The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

So after taking 1 out of three from Nats and beating the crap out of the Twins, we head north of the border to play the Toronto Blue Jays who lead the NL East by 6 games. Everyone on their team seems to be on fire but they done a few questionable things so far, playing Joey Bats at third, Brett Lawrie at 2nd base putting Adam Lind in RF... But hey, I'm not gonna complain.


Right now, they're being lead by Colby Rasmus... who we were within inches of acquiring at the deadline but made the last minuted decision to switch to D-Brown.... (face palm). Rasmus is legit, no doubt he's pushing .300 and has all 5 tools... hmmm, oh well, what can you do right?

Now aside from our trade blunders... first Tommy Milone and now Colby Rasmus... damn..

Anyway, aside from our trade blunders we made quite the discovery as we performed a good 'ol KC beat down.



George Kottaras is legit man...

When the backup catcher comes in and hits the f'n cycle, you should do a double take... no a triple take. Aside from the fact that this is a backup, how in the heck do you expect A CATCHER to get a triple?

Well for starters you put Adam Lind in RF and watch him roll all over the field like a walrus craving water while he tries to make Baseball Tonight's Web Gem list.

Any way, normally a backup hitting the cycle would warrant the starting job for a few days but his accomplishment will be short lived, we'll play him tomorrow but after that, it's back to Salvy.


For those keeping score....

Salvador Perez is hitting .295, 10 HRs and 67 RBIs
George Kottaras is hitting .384 5 HRs and 17 RBIs

[Deuce2223]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

Love the pic of Rasmus. Also congrats on the Cycle. Can't say in all my years of playing a baseball game, I have had a player hit for the cycle. Came close with Ackley once, but struck out in the 9th needing the single.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

2 Weeks later at the Spring Training Complex...

Are you sure this isn't some sort of scam? Your taking all of my money from me and there's nothing in it for me?

Look George, your my friend, you gave me my big break after I lost my eligibility at Auburn. But let's be honest, Mr. Glass would flip if I bought the team and handed control back over to you. It would destroy my integrity and image as well as the organizations.

Thanks for your time but I have to be involved in some way, this is all the money I have. I'll be homeless if I don't turn a profit on this.

Look George... I know you want a role here and you want power. Tell you what, I'll make you President of the Royals, you'll be responsible for building your own staff and running the baseball operations stuff, essentially what Nolan Ryan does for Texas. You leave the business to me and I'll see to it your payed handsomely.

Well Mr. Jackson, we have a deal. I'll have you on the next flight to Northwest Arkansas to discuss the expenditure with Mr. Glass at a Naturals game... That reminds me, what's your beef with Mr. Glass any way.

Mr. Kauffman told me that my service was valued and he would do whatever it took to take care of me and my family. Up until his death, he was giving me a small pension to keep our heads afloat. Mr. Glass came on, cut my pension and told me to quit stealing money from the Royals. I had to dip into my savings after that and here I am today.

I see... Well, pack your bags, your flying out to NWA at 3:00 today and you'll catch the Naturals game at 7:10 tonight... Zimmer's pitching.

*****

Orlando Calixte whiffed on another fastball... but hey it's all good, he's hitting .318...

Your proposal is certainly flattering Bo. But tell me, where did you come across such wealth?

Uhhh... Treasure hunt?

I see... I'm not selling the Royals though... not during this season.

Bo Jackson looked at Mr. Glass and looked back down.

Thank you

However, I am interested in selling the Royals after the season.

I'm listening...

If the Royals make the playoffs this season, which they very well might. The value of the team will be the highest it's ever been. You must understand that this investment has turned sour for me over the years and Bo you know as well as anyone else I'm tight with my pockets. With Dayton asking for more money to build a team, and the fans pushing for more funds, I don't know how much longer I can take of this.

I understand Mr. Glass.

Tell you what though Bo, If the Royals make the playoffs this season, I'll sell them to you for 457 Million... at least that's what Forbes says we're worth.

We'll be in touch Mr. Glass

Bo Jackson grabbed his things and shook Mr. Glass' hand... after all, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush...

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

Love the pic of Rasmus. Also congrats on the Cycle. Can't say in all my years of playing a baseball game, I have had a player hit for the cycle. Came close with Ackley once, but struck out in the 9th needing the single.

Thanks dude.

The cycle is definitely very hard to come by. I guess it really depends on a heck of a lot of luck. Kottaras has always had a knack for getting on base but I never thought it would come to this extent. To be honest, George Kottaras was probably the last person that I would expect to hit the cycle.

No I take that back. Chris Getz is probably the last person I would expect.

And after his O fer against the Jays we decided to make our move. We headed on over to the wavier wire where the options are expensive and there's something wrong with just about everybody. Just about everything on there sucks as we flip through all the teams. Now we aren't in the market for an expensive first division second baseman... no,no,no our budget couldn't take it.

Instead, we're on the prowl for an uber athlete who's going to be cheap and have some value after Utley comes back.

Then we strike gold my friends:

Emilio Bonifacio... err more like fool's gold I suppose but gold nonetheless. He's fast as hell and can make a good play or two... that's already better than that scare crow we've got manning the 2 bag right now. OK, not bad... that's pretty darn good actually and looky here, Steve Delabar is on waivers too... this day just can't get any better can it?

Of course we'll make the trade so we send Christian Colon, Noel Arguelles and Chris Getz. We would've sent Chris Dwyer but the fool hurt himself two days prior and he'll be out until at least the end of next week.... probably rollerblading again. Fool.

Any way, Bonifacio is going to be batting 9th for us and starting at second base. He can't be any worse than Chris Getz so we've already won the trade there. As for Delabar, he's going to be thrust into that 7/8th inning role and could potentially see time closing out games if our current pen keeps these antics up.

Bonifacio already looks better than Getz too. I mean that type of beard is... mythical. He's got a good beard but he's going to have to contend with Wade Davis for best facial hair on the team. It's too bad we can't give Boni a Sergio Romo type beard... that would be pretty dang cool.

[Bluejaysfan65]

Bonifacio's a beast...

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

Bonifacio's a beast...

I can finally attest to that. The dude has had two straight 4-4 games since coming over in that deal. I swear though, it's that beard dude. It has some sort of mythical power that I can't explain. He's been pretty darn good and at 2.72 million, he's somewhat of a bargain.

Now onwards to September!

What in the hell has gotten into Mike Moustakas? I mean really? He's quietly pushing .280 and quietly pushing towards 30 homeruns... he was OK in 2011, mediocre in 2012 and now he's becoming a driving force in our offense... What's up with that? If Moose keeps this up, we'll be screwed because he'll be wanting Pujols money and to be honest, we ain't forkin' that coin over... not just yet.


Aside from Moose, we've got a whole host of Rookies up here take a look

Jake Odorizzi
Trevor Story
Justin Marks
John Lamb
Chris Dwyer
Donnie Joesph

That's a pretty solid group there especially our three headed pitching trio of Jake Odorizzi, John Lamb and Chris Dwyer. They are by far our most advanced and pitching prospects and I could logically see one or two of the three stepping into the rotation next spring. They'll all reach the majors but in what capacity, we're not sure... We're hard pressed for relief pitching and if we can't get something cooking on the market, Chris Dwyer could very well find himself filling some sort of capacity in the bullpen next year with his excellent curveball (which is the best in the organization).

Out of the three, we really have to give the edge to Odorizzi. Lamb is one year removed from Tommy John and the velocity is still recovering. If we get that velocity back, coupled with his excellent control, Lamb could potentially be the top lefthanded prospect in baseball. Dwyer is a nice arm but projects as nothing more than a #3. Even then, he's only going to make his money by throwing hooks with good control. Odorizzi was our organization's Pitcher of the Year in 2012 and has the best command in the organization. The upside here is of a solid #2. We'd be fools not to let that type of talent develop.

We certainly have some decisions to make it seems haha.


Lastly, we have uber-athlete and super phenom Domonic Brown. Most will probably question why I call him a super phenom... but the reasoning is simple. The things he did in AAA.... you wouldn't even believe. Stretching singles into Doubles, stealing bases just about every time he gets on the base paths.

Some of his more notable moments include hitting a 480 ft. homerun and throwing a guy out at home from the warning track... This is Bo Jackson type s*** guys, D-Brown is definitely legit my friends.

But how legit is the question; he's been rather unimpressive in limited Major League action and only now does he seem to be scratching at his ceiling. This September is going to huge for him. If he shows up and plays well all September, then the starting RF job is his to lose in Spring Training. If he gets injured or doesn't prove himself, we're going to be forced into exploring a wide range of options ranging from pursuing Carlos Beltran to resigning Frenchy.


But as you can tell, aside from us gunning for our first playoff berth in '85, it's also very key to our organization's future.

[KHarmo88]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

Okay. So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to hire you to be my full time graphic specialist for my chise ahah!

Great updates as always sir!

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

Okay. So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to hire you to be my full time graphic specialist for my chise ahah!

Great updates as always sir!

Thanks bro.

Now before I do any more work, how much we talkin' haha!


First of all, let me start off by saying, forget you Domonic Brown! I talk the dude up like he's the next Bo Jackson and what happens:

The fool goes Chase Utley on us and is out with a shoulder strain. He's also going to miss the remainder of the season so that alters our off season plan. We can't consciously start a player in the major leagues with out getting a good sample size first. This alters our offseason plan in a major way because now we need someone to hold down the fort until D-Brown quits playing us like a fiddle. Does this mean another year of Frenchy? Does this mean Chris Denorfia gets the job? Does this mean we see David Lough out there? None of those options are really inciting to say the least.

Looks like that's another thing to add to our free agent shopping list.

We've been chipping away at Detorit but it's doubtful at this point that we'll catch 'em. In the big kahuna aka the American League Wild Card race, we're holding down a 2 game lead over the Rangers with Tampa hot on our a**. Now hopefully, we can hold down the fort but Tampa is entering an easy part of their schedule and everyone is starting to catch fire. And when Tampa catches fire, it's an occasion to be scared.

To get to this point, our pitching staff has quietly chugged along and is well on its way to 1000 innings. The real story has been our incredible offense who has shown no mercy since the trade deadline. Everything is starting to come together... Butler's over .300... Moose and Hos and becoming the hitters we thought they could be... and Lorenzo Cain is 3rd in Silver Slugger voting.

Not a bad year's work I suppose... not bad at all!

[KHarmo88]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

Seriously though, if I was extremely rich, I'd just play the games and tell you what's on my mind and have you do the graphics and write ups. I'd say I'd go in the upper five digits!

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

So while we're still fuming about Domonic Brown goofing up again, the good 'ol boys in blue head up to Cleveland to get a quick 3 game set in. We're on cruise control but gosh dang it, everyone is starting to catch up. It's about time we go ham here.

Just talk to Alex Gordon who provides the textbook definition of "Going Ham" right here:

ALEX GORDON FLASHES THE LEATHER MLB.com

I mean really, how many dudes out there can make that type of play at the Indians ballpark? I can probably count them on one hand. Gordon is leading the league in gold glove voting again for LF so it should come as no surprise if he wins.

We darn near lost this game though. Big Game was off today and it definitely showed... so in spite of his name, there would be no big game today... just a medium size one. Big Game James is struggling now, I mean ERA over 4, 11 wins and here we are in September... This isn't exactly what we had in mind when we traded away Baseball America's player of the year but...



Heh... A win's a win...

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball



Despite our good fortunes lately, we got hoodwinked when Texas rolled into town and layed the smack down. We got our a** swept and that's certainly disheartening, when you take into account that Texas is now tied with us for the Wild Card lead and Tampa is a game back.

If we do hold down the wild card lead, this series isn't promising in the fact that we'll be playing Texas in the single elimination game and it seems as if we're destined to go down in flames.

Do we need to go into full panic mode? Not just yet, but it's certainly creeping up on us and we need to be weary of it. Our pitching needs to get it's act together and we need to keep hitting. We're certainly over matched by Tampa and Texas pitching wise but we can easily go toe to toe with offesnsivley.

As you can see from the above graphic, the hitting is pretty solid but the pitching... that was supposed to be our strength coming into the year and now we're sitting towards the bottom of the league. We've had good success in September running rookies and alleged pitchers like Dan Wheeler and Nate Adcock out there. What's going to happen though in the postseason though? Is the starting staff going to hold up? Who do we trust with the 9th inning? Who do we trust with the lead? All those questions have yet to be answered and I doubt we'll know until the bullets are flying... err.... the baseballs are flying.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

Despite the pitching woes, the offense is really coming through for us. Coming into the season it was highly suspect considering the fact that we had so many young bats who had not hit consistently at the major league level. But, just about everyone who we needed to perform came out in a major way. Moose has developed into that power bat that Dayton envisioned when he was drafted, Hos is on his way to becoming the best pure hitter in the organization and Lorenzo Cain has blossomed into a legitamate top of the order threat. On top of all that, Salvador Perez has easily become the 2nd best catcher in the the American League.

All the while, the vets are holding their s***. Gordon is once again contending for a gold glove and his bat has finally come around (despite leading the league in strikeouts) Billy Butler is posting the best season of the career and may potentially hit 40 dongs this season. And Frenchy, well he's been a heck of an asset for the first time in his tenure here with the Royals... So much that he is in 2nd place in the RF gold glove race.

Spoiler

Mind not the error the editor made in the above graphic.

Today though, we beat the crap out of Seattle behind a strong Ervin Santana outing... and another superstar performance by Moose. Moose has been quite the surprise this season. We were all geared up for another .250ish season with 15-20 Homeruns. Instead he's blown the cap off those projections and is hitting .284 with 27 Homeruns at this point. He was always considered the best power hitter in the organization and it seems as if he's finally scratching at that ceiling.

Moose still has a long way to go to reach his ceiling but he's definitely headed in the right direction. We still need to develop the glove and he needs to generate more contact to become a complete hitter but other than that, he's been money.

Now before we get to our next game, we'd better take a quick look at the standings...



A nice little winning streak has put us back in the drivers seat. Right now it looks to be us and Texas. If we can hold down the first spot, we should be commanding home field advantage in the wild card race. That'll be pretty neat.... that'll be nice. I mean last time we hosted a playoff game was what? '85?

Yeah buddy...

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

THE JAMES SHIELDS TRADE

Haha... Relax, relax... We aren't trading James Shields..... yet. Perhaps I should've picked a less misleading title but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Before we head into our last couple games of the season, I figure we might as well revisit the James Shields trade and see just how well it worked out. Sparing you the particulars behind the trade which should be pretty obvious, we sent Wil Myers, Mike Montgomery, Bryan Brickhouse and Patrick Leonard to Tampa in exchange for James Shields, Wade Davis and Elliot Johnson. Myers was Baseball America's minor league player of the year in 2012, Montgomery has #1 upside if he can rebuild his confidence, Brickhouse has the stuff to be a 180+ strikeout guy and Patrick Leonard is a pure power hitting prospect. Quite the haul I would say. In exchange, we got workhorse James Shields, gas tank Wade Davis and uber athlete Elliot Johnson. Not a bad haul but it seems as though we lost the trade right after it was made.

However fastforward to September, Montgomery has been stuck in AA the whole season, Brickhouse and Leonard haven't made it past A ball and Myers was just called up in September and has been relatively average.

Now for the record if there every is an opportunity to reacquire Wil Myers, I'm game. He was by far the most balanced hitter in our system and easily the most talented. The chances of that though are far and few in between though.

For us, the trade worked out pretty well James Shields is going to be our first 200 inning guy and pitched better than his numbers. Wade Davis was hurt and got on our nerves (hopefully he bounces back) and Elliot Johnson provided a spark just about every time we started him.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

So for our last scheduled performance of the season, we've got a pair of options. Wade Davis, who's turn it is in the rotation... or Jeremy Guthrie who is apparently going for win #20 against Seattle... (triple take).

Since when did Jeremy Guthrie have 19 wins? Man, where have we been? Is he actually this legit? His 3.84 ERA and 100 strikeouts are certainly misleading... his 2.54 DIPS is definitely a high mark... maybe he is that good... This is literally out of nowhere. I've payed little attention to the pitcher's stats since about the end of Julyish... lesson learned folks.

Well I suppose Wade Davis will have his chance one day. Winning 20 games is certainly an accomplishment so we might as well partake in Guth's push for 20. This is actually pretty exciting to be honest. Who in their right mind ever thought Guthrie was gonna be a 20 game winner?

After the smack down we put on the Mariners, it wasn't even close. Guthrie drove the bus this game and absolutely destroyed the Mariners. He had 8 strikeouts and pitched a complete game. We wanted him to go the full 9 and get a shutout but a leadoff base hit by Nick Franklin and a dong by Raul Ibanez ended our hopes of the shutout. Guthrie rebounded to pump 95 MPH heat to Dustin Ackley for 3 pitches and earned his 20th win.

Guthrie has always had good control and decent stuff but he was probably my 2nd least favorite pitcher on the whole staff behind Greg Holland. It looks like the dude actually earned that 3 year deal. And look where #20 got him in Cy Young voting.



Ahhh.. up your's Tommy Milone. Just because we didn't trade for you doesn't mean you need to go ham and win the Cy Young Award dude. The fact that he came 2nd to winning the Cy Young with those numbers shows you how much the game values wins from pitchers I guess. I'm more of an ERA, strikeouts person myself. The Cy Young should be the pitcher that helped his team win the more than any other pitcher and apparently the game takes the phrase literally.

Man, forget this!

....Alright, we can't forget this... We got the big series up in Chi town on tap my friends and hopefully we depart the last series of the year with some big news...

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto: Fountains, BBQ and Baseball

So as chance would have it, things would indeed come down to the last week. Despite the hot streak we were on, Tampa and Texas were even hotter. Coming into the series against Chicago, things couldn't have been more uncertain. We were tied with Texas for the Wild Card lead and Tampa was a mere 2 games back.

Needless to say, things got unnecessarily sticky heading into Chi-Town. We had to sweep the Sox and hope that we could secure home field advantage and a Wild Card spot heading into October.

Game 1 pitted us against Chris Sale which we actually lost. However, Texas and lost and Tampa won so now we're in a three way tie... damn.

Game 2 pitted us against Jake Peavy and we won that sucker... Texas lost and Tampa lost. 1 game lead (fist pump).

Game 3... let's get it in!



To answer that question:

We sent out the gas pump Andrew Cashner and the dude pitched a great game against Shaun Marcum. Texas won and Tampa lost so it looks like we'll be playing Texas back at KC in the sudden death Wild Card game. All that hard work has finally payed off, all those rants have finally got us somewhere. Now aside from the victory speech... I probably could've chosen a better headline than that... But it nonetheless accurately portrays the awkwardness of the situation.

Uhhh.... What are we supposed to do here? Handshakes? Dog pile? Riot?

I couldn't tell ya... Umm.... Where's the handbook?

...A handbook? What the hell Ned!? I mean really... all the players stand out there on the mound and are like... "Well I mean we're sort of excited... maybe" The bottom line is they looked like dang fools out there... Sure it's been 28 years but that doesn't mean we can't party like it's 1985.

In the meantime, I'm celebrating with a tall glass of Ice tea and a fist pump. The road wasn't easy... Tell you that much right now. Unlike our real life counterparts, we've actually avoided implosion and things seem to be looking up. Coming into the postseason, we're probably the underdog. We're easily overmatched talent wise by teams like Detriot, LA and Texas. That doesn't mean we aren't going to give Texas a run for their money but it's going to be quite interesting. This postseason, we're going 2008 Dodgers "All Hands On Deck: Attack of the Underdogs" this postseason. If we make it past Detroit, I'll be genuinely shocked but hey, it's October... anything can happen.

There are certainly some very good teams in the playoffs. Now we shouldn't be worried about their talent. We need to be worried about that friggen bullpen who has sucked big time this entire season. Right now, there really isn't a closer and the strategy we're tossing out there entails that we're just going to throw the hot hand out of the pen until he can't throw any more. That'll probably blow up in our face but... hey, you can't blame us for trying and we're pretty rusty at this whole postseason thing, I mean it's been a while... give us a break.

If we had to bank on one team winning the postseason. It's going to have to be the Dodgers. They're playing like the 2nd coming of the Big Red Machine out there. Their pitching is phenomenal and their offensive is by far the most talented in the entire postseason. I could see the Braves though as a close second, Atlanta has a deep history of going deep into the postseason and with the squad they're running out there this season, there's no reason to believe that they won't make a deep run.

Really there are a lot of very interesting matchups across the board here. Especially Washington VS. Arizona in a classic matchup of talent VS. grit. The Blue Jays VS. Angels is also very intriguing. Toronto has a good squad and LA is very, very talented. That should be an excellent series as well. This should be pretty fun, a lot of good ball clubs and it looks like the CPU actually put together some good matchups for us this time around.

Stay tuned folks because it's about to get reeeally interesting....