Get the pitchforks…

I’ve been fairly cross ever since the start times of all the Royals games were finalised. Most of them are fine, but Opening Day is at 21.05 CDT. Nine in the evening. Nine. It’s absurd. Opening Day is a day game, it’s right there in the name. At home the usual start time is 15.10, but even on the road it’s always in the afternoon. Except this year. This year the game won’t even be over until after midnight.

This may sound like some pointless whingeing, and to an extent it is, but it’s not merely an aversion to change. Opening Day is a holiday and for me it is second only to Christmas (and that’s a close second). It’s a celebration of the start of spring, of the start of the proper summer sports. (Usually the County Championship starts after the baseball season, plus I live in America, so Opening Day is the more significant marker.) It is far more important and relevant than Easter. And like any holiday it is a day of traditions. I accept that sometimes it isn’t feasible to celebrate in the same way every year (eg, it is not possible to barbecue in the rain) but some things are more central than others. The fact that the game is in the afternoon is one of those. One doesn’t even get a day off work for a 21.05 start. Imagine being forced to wait until teatime on Christmas Day to celebrate and one will get a good sense of the disruption.

Of course, I’ve known for ages (and been rather cross) that the game will not start until late, but the reason I am especially cross today is that I found out why. ESPN, who I dislike anyway, decided to broadcast it nationally, necessitating that it start after all the other games. Effectively, ESPN have ruined one of the best days of the year. I need to find a pitchfork and a flaming torch.

Betancourt returns to KC

The Royals have signed Yuniesky Betancourt to a one year deal as a reserve infielder. It’s pretty confusing on the face of it, I had rather assumed we made the Brewers take him as part of our compensation for Greinke. I’ve never seen any convincing evidence that when he goes out to play shortstop he actually knows what the big leather thing on his left hand is or what to do with it. Theoretically his strength is his batting, but he only hit .253 in a year and a half with us. In comparison Alcides Escobar hit .254 last year and saved countless baserunners with his glovework. I know Alcides can’t, or at least shouldn’t, play every game, but I can’t imagine that there aren’t better reserves than Betancourt. Betancourt is an ordinary hitter and a very much sub-ordinary fieldsman. Hopefully he won’t get more than a handful of games in 2012.

Ten best sporting moments of 2011

I know the sporting year isn’t over yet. I actually had a conversation on Twitter about whether I ought to write a ‘year end’ style post or save it for after the Test. I decided to save my full year in review post for later, but at the same time I would be very surprised if anything happened that warranted an inclusion on this list. If I’m wrong I can always write a revision as well, so with that in mind here are my top ten sporting moments of 2011:

10 – New Zealand winning the Hobart Test
I know my Aussie readers won’t like this, but it was a pretty important moment. New Zealanders probably care more about winning the Rugby World Cup, but they had not won a Test in Australia for 26 years before this. Doug Bracewell may be a great find for the Kiwis and the conclusion of the match was one of the most thrilling you will see.

9 – Tigers winning Game 5 of the ALDS
I love watching the Yankees lose. I love watching the Yankees lose deciding games in the playoffs even more. But most of all I love watching Alex Rodriguez strike out to lose a deciding game in the playoffs in front of a very put out Yankee Stadium crowd.

8 – Royals winning a three game series in New York
The Royals spent most of the month of April this year in or near first place. (It’s true, look it up.) Whilst losing six in a row to the Rangers and Indians at the end of April basically put an end to any notion of contending, there were still bright spots after that. In the second week of May the Royals travelled to New York and won two out of three against the Yankees. The deciding game of the series saw the Royals score six runs in the second inning, including Eric Hosmer’s second major league home run and some terrible defensive mistakes by the Yankees. It was the Royals first series win in New York since 1999.

7 – Manchester United 1-6 Manchester City
It was the match that that caused the media to accept City as genuine title contenders. More importantly it was the match that made United supporters very cross and thus made Liverpool supporters like myself very happy.

6 – Australia reduced to 21-9 at Cape Town
With apologies to my Australian readers. Though as much as I enjoyed this I was more astonished to watch the innings unfold. On no fewer than three occasions I thought there must surely be a recovery, surely they couldn’t lose another wicket. I was wrong on all three occasions, as by the time the recovery did come I had stopped expecting it. Almost as amazing as the innings itself was the shot selection of Brad Haddin and the fact that he wasn’t immediately dropped because of it. Both defy belief.

5 – England winning the Cardiff Test
I already used this in my best moments in English cricket this year, so there isn’t a lot more to say. Nonetheless, it was incredible watching England go from just wanting a few wickets to Sri Lanka not even coming close to saving the Test and certainly belongs on this list as well.

4 – Virender Sehwag making a king pair at Edgbaton/Stuart Broad’s Trent Bridge hat trick
I’ve included these together for their similarity, not only because they both involve Indian wickets falling cheaply. Broad’s hat trick marked the end of the last time India would have an advantage in the series, but I think Sehwag’s king pair marked the last time India had any real hope. It was also a moment of personal pleasure, because Sehwag is massively overrated. He has a good record on the flat pitches of the subcontinent and that is it; his aggression is not suited for English conditions or anywhere the ball does a bit. After the second Test I read about and saw Indians claiming that he would save the series for them and I rather enjoyed being vindicated.

3 – Cardinals winning Game 6 of the World Series
I’m a Royals fan, but years of living amongst Cardinals fans in Kirksville made me rather sympathetic to them. (Though I always hated when they would gripe about ‘barely being .500’ or some such.) Add that to the fact that I hate the Texas Rangers and I was definitely cheering for the Cardinals in the last World Series. Even if I hadn’t, however, I think their multiple comebacks in Game 6 would have had to rank high on a list of best sporting moments, as it was absolutely astonishing.

2 & 1 – Lancashire winning the County Championship and England winning the Ashes
How could I not copy these from my first list? England winning the Ashes in Australia is the only thing that could possibly trump Lancashire winning the title outright. Neither had ever happened before in my lifetime and for them both to happen this year is almost an embarrassment of riches. I have little doubt they will be on a list of best moments in the decade should I make one in 2020.

Edited to add: The Guardian have produced their list of cricketing moments, but there is a lot of World Cup stuff at the expense of Lancs.

Winter Meetings

I’ve been vaguely following the Winter Meetings this week, though there hasn’t been a lot going on, at least about which I care. Pretty much all of the discussion has been about whether Albert Pujols will go to Miami and I don’t really care. I hope he stays with the Cardinals, not so much because I want St Louis to do well, but because I like the idea of great players staying with one team for their entire careers. Also, I don’t like the Marlins. I used to, at least to an extent, but I don’t like their naked attempts to buy every free agent they can. Also, their new uniforms are appalling. It’s not a big point, but it does make a small difference. They seem to be just about the only team mentioned on the meeting reports and it just isn’t on. Still, the Pujols stories are all in the National League and unless he shockingly signs for the a team in the AL Central it’s unlikely to really matter to me where he ends up. The move that has interested me the most so far has been Mark Buehrle signing with Miami. Not because of the Marlins so much, see above, but because I hate the White Sox and they are weaker now. It also helps the Royals, of course, since Chicago are in our division.

Speaking of the Royals, we haven’t done much if anything. The biggest even vaguely credible rumours are that we might acquire an established starter for a few top prospects like Wil Myers. It would be an interesting move if we did, but it sounds like it’s unlikely. We certainly need starting pitching, but we acquired Jonathan Sanchez and re-signed Bruce Chen, so it is not as pressing as once it was. Wil Myers is a top outfield prospect and our outfield, Gordon aside, is not as settled as some of the other positions in the long term. It is nice to have a very likely successor to Jeff Francoeur in right field, and I’m not sure that is worth a starter in most instances. (The exception would be a very good starter on a long term deal, but that isn’t going to happen.) There have also been a few suggestions about trading Soria, but those appear to be utterly baseless. And good thing too, I would be dismayed if he were to be dealt away. There is still time during and after the meetings, but it looks like it will be a pretty quiet winter.

Royals sign Broxton

Whilst I was distracted by Liverpool cruising past Chelsea and into the semi-final of the League Cup, the Royals signed free agent reliever Jonathan Broxton. It’s a positive move, whilst the bullpen was decent overall last year it wasn’t spectacular and it was also very young. Most of them were rookies, and Broxton will provide a good senior presence. Whether Broxton will be effective remains to be seen, of course. He represented the National League in the 2009 and 2010 All Star Games, but he missed most of last year with an elbow injury and was ineffective before that.

The Royals were very careful in the press release to specify that Soria would remain in the closer’s role. There have been suggestions before that Soria ought to move to the rotation, but they are ill-advised and rightfully ignored. Soria has been an exceptionally effective closer, but the fast that he has a range of pitches does not mean that he would do well in the rotation. A lot of the success of his pitches stems from the fact that he only goes an inning or two at most. Batsmen do not have time to adjust to him and he does not have to hold anything back for the later innings. Whilst it is true that the Royals need more starting pitching, Soria is still not the answer and I am very glad that the administrators recognise that. Hopefully we will hear no more on the matter. (I’m not optimistic.)

Broxton has postseason experience as a Dodger, but perhaps not the best. He has three saves, but the Dodgers were eliminated by the Phillies twice and Broxton had failures on both series. Our history of signing free agents means that I am bracing myself for Broxton to have a dreadful season, but I think that the move itself is a good one.

New kit design

The Royals unveiled some minor changes to their kits for the 2012 season today. It’s nothing particularly radical. If one didn’t know that they had taken place one might not even notice. They’re good changes though, subtle but clearly an improvement.

The biggest change probably that the powder blue cap has been abandoned. I am quite glad of this, as I never liked them. The only other change that is readily noticeable with the naked eye is that the colour of the lettering on the powder blue jerseys has been changed to white. Otherwise there are very subtle changes of colour, font and some piping. I quite like them, they’ll look good on national TV next October.

Bud Selig is an idiot

Today has been billed as a historic day in Major League Baseball. It may certainly be that, but I think mostly for the wrong reasons. I don’t know what metric Bud Selig is using when he says that the Wild Card has been a ‘remarkable success’, but even if it is his new system will effectively gut it. From either next year or 2013 the top two Wild Card teams will play a one game play-in to determine the Wild Card berth. So we are finally rid of that ridiculous situation where we can go to the last day of the season and have four games with an impact on the Wild Card winner! Never again will we have that nightmare scenario where two walk-off wins in the space of ten minutes can decide who will be in the postseason! Thank you Bud Selig, thank you! To paraphrase Selig himself, to say that this decision is remarkably stupid would be an understatement. There is nothing to be gained by having two more teams play one more game. If the Wild Card race is close it won’t be exciting (since finishing in first will guarantee nothing) and if one team runs away with it they will not be rewarded for their superior performance. It’s a no-win situation. It’s yet more evidence in favour of my longstanding hypothesis that Bud Selig is an idiot.

The rest of the changes aren’t nearly as bad. The Astros will be moving to the AL West in 2013. As a fan of symmetry, I am happy with this. Each division will now have five teams. Houston has historically been an NL market, but there has been less and less difference between the leagues recently. The move will mostly just guarantee that the Royals will have at least six games in 2013 against a team that was 56-106 this year. That’s no bad thing. It will also necessitate interleague play throughout the season, to which I am ambivalent. I like interleague play, but I can see it taken too far. Especially since it tends to mean that some teams have a slightly easier schedule than others. (Though the unbalanced schedule does the same and to a much greater extent. Hopefully they will do away with that.)

Overall the changes are good, but the added wild card is change for the sake thereof and will have a negative effect. Hopefully Selig decides that this is his magnum opus and stops meddling now.

Managers of the Year

Joe Maddon of the Rays and Kirk Gibson of the Diamondbacks won their respective Manager of the Year awards today. A while ago Neil DeGrasse Tyson suggested on Twitter that the awards should go to the managers with the most wins per dollar of payroll. Interestingly, this seems to be exactly what happened (though I’m not sure if the BBWAA knew this).

The Rays this year had the second lowest payroll in the American League, $41.9million. Their 91 wins mean thus gave them 2.17 wins/million dollars. The Royals were next best in the AL with 71 wins to show for our Major League lowest $36.1 million payroll. (A ratio of 1.97 wins/million.) The Rays and Royals were not only the best in the AL, but they were the best in the Majors. The next best, and best in the National League, were the Diamondbacks. Arizona had 94 wins with a $53.6 million payroll.

On the other side of the coin, the Yankees won 97 games in 2011, the most in the American league. They had far and away the highest payroll, however, $201.7 million. This makes for a Major League worst 0.48 wins/million. (One-fourth that of the Royals.) The next worst were the Red Sox, with only 0.56 wins/million. In the NL, the Cubs fared the worst with 71 wins for their $125.5 million, but the Phillies were next; their 102 wins cost $173 million.

The full lists (wins/million):
AL: Tampa Bay Rays (2.17), Kansas City Royals (1.97), Cleveland Indians (1.63), Toronto Blue Jays (1.30), Oakland A’s (1.11), Texas Rangers (1.04), Detroit Tigers (0.90), Baltimore Orioles (0.81), Seattle Mariners (0.78), Los Angeles Angels (0.62), Chicago White Sox (0.61), Minnesota Twins (0.56), Boston Red Sox (0.56), New York Yankees (0.48).

NL: Arizona Diamondbacks (1.75), Pittsburgh Pirates (1.57), San Diego Padres (1.55), Florida Marlins (1.27), Washington Nationals (1.26), Milwaukee Brewers (1.12), Cincinnati Reds (1.04), Atlanta Braves (1.02), St Louis Cardinals (0.85), Colorado Rockies (0.83), Houston Astros (0.79), Los Angeles Dodgers (0.79), San Francisco Giants (0.73), New York Mets (0.64), Philadelphia Phillies (0.59), Chicago Cubs (0.57).

Verlander wins AL Cy Young award

Justin Verlander was the unanimous choice for the 2011 AL Cy Young award. That Verlander would win was almost a given having won the pitching Triple Crown; the only competition was for second place. What will be very interesting to see is whether Verlander can also win the AL MVP next week. I think he ought to. I can’t think of anyone who did more for a team than he did. Certainly from the standpoint of a Royals fan he was the player, pitcher or position, that I least wanted to see in an opponent’s starting IX. There are always arguments over whether a pitcher should be able to win the MVP, but I don’t think there is no reason why a pitcher shouldn’t be more valuable than a position player. Even if a pitcher only starts once every five days he can go much farther to winning that game than a position player. I would like to see more pitchers win MVP.

Hoz finished third

Eric Hosmer came third in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. Jeremy Hellickson, of the Rays, won and Victor Trumbo came in second. Hellickson had a 2.95 ERA and 13 wins for the Rays, and it’s very difficult compare pitching and batting stats so it’s a fair choice. It’s amazing that Trumbo got more votes than Hoz though. Trumbo hit .254 for the Angels, 39 points behind Hoz and had only eleven more RBIs in over a month’s more games. Hoz also had more hits and runs scored than any other AL rookie.

On the bright side, Hoz got more votes than Ivan Nova, so the voters aren’t hopeless.