Kansas City Royals

Power Rankings

Date	Ranking	Previous
01/26/2012	17	13
Good business: Jonathan Sanchez may be a headache of a pitcher owing to his disdain for the strike zone, but he's a tremendous return for a player of Melky Cabrera's limited caliber. Bad business: Wasn't Dayton Moore supposed to convert some of his positional-prospect bounty into a pitcher or three? I'm almost certain I read that somewhere. Prognosis as of 11:14 a.m. GMT on Jan. 26, 2012: The pitching isn't there yet, but they're going to be a nuisance to play in September. On the late-season schedule: the Rangers, Angels and Tigers (two series). Prepare for loads of "it's not the size of your payroll, it's the size of your heart" pontificating if the Royals play a part in sending one of those big-payroll behemoths home early.
10/31/2011	13	16
2011 eulogy: The seeds have been planted. Soon a tree of mirth and winningness shall grow, or something. Off-season to-do list: Sell high on every outfielder not named Alex Gordon ... Read that thing I wrote just above about how Tampa needs a trade partner with positional players to spare ... Stave off the inevitable growing pains by having acne-management seminars during spring training and putting an orthodontist on retainer (on "retainer" -- get it? get it? Never mind). Odds of achieving Cardinals-like glory in 2012: The 2008 Rays arrived a year ahead of schedule. Who's to say the Royals can't do the same?
09/28/2011	16	17
What went right: Jeff Francoeur. Jeff Francoeur went right ... As did Melky Cabrera (.809 OPS through Monday), Alex Gordon (.879) and pretty much every other Royal hitter (ninth overall in runs, seventh in OPS). Even Mike "Elk" Moustakas started figuring stuff out in September. What went wrong: The pitching wasn't great, but Dayton Moore seems OK with trading some of his young hitters for major-league-ready arms. The questions then become: Just how badly is he going to get fleeced by Andrew Friedman? Will it be a career-killing deal, or just the trade equivalent of a jelly stain on a white Polo shirt? Regular-season epilogue: They were a hell of a lot more fun to watch than the Braves or Giants. Granted, that sets the bar ankle-high.
09/20/2011	17	23
Even if it came at the expense of the league's nobodies, that seven-game winning streak is something the young Royals can build on. Next season, when they win six in a row, they'll totally know what to do (i.e., try to win a seventh). ... I can't figure out why the Royals shut down Luke Hochevar for the season. At 28, he's well past the young-pitcher injury nexus. He doesn't appear to have thrown appreciably more innings in 2011 than he did before, unless my math is wrong and 198 (this season's innings total) is appreciably more than 191 (his full-season high). Could it be a psychological thing? Because sometimes you watch him out there and wonder if his mind is somewhere else, like in his sock.
09/13/2011	23	25
I have few beefs with the way the Royals have been run this year, given how carefully they've monitored the kids and how well the tweak-type moves have worked out (the signings of Jeff Francoeur and Melky Cabrera, the Felipe Paulino reclamation project, etc.). That's why the benching of folk-hero-to-be Johnny Giavotella confuses me so much. What prompted Ned Yost to choose last weekend to start managing? Stay out of the way, guy. If you do, maybe when the Royals start crushing heads in a season or two they'll give you a vague, responsibility-free job, like special assistant to the executive deputy secretary. Lord knows they're not about to trust you to manage all that talent. That'd be crazy!
09/06/2011	25	25
On some days, it's fun to watch them figuring it all out. On others, like last Thursday, it's not: Danny Duffy flung a ball over the catcher's head while attempting to execute an intentional walk, while Alcides Escobar accomplished the tricky task of striking out on a pitch that hit him. Ironic postscript: they won the game ... Eric Hosmer, on the other hand, has started to realize his ridiculo-bonkers offensive potential, to the extent that the Indians intentionally walked him in the first inning on Sunday. That's as much a sign of respect as squealing Beatlemania-style when he approaches the plate or asking him to autograph your navel. Sometimes opposing coaches just can't help themselves, I guess.
08/30/2011	25	26
This Ned Yost quote about Danny Duffy comes across a lot more colorful if you imagine him saying it in either a Woody Allen or Yosemite Sam voice: "He has a to-heck-with-you, I'm-coming-after-you attitude, and that's a good trait to have" ... Bruce Chen has won his past five starts, which doesn't tell us a whole lot about anything. But he has pitched moderately well in them, to the tune of 10 runs and a 25/9 K/BB ratio in 32 innings. Chen could totally handle a middle-relief/innings-absorption role on a contender. That might have been the highest compliment he has ever received from a member of the "smart" baseball press. I'll be waiting on my handwritten thank-you note.
08/23/2011	26	27
No, I didn't hear the news about the contract extension the Royals handed out last week. I thus cannot pass judgment on it. I apologize for this rare lapse in news-gatherization. La la la la la la. ... Truth is, I should be statutorily barred from weighing in on the Royals. The guys I've celebrated over the past few seasons (Kila Ka'aihue, Tiny Tim Collins) have largely sucked eggs, while many of the derision-bait acquisitions (Jeff Francoeur, Melky Cabrera, even Bruce Chen, sort of) have worked out mildly well. The lesson, as always: actual baseball people are smarter than watch-lots-of-baseball-and-make-silly-comments-to-their-friends people.
08/16/2011	27	22
So if this year is the growing pains, next year should feature the Bar-Mitzvah and post-pubescent maturation into a fine young man of class and character, right? That's how it worked in my house -- or was supposed to work, anyway ... This week on "The Smartening of Dayton M.": Dayton is faced with a tough decision. He believes deep down in his heart that Kyle Davies can still pitch. But the numbers look pitiful and the DUI thing speaks to poor decision-making. What can he do? What must he do? Tune in tomorrow night at 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, 8 p.m. Mountain and Central.
08/09/2011	22	22
What were the odds that a 5-foot-8 guy named Johnny Giavotella wouldn't become a folk hero upon his arrival in the majors? Wait 'til Royals fans see how good he is at hitting baseballs. The Buddy Biancalana comparisons stop with the similarly sing-songy name ... You haven't heard of Greg Holland or teammate Louis Coleman, because Big Television would no sooner air a Royals game than news about a country other than this one, but they're actually quite good at their jobs (for the uninitiated, that's middle-relieving). Of the eight guys (unnecessary, obviously) in the K.C. pen, six miss bats on a regular basis. Man, is next year gonna be a lot of fun. I keep repeating it, but that doesn't make it any less true.