Tag: Vinnie Pasquantino

Let’s Breakdown some Royals/Yankees Hot Takes

(Credit: Aaron Judge: Luke Hales / Getty Images; Bobby Witt Jr.: Jess Rapfogel / Getty Images)




Like most Kansas City Royals fans, I’m still in a bit of shock that the team is in the postseason. The expectation was that they would be better this year (how could they be worse, right?) but expecting a 30 win increase felt very unrealistic. But here we are. Not only have the Royals reached the postseason, but they won their Wild Card matchup against the Baltimore Orioles to move on to the American League Divisional Series.

The ALDS started on Saturday night in New York, as the Royals are taking on their back-in-the-day rivals, the New York Yankees. The Yankees came away victorious on Saturday night but not without a little bit of controversy. If you still scan the wasteland of Twitter (and yes, I refuse to call it by any other name) you probably saw a lot of opinions on not only the umpiring in the game, but also replay, MLB and even the Yankees. So today, let’s take a look at some of these opinions and sort out the difference between reality and opinion.

MLB Doesn’t Want the Royals to Win

(Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images)

This has been a popular narrative for years, that Major League Baseball doesn’t want the smaller market teams to win, instead hoping the larger markets win out bring their larger fanbases with them. If we are being honest, there is probably a bit of truth here, although I would argue the TV networks want this more than MLB. There is something to be said for the smaller markets to come out victorious, as people love rooting for an underdog.

In this argument, the Royals are the obvious underdogs while the Yankees would be that large market that television networks covet. If some of you remember (and I’m sure a number of you do), the Royals were in this position back in 2014 and 2015 and I don’t believe the numbers for the World Series either year tanked. Having the variety in the playoffs is a plus and one that allows a number of different fanbases to not only cheer on their team but also be part of October baseball.

I’m sure there are certain scenarios that MLB would love to see, whether it be for ratings, attendance or even social media activity. Sometimes it doesn’t even have anything to do with a team or market as much as compelling action that makes it harder for any fan to turn away. At the end of the day, MLB wins either way, whether it is is the ‘Up and Coming’ team or the teams you love to hate (I’m looking at you, Yankees/Dodgers/Astros). So the narrative that MLB hates your team…well, I just don’t believe that is true.

The Umpires Wanted the Yankees to Win

(Credit: Adam Hunger/Associated Press)

One of my big pet peeves in sports is fans laying the blame for their team’s woes on the officiating. To me it’s a cop out and ignoring the things your team did wrong in the game. Nine times out of ten, there is an easier explanation as to why the game turned out the way it did and it normally has nothing to do with a bad call on the field. So how did the home plate umpire do on Saturday Night?

So overall, the ump called a pretty good game. I do feel like there are a couple of things here that should be addressed. First off, yes, there were a few calls that were missed & in crucial parts of the game. While it’s not great, it does happen & if it turns into walk, that also means three balls were thrown before then that got you to that point. This is why most baseball experts insist on throwing strikes.

Second, there were a few calls that while they might have slightly looked outside of the strike zone & were called strikes, this was being called for both teams. The pitch that was called strike three on Bobby Witt Jr in the ninth? That pitch was being called a strike to Juan Soto as well. To me, as long as an ump is fairly consistent, I’m not going to complain.

Finally, while the box for the strike zone we see on TV is close to accurate, it is not 100%. I’ve always looked at it like anything around the edges that pretty much hugs the box is probably a strike. You might be wondering why they don’t just make the box accurate? It’s because the zone is technically an invisible thing that while we know essentially where it is, it can also be up for interpretation. Also, every outlet (Fox, TBS, ESPN, Bally, etc.) has a different size box for television. So when you are watching a game, just remember there is some leeway to the zone you are seeing & you shouldn’t take the box as a literal thing. But then again, what would we have to argue about then?

Replay Screwed the Royals

(Credit: Adam Hunger/Associated Press)

This is the narrative that has gotten the most traction & it is easy to see why. In the bottom of the 7th inning, Jazz Chisholm Jr was on first when he attempted to steal a base:

So on the replay it did look like Chisholm was tagged before he touched the base. It was hard to tell, as the play was close & most of the angles made it to where you couldn’t tell. There was one angle where it looked like Michael Massey tagged him just a hair before he got to the bag, but it very much felt like a bang-bang play.

I instantly said ‘They aren’t going to overturn it’. I’ve watched a lot of baseball over the years. The last couple years, I am normally watching a game every day. I am the diehard fan who will just watch a game to watch a game. What I can tell you from watching all those games is that normally when a play that is thisclose happens, on replay it comes back as the call stands, due to not having clear and concise evidence that they should change the call. It is almost like clockwork, to the point that it feels very predictable.

Now realize, I am not saying this is right or that we should just accept that. What I am saying is that it’s been like this for years and MLB appears to have no issue with it. With a call like that being so close, it’s hard for me to get too upset that it isn’t reversed. Yes, I would have liked for it to be turned over but I am realistic in recognizing that it probably won’t happen.

I also believe they should have non-umpires in the review room for replay to help make those calls. As of now, there are umpires reviewing the plays & making the decisions. Umpires that know the other umps who are calling the games they are reviewing. Is there a bias there? Inherently, yes. I am not saying that reviews aren’t being overturned because they don’t want their fellow umps to look bad. What I am saying is that whether they are aware or subconsciously doing it, there is a chance they are siding with their brethren. Having a non-umpire in the room to me would just help in the decision making and help any biases.

All that being said, you are not in those situations without giving up baserunners. The Royals all game long were allowing the leadoff hitter on base for a number of those innings. Chisholm got a leadoff hit. Also, if Salvador Perez had made a better throw it wouldn’t have been as close and Chisholm would have probably been called out. Replay not overturning that call didn’t cost the Royals the game. It didn’t help but it wasn’t THE deciding factor…and it definitely wasn’t the umpires looking out for the Yankees. It was just the status-quo for MLB replay.

(Credit: Brad Penner Imagn Images)

At the end of the day, the Royals lost Game 1 of the ALDS for a number of reasons. Whether it was the eight walks allowed by their pitching, or the lack of execution with runners in scoring position or even the 1 for 14 at the plate from Kansas City’s Big Three (Witt, Pasquantino, Perez) , you can find numerous reasons for why the Royals fell short in this matchup. Personally, I felt like the offense felt more alive than it has been in weeks and if the bullpen had been a little bit better we might have seen the Royals come away with a victory in Game 1. I even thought they handled Gerrit Cole pretty well, which is a good sign if this series gets to a Game 4.

People like to push a lot of narratives when it comes to big matchups like this but normally facts are the most logical way to go when analyzing the final results. It’s easy to blame an umpire, or the Yankees, or even MLB for why something doesn’t go the way you want it to. When it comes right down to it, the Yankees made a few less mistakes than the Royals and that is why they came out on top. The good news? Game 2 is Monday night. As we all know, the Royals mantra this year has been to not worry about tomorrow and focus on today. Hopefully that holds true for what we see Monday in the Bronx.

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The Royals need to make changes…now

Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Here we are, almost halfway through June and the Kansas City Royals are once again one of the worst teams in baseball. They are 20-39 as of June 12, last in the American League Central and tied with the Oakland A’s for the worst winning percentage in the American League. So what has the Kansas City front office done?

Nothing.

Sure, they fired hitting coach Terry Bradshaw back on May 16 and since then the offense has shown improvement. The Royals needed to make a change and it was obvious after 4+ years that Bradshaw wasn’t the solution. But if you have followed the Royals in any manner then you know that the pitching is a major concern and an area where a lot of young arms need the proper guidance to develop into not only major league starters but consistent major league arms. In fact the numbers tell a very sobering story about Kansas City’s pitching:

This is just a taste. Royals starters have 1.1 fWAR this season, which is last in the American League and next to last to the Washington Nationals in baseball. Kansas City relievers have 0.1 fWAR, good enough to place them next to last in the league. And there is more:

All this and the Royals refuse to fire their pitching coach, Cal Eldred. The Cal Eldred that was hired to be Kansas City’s pitching coach before the 2018 season and the team’s pitching has never gotten better. The Cal Eldred that was never a pitching coach in any manner before the Royals hired him. The Cal Eldred that us Royals fans have been crying for to be fired now for almost a year:

Want more proof? Here is a GREAT ARTICLE from Max Rieper over at Royals Review that sums up why Cal should have been fired long ago. I could keep going with more and more proof but at this point you get it. In fact, the Royals think nothing is wrong. Dayton Moore even took a lot of the blame for Eldred’s ineptitude:

This would be a good time to point out that since Moore said this, Daniel Lynch has struggled as well and has been wildly inconsistent. The Royals stockpiled all these young arms (especially from the 2018 draft) and they aren’t growing because the front office believes that THEIR way is the right way, the best way.

They all need to go.

Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

A storm is brewing in Kansas City and Royals fans are mad. Any patience that has been built up over the years has faded and is left with a front office and coaching staff that has shown the inability to elevate this team to the next level. I mentioned the bumbling of the pitching, but there is also the fact that the Royals had one of the worst offenses in baseball last year and did nothing in the offseason to improve on it. It was like they expected rookies like Bobby Witt, Jr. and over 30 vets who struggled last year (like Carlos Santana) to improve and/or help the team score more runs.

Santana has been one of the worst offense players in baseball so far this year and rather than Kansas City address this issue, they have doubled down. Vinnie Pasquantino is a first base prospect down in AAA Omaha & has been tearing it up over the last month or so. It would make sense to call him up and help the struggling offense, right? Nope.

“Vinnie, I was looking at this the other day, he just hit the 150 at-bat mark in Triple-A. He had 200 at-bats in Double-A.

So when you look at upper level at-bats, he’s had 350 upper level at-bats. That’s not even a season’s worth, over two levels. You’d like to get, really, a full season at the highest level. That’s not set in stone, but generally you’d like to see 500, 550 plate appearances at the highest level.”

That would be fine, but it’s not what the Royals have done in the past. Both Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez were recalled before that 500 plate appearance limit plus Dayton Moore has talked about in the past that they would recall players “when they are ready”. Considering how Pasquantino has hit, I don’t see how he is “not ready”.

There is also this quote from GM JJ Picollo:

“We just have to keep in mind, we’ve done this for a long time, young players can come up and certainly help an offense,” he said. “But it’s really hard to expect a young player to come up and carry an offense. We don’t want them to feel like they have to carry an offense.”

This would be easier to believe if the Royals weren’t already regularly batting rookies Witt, Jr. and MJ Melendez between the 3rd and 5th spots in the order. These are the type of fairly regular comments we get from both Picollo and Moore that make me question the front office because you wonder whether they actually believe these false quotes or are knowingly feeding us a line of bull.

Between the evaluation of the coaching staff, the offense and then their reluctance to recall Pasquantinto it probably has most fans questioning the validity of both Moore and Picollo. Moore was hired in June 2006 and has now been in the organization for 16 years. In that span of time, the Royals have only had three winning seasons. Let me repeat that: out of 16 seasons, Kansas City has had only 3 seasons with a record over .500.

Pardon my french here, but only THREE FUCKING SEASONS!

It has been seven seasons since the Royals won the World Series and this is season five of the “rebuild” (yes, I know Moore won’t admit it is a rebuild but a large core of the World Series team left after the 2017 season. It’s a rebuild.) and not once have we seen a winning season from Kansas City. Moore’s first “rebuild” took seven seasons before we saw a winning season followed by back to back appearances in the World Series.

Like many fans, after the championship win, I gave Dayton and company a pass. While I didn’t agree with many of his practices, it was hard to argue with the end results. But we are on season seven with no winning seasons and another not even looming on the horizon. If we are being honest here, it doesn’t take seven years for a rebuild, any rebuild.

The front office needs to go.

Recently it has felt like Dayton and company felt like the World Series appearances proved that their way was a winning formula and that we should trust their process (yes, I went there). But all it feels like is a bunch of guys grasping at straws and not getting any results from their way of running a baseball team.

We as fans have been very patient with both Dayton & JJ but at this point our patience has run out and it doesn’t appear as if the guys running this team have any answers. Matthew LaMar has been killing it lately at Royals Review, with this piece on why the team needs new leadership and this one on how management appears okay with them being losers. These are all thoughts I have had for almost two months now and when these articles started popping up I felt better about my assessment of this organization.

Credit: Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports

What about manager Mike Matheny? To be honest, I’ve never liked the hiring. It felt too soon after his firing from St. Louis (15 months), I had concerns about many of the issues he had while managing there and honestly, I felt like Royals current bench coach Pedro Grifol was the better choice. But while researching for this piece, I ran across this that I wrote about Moore’s reasoning for hiring Matheny, which I believe to be based on Matheny’s faith:

Moore has made his decision and I will call it now: this move will be the beginning of the end for Dayton. Over the last couple years, he has made some questionable moves and we’ve seen his decision making become more and more questionable. It used to just be free agent signings or trades but now it has started to seep over into whether his personal belief system is on a higher plain than winning. Need more proof? Look no more than his defending of Luke Heimlich. Moore’s want to give people a second chance almost gave the organization a giant stain that would have been hard to recover from. It is obvious what his mission is at this point and on a daily basis I question more and more whether or not that goal is winning. The hiring of Matheny could very well be his eventual downfall, especially with new ownership getting ready to move in.

While Matheny has been a little bit better than expected, it still doesn’t feel like he is the right guy for the job and more and more I just don’t feel like he is a good manager. He makes questionable strategic moves with the bullpen, still appears to show favoritism for veterans when it comes to his lineup and his intense attitude has rubbed some of the veterans the wrong way, as David Lesky talked about last week.

There were even moments in the last week that appeared to many as Matheny losing his team, as players appeared despondent and almost just giving up. While the Royals have posted some victories since then, this doesn’t feel like a manager who can turn around this ship. Not only is he not been given the pieces to turn things around, he also doesn’t appear to have any answers. This is a former player who was handed a playoff team in St. Louis and when that team started to dismantle he had no big changes in his playbook to turn around the losing.

Matheny needs to go.

Credit: AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann

It might seem extreme to some, but this organization needs a house cleaning. They’ve been given more than enough time to get the Royals back to a winning record and they aren’t even close. I think they have done a good job with the development programs going on in the minor leagues for both the hitting and pitching, but none of that matters if changes aren’t made on the coaching staff. Throw in a front office who still thinks it’s 2006 and you have a recipe for players to never reach their full potential in Kansas City.

To really give you an idea of how bad this is, I have been a die-hard Royals fan since 1984 and have watched this team win or lose for years. But I can’t stomach this. It’s very apparent changes need to be made and management is doing nothing while ownership apparently is either okay with this or doesn’t know any better. I haven’t watched a game in three weeks and have zero desire to watch a game. I hate what they are doing to this team and in no way will support what is going on.

I am a baseball fan so there is no “wait for the Chiefs season” or “there are other sports to watch”. I breath and eat baseball all year, so this has been awful for me. I’ve gone to one game this year but I’m not really for sure I’ll go to another. We should be able to get the Bally app soon but as of right now I have no reason to spend money on it. If this organization can’t see there is a problem with this, then they are blind.

What they are telling you, the fan, is “hey, we don’t care whether you pay attention to our team or spend money with us. We believe our way is the only way and dammit we aren’t going to change for anyone”. that is a frightening message to send when you have had only three winning seasons over 16 years.

Ownership has talked a lot recently about building a new stadium in downtown Kansas City and some are wanting it and others (like myself) want nothing to do with it. There is a belief that if they move downtown, one of the factors will be more people coming to games because of accessibility. The problem they aren’t seeing is that if your baseball team continues to lose, fans aren’t going to come to the games. It’s not an issue of having an old stadium or being downtown; the issue is that the Royals are a bad baseball team and fans are tired of losing. 2014 and 2015 proved that the cure-all for filling the stadium is winning baseball games. Simple as that.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. The Royals are testing that theory while running fans off in the process. I hope John Sherman is listening. You want a full stadium and possible October baseball? Clean house. If not, don’t expect any changes in the near future.

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We’ve seen this Royals offense before & it’s a bad sequel

Credit: Ed Zurga/Getty Images

When it comes to Kansas City Royals baseball, there are normally a few things you can always count on. They are normally a team that arrange a solid defensive unit out on the field, they’ve been known to compile a slew of fiery arms for their bullpen and maybe most notably to us fans, an offense that relies on putting the ball in play more than the average team.

While on the surface none of this sounds bad, it’s the Royals offense that has been put in question and for good reason. After coming off of a less than stellar 2021 season offensively the team barely did anything to improve on their lineup for 2022 and in fact have attempted to use the old ‘try the same thing again but expecting different results’ thinking for this year. Let’s just say this flawed belief should have all Royals fans up in arms.

Credit: Cary Edmondson/USA Today Sports

Let’s start by taking a look back at 2021. The Royals finished the year near the bottom of the league in most offensive categories, including last in walk percentage and next to last in wRC+. Besides the lack of walks (which has become a staple for Royals baseball for the last 30+ years), the power numbers in 2021 were very lackluster. Kansas City was last in home runs, next to last in the league in isolated power and barrel percentage, and 13th in slugging percentage and runs.

Now the Royals did actually hit the ball fairly hard last year, as they were 9th in hard hit percentage and 6th in exit velocity. But they also had the 5th highest ground ball rate and fly ball rate was 36%, 11th in the American League. Combine that with an average BABIP and you have a team that would hit the ball hard but a lot of times they found gloves.

While lack of walks and lack of power hurt them, the real killer for last year’s team was their plate discipline or more to the point, lack of. The Royals led the AL in swinging at pitches outside of the zone (O-Swing%) and swing percentage in general and were in the top five in swings and misses (SwStr %). Apparently the belief within the team was that when all else fails, keep swinging at pitches whether or not they are strikes. Considering how high their ground ball rate and infield fly ball rate was last year (IFFB %), it’s easy to see why this team struggled to score runs.

Credit: Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports

So you would think with all of these issues surrounding the offense that the Kansas City front office would make improving the team’s batting at least a minor focal point this offseason, right? Nope. In fact, back in November Royals General Manager J.J. Piccolo sounded like he was fine with the group of bats they already had:

“Big time,” Picollo said of the priority on the bullpen. “We like a lot of our position players. Defensively, they were really sound. We’ve got a lot of promising starting pitchers that need to take that next step. But the bullpen is going to be what protects them.”

Defensively they were sound. Offensively, not so much. We are all aware that a lot of hope for the team’s batting this year was going to be focused on the rookies: Bobby Witt, Jr., Kyle Isbel, Nick Pratto, MJ Melendez and possibly even Vinnie Pasquantino. That is a lot of weight to put on the back of players who haven’t even played a major league game before this year.

Even back then, I felt like they were missing the boat on the offense or at the very least should go looking for a couple of veteran bats just in case. That way if the rookies struggle or the veteran bats continue to regress, they have an emergency plan in place. Instead, they did nothing.

Credit: Ed Zurga/Getty Images

So where are we at so far in 2022? The Royals are last in runs scored and OPS, next to last in slugging percentage, wOBA, wRC+, and 13th in Win Probability, Isolated Power and home runs. Somehow they are 9th in walk rate (I fully blame the White Sox series for this), and 8th in swinging at pitches outside the strike zone, two big issues they have had for years.

A big concern came while glancing at the Statcast numbers. Royals have an average Exit Velocity of 88.7 and a 36.3 hard hit rate. Throw in the 13.5% infield fly rate and a 43% ground ball percentage and you have a recipe for a pungent offense.

While the Statcast numbers are worrisome (and lower than last year’s numbers), this would be a good time to throw out there that offensive numbers are down all across the board in baseball. Whether it is the deadened ball, the humidors, a shorter spring training or even the weather, offense in general is not booming. This is affecting every team, not just the Royals. So there has to be at least a little leeway given to all of these factors. But the bigger picture is the concern here.

Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

While the weather will warm up and the Royals bats could as well, this is still a front office that saw all the issues with their run production and said “We are good with this. Let it fly.” It’s one thing to see the monster seasons that Pratto and Melendez put up last year and expect them to help your lineup when recalled. There are even numbers that show Hunter Dozier had a massive improvement in the second half of last year. But while you can point to those players and see the positive, you also have to look at the negative.

Carlos Santana is aging and probably won’t see his bat speed increase. Whit Merrifield has started regressing and even at his peak was praying at the altar of the BABIP Gods. Michael A. Taylor is a great defender…and that kind of sums up his offense. There were major flaws in the lineup last year and counting on a couple of rookies and aging vets to improve on those numbers is the definition of shortsighted. It feels like the Kansas City front office had a Plan A that was the best case scenario yet no Plan B in case there were issues.

The rookies very well might pick up the offense and help in a few of the categories (walks, home runs, etc.) that have plagued this team for years. Dozier is off to a good start and looks more like the 2019 version of himself. Andrew Benintendi is playing like a player wanting a contract extension. I’ll even say that the hitting development program in the minors has been a success and appears to be the impetus for the turnaround for both Pratto and Melendez (as well as the power numbers we have seen from Jorge Soler and Salvador Perez over the last few years).

But this also neglects the lack of depth in the organization and the issues that have arisen whenever players ascend to the major leagues. It’s almost like there is a disconnect between what is being taught in the minors and what is emphasized on the big league club. We’ve already seen that with the pitching, so maybe it is happening with the hitters as well.

The Royals have been a team for years that tried patterning their offense around Kauffman Stadium: spray hitters who could hit line drives all over the stadium and a couple of big boppers to drive them in. The problem the last few years is a reliance on hitters who don’t get on base enough and streaky power hitters. Which also leads to this:

72 runners left on base in their last 8 games. For those that struggle with math, that is an average of 9 runners stranded per game. Think about all the opportunities the Royals have had recently to score and how many times nothing happened. I can’t even count all the games I have turned off recently because I could tell by the 4th inning that the offense wasn’t going to do anything. This isn’t just a ‘this year’ thing or a ‘cold weather’ thing. This is a ‘the Royals have bad hitters’ thing.

I am fully aware it won’t be like this all year long. I know there will be periods where the Royals look like an offensive juggernaut and the last two weeks will be a distant memory. I know this because I have seen this film before and it plays out the same way every time. There are flashes of hope but at the end of the day the Royals front office is valuing the wrong things. Having good people on your team is a positive. Having good people who aren’t really good for the overall production of your team is not positive.

It has been said many times that the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. Some of us have smartened up to the fact that while the names have changed, this whole thing plays out the way it always does. Until the front office starts putting value in performance and production over everything else, don’t expect too much.

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