Frayed Knot

Clip Art time?

Hosmer's won two gold gloves. Not sure which one of those he was using on that play.

Reed 'em and weep!

4th straight inning we've failed to get a 2-out hit w/RiSP They did get their 2-out hit and that's why we're not winning right now.

I had that button! Oh, and ask the Yanqui fan with the long hair aversion how she likes Sabathia's arm-length tattoos. Is he "clean cut" because he doesn't have long hair and is currently in rehab?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: One of the weird things he told me -- echoed by the only Facebook pal I know who's also a Royals fan -- is that he also identifies as a Cardinals fan. It's like, totally OK in these Flyover Plains states to have 2 favorite teams; although this guy under my tough questioning admitted he pulled for the Royals in 1985. I could sort of see that being a thing in the pre-inter-league days, being that they're two very separate markets hundreds of miles apart. But after the '85 WS and then once inter-league started pairing them together 4-6 times/year, it seems to me that that sort of dual loyalty had to start falling apart particularly as the Royals scraping the basement for so long at right about the same time the Cards began making the playoffs virtually every year.

I know I'll never be a Royal. I crave a different kind of buzz.

How Do You Feel? Like a complete unknown. Like a Rolling Stone On a related note, I checked the out of town scoreboard earlier and apparently there are no other games today. Seems kind of odd to be the only game on a Tuesday night. I'll have to look into why this is the case.

bmfc1 wrote: Terry stays true to lefty/righty/lefty, etc. No reason not to. Uribe standing by to replace Johnson if/when the Royals go to a LHP in the mid-later part of the game.

Gwreck wrote: Apparently Ben Zobrist's wife is pregnant as well, and Mondesi is insurance in case Zobrist has to miss a game. That makes sense, Gore and Jarrod Dyson are pretty much redundant players on their roster anyway. This just replaces a pinch-running specialist who'd be their second replacement OFer with a pinch-running specialist who can play the IF if needed.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Why so little respect for Cueto? ... he was lights out this year in the NL right up until the trade that landed him in KC. Yeah I think it's the bad recent track record since the trade (pitched well with no pressure then much worse with?) plus some pretty bad post-season outings recently. He was good against the Astros this year but his last outing was a stinker vs the Jays that was even worse than the stinker he tossed in the 2013 WC game at Pittsburgh (combined 12 runs on 16 hits in 5.1 IP over those two games). That Pirate game was the one where the Pitt fans were serenading him with 'Johnny ... Johnny' which may or may not have rattled him which in turn leads to the thought that maybe poor post-season outings aren't just a random thing with him. There's even been some speculation this week that the Royals are running him out there in Game 2 rather than 1 so that any second start he might get would NOT come at CitiField. He seems also to be relying more and more on his shades of Luis Tiant delivery (to the point where he almost seems like a parody of Tiant) as if maybe He thinks he doesn't have the pure stuff to get by hitters as much these days so needs to resort to increased trickery. Hardly scientific proof, and maybe as much wishful thinking as it is real, but perhaps it's a bunch of little stuff that does add up to something.

We should just forget all about these boo birds you speak of and instead embrace the boo bees. I think we can all agree that we like boo bees, right? So embrace the boo bees as often as possible. I recall that we even had a thread on this topic once.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The Mets have never won a World Series Game 1. And they've scored a total of just 5 runs in 4 games over 39 innings. Those game 1's have served as a kind of microcosm history of the franchise: the pitching has generally been good (not surprisingly since you often get to start your ace) but the hitting hasn't supported them. The final scores have been: 1-4, 1-2, 0-1, 3-4 (12)

Eight Hours

Better her in a bare midriff than Bartolo.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Matt Reynolds out... But we were undefeated with him on the roster!!!!

Elster88 wrote: Mets in 5. The American League sucked this year Except that they beat the NL handily in inter-league games for [crossout]like the tenth[/crossout]* consecutive season. *12th consecutive time actually

soupcan wrote: dinosaur jesus wrote: Doug Flynn Hey...I'm the designated Flynn guesser. That should be your move if you ever find yourself stumped in 'Final Jeopardy' -- just write in 'WHO IS DOUG FLYNN?' even if the category is U.S. Presidents or something else equally unrelated. Yeah, you'll lose, but if you didn't know the answer you're going to lose anyway and we'll all get a good laugh out of it - and isn't that the most important thing?

And we don't want to leave off DH Kendrys Morales -- or at least not until the Royals are forced to leave him off of their lineup after Game 2 (although I suppose it's possible that they start him at 1st and sit the LH Hosmer vs Matz in Game 4 - he played 1B nine times this season) Morales, a Cuban emigre whose most famous move in his 10 year MLB career was breaking his leg during a walk-off HR celebration back when he was with Anaheim and missing the next 1-1/2 years because of it, is in his first season with KC having signed a FA deal this past winter. The 32 y/o switch-hitting load (they say 6' 1" - 225 but I wanna know what it is when he puts his other foot on the scale) is their best power hitter in the midst of his best season since prior to the leg break [.290/.362/.485 - 22 HRs, 65 XBHs]. Where he's very different from the rest of the KC lineup is that he isn't adverse to taking a walk now and then but might lose a foot race to Bartolo.

Nope. Game 1 - Edinson Volquez Game 2: Johnny Cueto Game 3: Yordano Ventura Game 4: Chris Young

There actually is a separate Kansas City that sits on the Kansas side of the line but it's the puny, girly version compared to the Missouri one.

And then there's the bullpen, the spot which helped carry them to the WS last year and is supposedly an advantage for them in this series as well. But it's also a changed pen from last year. Gone (to injury) is closer Greg Holland, and also Brandon Finnegan who went from College WS to MLB WS in a span of four months in 2014 (dealt away in one of their deadline deals). Moving up to closer is Wade Davis who is a statistical improvement [0.94 ERA, 0.79 WHiP] over what Holland was giving them. But Ned Yost can be as stubborn in his relief roles as anyone, so he left hard-throwing 7th-inning man Kelvin Herrera [2.71, 1.12] (wonder if he has a brother named Fahrenheit?) in the 7th inning and slotted former Phillie Ryan Madson in the 8th where Davis had been. Madson had himself a great year [2.13, 0.96 - both career bests] especially considering how he last pitched in the big leagues in 2011 before reappearing with KC this year. On the other hand he was last seen serving up a game-tying long ball to Joey Bats that almost sent that series to game 7. Franklin Morales is their version of a LOOGY I don't believe Yost will hesitate to go to his pen more quickly than normal in deference to the WS but I also don't know that he'll deviate from his pattern of usage. A critique of Ned Yost and his pen usage: here

Over in RF we find Al Rivers - aka: Alex Rios Rios, a native of Puerto Rico though born in Alabama, is kind of unusual for this Royals lineup in that he's older (34) and, rather than being home-grown, was a FA import from this past winter after 11 seasons in Toronto, Chicago, and Texas. He's also been voted the boy most likely to be replaced in later innings for defense. Where he does fit in with the rest is that he's another low-walk (.287 OBP) / low-power (just 4 HRs!) dude who can still run a bit (9/9 in SB). The sum total of all this is that he just isn't very good anymore and was mostly batting 9th by the end of the year, not your usual spot for a corner OF.

Definitely rooted for this franchise in several late '70s ALCS's. I don't remember whether I was pro or anti in the '80 WS, but almost certainly was for in '85

Volquez and Cueto are sometimes good, but also erratic and can be hit. Cueteo was their big deadline acquisition but has a 5.00+ ERA since the trade. Ventura is an emotional hot head who can be rattled. Chris Young actually had the lowest ERA of any KCR starter this past year (3.18 as a starter - 3.06 overall). His shoulder problems of the last few years turned out to be nerve problems rather than muscular/skeletal and have been mostly fixed. But it remains to be seen whether he even gets a start. Their only Lefty starter -- Danny Duffy -- has been pretty much in the pen lately and is likely to stay there.