For an expansion team, there are so many important steps. Assembling a front office, building and staffing a scouting department, and determining which farm teams to affiliate with are all vital processes. That leads up to the team’s first amateur draft, the first real chance to stock that farm system. But the step that gets […]
Author: Darin Watson
One Of The Worst, But Not “The” Worst
Someday, some Royals blogger who fancies himself a historian (pfft, what a loser that guy will be!) will be perusing Baseball Reference and notice that this year’s team put up a strong challenge to be the worst in franchise history. I hope this post will still be floating around the interwebs then, because I’m here […]
10 Things That Have Gone Right For The Royals in 2018
The 2018 Royals are a train wreck. Or perhaps, a dumpster fire occurring on top of a train wreck. This is no secret. But let’s ignore all the many, many negative things that have happened this year and focus on some positives. Yes, there are some. I promise. In no particular order, here are 10 […]
Defending Dayton Moore
Full disclosure: sometime in July 2014, I was preparing a blog post for the old Pine Tar Press site. I was planning out my arguments, doing some research, and making mental notes about what I wanted to say: it was time—well past time!—for the Royals to fire Dayton Moore. I was hardly alone in this. […]
U.L.’s Toothpick: The Night Kevin Appier Threw A One-Hitter–And Lost
Twenty-five years ago this week, Kevin Appier pitched perhaps the most dominant game in Royals history. And lost. That’s a bold claim, you might respond. I answer with the Game Score stat. You’re familiar with Game Score, yes? Devised by Bill James, it is a stat to determine a starting pitcher’s effectiveness in a single […]
If The Royals Can’t Be Good, They Could At Least Be Entertaining
Even with the extremely low expectations I had for this Royals season (my preseason prediction of a 72-90 record looks ridiculous now), this has been a bummer of a year. The boys in blue are on pace for 114 losses. In my defense, even the mothership’s PECOTA preseason projections had them at 66-96. They really […]
U.L.’s Toothpick: What If…The Royals Had Signed These Draft Picks?
There may be no greater source for “what-ifs” than the MLB amateur player draft. Every sport’s draft depends on luck to so some extent, but baseball’s luck is way more of a crapshoot than the others, even as teams pour increased money, personnel, and analysis into scouting. I don’t really like to say, “What if they […]
U.L.’s Toothpick: The Year Of The Card–Jim Sundberg, 1985
Nowadays, baseball fans (the more analytical ones anyway) tend to snicker at the idea of “veteran presence.” And they probably have a point. There are plenty of players right now in the majors who became stars early in their careers, and it makes sense that if you have the talent to do well at the […]
OOTP19 Review: Focus on Improved Gameplay Pays Off
Once again, it was my good fortune to receive a preview copy of Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP). And once again, this year’s game, OOTP19, is a step up from the previous version and a highly enjoyable game. Last year, I was very excited to play the new version because the developers had done […]
U.L.’s Toothpick: The Greatest Moments In Royals History (#5-1)
At last, we’re at the apex of our list of the greatest moments in Royals history. These are the crown jewels, so to speak; these are not just great but probably the most important moments in franchise history, at least on the field. I think rather than recapping these, as I’ve done up to now, […]