Mas Beisbol

I am sorry in advance for the fact that this is yet another baseball-centric post, but sometimes dems da breaks, ya know?

Anyway, I think anyone in Cincinnati is thinking that my boy, Jay Bruce, is the cat's pajamas. Seriously. He has been killing the ball. He hit a walk-off in his fifth game (his first major-league home run). He's now hitting at a lean .579 clip--and no, that's not his slugging percentage, or even his on-base percentage, that's his batting average through his first five games. To go with that ridiculous average in his extremely young career, he's scored eight runs, driven in four, drawn five walks, stolen two bases, and struck out exactly once. I guess one could call that a hot start. One could also ask why Corey Patterson was sitting there in the lead-off spot and Bruce's rightful position in centerfield. One would probably be right to do so.

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So Billy Butler got demoted to AAA a few days ago, which may be slightly discouraging to Royals fans, but I think it's probably the right move. He's looked absolutely lost at the plate and would more than likely be afforded the chance to get his head straight. He's too important to the future of the franchise to not handle with care.

In other Royals news, Tomko was (deservedly) demoted to the bullpen. Replacing him today was Kyle Davies, having gotten called up after tearing apart AAA hitting at Omaha. I know much of the Royals fanbase (at least over on the Kansas City Star discussion board) is really not fond of Davies, but I personally think he has the stuff and make-up to be a serviceable fifth starter if not more than that. And the kid's only 24 years old, which to me is much too early to give up on a pitcher.

Oh. In case you were curious, yes, the Royals are still mired in this awful losing streak. When it started, they were one game under .500. They've since lost, what, twelve straight? Will it ever end? Sometimes I wonder...

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I've heard from a few sources now that the new Indiana Jones movie was not especially good. By not especially good, of course, I mean it was an utter mess. I'll surely see for myself soon enough. Can it piss me off more than Pirates 2? Only time will tell. Stay tuned reader.

The Next Big Thing

Jay Bruce made his major league debut last night. Quick breakdown of what he did is as follows:

3 - 3, 2 singles, a double, 2 walks, 2 runs, 2 RBIs, and a stolen base

While the Reds sent Hatteberg packing (Votto seems to have established himself well enough to lay claim to the first base job), it was Corey Patterson who was not in the lineup. Now for as much hemming and hawing from Reds management as to why Bruce was still murdering the ball in AAA (Griffey), the real problem--as I had stated was Corey Patterson--found himself on the bench last night, and apparently got booed by the fans in Cincy. Go figure.

Welcome to the Bigs, Jay. We're (read: I'm) glad to have you.

Call me Natalie Imbruglia because I'm torn

So I feel compelled to post at least periodically about baseball and especially the Royals because I get a fair amount of hits (at least in terms of hits on this blog) based on being linked up on Royals Nation as a Royals blog. And I do love the Royals (and blog about them a bit), so I think the linking is justified even if this isn't strictly a Royals blog. The problem is, every time I write about the Royals, they lose. They get no-hit. They lose to Zombie Colon. They make a rookie look like a white Satchel Paige. They drop games like it was what they were born to do. So what the hell?

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So I had some German* bitch** freak out at me for putting her drink in a to-go cup because I was out of the mugs that fit her drink (mind you, she never specifically stated her order was not to go). I set her drinks down on the counter. Without provocation or really any words spilling from my mouth, she instantaneously turned into a super bitch and started essentially accosting me because her drink wasn't in a demitasse. She had a baby on her hip. Great example you're setting for your kid, lady. I'm sure you're a great parent... If it ever happens again, she will be 86'd.

*I'm assuming she was German here. She had an accent that sounded German. I'm sure she could have been Dutch or Austrian or something. Not really taking the time to inquire as to her origins.

**Bitch is a term I don't throw around lightly when describing women. Bitchy is one thing. Bitch as a verb is another. Bitch when talking about a woman is completely earned if I'm using it.

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And, from Jay Bruce's Yahoo! Player Profile:

May 21 Hal McCoy, of the Dayton Daily News, reports Cincinnati Reds OF Jay Bruce is hitting .529 in his last 14 games with five home runs and 15 RBIs at Triple-A Louisville.

What the hell, Cincy? Corey Patterson is sitting at a .227/.270/.398 split. Griffey's not the problem.

Baseball Thoughts

So Jose Guillen remembered how to hit, eh? In the past month, he's got 24 RBIs, and since May 7th, he has gone 19 of 38 and raised his average .080 points to .245. During that stretch, the Royals have been averaging 5.2 runs per game, which doesn't appear to me to be coincidental. The intent behind his signing was to add a solid power bat to the heart of the order, and now that April is in the rear-view, and the Royals are coming back up on .500 (one game under), maybe there is reason for optimism in Kansas City.

After all, they do seem to have a solid rotation, even with a less than consistent Brian Bannister. Hochevar looks to be a considerable upgrade from John Bale, who was shaky in just about every outing. After a month and a half, the roster has been shaken out, Nomo and Bale have exited, and the more effective Joel Peralta and Luke Hochevar have steppted in. Brett Tomko has been a little less consistent than one might like out of a guy getting a guaranteed $3 million, but he has had three quality starts, which isn't terrible out of your fifth pitcher, I guess, and hopefully his BABIP will come back down a little from the .338 it's sitting at now.

And just so it's out there, I'd like to show you this:

Central	W		L	Pct	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent	West	Streak	L10
Chicago White Sox	23		20	.535	--	9-7	14-13	6-9	9-7	5-4	Won 5	7-3
Cleveland Indians	22		22	.500	1.5	14-12	8-10	7-6	7-6	8-7	Lost 3	6-4
Minnesota Twins	21		22	.488	2.0	14-10	7-12	4-5	13-8	3-7	Lost 2	4-6
Kansas City Royals	21		22	.488	2.0	10-12	11-10	5-5	10-7	4-9	Won 1	6-4
Detroit Tigers	17		27	.386	6.5	8-12	9-15	8-8	4-15	4-2	Lost 1	3-7

Yes, on May 18th of 2008, the Royals are one game under .500 and two games out of first. And those Tigers who I was emphatically stating were so deficient in pitching that they could not win the division are sitting four and a half games out of fourth in the division. Even Verlander has been bad (much to my surprise). He's not even performing as well as Brett Tomko.

In the non-Royal baseball arena, my boy Shaun Marcum is getting accolades from Fan Graphs. Glad I picked him in spite of the the post-draft regret. Don't call him Casey Janssen.

Chipper Jones has been absolutely unreal. I really can't believe how much he's been killing the ball. If he can stay healthy...

Congrats to two of my favorite young players on their signings this week: Joakim Soria and Hanley Ramirez. Moreover, it is refreshing to see two historically cheap teams (in the case of the Marlins, cheap is being kind) actually holding on to some of their talented young players.

Cliff Lee's ERA finally rose above 1.00. Does anyone want to wager on it staying below 3.00? I'm willing to entertain offers.

Jake Peavy is missing his start Monday so that his elbow can be evaluated. Kind of scary for Peavy owners like me.

As Smoltz nears his return to active duty (and his return to the closer's role), my feeling are mixed. As an owner of his, I much prefer to get his 17 wins and his 200 K's, but as a long-time fan, I hope it extends his career and his legacy. I truly believe he is a Hall of Famer.

And finally, everyone's clamoring for it, Dusty. As for this nonsense that the reason Jay Bruce isn't up with the club is because there's no room with Griffey still sitting in right, that's utter horseshit. Their lead-off hitter, one old pal of Baker's who goes by the name of Corey Patterson, is taking up valuable space with his .273 OBP and .227 AVG. Why did Baker need him again? Bruce was set to start in center when the season began, but this revisionist spin on where Bruce can/will play is clouding the real problem, and that real problem is Corey Patterson and TPTB's reluctance to show that they were wrong.

Upswings, Downturns, and Irritation

It's articles like this (thanks to bases on the KC Star board for the heads up) that give me, a Royals fan hope.

I guess things could be worse. I could be a Giants fan. They're apparently interested in Kotchman and Mathis, who are not nearly enough to help the Giants, who promise to be an historically bad offensive team as evidenced by this article, which was a front page article in the San Francisco Chronicle according to my sources in Santa Cruz.

And, as a keeper owner of Jay Bruce, I'd like to step out and say I have joined the legions of baseball fans who curse Dusty Baker's name. I blame him solely for the signing of Corey Patterson and the subsequent demotion of my boy back to AAA-Louisville.

I should also note that my little brother, who has been known to comment here, has his own blog, to which I put a link to a few weeks ago. It may veer towards the Twins-centric, but he is a Chiefs fan, for which he can be granted a pass.

Lastly, in a sportsless note, my boy made the Post today (registration required)--and it wasn't for making sweet sweet love to Jimmy Kimmel (link included for the one person in the world who hasn't seen that).

Post-script: I finished watching the clip I linked to, and there was this weird-ass Meat Loaf stuff tacked on to the end. I thought about changing the link, but I almost think it's better to have that link there and as the video changes over, you can sit there and wonder what the fuck VoomGurl49 was thinking when she put that file up.