I’m excited about this move. I absolutely would have loved to see Kila succeed at the major league level, and maybe at some point he will, but it won’t be with the Royals. Kila was struggling intensely this season, and he didn’t get a fair shake, but sometimes that’s the way it works. He was done a disservice by being kept down by poor acquisitions, and I feel bad for the guy, but in the end he was not the Royals solution at 1B. That solution is Eric Hosmer. Read more
It’s sad what has become of ol’ Jose. You can’t even recognize him anymore.
Clint Robinson doesn’t want to be in the minors anymore. In 2010 he had arguably as impressive of a season at the plate as Mike Moustakas. He won the AA triple crown. He hit 41 doubles, 29 homers and 5 triples. Sure he did it in the left handed hitter friendly Arvest Ballpark, but he’s off to a hot start with the Omaha Stormchasers too. Considering his career line is .309/.376/.543/.919, maybe he’s not a flash in the pan.
The problem is he’s not Eric Hosmer and he doesn’t play gold glove caliber defense. He’s also 26 years old, so his time is running out. I’m still pulling for him though. Kila Ka’aihue was supposed to hit. I thought he would this year. Last year when his numbers were low, I thought he was still making good contact and having decent at bats. This year he seems to be behind in every count and can’t hit the ball solidly. I think he deserves a couple more weeks, but if he keeps doing what he’s doing, there will need to be a change. My vote will go to Clint Robinson. Why? Because the guy can hit, and he’s not Eric Hosmer. Read more
Way better. It’s great to see Alex Gordon putting his bat on the ball. He has 8 doubles in 63 Abs. He had 10 doubles in 242 AB last year and 6 in 164 AB the year before. He only has 1 home run, which I’ll only complain about for fantasy purposes, but he’s having an incredible start to the season. There may be a noticeable reason for that, and it seems to be his ability to make contact.
Something interesting is on Fan Graphs, he never hit Sliders well, his best year against them was 0.8 runs above average before this year. He’s currently hitting them for 2.3 runs above average. He’s also hitting changeups much better, curveballs slightly better, though cutters and split fingered fastballs worse. This could all even out, but it seems like he’s seeing the ball a little bit better. Read more
Just a week late for this one, but I had the pleasure of going to Opening Day for the third year in a row. This time it was done right. Last year my friend, @Rod_Leviathan, and I got to the parking lot a little late. We had brought some Bell’s Two Hearted Ale for drinking beforehand but ended up having to chug it on the way to the gates so we didn’t miss all of the pre-game traditions. This year we got there three hours early and set up camp. Read more
