Games: Los Angeles Angels, July 24: Judging the Royals with Lee Judge

Games » Los Angeles Angels

Jul24

A quality start

Will Smith pitched seven innings, gave up one run, didn’t give up a hit after the first inning, struck out four and provided the Royals with a quality start and a win. When this team gets starting pitching, fans can see what this team might become. Forget aces. There aren’t that many, and they’re expensive. Find five guys who can put up quality starts on a regular basis and take your chances.

This was a quality start.

First inning: Alex Gordon leads off the game with another broken-bat hit, a double near the line in short right field. Left fielder Mark Trumbo is moving away from second base, so Gordon hustles in with a double.

With nobody out and a runner on second, Alcides Escobar wants to hit the ball to the right side (the runner can advance), and Angels starter Garrett Richards wants Escobar to pull the ball to the left side (the runner can’t advance).

In the end, it doesn’t matter. A wild pitch moves Gordon over to third. Escobar grounds out, but Gordon can’t score. With one out and a runner on third, Lorenzo Cain needs a ball he can lift to the outfield. Cain finds one — and lifts it into the left-field seats.

Richards gives up two runs and throws 30 pitches while doing so.

In the bottom of the inning, Smith gets Charlie Browned (undressed by a line drive back through the box) by a Torii Hunter line drive and throws five straight balls after that. The subsequent walk to Albert Pujols moves Hunter into scoring position and allows him to score on a Mark Trumbo single.

(I don’t know what was going through Will’s head after Torii’s rocket went past it, but I once heard a pitcher theorize that you had to pitch George Brett inside because “that way the line drives won’t hit you.” After Hunter sizzles one past your ear, you might start nibbling with Pujols.)

Mike Moustakas then ends the inning on a 5-3 double play. It’s not crazy to use the words “Mike Moustakas” and “Gold Glove” in the same sentence. (It better not be. I just did.)

Second inning: With one down, Chris Getz on first and Eric Hosmer on second, both runners make excellent reads on another Alex Gordon flare hit to left field. Hosmer scores, and Getz makes it to third. Runners try to get to third with one out because they can score without the benefit of a hit, and that’s what happens. Alcides Escobar hits a double-play ball but beats it out while Getz scores.

(Getz appeared to be running on contact. No surprise. With one down and a runner on third, the contact play is usually on. It makes no sense in having a runner stand at third and watch the other team turn a double play to end the inning. If the defense cuts down the runner at home, so be it. There are two outs and a runner on second.)

Third inning: Both pitchers start to settle in. When this happens, the best chance of scoring may come when the pitcher tires or the bullpen comes in.

Sixth inning: Richards threw 30 pitches in the first inning and 25 pitches in the second. His 96-pitch total now catches up with him, and the Royals get into the Angels bullpen. Many games are won and lost in the sixth and seventh innings — the middle-relief innings. If the starter can’t get the ball to the setup man in the eighth inning or the closer in the ninth, the opposition gets a shot at the weaker middle relievers.

In this case, it doesn’t help. Hosmer triples, but no other Royal gets a hit off reliever Jerome Williams.

In the bottom of the inning, Hunter, who is already hurting from diving after Hosmer’s triple, fouls a ball off his left foot. Hunter knows what to expect next. When a hitter fouls a ball off a body part, look for the pitcher to throw the same pitch again. The hitter might be reluctant to swing the bat, and the pitch can get a called strike.

But Hunter has been around awhile, so he’s looking for that and rips the inside pitch foul down the left-field line. Now that Smith and catcher Salvador Perez have Hunter looking inside, they go away, but Hunter stays on that as well, lining out to Hosmer.

Seventh inning: After singling to right field, Lorenzo Cain steals second base. It is the Royals’ third stolen base of the night, and all came with two outs. Stay at first and it takes two hits to drive you in. Steal second — if you can — and you only need one hit to score a run. Good theory, but the Royals don’t get that one hit. Billy Butler grounds out.

In the bottom of the inning, Smith walks the first Angels batter, Howie Kendrick. Smith has to be on a short leash, he’s at 98 pitches. A double play wipes out the walk, and Smith finishes the night at 102 pitches.

Eighth inning: Greg Holland is on in relief. Manger Ned Yost said that after a bad outing the night before, he wanted to throw Holland right back out there. But Chris Getz gets the Angels started, committing an error on Jean Segura’s ground ball. Getz then makes up for it by starting the Royals third double play of the night.

Ninth inning: Gordon doubles on changeup, and the ball hits high off the right-field wall. To his credit, Alex does not stop and admire a ball that appears to be a home run off the bat. Gordon hustles all the way and makes it into second base.

Cain ends the inning with a strikeout after Jerome Williams sets him up for the final pitch. Cain’s first pitch was in (fouled off), in (fouled off), in (fouled off), away (ball), in (fouled off) and finally, away (swinging strike). Once Williams has Cain trying to get the bat head out early enough to try to pull those inside pitches, he can throw a pitch away and know Cain will be out in front on a cutter.

In the bottom of the inning, Royals closer Jonathan Broxton does his thing, bringing the tying run to the plate — through no fault of his own — before getting the save. Royals win 4-1.

Gordo’s hat

I just got a hi-def TV this season, and last night got a good close-up of Alex Gordon’s hat. Gordon was doing the postgame interview, and it looked as though he’s up to his old tricks. Hats get really sweaty and smelly over 162 games, so most players change them at regular intervals. Not Alex Gordon.

He wears the same hat all year (superstition), and last season the smell got so bad people around him were threatening to change lockers. This year’s model already looks gross, and we haven’t hit August yet.

More than one type of managing

I once knew a big-league player who didn’t think his manager was very good. His skipper needed help with match-ups and double switches and had to be watched carefully toward the ends of ballgames to make sure he didn’t manage the team into a corner.

No wonder the player held a low opinion of his manager’s skills — until he got a new manager.

The new guy was better at game management but was so uptight he made everyone else uptight. Each game was exhausting and filled with tension. It then occurred to the player that there was more to managing than the game decisions. The first guy was a little fuzzy on the details but ran a happy, loose team that generally played well.

So that brings us to all the roles a manager plays. Fans tend to focus on game decisions (bunt/don’t bunt type stuff) because it’s visible, but managers also have to manage the clubhouse, the media, the coaches, the support staff and the front office.

Is spring training well organized? Does a player get a day off at the right time? How does he handle guys in a slump or guys on a hot streak? Does the daily schedule make sense? Are the players getting enough practice time? Are some of them working out too much? I could go on — I’m pretty sure I already have — but you get the idea.

Just because you don’t think the team should have bunted in that situation doesn’t necessarily mean the manager is bad. It may be that you and the manager just have a philosophical disagreement about how certain situations within the game should be played. It doesn’t mean that either of you are wrong — kind of like religion — it just means you’ve reached different conclusions.

So the next time you’re screaming at your TV set about the idiot who called for a hit and run, remember he may be terrific — or stink — at the less public parts of his job.

Jason Kendall

Jason Kendall has retired. Before he went out to test his shoulder in the minor leagues, Jason told me his arm felt better than it had in years. Under the stress of playing games, he apparently felt a “twinge. “ If his shoulder blew out again, he might not be able to live a normal life, so Jason hung it up after over 2,000 games, 2,000 hits and hitting .288, lifetime.

Jason says he wants to stay in baseball and wants to stay with the Royals. Some fans wondered why the Royals would want to keep a 38 year-old catcher around. Teams often find a place for someone with so much baseball knowledge because old catchers sometimes turn into young managers.

Preview of Angels and Mariners ballparks by Royals coach Doug Sisson

The Angels and Mariners ballparks are discussed by the Kansas City Royals Doug Sisson, as the team prepares for their two city road game. 7/23/12 (Video by John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star)

Comments

Don Aubry
10 months ago

I would think that if the Royals didn’t like having Jason Kendall around, they wouldn’t have given him the opportunity to play in the system. There must be a position in the Royals organization that can be filled by or created for a guy that has such a wealth of baseball knowledge. Good luck to him in pursuing his second career.
Terry Payne
10 months ago

If nothing else, Jason can show the kids down in the minors how to get proper tats:)

Seriously, I think the org would be very smart to keep a guy with his knowledge and his willingness to teach. Not only can he help the catchers, he s/b able to help the throwers as well.

Great news Re: Smith’s start. Here’s hope that it gets contagious.
Brian Grant
10 months ago

Hey Lee, it took you a whole paragraph to say what I said in a few sentences on this blog several weeks ago: Yost appears to be a very good macro-manager…managing the players, having their back, developing youngsters, etc….and seems to struggle at micro-managing….the actual day in and day out baseball decisions such as when to bunt, when to pinch hit, etc.
Scott Boden
10 months ago

I agree with you Brian. I think with this type of club and being a small market team the macro style manager is more important than the micro style. Of course you would love to have both.

I truly believe Kendall will be a big league manager someday.
Brendan Woodbury
10 months ago

I think it’s true that stats guys tend to focus too much on the things we can measure (like the effectiveness of our baserunning) and ignore the things we can’t measure (like organization of spring training and team morale), but I worry that the Royals go too far in the other direction.

Francoeur is obviously a great guy, and I’m sure he helps team morale, but he’s been a disappointing baseball player over his career. Signing him to a 2-year contract last offseason and continuing to play him almost every game this season seem to reflect a belief that the intangibles are somehow greater than the tangible measurable effect of his baseball performance.

For now, I want a manger who knows how to handle the young guys — to keep their confidence up and keep them receptive to instruction. But I hope there’s a time coming soon when the Royals are in a pennant race and need every last win, and I hope we’re willing to emphasize someone who’s good at measurable “micro-managing” at that time.
Darral VanGoethem
10 months ago

Brendan,

I wanted to continue our convo from two days ago here.

As far as defensive stats go I think it is short sighted to be basing a teams defensive performance solely on the advanced metrics. To me you need to be able to blend what you see with your eyes and what you see in stats. My eyes tell me that the stats are missing something b/c I have watched bad defensive teams play baseball and the Royals are not a bad defensive team.
Jim Fetterolf
10 months ago

Brendan, I’m old enough to remember when Dick Howser was a terrible manager, according to many. That would have been the ‘85 season.

As for Jeff Francoeur, I think he would agree that he’s playing himself out of a job at the moment, but Ned Yost and Kevin Seitzer are patient and will keep trying to fix him, as they have before. That’s their job. I would consider platooning Frenchy for awhile, give him a little down time, he looks tired, he looks like he’s pressing, and, to me, he looks like he’s lost too much weight. The rotation seems to be stabilizing a bit, so an extra bench guy could be used.

On Will Smith, Martin pointed out that he is the first Royals’ pitcher since Zack Greinke to get a 69 or better game score within his first five starts. He is two of five in quality starts under that system. I’ld give him a few more starts, see what we have.

In the minors, JaKKKe pitched 5.2 last night, 108 pitches, 3 runs, 2 earned, 6 Ks as I recall. Bubba had a nice night, and two of his teammates have been dubbed the “Burlington Bombers”. If anyone wants, I will link to Pine Tar Press, which every morning gives rundowns and boxes on all the minor teams. They also give “scout” views of minor-leaguers, real informative stuff.
Darral VanGoethem
10 months ago

I don’t blame the team for signing Frenchy to the 2 yr deal. He would have gotten something similar to that on the Free Agent market this off-season so I don’t they “overpaid” for him per say. However, he is definitely struggling and probably needs a break in playing time. I wonder if the Royals will look at Dyson in CF and Cain in RF for a few games to give him a rest. At this point Dyson can’t do worse than Frenchy at the plate and at least brings the speed element to the game then.
Darral VanGoethem
10 months ago

Jim,

Pine Tar Press is a great reference source. I check it daily. We won’t see Odorizzi up until he can consistanly make it thru the 6th and into the 7th with consistency.

What I felt was most impressive about Will Smith’s game last night, and most encouraging going forward, is that he pitched well against a lineup that was all Right Handed or switch hitters that hit Right Handed against him. Going into the game Right Handed hitters were batting something stupid like .350 against him in his major league career.
Luke Healy
10 months ago

nice video—thanks to doug for being willing to do that.

i happened to notice that hosmer tripled on a 3-0 pitch. i was pretty surprised they gave him the green light with as much as he’s been struggling, but i’m glad they did. it shows confidence and might be the kind of small thing that could be a confidence boost against other moves like bringing him down in the order. i don’t know if that’s seitzer’s call or yost’s, but there’s a micro micro decision that could end up being a big deal. possibly.

every body gripes about their manager and their in game decisions, unless maybe he’s a future hall of famer—sometimes still even then. as lee has pointed out before, it is more dangerous to make a move that might not work out than doing nothing and trying to play it safe. i don’t agree with everything yost does but it’s easy to second guess from an armchair, especially after you’ve seen things go wrong. i’m less concerned with the few in game decisions than i am with the fact that this team has under-performed. to what degree that is yost’s fault has much more importance than a pinch-hit or a pitching change (and is part of the macro-level stuff).

for the record i think a lot more of it has to do with injuries to pitchers and some front office decisions.
Brendan Woodbury
10 months ago

Whether or not another team was foolish enough to offer Francoeur a contract like that (and I’ve never seen any say that they would) shouldn’t affect the calculus for the Royals, who had inexpensive options to provide outfield production and needed to focus resources on starting pitching.

Unless Francoeur was going to provide far more benefit than his history said was reasonable to expect, the deal was a bad deal for the Royals at the time it was signed (as opposed to the Melky-Sanchez trade, which looked like a good idea when it was made).
Lee Judge
10 months ago

Luke: At the beginning of the season people said the starting rotation was going to be a problem…and that was before the team lost Duffy, Paulino and, for all intents and purposes, Jonathan Sanchez.

They also lost their closer and their starting centerfielder (until recently and he still isn’t healthy). Hosmer is having a tough time adjusting in his second year and Francoeur appears to have slipped back into some old habits.

So far I haven’t listed anything that’s Ned Yost’s fault. The team was very lucky with injuries last year and this year hasn’t been.

Despite the “our Time” promotion, the Royals were hoping to be a .500 club. I don’t think anything Ned has done prevented that. people can disagree about in-game strategy, but I think the main thing has been starting pitching.

As I pointed out at the beginning of the post, when they get that, they look like a different team. Too often, they haven’t gotten that.
Brendan Woodbury
10 months ago

Howser’s team was underperforming in July 1985, but I’m inclined to give a bit more deference to a guy whose teams had finished 1st or 2nd in the division each year with the club over a guy whose teams had finished in the bottom four of the league each of his years with the club.

This team is a disappointment. Some of it’s injuries, and some of it’s players failing, and some of it is bad decisions by the club’s management (not just in-game tactics but also allocation of playing time).

Injuries have certainly been an unpleasant surprise. Every year has some injuries, but this year we’ve been riddled with them, and that certainly shaves a few wins off of a reasonable expectation going into the season.

While there have been some individual disappointments (Hosmer foremost among them), there have also been some surprises (Moose!), and I actually think our players in aggregate have performed right about what we reasonably expected going into the season.

So it seems to me that the rest of the disappointment is tactics (I have a major problem with baserunning but I’m not as negative on bullpen use as some others) and personnel (why are Francoeur and Yuni playing so much?) and all the intangibles that Lee mentions above. What does all of that add up to?
Brendan Woodbury
10 months ago

Lee -

You’ve repeatedly given Yost at some of the credit for Escobar succeeding at the plate this year. If he’s going to get some of the credit of the credit when guys are surprisingly good, does he deserve any of the blame when guys (Hosmer) are surprisingly bad?
Jim Fetterolf
10 months ago

Brendan, Hoz has turned it around and at the moment isn’t surprisingly bad. It’s all about trends and ranges rather than aggregates and averages. Even though I was probably the first to suggest that Hosmer needed a vacation in Nebraska, I recognize the wisdom of management to let him work through it and their faith seems justified.

As for inexpensive options, I can’t think of one over the winter that could match Frenchy last year. Remember, Wil was coming off a lousy season at Springdale and Melky refused the same contract Frenchy signed and Dyson couldn’t get on base. Frenchy regressed, Melky and Gordon didn’t. Those are the risks when dealing with real people.
Luke Healy
10 months ago

lee—i think you made the same points i was trying to make in a different way. i don’t blame yost at all and injuries have been huge. for a small market team (or any team really) it is just extremely hard to overcome those type of injuries.
William Wolfe
10 months ago

I’ll throw one Free Agent out that could match, albeit in hindsight it would have been the deal of the century, it still would have been good at the time. Willingham signed with the Twins for 3 yrs/21 mil. Pretty much same average dollars as Frenchy. Not sure that jives with Jim’s point directly but it’s in the neighborhood. Of course, we all know Dayton refuses to wait to see the market, he must sign people immediately, and it always works perfectly :)
Brendan Woodbury
10 months ago

Jim -

We controlled Melky for 2012.

I wasn’t a big fan of Melky’s but he exceeded Francoeur’s production in 2011 and his projections were just as good and he was available for less money without having to commit to a second year.

If you think it was good to sign both of them for trade pieces or whatever, that’s one thing, but if you’re just talking about replacing Francoeur’s production, the Royals already had a carbon copy who was available for less money and fewer years.
Terry Payne
10 months ago

My sense is that, after the Trey Hillman disaster, Ned Yost was brought on board to be more of a neutral impact kind of guy, someone to be more cheerleader than uber-tactician, more Uncle Ned than Abner Boonie-Day.

These young ones need more confidence boosting experiences, than wheel-execution experiences.

I expect that once this team has accomplished it’s move into championship mode, Uncle Ned will be booted upstairs, probably into a chair that has something like “Mission Accomplished” blazoned onto it’s backside.
Lee Judge
10 months ago

Brendan: I see the Escobar and the Hosmer situation in the same way: Ned Yost sticking with a young player that he believes has the talent to succeed despite the criticism of others.

As I’ve said before: baseball people have more patience than baseball fans.
Terry Payne
10 months ago

At this point, I’d rather have the Nurturing Ned rather than the Naybob Ned of Negativity. If that doesn’t date me, I don’t know what can.
Jim Fetterolf
10 months ago

Brendan, I remember the time and the Cool Kids were all chanting “Regression to the mean.”

I don’t remember anyone who predicted that Melky would equal, much less surpass 2011. Or really anyone who thought Gordon could equal his year, besides me of course, realizing that their years were the result of inflection points, repeatable changes. Or Frenchy. I missed on Frenchy, so two out of three ain’t bad.

In hindsight, yada, yada, but at the time the three major themes were to get Cain in CF (a year-long theme), regression to the mean, and get an elite K/9 pitcher. Some thought Dayton Moore could have gotten more for Melky without having a name, but most agreed that with Cain ready Melky was the best trade bait, more likely than Frenchy to get an SP. Trade more to get what was needed. We needed a 3 or 4 starter, not another 6.
Terry Payne
10 months ago

I Love the Frenchman more than anybody. His positive attitude, his aggressiveness, his love for the community, all wonderful things.

However, his aggressiveness, at this point, is not what this team needs, especially from his position. What this young team needs is someone they can rely upon, reasonably, to drive in runs that have been set up for exactly that: someone to drive them in.

French heart is way too aggressive, swinging at the first pitch far too often. French needs his heart, tamed with the patience and professionalism of Billy Butler.

In other words, more a German heart than a French heart.
Darral VanGoethem
10 months ago

Brendan,

In regards to choosing Melky, who they had control of for 2012, over Frenchy, who would have gone bye bye in free agency in all likelihood had he not been offered the deal he was offered. I would like to play devil’s advocate for a minute. Let’s say that they chose to go with Melky for this season even though he turned down the same offer that Frenchy was offered. We would still be having an issue in the OF as far as offensive production b/c Cain would have still been hurt for the 1st half of this season and we would have been forced to either have Maier in RF or Melky in RF and Dyson in CF. Now Melky in RF over Frenchy sounds great offensively but defensively it would be a wreck b/c Melky is an average, at best, CFer and an even worse option in RF due to his terrible arm.

Hindsight being what it is obviously they should have just rolled the dice and not signed Frenchy and just not trade Melky but the Royals, at this time last year, which was when they signed Frenchy, didn’t have their top prospect hitting like he is now and so they didn’t actually feel like they had the OF depth to risk the possibility of letting Frenchy walk after a very good year and then count on Melky having to re-produce last years numbers. Remember, it was a career year for Melky in every sense of the word. NO ONE thought he would follow it up with an even better year this season. It was not Frenchy’s best season. Statistically speaking it was Frenchy’s 2nd or 3rd best season of his career. So he had the better track record of similar production. Whereas Melky had really no history of this kind of production. So, without the benefit of hindsight I think you are being EXTREMELY critical of the Frenchy signing.

I believe that the reason why Frenchy is three fold. First reason, they feel like they can get another yr of service time out of Myers if they keep him down. Second, I think they wanted to see Myers hit for a better avg b/c while the BA stat is a bit overrated, it is still a pretty good indicator of quality ABs. Myers, for all of his hitting displays he has shown in AAA, his avg hasn’t hovered much about the .310 mark while there. It is currently down to .291. What that says is that he can be pitched to in AAA and be exploited a bit. He needs to learn to adjust to that. The difference between he and Hosmer is that Hosmer went to AAA and RAKED for a month. He hit well over .400 with power and a high walk rate. Which told the Royals that he was ready to see/adjust to major league pitching. The difference between Moose & Myers is that Moose struggled MIGHTILY in AAA to start the season and then made adjustments and started RAKING. He showed he could adjust. The Royals have been pretty consistent in wanting to see their top hitting prospects experience failure, learn from it and adjust accordingly. This is Myers’ turn to do that. The third reason that he is not up this season is b/c the Royals need every available open roster spot for RPing b/c their SPing is SOOO TERRIBLE!!
Darral VanGoethem
10 months ago

Oh, and Jim, who are the “cool kids”?
Darral VanGoethem
10 months ago

One more thing Brendan, just b/c you didn’t hear anything about other teams signing Frenchy to similar deals doesn’t mean much. The reason why I said that was b/c I felt it showed that the Royals didn’t overpay for him and that they made a wise baseball move.
Darral VanGoethem
10 months ago

Brendan,

On a side note. Do you live in DC??
Jim Fetterolf
10 months ago

Brendan and other young, hip, and happenin’ guys. As opposed to “dinosaurs” like myself who haven’t seen Moneyball and don’t play fantasy and have never owned a Play Station. Brendan knows who I’m talking about:)

Very good effort at Devil’s advocacy. I remember last winter well, spent quite a bit of time in discussions on the subject, and the consensus was that the “trade” was “mehh”. Most of the blogosphere didn’t like Melky because of his “terrible” defense and considered him a mistake pretty much from the moment of signing, “Just look at his career numbers!” I, as has become a habit, suggested that players could make changes in training, approach, and swing that make history less prophetic. That was a very lonely view, whether about Melky, Alex, Frenchy, or this year’s Getz and Moose with his new conditioning which is turning him into Brooks Robinson with the glove.
Brendan Woodbury
10 months ago

Jim F -

I just don’t think you’re doing yourself any favors with these comments about “cool kids” and “fantasy baseball” and whatnot. I don’t think you appreciate how the condescension comes across to others.

Melky and Francoeur had almost exactly the same projections coming into the year. Both were expected to regress to the mean. Melky was cheaper and available for one year. Francoeur was more expensive and apparently required an extra year as well.

Even if Melky hadn’t been extremely lucky this year (his BABIP is crazy high) and Francoeur hadn’t been collosally bad, signing Francoeur for 13.5M over Melky for 6M would still have been open to criticism.

Darral -

I think Francoeur’s range is so limited at this point (does he look injured to anyone else?) that, despite his arm, Melky is the better defensive right fielder. I’m not going to check the advanced stats because a partial season of UZR isn’t very reliable, but Melky’s range seems much greater than Francoeur’s to me, and I don’t think the difference in their arms is enough to make up for it.

And I’m showing that 2011 was Francoeur’s best hitting over a full season by a pretty considerable margin. Again, for what it’s worth, the computer projections for Melky and Francoeur were extremely similar.
Jim Wilson
10 months ago

Jim F., please stop characterizing everyone who disagrees with you unflattering ways. There are plenty of people who disagree with you who are neither cool nor young. I’m one of them.
Jim Wilson
10 months ago

Frenchy had never produced in a full season in his career. He was living off the hype of his first year.
Brendan Woodbury
10 months ago

Darral -

Yep.

Jim -

This isn’t a job interview. There’s no need to talk up your resume. Everybody makes mistakes and even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Creating an amalgam of “cool kids” and “fantasy players” and whatever else and comparing your predictions versus the amalgam’s strikes me as an odd contribution to this board.

The true evaluation is wins and losses on the field, and the Royals are doing quite terribly in that area, so they’re making plenty of mistakes. Over the short term, they’ve had some bad luck as well, but over the longer term, only bad decisions produce this level of futility.

So the critics are going to be right about a fair amount of the criticism, especially if it was made at the time or based on knowledge available at the time.
William Wolfe
10 months ago

But Brendan, the only reason the Royals suck is because we can’t hit!

Signed, Jim Fetterolf
Darral VanGoethem
10 months ago

Jim,

I disagree. Frenchy put up comparable #s to 2011 in 3 other seasons. Take a look:

Frenchy’s top season according to baseball reference:

2007: 84 runs,188 hits,40 dbls,19 hr,105 rbi,.293 avg,.782 ops

2011: 77 runs,171 hits, 47 dbls, 20 hr, 87 rbi, .285 avg, .805 ops

2006: 83 runs, 169 hits, 24 dbls, 29 hr, 103 rbi, .260 avg, .742

2009: 72 runs, 166 hits, 32 dbls, 15 hr, 76 rbi, .280 avg, .732 ops