Yosted/Royals 2K14

@jazayerli
He'll PR for one of his best hitters who's neither the tying or go-ahead run, but won't PH for his best fielder when the tying run's at 2nd.

@jazayerli
Of course, he'll ALSO pinch-run for that runner on 2nd base, which is why Brett Hayes is now batting with two outs and two runners on.

@jazayerli
The Royals and Tigers have now played 37 one-run games since the start of 2011, the most of any 2 MLB teams. Detroit's 23-14. I wonder why?

@Lynn_Henning
Ned Yost has an extraordinary philosophy on managing. Not shared by many. But extraordinary.

yosted on his own petard

Infante HBP looked awful.

OK, Heath Bell.

"My prayers go out to him," Bell told MLB.com. "... I was trying to throw a sinker and just let it run and it ran too much and just didn't finish it. It went up and in. ... I feel really bad. I know he feels bad, but I feel worse.

Slugging .312

Alex Gordon: home run leader (one)

mike moustakas in 1534 career plate appearances: .241/.294/.379 at third base

you didn't need to point that out a few hours before the HACKING MASS rosters froze, mook

@michaelcbarr: among qualified players, there is one player still without a single line drive, and it is Mike Moustakas

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BlV6ZRvCUAAchMi.jpg

Lorde has said she was looking through a National Geographic magazine and saw a photo of the baseball star smiling and signing autographs for fans.

“He was a baseball player and his shirt said, ‘Royals,’ ” Lorde told VH1. “It was just that word. It’s really cool.”

According to TMZ, Lorde’s representatives contacted Brett and asked whether he wanted to meet the singer before her concert in Las Vegas last night.

Aware of the connection, Brett hadn’t been able to see the singer perform previously because of scheduling conflicts, but had sent her an autographed jersey when she had a concert in Kansas City, writing, “Lorde, you are Royal to me.”

Jonah Keri looks at Ned's bullpen usage

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/ned-yost-greg-holland-using-closers-in-tied-road-games/

brutal scouting report on 2011 fifth overall pick bubba starling:

low neurological ceiling when it comes to bat-to-ball skills

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=23489#report77

Professor Parks is famous for his Bubba skepticism

he's got a point. bubba's in the midst of a six-game hitting streak and his line is still .163/.285/.298 in high-a. and he's almost 22.

When it comes to demonstrating that he's TRYING REALLY HARD, YOU GUYS, Aoki might have Teixeira beat.

Andy McCullough ‏@McCulloughStar
Ned Yost on starting Danny Valencia over Mike Moustakas against a RHP: "I don't have a plan."

moustakas to triple-a

fuuuuck i am dead in HACKING MASS

despair really setting in as royals are swept at home by houston

Astros have been playing pretty well lately fwiw

Rany Jazayerli @jazayerli
I just came to the realization that I've spent the last 8 years - roughly 10% of a long human life span - waiting for nothing. #Royals

Rany Jazayerli @jazayerli
Look at the bright side, Royals fans: we finally got a chance to see what a competent rebuilding process looks like at the K.

Rany Jazayerli @jazayerli
The Royals got swept. No, slaughtered. By the Astros. At home. By the combined score of 21-5. The Process, everyone.

Rany Jazayerli @jazayerli
And that, my friends, concludes the easy part of the Royals schedule. Coming up next: Toronto, STL, Yankees, White Sox, Cleveland, Detroit.

Rany Jazayerli @jazayerli
Perhaps not the best time to remind everyone that Saturday is the 8-year anniversary of Dayton Moore's hiring.

Home runs hit by Royals: 21

Home runs hit by Nelson Cruz: 19

and a bunch of those are from guys who are now in omaha

dale sveum is the new royals hitting coach, which apparently means pedro grifol was fired

Andy McCullough @McCulloughStar
Ned Yost on the shakeup: "It was just time to do something. We needed to do something. We couldn't keep going the way we were going."

Down nine, Yost had the infield playing in -- guess he didn't want to waist an opportunity to work on situations.

Down 10 now.

Jazayerli:

http://www.kansascity.com/2014/05/31/5059231/the-royals-inability-to-develop.html

mooses triumphant return -

T2 -Strike (swinging), M Moustakas flied out to left
T5 -M Moustakas lined out to second
T7 -Ball, Strike (looking), M Moustakas flied out to right

@BNightengale
Dale Sceum, the #Royals mew hitting coach, has unleashed the offense w team scoring 14 runs in 2 days

Best AL Central DIFF

~sveum unleashing~

first place!

Moustakas leads the way, MVP candidate

Welcome back, Raúl.

Ibanez homer

if ned finishes the season with them, he will be the longest-tenured royals manager ever

Great article by Posnanski about the Royals, strikezones, balls in play and baseball philosophy.

@jazayerli
Since the beginning of the 2012 season, the Kansas City Royals have a better record (215-219) than the Boston Red Sox (215-220).

Only 1.5 games back.

Currently facing the A's but their schedule through early September is really soft.

About to face the A's, that is.

first place

oh god i hope this lasts

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/baseball-joe/blog/royals-first-place-jarrod-dyson-backflip-081214

too good for the A's

so, per BP, they're up to a 75% postseason shot. Is mookieproof a believer yet?

Interesting BP podcast today on Alex Gordon getting sabermetric MVP support, largely on what defensive metrics add, and whether that's legit.

^^ on that same note, i meant to share this dave cameron post from the other day about gordon. just a wonderfully-written piece -- explains the defensive numbers so well

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/so-lets-talk-about-alex-gordon/

imo gordon is still a notch below felix and trout in the MVP race

just won on a 2-run Gordon HR

i smell magic

On a glorious night for the Royals, Ned Yost manages to dump on the fans

why would yost leave him in that long pitch counts are way too high these days

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BxhsfR4IQAE6yhk.jpg

Sam Mellinger @mellinger
Ned Yost on facing Chris Sale: "He throws a lot of strikes. That's good for us, because we swing at a lot of balls."

Lindbergh on BP podcast wondered if Yost was trolling w/ those Sunday billpen comments

ned yost has said and done way too many dumb things to really credit that

unless he's playing a *really* deep troll game, which i would suggest is misguided

it's like the 'long game' of a certaiin president

no

As a Brewer fan I assure you, the guy is not trolling

Finally-full stadium, pulled starters: 2014 Kansas City Royals

Yost!

Kansas City - Bottom of 1st				SCORE
Max Scherzer pitching for Detroit			DET	KC
A Escobar doubled to deep left.				0	0
N Aoki sacrificed to pitcher, A Escobar to third.	0	0
J Willingham struck out swinging.			0	0
A Gordon struck out swinging.				0	0

@jazayerli
You mean moving the strikeout-prone hitter facing one of the game's top strikeout pitchers didn't bring the runner home from 3rd with 1 out?

Yost!

Kansas City - Bottom of 3rd						SCORE
Max Scherzer pitching for Detroit					DET	KC
J Dyson singled to right.						0	0
A Escobar singled to left, J Dyson to second.				0	0
N Aoki sacrificed to pitcher, J Dyson to third, A Escobar to second.	0	0
J Willingham fouled out to first.					0	0
A Gordon struck out swinging.						0	0

yeah i heard some boos in that first inning.

I think we are going to hear a lot about that Perez blunder.

yea that was wild

Guess we're still wondering what Nathan has to do to lose his job.

pretty much. 14 swings-and-misses in his last 13 innings, i'm told

lol aoki has 13 hits in his last 18 at bats, so naturally bunt him twice

there goes the Cinderella costume

"We wanted a professional hitter in a professional at-bat." -- Ned Yost

(Hear that, Billy Butler?)

Kahrl:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/51636/royals-botching-both-little-big-things

Kansas City - Bottom of 4th					SCORE
Rick Porcello pitching for Detroit				DET	KC
O Infante walked.						2	2
M Moustakas singled to right, O Infante to second.		2	2
A Escobar bunt popped out to pitcher.				2	2

Escobar was two-for-two prior to this at-bat. Infante and Moustakas were the Royals' ninth and tenth base runners against Porcello, whose stuff has been LOUSY today.

Luckily for Yost, Aoki tripled after Escobar's pop-out (which occurred on a second attempt; there were boos the moment Escobar squared the first time).

And Jim Johnson is Ausmus' first choice from the pen. OK.

Aoki bunted on his own at least once on Saturday btw

jazayerli:

Afterwards we learned that Aoki bunted on his own his first time up. Sorry, but that’s no excuse. It’s the manager’s job to make sure when his players should NOT be bunting, and man oh man was that a situation in which the batter should not be bunting.

And anyway, Yost did put the bunt on with Aoki his second time up, proving he had learned nothing from how the first inning ended.

yes i wd agree

KC crowd booed the bunts too

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/96076652/royals-2014-success-translate-to-2015

royals

yostseason

your skepticism is yosttoast

ok, where is the Central playoff if there is a tie on Sunday night?

I propose the Big O.

^^^pvmic

pvmic?

oh i get it

am i the only one who still doesn't really count the new one game playoff as the "playoffs"

fuck you, fan of a team that's won two championships without ever winning a division

if the first wild card series was three games or something i'd count it, but one game feels too impermanent to me

cool for the royals though (go A's nonetheless)

it's the postseason, "the playoffs" are that 2-month NBA joke perpetuated with everyone who's .400+

also the primary benefit of the one-game 'play-in' crapshoot was to make a first place finish meaningful

lol that was like benefit #15

the rest of the benefits are about $$$$$ and bud's sense of self-importance

and even then "allowing more teams to contend" was the biggest line given

and the one-game playoff is a fucking travesty

Compared to the previous system, I disagree. Allowing more teams to contend -- nothing was gonna stop that.

anyway:

http://www.royalsreview.com/2014/9/26/6842301/royals-playoff-scenarios-and-tiebreakers

Sorry, Royals -- the Tigers have Lobstein going tonight.

Season head-to-head should break the tie, not determine the damn location of the tiebreaker.

otm

no.

^^^

if first place is important yes let's use some willynilly cumulative BS to determine it, huh?

anyway, looks like all the AL CONTENDERS MAY LOSE AGAIN TONIGHT! I don't think they understand last-weekend clutchiness. At least that would eliminate Seattle.

You think the result of one game is less willynilly than the results of 19? OK.

I think the entire 162-game season record should have primacy, howzthat?

(or 163)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CC13T6-VAAARR3q.jpg