Apr 10
The Omaha Storm Chasers exhausted their bullpen and emptied their bench to pull it off, but finally beat Round Rock 9-8.
I’ll have more later, but here’s some walkoff happy times:
Jarrod Dyson (4) gets mobbed by his teammates after a 16th-inning triple gave the Chasers a 9-8 win.
Johnny Giavotella and Anthony Seratelli celebrating in a very smiley fashion.
Apr 10
This site is probably going to just turn into a Kouzmanoff fan site. Might as well.
The Storm Chasers are 3-1. Team president/GM Martie Cordaro said he’s optimistic about this club, noting that as of Sunday (early in the game), the team had only had one bad half-inning.
It’s early, but Martie could be on to something. Of five players in the league who have already tripled twice, two are Storm Chasers. Only three guys have four doubles so far, and two of those are Chasers. Tony Abreu leads the league in hits right now. OBVIOUSLY this is the smallest of sample sizes, but it feels good to start the season like this with a roster that was feeling rather depleted.
I have been at the ballpark for every game except Saturday, a 5-0 win, and the end of Friday, a blown lead that is the team’s only loss thus far. (Knock on wood.) Fun times.
Your Family Resource Center story of the night:
One June, the Center got a referral from a local agency regarding a six-year-
old child who would be starting kindergarten in the fall. Due to environmental
factors, the child knew no letters, numbers, or shapes. He had never been on
a swing or ridden a bike, even with training wheels. His social skills were quite
delayed, as was his speech. The Center’s parent educator lined up appropriate
assistance; she herself visited the family twice a week over the summer and
weekly thereafter. By the end of the school year, the child had caught up with his
classmates.
Please consider supporting the Family Resource Center by doing your regular Amazon shopping via my Affiliate link. ALL proceeds from the month of April will go to the Center.
Apr 06
Happy Opening Day from Werner Park!
Some notes:
-Will Smith, making his first Triple-A start since joining the Royals organization, was shaky. He threw a ton of pitches, needing 26 pitches just to get out of the first inning – even though the first out came on the first pitch. Despite walking six batters, he only gave up two runs (one unearned) in his 3-inning start.
-The game was a circus, with as many as four blown calls (depending on whom you ask. I, of course, avoid making such accusations.) on the basepaths. The Chasers blew things open in the 7th with a two-out rally that began with a missed tag in a rundown between 2nd and 3rd base.
-Tonight was the first time I really got to use my new camera lens. Pictures will be online soon, unless I fall asleep at my desk before I get done.
[UPDATE]: Photos! Here!
-David Lough got hit in the foot with a pitch in the 7th. Manager Mike Jirschele said Lough’s big toe was hurting from it, but he’d probably be fine tomorrow.
-The Chasers offense had a productive night – everyone in the starting lineup had at least one hit. Only Irving Falu, who came on as a pinch-hitter, did not reach base.
-Today’s Family Resource Center Moment:
A small child was coloring an activity page while waiting for her mother to pick up items from the clothing exchange. The child told a staff member that she had to hurry to finish the page because she had no crayons at home. A box of crayons went home with the beaming child.
Please consider supporting the Family Resource Center by doing your regular Amazon shopping via my Affiliate link. ALL proceeds from the month of April will go to the Center.
Apr 02
If you have kids, you know how expensive it is to keep them in clothes that fit – and it can be tricky even if you’ve got a steady income. Imagine a place where kids from struggling families could get clean clothes that fit, completely for free, from infancy throughout childhood. Doesn’t that place sound like a godsend?
Now imagine if that free clothing was only one service provided by a single agency.
My mom works for such an agency: the Family Resource Center in my hometown of McCook, Nebraska. With an annual budget of under $45,000, the Center provides parenting education/support, family advocacy, a children’s clothing exchange, a checkout library of assistive tech equipment* for individuals (of any age) with special needs, a monthly respite session for families with children who have special needs**, access to community resources, a school supply giveaway, and Christmas gift assistance. It also co-sponsors events for families and administers a food program.
*this library is mind-blowing to me. All this stuff is provided for use for free – and consider that a single fork for someone whose hands have limited motor function is like 22 bucks. A fork!
**This one is especially dear to my heart. Finding childcare for kids who have special needs is difficult, and paying for it is impossible for many families. ‘Respite’ days provide the chance for these parents to do simple – but otherwise nearly impossible – things like go grocery shopping, or see a movie, or play cards with friends.
Last year, the Center served about 500 families in eight counties. When the economy tanked, the number of families who needed help increased while grant money that had been available in the past evaporated. The Center had to learn to do more with (a lot) less.
As we enter Child Abuse Prevention Month, I would like to ask you to make a special effort to do your online shopping via my Amazon Affiliate link. ALL proceeds from this month will be given to the Family Resource Center. [If you haven’t done this before, all you have to do is click on my Amazon link and start your shopping. This does not affect the prices of your purchases in any way.]
Throughout the month, I’ll pass along stories of families who have been helped by the Family Resource Center. Here’s one to start:
In December, a mom came in to use the clothing exchange. She left with new winter coats for her children and a new car seat for her baby—and tears in her eyes. She told Center staff that she would now be able to take the money she had intended to use for coats and a car seat and instead use it to buy Christmas gifts for her five children. Not more gifts, mind you. Gifts, period.
Every little bit helps improve somebody’s life. All you have to do is use this link to make the purchases you were already planning to make. Thank you.
Apr 02
Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 5 days left until Opening Day on April 6.
Every morning, I get a fun email from a service called TimeHop. The email contains everything I tweeted or posted on Facebook exactly one year ago.
A year ago tonight, the Royals won via a walkoff home run from Kila Ka’aihue. Best day of my life.
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Mar 30
Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 7 days left until Opening Day on April 6.
The roster has been finalized. Here are 7 slots that I think will change before the All-Star Break (in no particular order):
1) Louis Coleman will be back in the Majors. This one is easy. Things happen to relievers all the time, and the road between Kansas City and Omaha is short. Someone will have some soreness, or develop a case of crappy pitcheritis, or whatever. Coleman ought not be in Omaha for long.
2) One of the catchers will depart. Obvious, again, because Salvador Perez will come back and–
–anyway, Perez will come back and, barring some kind of freak MVP performance, Humberto Quintero will go somewhere else.
3) Tim Collins will make at least one appearance in Omaha. Self-explanatory.
4) Giavotella will take his rightful place in the KC infield.
5) Kevin Kouzmanoff will no longer be a Royal. May 1st will pass, he will still be in Omaha, and he will elect to go elsewhere, per the clause in his contract.
6) Jake Odorizzi will advance to AAA.
7) Felipe Paulino will join the starting rotation. (Wow, look how optimistic I became in the moments since starting this list. The Alex Gordon extension makes everything so sunny!)
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Mar 30
Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 8 days left until Opening Day on April 6.
is the number of interesting links I’m going to share below, in no particular order.
1) Joel Goldberg continues his excellent reporting from Spring Training with a video about the Minor League backfields. How sweet is Kevin Seitzer, all fired up about getting to see his son pitch? Adorable. The Star and FSKC teaming up for these videos has led to some really insightful stuff.
2) Vernon Wells tweets that he enjoys being heckled, as long as the heckler is clever and funny. Challenge: ACCEPTED. (Bonus link: The blog post that facilitated Wells’ tweet.)
3) I had the great pleasure of joining Bill & Heath on I-70 Baseball Radio the other night to chat about baseball and photography. The first guest, Scott Rovak, is a legit professional photographer, and I’m me. It was a lot of fun. (If you’re short on time and can’t listen to the whole thing, I’m on at about the 42:30 mark.)
4) Heads-up to those planning on going to Storm Chasers game this season – the parking lots have been altered. Check this out if you think your usual parking strategy needs to change – mine sure does!
5) And I thought *my* peers had inappropriate prom dresses.
6) Appreciating the legendary Josh Gibson. (Related: How long has it been since you’ve re-read ‘The Soul of Baseball?’ I think I’m due for another reading.)
7) The Four Types of Serial Plagiarists in Journalism
8) Best road sign ever? Best road sign ever. (BRB, watching The Lion King.)
On Monday, I’m kicking off a special fundraiser for the most amazing non-profit organization. I know the word “amazing” gets tossed around casually these days, but the Family Resource Center in McCook, NE – my hometown – truly deserves to be called that. Spoiler alert, I’m going to ask that you make a special effort to use my Amazon link during the month of April, as all of my Amazon proceeds for the month will go to the Center. Lots more information is forthcoming.
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Mar 29
Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 9 days left until Opening Day on April 6.
would be Johnny Giavotella’s jersey number, if he were going to open the season in Kansas City and not Omaha.
In 2011, 9 was also the number of:
-double plays into which Alex Gordon hit
-times Alcides Escobar was caught stealing
-doubles Gio hit in the Majors
-times Mike Aviles – who will be starting for the Red Sox – walked in KC
-hits Jarrod Dyson had in the Majors
-wild pitches Aaron Crow threw
-home runs Louis Coleman surrendered
-starts Robinson Tejeda made for KC
-losses Kyle Davies racked up to accompany his one win
-runs, all earned, given up by Jesse Chavez
-batters Kelvin Herrera faced in the Majors
None of these are particularly meaningful numbers, without context. For example, an uninitiated soul might think that Herrera must not be very good, if all the MLB experience he got was nine little batters’ worth. But considering that he made it all the way up there from single-A at the start of the year, those nine batters are a pretty amazing accomplishment.
Or Crow’s 9 wild pitches. That doesn’t seem like many. Plenty of guys throw that many or more wild pitches! Except the ten other pitchers (min 60 IP) who threw 9 wild pitches faced way more batters. Crow faced 266 batters, and the next-closest TBF is 591. So maybe Crow is vastly wilder than he should be. But then, there are still other bits of context to consider. Who were Crow’s catchers compared to the other guys on that list? And on and on.
This deep into Spring Training, we’re at the point of near-insanity, trying to unpack as much meaning as we can from the inherently flawed and tiny samples in front of us. As the team makes its final roster decisions, it’s harder to keep looking at the bigger picture.
But I suppose, with the Giavotella situation, there is no bigger picture. We’re stuck with Yunichrisky Getzencourt. The small picture looks as bleak as the big one.
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Mar 28
Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 11 days left until Opening Day on April 6.
was the number of games Sean O’Sullivan started last season. Now, of course, many MLB teams have similar pitchers – the guys who come up for a few starts here and there as needed. Except, the Royals broke camp with SOS last year. It didn’t go awesomely, and he was back in Omaha in early June.
Sean O’Sullivan is better at pitching than me or (probably) anyone reading this blog. But I think the number of starts Kansas City calls on him to make this season will serve as a good barometer of the team’s chances of success. The higher the reading on the O’Sullivan-O-Meter, the closer the Royals will be to another lousy season.
Of all MLB starters with 10-15 starts, SOS had the highest xFIP, the lowest K/9, one of the higher BB/9, and the third-lowest WAR. And for the most part, pitchers similar to O’Sullivan were on bad teams. (That link will take you to a Google Docs spreadsheet of MLB pitchers who made 10-15 starts last year.)
The presence of an SOS-type of pitcher can be a sign of a rotation in flux. That upheaval can happen because of injuries, but mostly it happens when the rotation that breaks camp with the team is not very good. Sadly, I think that’s what we’re in for in 2012.
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Mar 26
Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 11 days left until Opening Day on April 6.
Holland in Omaha last year
is the number of wins Luke Hochevar had last year, and it is also the approximate number of strikeouts per nine that Greg Holland earned, because Greg Holland is awesome.
Today is a little bit different from most days; I will be on I-70 Baseball Radio this evening. You can listen in and chat along with other listeners here. The show starts at 9:00 central time, and I will be on a bit later. Tonight’s topic is photography, which is delightful. See you there!
[EVENING UPDATE: If you heard about this site tonight on I-70 Baseball Radio, thanks for dropping by! We’re nearing the end of a 50-day countdown to Opening Day, which you can browse here, or check out some of my featured posts. And this is my Flickr account, and a shortcut to my best stuff there.]
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