Joel Peralta: 8 middle-relief appearances, 3 blown saves

I was having a great time at the ballgame today. I was enjoying fun conversation with friends, watching the Royals offense look pretty good (despite Emil Brown’s urgent attempts to wreck it), watching Greinke do so-so. And then, on Kauffman’s large board, came the announcement that Joel Peralta was warming up in the bullpen.

I had already been to another Greinke start (the Dice-K debut I wrote about before) where I had already seen Peralta come in and open up the gates for the other team. I’d also read boxscores of his relentless ability to yield runs.

So there I was, with Peralta’s face staring down on me, and I just knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. A man on first and third with one out, I set the over/under for my friend: 1.5 runs. He took the under (predicted a double play, actually), and, groaning, I took the over. Peralta allowed one run so I guess my friend won for the inning. Then Peralta came back out again the next inning for one more out, and gave up another run for good measure. I suppose I won for the game.

Regardless, to the main point: WHAT IS BUDDY BELL THINKING IN THERE?

I was already suspicious of Bell’s attempts to throw the game—LaRue for Buck again, Brown and not Sanders. But I knew what was happening when Peralta came jogging out—this was full out sabotage.

(Sidebar: My suspicion about his use of the ‘pen was really piqued yesterday when he put Wellemeyer in with a one-run lead and left him in despite his loading the bases (and his 12.71 ERA) with no outs and having Torii Hunter up. But, through a miracle, Hunter grounded into a double play and then Wellemeyer got out of the inning unscathed. But I was still wondering—does Bell just automatically put in Wellemeyer or Peralta anytime there’s a one-run lead on a good team?)

We can’t just pretend Buddy didn’t know what happened before with Peralta, especially of late…

Game 1—Peralta finishes Meche’s great Opening Day. | ERA (for the season): 0.00
Game 2—Peralta blows the aforementioned Greinke game. | ERA: 3.38
Game 3—Peralta has another great day as he and Meche, again, are the only two pitchers for the Royals. | ERA: 1.93
Game 4—Peralta tries to hand a Greinke victory over to the Blue Jays, and actually creates a save situation for Joakim Soria out of a would-be blowout. | ERA: 4.76
Game 5—Peralta pitches well again in a Meche start, but only after Jimmy Gobble had blown the save. The Royals lost in extra innings. | ERA: 3.86
Game 6—Peralta came in to save Odalis Perez from two baserunners. Instead, he put another one on and then gave up a grand slam. | ERA: 6.14
Game 7—Peralta blows a de la Rosa win. | ERA: 6.75
Game 8—Today, after Neil Musser came in for Greinke and allowed an unearned run, Peralta came in and blew another lead. | ERA: 8.31

It isn’t like Joel Peralta hasn’t had great games this year. It isn’t that he’s not talented. But why do we need to be experimenting with a guy while up a run on the Twins? A victory today gives the Royals a third-straight win and a series victory over Minnesota. Why not a more steady reliever like David Riske (if we’re going the righty route), or just an out-and-out better reliever like Jimmy Gobble?

Well, in a move that was directed at me and me alone, Bell then did bring out Gobble, who had a scoreless inning after the lead was good and squandered. Great. Awesome.

Oy vey.

I’ll stop the grumpy Gus tirade because, hey, this isn’t anything new from Buddy Bell. And, you know what? There aren’t that many great bullpen arms available to Bell—a problem that falls on Dayton Moore’s shoulders. And, it isn’t as if the Royals are looking for a pennant this year. And I really had a great time at the ballgame today. But, I just want to make this point—Buddy Bell needs to be gone as the main decision/lineup maker of the Royals if they hope to compete. Bell can single-handedly lose 5-10 games a year. He might be a great guy (which I have no doubt he is), he might be a really good coach on the field. But someone else needs to be making the decisions in the lineup and bullpen if the Royals ever want success.