Interesting that you made that determination in about a third of the plate appearances to what you denigrate as a ‘hot streak’ for Giavotella.

The real debate here, that you and I have had since April, is that my criticisms (and actually I believe I wrote one column on it personally) of Chris Getz are dismissed as simply ‘blogger hate’ and your criticisms of Aviles are just sound baseball logic. I, along with Nick and Craig, enjoy debate on this site. It is, after all, a blog and hence really a warehouse and/or forum for ideas and opinion and not ‘journalism’. However, I get weary of people dismissing my opinions simply because I happen to be blogger. It bothers me, having followed the Royals long enough to remember hating Frank White because he was taking playing time from my favorite player (Cookie Rojas), that because I might refer to statistics, I then have no real baseball knowledge and am not a fan of the game.

There is my soapbox for the month. Now, if I can get my youngest to stop watching Franklin so I can watch the Royals….

And as a 30 year old really stunk up the place in ’11.

“that was ONLY FIFTY-FIVE GAMES long before he was called up to the big leagues.”

About the same length of time that Clint Robinson was tearing up Omaha. 55 games at Omaha in the PCL might qualify as SSS, but that phrase is kind of flexible in the blogosphere, and the important thing is he didn’t get hot until after Aviles got sent down. Timing is everything. His streak lasted long enough to get called up, but it’s still an open question whether he can perform here.

“Getz’ Fld of 3.4 is one metric, but by another (DRS) he has cost the Royals a run this year”

Nice thing about sabre is a statistic can be found to support any possible thesis. Gio cost the Royals two games in Tampa and his Major League Equivalent has him at -9.4, Yuni range. Dan Uggla looks a more realistic comparative hope than Dustin Pedroia, but fortunately, Getz is a fairly low standard, although the Navarros may offer more challenge.

“But, go ahead, make sweeping generalities about bloggers and internet induced frenzies to whip up traffic counts.”

You saw the hits on the reasonable and erudite Francoeur strike-out, you see the hits on snark posts. See the same thing on other sites, gotta have eyeballs and hits in the blogosphere.

“Certainly every criticism must certainly be a hatred and any opinion is simply just stat induced gibberish that ‘real baseball men’ scoff because they just know better.”

When the criticism is incessant and irrational, “hate” seems a suitably hip word in a sports culture wherein any criticism is “hatin’”.

“its much easier for people to criticize the blogs than actually write one themselves.”

Most blogs are little more than a top-post on facebook or slate’s message boards. Not like most bloggers are expected to go into the locker room after a game and talk to players and coaches to get and understand material. Royals Authority is usually fairly solid, I read it as religiously as Kings of Kaufman, which is also a good blog, but seriously, neither are in the same zip code as Judging the Royals, but if they were they would be journalism.

“any opinion is simply just stat induced gibberish that ‘real baseball men’ scoff because they just know better.”

Stats are starting to sneak into real baseball, Kyle Davies kept too long because of FIP and xFIP, Felipe Paulino found by the nerds upstairs. But stats just aren’t there yet when they see Billy a better base runner than Frenchy and a better 1b than Hoz. Still plenty of room for the scouts and the eyeballs. I’ve started taking the stats more seriously and have even adjusted SLG to make it more useful and decided that OBP really isn’t a good individual stat, being as batting order dependent as it is. Even considering that pitchers might be usefully judged on aSLG against. Like everyone else, always looking for the one number that conveys the most information, although I think I prefer that number as a chart rather than as an average or aggregate.

Getz’ Fld of 3.4 is one metric, but by another (DRS) he has cost the Royals a run this year, so let’s not get overjoyed by this illusion of good defense. Getz is an average fielder with no pop and Yuni-like on-base percentages.

But, go ahead, make sweeping generalities about bloggers and internet induced frenzies to whip up traffic counts. Certainly every criticism must certainly be a hatred and any opinion is simply just stat induced gibberish that ‘real baseball men’ scoff because they just know better.

It is when the option for most of the year was a defensive butcher who hit .190 against righties and .220 against everyone, but was widely loved in the blogs because of a good season in ’09. Second alternative was a short person in Omaha who, before his recent hot streak, was hitting .300 in the PCL with issues with righties and Yuni-like defense, the defense following him to KC.

Getz isn’t great or maybe even average, but kept the job because they had no obvious replacement for him. I consider it “Getz-hate” when it is demanded that he be DFA’ed to clear roster space because Gio hit a couple of grounders down the 1st base line. Royals apparently have similar doubts to mine as to how easily Getz can be replaced from within the organization, which is why they traded for Yam Navarro, a good glove, and recently promoted Rey Navarro, a very highly rated glove who can hit a little. Next spring will see some competition for 2nd and Getz will be in the mix with his fFld of 3.4, third highest on the team behind Escobar and Gordon.

Frenchy-hate is even less justifiable compared to current in-house alternatives.

Because criticizing an everyday 27 year old second baseman with marginally above average defense and a current .256/.315/.285 batting line and career numbers of .254/.315/.307 is simply blogger driven lunacy.

If Crow is hurt, he should be shut down, or at least DLed. This team has other guys who can set-up, and this team is ONLY playing for the future.
Saving the closer for closing situations only does not bother me nearly as much as 6-man rotations.

They are interested, they just lack actual access to the principals, so are forced to rely on opinion and conspiracy theories for material. That’s why “Judging the Royals” is probably my favorite site on the subject, Lee Judge talks to the people who make the decisions and make the plays and can bring insight to the game that more distant observers lack.