Royals, Greinke, and Apologists

I really do hate being a hater. Negativity doesn't gain anything. But goddamn, pieces like this one are why I can't stand Sam Mellinger, why Mellinger is the only person covering the Royals that I have no desire to meet and chat with. Mellinger is a propaganda machine. He's a Soviet Poster telling us to brush our teeth and keep our factory job for the fatherland.

I've watched far too many of this team's games this season. 3 of them (regretfully) in person. All losses. Each unique and sad it's own way. Dozens more on television. Yes, all of this is my fault. Nobody put a gun to my head and made me do it. My point is that I consider myself a good judge of this 2009 Royals baseball team. And they are awful. They are a joke. Not only are they not very talented (or, just as relevant in baseball, skilled) most of them don't give a fuck. They upped the payroll - on bad baseball players.

The General Manager is in love with himself. He actually traded two players, no matter how good/bad, for Yuniesky Betancourt. Betancourt's defense is ranked last in baseball. His offense since joining the Royals has - no joke - been roughly equivalent to Tony Pena Jr.'s. He just gave 30g's to the Detroit Tigers for Josh Anderson, the white Joey Gathright. In baseball 30g's is a pittance - that's not the point. The point is, after the Gathright disaster (a super duper fast guy who can't get on base) Moore went out and got the same player - a burner with an 2009 on-base percentage of .282. Anderson "may" have more pop than Gathright. Joey struggles to get a ball in the air to the outfield grass - how could he not be more powerful than that? Dayton is in love, LOVE, with a speedy centerfielder. Dayton thinks stolen bases are how the game is won, not actually scoring more runs than the other team. Dayton forgets that in order to steal a base, a man must first get on base. Moreover, people in Detroit will tell you that while he may be the fastest man in all of baseball, Anderson is not a smart baserunner. But, you say, that speed has to be useful in center field defense, right? People in Detroit will tell you that Anderson makes every fly ball an adventure.

Back to the point, here we have Mellinger spouting the Kool-Aid. Maybe his boss told him to look for the positive. Maybe that's just the type of guy he is (I'll admit when I play the "Which adjective best describes Sam Mellinger" game I usually choose "self-righteous" over "optimistic.") Don't get me wrong, I love Zack Greinke. The Greinke contract is the one offseason move Moore made that doesn't look like a colossal fuck up. But it's not like this was innovative: any GM in baseball would have done the same.

When I watch Greinke pitch (and I've seen him more often than any other Royals pitcher) I don't get pumped up for the future. I get angry at how we have one of the best pitchers in baseball and it's all for naught. I get angry that 20/25 players on this active roster deserve a kick in the junk via Greinke. I'm furious that the Greinke is having the best pitching season since 2000 Pedro and the Royals HAVE A LOSING RECORD IN HIS STARTS. I want to punch a wall when I think that Greinke is the only pitcher in baseball who has lost two games in which he gave up 1 run in 7 or more innings. I feel bad for Zack Greinke because he signed that long term deal and will likely play it on out a shitty team. Oh, he's going to get paid, to be sure. But he won't win anything. Hell, he probably won't sniff the playoffs. For this is where I disagree completely with Mellinger. I don't see Greinke as a reason to be optimistic about the Royals, because I don't have any faith in the Moore/Glass team's ability to field a decent team around him. Early on it was "Greinke Day" when Zack took the mound. Now it's "sit back and let this team embarrass us all" Day. Every day.

P.S. Read the comments at the end of that story. Seriously people. God for-fucking-bid you expect a team to win. What a bunch of patsies.