Thoughts from the Whiter-side of things...

After watching the WGN coverage of the Royals-White Sox last night, it only makes me more and more confused how a guy like Hawk is allowed to call White Sox games. So annoying mannerisms:

"He gone" for a homer, that is dumb.
Calling the Sox the "good guys" and everyone else the "bad guys."
In the middle of a broadcast, he starts rooting for Sox players, how unprofessional.

Though some of the KC Broadcasters suck (aforementioned in the previous post), one can definitely say that Denny Matthews and Ryan Lefebvre are two of the most professional broadcasters a team could have. Granted we have had a bad team, and therefore, wasted much of Denny's talent (before he retires, one would think soon, hopefully not), they are a great team.

But on to my real rant. The White Sox broadcasters actually made 2 outlandish statements. First of all, they stated that the one good thing of losing is that we consistently get high draft picks. Any person worth their salt, will realize that the baseball draft is the most ludicrous draft ever. Guys taken in the 45th round have just an equal chance of being awesome or a flop as guys taken first overall. For some reason, baseball seems to be the hardest sport to draft; and therefore, it isn't a good thing to have high draft picks. That's pure foolishness for anyone to say.

Their second comment was that all the pieces are in place for this team. I don't really have an issue with the overall statement, as they stated some of the young players are very talented and will come around, as they stated Dayton Moore is a superb mind that should get the Royals back on track soon, but what irked me is that they stated we have a "great manager" in Buddy Bell. Buddy has had better talent this year and has shown that even with better talent he will ignore wisdom and statistics and go with his gut (which is fine if you're more right than wrong), which is obviously more wrong than EVER right. He also has an issue with playing oldies and not youngies, unless he is forced to (Buck b/c LaRue is hurt or Gload more than Shealy).

Buddy should be fired b/c he has issues using young talent that is struggling. Maybe it's b/c he thinks vets can help him win now (rather than let the talent develop into skill) b/c he fears for his job. Well, if he fears for his job, any smart person would not accept a job like the Royals until they were a semi-established team. I know everyone always thinks they are the guy to fix the problem, but wouldn't it really be smarter to turn down a job and be a bench coach for the Red Sox or Indians or Mets rather than fail fail fail at a job like the Royals.

And one really has to be confused by Dayton's thought processes. Clearly he wants the team to get younger, he's forcing Bell to play Greinke, Bannister, Buck, Gordon, Butler, Meche, Dejesus, Teahen, Soria, among others, yet it is clear that if Bell were to ever succeed, he'd need good, old vets. He just doesn't appear to be a developer of young talent. One could also argue that he should be fired, or if not him, our hitting coach. At some point, one would think this team would hit more consistently, but sometimes, trends develop where it appears the "X" is just a one time aberration. Clearly, this team only hits in spurts, i.e., the aberration is a good hitting day. The trend is that we hit like shit. This appears to be caused by the approach of the hitter, and we, as fans, cannot blame Gordon's offensive or defensive struggles on Bell or Gordon; some hitters just need a ton of time to get used to the bigs. That's fine, but continuing to use players like LaRue (who just can't hit) or Peralta, is INSANITY.

The only holdover from this regime I want is Bob McClure. He seems to be the fixer, from now on, when I say "The Fixer," I'm referring to McClure. He appears to have made a pitcher out of De La Rosa (4-3, 3.86 ERA, with 28K & 12BB), fixed Gil Meche's delivery, and seems to be the guy to help Greinke through this current rough patch.

I still advocate a manager like Joe Girardi who seems to create a better mental approach in hitters and fielders (runs Spring Training like a boot camp) and obviously knows how to get the most out of youth and prospects. Is he the only one out there? Def. not. What Dayton needs to do is find a guy that buys into his philosophy, whether that be a newbie or a retread. Either way, it's time to fix the Royals' onfield miscues and get their hitting into place and maybe find a manager who understands situational statistics (Jimmy Gobble CANNOT PITCH TO LEFTIES SUCCESSFULLY OR HOLD INHERITED RUNNERS!!!! THE GUY IS USEFUL IF HE STARTS AN INNING!! JIMMY ALMOST ALWAYS GIVES UP A HIT, BUT USUALLY MANAGES TO MINIMIZE DAMAGE!!!)!

That is all for now!