Catching Up on the Royals

One of my goals this year is to start writing about the Kansas City Royals again. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed, and the team has been more fun to watch this past year than any since 2003.

Previous bits of my baseball meanderings can be found here, here and here.

This is, of course, a terrible idea.

The main reason is that I am about to become a father for the first time. Our little girl is due on March 27, which is basically opening day. I don’t know much about raising children (I do have a DVD from the California Children & Families Commission that I’m hoping will be helpful), but my guess is that it won’t lead to more free time, and I certainly wasn’t a prolific writer before.

At any rate, I’m going to give it a shot. Starting with a look at the main transactions that have taken place since the season ended.

That’s right, cutting edge analysis only two months after something has happened. Count on it!

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In 2011, the Royals had a team ERA of 4.44, which was 12th in the American League. That is not good. The bulk of this awfulness came from the starting rotation, who contributed a 4.82 ERA versus 3.75 from the relievers.

Having this information on hand, you may look at the transactions above and wonder why only one of the signings actually addressed the starting pitching situation.

I’m not saying that adding Jonathan Sanchez to the starting rotation isn’t a nice move. But, it’s sort of like putting a new rug in the living room to spruce things up, but leaving your beer-stained couch and milk crate coffee table as the centerpiece.

Bringing back Bruce Chen is nice, as he was probably the best starter last year. Bringing in Broxton and Mijares certainly adds more depth to a very good bullpen. But, at the end of the day, four-fifths of the rotation of suck that took the mound last year will be doing so again this season.

On a positive note, the starters for Kansas City did drop their ERA from 5.13 before the All Star Break to 4.44 after.

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I don’t know who any of these people are.

This is the kind of in-depth analysis you can expect about the minor league moving forward.

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Jeff Bianchi had a promising season in between single and double-A ball in 2009, but lost all of 2010 to injury, and just never put it together last year at Northwest Arkansas.

I list him here, because as somebody who has played both shortstop and second base, he could have been a usefull player for the Royals if the bat ever came around.

Oh, and he’s probably going to become a hall of famer in Chicago. That Theo Epstein kid is wicked smart.

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Yamaico Navarro was in a great position to be the Royals super utility player this year. But, he was an a-hole. And what happens to a-holes? They get traded from Boston to Kansas City to Pittsburgh. Unless they can hit. If they can hit, they get to keep being a-holes all they want.

Better learn how to hit, Yam.

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Joe Posnanski says it best here.

Rany Jazayerli has a good take on the signing here.

I’ll just link to what I wrote when theRoyals picked up Yuni the first time.

Thankfully, I was way wrong about Cortes’s future. The jury is still out on Yuni, though.