Month: April 2006

Ramblings:

The Kansas City Royals just completed a particularly inept series (even for THEM). KC scored ONE run in the 3-game series. In two of the three games, Kansas City got only one hit against the opposing starter.

This season, the Royals are 2-12. No Royal starting pitcher has won a game. They have currently lost ten in a row, and NONE of their losses this season are one-run losses. They can’t even stay in the games.

Royal wins: One of their wins was a “Slow Pitch Softball”-type game, where the opposing starter pitched poorly enough to get removed early, both bullpens were bad, and the ROYALS had “last bats.” In their other win, they managed to overcome 6 walks and a wild pitch to win, 4-3, using 5 pitchers in the process. In 2 1/2 weeks, the Royals have not won ONE game in which they played well and earned the win. In my estimation, they don’t have ONE Major League pitcher. And, lately, they keep getting one hit.

Think about this: If the Royals were disbanded and all of their players were made free agents, is there anybody who would catch on as a a major league regular on another team? Mike Sweeney, definitely, if healthy. Mark G, probably. Matt Stairs might platoon if the team he joins is weak enough. Anyone else? No one comes to mind.

I’m sure that these are nice kids; major league players, they are NOT.

Is the Mets’ loss record (40-120) in danger?

The Money Question: How many years must this go on before MLB throws the Kansas City Royals out of the Major Leagues. This team is getting WORSE every year, and it’s obvious to me that they aren’t even trying.

Clarification: The PLAYERS are trying, but the ORGAN-I-ZATION is not trying.

Here’s Another Thing: Lesser players are sent to the minor leagues all the time, replaced by guys who might be better. Why can’t the same thing happen to complete teams with bad ownership? Why can’t major league TEAMS be sent to the minors, replaced by owners and players who might be better?

As an aside: The reason The Boss is against the luxury tax is because bad owners don’t put the money back into their teams. The money goes into the owners’ pockets, because the owners are NOT TRYING TO WIN. The team is a “Money Machine” to these guys, and the lower the salaries are, the more money they make.

Another point: Would the value of minor league franchises skyrocket if potential buyers knew, “If we run our Organ-I-zation well enough, we might get promoted to the big leagues?” Would that be good for baseball?

Something to think about?

DonS.

Went to the Cell last night with Rob T & Nicky V. In the 3rd inning Nicky V asked if either of us had ever witnessed a no-hitter. Rob T & I think we were at the Joe Cowley no-hitter, but he lost that game. Nicky V & I were at the Alex Fernandez one hitter against the Cubbies a few years back when Alex was with the Marlins. And the first game that I ever tried to buy tickets for was when Ken Holtzman no-hit the Braves, but it was sold out (ended up seeing the Reds a week later). Of course the 1st game I attended was at County Stadium in Milwaukee the Boys Benefit game between the White Sox & Cubs in 1968, but faithful BZ readers already knew that.

On this night Jose Contreras was dealing and the KC Royals were hopeless. It was 5-0 after one as Paul Konerko launched a three run blast and Joe Crede nailed a two run shot. Crede’s came after Angel Berroa held the ball and then fired late to 1st rather than turning the easy DP on AJ Pierzynski. The Sox added four more runs to make the final 9-0 Good Guys. Mark Grudzielanek got the only hit of the night, a one out double in the 4th inning, just inside the thirdbase bag. John Buck later walked, but was nailed trying to steal a base despite his team trailing by a ton. Nicky V wasn’t the only guy who thought Contreras was throwing no-hit stuff up there, see Paulie Konerko’s comments.

Jose Contreras W 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO
Boone Logan 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO
Cliff Politte 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO

Chicks dig the longball!!! And so do the fans. The home run rate is up and so are the number of runs scored. The theories continue to mount. Some think there might be a tighter strike zone, more pitchers may have been on steroids than hitters, batters fine tuning their swings during the WBC, or nicer weather might be accounting for more balls sailing over the wall. Some may say I’m into conspiracies, but it seems obvious to me that with the crackdown on steroids MLB put out juiced balls to keep the fans coming to the ole ballpark. It would be so simple for somebody out there to test this theory by checking balls of the past with balls of the present.

Today is our one-year anniversary!  On 6:36pm April 14, 2005, I posted my very first posted my first entry.

That seems such a long time ago.  Since then, the Zealot has taken on a couple authors who also regularly post.  Thanks to them for their help and encouragement!

I started The Baseball Zealot as an all-encompassing baseball blog to touch on all aspects of baseball.  That said, we have certain “focus points” which I feel are unique to the Zealot:

University of Illinois baseball:  Living in Urbana, IL and working for the University of Illinois, I have become a fan of the Illini baseball team and enjoy writing about them.

Linescore of the Day:  The LSOTD is a fun feature we do at TBZ during the baseball season.  Each day, we choose the best, worst or most unusual linescore from the previous day’s box scores.  It’s one of my favorite parts of doing the Zealot because of my inherent love of the box score. 

Rookie Watch:  The Rookie Watch is something we started halfway through the ’05 season.  When a new player comes up, one of us does a writeup and evaluates him.

Podcast Directory and Reviews:  Since I started listening to baseball podcasts on my iPod, I decided to occasionally do reviews of the ones I listen to.  I have a Podcast Roll on the left side of the web site if you’re interested in them.  Even if you don’t have an iPod, check these ‘casts out.

Of course, we cover the gamut of MLB.  We tend to focus on news of the Cubs and White Sox but any big news is game for the Zealot.

Thanks to everyone who has visited the site in the past year.  I sincerely appreciate it and I hope you’ll keep coming back. 

Tom (aka The Baseball Zealot)