On Friday night (and then again this afternoon), MLB Network aired an episode of their Top Ten Right Now. It was based on the top Relievers right now heading into the 2013 season.

Via MLB Network’s Twitter

The one bright spot for the KC Royals over the last two seasons has been their bullpen and not one of those talented young relievers was on that list.

Not surprising, Craig Kimbrel of the Atlanta Braves was number one, as he has been nothing but lights out over his first two seasons in the big leagues (minus his collapse in September of his rookie season). He ranked number one on everyone’s list.

According to Clubhouse Confidential’s The Shredder, here are the next nine.

Sergio Romo of the SF Giants, coming off his second World Series title, was second. This is kind of a surprise, as he burst onto the closing scene last August.

The legendary Mariano Rivera of the NY Yankees came in at number three, but now one knows how he will pitch in 2013 at age 43 and coming off major knee surgery.

Koji Uehara, who is now with Boston, was fourth. I think he deserved to be on this list, as he is often overlooked (which I think he was with both Baltimore and Texas). But this high?

Fernando Rodney, who had the best season of ANY reliever in 2012 with the Tampa Bay Rays, was fifth. Can he do that again? The Rays are hoping so, as they picked up his option for 2013.

Eric O’Flaherty of the Braves came in at six. The lefty has pitched in a ton of games over the last few seasons and I always wonder when manager Fredi Gonzalez will burn him out. I was actually surprised that Jonny Venters was not on this list. He is the better of the two Braves lefty relievers.

» Continue reading “No Love for Royals Bullpen”

KC Royals lefty reliever Tim Collins was named to the Team USA roster for the upcoming World Baseball Classic in March. It was announced live on MLB Network at 10am ET.

This will not be Collins‘ first go-round with Team USA. He was a member of the 2010 Pan American team that lost just one game, to the Dominican Republic in their final game. In five games (seven innings), he allowed two runs on five hits and three walks. He struck out six. The runs were given up in the loss to the DR.

Collins is one of four lefties on the team, with Jeremy Affeldt (SF), Derek Holland (Texas), and Glen Perkins (Minnesota). The rest of the pitching staff is as follows: Heath Bell (Arizona), Mitchell Boggs (St. Louis), Steve Cishek (Miami), RA Dickey (Toronto), Luke Gregerson (SD), Craig Kimbrel and Kris Medlen (Atlanta), Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez (Cleveland), Andy Pettitte (NY Yankees), and Ryan Vogelsong (SF). Supposedly, the US has a starting spot open and are leaving it for Justin Verlander.

There are not a ton of big names on the pitching staff (because they all turned it down), but there are some passionate back end of the bullpen guys that will be fun to watch (Collins included).

The catching staff includes Joe Mauer (Minnesota), Jonathan Lucroy (Milwaukee), and JP Arencibia (Toronto). Arencibia has been working with knuckleballer Dickey in Nashville this offseason.

The infield is a veteran group, with Mark Teixeira (NY Yankees), Brandon Phillips (Cincinnati), Jimmy Rollins (Philadelphia), and David Wright (NY Mets) expected to start. The expected starting outfield has a little more youth with Ryan Braun (Milwaukee), Adam Jones (Baltimore), and Giancarlo Stanton (Miami).

The bench will include super-utility guys Willie Bloomquist (Arizona) and Ben Zobrist (TB). Shane Victorino (Boston) was a member of the 2009 team and is pumped to be back.

The entire team will gather at Salt River Fields on March 1st. Their first game will be against Mexico on March 8th. They will play Italy the following night, and then Canada on Sunday afternoon (March 10th).

The rest of the countries’ rosters will be announced at 4pm ET today, as MLB Network will have an hour long show focused on the WBC. For more on the WBC, click HERE.

It seems the overuse of the KC Royals bullpen earlier in the season has led to their struggles of late. They blew yet another lead on Friday night, as they lost to the visiting LA Angels, 9-7.

Royals starter Bruce Chen had one BAD inning, a four-run fourth. In that inning, he gave up three hits, walked a batter, and hit a batter.

However, his offense bailed him out. In the bottom of the 6th inning, they scored three runs to retake the lead. A leadoff walk to Alex Gordon chased Angels starter CJ Wilson from the game. After an Angels fielding error put Billy Butler on base, Salvador Perez flied out (moving Gordon to third base). A Mike Moustakas sac fly tied the game at 4-4. Jeff Francoeur followed with a two-run homerun on a 1-2 pitch to give the Royals the lead.

Chen went back out for the 7th inning and allowed back-to-back singles with one out. That chased him from the game and Ned Yost brought in Louis Coleman. He immediately gave up one of Chen‘s runs on an RBI double by Erick Aybar. After intentionally walking Albert Pujols to load the bases, Coleman rebounded with two strikeouts to escape.

Jason Bourgeois (who was called up on Friday from Triple-A) singled with one out in the bottom of the 7th inning, stole second base, and scored on Alcides Escobar‘s RBI single.

So the Royals held a 7-5 lead heading into the 8th inning. That is when things continued to fall apart for the bullpen. Aaron Crow entered and recorded two outs around a single. With Kendrys Morales pinch-hitting, the Royals brought in lefty Tim Collins. Morales homered on the very first pitch to tie the game at 7-7.

Then Mike Trout singled (who was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts against Chen) and Aybar singled. After hitting Pujols to load the bases, Jeremy Jeffress was the next reliever to enter the game.

Jeffress walked the first batter he faced, Torii Hunter, on five pitches to force in a run to give the Angels the lead. The Angels tacked on an insurance run in the ninth.

The Royals had their chances in both the 8th and 9th innings. In the eighth with a runner on second base and two outs, Eric Hosmer flied out to center against lefty reliever Scott Downs to end the inning. In the ninth, David Lough pinch-hit with one out, walked, took second base, and went to third on a wild pitch. However Gordon could not continue the rally, though it took nine pitches for Angels closer Ernesto Frieri to retire him and end the game.

In the loss, the Royals hit three homeruns, though two were solo shots in the 2nd inning.

The Royals minor league award winners via Around the Horn in KC

*It was Futures Night at Kauffman Stadium, as the Royals honored their minor league players of the year. The only players not on hand were the Pitcher (Jake Odorizzi) and Player of the Year (Wil Myers) with Triple-A Omaha (they are still playing in the Pacific Coast League Championship). Also not on hand was Michael Mariot, as he is also pitching for Omaha (though he was the Double-A Pitcher of the Year). For more check out Around the Horn in KC and kcroyals.com.

**For more on the Angels, check out Light Up the Halo.

For some reason, the KC Royals only like to beat the Minnesota Twins once a series. That win came in the series finale, 6-4.

It was a back-and-forth affair, as the Twins scored single runs in the first two innings to take a 2-0 lead. The Royals came right back with three runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning.

With the bases loaded and nobody out, Eric Hosmer drove in the first run with a sac fly. After a double steal, Tony Abreu drove in two runs with a single.

The game stayed 3-2 until the Royals scored another run in the 5th inning on Billy Butler‘s two out single.

Luis Mendoza exited after five innings and pitched pretty solid. He scattered seven hits and struck out three.

Lefty Tim Collins entered and loaded the bases with two outs. Alexi Casilla drove in two runs with a single to tie the game at 4-4.

Hosmer and Abreu struck again to take Collins off the hook. Hosmer doubled with two outs and Abreu drove him in with a single to retake the lead. The Royals added another run in the bottom of the 8th inning on a Lorenzo Cain RBI double.

After Collins‘ struggles, the Royals bullpen allowed just one base runner over the final three innings. The game was capped by closer Greg Holland striking out the side to pick up his tenth save of the season. He threw 18 pitches.

On offense, Abreu collected three hits, while Hosmer and David Lough each had two hits.

The Royals now welcome the Texas Rangers into town for four games.

You read that headline it right. The KC Royals swept the Detroit Tigers with a 2-1 victory. It was a game that the Tigers really needed with Chicago losing earlier in the day.

Yup, that’s a three-game sweep!

Instead, the Tigers were flustered by Jeremy Guthrie.

He scattered ten hits over 7.1 innings. He did not walk a batter. The lone run he allowed came in the 8th inning after he left the game. The Tigers got on the board when Jhonny Peralta singled with two outs off lefty reliever Tim Collins (who had just blown away Jeff Baker on three pitches for the second out).

Guthrie threw 99 pitches, 69 for strikes.

Tigers starter Rick Porcello matched Guthrie zero for zero until the 5th inning. The Royals scored their first run on a force out with the bases loaded by Johnny Giavotella. In the 6th inning, Alex Gordon led off the inning with a solo homerun. The inning was killed when Billy Butler (who doubled in the inning) tried to score on a wild pitch. He was thrown out by a few steps by Tigers catcher Gerald Laird.

In the 9th inning (with Greg Holland unavailable), Kelvin Herrera got his chance to close out the game. With a runner on first base and no outs, Austin Jackson hit a line shot to centerfield. Lorenzo Cain did his best impression of AJax and made a diving catch. However, Andy Dirks blooped a single just out of the reach of a sliding Jeff Francoeur, to put runners at first and second base.

That brought up MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera. On the very first pitch from Herrera, he grounded into a game-ending double play. It was tailor made but Dirks got to second base quickly to break it up and Alcides Escobar hesitated and threw while in the air. Cabrera wasn’t running very hard and was just beat to the bag.

Next up are the last place Minnesota Twins.

*For more on the Tigers, check out Motown Lowdown.

KC Royals starter Will Smith had another rough outing and the bullpen faltered yet again, as the Royals lost to Boston, 8-6.

Smith had two clean innings, but around that got smacked around a bit. In the first inning, he gave up three straight one out hits (which resulted in a run) before getting James Loney to ground into an inning ending double play in his Red Sox debut.

In the 2nd inning, Smith allowed two more hits and a walk, but escaped with just one run allowed.

Lorenzo Cain

The Royals offense went to work in the top of the 4th inning against Red Sox starter Felix Doubront, who was just activated off the DL. They erupted for four runs, three coming on a Lorenzo Cain homerun. The rally started with two outs and nobody on base.

It looked like Smith had settled down, as he retired nine in a row before Pedro Ciriaco hit a solo homerun in the 5th inning. With runners on the corners and two outs, Loney tied the game at 4-4 with an RBI single.

In the bottom of the 6th inning, the Red Sox put two men on base with nobody out to chase Smith from the game (the one base runner reached on an error). Lefty Tim Collins entered and recorded two quick outs before allowing an RBI single by Jacoby Ellsbury to give the Red Sox the lead (it was off Eric Hosmer’s glove). Aaron Crow recorded the final out.

The Royals bullpen has been overworked all season long due to the ineffectiveness of their starting staff. That has led to the recent struggles. With the extra inning win on Saturday night, those relievers were back out on the mound again.

Except for Jeremy Jeffress, who entered in relief in the 7th inning and the Red Sox loaded the bases with one out. After striking out Mike Aviles, Scott Podsednik hit a sharp grounder to Alcides Escobar, who booted it for his second costly error of the game. A run scored. Another run scored on Ciriaco‘s grounder to third base.

» Continue reading “Smith, Bullpen Falter in Royals Loss”

There is just something about the KC Royals that gives the Chicago White Sox fits. For the fourth straight time, the Royals beat the first place White Sox, this time by a 9-4 final.

The Royals carried a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the rainy 3rd inning against White Sox starter Jake Peavy. Three errors later and the Royals led 3-0.

When Paul Konerko hit a two-run homerun off Bruce Chen in the top of the 6th inning (the one mistake Chen made all night) to cut the lead to 4-2, the Royals came right back with an Eric Hosmer solo homerun.

Chen allowed just five hits and walked one over six innings of work. He struck out five. 71 of his 98 pitches were strikes.

Adam Dunn hit his 400th career homerun off lefty reliever Tim Collins in the top of the 8th inning to cut the lead to 5-4, but the Royals tacked on four runs off reliever Brett Myers. That inning was capped by Mike Moustakas‘ two out, three-run homerun.

The middle of the Royals order (2-6) did the bulk of the damage. Alcides Escobar went 4-for-5 with three runs scored. Alex Gordon went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI. Billy Butler went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBIs. Moose went 2-for-4 with a run scored and four RBIs.

The Royals look to complete the sweep on Sunday, as they send Jeremy Guthrie to the mound to face rookie Jose Quintana.

*For more on the White Sox, check out South Side Hit Girl.

For the second straight start, Jeremy Guthrie pitched shutout baseball for the KC Royals and for the second straight start, he picked up a win. The Royals returned home to defeat the playoff-contending Oakland A’s, 5-0.

The story of the game has to be Guthrie’s pitching performance. He allowed three hits and two walks over seven innings while striking out eight.

He gave up his first hit to leadoff the 3rd inning. With one out, Coco Crisp singled to right field. For some reason Josh Donaldson tried to go to third base and was thrown out by Jeff Francoeur.

That was the first and only threat of the game for the A’s.

Guthrie struck out two of the final three batters he faced.

It didn’t get any easier once Guthrie exited the game. Lefty Tim Collins struck out the side on 11 pitches (ten strikes) in the 8th inning. Greg Holland followed with a perfect ninth.

Five different Royals drove in a run in their five-run 5th inning. They picked up three hits, two sac flies, and the A’s made a fielding error.

The Royals only had one baserunner after the 5th inning.

Alcides Escobar collected two hits in the win, including their first hit in the 4th inning (but was erased on a double play).

*The Royals officially cut ties with infielder Yuniesky Betancourt,  as they gave him his unconditional release.

The game took less than three hours to complete, but it took the KC Royals until after one in the morning to defeat Baltimore, 7-3.

The game was delayed for over three hours at Camden Yards due to an on and off rain that started around 6:30pm. When it was announced that the game would begin at 9:30pm and the grounds crew already had the tarp off, it began pouring again and they had to scramble to get the tarp back on again.

When the game finally got started at 10:15pm, the Royals made sure to start it with a bang. For the second time in two days, Alex Gordon led off with a homerun.

Royals starter Luis Mendoza got into a bit of a jam in the bottom of the first inning with two outs (he allowed back-to-back singles). But he got Matt Wieters to fly out to end the inning. Mendoza really didn’t get into trouble again until later.

The Royals offense went right back to work against Orioles starter Chris Tillman. Lorenzo Cain started the 2nd inning with a single and Salvador Perez followed with a homerun (his second in two games).

With two outs in the 3rd inning, Billy Butler homered (his second of the series).

Tillman seemed to settle down after that until there were two outs in the 6th inning. He hit Cain and warnings were issued (it was the third hit batter of the game). He then walked Jeff Francoeur (I know, I was just as shocked). That ended Tillman’s night.

In came Miguel Socolovich, who allowed an RBI single to Eric Hosmer. With Francoeur on third base, Hosmer stole second base. Wieters’ errant throw hit Hosmer and went into centerfield, allowing Francoeur to score.

Gordon struck again in the 7th inning with a leadoff homerun to increase the Royals lead to 7-0.

Then Mendoza started to run out of gas. He walked Wilson Betemit to start the inning and three hits later, the O’s had cut the deficit to 7-3. Kelvin Herrera entered and escaped.

Herrera allowed just one hit in two innings of work. Lefty Tim Collins pitched a perfect ninth with two strikeouts, including Nick Markakis looking to end the game.

After sitting through the rain delay, I was hoping for a tarp slide, or at least a good game. Well, I got the good game.

The Royals look to take the series in less than 12 hours, as Bruce Chen faces Tommy Hunter. Maybe they can get out of last place (the Royals and Minnesota are now tied)?

*The Orioles honored Hall of Famer Eddie Murray with the unveiling of his statue beyond the CF wall during BP. The onfield ceremony was delayed until the rains had finally stopped. Cal Ripken, Jim Palmer, Ozzie Smith, Earl Weaver, and Brooks Robinson were in attendance. 

The O’s did have a large attendance, but by the time the game started, about half had left. After rookie Manny Machado’s first plate appearance (an inning ending double play), many began leaving.

It wasn’t a bad week for the KC Royals. They swept Cleveland to start the week at home, pushing the Indians closer to last place than first place. However they couldn’t continue that winning streak, as they lost two of three to Texas. Overall, they went 4-2 last week to improve to 45-62, good for last place in the American League Central (12.5 games back).

On the upside, the Royals are only four games worse than Philadelphia (who some think can creep back into the playoff picture). It doesn’t get any easier though, as they head out on the road to face first-place Chicago and then to Baltimore.

Omaha is in the midst of a three-game losing streak (after a four-game winning streak) to go 4-3 last week. Overall, they are 68-48, still sitting atop the American Northern Division in the Pacific Coast League with a 16 game lead. The Storm Chasers still have three more games in their homestand against Colorado Springs.

NW Arkansas also went 4-3 this past week, but are still in last place in the North Division of the Texas League. The Naturals are 13-30 in the second half, 16.5 games back. They even have a playoff elimination number of 12 already. They finish up their road trip against Arkansas tonight.

Wilmington went 2-4 last week, but stayed a 1/2 game back in the Northern Division of the Carolina League (everyone in the division is 4-6 in their last ten games). The Blue Rocks have off today, as they begin a six-game homestand on Tuesday against Winston-Salem.

Kane County went 3-4 this past week. The Cougars are 21-21 in the second half, good for a tie for third place in the Midwest League’s Western Division (five games back). They continue their home series against Cedar Rapids tonight.

 Hitters of the Week

Majors: The centerfield duo of Jarrod Dyson and Lorenzo Cain has been hot. Dyson is hitting .526 and Cain is hitting .400 and both have scored three runs. They are a combined 20-for-44 (.455) with five RBIs and eight stolen bases.

Minors: Tony Abreu, Omaha. There is a reason that he was promoted when Yuni was designated (and it’s not his defense). Over the last week, Abreu was 11-for-24 (.458) with three doubles, six runs scored, and 12 RBIs. His seven-game hitting streak came to an end on Friday.

Honorable Mention: Abreu’s teammate in Omaha, Johnny Giavotella. He was 8-for-28 (.286) with four runs scored and seven RBIs.

Pitchers of the Week

Majors: Over the last week, the bullpen has been used alot. Three relievers have thrown at least four scoreless innings. Greg Holland has pitched much better of late since being named the closer. Over four innings, he allowed three hits and two walks while striking out three. He picked up the victory on Sunday with their walk-off win in extra innings.

Kelvin Herrera has also not allowed a run over 4.1 innings. He allowed two hits and one walk while striking out six. He did not allow an inherited run to score over those two outings.

Lefty Tim Collins did not allow a run over three outings last week (4.2 innings). He allowed just one hit and two walks while striking out three.

Minors: This week, I have broken this award into two categories. First is the starting pitcher of the week, which goes to Wilmington’s Andy Ferguson. In two road starts, he allowed three runs on 12 hits and three walks over 13.2 innings. He struck out 15, but did not pick up a win.

The reliever of the week is a tie between Kane County‘s Jason Mitchell and NW Arkansas‘ Ethan Hollingsworth.

In two long relief outings, Mitchell threw a combined six shutout innings. He allowed just three hits and two walks while striking out two.

Hollingsworth also pitched twice and picked up the victory on August 3rd with two hitless innings of relief. Combined, he did not allow a run over 8.1 innings. He allowed four hits and two walks while striking out four. Oh an he was just named Texas League Pitcher of the week.