Cynicism from the Northwest

So much to talk about, so little hope. ;)

There is much to talk about regarding the Royals, but let's take a brief moment to discuss Kansas City's favorite team, the Chiefs. It looks like Gunther is drawing upon his brief hiatus away from the red and gold to pull in some talent. Like Denver raiding the Browns, we appear to be raiding the cap-strapped Titans. The three signings are Carlos Hall, Darren Hill, and just today Robert Holcombe. It remains to be seen how these moves will work out, but let's make some early evaluations.

Carlos Hall: This is the most exciting of the three signings. We also gave up the most. For one of our 5th round picks, we got a young defensive lineman with 3 years of starting experience. However, he doesn't appear to have been very productive as a Titan. Given that the Broncos had to ante up Droughns, a proven running back in a depressed running back market, to get 1.5 youngish defensive linemen, i'm ok with this trade. We need to win now, and hopefully Hall is ready to break out. I'll trust that Gunther knows what he is getting. -- This is a solid move for the Titans. Parlaying a 2002 7th round pick into into a starting lineman for a few years and then getting a 5th round pick as the rookie's deal expires.

Darren Hill: Another '02 7th round pick by Tennessee, he appears to be a special teamer. Given that we have quite a few low round draft picks (2 5th, 2 6th, and 2 7th), I'm not sure about this signing. Unless he is a modern day equivalent to Steve Tasker, I am afraid that he may keep one of draft picks from making the team. Ideally, I'd like to see us pick wisely and turn these late round picks into higher round picks. Net, if he is slightly better than someone we draft and we have to cut them, bad signing. Otherwise, I'm ok but not thrilled.

Robert Holcombe: I have watched Holcombe since he was drafted by the Rams. Not much exciting here, as he's just a backup to TRich.

More on the Chiefs draft later, now back to the Royals.
After our terrible pasting by Detroit on Opening Day, we won yesterday and then came back to lose the series today. Notably, we didn't have Pickering in today. Unsurprisingly, our lineup of Sweeney and the 8 dwarfs lost handily. What was both surprising and alarming is that Greinke took a line drive off his forearm. Hopefully, he is ok.

What's more, TLong got caught stealing today. Yes, that means in 3 games, we have been caught stealing 3 times vs. 0 successes. Ouch. That's right, we aren't even good at small ball.

Yes Matt, we may be young. But that may be all we have going for us.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised to see Emil Brown had hit a home run. He was my favorite player in Spring Training this year. Like Pickering and Richie Thompson last year, I irrationally started liking him. In Emil's case, it was his stubborn approach that resulted in consistently good at bats and a home run vs. the Mariners. All the numbers state that he won't be much, but who knows, maybe he could surprise. We deserve some karma after gambling on Gonzo last year.

As Rob and Rany try and guess our win total for the end of the year (pythagorean method be damned), lets extrapolate out the number of times we are caught stealing. Currently on pace for 162 times caught stealing, we are leading the majors. Last year, we were caught stealing 48 times, 4th worst in the league. Notably however, our success rate for stealing (58.2%) was 2nd worst in the league. This was with Beltran and his amazing steal percentage. Given Colorado, the last place team, only got caught 33 times, and most teams had a success rate of over 70%, we were the worst running team last year, and look to be even worse this year. My prediction for this year: 68.
Stats from 2004.

Team	SB	CS	%
Colorado Rockies	44	33	57.14%
Kansas City Royals	67	48	58.26%
Chicago White Sox	78	51	60.47%
Pittsburgh Pirates	63	40	61.17%
Arizona Diamondbacks	53	32	62.35%
Cleveland Indians	94	55	63.09%
Detroit Tigers	86	50	63.24%
San Francisco Giants	43	23	65.15%
Toronto Blue Jays	58	31	65.17%
Texas Rangers	69	36	65.71%
San Diego Padres	52	25	67.53%
Oakland Athletics	47	22	68.12%
Florida Marlins	96	43	69.06%
Boston Red Sox	68	30	69.39%
Chicago Cubs	66	28	70.21%
St. Louis Cardinals	111	47	70.25%
Los Angeles Dodgers	102	41	71.33%
Minnesota Twins	116	46	71.60%
New York Yankees	84	33	71.79%
Seattle Mariners	110	42	72.37%
Atlanta Braves	86	32	72.88%
Montreal Expos	109	>38	74.15%
Houston Astros	89	30	74.79%
Cincinnati Reds	77	25	75.49%
Los Angeles Angels	143	46	75.66%
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	132	42	75.86%
Milwaukee Brewers	138	40	77.53%
Philadelphia Phillies	100	27	78.74%
New York Mets	107	23	82.31%