I'm not in the locker room, but for the first month of the season, it just feels like this team has been pressing. And that's perfectly understandable. Coming off a breakthrough season with all that positive momentum, there was a lot of pressure to keep it rolling and build on it. Getting off to a fast start felt like a priority to this team— of course every team wants get off to a good start, but I'm talking something extra here— and when it didn't happen, the team doubled down on that and pressed even more, determined not to let it get out of hand. Predictably, this made matters even worse, especially on the hitting side, which had less of a proven pedigree than the rotation overall.
I'm not saying their issues at the plate are as simple as lightening up— when it comes to big league hitting, nothing is ever that simple— but I do think that's been part of it. There's still a lot of progress that needs to be made in season ***stares intently at Michael Massey*** but it's starting to feel like Vinnie is finding his groove, Salvy's picked it up, and Waters has injected some new blood into the order since MJ's demotion. Hopefully, this winning streak is helping them all relax a bit, which will only improve their play moving forward. I mean, the offense can't be this bad all season long, can it? As you and many others have pointed out, when it comes to a lot of these guys, they may not be perennial All-Stars, but there is statistical evidence they're better than this.
Anyway, I've been interrupted several times while typing this (the risks of reading a baseball newsletter at work!) and I feel like I'm either rambling or losing my thread, so I'll wrap it up. As fans, I feel like we've been pressing to start the season as well, and at least for me, it took some of the joy away from watching the first few weeks of the season. During this winning streak, however, it feels like baseball is fun again. Hopefully, players and fans can now take a deep breath, relax a little, and take on the rest of season in a looser frame of mind. Because, after all, baseball should be fun.
You make some great points about pressing, both for players and even for fans. People gave up in mid-April just 20 games into a 162-game season. The football analogies are a little played out but that's the equivalent of giving up on an NFL team after ~two games.
"Baltimore claimed former Royals LHP Walter Pennington off waivers after he was designated for assignment by Texas, which acquired Pennington in last summer’s swap with Kansas City for Lorenzen."
I remember when folks were whining about how we gave up (another) reliever that should have been on the major league roster. Another great trade by JJ...to say nothing about how he has re-shaped the back-end of our bullpen in the last 12 months!
Nobody bats a thousand on the trade market, but JJ has done very well since he took over. It's been a refreshing change of pace from DM, just that JJ is willing to make deals— DM kept saying the Royals needed to be more "transactional," but he could never pull the trigger— but JJ's success rate has played a huge role in this team's turnaround.
100% agree on JJ's success rate in the trade market, and this isn't to take anything away from him, but I would trade a "relief prospect" for a Major League arm 999 times out of 1,000. That's just good process.
I'm not in the locker room, but for the first month of the season, it just feels like this team has been pressing. And that's perfectly understandable. Coming off a breakthrough season with all that positive momentum, there was a lot of pressure to keep it rolling and build on it. Getting off to a fast start felt like a priority to this team— of course every team wants get off to a good start, but I'm talking something extra here— and when it didn't happen, the team doubled down on that and pressed even more, determined not to let it get out of hand. Predictably, this made matters even worse, especially on the hitting side, which had less of a proven pedigree than the rotation overall.
I'm not saying their issues at the plate are as simple as lightening up— when it comes to big league hitting, nothing is ever that simple— but I do think that's been part of it. There's still a lot of progress that needs to be made in season ***stares intently at Michael Massey*** but it's starting to feel like Vinnie is finding his groove, Salvy's picked it up, and Waters has injected some new blood into the order since MJ's demotion. Hopefully, this winning streak is helping them all relax a bit, which will only improve their play moving forward. I mean, the offense can't be this bad all season long, can it? As you and many others have pointed out, when it comes to a lot of these guys, they may not be perennial All-Stars, but there is statistical evidence they're better than this.
Anyway, I've been interrupted several times while typing this (the risks of reading a baseball newsletter at work!) and I feel like I'm either rambling or losing my thread, so I'll wrap it up. As fans, I feel like we've been pressing to start the season as well, and at least for me, it took some of the joy away from watching the first few weeks of the season. During this winning streak, however, it feels like baseball is fun again. Hopefully, players and fans can now take a deep breath, relax a little, and take on the rest of season in a looser frame of mind. Because, after all, baseball should be fun.
You make some great points about pressing, both for players and even for fans. People gave up in mid-April just 20 games into a 162-game season. The football analogies are a little played out but that's the equivalent of giving up on an NFL team after ~two games.
I didn't know/see this:
"Baltimore claimed former Royals LHP Walter Pennington off waivers after he was designated for assignment by Texas, which acquired Pennington in last summer’s swap with Kansas City for Lorenzen."
I remember when folks were whining about how we gave up (another) reliever that should have been on the major league roster. Another great trade by JJ...to say nothing about how he has re-shaped the back-end of our bullpen in the last 12 months!
Nobody bats a thousand on the trade market, but JJ has done very well since he took over. It's been a refreshing change of pace from DM, just that JJ is willing to make deals— DM kept saying the Royals needed to be more "transactional," but he could never pull the trigger— but JJ's success rate has played a huge role in this team's turnaround.
100% agree on JJ's success rate in the trade market, and this isn't to take anything away from him, but I would trade a "relief prospect" for a Major League arm 999 times out of 1,000. That's just good process.