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Welcome to the end of yet another losing season in Kansas City and, almost predictably, the end of another season with more questions than answers.
Logic would dictate that either you are competing for a playoff berth or finding out what you have to do in order to compete the next year. The best I can tell, however, is that the Royals do not subscribe to this theory.
Whether it was Ryan Shealy languishing in Omaha last year as Ross Gload slugged his way into the lineup at first base everyday or Kila Kaaihue getting just 24 plate appearances in the month of September, the Royals seem almost fearful to find out if position players can actually play.
Instead of seeing two more months of Shealy and a month of Kaaihue, Dayton Moore decided instead to leave both of those players as question marks, go out and trade a young reliever for a 'known commoditiy' in whiff artist Mike Jacobs.
The Moore regime is not the only hierarchy to have a fear of the unknown. His predecessor, Allard Baird and manager Buddy Bell pretty much refused to give a young player a shot. We all remember a once highly regarded prospect in Justin Huber sitting on the bench in the majors for a month while aging Doug Mientkiewicz toiled at first base. However, how many remember Matt Diaz in 2005?
Diaz was given 34 games (22 starts) over four months that season and hit a respectable 281/323/7404. In September, the Royals gave him just six starts on the way to 100 losses, but he had two hits in three of them. Not enough to warrant everyday duty at the end of a losing season and certainly not enough to get a shot in spring training the next year.
Instead, Diaz ended up in Atlanta where, over the past four seasons, he has compiled an OPS+ of 116 and a batting line of .316/.363/.466. How's that look in your outfield Royals' fans?
The point of all of the above, is not whether Diaz, Huber, Shealy and Kaaihue can or could play. The point was that the Royals simply had no logical reason to not find out for themselves, over an extended amount of playing time, whether they could or not.
I bring this up today, because a similar situation has developed in 2009. As this team has ground its way deep into the ninety loss realm once more, they have a relatively young switch-hitting catcher who struggles to get playing time away from two very known commodities.
Of course, I am speaking of Brayan Pena, who has appeared in 61 games, but started only 37 of those and just 24 behind the plate. Despite a .272/.329/.449 line and an OPS+ of 102, Pena has mostly sat and watched as Miguel Olivo and John Buck have taken all but five of the September catching starts.
The company line out of Royalsville is that the club believes Pena can get on base, but worry about his defensive ability. So, of course, it makes perfect sense to simply not play him behind the plate for a month at the end of a disastrous season, doesn't it?!!
Sure, Miguel Olivo has a career high 23 home runs and with a current line of .249/.292/.492 is surpassing his career averages across the board, but not by a ton. If you compare Miguel's 2009 to the two seasons he was Florida's everyday catcher (2006 and 2007) you will see fewer doubles and more home runs, but basically similar numbers. Essentially, Olivo is how we thought he was - it is not like the Royals are gleaning some valuable insight into Olivo as this point.
Yes, John Buck has had a nice September and, with a career best line of .242/.294/.484 seems to be a guy who is much better as a backup catcher than an everyday guy. Still, John carries a career line of .235/.298/.406: nothing new there, either.
So, that brings us back to Brayan Pena, who certainly appearsto be able to hit for a higher average and get on-base at a higher rate than either Olivo or Buck. If you extrapolate his numbers out to a 500 plate appearance season, Brayan would, in theory, give you 28 doubles and 17 home runs: nice numbers for a catcher who is probably going to get on base at a .320/.330 clip.
Of course, the Royals still do not know if Pena can handle a pitching staff everyday, throw out runners with any consistency and block the plate reasonably. They do not know because Brayan has been granted TWENTY-FOUR starts at catcher since June.
It does not matter if Olivo and Buck have been hot. It does not matter if you think Pena probably cannot be an everyday catcher. Heck, if the Royals had played Brayan full time for three months and he ended up hitting .221 with 15 passed balls, we would have at least known what the Royals had in one Brayan Pena.
Instead, the Royals enter the last three games of the season fighting a bad Cleveland team for last place in the Central Division. They do so with yet one more unanswered question. Business as usual in KC.
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Comments
J.Peterman - two reasons for a Kaaihure callup. One, despite a .250 average, he posted a .392 on-base percentage. Two, you have an arbitration decision on Mike Jacobs coming up - wouldn't it make sense to find out of Kila can give you at least Jacobs-level production at a fifth the price?
http://unknownroyalsfa n.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/will-brayan-pen a-become-the-ne xt-matt-diaz/