Author Archive

How Does Kansas City’s Catching Stack up?

Posted: 16th October 2009 by Clark Fosler in MLB
Today, we begin a series of columns in whicháI will examine the Royals versus their Central Division comrades on a position by position basis in an attempt to determine just how close (or how far) this team is from truly contending in the division.ááá We will start with the catchers and examine the offensive production each team enjoyed (or endured) in 2009:á á BA OBP SLG OPS KC .269 .309 .502 .811 CHI .281 .322 .413 .735 CLE .228 .333 .374 .707 DET .215 .294 .326 .620 MIN .337 .412 .510 .921 á Obviously, Minnesota enjoys a huge advantage over the rest of ...

Fixing the Royals: Start with Trading Joakim Soria

Posted: 25th September 2009 by Clark Fosler in MLB
Tuesday on SportsRadioKC, Craig and I discussed the idea of trading Royals' closer Joakim Soria.áá As an aside, I assume at some point you will be able to access an archive of our show on that Web site. They are just getting started and do not have everything all "squared away" yet. Hopefully an archive will become available: It was simply one of the three best radio shows I have been ...
The Monsters of September, a.k.a the Kansas City Royals, rolled on again this weekend, taking two of three from the Chicago White Sox. They were fueled by a complete game shutout from struggling Luke Hochevar on Friday night and six more innings of domination on Sunday from Robinson Tejeda. The weekend's results pushed Kansas City's September record to 11-7. Now, we have all been fooled before: exactly one year before. Just last ...

Kansas City Royals’ Bullpen Is the Real Cause of Disasterous 2009

Posted: 18th September 2009 by Clark Fosler in MLB
A few days ago, we examined the effect or non-effect of injuries with relation to a rather pitiful Royals offensive effort this season.  In doing so, it appeared that the Royals might have come up thirty or so runs short of what their reasonable expectations should have been entering the 2009 campaign. That is a problem, but not enough of one to send a team that had dreams of at least ...
Over the past few months, we have been treated to a number of interestingcomments from within the Royals' organization.   The team's best hitter, Billy Butler, has been publicly criticized for a perceived lack of proficiency in turning the rare 3-6-3 double play.   The General Manager has said, outloud mind you, that he neither understands nor believes in any of the current defensive statistical measures. After his team traded for a center fielder, ...