It is snowing within the Central Division, but thankfully not in Kansas City. If the worst the Royals have to deal with weather-wise is some wind and a little chill this April, that’s not too bad. Besides, you need a few games to show off your new World Series pullovers!
With a somewhat maddening NBA like schedule this week, the Royals did still manage to win three of four games. They won one game despite striking out 10 times while walking 8 opposing batters. They won despite Joakim Soria giving up four runs in three innings of work and did so without hitting a home run until last night.
About last night….
My goodness the Twins looked awful. I have heard some regional/national guys compare the Twins to the Royals (minus the good bullpen), but last night they looked nothing like Kansas City. Well, let me amend that, they looked – defensively anyway – exactly like a 2006 era Royals team. As Eduardo Escobar tossed the ball past Joe Mauer in an attempt to double Paulo Orlando off first, I turned to my wife and said “remember when WE were the team that did that kind of crap?”
As mentioned by many, quite a debut by Ian Kennedy last night. It is always nice to get started off with a big outing like that, and it was timed perfectly with a Royals’ offensive explosion that allowed Ned Yost to not have to even consider using Herrera, Soria and Davis.
Not only was Yost a little concerned about using the trio on consecutive nights this early in the season, but none of them were particularly efficient on Friday night. It was good night to have your $70 million innings eater come out and eat innings.
One last note on the Twins, who I kind of like (especially after attending their alumni fantasy camp in January) – they were just as hapless looking very early in 2015 as well before stringing together a pretty good season. I do not think Minnesota has a very realistic chance of improving over their win total last year, but I don’t think they are going to be as bad as they looked on Saturday, either.
A quick trip outside of Royal-land to make one comment on baseball’s new slide (a/k/a Utley) rule. I’m going to worry about it being good or bad when a player who isn’t a jerk gets called for it. Jose Bautista ‘didn’t know what to do with his hands?’ Well, NOT grabbing the defender’s leg with it would be a start, Joey.
We thankfully now move forward with an actual major league baseball type schedule as Kansas City is in the midst of ten games in a row, take a day off and then play nine more consecutive games. We will see Kris Medlen and maybe even Dillon Gee! Over/under on when Drew Butera gets to play baseball is set at next Saturday in Oakland. Christian Colon? Well, I have to say Omar Infante is not giving me angst right now, so it may be awhile. Terrance Gore? My ‘bench guy,’ the guy I thought might actually get used more than a ‘normal’ bench player? No appearances, and, frankly, maybe just one real opportunity to use him in the first four games and his roster clock is ticking with Jarrod Dyson already logging time on a rehab assignment in Omaha.
It feels like the first week of the season was kind of a trial run, a pre-test of sorts. Now, as we sip coffee in the wind on a Sunday morning, it feels like the season is finally, thankfully underway.