Royals Game Recap: 5/14/14

*I am going to try my hand at a different type of writing with this post. In an effort to provide more content, I would like to write about things that are perhaps a little bit less research-intensive. Game recaps fit that mold nicely.

                The Royals are officially on a winning streak (3 games!) after Wednesday’s 3-2 win over the Colorado Rockies. With the win, the Royals climb ever so slightly back above the .500 mark for the season to 20-19 and maintain their 2^nd place position in the AL Central.

Yordano Ventura, Fire and Flame

          Yordano Ventura, he of firebreathing properties, burnt the aquatic Tampa Bay Rays to a crisp yesterday evening. Unfortunately, Chris Archer shot down the flailing Royals offense, too, so nobody did anything on offense until the starters exited the stage. Pitcher’s duels aren’t without their merit, though. Given that Yordano Ventura is the most-hyped Royals pitching prospect since probably Zack Greinke, it seems fitting to overanalyze and overreact to Yordano’s* performance last night.

*Ventura’s nickname appears to be “Ace Ventura”, but in keeping with Royals tradition, I’m sure Ned Yost will refer to him as “Yordy” at some point, if he hasn’t already.

Yankees Free Agent Target

          When in the course of MLB free agency it comes time to hand out contracts, the Yankees have been in the habit of needing more than one person to hand out those contracts, both due to size and length of the contracts. All those papers get heavy. During the past offseason, the Yankees signed famed Rising Sun hurler Masahiro Tanaka to a contract with more zeroes in it than the G00gle; 155 million of them, to be exact. Tanaka does not have the résumé to justify such zeroes.

Greg Holland and Arbitration

              With the Royals signing Greg Holland to a contract, Dayton Moore’s perfect record of never going to arbitration remains. There is a fun Twitter account dedicated to finding Facebook posts by Royals fans and re-tweeting them; posts are chosen for various reasons, but they usually relate to ignorance about some generally accepted or known baseball practice or ignorance about baseball statistics and value. After Holland’s signing, many posts were related to how giving Holland a 1 year contract is completely unfair to him. For those who may not know, I’d like to explain a little bit about baseball’s compensation structure to give more context around Holland’s signing.

Bronson Arroyo, Royals a Fit

                As we get closer to the beginning of Spring Training, Bronson Arroyo still doesn’t have a current employer. In each of the past two years, Arroyo has thrown over 200 innings and has had an ERA under 4.00 despite poorer peripherals. Given his durability, why hasn’t he found a home? Maybe it’s because the Royals haven’t jumped on the opportunity yet.