Eric, there are actually some people that post here that I would trust running this team more than the people that are actually doing it. Some. A few. Maybe.

Since you seem to think we are serving no useful purpose here in our discourse might I ask what YOU are doing here?

By the way, the word you were looking for is “animous”

“Animus” is the inner masculine part of the female personality in the analytic psychology of C. G. Jung. I think you’re right, though, in combination with hubris……..

But hubris and animus are an ugly combination.

Eric, relax and have some fun with this.

Good job by Chen, and Brox made sure the ending was exciting.

Come on. We aren’t general managers, never have been and never will be. No amount of fantasy baseball, virtual GM or reading the sports page will get us there. Why did Yost blame the cutter? Because he has to come up with something. He can’t and shouldn’t just come out and tell the truth as he sees it. It’s as much PR as anything. But you have cracked the code and peaked behind the looking glass because you tracked the number of cutters Hoch threw in his last games? Give me a break.

What a joke.

Hochevar has had 7 professional seasons to become some semblance of a major league pitcher. He’s going to turn 29 this season. He had a losing record in the minors and he has an even worse losing record in the majors. Now, lifetime, 33-50 W-L with a 5.39 ERA and a 1.406 WHIP. He’s used every coupon left in the book, in my opinion. The only reason he’s still around is because he was the #1 overall pick in ’06. Otherwise, I think the Royals would have fished or cut bait where he is concerned already. I think he is the sort of guy where a change of scenery might do him some good. My faith in him amounting to anything at this stage is exactly zero.

You are being awfully kind to the Royals offense characterizing it as “not good”.

More abject descriptions would be “historically bad”, “inept”, “awful”, or even “comical”.

Besides the salient points about the offense you raised, the Royals are also last in the AL in home runs, last in the league in walks drawn, and since June 1st they are scoring at a 3.41 RPG clip, averaging a full half run per game less than their actual season average. This is currently one of the 5 worst offenses in team history, if they end up scoring 633 runs, which is what they are on track right now to score this season. That gives you a Pythagorean projection of 71-91 for this team.

While I think the arrival(s) of Cain, Myers, Odorizzi, and Perez would/will improve the situation, I doubt it will have any meaningful impact on what’s left of the season. The Royals have already played 41% of their schedule. By after the All Star break, when it is widely assumed these guys are going to start showing up, they will have played 84 games, or 52% of their schedule. If those four guys, in and of themselves, are enough to impact what happens the rest of the way, then the Royals are going to be good for years, because they’d have to be THAT good to have that kind of an impact I think. The Royals will be somewhat further in the abyss, I think, than they are now by the All Star break—unless they magically start scoring a LOT more runs.

At best, I also think the Royals are a year or two away and that is IF “the process” pans out as advertised. We won’t have Soria or Duffy back, likely, either, until at least opening day 2014, and those were guys we were counting on between now and then that we no longer have for the moment–maybe ever–who knows?. We are a ways from passing the “contending team smell test”, still. I still have not a seen a lot that gives me big time warm fuzzies about the future and I keep myopically looking for them, too.

Chad, as far as Hudler is concerned, all I can say it that is surprises me not at all that Hudler says ridiculous things all the time on the air. The guy is obviously not very smart or else how do you explain him being arrested for drug possession at KCI Airport? While on the job? That certainly isn’t the actions of somebody very bright, to say the very least. When he talks, I recommend that you “consider the source”. It’s embarrassing how little he knows about the Royals, or, their history. A complete goombah. Read old articles in Google News about the firing of he and Physioc in California. Hudler was given his walking papers RIGHT BEFORE he was to appear as the speaker at a team charity event that the team itself scheduled him to do. That’s how bad they wanted rid of him, apparently. I am utterly amazed that the Royals hired him.