It turns out that Longoria’s extra innings home run was just fair so this seems appropriate. What a great moment. It was the perfect end to probably the best night of baseball I will ever see in my life.
Archive for September 2011
Just Fair 2011: Evan Longoria 3 comments
Royals Report Card: Part 2 Leave a comment
Here is the second half of my 2011 Royals report card (aka the pitchers) If you missed Part 1 here is the link. I will reiterate that these are my options I have drawn from watching games and following the team from the outside. I have the same or less access to the team than anyone reading this.
Luke Hochevar – Grade C+
The Royals “Ace” progressed this year. He is still not pitching like a #1 guy, probably more like a 3-4 in the rotation guy. He was finally more consistent. He stayed healthy all year but the Royals still need more out of him.
Jeff Francis – Grade D+
He was coming off a major injury but the expectations were still higher than what he gave. He led the team with 16! losses and opponents hit .301 against him.
Bruce Chen – Grade B
He led the team in wins again and was a solid arm every fifth day. He isn’t going to impose the other team much on the mound but remained solid all year.
Sean O’Sullivan – Grade D-
O’Sullivan showed that he is likely a 5th starter at best. It appears he might just be another Kyle Davies; if that is possible. His 7.25 ERA was not major league worthy.
Kyle Davies – Grade F-
I know F- doesn’t exist but the Royals may have employed one of the worst pitchers of all-time. Luckily the Harim Davies days are officially over.
Vin Mazzaro – Grade F
His ERA is inflated from being thrown to the wolves in Cleveland one game but he still was inconsistent and unimpressive. You can’t shake the feeling that if he wasn’t “who we got for Dejesus” he would be gone and a non-factor.
Felipe Paulino – Grade B
His numbers weren’t great but a 4.11 ERA on this staff is actually pretty good. Considering he was a gift from the Rockies; he was great. He showed signs of being a solid starting pitcher and has a good shot at the rotation in 2012.
Danny Duffy – Grade C
Duffy’s 5.64 ERA was high for how he pitched. He had a standard rookie start but showed progression in many games. His curveball is great and when he learns how to pitch a little more he should be a front of the rotation guy.
Everett Teaford – Grade B-
Teaford had a very good rookie year. Because he is left handed he should be a Royal in the future. He pitched strong in 2/3 starts he made in September but really looks to be more a bullpen guy to me where he was very solid in 2011.
Luis Mendoza – A-
Fantastic in 2 big league starts and was AAA Omaha pitcher of the year. Short look in Kansas City but has a good shot at the rotation next year.
Nate Adcock – Grade C-
Long relief guy made a couple starts. Never impressed too much and wouldn’t have remained with the club if he wasn’t a rule 5 guy. He has a sinker good enough to get ground balls and be a Jamey Wright type of pitcher.
Joakim Soria – Grade C+
Despite horrible early season struggles he managed to put together an average year for a reliever, not great for a closer though. He ended up 27/35 saves/opportunities and with a 4.03 ERA. Those aren’t great numbers but indicate it may have been just a down season.
Aaron Crow – Grade C
Crow was the Royals All-Star in 2011. You would never know it by his second half performance. He had a great first half and was dominant. He lost a “baulk off” in Chicago and wasn’t the same pitcher after that. He should get a shot at the rotation next year but is where he belongs in my opinion.
Tim Collins – Grade C
Collins was the lefty specialist for much of the year despite not being very good against lefties. He had a 3.68 ERA and .211 batting average against but walked way, way too many. If he cuts down on the walks he could be a big part of the 2012 bullpen.
Jeremy Jeffress – Grade C-
Jeffress is a fireballer. He showed spots in KC of being dominant but ultimately walked 11 batters in 14 appearances. He will get a rotation shot next year but once again I think he is better suited to be a setup man getting groomed for a closer spot.
Jesse Chavez – Grade F
The fact that Chavez wasn’t released after 2010 angers me still. He isn’t effective and needs released.
Blake Wood – Grade B
Wood was surprisingly good in his 54 games. He was a rare guy out of the pen the Royals could count on. If the Royals got the same season out of him next year they should be happy.
Greg Holland – Grade A-
The most surprising Royals pitcher of 2011. A sub 1.00 WHIP and under 2.00 ERA over 46 games was fantastic. He has potential to be a centerpiece of the middle relief for the team next year.
Robinson Tejada – Grade F
Tejada had big expectations after showing real flashes the last couple seasons. He and Soria were the only locks for the bullpen coming into 2011 and Tejada only pitched 9 games for the team. The Royals wanted to deal him at the deadline for somebody but he diminished his value so bad nobody wanted him.
Kanekoa Teixeira – Grade C+
Just another middle relief guy the team parted with. His ERA was under 3.00 but opponents hit over .400 against him.
Louis Coleman – Grade A-
Coleman pitched great out of the bullpen all year. In 48 games he limited teams from getting a big inning and posted a sub 3.00 ERA. He showed great poise in his rookie season and should be a valued member of the bullpen in 2012.
Kelvin Herrera – Grade D+
Herrera didn’t have a fair shot to prove himself only pitching 2 innings but showed good stuff despite getting roughed up in his debut.
Royals Report Card: Part 1 3 comments
The timely exit of Kila Ka’aihue Leave a comment
Kila Ka’aihue was traded to the Oakland Athletics today. He will join David Dejesus and Coco Crisp who were Royals as recently as 2009. Ka’aihue was esentially given the boot by the new face of the Royals, Eric Hosmer. Ka’aihue didn’t produce at the major league level despite killing it in AAA Omaha for about 3 years and Hosmer’s emergence sealed his fate with Billy Butler already in place as Kansas City’s DH.
What did the Royals get in return? It doesn’t matter. For the record it was a pitcher named Ethan Hollingsworth. The Royals basically needed him gone because there was nowhere for him to go (barring an injury) and the Kansas City fans had pretty much turned on him already. The question with Kila is; Did he get a fair chance in KC? He only played 26 games in 2011 for KC before getting sent down. 2011 brought his career total for games with the Royals to 87; hardy a great look for a prospect that tore up AAA. The clock was ticking on Kila however and he had his window; it was small but he had it. Good luck in Oakland Kila.
History of Joakim Soria: 1987 Topps 2 comments
I think that 1987 Topps has a lot of fanfare. I’m not really sure but I think a lot of people like it. It is very distinctive with it’s wood border and nice clean design. I think I am in the minority saying that I don’t like this set. I think it looks cheap and generic. It is iconic for the Bonds rookie and the classic Bo Jackson card but overall I think it is a miss by Topps.
For the wood border I had no choice but to use a nice clean jpg file and put my graphics around it as I did with 1990 Topps and will be doing with 1968 Topps when I get to it. The font on this card is sloppy. Both mine and the real one. The font I used is Marker Felt and it is close; I don’t think it is right but it is very close. On the bright side this was a very easy card to re-create. It is simple but doesn’t really impress me very much.
Custom Card of the Day: Jeff Francoeur Rifleman; 1991 Score 2 comments
This is a card I have wanted to do for a while now. I actually had a really difficult time finding a picture of Francoeur throwing. He has been a consistent threat to throw baserunners out from right field all year and it made me think back to this ugly 1991 subset from score. It is a horrible design. First of all; I hate cards that cut out the background for no reason. It is just a cheesy looking card. Like many retro cards they were so ugly they are kind of cool in a ridiculous way; I’m looking at you 1991 Fleer. So I wanted to give this card a whirl and it turned out alright. The green stripes in the background are off but it is at least close enough that anyone who knows the set will recognize it. Of course Alex Gordon has more assists than Francoeur so I’d like to do one of him as well. Even Melky Cabrera has been in the top 10 in outfield assists much of this year so if I can find appropriate pictures I might do one of all of them.
Major League Debut: Kelvin Herrera custom card Leave a comment
Here is the 12th and final installment of the Major League Debut cards for 2011. Having 12 players make their major league debut is a pretty amazing statistic. The Royals are so young that this really wasn’t too surprising however. I plan to continue these cards next year with hopefully a few more(Mike Montgomery, Clint Robinson, David Lough, it is hard to tell.)
Kelvin Herrera has great stuff but his major league debut didn’t really reflect that fact. On his first major league pitch he hit a batter. Things didn’t get a whole lot better after that. His final line was 1 inning, 2 hits and 3 earned runs. He has the dreaded ERA of 27.00 for right now and received the loss in his very first game. Still a major milestone making it to the biggs for Herrera. Hopefully he will get opportunities to redeem himself in the bullpen in Kansas City next year.
Custom Card of the Day: Vote Eric Hosmer Rookie of the Year 2 comments
Normally I don’t do this; My stuff usually looks nothing like this but I wanted to make an “icon” for Hosmer’s campaign for Rookie of the Year. I wanted to have an off-kilter americana looking poster. This is really my first “art card.” Goose Joak has been doing great stuff like this for a while over at his site. The way Eric Hosmer has played in the last month I think he has a real shot at the Jackie Robinson award. Before that I really didn’t think he was worthy. I had him at about 5th in the AL ROY voting but now he is looking like a serious candidate.
History of Joakim Soria: 1994 Topps 2 comments
1994 Topps is sort of a forgotten set that is actually not too bad. I have always wanted to incorporate the home plate shape into a card some how and this set sort of did it. The picture comes to a point at the bottom that makes it look a little like home plate. I like the script font as well. The problem with script fonts is that they can be difficult to read. This font is no exception. It is not matched exact but thanks to fellow custom card-er Harvey Berkman, I was able to get pretty darn close. This font is Vladamir Script and is close enough if you are trying to re-create this set. The rest of the card is a lot of unnecessary flash; many gradients that don’t add dimension, they just add color.
Now to the picture. I have wanted to do this picture for a while. If you have been to a Royals game and got the pleasure to watch Joakim Soria enter a game you know why the picture is cool. Kauffman Stadium blasts “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N Roses and all the scoreboards around the stadium show flames. The crowd naturally gets into the moment and it creates a very cool environment not seen too often for a team consistently low in the standings.
The picture is not the best, normally the pictures I choose are a little cleaner than this one but it was all I could find. If you click on it you can see the pixelization but I had to use it anyway. The set fits well with the picture too. When I started the “History of Joakim Soria” project, this is the kind of card I had in mind.
1983 Topps Royals: Luis Mendoza Leave a comment
Here is another card from the 1983 Topps Royals set I am making. Luis Mendoza made his 2011 debut yesterday making him I believe the 40th Royal to suit up this year. There should be 2 more; Lorenzo Cain and Kelvin Herrera. This is my 38th card from this set; I haven’t posted cards of Yamaico Navarro, Jesse Chavez and of course Cain and Herrera.
A Hair Off Square 