submitted by Bench
It’s wonderfully early in the season, which means we can believe that the quality pitching will continue but that the bats will somehow turn around. It could happen, so we might as well indulge ourselves. Sadly, “it could happen” is always the dark side of the coin that the Royals represent. For years now, we have heard about the loaded Royals farm system, and seen perennial rookie of the year candidates disappoint and fizzle out, or manage to put together some decent, but comparatively underwhelming seasons, years after their initial expectations were dampened. This is our fear for the Astros. Years and years of promising futures yield a field of limp clovers. I think Sting had a horrible song along those lines.
Things managed to come together for the Royals last year, as once-uber prospects Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Alex Gordon finally all made contributions at the same time, and the short term decision to swap Wil Myers for James Shields stabilized the top of the team’s rotation. The Royals were actually playing meaningful games deep into September for the first time in a decade, and then again in a decade before that. The Royals finished over .500 in 2013, 2003 and 1993. So looks like the beginning of another decade of suck for them. But hey, that’s plenty of time to keep their minor league system stocked with promising prospects.
Anyway, the Royals are proof that this is a tough business, and amassing an impressive array of minor league prospects is no guarantee of future major league success. In Luhnow we trust.
Pitching Matchups:
Tuesday April 15 at 7:10 on a channel only Budgirl has and Limey won’t watch.
Yordano Ventura (0-0, 0.00 ERA) v. Lucas Harrell (0-2 11.05 ERA)
Ventura is one of the Royals’ never ending much-touted-rookies. In his first ever game he shut down the Rays for six innings, giving up just two hits and no walks but getting no decision. Ventura has never faced the Astros or any of their players. If this were 2003 that would guarantee a perfect game 27 K performance, but the curse of facing a hard-throwing right-hander for the first time seems to have abated in the last seven years or so. Wishful thinking.
Harrell, well, what can we say about Harrell that Great Bagwell’s Beard didn’t already perfectly say? This likely ends the recent run of Astros quality starts, though at times in his last start Harrell actually showed flashes of his 2012 stuff despite giving up 5 runs in 5 or so innings. Omar Infante is 5-6 against Harrell, and current Royals are batting a collective .357 against him so expect some action on the base paths. Prior to this game, the Royals dropped 5 straight road games. Hopefully Harrell won’t fulfill his destiny as the opposing team’s antidote to losing streaks.
Tuesday, in addition to being an important day for our government’s ability to operate is also Jackie Robinson Day. LJ Hoes will be wearing #42 in Jackie (and Jose Lima)’s honor. LJ had this to say about the experience:
“It means a lot, just thinking about what he’s done for all minorities in baseball,” Hoes said. “Being African American, it’s something that’s going to be very special, and I’m very excited. Without him, I wouldn’t have this opportunity to be able to play Major League Baseball. Just realizing what he went through to create an opportunity for everybody to play Major League Baseball, it’s something that’s tremendous.”
Well put. I’m also glad MLB has stopped making everyone wear the number 42 today as that was confusing enough, even when the roster was full of recognizable veterans.
Wednesay, April 16 at 7:10
Jeremy Guthrie (2-0 3.55 ERA) v. Dallas Keuchel (1-1 3.75)
Guthrie is Mr. April, having not lost a game in his last eight starts this month. Castro and Dominguez have homered off of him, but nobody else on the squad has had considerable success.
Current Royals have only two extra-base hits off Dallas Keuchel in 33 at bats, both doubles. Keuchel pitched beautifully in Toronto last week, so hopefully he can keep it going and get the pitching staff back on track post-Harrell.
Thursday, April 17 at 7:10
Bruce Chen (0-1 6.30 ERA) v. TBD (likely Scott Feldman (2-0 0.44 ERA))
Chen had a terrific first start this season against the White Sox, but was lit up by the Twins in his second outing. Current Astros are only 2-11 off Bruce, despite the fact that he’s been around forever. Chen is the most tenured Panamanian major leaguer and is known for regaling the youngsters with his madcap tales of stealing mangos from some angry gringo’s tree back home.
Feldman has been amazing. He’s currently on the bereavement list spending time with his family after his father passed away last Wednesday. He rejoined the team to pitch on Friday in a classic pitching duel against Darvish. Our best wishes are with him and his family as they get through this difficult time together. By all accounts, Scott’s father was a good person and he had a terrific relationship with his son, which is the best any parent and child can hope for.
And hopefully he feels up to pitching on Thursday because TBA usually fucking sucks when he’s pitching for the Astros. But if not, that’s certainly understandable. We all eagerly await Mike Francesca’s Hot Sports Take on Feldman’s “responsibilities.”
Baseball facts:
• The Astros went 2-4 against the Royals last season, but both wins came at Minute Maid Park.
• Maxwell hit .268 with five homers and 17 RBIs in 35 games for Kansas City after Luhnow traded him at the deadline last year. He’s lurking on their bench now.
• The Astros grounded into four double plays on Sunday and had two baserunners caught stealing (which marked the first CS of the season).
• The Astros are hitting .189 with a slugging percentage of .354 as a team entering Tuesday. That is horrible.
• The Royals are off to their worst start on the road since going a franchise-worst 0-12 in 2006.
Non-baseball facts:
• Prohibition never happened in Kansas City. Missouri rejected statewide prohibition referenda three times, and once the 18th amendment was enacted Kansas City simply ignored it. The federal prosecutor was on the payroll of local political bosses James and Tom Pendergast, and despite the fact that no bars closed and the liquor kept flowing, he never brought a single felony prosecution under the federal prohibition laws.
• I’ve been following Game of Thrones only by reading recaps of the TV show, which is one of the dumber things I have ever done. It seems like a neat story, but I don’t want to spring for HBO and between work and the young Son of a Bench (or Batkid if you prefer to honor the better half of the household) it’s taken me weeks to make a dent into the delightfully readable “The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century.” I can’t imagine when I could delve into ten thousand pages of Ice and Fire Songs. Instead, I’m getting none of the enjoyment of watching or reading the story and ensuring that I never will. Sadly, that is basically the same way I have to follow the Astros until CSN finally disintegrates entirely or I swallow my pride and ditch DirecTV for Comcast.
Here’s hoping the bats come around, the starting pitching stays the course, and the Astros can grab another home series.