Let’s talk Royals…
The score last night was 10-zip Detroit. The Kansas City Royals were on the ropes and in the midst of the grand reopening of the spanking new Stanford’s Comedy Club at Rosana Square in Overland Park, sports scribe Craig Glazer was speaking of sports.
“You know, we’ve been talking all year long about core groups of players,” Glazer says. “The core group for the Royals are Eric Hosmer, Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, Salvador Perez and Mike Moustakas. So here’s the problem; it’s not that they’re not solid players, but none of them have become outstanding players. They’re all about their potential, but the reality is none of them are outstanding.
“People think Perez is outstanding because he’s an All Star, but he’s not. He’s a great catcher, but his hitting is just okay. And if you’re going to be a great player, you need the whole package.”
“You can’t go to the post season comfortably when your best hitter is Alex Gordon. He has a .272 batting average and he’s only going to hit 20 home runs.”
Speaking of the post season, the Royals chances as of now?
“They have no chance,” Glazer says. “Tonight sealed their fate, their chance to win the division. This is the first important series this team has played in 30 years and it was at home and it was sold out. This was their shot and what happened? Their knees buckled.”
“When you get hammered in the first ams – and now they’re basically two games back – and Detroit is on top of the world. They just burned us. They’re just a better team. The bottom line is as I said earlier in the season and then had to eat crow; this year’s Royals team is really not much better than last year. Their record is going to be almost identical. They were just more consistent this year.
“It was a fun ride and a great opportunity for the Glass family, but I don’t think they’ll even be a wild card – it’s 50-50. My gut tells me Detroit might sweep ’em.
“The Royals just don’t have it in them. They don’t have the big bat. Everybody talks about George Brett, but give me a Hal McRae; give me an Amos Otis; give me a Carlos Beltran. And next year their big pitcher James Shields is gone probably. Now the starting pitching staff is not as stable. And the biggest bust on the team is Eric Hosmer. He’s kind of a flashy guy – he’s the Eric Berry of the Royals.”
the royals system of offense is not designed for todays game.
With the type of park they play in…with the pitchers that they face not
only in their own division but in big games….with the different sets of
pitchs used against them….with their dependence on defense in a changing
game….they have not changed the way of the team that played in
the 80s.
They are playing an outdated form of baseball. But in the tough
games we see that they have been designed wrong.
football teams and their strategy has changed dramatically since the 80’s.
hockey and basketball has changed dramatically in their strategies and
play since the 80’s.
Depending on left handed hitters to be your power hitters is just
not going to cut it. when will they learn.
Went to game last night. Hopefully they win a playoff spot…but
things must change.
That’s the most double speak I’ve heard since Norm Crosby on the old Dean Martin roast shows.
Explain? Where is that? I have said all year they are an ok team and nothing more.
I was talking about Harley’s comment.
I posted this over at TKC, but I’ve noticed in that forum its never really a conversation in the comments. So I thought I would share it over here. Among my friends there are a few of us that feel this way. And I imagine there are quite a few guys born between 1985-1990 who feel the same way. Here it is: “as someone young enough to have NEVER experienced a playoff team, but old enough to have lived through almost every season since the last trip i can say this year will hurt the most. if anything i really understand what my parents always meant when they said “way to set the bar low”. at least in past years when the team disappointed i wasn’t let down. but wow, i won’t lie when i say i’m surprised how much seeing this slip away is really hurting. i wonder if this is the worst scenario david ‘walmart’ glass could have found himself. if the team can’t find a way into the playoffs this year i’m not sure i will be able to invest emotion again until they actually make the playoffs and prove the product is worth the price. and i don’t mean money, money is just the quantitative measurement of what the real currency is – emotion. you see i’m not one of the junkies that come back every year and follow no matter what. I follow the team because its kansas city and i like baseball. before this season, following the royals was a social affair. get great tickets cheap and go for the experience, or grill some burgers, drink some beers and watch the game. having never experienced a team i thought could win, i never knew what it would feel like. now my FIRST (the team has only had 2 winning season in my life) taste is a bad trip. was never much of a druggie, but i have to imagine this is like the defining moment when someone first does a drug. if the first trip is great, you chase it, your hooked, but if that first trip is horrible, you tend to stay away.”
I know many of you are older, and may remember 85′. But I sure don’t. I suppose I never noticed that ownership and the organization don’t care about us or the city, because I too never actually ‘cared’. But something changed. As the wins came, and the Royals took first place, I became invested. Now I have the feeling I like I made a bad investment, not the investment of money, but a far rarer investment, my emotion.
…and so your youth is officially over, first_experiences .
Welcome to the world.
EMBRACE TEH SUCK.
go back to kindergarten…this is kcc…where we feature everything from
overaged pimps to racist pigs who hate anyone not from Europe.
How did you find this site…did you google “old men with hatred for
everyone” or did it just come up when you googled “men with bad
grammer”.
go back to your millennial I phone apps and play with those young uns.
you must be lost.
or maybe you heard about the great Harley and his ability to analyze
and correctly predict major events.
or maybe you heard that theglaze posted on here maybe 20 times a
day.
Or maybe you googled ” man who drives a fiat” and this came up
in search.
whatever the case..this is not for the feint of heart..if you can’t take
some serious written attacks we suggest you go search out “pussy site”
because guys like chuck and glaze and the dude and even
hearne the millionaire golden boy couldn’t live without kcc.
now go play with your mac and leave us alone.
first experience:
if you want to have fun and watch any of the kc teams…do plenty
of drugs.
eat some edibles…smoke the green gene….light it up….because
as glase/Harley / lefty and even chuckles the sad clown know…
it ain’t easy being a royals and chiefs fan.
I suggest anti depressants from a real psychiatirict (not glaze)
because these old guys on here are cranky/moody and can’t handle
the upsand downs of sports.
good luck…I’d find a real blog about sports if I was you. It will keep
you sane. If not you end up like chukles the sad clown halluciatning
that you’re with the germans in world war 2.
good luc…and as they say “friend don’t let friends read kcc”
“Ba Ba Baaaaa…. Harley I’m late! Will all of your friends from lawforlife come to the wedding? ”
Hey everyone, Halrey knows Pro Football, he told me all about the longest game ever played, called, “The Silence of the Strams”.
Call me Harley, like I said, I am late. You are in for a great wedding night, I will wear something “shear”.
Why don’t you use paragraphs and capital letters, man?
Beat the Tigers, win the division. They’ve beaten them 5 times and had 18 tries this year.
But next year, when the current team has had a chance to digest this bitter pill maybe they’ll be a little better equipped to handle the situation. The Tigers clearly know how to handle it.
Maurice….no grammer is correcthere…we all just hit the keyboards
and go…grammer and spelling be damned.
as far as your comment about our resident racists..chuckie the sad lonely
clown..thats true. He is famous at tkc for his over the top racist vile comments.
He takes every subject and turns it into a rant about race and multiculturalism…I mean this nut could take a story about the
betty crocker cookoff and turn it into one of his usually far out
rants about blacks/browns/jews/hate//etc.
sorry about the spelling and grammar…but we don’t care about that.
Its the hate and the filth over at tkc that turns us off…and guys
like chuck who write on tkc with vicious comments then tries
to bring them here where hearne won’t allow them.
thanks for commenting. we need more fair thinking people.
The only time Harley worries about punctuation is when one of his sheep miss their periods.
That’s silly. Sheep don’t menstruate. Do they?
Huh – sounds like a P. Dick novel or the name of a regional rock band (the kind that would open for Ace Pancakes) –
Sheep Don’t Menstruate
Also if you’re not constantly railing on blacks and the mainstream media any post at TKC is ignored. Chuck knows that.
There ya go, if we all just click the heels of our Ruby Slippers together and sing Kumbaya, then the joys of multiculturalism and diversity will be apparent.
Hey Maurice, not all of us suck up the “Narrative” like Mama June over a pot of Mac and cheese. Your criticism of “first_experience” and his/her prose, may or may not mean you are related to Harley.
I am gonna go with yes.
Maurice, you are right about the structure. I’m sorry about that, thanks for pointing that out.
For you guys who read this item early on, you might want to go back and read the three or four graphs that were added on a short time later.
“give me a Hal McRae; give an Amos Otis; give me a Carlos Beltran.”
– a lot of good/not great players (bob oliver & ed ‘spanky’ kirkpatrick types), ‘try hard guys’ but as you say no definitive star or stand out…
“Eric Hosmer. He’s kind of a flashy guy – he’s the Eric Berry of the Royals.”
– good analogy (the football guy far more overpaid for his ‘hype that doesn’t match production’ game)…
“O-V-E-R”
– here in Kansas City, we spell it DET 3 @KC 2; cue Orbison, “It’s over, it’s O-ver it’s O-VER!”
Wait till next year part 30…
Jesus Christ. Don’t post this shit, Hearne.
Perez is above-average offensively for a catcher.
Alex Gordon is by almost every statistical measure the best left fielder in baseball.
Glazer might make a few football picks, but he seriously knows nothing about baseball. Period. Royals baseball, or otherwise.
Hey,Craig’s entitled to his opinion, wild man. And as one of the KC’s higher visibility local celebs, he’s entitled to step into the limelight – he’s on like three or six different radio and local television shows just about every week – and fall on his face or whatever.
That said, I note that Perez is batting .261, which as you say is okay for a catcher, but it’s still not .300 or better – which at least two other catchers are batting and two more are within striking distance of. Sixteen home runs and 66 RBIs is more than decent, but I think what Craig is trying to say is, it’s not carry-the-team huge. Above average, yes, you’re correct. Craig said he was a great fielder and “ok” hitter.
But I think you’re maybe missing Craig’s point quibbling over “above-average” and ‘okay.”
That point being that the Royals need something approaching, if not a superstar. A go-to guy, a proven star that can lift and carry the team. You’re far more studied on this than I am, Brandon, but this isn’t exactly rocket science either. At this stage of the game neither Perez or Gordon are superstar players, Craig’s right, I think.
I see your point comparing Gordon to the other top MLB left fielders; in batting, he’s near the top in home runs with 19 (unless he got one today) but again, he’s only batting .264. That may compare well with many but it’s not .300, which I think in a general, is more what you would expect from a carry-the-team superstar.
I’m pretty much with you in that I doubt Craig studies the baseball stats like you and many die-hard baseball fans do. However to say he knows “nothing” about baseball is silly, dude. Hyperbole?
I will say this, while I know that you are incredibly passionate about baseball and the Royals – thru thick and thin – Craig’s pretty darn passionate as well. He just has a rather large mouth and likes to shoot it off.
Can we at least agree on that much?
I think even Craig would concede that point!
Lets revisit that. I said they were All Stars Lefty. I said they were good. I said they were not great. They are not. I’m tired of hearing about Gordon in Left field, yes he is a great fielder, but a just above average hitter. You mean MVP ALEX? Please, how many times is he up with men on second and third and can’t even get a fly ball? To score one….a million? You think you are all over the Royals…ok. But THERE IS NO STAR ON THIS TEAM, NONE NOBODY AND THAT INCLUDES GORDON AND PEREZ. MAYBE ONE DAY PEREZ WILL BE, WHEN HE HAS THE ENTIRE PACKAGE, RIGHT NOW NOBODY ON THIS TEAM HAS THAT, NOT AN EVERYDAY PLAYER…if so who is Lefty? The season is over in two weeks, who is the star that all the other teams are dreaming of? Yes Perez has big potential…not there yet.
Greg Holland and Wade Davis are bona fide stars at this point. They are having great seasons…Davis, a historic one.
They aren’t STARS, Carl. I’ve never seen them selling athletic shoes on TV. Come on.
I don’t think Craig is defining stars around here by their endorsement deals. But if he is, than Jamaal Charles is a star and not, as Craig likes to say, just above average.
Craig– by ALL statistical measures, Alex Gordon is a “star.” There isn’t a team in the league who wouldn’t want him in their OF.
That said, “stars” don’t win championships, especially in baseball. You’re stuck on this “star” thing, and it’s silly.
If you’re interested in isolating individual performances, get an understanding of something relatively simple like “WAR” or Wins Above Replacement.
It’s not about how many Subway commercials a guy lands, Craig. It’s about how well they play baseball. And the Royals have quite a few guys who play baseball well. You just wouldn’t realize it because you really don’t pay attention.
If Gordon played for the Yankees or Dodgers he would be making show commercials.
Well for once everyone agrees with me on a sports story. ITS OVER. Remember I talked to Hearne before the game yesterday. The division race is over. Wild card, I think is unlikely, but not over. I just think another loss today will send these guys into a funk. Hey they are in one now anyways. They KNOW they don’t have it. Now outside ‘Big Game James’ the starting pitching is slipping as well. The defense is also thread worn when it matters like Alex Gordon missing a big catch in game one of Detroit series Friday night.
All the fans know we just don’t have even one bat. Not one. That’s tough to deal with and win a division. Your pitching has to be lights out. Ours is very good, but just short of lights out. Danny getting hurt, was a killer too.
As for younger fans pain. I understand. I was around for the Super Bowls and World Series as a young guy. I have turned on both programs for their continued phony attempts to rebuild. Neither have save the Chiefs under Marty and they fell short.
The rest is B.S. neither team is headed anywhere great. Both looking to just make post season over the next few years. Chiefs are terrible, Royals are an ok team, but need a couple more players. STARS. NEITHER TEAM HAS A REAL STAR.. Jamaal was a very good back, NOT A STAR. He can’t carry a team. Few can, they are stars. Otis Taylor, George Brett, Len Dawson, Marcus Allan even a few defensive stars we have had, like Derrick Thomas and Bobby Bell. Those are stars. We have none of that today on either team. Til we do, no championships, maybe a few playoff losses that’s all.
The Chiefs have nothing at all right now. Nothing and can’t draft..so next year will be awful as well. Royals do have some good talent, need help. They are a big maybe. Losing Shields could cost them dearly next year.
you continue to just blabber about the chiefs and royals. You know
nothing. I am going to provide the reason why the royals may never
have the greatness and long ride of playoff appearances. Its a number
of reasons of which glaze knows nothing about.
With these guys…its just “they stink”…they can’t play….no big stars…
just common statements that fail to give any pertinent reasons
why the royals can’t make it over the hump.
Look at other teams with equal or lesser payroll…the problems are
many…the stadium..the way royals bat….the pitches they swing at…
the way they handle cutters…the way managemenet has put this
team together…the manager (this guy regardless of what their record
is is a loser…sorry)…and after this year they’ll try to figure out the
hosmer/butler battle…whether to keep bothholland and davis (money
and the need for right handed pwerr….
and we’ll still hear the rants from glaza and associates without any
reasoning or explanation as to how this team has been put together
without any thinking about the way baseball is played today.
Lets start off with moore and yost. They’re set. they made glass
big money..and for glass thts all tht counts.
And please glaze…we were at the game Friday…the royals pitcher had
absolutely no control on his pitches from his first pitch. He was out of
wack. Maybe too much pressure and maybe not mature enough to
handle the situation. Yost was looking ahead to the rotation
of the playoffs…how stupid when you’ve got 3 games series…you have
another almost sure loss in the Cleveland continuation game and you
have all the rest of your games on the road after today.
Howv stupid can yost be. You get to the playoffs…made your goal..
then worry about the rotation.
That’s just one of the problems with this team. They built it around
left handed power hitters. How stupid.
And in todays game you can’t be consistent winners with batters who
mostly get their hits with weak infield hits. And you can’t be
big winners when your top guy doesn’t have as few rbis as our’s does.
I will proide commentary and analysis ….short on time.
But glaze…please stop the rants…and
DON’T JIINX MISSOURI…PRETEND THEY DON’T EXIST…YOU
AND YOUR PHONY TEASES NAD PHONY MATH JINXEED US.
GO COOK SOME DR. PEPPER RIBS! (lol)
thanks.
I know this Harley I am not a homer, they are both poor organizations and need to be called out by someone. I am one of those people. I have been DEAD on with the Chiefs and Royals for years. Easy to do, they have both been crappy and then some.
Glaze where the Hell is my Monday morning or should I even say Sunday night Chiefs Recap. Or do you just blog losses? Where is Special K.
How Sweet It Is! — Pats in trouble. NEXT MAN UP!
I posted it yesterday. As YOU know I’m kinda busy with opening at Stanfords.
Hearne wants me to cover every Royals game til the end. I would but so busy with new club. Lefty can do that.
Look I call it like I see it. I hope the Royals win the division and World Series. I am a KC guy. I can’t say that about the Chiefs cause I bet against them winning more than 8, which looks good. Though the AFC and league are so balanced now who knows. The refs decide the games now.
When the Royals are 1.5 games up on a wildcard with 7 games to go I start to think nobody knows the wildcard system or something.
Glazer sure as hell doesn’t.
Also, hearne, we need leftezz’s comments and maybe that chick at Hobb’s to secure the holy trifecta of comments on this subject.
You are your own worst enemy here Hearne. You can’t say that this is fresh and unfiltered news when CG is your only source for just about anything. Again, I am sure he is a swell guy, but you need to either take him off speed dial or change this blog to “KC by Glazer.” Move on. Whenever I get to his inevitable quote inside one of these posts, be it on sports, politics, entertainment, movies, whatever, I stop reading. I imagine others do too. You seem to have a blind spot over this, and it seems to be getting worse.
“Whenever I get to his inevitable quote inside one of these posts, be it on sports, politics, entertainment, movies, whatever, I stop reading. I imagine others do too.”
Yep, not only that…but I just skip straight to the comments. He crap is unreadable.
Let me summarize Glaze’s stories:
Home town team starts season = they don’t have any stars! They suck
then after that:
Team losses = See I told you they suck
Team Wins = Well they still don’t have any real stars, but maybe they will win a couple
Team losses = see I told you so
Team wins = Well, the other team is just as beat up and has no stars either…it was a toss up. (Plus I won the bet with the tease with my STD test this week)
Then repeat.
ALL TRUE JESS.
all bullshit…and fuzzy phony math that only glaze
can understand.