(on the right, Mr. Klaw. He might not be tanned, but he’s certainly rested and ready)
After an impressive start to the 2013 season, Kansas City has lost 10 home games in a row, last night’s 4-1 defeat to St. Louis being their 18th defeat in their past 21 games. Asked by the KC Star’s Bob Dutton if Royals players were being held accountable, manager Ned Yost had a curious response :
“What are you asking me to do?” he asked. “Take my belt off and spank them? Yell at them? Scream at them? What do you want? These kids, every day, we go through the process. We’re talking constantly about approach.
“Do we need to make changes? This can’t continue. Somewhere down the road, yeah, we’re going to have to make some changes.”
While the Royals’ (co)-hitting coach Jack Maloof suggests the home venue is a source of frustration (“There is just no reward here (for us) to try and hit home runs,”), Royals Review’s Clark Fosler is unimpressed with that particular excuse (“the same stadium where the opposition has hit 32 home runs to the Royals’ 11. The same stadium that was there last year and the year before and the year before that”)
There is not one of us who didn’t know 10 years ago that Kaufmann was a doubles hitter’s paradise and a home run hitter’s nightmare. Although it should be pointed out that the Royals are just 18th in doubles and, in unrelated news, have grounded into more double plays than all but five other teams in baseball (one of those the Marlins, who may or may not count).
Congratulations, Dayton Moore. Your young lineup doesn’t hit. Your manager is a snippy, condescending public relations disaster and your lead hitting coach just figured out that it is hard to hit home runs in Kaufmann Stadium