May 06
The Chasers await Cody Clark at home plate after Clark hit a homer to right field for the club's 13th consecutive home win. Jason Bourgeois (#30, wearing a helmet) also scored on the homer.
Clark getting mobbed at the plate. Click the photo to go to Flickr and see more celebration pictures.
May 06
Mike Montgomery could have been pulled after his 103rd pitch, which was ball 4 to Angel Sanchez in the 7th inning. That was Montgomery’s 3rd walk of the night and his 2nd of the inning. No one would have faulted Mike Jirschele for pulling him, but he elected to leave Monty in the deep water to see if he’d swim. He did not. Instead, he walked OKC third baseman Scott Moore to load the bases with two outs.
On the radio, Mark Nasser and Brett Pollock described that batter as a “developmental moment” for Montgomery. Again, hey, pulling Monty after the walk to Sanchez would have been totally fine, and I doubt anyone on earth would have questioned the move. But it was good to see what Montgomery would do with a bit of pressure and a high pitch count. Kudos to Jirsch for having the guts to find out. (Ultimately, none of those runners scored. Brandon Sisk came through with a clutch strikeout to end the 7th.)
Montgomery’s line tonight: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 5 R (all earned), 4 BB(3 in the 7th inning), 3 K, 3 HR.
The Storm Chasers led by two heading into the 9th, but OKC strung together 4 singles among three strikeouts. Those four singles somehow turned into four runs, and all of a sudden Omaha trailed by two heading into the bottom of the 9th. They got the two back on home runs by Max Ramirez and Anthony Seratelli.
Another home run by Johnny Giavotella won the game for Omaha in the 10th – hooray!
The fact that Omaha hit three home runs should provide some context for the three that Montgomery gave up – the wind assisted any ball that was hit in the air. Werner Park was a launch pad tonight, so Monty giving up 3 long balls isn’t necessarily as bad as it looks at first blush. It’s still not a number you WANT to see from a top prospect, but not a reason for full-fledged panic.
Photos coming sometime…soon?
May 04
People who have had knee injuries: Did you just die inside every time FSKC (and ESPN and MLB Network and so on) showed Mariano Rivera writhing in pain? Awful to watch. Obviously I’m no Yankees fan, and I do think closers are overrated, but Mo is Mo, and horrific injuries are hard to watch.
Anyway, here are tonight’s Y’Knows. No surprise, Francoeur pulls out a solid 10 per minute, in a lengthy interview. Duffy matched Frenchy’s rate, but in a smaller amount of airtime.
Name - number of Y'knows - time on the air - Y'Knows Per Minute
Apr 28
Thanks to a migraine, I caught the last few innings tonight. I was supposed to be at wedding-related stuff (not MY wedding; relax). Tomorrow, I will be thrilled to watch two of my best friends marry each other. This is so exciting, because I know with certainty that TWO of my closest friends will not marry some creep. What a relief!
ANYWAY, on to the task at hand. I included the on-field interviews tonight, just for kicks. However, since it was a co-interview with Jeff Francoeur and Mike Moustakas, I couldn’t get a proper Y’Know Per Minute (YPM) figure. Alex Gordon was the runaway winner, taking only 21 seconds to top everyone else’s marks. Jonathan Broxton defied logic by not saying it at all!
Name: Number of Y'Knows - Time - YPM
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. Treat yourself to some Dublin Dr Pepper, perhaps?
Apr 26
Lots of people say Y’Know a lot. It’s a handy filler word, y’know? But not everyone is interviewed on camera, and it is our duty to gently mock those who are for leaning on Y’Know.
TONIGHT:
True to tradition, I only did the clubhouse interviews with Yost and Hosmer, not the on-field ones with Gordon and Butler. This is how I took notes:
Name - number of Y'Knows - time of interview - Y'Knows Per Minute
Yosty is more of an “ummmm” guy than a “Y’Know.” But Hosmer – sweet, blessed Hosmer – dropped two in the first clause he spoke. It was glorious.
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. Seriously, just go shopping tonight. Buy some Royals stuff!
Apr 26
It feels AWESOME.
Also, Rex Hudler is extremely orange. Like Snooki, or an Oompa-Loompa. Whatever he’s paying for his tanning, it’s too much.
Apr 22
Omaha wins yet another game (yay!), and yet again they took extra innings to do so (boo.). Enjoy some celebration photos, hot off the presses.
Tony Abreu congratulates Jarrod Dsyon, who drove in the winning run.
Where did his other leg go?
Tony Abreu (6) and David Lough (right) celebrate with Anthony Seratelli, who scored the winning run.
Nashville pulled their left fielder and brought in an extra infielder on the left side to defend against Dyson with the bases loaded in the 13th. Naturally, he hit it he other way for the win.
Kevin Kouzmanoff was apparently bored, and wandered away from the dugout.
Some notes before I head home:
– With Greg Holland going on the disabled list, Jeremy Jeffress was called up. That’s super for him, and I suppose it’s a logical choice, but Omaha can’t really afford to lose more arms. Will we get a replacement arm for him – or Louis Coleman, for that matter?
One option might be Blaine Hardy, who has spent a significant amount of time at Omaha. The rest of the bullpen at Northwest Arkansas is pretty green, and probably not ready for Triple-A. Another possibility might be Patrick Keating, or perhaps Kendal Volz. (if it’s Volz, I have to give credit to the World-Herald’s Rob White for the prediction.)
-Catcher Ryan Eigsti anticipates being activated from the disabled list soon. But that will give Omaha three catchers, along with Max Ramirez and Cody Clark. What are they going to do with three catchers?
-Max Ramirez was hit in the head with a pitch in the 6th. He stayed in the game, but later in the dugout I spotted him rubbing his head in the spot he was hit. I will keep an eye on that – and let’s hope that doesn’t answer the question of how to deal with having too many catchers around! (Concussions suck. I know this too well.)
-Many of you saw this on Twitter, but my mom isn’t on Twitter so I’ll repeat it here: Johnny Giavotella just about killed me with a foul ball. The place where I was standing to take pictures is in a perfectly straight line between home plate and this mark on the dugout wall where the ball hit:
I'm SO glad those laces aren't on my head. Or my camera.
Apr 21
Abreu on his way to first with yet another hit. Photo by me.
The Chasers are coming back to town tonight after a road trip to Albuquerque and Round Rock. Through 16 games, the team is 11-5 and in first place. Given the struggles of the pitching staff, and the enormous burden the bullpen has had to bear, a productive offense has been instrumental in keeping the wins coming.
Tony Abreu: .386/.403/.600
In full-time duty, Abreu has done nothing but hit. He already has six three-hit games, which is so absurd I will say it again: Tony Abreu has played in 15 games this season, and in six of those, he has three hits. The downside to his performance is the has been unintentionally walked just twice, but when you’re hitting THAT often (and also not striking out a ton) I suppose there’s no reason not to swing away.
Abreu is not a prospect in the strictest sense, but he’s definitely good to have on hand in the organization. Because the Royals’ middle infield is crowded, the best bet for Abreu if he keeps hitting is that he’ll be a nice/inexpensive option if some other team finds themselves scrambling for a middle infielder in the next few months.
Max Ramirez: .311/.400/.689
Ramirez’s ridiculous April adds yet another wrinkle to the already-muddy water of what the Royals should do behind the plate when SalvADOR* Perez and ManUEL** Pina return from their surgeries. Obviously, Ramirez won’t keep putting up these numbers forever. He’s among the league leaders in basically every category.
*Not Salvy
**Definitely not Manny – his mother hates that.
Anthony Seratelli: .381/.458/.714
Those are nice numbers, aren’t they? Seratelli has played only part-time so far, and at multiple positions (first, second, and third base), but is making himself difficult to bench. I get the suspicion that the crowded middle infield will be thinned out in the coming weeks, and Seratelli will get more playing time. (Of course, there’s the risk that HE is part of the “thinning out” and goes elsewhere. That would be sad, because the official stance of this blog is that Seratelli is awesome.)
Terry Evans: .421/.500/.789
Evans was brought up from Northwest Arkansas when Jarrod Dyson went to Kansas City and Derrick Robinson hurt his right hamstring. The longtime Cardinals and Angels farmhand started bouncing around a bit last year, spending time in the Phillies and Giants organizations. He landed with Kansas City this March. This is his age 30 season.
Here is today’s Family Resource Center story:
A single dad brought his young autistic child to the monthly respite session. While staff and volunteers took care of his child and provided safe, fun, and ability-appropriate activities (all for free!), the father treated himself to a trip to the movie theater – something he had not been able to do in more than a year.
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 17
Ethan Hollingsworth is one of the handful of relievers who have pitched more than two of Omaha's starters.
I was going to write up something about how heavily taxed the Omaha bullpen is, but I didn’t want to accidentally make a Tax Day pun. And yet, here we are.
Dumb topical puns aside, the Omaha bullpen has had to work awfully hard in the team’s first 12 games. Let’s do this:
GAME ONE
Starter: Will Smith – 3.0 innings (he was on a pitch limit, and walked six).
Bullpen innings running total: 6 IP
GAME TWO:
Starter: Vin Mazzaro – 6.0 strong innings
Running total: 9 IP
GAME THREE:
Starter: Nathan Adcock – 5.1
Running total: 12.2 IP
GAME FOUR:
Starter: Ryan Verdugo – 3.0
Running total: 18.2 IP
GAME FIVE:
Starter: Mike Montgomery – 4.1
Running total: 23.1 IP
GAME SIX:
Starter: Will Smith – 4.1 IP in what turned out to be a 16-inning game
Running total: 35 IP
GAME SEVEN:
Starter: Vin Mazzaro – 6.0 IP
Running total: 38 IP
GAME EIGHT:
Starter: Nathan Adcock – 6.0 IP
Running total: 41 IP
GAME NINE:
Starter: Ryan Verdugo – 4.0 IP
Running total: 45 IP
GAME TEN:
Starter: Mike Montgomery – 3.1 IP in a 13-inning game
Running total: 54.2 IP
GAME ELEVEN:
Starter: Will Smith – 5.1 IP
Running total: 57.1 IP
GAME TWELVE:
Starter: Vin Mazzaro – 4.0 IP
Running total: 61.1 IP
So far, the Omaha relievers have had to throw an average of more than five innings every night. To make matters worse, the Chasers lost Louis Coleman to the Majors yesterday, and has not had another reliever added in his absence. Mike Jirschele is in as tough a position as a manager can be – he is hamstrung by a worn-out bullpen immediately upon starting the season. That’s typically an August or September situation. Meanwhile, most of his starters keep faltering in the early innings (or are on limited pitch counts). Somehow, the team is still 9-3.
If I added this correctly, the starters have pitched only 54.2 innings – so much less than the bullpen, which is problematic on so many levels.
The Chasers are heading to Round Rock for a 4-gamer before coming back home this weekend. Unless the starters get it together in a hurry, the first-place Chasers are almost certainly going to suffer a rough patch.
EDIT: Before anyone points this out, I know – Sean O’Sullivan and Ethan Hollingsworth, and at times Roman Colon, are starters. So it’s not like they are strangers to pitching more than one inning at a time. However, the fact is that they still have a finite number of bullets and those are getting burned fast, and it’s only mid-April. And the starters need to pick up some slack.
Today’s Family Resource Center story:
A local prayer group provided the funds to purchase food packages for several families one November. One mother was ecstatic over the fresh fruits and vegetables—they are luxuries on a tight grocery budget. The other family was thrilled to have a Thanksgiving dinner, rather than the canned pasta they would have otherwise been eating.
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 12
The pressure was on Vin Mazzaro to eat some innings today.
After yesterday’s marathon win, the Storm Chasers needed a solid – and lengthy – start out of Vin Mazzaro. After one inning, this looked like a good possibility, as Mazzaro struck out two and induced a groundout. In the bottom of the first, Omaha shook Rangers prospect Martin Perez for three hits,a walk, and two runs.
Mazzaro needed to get four outs in the 2nd after Brad Nelson reach first* on a wild pitch that was also a swinging strike three. On cue, he got another K and a 3-4-3 double play. Still good so far.
*the Miguel Olivo Special!
Perez found his stuff in the 2nd, and shut down the Chasers offense for a while. Meanwhile, Mazzaro started to struggle, giving up 4 runs over the next few innings. However, he made it through six innings, giving the bullpen a chance to rest a teeeeny tiny bit. Roman Colon was tasked with the next two innings, even though he also pitched yesterday. Looks like he’s the guy Jirschele is going to turn to as the “workhorse” archetype.
The Omaha bats were fairly quiet until the 9th, which they entered witha 5-3 deficit. With one out, Jarrod Dyson reached base with a Scott Podsednik-esque swinging bunt that the 3rd baseman and pitcher both thought would roll foul before it hit the bag. It did not, and the Chasers got the spark they needed to mount a rally. The wheels sort of fell off for Round Rock at that point. Dyson stole 2nd and reached third on a bad through that sailed into left-center field. (That’s what speed do.) Derrick Robinson walked, and then Tony Abreu popped out to third.
Clint Robinson battled his way into a 2-2 count, then got hit on the foot with a pitch to load the bases. Kevin Kouzmanoff singled up the middle to drive in Dyson and Robinson for the tie, and then Irving Falu singled in PR David Lough for the Chasers’ second-straight walkoff win. This one, thankfully, was half the length of yesterday’s win.
By the way, once Lough came in as the PR, the bases were loaded with Dyson, D. Robinson, and Lough. That is a LOT of speed.
This was the first time I have actually been able to sit and watch a game with my eyes, rather than my camera. The difference between “Did you see that?” and “did you get that shot?” is immense. It’s amazing how much of a game I can’t see when I’m taking pictures. That is, however, a sacrifice I make happily, and I hope that you enjoy the fruits of my labor. Besides, running around to my different picture-taking spots is a way better workout than sitting in the press box eating cookies.
Here’s your Family Resource Center story of the day:
A mother with young children had struggled with alcohol addiction for most of
her life. With the long-term support of a FRC parent educator, the mom decided to
go to a long-term treatment facility. She has maintained her sobriety for more
than a year.
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.
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