Big XII North vs. South

One of my favorite times of the year is fast approaching. The beginning of College Football will soon be here. The Big XII is having their media days this week and the 2009 season kicks off 5 weeks from this Thursday. The conference enters its 14th season since it began in 1996. I thought I would take a look back at its brief history and compare the North and South divisions and how they have compared against one another and as a whole as well.

The perception in recent seasons is that the South is superior to the North and that is certainly the case. The two divisions play a total of 18 regular season games against one another on a two year home and home rotating schedule. There is of course a conference championship game as well at the end of the regular season. The South leads the all time regular season 132-102. The first two years of conference play 1996 and 1997 had the North with a 12-6 advantage each year, since that time they have only won the season series twice and those were by a 10-8 margin. The South has dominated of late as they have won the season series 6 of the last 7 years and two of those including last year was by a whopping 15-3 margin.

Things don't get much better for the North regarding the conference title game either. The South holds a 9-4 advantage with a current five game win streak in that annual game. The conference championship has to this point been dominated by seven of the twelve league members as far as participants are concerned. Oklahoma almost owns it going 6-1. Nebraska and Texas have each gone 2-2, Colorado was North champ in four out of five years stand 1-3, followed by Kansas State 1-2, Texas A&M 1-1 and Missouri representing the North the last two years stands at 0-2.

The conference can be proud that is has been in six of the eleven BCS championship games since the Bowl Chanpionship Series began in 1998. Oklahoma and Texas have each won that game once with Nebraska being the other team to play in it from the Big XII. The conference is 6-9 overall in BCS bowl games. The Big XII stands 45-47 in all bowl games since their conference inception in 1996.

At the end of last season ESPN rated an historic top 25 based on a multitude of data and accomplishments since 1936 which was the first season of the AP poll. The Big XII was well represented placing five teams in the overall top 25. Colorado was tied for 22nd, Texas A&M was 20th, Texas finished 7th, Nebraska 5th and Oklahoma finished as the number one team in historical context.

The curious case of Joakim Soria

Saturday evening the Royals had a rare win and to me even more amazing was Trey Hillman had a lead going into the 8th inning and put relief ace Joakim Soria in the game. Actually Trey had gotten the boot earlier in the game but he said it was discussed beforehand to perhaps finally use Soria in this way. Especially due to a recent bullpen implosion of blowing late inning leads I and others have been pushing for an earlier usage of our best relief pitcher Joakim Soria. My thinking that the ultimate point in playing the games are to win, why not use your players in a manner to do so. Manager Hillman has been adamant about not using him in this way as he did not want to injure him by using him more than in today's manner of only one inning and only in the traditional save situations. The Royals being a bad team, are so infrequently in today's strict requirements for closers in save situations, our best reliever is subsequently rarely used.
So Joakim pitches two innings and gets his team a much needed win. He did throw 37 pitches in doing so but looked a strong as he ever has in the 9th.
On WHB this morning Soren Petro is reporting that people close to the situation are telling him that it is Joakim Soria who has been reluctant to go more than an inning at a time. Now thinking is that Manager Hillman has just been covering for "Jack" by his earlier arguments of not using him more. On a side note, am I the only one who is somewhat put off by Joakim being called Jack by his manager? It just kind of reminds me of Roberto Clemente being called "Bob" at the beginning of his career. Perhaps this is what Joakim wants and asks to be called.
I have often questioned those who say Soria should be considered untouchable as far trade bait. I frankly have a hard time with anyone on the Royals being considered in this way, Zack Greinke perhaps but if the offer is ridiculously good I think you have to be open minded no matter who it is. This is a bad team with lots of dollars tied up for next season as well. If these reports are true I think the Royals should be receptive to inquiries about Joakim. I like Soria and think he is a real asset but again this is a bad team and an ace closer is almost a waste on this team. Especially if he is unable or unwilling to pitch in a manner that this team needs.

Dr. Kietzman

I am not able to listen to WHB sports radio as often as I might like. I enjoy Soren Petro the most of those with a daily show. He is very well informed on a wide variety of topics, comes to intelligent and reasonable conclusions and has a fine sense of humor. I probably listen to Kevin Kietzman the least. He just seems angry and irritated much of the time. Listening can be humorous as he can occasionally come up with gems like yesterday though. He was going on about how awful the Royals are and how he doesn't really want to watch or pay attention to them at this point. He then went on to point out that when the Royals were 18-11 he told everyone that it was all an illusion and that they were not a good team. He said he was universally blasted by his audience during this time.
Again I am not a regular listener so I can't verify as to him being universally blasted by that opinion, but he was certainly correct in his long term assessment. He then goes to say he doesn't know why the listeners would question his opinions on sports because this is what he does for a living and has done for quite some time. OK he lost me on that one but then he asks the listeners whether you would question the diagnosis that you get from your doctor. I don't know, maybe its just me but his comparing himself and his opinions on what will take place in the sports world to that of a doctors diagnosis really struck me as odd and just slightly pompous. I realize our health care system needs fixing but really. Just saying......

Positives about the Royals this season

I thought that I would try and point out some good things in an otherwise dismal season. I read in the comments section of a blog yesterday, if memory serves me it was posted by someone who goes by monster. Anyway monster pointed out that everything he reads of late is negative and just points out what this team is doing wrong or stressing players weak points. When thinking about what he wrote I have to agree, of course when you have lost as long as this franchise has you have to expect a lot of negative reactions and thoughts.
Rany on the Royals is a well known blog that has been traditionally positive despite the Royals ongoing futility. I think much of the appeal of Rany was because he stayed positive and hopeful for all of these years. Recently Rany got a weekly one hour gig on WHB radio and I think he was thought of more as a member of the local media. Rany seemed to be getting on the Royals a little harder than in the past but certainly nothing out of line in my view. I have read his thoughts for some time and have found myself agreeing if not enlightened by much of what he says. Of course the Royals got mad at something he wrote on his blog and briefly "banned" him or wouldn't let Royals players or personnel on his radio show. I think Rany kind of got his feelings hurt then overreacted to all of this and has indeed been really negative of late.
I enjoy reading Joe Posnanski probably more than anyone at this point in time. He is a talented and gifted man and we are so lucky to have him be a part of KC. Joe for many years at the beginning of every season would write a column devoted to why the Royals would win this year. He would create a scenario in which certain players would surprise and come up big or finally enjoy a breakout season and by the end of the article you thought to yourself defying all logic that the Royals could do it this year. Even Joe seems exasperated by Royals management in much of what he writes lately.
Now lets look at what is good so far this season. Lets start with pitching positives. Zack Greinke has been everything that you could hope for and more this year. He started out historically good. He has come back to earth as we all knew that no one could keep the freakish numbers for an entire season that he put up initially. As of today he stands 10-5 with an ERA of 2.08 and WHIP of 1.11. His one inning of work in the All Star game was simply dominate. Lack of offensive support has kept him from some wins but again lets keep positive here. Brian Bannister has really turned it around after last year, many thought he would not see this type of success again. More than half of his 17 starts are quality starts and his ERA+ is 117

Joakim Soria is 2-0 with 14 saves has an ERA of 1.80 a WHIP of 0.96 and has struck our 32 in 25 IP. He is as good a relief ace as there is today.
Looking at those having a good year with the bat you have to start with Alberto Callaspo and his 298/351/448 numbers after yesterdays 2 games. He has been consistent with these numbers all season. Billy Butler has shown his best numbers in his young career going 294/349/459. Mark Teahen has enjoyed similar numbers going 294/351/445.
Davis DeJesus since moving to LF full time has put up excellent fielding numbers. He has not made an error so his FP is perfect. His range is well above league average and has a UZR of 12.5 in LF. After a slow start with the bat his numbers are slowly getting closer to normal as he has a career OBP of .356. The Royals have pretty much completed the renovation of Kauffman Stadium this season and it seems to be a hit with most fans. The Glass family is giving Dayton Moore the financial resources to sign better quality players in the draft and to acquire free agents more so than they have ever done in the past.

José Guillen sucks and knows it.

OK, so I am at the gym this morning and on an elliptical and have ESPN SportsCenter on. Since the Royals were a rain out last night I certainly was not expecting any mention of what is perhaps baseballs worst team. Suddenly I see Jose Guillen and quotes posted saying “Sometimes, I feel I should take money out of my own pocket and buy tickets for every fan. Because you know what? For a $12 million man, these are not the numbers you should be expecting. I admit it. I’m not playing to my potential.”
I get home and go to the KC Star and see that he says even more “It’s just not working. We all suck as a team. That’s the way it is. It’s not a problem with one individual. It’s about 25 guys. Right now, we suck.” Many view the signing of Guillen to be the biggest blunder of GM Dayton Moore to date. He has gotten to the point in the field that if the ball is not hit directly to him it almost certainly falls in for a hit. I have had the feeling that Trey Hillman was almost afraid to remove him from the field as to avoid another epic meltdown that Guillen is so well known for. It seems obvious to me that at this point in his career Jose Guillen is a DH only.
He is profoundly bad in the field on a team that can ill afford any more fielding ineptitude. Since he has admitted that he is been hampered by nagging injuries and indeed his play sucks, it is time for Trey to man up and take advantage of the situation and get him off of the field. How sad that this is the case but surely even Trey has not thought his play in the field has been anything but God awful this season. The Royals are stuck for another huge outlay of cash for 2010 to Guillen lets hope that we never see him in any role but DH or pinch hitting duty the rest of the way.

Trey Hillman "absolutely" back for 2010

As reported by the KC Star yesterday. GM Dayton Moore said Royals Manager Trey Hillman will be back to lead the Royals for next season 2010. I am not sure why this is announced at this point in time as the Royals ( IMHO ) are heading towards yet another 100 loss season. Perhaps GMDM realizes that his off season moves are a disaster and knows that Trey has no talent to work with on this team which is ultimately his fault, perhaps.... For many reasons there is a fair number of fans and those in the media who have been critical and occasionally bewildered by decisions made by Trey Hillman regarding the talent that is there.
Two of the most discussed is needlessly running up pitch counts when Gil Meche starts and none use or questionable use of Joakim Soria. The Royals find themselves without Meche after the All Star break for at least one turn in the rotation as he is hindered by back problems again. Use of Soria was questioned early in the season and later revealed that he was hurt and did not pitch for nearly a month from early May to early June. It looked as if he was back in familiar form as he appeared in 6 games between June 28th and July 9th, getting 6 saves in 6 1/3 innings of work while only giving up 1 hit and no walks while striking out 11. His last appearance was before the All Star break on July 12th, a game the Royals were losing 5-0 to the RedSox, Trey put Soria in to pitch the bottom of the 8th. He did not look particularly good in a curious time to use him, although maybe the thinking was to get him some work as he would be off during the AS break. Which leads us to the just completed sweep at home to the the Tampa Rays in which the Royals lost leads and ultimately the game in the 8th inning of all three games. Despite taking leads into late innings Joakim Soria never made an appearance.
Your guess is as good as mine...???

AL bullies NL yet again

Please understand I fell in love with the game of baseball after the 1975 season specifically the 1975 World Series. I have followed and cheered for the Red Sox since that wonderful season and epic World Series. Of course my home town team the young KC Royals were just starting to become something of a mini dynasty at that time as well.
The National League in those days absolutely dominated the American League in the All Star games. It was year after year and of course the talk always centered on the poor AL had won only once in the 60's and then would win only one in the 70's. It was like it would never end. Of course when the Royals lost to the Phillies in the 1980 World Series it was almost unbearable. Finally in 1983 the AL pounded the NL by a score of 13-3 with the help of many of my favorite players. George Brett tripled Jim Rice and Fred Lynn homered, Willie Wilson got a hit Dan Quisenberry pitched at the end it was wonderful..FINALLY!!
So now the worm has turned so to speak and I am thoroughly enjoying this dominance by the AL. The AL won last night in a pretty entertaining game 4-3. Zack Grienke pitched a 1,2,3, 4th inning striking out two. It is even more pronounced in this era in my view because we have inter league play that the AL, even the lowly Royals dominate the NL in recent years. The World Series seem to be won by the AL for the most part as well. I hope it never ends.

Chiefs sign Cassel to multi-year deal

The Chiefs announced today that they have signed fifth year QB Matt Cassel to a contract extension. ESPN among others are saying it is a 6 year deal worth $63 million. While NFL contracts are different than those of Major League Baseball especially in that they rarely seem to run the course. Deals like these are never fully guaranteed and often are renegotiated. Having said that it is apparent that much of Scott Pioli's success will rest on Matt Cassel showing that he is indeed a franchise type QB. My biggest concern with Cassel is that he basically has been a backup back since High School with just last year getting any real playing time since he was an 18 year old HS senior. Now he did play well in that he led the Patriots to an 11-5 record as a replacement for Tom Brady due to a season ending injury to my beloved Chiefs in last years opening game. Of course Scott Pioli may have led the Patriots to the same record if he was the replacement. That was one of histories great franchises that he was handed the keys to. He obviously will not have anything at all similar to the same talent in KC for 2009. So in my mind I worry that he may not be that franchise QB that this team has not had since the days of Len Dawson which ended over 30 years ago. Even with the Patriots he was sacked an alarming 47 times last year, this was the same line that gave up just 21 the previous season. Hard to imagine the Chiefs line protecting him as well as the Patriots line, so he must get rid of the ball quickly or it will be a short 2009 season for him. Of course the Chiefs new coaching staff knows this and I am sure are working with him on this. He also was not particularly effective in the red zone with less than a 44% completion rate which was better than only 5 teams last year.

All Star break thoughts

OK...apparently Yuniesky Betancourt is the worst SS in the history of big league baseball. Well you would think so by the overall disgust voiced with this most recent Dayton Moore trade. Much of the dissension is coming from people whose opinion that I really respect so I have looked a little closer and I have to admit his fielding numbers do continue to drop with each passing season. I have always been a big proponent of having quality fielders to have any real chance of long term success. I have pointed out here and on other blogs my feelings on this. It helps the pitching staff and is a way for a small market team to try and enjoy some success as good fielding can usually be had without breaking the bank. That may not be the case so much now as it once was but the really big out of touch talent tends to be those that put up mega offensive numbers. The type that the Royals can't ever think of affording or signing.
I must admit that I do not watch Seattle games with any regularity but had good impressions and memories of Betancourts play at SS initially when he came up with the Mariners a few years back. The numbers do bear this out when looking at them. He had pretty decent defensive numbers at first and they have gone down, especially last year and in his 62 games at SS so far this season. I suppose I am still hopeful that he can some how turn from his off a cliff like fall in his fielding to resemble his play in his first two seasons. His OBP has never been good and that is a real glaring weakness on this team as I have discussed many times. The batting numbers are so pathetic at the SS position for the Royals even his 279/302/393 career numbers look like an improvement and that is truly sad.
Many are giving up on Dayton Moore and I must admit he is making it awfully hard on himself in his third year on the job. Signing Jose Guillen was a huge mistake, even more so when you factor in the 3 year $36 million it is costing this team. Paying Kyle Farnsworth anything more than league minimum is criminal as he seems best suited for mop up duty only at this point in his career. Something that apparently all but our Royals front office was aware of before this season began. Mike Jacobs certainly is a questionable signing. I find it hard to fathom that Dayton Moore made the statement he did on WHB yesterday morning concerning not understanding all of the data now available for judging defensive play. One would think the Royals might invest a little time and attention to this area. The Red Sox hire Bill James, the Royals are puzzled.

Royals make trade for Yuniesky Betancourt

While some view Bentancourt to have stalled in his progression at the plate and slipped a little in the field, it is hard not to like this move. I am somewhat surprised by a lot of the negative reactions to this move. Some are writing about his huge salary and speak as if he is worse than what the Royals have been throwing out there. He doesn't come with a big salary as the Mariners are picking up much of the remaining contract and he is signed thru 2011. He is 27 years old and has been very durable up until this season. Of course SS has been the weakest of spots for the Royals with nothing forthcoming in the minors and anything frankly is an upgrade at this point. You can't say he is the answer at SS obviously, but it definitely is an upgrade at the position that needed it most. His OBP is not good but he has hit some. Again any improvement in this area is welcome as far as I am concerned. The Royals gave up two minor league pitchers in the trade, Daniel Cortes and Derrick Saito. Cortes was viewed as a top pitching prospect but recently has shown some very poor judgement in his personal life. Hopefully he can turn things around.

Looking toward the second half for the Royals

So the Royals are certainly a disappointment thus far in 2009. Much of the let down was the tease of an early winning record that quickly evaporated into more ineptitude and all too familiar losing ways. Much has been made of injuries to opening day starters Alex Gordon, Coco Crisp and Mike Aviles. Crisp out for the season certainly doesn't help although as I have said he is probably better suited in LF rather than CF at this point of his career and we already have David DeJesus there. Hard to say whether he comes back for this team in 2010. I have never been sold on Mike Aviles being a real answer for the team at SS. I have maintained all along that I fear him to be a one year (2/3) wonder. Alex Gordon while not being the franchise savior that some demand him to be due to his being the 2nd overall pick in the 2005 draft has in my mind showed real progress until being sidetracked by injury at the beginning of this the 2009 season. He should be back after the All Star break and I hope can continue the progression he showed last season with an OPS+ of 110 and also showed signs of becoming a plus fielding 3B.

This team so needs AG to have a nice second half with the bat and glove. This team is so devoid of potential positive gloves at almost every spot in the field. While Billy Butler is having his best season so far at the plate he is destined to be at absolute best an average 1B. Alberto Callaspo has been a nice surprise with performing at above average OBP and batting average, but similar to Butler is probably never going to be better than OK status at any position in the field. Mark Teahen should probably go to RF and hopefully will without Jose Guillen melting down and becoming a clubhouse distraction. We are only half way done with his 3 year deal so I hope he can handle being a DH for the most part in his final year and half with the Royals. His OPS+ 93 after 222 games with KC is hardly worth 12 million a year, but the team is stuck with it more than likely. Which leaves Mike Jacobs as a part time DH and PH against RH pitching as he makes Butler look like a gold glove fielder.

Hopefully the first of many Royal moves this month

The Royals made a minor trade with the Chicago Cubs picking up Ryan Freel.
Well lets hope that this move leads to another. Hard to imagine this having any real impact in and of itself. Freel had a nice 3 year run from 04-06 with the Reds. He hit in the .270's range with OBP's about 100 points higher and stole over 30 bases a season as well. Of course those were his prime years age wise. I am not sure what he brings at this point in his career. Injuries seem to have slowed him as his SB success rate is not what it once was along with declining batting average and OBP. He does not appear to be a plus fielding any position now. Most of his time has been spent in the OF.

2009 Royals at the half way point

Exactly at mid-season after 81 games our Royals stand a disappointing 35-46. This could possibly be a 100 loss season as our boys in blue have enjoyed a distinct home advantage in the first half of the schedule 46-35. That of course will be just 35 home games and 46 on the road for the second half.

I will try and address the very few positives initially. Zack Greinke has had a wonderful first half. 10-4 2.00 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 120 SO in 121 1/3 IP, 14 quality starts out of 17 games started are 2009 Cy Young award worthy numbers. Pitching has been pretty good for the most part. The team ERA of 4.26 is better then AL and MLB league average. Gil Meche has been the usual workhorse he has been since he came here. He gets little offensive support just as in the past but he has an ERA of 4.20 with over half of his 17 starts being quality starts. Brian Bannister has been a pleasant surprise after struggling last year. He stands 6-6 with an ERA of 3.87 8 of his 15 games started are quality starts and a WHIP of 1.29. Joakim Soria looks like he may have his injury concerns put behind him. He has looked like himself again of late. He has 12 saves an ERA of 1.74 to go with 27 SO in 20 2/3 IP along with a 1.02 WHIP. Alberto Callaspo has lead the team regulars most of the year with 304/355/457 numbers at the half way point.

Briefly I will touch on what is really really bad. To win games you have to score runs. If you don't score runs you have a record of 35-46 at the half way point. The Royals have scored an abysmal 319 runs in 81 games. San Diego is the only team worse at this point with 310 runs. That's less then 4 runs a game on average. To score runs you have to first get someone on base. This is where the Royals are worse than any team in MLB with .312 being the team OBP. The Yankees, Red Sox and Tampa have team OBP's over .350. Alberto Callaspo leads the Royals regulars with an OBP of .355 while the Yankees have a team OBP of .356!!!

Only 3 teams have committed more errors in the field than the Royals so far but I have difficulty believing any team is more incompetent in the field than the Royals are. Take a real hard look at every single position on this club and try and come up with one player who is above average in the field. Zack Greinke is a very good fielder but he plays the least important fielding position. I can't come up with one. It has gotten so bad and our expectations are so low that I hear statements such as Tony Pena Jr. is a defensive specialist and Billy Butler is doing well at first base this year. Pena Jr. is at best average in the field and his bat is beyond description it is so pathetic. How many times a week do you see Billy Butler make really bad decisions? He has not been charged with a great number of errors to this point although he has been given many gifts and passes in this regard by our official scorer at home.

Alexis Arguello RIP

Former Boxing great Alexis Arguello reportedly has passed away today apparently as the result of a self inflicted gun shot . Arguello was truly an all time great from what appears to be the last great era of boxing. He was a champion in 3 different weight classes Featherweight, Junior Lightweight and Lightweight divisions. He was denied a 4th title in two epic battles that resulted in losses against Junior Welterweight champion Aaron Pryor. Both of the losses were somewhat controversial as Pryor was thought to have been taking illegal stimulants in the first match and had padding removed from his gloves in the second. His career record was 82-8 with 65 KO's. He fought professionally from 1968 to 1995. He was 57 years of age at the time of his passing.