Maybe you're expecting more gushing about Zack Greinke. There will be plenty more of that over the season's last month, especially if he continues to put together a historically great season for a painfully bad team that would make the 1987 version of Andre Dawson blush.
But not today*.
* OK, maybe just a little bit. Mentioned this before, but Zack's Greinke-ness is either your reason to hope for the Royals or reason to be pissed about the Royals, and which side you choose says a lot about you as a fan -- and that comes without judgment.
You either see Greinke's Cy Young-type season as the biggest thing keeping you connected to the Royals, or you see it as an embarrassing waste of what should be the catalyst to playoff contention.
You either see his silly-good 2.32 ERA -- his 189 ERA+ is the AL's best adjusted ERA since Pedro in 2003 -- as a welcomed gift for suffering the bad times, or you see it as an indictment of the rest of the team.
Personally, I agree with what sounds like the growing sentiment -- this Royals team may be as bad as any, but it also may be the easiest to fix because of the starting pitching, Jack** Soria, and Billy Butler.
** Just wanted to try out "Jack." Nope, just doesn't feel right. As you were.
Today, we're breaking away from the norm and providing a public service here at Ball Star. Call it a Trey-to-English translation.
Royals manager Trey Hillman has given us a lot in his just-under-two seasons. He's provided an authoratative perspective on the differences between Japan and America, fascinating thoughts on how a strong religious faith impacts his life, and, of course, the most aggressive facial hair growing in baseball.
Any mention of Trey on this blog -- good or bad -- has often devolved into an argument in the comments section about whether he should return as manager in 2010, but here's hoping we can avoid that, at least for a day.
For today, riding the good vibes of Greinke's one-hit shutout of the Mariners yesterday, I'd like to humbly provide a guide on understanding Trey's jargon. I hope I get these right.
Barrel awareness (noun): the ability to consistently put the barrel of the bat on pitches, particularly in ways that put the ball in play to desired areas of the field.
In a sentence: Bert (Alberto Callaspo) showed really good barrel awareness in executing that hit-and-run in the fourth inning.
Boom (noun): Big home run power from a hitter.
In a sentence: Jake came through and went boom when we needed it there.
Domino (verb): A chain of related events, good or bad.
In a sentence: We made the error in the second inning, then wasted a scoring chance in the third, and it just dominoed from there.
Froggy (adjective): feeling of uneasiness, like you need to make a change.
In a sentence: In that situation, I'm not going to get froggy and go to the bullpen too soon when Zack still has command of his fastball.
Glove side (noun): For a right-handed pitcher, this is the outside part of the plate to a right-handed hitter, or the inside part of the plate to a lefty. It is the opposite of "arm side."
In a sentence: Banny was effective today utilizing glove side with his fastball.
High leverage (adjective): Game situations, usually in the late innings in regards to relievers, that have a big impact on the outcome. The opposite of low-leverage situations. (Note: this is part of many advanced statistical breakdowns, so it might not qualify as Trey-Speak.)
In a sentence: We're building Farnsworth back up before we stick him back into high-leverage situations.
Hosey (proper noun): Right-fielder Jose Guillen.
In a sentence: I have no comment on what happened between Jake and Hosey.
Lateral movement (noun): For an infielder, this is his ability to get to grounders to his left or right. More commonly known as "range."
In a sentence: Yuni's lateral movement is much better to his right than left, and that's something he's aware of and we're working on.
Lower half (noun): Legs.
In a sentence: The most important part of Alex's rehab is getting his lower half strengthened and in synch with the rest of his body.
Pitch recognition (noun): A hitter's ability to decipher both pitch type and location, particularly as it translates to swinging at good pitches.
In a sentence: Our pitch recognition could've been better, especially on the slider down and away to right-handed hitters.
Slug (noun): A personal favorite, this is similar to "boom," though is often used in a wider sense to incorporate extra-base power, particularly doubles.
In a sentence: Billy may not be a prototypical No. 3 hitter, but he does give us some slug in the middle of the order.
Stealth (noun): Ability to steal bases.
In a sentence: Tampa Bay is very stealth. Billy, not so much.
Thump (noun): Honestly, I'm not sure exactly what this is. I think it's a synonym to "slug."
Tilt (verb): Movement of breaking pitches, particularly sliders and curveballs.
In a sentence: Zack had really good tilt on his slider today, which is why he had so many strikeouts.
John Bale IS the WORST American League reliever in inherited runners scoring. So tonight, we bring him on with runners at first and second. Double play ball back to the pitcher with the bases load, and he throws it into center field (you go home on that ball anyway, get the lead runner since we can't "assume" the double play). And we can't even blame Trey for putting Bale in, since he isn't there...
When your #1 overall draft pick goes up against a starter with an ERA over 6 coming in, you HAVE TO win that game...
terrible.