This team is hopeless. Dayton Moore has run it into the ground. The Glass family hasn’t been willing to spend to keep pace with the big-market clubs.
Ned Yost is a terrible in-game strategist. He mismanages his bullpen. “The Process” is just a myth. Our so-called “best farm system in baseball” means nothing at the big league level.
Something about our development of young pitchers is causing them to break down. Luke Hochevar is the new Kyle Davies. We should never have given Salvador Perez such a big contract at 21 years of age. Johnny Giavotella should have made the big league roster instead of Chris Getz.
I heard every one of these opinions expressed ad nauseum during the month of April. Particularly on talk radio, but also in the traditional newspapers and of course in the Internet blogosphere, Everyone piled on like a rugby scrum.
Now the team is the hottest in baseball, as of May 16, having knocked off the mighty Texas Rangers in back-to-back road contests.
I know this Royals team isn’t among the league’s best. But they are winning at that pace at the moment, and they’re steadily climbing back toward .500.
The negativity rubbed me wrong in April, and I couldn’t be happier that the Royals are vindicating themselves now.
Sure, the 12-game losing bender made me sick. But the rats fleeing the ship made me even sicker.
Think about it. Which team could have survived losing their ace reliever, centerfielder, catcher and a key starting pitcher (Felipe Paulino) at the start of a season?
Could the Rangers? They haven’t made a roster move yet. Take four key pieces from that team and see how good they would be.
Could the Yankees? They’ve limped along after the loss of Mariano Rivera.
I’m not trying to make excuses for the 12-game bender. But just as we’re probably not as good as our record in May would indicate, we probably weren’t as bad as we played in April.
I’m trying to not get too high over winning 12 of our last 18. But I don’t appreciate everyone who jumped off the bandwagon when we were 3-14. Maybe they didn’t belong on the bandwagon after all. Just stay off and leave room for the real fans.
