I love me some Tim Hudson

Now that we’re in the midst of the baseball offseason and the Winter Meetings are still a week away, pure baseball news will be a little harder to come by for a while. With that, I thought it would be a good time to do something that I’ve been asked to do by fellow bloggers and readers for a while now, but have been reluctant to do so.

My post a couple weeks ago in response to the Bob McClure Q&A posted at FanGraphs generated a fair amount of positive attention, but also some criticism. Which is to be expected. I received more than a few emails (look for those in a future KoK Mailbag, because I think it’s important to give both sides of this argument about pitching) in which it was pretty clear that I’m not explaining my side very well. I’ll try to do better.

So as a way to better explain things, to give a different perspective, and to get a little (or a lot) more in depth about pitching, I’ll be talking with some old colleagues about their philosophies and breaking down some of the Royals players individually, as we see them. Read more…

Not these Free Agents

It all started a little over a week ago when I wrote that I thought it would be a good idea for the Royals to go after Roy Oswalt during this offseason free agent frenzy. Not really speaking (writing?) from a place of knowledge, but more from “hey, why the heck not?”, I was shocked when Tuesday on Twitter it was being reported that the Royals were set to talk with the agent that represented both C.J. Wilson, and Roy Oswalt.

That started the floods gates (with reason) of Royals fans and bloggers alike with hearts all a-flutter that maybe, just maybe, Dayton Moore was actually going to take a run at the veteran right-hander. Then, a little later on Tuesday, the second bomb dropped, and it was reported that the Royals had interest in Mark Buehrle.

Now, the true level of interest could be nothing more than Dayton Moore doing his due diligence, and doing what every responsible GM should, and just testing the waters of a couple veteran pitchers that would both be sure upgrades to a under-talented starting rotation.
But, that hasn’t stopped everyone from dreaming a dream and picturing one – if not both – in a Royals uniform next year.

At KoK, Michael Engel said that the Royals should sign both pitchers and lays out pretty clearly why, and then Brett Christie wrote that the Royals aren’t done acquiring arms yet, though isn’t so sure Oswalt would be the one. So, in the spirit of debate (we will have a Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome style rumble to settle this) I’m going to write something that I didn’t think was possible for me to write: the Royals shouldn’t sign either guy. Read more…

Baseball, as a business, has started to get it. Over the past decade after the publicizing of Moneyball, statistics and the search for the objective center have been forced more to the forefront of the industry ideology. Organizations have embraced the intelligent, the educated, into their offices to make decisions based more heavily on logic and information, than gut feelings and luck. Some of the “old school” ways of doing things still exist, as they do have a place in front offices, but a better balance has been struck.

Unfortunately for baseball however, that enlightenment to newer ideas and strategies and ideals has yet to filter down into the coaching ranks, where the same rhetoric and intolerance of new theories and training continues to blanket the industry.
On Wednesday, at personal-favorite baseball website FanGraphs, a Q&A with former Royals pitching coach Bob McClure was posted. It was an interesting read, getting the opinions of a former major league pitching coach, if you’ve never watched an in-game interview or read the same canned quotes in a beat writers postgame write-up.

McClure has some good tidbits about Tim Collins’ deception and how to teach it, the arm angles of Jeff Niemann and Tim Lincecum, and his thoughts on how to connect with young pitchers. All perfectly harmless statements, and really nothing that anyone hasn’t heard or read before, but noteworthy enough that an ex-pitching coach is the one actually saying them.

And then, he talks about Brian Bannister.

Let’s ignore for a second the fact that in one instance he’s praising a pitcher (with probably similar talents to Bannister in Randy Jones) for being able to “pitch at the knees”* and sink the ball in order to make it tougher for hitters to square it up, and dismissing Bannister in the next for trying to improve his sinker to do the same thing. Read more…

Crazy Eyes Francoeur. Photo courtesy of Minda Haas of mindahaas.net

I know, everyone does a mailbag. The thing about Kings of Kauffman that (I hope) sets us apart from everyone else is you don’t get the same basic posts day after day. I’m sure the others on staff feel the same way. Whether you’re getting the daily musings of our fearless leader Engel, or the analytical number-barrage from Gage, or the weekly Royalman Report, there’s something for everyone here.

But the well-rounded staff we have would be nothing without your readership. Kings of Kauffman consistently sets new records for monthly traffic and comments, and that’s a direct reflection of the readers. Blogging is no different than any other writing/journalism medium: without the readers, there would be no writers.

Because of your interest in the things that we do, and your ridiculous and loyal fandom for a franchise that has been a losing one for the better part of three decades, we’re able to do the things that we do and have some fun along the way. All of us have jobs outside of blogging that take up a lot of our time, so what free time we do have is spent trying to come up with content that you, the reader, will enjoy and keep you coming back.

So as a “thank you”, I’ll start doing a monthly (or however often makes sense with the feedback we get) mailbag to give you guys a chance to ask, vent, rant, and make fun of us. Just please remember, we’re all still Royals fans, no matter how much we may disagree on things.

If you want to join in on the fun, drop us a line at KoKMailbag@gmail.com. Now, on to the emails: Read more…

Hello and greetings and how are ‘ya?

I’m back from a mini hiatus (or extended if you’re counting at home) to announce my presence with authority, or something like that. In reality, it’s a holiday weekend and I’ve convinced The Lady to leave me alone for a few hours while I sit and watch the Royals game in its entirety. This should be fun.

Not a whole lot has changed since our last Live Blog edition. The Royals continue to lose games they shouldn’t, Eric Hosmer shows flashes of brilliance both at the plate and in the field, and Alex Gordon continues to be a star. So really, this has been your typically Royals season: bright spots here and there, frustrations abound, and an overall losing record.

But fear not better days are ahead. At least, that’s what everyone wants to say. For the first time in a while this year’s roster seems to be made up of players that actually deserve to be on next year’s roster, and that’s a big step forward. Even though some of those players shouldn’t get a two-year committed deal, yes that’s you Jeff Francoeur, the consistency within an organization both with the coaching staff and on the roster is one of those invaluable, intangible aspects of The Process that should speed things along.

So fire up the grill, grab a cold beverage, and head back here to follow along with today’s live blog. See you at first pitch. Read more…