Posnaski

[Gene Honda Civic]

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/s...iiiiiijnrmj|c|Y

 

Season of hope takes a magical mystery turn

 

JOE POSNANSKI

 

 

OK, I know the Royals magic was just here. I just saw it. Oh, wait, maybe I left it in my coat pocket. No. Not there. This is so frustrating. I know the Royals magic was just here.

 

“Honey!”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Do you know where the Royals magic is?”

 

“How should I know? When did you last see it?”

 

When did you last see it? Opening day, right? That was the last time any of us saw the Royals magic. They were down four runs going into the ninth inning. It was the largest opening-day crowd ever in Kansas City, and few people left, that was how much hope this town invested into the team. Mendy Lopez homered (Mendy Lopez!). Carlos Beltran homered. The Royals won. Magical. This really would be the year.

 

What happened? Everything happened. Pestilence. Boils. Hail. MacDougal. The Royals have the worst record in baseball now. Their record against teams with winning records is a mind-numbing 6-23. They have been lousy on grass, on turf, in one-run games, in extra-inning games, against lefties, against righties, during the day and at night. After starting the season 4-2, the Royals are now in the midst of the worst 35-game stretch in team history. On the bright side, nobody's pants have fallen down during a game.

 

And the magic was just here. The Royals led the American League Central most of last season. They were the feel-good story of baseball, led by the American League manager of the year. They scrapped and scraped and clawed and won. Then in the off-season, the Royals made big moves, brought in a power hitter, an all-star catcher, a power-hitting guy on the bench, they shaped up the bullpen, it was going to be the magical season.

 

It's not the magical season. It's the Titanic.

 

“We have played bad baseball,” Royals manager Tony Peña says. “Bad baseball.”

 

“It's like every time you think we've hit rock bottom,” Royals pitcher Jeremy Affeldt says, “we find a way to go even lower.”

 

“I wish I knew the reasons,” Royals general manager Allard Baird says. “All I can tell you is, I'm accountable. This team has enough talent. I believe that. We've just flat-out underachieved. And you can blame me. This is my fault.”

 

***

 

Where did that Royals magic go? Maybe it's in the wash. Maybe it's in the car. And then maybe it was in Raul Ibañez, Brent Mayne, José Lima and some of the other players who are gone. Team chemistry is a funny thing. Last year's Royals team had loads of it. Everybody liked each other. Everybody rooted for each other. Everybody scrapped for each other. There was closeness.

 

Now, how much does that mean? It's hard to say. The statistics showed pretty clearly that last year's Royals team was, well, lucky. The Royals had a winning record even though they were outscored by 31 runs for the season. They led the league with a .304 average with runners in scoring position. Stats people would tell you: That team was a fluke.

 

Baird felt some of that too. “We were not a talented team,” Baird says. “We made up for it by executing and overachieving. But the talent level was not where it needed to be for us to win.”

 

So, he added “talent.” Juan Gonzalez is a two-time MVP who, even a year ago, was hitting at a pace for a 48-homer, 140-RBI season. Benito Santiago was an All-Star in 2002 and a .280 hitter with a little bit of power the last couple of years. Baird added Scott Sullivan, Matt Stairs, Tony Graffanino, and he re-signed Brian Anderson. Talent.

 

And what happened? The entire complexion of this team changed. Now, the Royals are a well-below-average defensive team — only Carlos Beltran, Joe Randa and Angel Berroa (when he's not playing sloppy) are above-average fielders. Now, they have absolutely no speed in the lineup, other than the aforementioned Beltran and Berroa. They don't scrap at the plate — the Royals are dead last in the league in walks

 

The Royals sit around and hope for solo homers. This is precisely what bad teams do.

 

The pitching staff, meanwhile, is a mess. Anderson admits he's lost — worst in the league in every pitching category imaginable — and he has no idea why. Darrell May has not been much better. Jimmy Gobble has had some good outings, and he's a tough kid, but he is also striking out an almost unimaginable 2.25 hitters per nine innings. Let me just tell you how many pitchers have had that few strikeouts and won even 10 games in the last 20 years: zero.

 

And the bullpen has been, well, frustrating beyond words. This is a bullpen that has routinely been dazzling when the team is behind and the game is out of reach. And they have routinely given up runs when the game is on the line. Five times this team has led a game going into the ninth and lost. Add one more when the Royals led by two going into the eighth and blew it — that's six games this team has given away.

 

Add those six victories, and the Royals are a less offensive 19-22 and still dreaming.

 

But you can't add those victories, can't take away the errors, can't overlook the awful starting pitching. This team is what it is. The pitchers won't throw inside. The outfielders don't get to anything. It would take a court order to get Benito Santiago to block the plate. What is magic anyway? Last year's team found ways to score runners from third, they made the big defensive plays, they got the shaky final outs. This team, with all its talent, has done none of those things.

 

“We have not executed,” Baird says sadly. It reminds me of the time when someone asked Tampa Bay head coach John McKay what he thought of his team's execution: “I think it's a good idea,” McKay said.

 

***

 

What's frustrating is that this team seems to have lost its identity. What are the Royals now? This isn't a scrappy team like last year. It's not a young team. It's not an athletic team or a fast team or a defensive team or a hard-throwing team. It is, simply, a team with four soft-tossing lefty starters, a 39-year-old catcher who seems to have aged 25 years in the last month, numerous first basemen, very slow corner outfielders and a bullpen without a closer.

 

And it's hard to say how this all collapsed so fast. Across the league, almost everyone applauded Baird for his off-season moves. Even longtime Baird bashers offered grudging support. As Fred Willard says in the movie “A Mighty Wind:” “Whah happan?”

 

“I wish I could say,” Baird says. There were injuries. There were disappointments. And there were monster miscalculations. The Royals never should have started Eduardo Villacis at Yankee Stadium. What was that all about? Peña never, ever should have started Mendy Lopez in right field over Matt Stairs, I don't care who was pitching. They never should have benched right fielder Aaron Guiel so quickly, and once they did that they never should have given up on rookie David DeJesus after only 20 at-bats. They gave the closer's job to Nate Field, he got a save, they took it away. They had Jeremy Affeldt in the rotation, he had a rough outing, they made him the closer.

 

Losing teams do panic.

 

More than anything, you have to simply say this thing didn't work. Baird wants the blame. He gets the blame. This team didn't mesh. The plan may have looked good, but it backfired. Baird has said all along that May is about results and this is the last week of May. So unless the Royals play some kind of good baseball this week, it will be checkout time. “At some point,” Baird says, “we can't wait around. I keep waiting for this team to give me hope that we'll turn things around — I know the talent is there. But we can't wait forever. If this doesn't turn around fast, we have to start looking ahead to next season.”

 

In other words, the Royals have to find the magic now — and we're talking winning streak — or else Carlos Beltran will be traded. Young players will replace old ones. Contracts will be dumped if possible. The most promising Royals team in a decade will be scattered to the four corners of the world.

 

“We have to play good baseball right now or we have to move on,” Baird says. “That's reality. And everyone associated with this team knows it.”

 

“Where's the Royals magic?” I ask him.

 

“I don't know,” Baird says. “I just don't know.”

 

Magic ball

 

It's tough to say when the Royals' run of success ended. It's easy to look at their month-by- month record since the start of last season:

 

2003

 

 

Month Rec.

March 1-0

April 16-7

May 10-19

June 15-12

July 15-11

August 13-15

Sept. 13-15

Total 83-79

 

2004

 

 

April 7-14

May 6-14

Total 13-28

[Flash Tizzle]

Tonight:

 

Detroit: 17 runs, 27 hits

Kansas City: 7 runs, 10 hits

 

KC record: (15-29) 11 GB.

 

Let the "scattering" begin.

[Old Socks]

It looks as if Jerry Manual is managing them this year.

[Texsox]

As amazing as they were last year, is as amazing as they are this year. Good baseball people picked them to win the Central. I thought that was a bit aggressive, but who didn't expect them to be in the final three?

[southsider2k5]

F-L-U-K-E!

[DBAHO]

When Brian Anderson is your ace with a 1-7 7.82 ERA and he's makin $3,250,000, u've got problems.

[IlliniKrush]

Correct, their starting pitching is brutal esp with Hernandez on the shelf

 

Royals lack of 'magic' = Royals lack of talent

 

Worse yet, just wait til Beltran gets moved.

 

Oh, and Juan Gone on the DL? What a shock there as well.

[quade36]

I picked them 4th in the division at the beginning of the year, right ahead of the tigers. So I was wrong about the Tigers, at least to this point. But anyone who thought that this is a good team in the offseason (i.e. Harold Reynolds) knows as much about baseball as my 2 month old nephew.

[IlliniKrush]

Baseball tonight with Kruk and Reynolds on at the same time is almost unbearable to watch.

[Whitewashed in '05]

When Brian Anderson is your ace with a 1-7 7.82 ERA and he's makin $3,250,000, u've got problems. 

and I thought he would've been a perfect 5th starter for us...

[greasywheels121]

I can't say I'm mad....

[witesoxfan]

Haha.

 

I knew they were done after the 5th time we played them. Wish I could say I was the first to say so.

 

BTW...the Royals do have a pretty good offense. They just have absolutely NO starting pitching whatsoever. As the Rangers have pointed out before, you need starting pitching to win ball games. Offense can't do it alone.