This isn’t at all self-indulgent! It’s more like a roller coaster where I’m the only person having fun!
I am a psychic!
JANUARY
Thanks to the wonders of MS Paint, I predicted what Rick Ankiel would look like as a Royal. Friends and I went to the Royals Caravan in Lincoln, and told Ryan LeFebvre about the Ryan LeFebvre Drinking Game.
FEBRUARY
I abused some advanced stats to start a steroid rumor about my dear pal Bruce Chen. It’s like ‘What Not to Wear’ for sabermetrics. Later, I launched a search for a Kyle Farnsworth fan – and I have still not found a winner!
MARCH
Not many posts, because I was bumming around the hospital where my dad was quite sick (he’s good now). That was the month that Danny Duffy quit baseball, so I measured all the reactions to that. Also, the Royals Authority Annual came out, and I was in it.
APRIL
The Omaha Royals played an EIGHTEEN-inning game. I was there. Twitter followers helped me come up with a list of players who have played on three teams in a single division. It’s quite a list! My journalism professors let me do a video about Minor Leaguers for a big grade. This is that.
MAY
I met Dayton Moore! Later, I predicted that Trey Hillman would not be fired. Later that day, he was. Later still, I did a meaty study on the plate discipline of Jordan M. Parraz (and shared a bonus cute story from the dugout).
*the ‘M’ stands for Mancakes.
JUNE
Phil Humber took a liner off his cheek. His injury was later described by a teammate as a “big ass laceration.” Boy, a hyphen would have helped there! A few days later, some idiot ran a red light and totaled my car. The PCL had an insane all-way tie for first place, which I captured for posterity.
JULY
Kila Ka’aihue got weirded out when I described him as the best hitter EVAR to a young fan. I picked on some low-hanging fruit when Scott Podsednik was traded. The trade of Ankiel and Professor Farsnworth had me aaaaalmost Trusting the Process. I also overheard the least-surprising snippet about Ankiel in the visitors’ dugout: “And Ankiel swung at every single pitch.”
July was also the month that I moved all my site stuff to this location. I do not miss blogging for a network, at all. Independence is awesome!
AUGUST
I explained in detail what my actual job is with the Omaha (formerly) Royals.
Part I
Part II
Later, Mike Moustakas made me question everything I thought I knew about team chemistry’s effect on performance. Also, I love Mike Moustakas.
Farewell, sweet lady.
SEPTEMBER
The final game at Rosenblatt Stadium happened. I dreaded the event, then experienced it. Meanwhile, at the big league level, I found that the Royals led all of the Majors in “saves per win.”
OCTOBER
My prediction of what espnW would be like was….almost perfect! Later, I got frustrated with Will Carroll for suggesting that stat geeks can’t appreciate baseball storylines. I had to say goodbye to three O(formerly)Royals: Matt Herges, Lash Lerew and Josh ‘Earl’ Rupe.
At the end of that month, I was quoted in a story by Lee Warren about the plight of Minor Leaguers.
NOVEMBER
Big month here. Keith Law helped me figure out why nobody goes to Arizona Fall League games. I was impressed that there wasn’t much dumb outcry on Facebook about the David DeJesus trade. But then there was.
On the 15th, it was announced that the Omaha Royals would now be the Omaha Storm Chasers. Obviously this was an announcement that meant a lot to me, so I shared my thoughts. Also in November, I launched an allegedly weekly feature called Five Foto Friday, which is exactly what the name suggests.
DECEMBER
Jeff Francoeur….eww. Gosh, that really happened. And here are some thoughts and scribblings about the Greinke trade.
And that’s it! Happy New Year!
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