We've seen this before.....bring a top prospect up from the minors, let him play a little, then sit his butt on the bench. It's hard to say if this slowed the development of Justin Huber, but it couldn't have helped. Now we're seeing the same thing with Billy Butler.
Dayton Moore and his new regime promised the fans we'd see better handling of prospects. Moore seems to understand the value of scouting, minor league development, etc. However....now we're watching Billy Butler, probably the best pure hitting prospect in baseball, being handled in pretty much the same way we've seen Huber handled in the past.
What's the deal????
I'm well aware of Butler's defensive shortcomings....the guy was born to hit, but that's about all he was born to do. He looks awful in the outfield, and has probably embarrassed him self a bit in the process. Now the Royals say they're going to move him to first base. Ok. Great. I'm good with that. So....shouldn't he be in Omaha, logging time at the new position?? Oh. You'd rather have him sit the bench with the big leaguers...improving on nothing. Um.....Ok.
Now, who am I to criticize? Well...just a fan. No, I don't have a master's degree in business or any real baseball background. But I'm a fan who goes to a ton of games every year, and when I'm not there, I'm watching on TV or listening on the radio. Just a guy who studies the game with my free time and recognizes when mistakes are made. A guy who sees when a similar mistake is being made. A guy who's getting really tired of bungled moves with this team.........
I'm not jumping all over Moore. I love Moore. I have all the confidence in the world in this guy. That being said, if Butler's not going to play here, send him back to Omaha. Let him hit every day and continue to improve his game. Let him play first base every day. Let this kid prepare himself to succeed at the next level! PLEASE!
Now that I've got that off my chest....I feel like I'd better mention something positive. How about Meche???? Man....he's come out and proven all the doubters wrong. Where are all these national media guys now? I remember when KC and Dayton Moore were bashed for shelling out the big bucks for him.....time to eat your words boys.
Also - you've got to love the emergence of De La Rosa as a top notch starter. When one of these two guys start, the Royals are 10-7. Maybe we should shave it down to a two-man rotation....
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Back after hiatus
I had to take the end of April to get away from this blog. I couldn't handle trying to come up with something to write about, everything was going so terribly for the Royals (and still is, really).
Anyway - I'm back. And Billy Butler is here. Glad to see they finally made room for this kid...he is a hitter. And we can always use one of those.....especially in this weak lineup. Going into the season, I thought our lineup would be great and our pitching would still be the shaky part of the team, but I was wrong.
Let me clarify - I didn't think the pitching would be as horrible as last year, but I thought it would only be slightly improved. Meche and company have proven me wrong, though. The starting pitching has been vastly improved, while the bullpen has still been a sore spot (although Soria is the real deal). However, the bullpen hasn't been as much of a sore spot as our underperforming lineup. Alex Gordon is off to a slow start, which makes the start Shealy is off to completely impossible to describe (thank god he's on the DL now).
On a positive note, we did just split a four game series with the Angels, so that's nice. And even though we sit with a record of 10-20, there is a different feel to this team....I never feel like they're just completely overmatched, and that's a nice improvement from 2006. Another positive - Butler looks like the real deal, and I do see signs of improvement from Gordon - he's patient, and although he's only batting about .170, his OBP is over .300, so he's getting on base, just not getting hits.
Heading out to The K tonight to watch game two of the Detroit series, so hopefully will see a good game. Looking forward to seeing Butler in person.
I'll be posting more regularly (hopefully) throughout the rest of the season, and will try to have some fun new features for you guys, so stay tuned......
Anyway - I'm back. And Billy Butler is here. Glad to see they finally made room for this kid...he is a hitter. And we can always use one of those.....especially in this weak lineup. Going into the season, I thought our lineup would be great and our pitching would still be the shaky part of the team, but I was wrong.
Let me clarify - I didn't think the pitching would be as horrible as last year, but I thought it would only be slightly improved. Meche and company have proven me wrong, though. The starting pitching has been vastly improved, while the bullpen has still been a sore spot (although Soria is the real deal). However, the bullpen hasn't been as much of a sore spot as our underperforming lineup. Alex Gordon is off to a slow start, which makes the start Shealy is off to completely impossible to describe (thank god he's on the DL now).
On a positive note, we did just split a four game series with the Angels, so that's nice. And even though we sit with a record of 10-20, there is a different feel to this team....I never feel like they're just completely overmatched, and that's a nice improvement from 2006. Another positive - Butler looks like the real deal, and I do see signs of improvement from Gordon - he's patient, and although he's only batting about .170, his OBP is over .300, so he's getting on base, just not getting hits.
Heading out to The K tonight to watch game two of the Detroit series, so hopefully will see a good game. Looking forward to seeing Butler in person.
I'll be posting more regularly (hopefully) throughout the rest of the season, and will try to have some fun new features for you guys, so stay tuned......
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