Royals rest-of-2011 wish list

With 31 games left in the Royals’ 2011 season, here is my semi-optimistic-but-not-crazy wish list for what I’d like to see:

1. Climb out of the cellar.  We’re currently in last place, but we’re only 1.5 games behind the Twins.  That’s not too bad considering how badly we’ve done over the last couple weeks (facing the AL East didn’t do us any favors).  We’ve got 12 games left against the Indians and Tigers, but the other 19 games (including 5 against the Twins) don’t look too bad.
2. Moose cutting loose.  Over the last week or so, Moustakas has started showing signs of turning things around.  Moose has always struggled each time he moved up a level, and then followed that with solid performances.  If he can get the struggles out of the way this year, that could mean an exciting 2012 for him.
3. Go Johnny go!  There’s been some talk of a 3-way competition for our 2012 second base spot (Gio/Getz/Navarro), but it’d be great if Gio plays so well that we go into the offseason viewing second base as his to lose.
4. Minor pitching improvements.  Our star pitching prospects in the minors have struggled this year (excepting Duffy).  Aside from generally wanting our prospects to do better (duh), it’d be great to see at least 1 minor league pitcher use September to stake a claim to a 2012 rotation spot.  My preference would be for one of the higher-upside guys (like Montgomery or Dwyer), but I’d be encouraged even if it were SOS, Mazzaro, or Luis Mendoza.
   

So what’re you looking for from the rest of this season?

Chiefs’ schedule + Magic Eight Ball = 7-9 season?

Don’t worry – I’m not abandoning the Royals 2011 season, but with the Chiefs’ first pre-season game in just two days, I figured it’s time to start giving them some blog love, too.  Let’s kick things off by taking a quick look at our schedule and my prediction for how many games we’ll win.  I’ve also included each opponent’s ranking in ESPN’s just-released first Power Rankings for the season (they’ve got the Chiefs ranked #14, by the way).

1. Win vs. Buf (31)
2. Win* @Det (18)
3. Loss @SD (10)
4. Win vs. Min (25)
5. Loss @Ind (8)
6. Bye
7. Loss* @Oak (23)
8. Loss* vs. SD (10)
9. Win vs. Mia (24)
10. Win vs. Den (27)
11. Loss @NE (2)
12. Loss vs. Pitt (5)
13. Loss* @Chi (13)
14. Loss @NYJ (7)
15. Loss vs. GB (1)
16. Win vs. Oak (23)
17. Win* @Den (27)

That works out to a 7-9 record, courtesy of that absolutely brutal week 11-15 stretch.  Just for kicks, though, I also went through and put *’s next to 5 games that were borderline for me, games that wouldn’t surprise me if they went the other way.  To me, these will be the key to our season.  I’ve got us going 2-3 in these games, but if we can pull most of these out, we could finish 9-7, which might be good enough to win the AFC West.  Here’s a closer look at those games:

• Week 2: Win @Det – I’m predicting a win here, but the Lions scare me a bit this year.  They’ve drafted well the last couple years, and their number 1 question is whether Stafford can stay healthy.  Unfortunately for us, we play them in week 2, so there’s a small chance Stafford is still healthy.  Still, I figure a few well-timed “Tampering!” taunts will cause Gunther to lose it and start calling 11-man blitzes on every play.
• Week 7: Loss @Oak – I know the Raiders are ranked 23 by ESPN, so it seems odd to predict a loss, but Al Davis’s lads swept the AFC West last year.  Plus, playing in Oakland always makes me nervous, regardless of our success there prior to last year.  Maybe a better way to put this is that I figure odds are we’ll lose either this game or the Detroit one.
• Week 8: Loss vs. SD – Give me this game early in the year, and I’ll pick the Chiefs.  But this is a week 8 game, and generally speaking, this is when the Chargers get tired of having a sub-.500 record and start playing well.  Any chance we have at the AFC West title will likely hinge on us getting at least a season split with the Bolts – which is why I would rather have swapped our week 3 game in San Diego with this one.
• Week 13: Loss @Chi – I’ve got us losing here, but I think this is really a question of how we handle adversity.  At this point, we’ve likely come off back-to-back losses to the Patriots and Steelers, and we’re looking at the Jets and Packers after this game.  If we don’t win this one, this has the makings of a season-crushing 5-game losing streak.
• Week 17: Win @Den – Denver’s looking to be really awful this year, but at this point, both of us are likely out of the playoff race, and a “just for bragging rights” division game at the end of a season seems like it should favor the home team.  Still, it’s the Donkeys, so I’ve gotta pick the Chiefs.

All that said, I do think we’re improving as a team, but a big reason for last year’s 10-6 record was the cake schedule we had, and this year’s schedule  is looking decidedly un-cake.  So… what do you think?

Royals calling up Salvador Perez, deny child labor law violations

Just when you thought the Royals couldn’t get any younger, the KC Star reports that they’re calling up Salvador Perez today.  In case you haven’t been following Perez, he’s a 21-year-old who’s considered our catcher of the future.  His defensive skills get rave reviews, and his bat has recently started catching up.  He has spent most of this year at AA, but he was promoted to AAA a couple weeks ago.  He has played well at AAA, but we’re talking about a mere 10 games at AAA.   So why now, you ask?  It’s because Brayan Pena is going to be gone for a few days for the birth of his child, and Treanor is still having post-concussion symptoms.

Royals Review has a good analysis of this move’s implications.  My guess is we demote Teaford to make room for Perez, but I have no idea who comes off the 40-man roster so we can add Perez.  And when Pena comes back in a few days?  And when Treanor comes back maybe a few days after that?  Your guess is as good as mine, but given we’re in full player development mode, I wouldn’t be surprised if Perez stays on in at least a platoon role with someone.

UPDATE: It appears we’ve released Kyle Davies to make room on the 40-man roster for Perez.  We still need to make a 25-man roster move, though, since Davies was on the DL.

UPDATE 2: Apparently, the MLB has a “paternity leave” list that lets players not count against the 25-man roster for up to 3 days.  We’ve put Pena on that list, which lets us call up Perez without sending anyone else down.  Who knew?

Royals notes: Johnny Be Good edition

So how good was Johnny Giavotella’s debut this weekend?  Let’s just put it this way – Hosmer’s reportedly upset that he’s no longer the only Royal being compared to Jesus and Chuck Norris.  All kidding aside, though, Gio had about as good of a debut series as anyone could have imagined.  He went 5 for 11 at the plate with 3 extra-base hits (including his first major league home run), had key hits in close games, and perhaps most importantly to his doubters, he played good defense.  If you didn’t see it, check out his leaping grab of this flare in Saturday’s game and this nice scoop on a low throw from Escobar in Sunday’s game.  It’s only 3 games, but it was definitely encouraging.

Making a move on 4th place, but…
Don’t look now, but the Royals are 12-11 since the All-Star break and only 2 games behind the 4th-place Twins.  (Sidenote, but if I’m still blogging about only being 2 games back of 4th place next August, we can officially consider Mission 2012 an epic fail.)  However, we’ve got a brutal schedule for the rest of August.  We’ve got: 4 @Rays, 3 @ChiSox, 3 vs. Yankees, 4 vs. BoSox, 3 @Toronto, 3 @Indians, 3 @Tigers.  Yowza.  Not only is the competition rough, but only 7 of those 23 games are at home.  Realistically, if we go 10-13 the rest of the month, I think we should be pretty pleased.

The Butler did it – but why does he admit it?
Billy Butler’s home run streak last week (and his overall hot streak the last month) has generated a ton of attention from Royals fans.  Butler credited some changes Seitzer helped him out with: “Getting my hands higher, working down to the ball and it creates more backspin.”  This is all well and good, but it made me wonder, why tell anyone?  Folks in baseball always talk about how baseball’s a game of constant adjustments as pitchers and batters keep adapting to each other – so if that’s the case, why make it easy on the opponent by letting them know what adjustment you just made?  Maybe it’s because things like this are easy to spot on tape?  But even then, you’d still give the opponent a chance to miss it if you keep your mouth shut.  Anyway, it just seems odd to me, especially when you compare it to football where Bill Belichick won’t even tell you what size shoe his o-line coach is wearing.

Baconator is dead. Long live Country Breakfast!
As I mentioned last time, it appears Butler has a new nickname: Country Breakfast.  Much as I loved his old nickname (the Baconator), I think it’s time to embrace Country Breakfast.  After all, not only does Butler dig the new nickname, but now there’s a t-shirt for it – and doesn’t everything become official once it’s on a t-shirt?

Rany rules
Rany’s posts are always great reads, but his two most recent ones are especially interesting.  One is about why we didn’t trade any of the most likely trade candidates, and the other poses the question of how does Paulino compare to Ubaldo Jimenez.  I highly recommend you read them both.  Heck, if you’re short on time, I recommend you read them instead of my ramblings.  =)

Because I’m required to make fun of Cardinals fans…
I recently learned that Kansas City and St. Louis have a rivalry.  I’m not being sarcastic, but somehow, despite growing up in Kansas City, following KC sports since I was a little kid, and now living in KC again – I’ve never been aware that there was this KC-StL rivalry over, well, everything.  So in an attempt to make up for my non-participation in this for most of my life, I’d like to share with you an entertaining interview that SB Nation did with one Josh “Randy” Sullivan, Cardinals fan extraordinaire.  And in case you have no idea who he is, you might know him from this picture from several years ago.

Royals 2011: Back to the Minors

With the non-waiver trade deadline past, many Royals fans have turned their focus to our minor leagues and who might merit a call-up.  In particular, Lorenzo Cain and Johnny Giavotella are garnering a lot of attention… and angst.  What’s the hubbub, bub?  Check it out.

Cain is a 25-year-old center fielder who has been raking at Omaha and playing outstanding defense by all accounts.  He’s hitting .318/.389/.522, and that’s after batting .306/.348/.415 in 147 major league at-bats last year with the Brewers.  That explains the attention, but why the angst, you ask?  Well, the first is that Omaha plays in the Pacific Coast League, which is a ridiculously batter-friendly league.  The PCL’s average batting numbers are .286/.360/.452 – so Cain’s numbers are good, but aside from his .522 slug, they’re not ludicrous.  Secondly, he strikes out a lot, though to be fair, he has been improving in that area lately.  The biggest problem, though, is that since we didn’t trade away Melky or Frenchy, there’s no room for Cain in KC.  So barring injury or us sneaking Melky/Frenchy through waivers, it’s not clear how we’d get Cain any substantial major league playing time this year.

As for Giavotella (or Gio, as you’ll often see him called), the dude is a 24-year-old hitting machine who plays second base for Omaha.  There are some question marks about his defense (what I’ve read calls has his defense ranging from adequate to awful), but the guy can hit.  He’s currently batting .339/.391/.482 at Omaha (remember the above comment on the PCL averages, though), which follows a .322/.395/.460 campaign at AA Northwest Arkansas last year.  He has been especially hot this summer with a .391 average and 7 HR’s in June/July.  The Replace-Getz-with-Gio bandwagon has been picking up steam this summer, and when Davies hurt his shoulder this past weekend, Gio fans got their hopes up only to see them dashed when Teaford got the call-up instead.  BUT… if you check out the KC Star today, you’ll find a quote from Dayton Moore saying he wants to get Gio 100-150 major league at-bats this year.  To do that, he’ll need to be an everyday starter for the KC club within the next couple weeks – which means it’s likely Getz will be moved to a back-up role or possibly traded (offhand, he seems like someone we could sneak through waivers, enabling a trade).

So staying on the topic of the minor leagues, here are a few more points of interest…

Good day to be a Royals minor league pitcher
July 31st was encouraging for some of our key pitching prospects.  At AAA, Mike Montgomery rebounded from a couple rough outings with a solid 7-inning, 3-run performance.  Most importantly, he only walked one.  Meanwhile, at AA, Chris Dwyer threw a 7-inning, 1-run outing, and like Monty, he only gave up one walk.  This was especially encouraging, given that this now gives him two good starts in a row, which I think are also his only two good starts this year (okay, slight exaggeration – but only slight).  Lastly, at High-A, Noel Arguelles continued his solid season with a 6-inning, 2-run performance.  Arguelles has shown great control this year, but unfortunately, his strikeout rate has been unimpressive.  If he can regain some of the velocity he lost after shoulder surgery last year, I could see him joining the “top Royals pitching prospects” discussion in a year or two.

More major league transactions forthcoming?
The aforementioned KC Star article also has an interesting point about our 40-man roster.  Right now, we have an opening on the 40-man roster due to the Betemit trade.  Cain is already on the 40-man, but Gio is not – so calling up Gio in a couple weeks will use up that open slot.  However, also keep in mind that any September call-up has to be on the 40-man roster.  Newly promoted AAA players Salvador Perez and Kelvin Herrera figure to be potential 2012 roster candidates for us, so it seems likely we’d call them up in September (plus, we have to add them over the offseason anyway, or we expose them to the Rule 5 draft).  If that’s the case, we’ll need to clear two more spots from the 40-man roster.

My guess, for what it’s worth, is that we’ll end up trading Francis or Chen to get at least one opening.  Yes, the non-wavier trade deadline is past, but neither Francis nor Chen strikes me as valuable enough that a team would claim him purely to block a rival from getting him.  So if someone does claim them, it seems we might be able to work out a trade.  And if no one claims them, then we’ll be free to trade them to anyone, same as before the non-waiver trade deadline.

Odds and Ends

• Royals Review has a couple excellent pieces on our minor leaguers: Connor Moylan’s monthly report card on our top 65 prospects, and BHWick’s take on our top minor league pitchers.
• Believe it or not, the Royals have been pretty decent since the All-Star break.  Against the Twins, ChiSox, Rays, BoSox, and Indians, we put together a not-awful 9-8 record.  Aside from the Twins, those are all teams in playoff contention (and the Twins front office would argue they are, too).  I know we’re not contending this year, but I would like to see us be respectable the rest of the way to give us some momentum (and hope) for next year.
• This is old, but I just saw it today for the first time.  It’s Ichiro giving his take on Kansas City summers.  (The video’s fine, but the audio’s NSFW, so you may want to use headphones.)  No wonder he prefers Seattle.  =)

You don’t mess with the Baconator

All season long, Billy Butler has been taking crap from everyone.  Ned Yost calls him slow, fans diss him for his lack of power, and he gets nicknamed the Baconator by someone who should be paid to name fantasy sports teams.  Well, apparently, Billy’s mad as heck, and he’s not going to take it anymore.  With two homers in tonight’s 12-0 blowout of the Indians (hold that wondrous thought), he has now homered in 4 straight games.  Or, to look at it another way, through the first 98 games of the season, he hit 6 homers.  In the 8 games since, he hit another 6.  If this is how he reacts when he gets mad, my bet is that a few more Billy’s-so-slow-(how-slow-is-he) jokes by Ned will propel Billy to 30 stolen bases in 2012.  (And yes, I purposely avoided a Hulk reference since I used up my comic book reference allotment in my last post.)  Meanwhile, in other Royals’ goings-on…

The many ways that 12-0 win rocked
Besides the satisfaction of a blowout win over a division rival, the beauty of Billy’s power surge, and the treat of a textbook baseball “brawl” (benches empty, angry words are exchanged, nobody throws a punch, plans are made to grab a latte with the other team after the game) – last night’s win was also good for the Royals’ potential trade prospects.  Part of that was Melky having a good game, though one game for a position player probably doesn’t change much (and I also think the Royals should hang onto Melky), but more important to me was Francis having a good start.  Since starting pitchers only play in one-fifth (or, in the Royals’ case, one-sixth) of the games, each start can make a difference.  Between our 6-man rotation (and Yost’s comment that he would re-evaluate it on our next off-day, which just happens to be the day after the trade deadline) and the lack of team control for half our rotation (Francis, Chen, and Davies), my guess is that if we move anyone by the deadline, it’s one of those three guys.

A simple formula to avoid getting clobbered at Fenway
Getting out of Fenway with a 4-game split was a nice trick, especially after getting beat in games 2 and 3 by a combined 25-14.  Conventional wisdom is that Fenway is a tough place for left-handed pitchers, but the Royals took that to an extreme.  In games 2 and 3, our left-handed starters combined for 7.2 IP, 16 hits, 6 walks, and 16 runs for an unsightly 18.78 ERA.  By contrast, in games 1 and 2, our right-handed starters combined for 13 IP, 11 hits, 2 walks, and 3 runs for a sterling 2.08 ERA.  It may not quite equal classic blunders like getting involved in a land war in Asia or going in against a Sicilian when death is on the line, but I think “starting a lefty at Fenway” is pretty close.

More pieces of Mission 2012 puzzle?
This week, the Royals promoted RP Kelvin Herrera and C Salvador Perez from AA to AAA.  Herrera could be a key part of our 2012 bullpen (especially with Crow converting to a starter), and Perez has a shot to be our 2012 starting catcher.  As I’ve mentioned before, I think 2012 will be about getting our rookies experience and taking a shot at a near-.500 record, but it’ll be 2013 before I think we’re talking playoff contention.  Still, I’m excited to see these guys progressing well.  On a fun note, Perez hit two grand slams this week at AA before getting his promotion to AAA – so of course, in his 3rd game at AAA last night, what’s he do?  He hits a grand slam.  Not bad for a guy whose bat is the biggest question mark.

Update on Butler’s nickname
By the way, I mentioned Butler’s awesome nickname of the Baconator, but last night, I started seeing a new nickname floating around on Twitter.  And it is… (drum roll)… Country Breakfast.  Not bad, but I think I’m still partial to the Baconator.

Has Kyle Davies been Clark Kenting his way through the world?

If you read enough comic books (or if you’ve watched the recent flood of superhero movies and TV shows), you know a common theme is superheroes fighting the temptation to use their powers out of costume, thus compromising their secret identity.  You have young Clark Kent wanting to go out for his high school football team, Peter Parker not beating up the bully, Dash Parr purposely not winning first place in track, and Forrest Gates not using his secret demon hunting job to impress dates.  And now, maybe we should add Kyle Davies to the list.

How else do you explain Davies shutting down the Red Sox, who are averaging 5.4 runs per game, tops in the majors?  My theory is that Davies is actually a solar-powered alien, imbued with the power of a magic ruby he found in a pyramid, and accidentally exposed to gamma radiation while biting a spider – all of which enables him to throw a baseball 3 gazillion miles per hour with pinpoint control and knuckleball movement.  Normally, he hides his abilities by pretending to be an awful major league pitcher, but every now and then, he gets tired of all the crap we give him, and he decides to pitch well.  Well, c’mon – do you have a better explanation?

Okay, okay.  So hyperbole and geeking out self-indulgence aside, Davies did have a pretty good outing last night.  He went 6 innings and stuck out 6, while allowing only 5 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run.  And that follows his last start, where he struck out 9 in 5.1 innings, while allowing only 2 earned runs.  Those aren’t great outings by any stretch, but if he can pitch like this consistently, that’s solid back-of-the-rotation value.  The flip side, though, is that he has a $3.2M salary, which is a bit pricey for a back-of-the-rotation starter…

Anyway, if I haven’t driven you off yet with this extremely geeky (and probably poorly written) post, here are a few more amazing observations and incredible notes:

Two wrongs don’t make a right, but maybe three wrongs do?
If you haven’t seen Aviles‘s game-winning squeeze bunt, you should check it out.  For the first few seconds, it looks like the comedy of errors we’ve grown used to seeing from the Royals.  Every Royal involved screws up.  With the squeeze play on, Frenchy takes off from first because he missed the sign (i.e. he was trying to steal second), Aviles pops up the bunt instead of getting it down on the ground, and Hosmer (who correctly took off for home with the pitch) stops halfway to home before realizing the bunt is going to drop.  Somehow, though, the ball drops untouched, and the fielder’s momentum prevented him from trying to get Hosmer at the plate.  The best part?  Frenchy taking off for second is what pulled the first baseman in, which is what let Aviles pop-up go over him and drop.  If Frenchy doesn’t miss the sign, he stays put, the first baseman stays back, the pop-up is caught, and Hosmer is probably doubled off third, ending the inning.

Our Bend-But-Don’t-Break Bullpen
Of course, Aviles never would have been in position to pull off his superhuman bunt if our bullpen hadn’t been displaying some magic of their own.  Granted, they made their own problems, but check out these escape acts:

• Bottom of the 9th.  1st and 3rd, 1 out.  Crow strikes out Crawford and gets Reddick on a fly to right.
• Bottom of the 11th.  1st and 2nd, 2 outs.  Holland strikes out Crawford.
• Bottom of the 12th.  Runner on 3rd, 1 out.  Coleman strikes out Crawford The Red Sox batter misses the squeeze sign (omen of things to come?), and the Royals tag out the runner, who broke for home with the pitch.
• Bottom of the 13th.  1st and 3rd, 1 out.  Coleman gets Navarro on a foul pop and gets Ortiz to ground out.

Great.  Googly.  Moogly.

Royals breaking in a new leadoff hitter?
Down at AAA, Johnny Giovatella has moved to leadoff for the last few games.  From what I heard on the radio, Gio projects as more of a 2-hole hitter, but given our lack of a prototypical leadoff hitter, the radio guys are thinking the idea is to let him try it out at AAA.  Putting aside where Gio might slot in our batting order, the bigger takeaway to me is that he’s probably not going to be called up in the near future.  It doesn’t seem to make sense to try something like this unless you want to give him some time, both for him to get used to it and for us to evaluate him at it.  So for those of you on the Replace-Getz-With-Gio-Now bandwagon, this is probably not encouraging.  Then again, my track record with predicting Royals moves is pretty lousy, so…

Royals 2012 rotation proposal

As we look forward to finally being competitive next year, the top concern that most Royals fans have is our starting rotation.  It’s why you hear suggestions to trade Gordon, Butler, and/or Soria for starting pitchers.  It’s why you hear cries of despair over Mike Montgomery‘s and Chris Dwyer‘s struggles – and especially John Lamb‘s elbow injury.  It’s why you hear demands to sign a starting pitcher (any starting pitcher! five starting pitchers!) this offseason.

If you step back, though, I think here’s a way to upgrade our starting rotation without trading for anyone, without signing a (likely to be overpaid) free agent starting pitcher this offseason, and without rushing any of our minor league starters.  And I think it would give us a decent (not great, mind you) rotation.  What if we…

1. Move Crow to the rotation (like Dayton has already said we will do),
2. Move Soria to the rotation (like Dayton has repeatedly said we will not do),
3. Move Holland and Coleman into Crow’s and Soria’s old roles (not set on which one should close), and
4. Add two of Everett Teaford, Kelvin Herrera, and Robinson Tejeda to the bullpen (or all three if you want to move Collins or Adcock back to the minors).

That would give us a rotation of (in no particular order): Soria, Crow, Duffy, Paulino, and Hoch.  Some additional thoughts:

• This is a high-risk rotation.  It has ZERO proven starters in it, two guys who have never started above AA, and one guy who has arguably proven he cannot be an effective starter (Hoch – though I’m one of the few who still believes he can turn it around).
• This is a high-upside rotation.  Three of these guys project as solid-to-good starters, though each has his own significant question mark: Duffy (inexperience), Soria (transitioning back to starting), and Paulino (control).  Crow has been solid has a reliever with two plus pitches, but there are some thoughts that his lack of a third plus pitch may hamper his ability to be effective starting.  Lastly, Hoch has shown the ability to dominate, but it’s a question of figuring out how to avoid those sudden implosions.
• I didn’t include Francis or Chen, but I’d be open to re-signing either or both (especially Chen).  And I could see replacing Hoch with one of them if he continues struggling the rest of this year.
• I seriously doubt we bring back Davies given how much he’ll likely cost (he’s making $3.2M this year on a 1-year contract, there will be few good free agent pitchers available this coming offseason, and there are a lot of teams looking for starting pitching).  I’m aware no one is going to argue with me on this.
• This leaves Montgomery, Dwyer, Mazzaro, and SOS in the minors.  The first two are the prospects we hope continue to develop; the latter two are the fallbacks when someone gets injured.
• By not having to sign an expensive-but-mediocre free agent starting pitcher, we can save our money to go after someone in the 2012-2013 offseason, when there will be much better options available.

As I mentioned above, this isn’t a great rotation – but I think it would be noticeably better than this year’s, and it would have the potential to be much better than this year’s.  What do you think?

Not to change the subject, but let’s talk about the Raiders

I’m back in KC for the weekend, and my brother and I were chatting today.  We were talking about fans, and he mentioned that he heard Raiders fans were actually very nice.  I looked at him like he was suddenly the dumbest person in the world because, well, he was.  It was literally one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard in my life.  As someone who has gone to multiple Chiefs-Raiders games in Chiefs gear, I can state with one hundred percent certainty that Raiders fans are in fact not nice at all.

I wrote this last Fall after going to the Raiders game and figured I’d post it here since most Royals fans are Chiefs fans too.  It’s funny – I made fun of the Pirates in it, and now they’re having a great season.  I also made fun of the Royals – too bad we didn’t have the same payoff.  Without further ado…

Oh How I Hate the Raiders

So last Sunday, I decided to go to the Raiders game.  Why would any sane person want to do that?  Because they were playing the Chiefs, and I love my Chiefs.  So I decided to go support them.  In Oakland.  In a Chiefs jersey.

Wearing a Chiefs jersey into the Coliseum is sort of like putting a kitten inside a cage with a bunch of Rottweilers that haven’t been fed in a few years.  Eighty thousand of them.  With rabies (that’s actually not a metaphor… I’m pretty sure some of the Raiders fans in fact had rabies).

The Chiefs and Raiders are one of the all-time great classic rivalries – like Coke vs. Pepsi or Superman vs. Lex Luthor or Jacob vs. Edward (wow, I just lost a little respect for myself) – and it’s not one based on respect.  The teams have literally hated each other over the decades, and the fans do too.   In Kansas City, when the Chiefs and Raiders play, the entire city gears up the entire week for what we affectionately refer to as Raider-Hater Weekend.  People hang life-size Raider dolls from their front patio, they wear T-shirts that would normally offend their conservative Christian values, and they begin foaming at the mouth by Wednesday (and literally urinating on anything black and silver by Friday).

But for the last handful of years, neither the Chiefs nor the Raiders have been any good, causing the rivalry to dull a bit.  The Chiefs have in fact been just plain bad – from 2008 to 2010, we won 6 games and lost 26.  By contrast, the Indianapolis Colts in the same time span won 26 games and lost 6.   But the Raiders have arguably been worse; they’ve been downright comical. Their team motto – “Commitment to Excellence” – became an ironic punchline.  They’ve lost a historic number of games, and their draft picks have been duds and busts.  If it weren’t for Ryan Leaf, Jamarcus Russell would be the biggest draft bust in history.

But this year, the Chiefs are actually good, and after their usual laughable start, the Raiders have suddenly looked really good.   So Raiders fans have been starving for this, and the rivalry suddenly seemed like it did in the good old days.

So I had some hesitation about wearing a Christian Okoye jersey into the Coliseum when I knew their fans would be rabid.  My friend W from L.A. came up for the weekend to see his first ever NFL game (he’s not a Chiefs fan), and we were meeting a couple other friends of mine at the stadium.   It was raining out, so on top of my red jersey was a bright red ski jacket.  I thought about wearing a black jacket, but I decided I didn’t want to chicken out.  I was going to wear a red Chiefs hat too, but wifey drew the line there and suggested I wear a beanie instead – yes because it was cold outside, but mostly “because it makes you look tougher, sweetie.”

The game was sold out – for the first time since September of 2009 – so we had to park in a dirt (mud on that day) lot on the other side of the highway.  So we had a loooong walk to the stadium in the rain.  With a lot of Raiders fans all around us.   Literally the moment we got out of the car, the first thing I heard is a guy talking behind us saying, “Man, the first Chiefs fan I see is gonna get shot.  Motherfu*%&r is gonna die.”

Awesome.  Here we go.

By the time we got into the parking lot, I had already heard a steady chant of “F%&* K.C” at least a hundred times.  I also heard other variations of the F-bomb, including, “What the f%&*???,” “Look at this mother f%&*er right here!” and the ever more eloquent, “F%&* you Chiefs fan!”  In the parking lot, it got worse.   In addition to the screaming, there were lots of cold “if we were in prison I would shank you” stares, many from men who actually looked like they had shanked someone in prison.

It’s fascinating how different wearing a Chiefs jersey into the Oakland Coliseum is from wearing a Royals jersey into a baseball game at Yankee Stadium.  In the Coliseum, you feel anger and actual hatred radiating off of people as they stare and scream at you, but in Yankee Stadium, the looks you get are more of curiosity and, well, pity.  Royals fans aren’t seen as a threat because the Yankees are good and the Royals are even worse at baseball than the Raiders are at football.  If the Raiders are the red-headed stepchild of the NFL, the Royals are the soiled underpants that the stepchild is wearing.  Not only do we get shat upon, but everyone points right at us and laughs (but at least we’re not the Pirates – they are the actual shit in the underpants).   When I lived in New York, I went to Royals games all the time with Royals gear on.  I got a few boos here and there, but it was always as though they were more confused than upset – as though instead of pointing and saying, “Boooo!!” they were saying, “Boooo?”  And one game when we lost (we lost all of them I went to), a Yankee fan summed it all up best when he saw me in the concourse on the way out, came running up to me, and shouted, “Royals?!!  … … …  Why?!?!?”  and then ran off laughing.

But back in Oakland, we finally got to the line to get in and found my friends M and N.  While I like to think I am a somewhat tough guy, I’m quite aware that I am a 145 pound Asian man who most likely does not inspire fear in others (even with the beanie).  So I was quite happy to see M and N, not because there is strength in numbers, but because there is just a lot of strength in them.  Both are very large black men – M is 6’6” and N probably has a 25” neck, which came in handy when he was a starting linebacker at the University of Houston.  Even though they were Raiders fans, I settled in between the two and felt fairly certain that the abuse I’d take today would just be verbal.

We were in the line for about 45 minutes; it barely moved at all, and it made a couple of switch backs like an airport security line, meaning people who were drunk and angry that the line wasn’t moving basically stared at me for 45 minutes straight – 25 of which was spent shouting the ever-present “F%&* K.C.” and the other 20, the incredibly annoying high-pitched wail, “Raaaaaaaaiderrrrs!!”  But as we finally got to the front and got patted down by security, it dawned on me that despite all of the crap that had already been yelled at me, we hadn’t even gotten into the stadium.  Fun.

When we finally got in and found our section, and I braced myself for what I knew was going to be one of the worst parts – the long walk up to our seats.  I emerged from the little tunnel – for some reason in the front of our group (that was poor planning) and looked up to see thousands of black-clad fans looking down at me.   The shouting began almost immediately, and when we finally got to our row, the people in our row gave me a look of disgust, and grudgingly stood up to let us by (one man who stood up to let me by grumbled, “Move fast asshole”).  When we finally got to our seats, a guy sitting near me looked up and said, “You’re f%&*ing kidding me.  I’m sitting next to a Chiefs fan?  God dammit.”

After that, the rest of the game was more of the same.  I was the only Chiefs fan in our section (there was one other one a couple sections to my left), and everyone behind me was chanting “F%&* K.C.!” throughout the game.  I didn’t turn around much, but I’m pretty sure if I did, I would have seen that they were all staring straight at me.   We went up 10-0 at the half, and I cheered, but kept it to that – no trash-talking.  I’ve got pride, but I’m not stupid.

We went to get food at the half, and while we were still eating on the concourse, the Raiders returned the opening kickoff of the second half for a touchdown (their first points of the game).  The place absolutely erupted, and many fans made sure to point at me and happily scream, “F%&* you!!”  One guy apparently couldn’t contain his excitement and kept jumping up and down in front of me like a clown and petting my head, not in a confrontational way, but more in a young Tom Brady to Drew Bledsoe “I can’t believe we just won” sort of way.  It was almost affectionate… and completely odd.  But he later said as he was leaving, “Hey man, at least you’re wearing your colors proud.  I gotta give that to you.”  In the meantime, my friend W missed the whole thing because he was in the bathroom, where he was apparently peeing next to a man with a skull mask on.  He described the scene best by simply saying, “F%&*ing Raiders fans” while shaking his head.

But the game in the end didn’t turn out the way I wanted it.  We took the lead on a bad call by the ref, but Oakland tied it at the end to force overtime (which I was secretly almost happy about b/c I thought if we won on a bad call, the fans would have killed me in the parking lot).  A couple bad plays later, and just like that, the Raiders won – even more annoying was that M had predicted much earlier that the Raiders would win in overtime.   He made sure to point that out, but such is the price I pay for protection I guess.  The walk back to the car was loooooong.  So many Raiders fans taunting me, shouting, a few getting in my face and bumping me.   One guy in all black walked up on my right and started talking to me in a low voice.  I thought he was about to talk more shit, but instead he said, “Props man for wearing your jersey.   I was too afraid to do it,” and then he walked away from me quickly as he looked around nervously.  It was like a scene from the Bourne Identity.

All in all, it was a fun day.  Exciting second half even though it didn’t end well.  And I came back in one piece, so I guess that was the best part of it all.  Next year, I want to go to another game, though maybe back home in Kansas City.  The stadium is nicer, it’d be nice to see the family, and the barbecue is better.  But most of all, I’ve just had enough of these f%&*ing Raiders fans.

Trade talk

With the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline approaching, the Royals pulled the trigger and shipped Wilson Betemit to the Tigers for a couple A-ball prospects.  Here are some thoughts on that trade, and other possible trades in the near future.

Who’d we get for Betemit?
We got catcher Julio Rodriguez (who is 20, 21, or 22, depending on who’s reporting) and left-handed pitcher Antonio Cruz (who is either 19 or 20, depending on the reporter).  I’ve seen several write-ups on the two prospects (such as this one), and the general consensus is that both are borderline prospects – i.e. about what you’d expect to get for Betemit at this point. With Cruz, the consensus seems to be that he is basically a lottery ticket prospect whose best shot at the majors is probably as a reliever.  Rodriguez, though, seems to generate some varying opinions.  Some say he’s organizational filler with no shot at the majors; others seem to be more positive, emphasizing his defensive skills.  Guess we’ll find out over the next few years.

Aviles back
With Betemit gone, Mike Aviles is back with the big league club.  This makes far more sense since he can backup the middle infield positions (in addition to 3B, which was Betemit’s position), which means Escobar and Getz can actually get a day off every 98 games or so.  I also heard one of the sports talk guys speculating that this means Moose and Aviles will platoon at 3B (Moose being a lefty and Aviles being a righty).  I could see that happening here and there while Moose is struggling and pressing right now, but I doubt that will be the long-term (as in rest-of-the-season) plan since Yost has talked about maximizing Moose’s playing time.

Yost’s interesting comment on the trade
After Betemit was traded, Yost made this interesting comment: “The thing that it does, too, is by trading a roster player and not getting a roster player back opens up a roster spot. We’re going to need those in the upcoming weeks.”  That would imply that we’re close to promoting someone who isn’t currently on the 40-man roster, such as Giovatella or Montgomery (though Montgomery took a step back last night).

Melky next?
The big rumor being reported over at FOX sports is that the Phillies and Royals are discussing a trade for Melky Cabrera.  The trade talks have progressed far enough that names have been exchanged, but keep in mind that most sources say the Phillies regard Melky as their back-up plan if they can’t swing a deal for Carlos Beltran.

Ozzie dissing us
Okay, this has nothing to do with the trade deadline, but Ozzie Guillen keeps ripping on Royals players who are instrumental in beating his White Sox.  First, after Treanor (who’s married to professional volleyball player Misty May-Treanor) hits a key 2-run single in our 4-2 win, a reporter asked Ozzie what he knows about Treanor.  His answer?  “He’s married to that volleyball player.”  And then yesterday, after Bruce Chen holds the Sox to 1 run in 8 innings, Ozzie’s post-game rant included this gem: “Bruce Chen, once again. That was more painful than this one (pointing to his black eye from getting hit by a foul ball).”  Ouch.