Now on OTL.. why the royals suck

RayKinsella · Jul 8, 2006

OK, decade of losing. My apologies that an extra S was added. The past 10 years have been bad for the Royals.

The 10 before, were not so bad.

Oz · Jul 8, 2006

No problem. Just wanted to make sure the Royals didn't look any worse than necessary.

JR · Jul 8, 2006

I thought this was going to be a thread about Prince Charles

Oz · Sep 30, 2006

Joe Posnanski is on point once again about the Royals ...

So what is this year’s team’s contribution to Kansas City baseball history? Well, this is the year when the Royals’ extraordinarily bad pitching finally reached a crescendo of awfulness. This year, thirteen different Royals pitchers started five or more games. That in itself is absolutely incredible — it smashes the team record.

But that’s just the setup. There’s something about those 13 pitchers that will absolutely blow you away. Wait for it.

Every single one of those 13 pitchers has an ERA larger than 5.00.

Get that? Every single one. Doesn’t matter if it’s Jorge de la Rosa, Brandon Duckworth, Joe Mays or Bobby Keppel. It could be Scott Elarton, Mike Wood, Jimmy Gobble or Runelvys Hernandez. To finish out the quaker’s dozen: Mark Redman, Luke Hudson, Odalis Perez, Jeremy Affeldt and Denny Bautista.

All of them have ERAs above what we would like to officially dub the Herb Hashmark (Herbert Howard Hash pitched for the Boston Red Sox in the early 1940s and finished his career with a 4.98 ERA). What are the odds that a major-league baseball team could find 13 different men from all over the world, pay them each a substantial amount, give them at least five starts — and not one of them finishes the year with a ERA less than 5.00? It boggles the mind.

The Royals have long had horrendous pitching. Since 1998 — so we’re talking more than nine seasons — the Royals’ team ERA is 5.29. That’s momentous. In American League history, only the St. Louis Browns pitching staff of the 1930s had a higher ERA over nine years. The Royals moved the fences back. They fired and hired a half-dozen pitching coaches, They used 123 different pitchers, from Abbott to Witasick, from Byrd to Byrdak, Ray to May, Villacis to Voyles, George to Bailey. And nothing changes.
Click to expand...

Claws for Concern · Sep 30, 2006

Royals should merge with a Major League Baseball team soon

HoopsMcCann · Sep 30, 2006

or go to the national league where they'd be in contention for the nl central title

Human_Paraquat · Sep 30, 2006

The Royals and Expos (Nationals) both got killed by the strike in '94. Think about how close we came to having those teams as a possible World Series matchup. (The Royals were in third place at the time of the strike, but only four games behind the White Sox in the Central and only three games behind Cleveland for the Wild Card).

Ironically, the '94 Royals weren't built around young talent. Check out this lineup — McFarlane, Joyner, Lind (yes, Jose effing Lind), Gaetti, Gagne, McRae, Coleman, Jose and Hamelin. If that team makes playoff noise, maybe they attract/can afford a premium free agent or two to mix in with that next wave (Dye, Damon, Beltran, etc.). Instead, they went 70-74 in '95 before the bottom fell out in '96.

Oz · Sep 30, 2006

HoopsMcCann said:

or go to the national league where they'd be in contention for the nl central title
Click to expand...

Exactly.

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Now on OTL.. why the royals suck

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