Judging the Royals

Games » Baltimore Orioles

Lee Judge

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Great ballgame. What more could you ask for? (I know, a shot at the playoffs, but you’re probably not married to a supermodel either, so you better love the one you’re with.) Greinke and some other dude I never heard of, dealing (baseball slang for pitching well), working quick (2 hours and 8 minutes, just the way God and Abner Doubleday intended) and a bunch of blue-collar Royals battling their butts off in another come from behind win.

If the only acceptable outcome to a season is winning a World Series, does that mean everyone else wasted their time? I don’t think so. You come to the ballpark hoping to see a good game and the 25,055 Royals fans that showed up for this one got their money’s worth.

Good signs…

Back to the ‘battling their butts off’ portion of the last paragraph: the Royals are out of it and have lost some of their best players. At this point a lot of teams are just playing out the string, counting the days until they can ‘pick their own friends’ (more baseball slang for the end of the season). To their credit, the Royals aren’t just going through the motions.

(Sorry to be a ray of sunshine, but I try to call ‘em like I see ‘em, even if being positive hurts my reputation and psyche.)

Look around the field: Chris Getz is getting his chance to show why he was brought into play second base. Mike Aviles, a player who’s had to battle for everything he ever got, is doing whatever’s necessary to stay on the field. Mitch Maier, Willie Bloomquist, Blake Wood, Sean O’Sullivan, Kanekoa Texeira, all blue-collar, no chrome players (and yes, I’m stealing 3rd-base coach Eddie Rodriguez’ great description) fighting to prove they deserve to be here.

If you can get caught up in ‘Dancing with the Stars’ for God’s sake, how can you not enjoy this soap opera?

Splitt does his best…

To give credit where credit is due, a lot of people at the ballpark share their knowledge and insight with me and then I do my best to bring it to this website. People like Tim Bogar, Russ Morman, Steve Palermo, Mike Swanson, Kevin Seitzer, John Gibbons, Frank White and Ryan Lefebvre among others (there are lots more and at the end of the season I’ll list them) have all tried to make me smarter, often without much success.

Paul Splittorff is one of these people and he’s been incredibly generous with his time and incredibly patient with my ignorance (so it’s three outs to an inning?)

Paul made a couple of very good points about recent events: Ned Yost had other options, but after getting a good look at the organization, decided to stay here. That’s a good sign. Point two: We’re giving away frontline players and ought to get some back.

(See? It wasn’t all positive today.)

Game stuff…

Chris Getz is making it look easy over at second. The game ended on a short-hop bullet right at his feet that he handled like it was nothing. Remember to factor in his defense when you look at his offensive numbers…and remember to factor in the other things he can do on offense besides hit.

It’ll be interesting to see how much Jose Guillen plays in the outfield now that the trading deadline is past, although some people think the Royals would still like to move him.

Mike Aviles got outstanding play points without getting an out. His diving stop of a rocket down the third base line prevented a double, even though the runner was too fast for Mike to get him at first.

Alex Gordon hit a bullet at Ty Wigginton playing first. Ty didn’t handle it and the scoring was E3. I thought it was a hit based on how much steam the ball still had on it when it continued into the outfield.

Mitch Maier’s ‘no-doubt’ home run to left traveled 373 feet. Now picture that same home run to center. 373 feet leaves you 37 feet short of the centerfield fence, 410 feet away. The hardest hits you’ll ever see are to centerfield. The batter is right in the middle of his swing, makes contact at a 90 degree right angle and has plenty of follow through to give the ball carry.

That’s why every centerfield fence is further away than the fences in the corners. That’s why you need your fastest guy playing centerfield: he has so much territory to cover. Remember, power is in the corners and average is up the middle.