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POWER RANKINGS
Power Rankings
Date
Ranking
Previous
07/07/2009
28
29
Outside of "we need enough players to field a team," there is no reason the Royals should be employing a cooked wall-runner-into like Ryan Freel ... How about that team-versus-writer kerfuffle that, uh, kerfuffed when smart dude/Royals fan Rany Jazayerli had the audacity to criticize a Royals trainer who has consistently failed to keep Royals players healthy? This organization has a terminal case of the stupids.
06/30/2009
29
28
Uh, um, er ... Luke Hochevar has emerged as a viable starter. That counts for something, right? Otherwise, June was every bit the waste of time and energy that May was. Let's move on.
06/23/2009
28
26
It's bad enough the Royals have been outscored 52-21 during their last five games -- all losses, stunningly -- but it's worse that seven of those 21 runs were plated during either the 8th or 9th innings, when the opponent was in let's-wrap-this-up mode ... Gil Meche throws 132 pitches in one outing and then gets clobbered in the next, and yet still there are those who whine about how starters shouldn't be babied ... The real surprise isn't that Kyle Farnsworth was bitten by one of his dogs; it's that Krazy Kyle didn't bite back.
06/16/2009
26
29
Just when we'd relegated them to the rubbish bin, they show up over the weekend and obliterate the Reds without any contribution from the (ever-so-mildly) slumping Zach Greinke. No matter how poorly the opposition may have played -- and in this case, the opposition chose to wander around the field as if sightseeing -- a sweep is a sweep is a sweep ... I caught most of Luke Hochevar's 80-pitch complete game, which ended in a brisk 2:12. But for the absence of untamed sideburns and square-billed caps, it might've been 1972 out there.
06/09/2009
29
24
Remember when we had them ranked in the top ten? That was CRAZY, man! I thought Old Man Crawford was gonna blow his lid! Then that weird kid fell off the water tower and ended up in a wheelchair. Good times, man, good times. ... It was inevitable that Zack Greinke would get smacked around sooner or later. The real challenge is how he'll respond to pitching for a team unlikely to score more than four runs most days. ... The headline "Hillman still sifting candidates for bullpen setup roles" has a vague "Washington Generals still sifting candidates for bench roles" feel to it. In all fairness, though, Kyle Farnsworth hasn't nuked the pooch in weeks.
06/02/2009
24
17
Yuck. ... They've scored more than five runs once in their past 11 games. ... The most mind-boggling part of Zack Greinke's season: 82 innings into it, he still hasn't surrendered a home run. He is our new mound overlord and should be addressed as such.
05/26/2009
17
12
Yeah, they're fading, but so what? They've identified their core players, they've got an ace on a way-below-market-value deal and the fan base is reenergized. Barring a Mike Jacobs contract extension or a John Rocker-like screed from some organizational higher-up, the future looks fairly bright ... Of course, Willie Bloomquist is playing shortstop and Sidney Ponson is back in the rotation, so we're not out of the woods just yet.
05/19/2009
12
5
This, I imagine, is why Royals loyalists want to karate-chop Trey Hillman in the uvula: Mike Jacobs has three good at-bats against lefty pitchers, and all of a sudden he's playing against them regularly again. This decision flies in the face of existing data, common sense, conventional wisdom and the core tenets of no fewer than six western religions. ... Watching Luke Hochevar pitch last week was like watching a drunk baby try to ride a bike. ... I'm all about putting stuff in perspective, so try this one on for size: Zack Greinke has allowed fewer runs all season (five) than Glen Perkins did in two-thirds of an inning on Monday night (six).
05/12/2009
5
6
There is a huge gap between the fourth and fifth slots on this list. Any team ranked between 6 and 13 might be just as appropriate a fit here, but I'm going with the Royals because watching their non-Ponson starters pitch makes me happy ... In the spirit of bet-hedging, here are three reasons why they won't rank fifth again anytime soon: One, closer Joakim Soria is on the DL, meaning that Kyle "Blue Death" Farnsworth could conceivably be called upon in a pivotal game situation; two, the offense has started to fizzle, with Mike Jacobs and Mike Aviles starting to perform at the plate like, respectively, Mike Jacobs and Mike Aviles; and three, the defense has reverted to ball-juggling carelessness. After watching Jose Guillen play a Howie Kendrick fly ball into an inside-the-park homer last weekend, I started to wonder if he suffers from a depth-perception impairment of some sort.
05/05/2009
6
9
Forget the starting rotation for a second. They've scored 52 runs over their last eight games against legit pitching ... I'm trying to think of a rational reason to start Miguel Olivo over John Buck that doesn't involve nepotism or blackmail ... As of this writing, former problem child Alberto Callaspo has an OPS of 1.001 in 87 plate appearances. I have no punchline here.
Preseason Power Rankings
Date
Ranking
Previous
02/16/2009
25
-
Only the long-term signing of Zach Greinke saves them from claiming yet another "dumbest offseason dummyhead" certificate for the wall of Dayton Moore's home office. ... Last year it was Jose Guillen, this year it was Mike Jacobs and Kyle Farnsworth. If you're going to lose, why not lose with players who might actually have a future with your franchise, or at least ones who could have some trade value if everything breaks just right?
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