them at me, that is bush league. I apologize if you are Alex Gordon’s dad or a big supporter, but we need to get past denial and realize that he is not doing so well right now, maybe not quite as bad as Teahan (but not a bad thought Mark), but probably closer to Teahan than to Aviles. I was glad Trey switch hit for him, I think it sent a good message, and I would not mind if German platoons at 3rd base some and hits the lefties.
July 21st, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Gordon has struggled. He also will continue to struggle until he has a lower K:PA ratio. When he puts the ball in play he is very affective. Unfortunately, he has not been able to do so with any consistancy. He has shown some improvement over last year, though it is not the amount that most of us would have liked. His OBP is almost 25 points higher, but he has struggled mightely against lefties as we all know.
We were all hoping to see major improvements. We all hoped he would really step into his own. That just has not happened yet. Baseball References has “Bill Sudakis” as his most comparable player at age 23. I am betting most of us would have liked to see someone like Steve Garvey there. Pitchers have obviously made an adjustment to Alex, now it is Alex’s turn to start making adjustments.
Right now Alex has K’d 93 time in 407 PA’s (22.85%) this year. It would be reasonable to think that he will get another 250 PA’s the rest of the season. If he ends the season with a total of 130-135 K’s, he will have made some progress in the send half of the season. If he struck out at the same rate as Dejesus he would be hitting in the 0.290 range.
July 21st, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Bannnister needs to have regular work for his style. The bullpen would not help, where is work would be sporadic. Start in KC or in Omaha (yes, he does have options).
I also believe the tone is a little harsh with Gordon. Platooning may help him, but he’s still our best hope of the young guys to be an impact player who is a least decent defensively. German could earn some more PAs by playing third, which suits his skill set better than LF.
Speaking of platooning, how about Butler at 1B and Olivo at DH when we face lefties? Would the Yankees give up a decent prospect for one of our catchers, now that Posada is down? Tupman or B. Pena is good enough to be a second catcher here.
July 21st, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Bit of good news. Nunez was activated in time for the game tonight. Peralta was sent down to make room.
Going to be good to have Leo back.
July 21st, 2008 at 6:54 pm
But, there’s also a bit of bad news. Peralta was sent to Omaha to make room for Nunez. The Royals should have kept Peralta and released Gobble.
Surely Gobble HAS to be gone after tonight’s horrific outing.
July 21st, 2008 at 7:43 pm
If you didn’t watch until the ninth inning –
and I don’t blame you for not –
try to get some game footage and watch TPJ throwing in relief.
He was hitting low 90s with his fastballs and working in 75mph breaking balls. Struck out Pudge with his bat still on his shoulder. Perhaps the funniest thing I’ve ever seen — because he was straight up dealing.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:33 pm
SteveY- I’ve got your back, you said nothing wrong. If anything, you made valid points that one person opposed. Go to ranyontheroyals.com for talk that doesnt get opposed so irrationally. I’m done with this place. Sick of the “lineup proposals” and rude rebuttals to logical arugments.
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:52 am
I’m really not sure why German has been in Hillman’s dog house since day one, but there’s your 3B. That needs to be the long-term plan with Gordon. He is a brutal 3B, folks. Take a look at THT’s fielding stats. He’s near the bottom in range. At least he doesn’t make a ton of errors. They need to move him to a position he can succeed at, and they desperately need to get German’s bat in the lineup.
Then in the offseason they need to look at signing Joe Crede and Mark Ellis, making Butler a DH and just stop with the pretense that he’s a ballplayer because he’s not, and Mitch Maier is ready for CF. Give up value to get Laird from Texas - I’m talking Carlos Rosa here, not Kyle Davies, and non-tender Teahen, Buck, Gathright, Gobble, Gload, etc.
Those are do-able signings: Grud + Tomko = Ellis. Olivo + Bale = .5 of Crede. Non-tendering the replacement level guys gives you the cash to go to sign Greinke. Small salary increase gets you 8-10 wins.
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