I was a bit distracted over the weekend and forgot to make a post. It also struck me that there is very little to talk about early in the season because so much of what we would or could say is just overreaction to a small sample size. I will talk a little bit about things that I think we can say from each game.
I went to the home opener, which I believe my last post was just prior to. It was a lot of fun, but very cold. Excitement for Royals baseball is very high right now. It would have likely been even higher if we had swept the Tigers, but you can only ask for so much. I was pleased that we scored so many runs that day. That's basically what I'm expecting of our offense. It was a lot of walks and singles, which can win you games if you're constantly putting pressure on the defense.
Saturday's game was a reminder that Bruce Chen can still be an extremely effective pitcher and will definitely earn his paychecks this year. I still suspect that either he or Guthrie will be moved to the bullpen sometime around midseason to make room for Zimmer or Duffy (or both), but he played well and we scored enough runs to win. Wade Davis tried to blow the game, but Gordon and Perez put the team on their backs (as they are apt to do) and won the game.
Sunday's game was when I first acknowledged that the bullpen terrifies me right now. After Collins demonstrated once again that he is incapable of throwing strikes right now and Bueno came in and let all the inherited runners score, it struck me that I really only have confidence in Holland, Crow and Herrera right now. Everyone else is generally lucky to get through an inning unscathed.
Now, to the present. Today we find out that Collins and Bueno are both going on the DL with nonsensical injuries. I see this as a "get your head straight" period for both of them. It's possible that they do have some nagging injuries, but this is clearly one of those reactionary moves that happens when somebody gets knocked around a couple times. We brought up DoJo and Michael Mariot to replace them. DoJo is kind of like Collins in that he has control issues coupled with extreme strikeout potential. I don't know much about Mariot, except that this is his first trip to the big leagues and he will likely be a little nervous his first time out. I think that Ned would prefer to use him in a lower leverage situation if at all possible, but alas, that is not bullpen life. We have Vargas going today and Ventura tomorrow. Hopefully we can win the first two games of this series to guarantee us at least a .500 record going into our Minnesota and Houston trip. I think we could be in good shape after those games since neither of those teams are very good. It would be nice if our offense could start hitting the ball a little harder, but these things may still come. I'm not yet worried about anyone offensively. Moose hasn't shown much as far as hitting, but his plate discipline has been outstanding. Alcides needs to just be more patient. I normally view him as an automatic out. If we can get away from that, it would be a huge step forward for our offense.
Game 6 ninja edit to make sure I cover every game: Infante gets hit in the head, Royals win. Sucks that he got hit, but we won and he looks like he might not be out for too long!
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