Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals will hope to stop their free fall on Saturday with an afternoon game against the Los Angeles Angels. The Royals, who have gone 4-14 since starting the season 17-10, will send Jeremy Guthrie to the mound against the Halos to try and stop the bleeding. The Stormin' Mormon has a 3.49 ERA after his first 9 starts of the season, but he's likely to allow more runs per start as the season progresses. Guthrie's ERA estimators look far worse than his run-prevention numbers. The veteran has a 5.88 FIP, 4.75 xFIP and 4.88 SIERA. Guthrie does have a track record of out-pitching his peripherals in his career, but he's leaving himself even less margin for error. Guthrie is only striking out 12.9% of the hitters he has faced, which is 7% below the league-average and 1.3% below his career average. He is also walking a league-average number of hitters after posting below-average walk rates since 2006. The right-handed starter is surviving by stranding 90.9% of runners who have reached base against him this season. Guthrie's career average is 73.2% of runners stranded, while the league average is 73.1%. More of the other team's baserunners will start crossing home plate. We saw some of the regression in Guthrie's last start against the Houston Astros. Houston tagged Guthrie for six runs on eight hits in five innings. Astros hitters smacked two home runs and drew three walks against Guthrie, and only struck out twice. The Angels hit Guthrie well on May 14 when the two teams met at Angel Stadium. Hopefully Guthrie has a new approach or better stuff today, or else he may get battered again. Los Angeles will start former Royals pitcher Billy Buckner. Buckner started five games for the Royals in 2007 before Dayton Moore traded him to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Alberto Callaspo. Buckner started 16 games for Arizona in 2009 and 2010, but didn't pitch well enough to stick in the rotation. The right-handed pitched in the Colorado Rockies farm system in 2011 and the Boston Red Sox farm sytem in 2012 before signing up with the Angels this season. Bucker has not looked particularly impressive this year, posting a 4.56 ERA and 3.98 FIP in Triple-A. The 29-year-old misses an acceptable amount of bats, but has walked 12% of the batter he has faced. Kansas City hitters have claimed they are working on their plate approach; today would be a good day to show it. Even if I've been underwhelmed with Guthrie this season, he should be a better option than a journeyman spot-starter. God help us if the Royals offense can't score runs today.

We're getting to the point where we get legitimately excited if the team scores two runs. That's a lot! Jason Vargas has owned the Royals in his career, despite having utterly mediocre-looking stuff, and less-than-mediocre stats. Tonight was no different as the Royals came up swinging at everything. Through five innings, Vargas had only through twelve pitches total. Well not quite, but it seemed that way. Remember that meeting they had about not hacking at everything anymore? Lot of good that did. Luis Mendoza pitched just well enough to keep the team in the game and exited stage left after five innings. The audience groaned as the understudy was announced - Luke Hochevar. Ned has maximized Luke's utility by putting him in low leverage roles, so perhaps he was confident Luke could handle a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning. Luke promptly gave up a home run to Angels catcher Chris Ianetta, then a triple to J.B. Schuck that would have almost certainly led to another run had Angels manager Mike Scioscia not inexplicably set a squeeze bunt play in motion (hey, how about trading for Scioscia?). It failed, bailing Hooch out of the inning, but his leadoff walk in the seventh would come around to score in a three-run inning that gave the Angels an insurmountable 5-2 lead. Miguel Tejada hit a home run, his second of the year. It was just the Royals' second home run in their last ten games. It was the team's 28th home run of the year, three more than Miami, the worst home-run hitting team in all of baseball. Eight teams have twice as many home runs, including the Angels. Getzie had an RBI single out of the leadoff spot. Ned validated, right? Bob Dutton dropped this bit of knowledge on us: #Royals' Alex Gordon has come up in the first with two outs and none on in 13 of 15 games since switching from first to third in the lineup. — Bob Dutton (@Royals_Report) May 25, 2013 So its like Alex is the two-out rally leadoff man! Mike Trout tried to steal on Salvador Perez and this was the result. YOU make the call. Out or safe? via pbs.twimg.com Safe of course. Clearly Trout is touching the bag with his hand in Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility. Good thing umpire Marty Foster was aware of that fact or he would have embarrassed himself. That would be the winning run. Ah, the "human error" is one of those quaint little aspects of baseball. Poll Would you trade Ned Yost for Mike Scioscia? Yes No 34 votes | Results

New Orleans scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth to beat Omaha, 6-5. The Storm Chasers scored all of their runs in the fifth through seventh innings. Then were retired in order over the game’s final two innings. Christian Colon and Paulo Orlando each went 2-for-4 with a double. Colon drove in two runs with a 7th inning single. Jason Adam via Jen Nevius Despite a great start from Jason Adam, NW Arkansas lost their fifth game in a row with a 2-0 loss to Corpus Christi. The game was scoreless until the Hooks got to Adam for a run in the seventh after a leadoff hit batter. Adam had retired nine in a row prior to that inning. He allowed one run on five hits and a walk over seven innings. He struck out five. However, it is tough to win when your offense only picks up one hit, a leadoff single in the sixth by Roman Hernandez. The Naturals hit into three double plays, had a runner picked off, and another runner thrown out trying to steal second base. Lexington collected just three hits as they lost in Hagerstown, 6-0. All three hits were singles. They also walked five times, but went just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and struck out ten times. The Lasik surgery does not seem to be working yet for Bubba Starling. He went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts tonight, while also getting ejected in the 8th inning. He also grounded into a double play. Since returning from surgery (five games), he is 3-for-18 with seven strikeouts. *Over the last two days, there have been quite a few roster moves. I mentioned yesterday about Kenny Diekroeger and Yowill Espinal switching teams. Nick Cuckovich was “sent” to rookie ball Idaho Falls and reliever Mark Peterson was placed on the DL. Matthew Murray and Mark Donato were activated. Murray pitched one scoreless inning of relief and Donato went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts while playing first base in tonight’s game.

Sportsmanship in the midst of this mess.

As you’ve read on Big League Stew all day , there were plenty of fun things to talk about coming out of the Angels-Royals game at Kauffman Stadium on Thursday night. But we’re now learning that while all those entertaining events played out on the field or over the television broadcast , a far more serious scene was playing out in the stands. As it’s being reported by multiple outlets, including the Associated Press , a 14-year-old girl seated in the stadium’s upper deck collapsed and needed immediate medical attention. Fans in the area immediately began calling for assistance, and among the very first to respond, thankfully, was 26-year-old Sam Sapenaro, who works primarily as a nurse but was on duty at her second job as a member of Kauffman Stadium’s K-Crew (in-game entertainment). Within the 15-20 seconds Sapenaro says it took her to arrive on the scene, which is a remarkably quick reponse, the girl was completely unresponsive and without a pulse. With the assistance of the gentleman who accompanied the young girl to the game, who also turned out to be a nurse, Sapenaro immediately began CRP and was able to successfully resuscitate her. By that point stadium medical personnel had arrived and soon prepared the girl to be moved to the ambulance. It’s reported that during the transport to the ambulance the girl had to be revived a second time, but the encouraging news is they were able to get her to a hospital where she’s now receiving further treatment and is expected to survive. View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Kansas City Royals News

Jason Vargas #60 / Pitcher / Los Angeles Angels Height: 6-0 Weight: 215 Bats: L Throws: L Born: Feb 02, 1983 W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Jason Vargas 3-3 9 9 2 1 0 0 58.1 62 23 23 5 20 40 3.55 1.41 Luis Mendoza #39 / Pitcher / Kansas City Royals Height: 6-3 Weight: 235 Bats: L Throws: R Born: Oct 31, 1983 W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Luis Mendoza 1-2 8 6 0 0 0 0 36.0 36 26 22 4 13 26 5.50 1.36 If you're saying to yourself "Jason Vargas? Isn't he that mediocre left-hander that always seems to shut down the Royals"? You're right. Vargas is 5-1 with a 3.38 ERA in six career starts against the Royals, and that includes him getting shelled in his first outing versus the Boys in Blue. If you're saying to yourself "dude, Jason Vargas looks stoned/drunk/stupid in that picture", you're right about that to. Now quit talking to yourself! Poll What was the best name for the Angels? Anaheim Angels California Angels Los Angeles Angels Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 3 votes | Results

Dayton Moore wants Royals fans to be patient. We've crossed the line to incompetence, though.

Last Friday, I was able to see Jonathan Gray of Oklahoma pitch against Kansas State. Jonathan is considered one of the top two pitchers in the upcoming draft. While he is probably the best player I have seen this season, some issues stood out during this outing. First off, the game was a cluster fuck. The stadium was sold out with at least few hundred standing room only tickets sold. Usually, even in a full stadium, I am able to move around and get the views I need and get my radar gun on a pitcher. Not at this game. I was stuck in the TV camera bay with half dozen or so other media types or standing in front of a trash can. I did see a lot of Gray I liked. His body reminds of Justin Verlander. Tall, thin, but built. The first thing that stood out is he works extremely fast. I almost didn't need to cut the video to save time. I left an instance of one throw to the next to show this speed. The one exception to working fast is when a running gets on. He totally loses focus and seem flustered. He really comes after hitters from 3/4 slot by throwing strikes. He only walked one batter, did hit two of them. His mechanics are the best I have seen for a college pitcher this year. Both his fastball and slider have great late movement. Though I didn't have a gun, he seemed to lose a little off his fastball the fourth time through the order. I expected him to dominate the K-State lineup, but wasn't to be. K-State got 9 hits off him and seemed to steal his attention with the base runners. Others agree he didn't have his best stuff. From ESPN: There were fewer positives for Jonathan Gray in his start this weekend. Gray gave up nine hits and four earned runs in his six innings against Kansas State, walking one and striking out just three. While the Oklahoma right-hander hasn't been as dominant of late, his stock hasn't diminished significantly and probably won't fall past the Cubs at No. 2 overall. I was a little disappointed in Gray. He is still the best player I have seen this season. I could see where other talent evaluators would prefer other prospects over him.

1. Pets. Do you have any? Names, species, character flaws. 2. Favorite board game? 3. Memorial Day: If you could have any dead person brought back to life, so that you could fight them, who would it be? 4. What are you reading? 5. What kind of shorts are you going to be wearing this summer? Boner: Charcoal or Gas? Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.-Nelson Mandela 1. Pets. Do you have any? Names, species, character flaws. 2. Favorite board game? 3. Memorial Day: If you could have any dead person brought back to life, so that you could fight them, who would it be? 4. What are you reading? 5. What kind of shorts are you going to be wearing this summer? Boner: Charcoal or Gas? Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.-Nelson Mandela

A pediatric nurse said Friday she was in the right place at the right time to revive a 14-year-old girl who collapsed while dancing in the upper deck during a Kansas City Royals game. View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Kansas City Royals News