Tag / Zach Greinke

by admin

Royals All Time Leaders – Through 2025

To paraphrase from a famous movie, the one constant through all the years has been baseball.  With less than two weeks until the start of the 2025 season, we continue our look at the all-time leaders in both offensive and defensive categories for all 30 teams. Today, we take a deeper dive into the Kansas City Royals.

The Royals began life in 1969, joining the American League following the abandonment of the Kansas City market by the A’s following the 1967 season.  I’ve seen 277 players wearing the Royal blue in the 68 games I’ve seen them play, first in 1985 at old Comiskey Park where Willie Wilson took a throw to second base off the noggin, to last June, where Kyle Teel made his major league debut and picked up his first major league hit.

Home Runs

Name Total
Salvador Perez 10
Alex Gordon 6
Eric Hosmer 5

Hits

Name Total
Salvador Perez 36
Eric Hosmer 31
Billy Butler 30
Alcides Escobar 30

Runs

Name Total
Alex Gordon 17
Alcides Escobar 15
Salvador Perez 14

RBI

Name Total
Salvador Perez 28
Whit Merrifield 19
Billy Butler 16

Doubles

Name Total
Alcides Escobar 10
Salvador Perez 7
Whit Merrifield 6
Billy Butler 6
Alex Gordon 6

Triples Continue reading →

by admin

Royals All Time Leaders – Through 2019

royalsWith baseball now officially on its way back after the corona virus, I thought it would be an interesting time to look back at the all time leaders in both offensive and defensive categories for all 30 teams. We continue today with the Kansas City Royals.

The Royals began life in 1969, joining the American League following the abandonment of the Kansas City market by the A’s following the 1967 season.  I’ve seen them play 55 times, first in 1985 at old Comiskey Park where Willie Wilson took a throw to second base off the noggin, to last April, where I saw them in an early season series at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Home Runs

Name Total
Alex Gordon 6
Eric Hosmer 5
Salvador Perez 5

Hits

Name Total
Eric Hosmer 31
Billy Butler 30
Alcides Escobar 30

Runs

Name Total
Alex Gordon 17
Alcides Escobar 15
Billy Butler 13

RBI

Name Total
Whit Merrifield 17
Billy Butler 16
Salvador Perez 15

Doubles

Name Total
Alcides Escobar 10
Billy Butler 6
Alex Gordon 6

Triples Continue reading →

by jim

2015 BBWAA Award Predictions

MLB: Cincinnati Reds at Los Angeles DodgersThe Baseball Writers of America have announced the finalists for their awards for the just completed baseball season.  It is a good bet that few of my original predictions for the winners will be accurate.  Hopefully, these new predictions will be slightly better, especially since I’ll have a 33% chance of being right.

American League

Most Valuable Player: Lorenzo Cain, Josh Donaldson, Mike Trout

Mike Trout, who won last year’s award, was my pre-season selection to win again this year. While I think Josh Donaldson will get plenty of support, I’m going to stick with Trout to win.

Cy Young Award: Sonny Gray, Dallas Keuchel, David Price

Well, the one year I didn’t pick David Price as my pre-season pick, he makes his way into the top 3.  That said, I’m thinking Dallas Keuchel, of the upstart Astros, will take home the award.

Manager of the Year: Jeff Banister, A.J. Hinch, Paul Molitor

Once again, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season.  The three nominees all lead surprising teams into contention for most of the year.  My guess is A.J. Hinch wins the award for leading the Astros to the post-season for the first time since 2005.

Rookie of the Year: Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor, Miguel Sano

Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season.  This one should be a no-brainer, with Carlos Correa taking home the award.

National League

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by admin

2015 Predictions Revisited

baseballs2Six months ago, as the 2015 baseball season was scheduled to kick off at Wrigley Field, I made my annual predictions as to who would win what.  Now that the regular season has come to an end, it is time revisit those predictions and see what, if anything, I got right.

American League

East: Blue Jays

After a middling first half, the Blue Jays turned things around after the All Star break, especially after acquiring David Price and Troy Tulowitzki at the trade deadline, earning them their first division title since 1993.

Central: Indians

Well, I correctly predicted the end of the Tigers reign after four seasons, but I wrongly assumed that the Royals would regress after their World Series appearance last year.  Instead, they went and ran away with the AL Central crown while the Indians struggled to stay out of the cellar.

West: Angels

It came down to the final day, but the Rangers, who finished in last place in 2014, managed to hold off the Astros and the Angels to win the division.

Wild Cards: Tigers, Mariners

I completely missed the boat here, as both teams failed to live up to their pre-season expectations.  The Yankees return to the post-season and so do the surprise Astros.

AL Champion: Angels

Cy Young: Felix Hernandez

MVP: Mike Trout

Only one of these seems like a possible choice at this point, with Mike Trout the frontrunner for the MVP award.  The Cy Young award is up in the air at this point.

National League

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by admin

Goodbye To The Q

Former White Sox outfielder Carlos Quentin, who finished 5th in MVP voting in 2008 despite missing the final six weeks of the season with a broken wrist, announced his retirement after 9 seasons.  After being released in spring training after being acquired by the Braves in a trade, Quentin had been playing with the Mariners’ Triple A club, but was hitting only .176 in 17 at bats.

After spending parts of the 2006 and 2007 seasons with the Diamondbacks, Quentin was acquired by the White Sox in a December 2007 trade.  He earned the nickname “The Carlos Quentin” after general manager Kenny Williams was quoted saying that the team’s goals for the winter meetings were to “acquire Carlos Quentin, and not a guy like him but actually Carlos Quentin.”

Quentin played immediate dividends, breaking through in a big way for the 2008 White Sox.  He was leading the American League in home runs and was third in slugging percentage, OPS, and RBIs when he broke his wrist following a strikeout against Cliff Lee.  The injury likely cost him the MVP award, and certainly impacted the White Sox as they battled the Twins for the AL Central title before eventually losing to the Rays in the ALDS.

Quentin continued to struggle with injuries for the remainder of his White Sox career, never appearing in more than 131 games.  A shoulder injury ended his 2011 season, and his White Sox career, at the end of August.  That December, just over 4 years since he was acquired, Quentin was shipped to the Padres.

In 3 years with the Padres, injuries continued to plague Quentin, as he failed to appear in 90 games in any season.  His most famous (or infamous) moment with the Padres was the April 11, 2013 brawl against the Dodgers, where he broke Zach Greinke’s collarbone after being hit by a pitch.

This spring, Quentin was traded to the Braves, who promptly released him.  He had signed on with the Mariners in the hopes of working his way back to the major leagues, but his history of injuries had finally caught up to him and caused him to call it a day.

Quentin’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

Continue reading →

by jim

2012 Predictions Revisited

Exactly six months ago, I looked into my crystal ball and tried to predict the outcomes of the upcoming baseball season.  Now that the season has come to an end, and half of my predicted divison winners are headed home instead of the playoffs, let’s take a look back at how things unfolded.

American League

East: Yankees

The Yankees went down to the wire, not with the Red Sox as expected, but with the surprising Orioles.

Central: Tigers

After picking up free agent Prince Fielder, the Tigers were expected to run away with the Central division.  Instead, they underachieved much of the season and battled the overachieving White Sox for most of the season.  However, a late season collapse by the White Sox offense helped the Tigers take the division.

West: Angels

The Angels just may have been the biggest disappointment in the league this year. After dropping over $330 million in one day on Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, the Angels were expected to be at the top of the heap this year.  Unfortunately, things just did not work out and, even with the addition of rookie of the year shoo-in Mike Trout, the Angels were unable to make a serious run and finished in third place, behind the surging A’s, who swept the Rangers in the last series of the season to take the division title.

Wild Cards: Rays, Rangers

The Orioles and the Rangers will face off in the first wild card play-in game.

National League Continue reading →

by jim

2012 Predictions

Continuing the tradition started last year, here are my picks for the upcoming baseball season.

American League

East: Yankees

Central: Tigers

West: Angels

Wild Cards: Rays, Rangers

AL Champion: Angels

Cy Young: C.C. Sabathia

MVP: Albert Pujols

National League

East: Braves

Central: Brewers

West: Giants

Wild Cards: Phillies, Dodgers

NL Champion: Braves

Cy Young: Zach Greinke

MVP: Jason Heyward