a few questions i have following the royals 4-2 failure against the white sucks last night in chitown:1. where is ron mahay? i understand that farnsworth "throws gas" and had just struck out carlos quentin on a sick pitch progression - fast, breaking, faster - but jim thome eats righty power pitchers like kyle farnsworth for lunch. i don't care that ron mahay isn't a 'lefty specialist'. the fact of the matter is that thome slugs .600+ against righties and .400+ against lefties. mahay isn't a lefty's worst nightmare, but a power righty is like handing jim thome a swag bag. yes, farnsworth looked good against quentin, but jim thome needs to be taken seriously. and ron mahay was the answer to that serious situation. not kyle farnsworth.
2. do the royals know how to manufacture runs? with 16 base runners (11 hits, 3 walks, and 2 hit batters) in the game, you have to be able to manufacture more than 2 runs. billy butler can't even hit a sac fly with the bases loaded and 0 outs? mike aviles can't even put the ball in play with runners in scoring position? do we know how to utilize a bunt? you can't leave 11 men on base and expect to win in this league.
3. can we not steal a base? this is a subquestion from the one above, but its super frustrating for me. when coco crisp leads off the game with a single he ought to be able to score. every time. he should be able to take second, advance to third on the next ball put in play and then one of the next two guys ought to be able to hit a sac fly to get him home. we picked the guy up so that he could lead off for us and steal bases. he did his job in the top of the 1st, but someone needs to tell him to steal a base. the royals' offense isn't potent enough to pile on the runs every game. we need to be able to take advantage of situations in which we ought to be able to score.
4. does anyone else miss jimmy gobble? he was the lefty specialist that was supposed to be on our team to pitch to thome until the royals dropped him a few weeks ago. gobble has a history of frustrating jim thome and lefties bat .200 against him. sure would've been nice to have him to turn to for an out. we'd be alone in first place if we hadn't dropped him. RIP jimmy.
hindsight is definitely 20-20, but you don't have to be Puxatony Phil to foresee farnsworth failing against thome.
-ap.
2 comments:
i was frustrated by this game for sure, even as i didn't have to watch the collapse.
11 stranded is horrible, yes. a lefty should have come in against thome in retrospect. we do need to manufacture runs.
but no i do not miss jimmy gobble--his era last year was 8.81, nearly a 2.0 whip, and he walked 23 batters in 31 innings. you cannot have a reliever taking up a roster spot who can only, and i mean only, pitch to lefties and that's it. every time he came in the game last year i knew we were going to lose, until the second half when he only came in when we were down 6--then i still knew we were going to lose. ok some say he was injured and it was a bad year, but i don't think spring showed any different.
but it's just one game. and i think we saw a lot of positive signs--6 hits and 3 walks against buehrle, 11 hits total. some power from gordon against a good pitcher. two outfield assists for dejesus.
i guess missed opportunities are better than no real opportunities in the first place.
in short, one game. 161 left. we learned a lot. my hope is still high.
i agree luke. except that most of that 8.8 era was against righties. they posted a .382 avg against him in his career...but lefties just .200.
i dunno. i miss him.
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