Seattle: 66-61
Kansas City: 48-78
| MARINERS | ROYALS |
EDGE | |
| HITTING (wOBA) |
-73.6 (27th) |
-85.5 (30th) | SEA |
| FIELDING (UZR) |
56.4 (2nd) |
-42.1 (29th) | SEA |
| ROTATION (pRAA) |
-19.5 (23rd) |
39.4 (9th) | KCA |
| BULLPEN (pRAA) |
-24.0 (29th) | -12.9 (23rd) | KCA |
| OVERALL(RAA) |
-60.7 | -101.1 | Seattle |
Thank you Oakland, for playing like your record would have you seem to play. And welcome, Kansas City, a team who is just as bad as their record indicates.
In the 20 games since we last previewed the Royals, Yuniesky Betancourt has a .778 OPS with three triples and five walks. However, he's now down to a -8.6 UZR in just 315.1 innings with Kansas City, a remarkable -32.2 UZR/150 rating.
Game 1: Doug Fister vs. Kyle Davies
Game 2: Felix Hernandez vs. Brian Bannister
Game 3: Ian Snell vs. Gil Meche
Game 4: Ryan Rowland-Smith* vs. Zack Greinke
Kansas City's bullpen is bad and their hitters are atrocious, but their rotation is decent and unlike last time around, we're getting the full brunt of it. Kyle Davies sucks, but Brian Bannister is a legitimately good pitcher this year, Gil Meche is roughly average with the potential to be really good and Zack Greinke is amazingly awesome with the potential to be a beautiful monarch butterfly.
And even though it's a well above average group, the four starters we face will all be right-handed which means perhaps some relief for Russell Branyan and Michael Saunders as well as some possible time off for Bill Hall, hopefully an Ichiro! return and a whole lot of Monsieur Griff.
At stake in this series is not only Robert's danglers, but also a possible first overall draft pick standing. The Royals "trail" the Nationals by 3.5 games (with Washington currently playing and winning) for the worst record in the Majors right now, a winning series against the Mariners would be disastrous for them at this critical juncture.
2 recs | 39 comments
I predict we will split and Robert will go into on game playoff mode.
Poochie - August 27, 2009
When is Tui! getting called up?
Robert - August 27, 2009
Never because he sucks ass
Poochie - August 27, 2009
I got dirty glares at the Rainiers game last week for yelling at him to be more like his brother
And about 5 different “Which one” from the other people around me.
Robert - August 27, 2009
Pfft.
Leslie and Ashley.
msb - August 27, 2009
Sunday is a loss
It is one of my last 6-pack games.
msb - August 27, 2009
If only our ugly, depressed caterpillar would evolve into a beautiful butterfly.
.Taylor - August 27, 2009
Silva?
The Typical Idiot Fan - August 27, 2009
I was thinking Snell, but that works too, I guess.
.Taylor - August 27, 2009
He is not ugly
Dewey N - August 27, 2009
We have the edge in hitting!
Fuckmikereilly - August 27, 2009
I can't believe I have to go back to rooting for Boom Boom and Meche
Robert - August 27, 2009
But on the bright side GO BANANA
Robert - August 27, 2009
I have bad news
Poochie - August 27, 2009
Yay
Dewey N - August 27, 2009
I'm liking 3 out 4 here
Robert - August 27, 2009
You think Felix is going to lose to Brian Bannister in a non-day game?
.Taylor - August 27, 2009
ESPN is that you?
Kirk - August 27, 2009
Hey, the man destroys in day games. What can I say?
.Taylor - August 27, 2009
So if you add up the contributed bRAA of players who are basically no longer on the team
Wlad, Yuni, Burke, :Cedeño, Chavez, Quiroz, and Woodward, you get almost -60 bRAA.
Manzanillos Cup - August 27, 2009
Their replacements haven't been lighting the world on fire either.
Matthew - August 27, 2009
Yeah, and the outcasts probably weren't actually -60 bad talent-wise either.
Theoretically, it seems like our offense now is better than a .321 wOBA though. No?
Manzanillos Cup - August 27, 2009
So this is what is gonna happen
Mariners sweep
Twins sweep Rangers – 3
Tigers sweep Rays – 4
Red Sox lose today, swept by Blue Jays – 4
So now the Wild Card standings look like this:
Boston: Lead
Texas: 2.0 GB
Seattle: 3.5 GB
Tampa Bay: 4.0 GB
But oh no, that just isn’t enough After the Athletics sweep the Angels, Jay Buhner puts himself back into the spotlight and says “Fuck the Wild Card”. The Mariners sweep the Angels, pulling off 10 games in a row and ending up 3 games behind the Angels.
You guys can thank me later for my awesome, without a doubt, going to happen predictions.
OceanBird - August 27, 2009
You are retarded
Robert - August 27, 2009
I'd prefer magically gifted
Like an A’s fan.
OceanBird - August 28, 2009
If we end up 10.5 back in the Wild Card on September 1st I'm blaming you.
ThundaPC - August 27, 2009
Is RRS getting screwed by scheduling or what?
He had to square off against Halladay when the M’s faced the Jays, and now he’s going up against Greinke, arguably the two best pitchers in the league.
Of course, he did out-pitch Halladay, though…GO HYPHEN!!!
I Lick Squirrels - August 27, 2009
He did get to face Washburn.
Rudy4three - August 27, 2009
Thats like playing street fighter two, and having Chun Li go up against Chun Li
joof - August 27, 2009
Thank you for that.
Two Rs and Two Ls - August 27, 2009
It's amazing to look at Yuni's scores in Tom Tango's fan fielding survey.
Mariners fans rate Yuni unequivocally horrendous, but Royals fans see him as average.
One day they’ll learn.
Llewdor - August 27, 2009
Ummmmm
I find Yuni to be a terrible ballplayer, as do most of the other guys at Royals Review.
ratherfantastic - August 27, 2009
You're an anecdote.
Tango has survey data.
Llewdor - August 27, 2009
Average in the survey (position neutral)
doesn’t mean average at SS. It still says he is a pretty lousy fielder
Edgar for Pres - August 27, 2009
Rec'ed for "Robert's danglers"
CMC_Stags - August 27, 2009
Now he can't bitch about not getting recs for series previews
seattlebruin - August 27, 2009
I can't believe that my testicles got referenced on the front page of a major baseball blog.
Robert - August 28, 2009
I wonder if Felix reads LL
Robert - August 28, 2009
Adrian Beltre probably feels the same way.
Joe Meower - August 29, 2009
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