Human Bomb: Bet-A-Million Butler or Betemit? (No comment until the time limit is up)
Betemit was signed as a minor-league free agent last fall and since the trade of third baseman Alberto Callaspo, Betemit has suddenly become the Royals’ most dangerous hitter.
Betemit is hitting .321 with 10 homers and 29 RBIs in just 184 at bats.
Projecting those numbers over a full season certainly should make any Royals fan pause to wonder what exactly the Royals have stumbled upon.
“He’s been just terrific,” general manager Dayton Moore told me. “The guy gives you professional at bats.”
But are Betemit’s numbers for real?
“You got to believe what you’re seeing,” Moore said. “That’s the way I’ve always operated. You have to believe what you’re seeing.”
Former Mets reliever Ambiorix Burgos has more legal issues in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican newspaper Listin Diario reports Burgos, 26, was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping and is accused of trying to poison his ex-wife.
Authorities say Burgos drugged his ex-wife with rat poison. She was found semi-conscious and dizzy and later hospitalized. Burgos was reportedly caught en route to Santo Domingo in his white Hummer with his ex-wife in the car. The ex-wife had been hiding in the district attorney’s home in Nagua, D.R., because of alleged threats on her life.
Spanish speakers can read the original account here.
Burgos, who was acquired by the Mets from the Kansas City Royals for Brian Bannister, last appeared in the majors in 2007.
When people say So and So is a bad person, well, okay fine. But at least they haven’t killed anybody. This guy is the Dominican O.J.
Omar Vizquel - .300/.365/.354 (crams thick fistful of Leaders® knockawful dose of Tums rejects)
A 2-4 trip seemed just as bad as an 0-6 trip to manager Ozzie Guillen after the Sox’s 3-2 loss Sunday at Kansas City in 10 innings.
“A very horse(bleep) road trip,” Guillen said after the Sox paid the price for their 1-for-10 effort with runners in scoring position. “Disappointing, my (bleeping) (rear). Disappointing for (bleeping) managers that have patience. Very bad road trip.
“The way it ended was the way we started - very bad. No excuse. I don’t give a (bleep) the way we lose, I don’t care the way we win, we didn’t get it done. This road trip was very important for us, and we played like (bleep).’‘
...Fueling Guillen’s anger was that the offense failed to produce on a day when closer Bobby Jenks equaled his career high with three (scoreless) innings to aid a bullpen that could possibly lose All-Star reliever Matt Thornton to the 15-day disabled list because of continued soreness in his left forearm.
“We had men on second base for like five times with two outs, and we didn’t get a hit,” Guillen said. “We’re supposed to not give into this guy (Jason Kendall). We give in, base hit to win the game. Very bad, very bad.”
Butler credits his double plays this season to a variety of factors.
“It’s a bad combination,” he said. “You hit a lot of hard balls on the ground and you don’t run very well. It’s inevitable. My strikeouts are down, so I’m getting more contact so the odds are higher for that. It’s one of those things that’s going to happen. Double plays are part of the game.
“My production is there. You just can’t worry about it. I’ve never been able to run. It just hasn’t been part of my game.”
Butler grounded into 23 in 2008 and 20 last year. He is on pace for 34, two fewer than the all-time record set by Jim Rice. Despite the double plays, Butler has been productive, something not lost on Wathan.
“If you drive in the runs that he drives in, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “I’m sure you’re going to look at it as killing some rallies some times. But when you look at the overall picture, what he does overall, it’s no big deal.”
“I want to be around for the good times,” Glass chuckled. “I don’t want to miss that. I think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think the organization is doing it the right way.
“It’s hard to have the patience that you need, but the payoff will be worth it. I absolutely believe that. I think we’re getting close, and I’m excited about it.”
Glass often gets a first-hand view in assessing many of the organization’s top prospects since he lives just minutes away from its Class AA affiliate in Northwest Arkansas.
“What’s fun is you go to the games down here,” he said, “and see all of the scouts (from other clubs) sitting behind home plate with their radar guns. It’s a sign that you do have some talent when you begin to attract the attention of other teams.
It all makes sense now. Glass wants to build the greatest AA team known to man, since that is the team he gets to watch regularly.
Gregor and the Code of Klaw…and many, many others.
I have to admit I’m more than intrigued by Gregor Blanco, the Royals’ new centerfielder and perhaps their new leadoff man for the foreseeable future.
Blanco, 26, certainly looks the part of a leadoff man. He’s 5 feet 11, 170 pounds, runs well, slaps at the ball, and is likely the team’s best bunter.
“He’s also got the best eye on the team,” Royals hitting coach Kevin Seitzer told me. “He’s got the best set of eyes I’ve seen in awhile. He can see a ball if it’s one inch off the plate and know it, just like an umpire would. He’s amazing that way.”
Blanco drew nearly 100 walks one season in the minors and during his one full season in the bigs, with the Atlanta Braves in 2008, he drew 74.
“Actually, I want that number to be higher,” Blanco said. “A lot higher.”
It’s a long way from 1980, and the New York Yankees pounded that point home Saturday night in an 8-3 victory over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
Alex Rodriguez hit three home runs, which gives him 604 for his career. The Yankees also got homers from Jorge Posada and Curtis Granderson.
Three homers came in a three-run sixth that snapped a 1-1 tie and knocked out Royals starter Sean O’Sullivan, who is now winless in five starts since arriving last month in a trade from the Angels.
Rodriguez’s second homer was a two-run boomer in the seventh against reliever Kanekoa Texeira after the Royals had closed to within 4-3 with two runs in their sixth against Yankees starter Phil Hughes.
A-Rod’s third homer was a two-run splash into the left-field fountains in the ninth inning against rookie Greg Holland. It was the fourth three-homer game in Rodriguez’s career; his first since April 26, 2005, against the Angels.
According to Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes, the Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants are close to completing a trade for Jose Guillen. Rojas adds that if the trade is completed in time, Guillen will play Friday versus the San Diego Padres.
...One of the bigger problems with Guillen is the personality that he brings to the table, so buyer beware. Last week, an executive close to Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated said “no contender” should take Guillen because his personality and clubhouse reputation may be the second worst to Milton Bradley.
Guillen, 34, was hitting .255/.314/.429 this season for the Royals.
It’s not exactly Brett Favre drama, but as the years pile up behind Royals radio announcer Denny Matthews’ career, whispers of him retiring seem to creep their way into Kauffman Stadium each August and September.
Even Matthews admits he has no intention of hanging around the booth as long as Ernie Harwell did or Vin Scully is.
“No, that’s not me,” Matthews told me by phone. “No way.”
...Matthews, a huge proponent of speeding up the games, said the biggest challenge for announcers today isn’t the quality of the home team – it’s the length of the games.
“When I started, we averaged about 2 ½ hours a game,” he said. “Now it’s three hours a game. Take that extra 30 minutes a game and multiply it by 160 (80 hours). You wind up with almost 30 more games a year just in extra time. That’s like adding a month to the season.”
Neater than the mesmerizing non-squawk of Twin Hand Movement droopage…Rany on the Jose Guillen deal!
And yet they released him anyway. I’ve seen teams release expensive players who suck before, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a team release an expensive player who was still a league-average player.
It was absolutely the right move to make, of course. There’s a reason why the Royals couldn’t trade Guillen for even a few magic beans despite his performance – teams are understandably reluctant to take on his personality, particularly since nothing seems to irk Guillen more than being out of the lineup. There are a number of contenders who would love to have a man of Guillen’s talents on their bench. But there isn’t a single contender who thinks that Guillen himself would be happy with such an arrangement.
In the end, this move shouldn’t be too surprising. In the clubhouse after last Friday’s game, when Guillen hit the 300th double of his career (his final hit as a Royal, as it turned out), my friend Nate Bukaty asked him what he planned to do with the baseball. Guillen was almost disgusted by the notion that the ball had any value. Three times he told Nate to take the ball. Nate politely declined, and when it was gently suggested to Guillen that he give the ball to the Royals’ Hall of Fame, he sneered, “Now why would I want to do that?”
The following day, as the trading deadline passed and every other member of the team was in uniform in preparation for the game, Guillen alone sat at his locker with his jeans still on, and only after it was clear that he hadn’t been traded did he grudgingly decide to get dressed.
You don’t have to be Einstein to understand the implication.
“Every system has something,” he said. “The biggest problem is I have two more years on my contract. Are those guys supposed to make it up by the beginning of next year?”
Tell him, yes, some are projected to reach the majors next year, and Greinke just shakes his head. He seems a resigned skeptic dulled by the hard reality of too many losses over too many years.
“Very rarely,” he argued, “do guys come straight into the big leagues and make an impact, especially hitters. Just look at the top prospects in baseball. Delmon Young was one five years ago, and he’s finally starting to play well.
“Alex Gordon was one four years ago, and he might be starting to play well now. So the problem (with the Royals’ prospects) is that it’s not like as soon as they get here that it’s going to be instant (success). Maybe by 2014.”
The Royals designated Jose Guillen for assignment, according to Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star (on Twitter). The team, which called up Philip Humber in a corresponding move, now has ten days to determine Guillen’s future. A trade seems likely, though a release is possible.
The 34-year-old drew interest from the Giants and other clubs before the trade deadline. Since the deadline, Guillen is hitless in 19 at bats, so he hasn’t helped his trade value this week. After the Royals traded Scott Podsednik, GM Dayton Moore told reporters that he’d consider dealing players who are on the brink of free agency.
But don’t discount Moore’s attempt to rebuild the baseball character of this organization.
Trading away players such as Rick Ankiel and Alberto Callaspo certainly takes away offense from the Royals. But neither player was a good fit in the Royals’ clubhouse, and certainly not great examples for any Royals’ prospects to follow. Neither player seemed all too concerned about doing the little things (moving runners, playing selflessly) that help successful teams (i.e. Twins) win.
“I’m not going to talk specifically about players we moved,” Moore told me, “but yes, we are trying to change the mentality here. We want guys who put the team first.”
It would be hypocritical for Moore to throw any of his ex-players under the bus – he’s the one that brought them here in the first place, and any indictment of them is an indictment of Moore and his scouting department.
But Moore is mindful that when his own highly-touted prospects, such as Mike Montgomery, Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer, get here, they enter an environment entirely focused on winning.
I think, however, when I divorce myself from my own emotions, what these plays most remind me of is fielding debates. No one actually keeps hustle/non-hustle stats, much like the handful of stats we officially keep for fielding are pretty useless. Imagine if there were no hitting stats? Year after year, no hitting stats. You’d probably have a good sense of who the very best and the very worse hitters were, but 80% would just be a huge glob of mystery. (Kinda like the National League for me.) We’d all end up having strong opinions about guys who do weird/oddball things like hitting for the cycle or a player who hit 3 HRs in a game in April. HRs, remember, are just like diving catches, we see them, but we don’t record them.
So, what I’m trying to get at is this: Willie Bloomquist had a bad moment, Chris Getz got caught up in his emotions and acted petulantly and let his teammates down. It’s one play. One play out of thousands this season. I already dislike those players, so for me it’s really annoying. For the guys in the Bloomquist nation, a Willie jog is barely worth noticing. In the end, we just confirm our own biases. Just like we do with fielding.
...I am still going to flip out the next time someone lectures me about all Willie Blooomquist does that “doesn’t show up in the stats.”
Bob Dutton tweeted “Royals get RHP Jesse Chavez, OF Gregor Blanco and minor-league LHP Tim Collins from Braves for OF Rick Ankiel, RHP Kyle Farnsworth and cash.”
Ken Rosenthal #RedSox get Saltalamacchia #MLB
Amalie Benjamin #RedSox announce they acquired Saltalamacchia for 1B Chris McGuinness, RHP Roman Mendez, PTBNL and cash.
While the A’s were battling with the Rangers and with the heat in Texas, fans at the Coliseum were enjoying Scott Hatteberg’s homer to extend Oakland’s winning streak to a record 20 games.
In 2002.
The “Moneyball” movie began filming the Hatteberg sequence on Wednesday night, according to A’s batboy Jordan Iserson, who is playing a batboy in the movie.
“It was a blast,” Iserson said by phone on Thursday. “Almost as good as the real thing.”
But actor Chris Pratt, playing Hatteberg, didn’t exactly have the same result in his at-bat that Hatteberg did when his pinch-hit homer beat the Royals 12-11 in the bottom of the ninth on Sept. 4, 2002. The A’s blew an 11-0 lead but managed to set the record for the longest American League winning streak, which still stands….
Former Giant Royce Clayton is playing Miguel Tejada, and onetime Oakland pitcher Jason Windsor is playing John Mabry, Iserson said. He said the former minor-leaguers playing Barry Zito and Tim Hudson look especially like the real thing.
“Any time you’re not pitching well, your confidence isn’t great,” he said. “But if you look at me, I’m the same guy. It’s just my fly-ball and home-run ratio is up. “It’s like flipping a coin. Everyone knows that you got a 50-50 chance of heads or tails. But maybe during the course of a baseball season, you flip it and it comes up heads seven or eight times. But over a million times, it’s going to come back to about a 50-50 ratio.”
Bannister also believes that he’s in a stretch in which he hasn’t had much luck.
“A guy that worked at JP Morgan was doing a project on sports and the stock market and games in general, and what had more influence, skill or luck,” Bannister said. “He had this huge timeline. The most skill was chess where luck had the least influence. Then it was running, golf and tennis, and then you get to baseball right in the middle.
“At the other end is Vegas casino games and the stock market. Really interesting.
“In terms of baseball, even the best teams need some luck. You have to have skill but you have to have luck, too.”
The Dodgers have agreed to a deal that will bring Kansas City Royals outfielder Scott Podsednik to Los Angeles, a baseball source told ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark on Wednesday.
The Royals would receive two minor leaguers.
Podsednik is having a solid year in his only season in Kansas City, batting .309 with 30 steals.
Kendall joins big names like Pudge Rodriguez (2,351), Cartlon Fisk (2,226), Bob Boone (2,225) and Gary Carter (2,056) as the only players to catch 2,000 games behind the plate. He is the fastest to reach the mark, as it took Pudge and Boone 17 seasons, Carter 19 and Fisk 21.
“I’ll keep going until someone takes the uni off me,” Kendall said. “But does it mean something? Absolutely. I’m the fifth one to do it. It’s something to be proud of. It’s kind of humbling.”
The Wreck points out this mess…“Mets rumored to trade Francoeur, Ollie Perez, and Luis Castillo to KC for Jose Guillen and Gil Meche.”
The funniest part about this whole proposed-trade is that, if it happened straight-up three-for-three, the Mets would probably be the winners. Winners, though, only in the sense that they’d have cleared some bad contracts in preparation of building next year’s roster. If you bother to consider next year’s payroll obligations—Bay for $18M, Beltran for $20M, Rodriguez for $12M, Cora for $2M—it’s apparent that having a few extra million or ten was never this team’s problem.
This trade would just be two organizations flaunting their ignorance to the rest of the baseball world, taking their three biggest failures each and putting them on a pedestal.
I’m just worried they might try to swap urinal cakes too, but hit a snag when Kauffman’s are discovered to come from a cheaper distributer.
Instead of whispering over the glintzy Bridal Astrological Zodiac wedding guide book…try reading this, Michael the K.
“Batting average is a great stat, but if you prioritize it above all others, I think there’s problems as far as being a productive hitter,” says Royals righthander Brian Bannister. “Obviously, on-base percentage is way more important. Slugging percentage is way more important.”
The Royals’ on-base percentage is hurt by the fact that only the Orioles and Astros have drawn fewer walks, and while Kansas City’s slugging percentage is boosted by playing in one of the friendliest parks in the majors for triples, the lineup has excessively low power beyond Butler and Jose Guillen.
Then there’s the self-inflicted damage. In addition to not taking pitchers’ gifts in the form of walks, the Royals give away outs intentionally - their 30 sacrifice bunts represent a higher total than three National League teams, who of course are forced into bunting because their pitchers have to hit.
By regularly employing the bunt as part of their strategy, the Royals deprive themselves of the opportunity to put crooked numbers on the scoreboard that other teams are better able to get thanks to their power. For all the hits that make the Royals the leaders in batting average, only 27% of them are for extra bases, the lowest rate in the majors. Kansas City’s bunts do provide a better chance for one run, but short-circuit big innings. It also doesn’t help the Royals that they steal bases with a 64% success rate, worst in the majors.
The Royals have lost their best outfielder and their best trade chip. David DeJesus has a complete ligament tear in his right thumb, is out for the year and will likely undergo surgery Monday, according to Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star (via Twitter). DeJesus crashed into the outfield wall last night and the Royals placed him on the 15-day DL this morning.
BB: I’m actually going to go with - I think the typical answer is (Greg) Maddux. He embodied that - he was a great athlete, but at the same time, walking down the street, I don’t think he looked like a great athlete. I think that’s what was so special about him. I’d say that 99% of the people that want to play this game don’t look like an Alex Rodriguez and don’t look like an Albert Pujols. Some guys are tall, some guys are fat, some guys are short. What’s beautiful about the game of baseball is that anybody can play it. It’s a hand-eye coordination game. You can’t bring NFL linemen in here and have them hit 50 home runs. You can’t bring NBA basketball players in here. They might be able to steal a bunch of bases or play a great outfield, but that hitting thing is all hand-eye coordination. I think that’s what’s beautiful about the game. There’s a book where the guy says it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to be successful at it, and I think hitting and pitching fall into that category. Anybody can do it so long as they practice enough. You can figure out a way to be successful at it.
TB: Does it even out at all, do you feel like? I mean, where you might get a bad win, but there’s also a game where you pitch well and get a loss? Does it even out?
BB: What I compare it to, it’s just like flipping a coin. We all know that eventually, you flip a coin enough, it’s going to be 50-50 if you get up to millions and millions of samples. But if you give a guy 10 flips, it’s very possible he’ll get eight heads or eight tails, and humans like to find patterns and find streaks. We enjoy things like that in athletics. So, Greinke, having another solid year - he’s not having the year he had last year, but he was 1-7 at one point. It was borderline ridiculous. And it kills me, because the questions he was facing every day were, “What do you think about your won-loss record?” He’s doing everything right. He’s got one of the highest strikeout-to-walk ratios in baseball, he’s thrown seven-plus innings every time out, he’s got a mid-3.00 ERA. There’s nothing wrong with how he’s pitching. He was just getting beaten down every day with questions about his win-loss record. It’s ridiculous, but there’s no way to change it, because you’d be changing the whole history of baseball. … It’s like taking back Social Security - it’s probably not going to happen, even though it would probably benefit a lot of people in the long run.
I decided the best way to do determine if walks are a function of homers would be to determine what correlates most with home runs, what is second, etc. This will get us back to walks.
I took the top 200 all-time HR hitters and did an analysis as to which major categories most correlated with homer runs. Perhaps not surprisingly, RBIs was #1. The least correlative was hits, but walks was second least. The point is that, although there is a relationship between homers and walks, it’s not that strong….
So, the conclusion of the HOME RUNS to WALKS issue is that you can’t blame the Royals’ lack of walks on opposing pitchers’ lack of fear. You have to blame the Royals’ lack of walks on … the Royals.
Blame Royals hitters if you must, but if you do, then shouldn’t we blame the entire Royals organization? And if the whole Royals organization is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of baseball in general? I put it to you BTF readers, isn’t this an indictment of our American society?
You can do whatever you want to the Royals, but I’m not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!
And with Pods going after his third Caught Stealing title…why shouldn’t he!
“It’s good to hear your name thrown out because it means other clubs are recognizing what you’re doing with your present club,” Podsednik told me Tuesday.
But as flattered as Podsednik is, he’d really like to stay with the Royals.
Why?
“I would like to stay here, yes, because we’re moving in the right direction,” he said. “I like the challenge that’s presented here in terms of getting things turned around. “It’s one thing to go to a team that has won and expects to win and it’s another thing, another challenge to go somewhere where they haven’t won and turn expectations around. That’s the situation here and I like it.”
...Podsednik, 34, still has excellent speed and can disrupt defenses. He also plays above average in left field.
Perhaps most important of all, Podsednik plays like a winner. He has been through meaningful Septembers. He has a walk-off World Series home run. He’s not going to wilt under pressure. That is value Moore can use on the trading block right now.
Even Kila Ka’aihue, the most patient hitter in minor league baseball, has to wonder a little bit.
He came back to Omaha in late May, after a brief promotion to the major leagues that was the second of his career. But it’s late July now, and he’s still an Omaha Royal.
Ned Yost Sings the Cole Porter Songbook (lacks verve, tho).
Royals manager Ned Yost said one benefit to putting the rotation in this order is that it gives Bannister a chance to pitch more day games than his counterparts.
“The spot that has the most day games is the three spot,” Yost said. “Four of the nine starts are day games, and Banny excels in day games, so why not (put him there)?”
Bannister is 4-0 with a 2.37 ERA in six daytime starts this year, but 3-7 with 7.45 ERA in 12 nighttime starts.
“I can’t explain it,” Yost said. “There’s no explanation for it. You look at some guys and they may be 15-2 on Saturday. I don’t know why Banny pitches better in the day than the night.
“But you try to play the percentages in anything you do,” Yost continued. “Percentage-wise, it’s in our favor.”
Bannister is also stumped by the difference in his day/night stats, but is happy Yost decided to play the odds.
“At this point, I’m all in favor of it,” Bannister said. “It’s a smart move.”
The injury-depleted Red Sox have spoken to the Royals about outfielder David DeJesus. Whether those discussions lead to a trade remains to be seen.
The clubs talked about 10 days ago and agreed to stay in contact, according to major-league sources. The Royals are scouting the Red Sox’s minor-league system, but the teams have yet to exchange names.
...The Red Sox have been short in the outfield all season. Ellsbury, who has appeared in only nine games due to fractured ribs, is not expected back until August. Cameron missed almost all of May with an abdominal strain, and only now is returning to form.
The addition of DeJesus also would give the Red Sox the depth to eventually trade Ellsbury, who has been at odds with the team’s medical staff and also rankled teammates during his extended absence from the club.
Cameron, DeJesus and right fielder J.D. Drew all would be under club control through next season. The Sox also could pursue a free-agent outfielder such as Werth or Carl Crawford this winter.
(26 - 9:40pm, Sep 05)
Last: Zuvella!