By WalkerThat’s it. Season is over. The Kansas City Royals lost their season opener to the Detroit Tigers. Is it football season yet? OK, OK people, calm down….step away from the edge of the Liberty Memorial…put down the switch blade you won at the Cole Camp Fair 10 years ago….. the sun will come up tomorrow. The Royals are fine. If anything this is actually a good marker to gauge our team against a major World Series Contender.First off: We went toe to toe with Justin Verlander...and knocked him out of the game with a 3-1 deficit in our favor. Two: The big bats got to him. Salvy was 3-3 off of him, Alex Gordon drew a lead off walk from him, and scored, and Eric Hosmer never got cheated. Billy Butler had a hit and another that was just tucked right into the defense. This is a good sign.Three: “Big Game James” and the 11 other nicknames Rex Hudler gave him looked good. I mean bulldog good. He pitched to contact early in innings then went power pitching as needed. And the change-up was at his side like his trusty old dog “Blue” for the whole game.Four: Moose wasn’t overmatched, and that was a fear of everyone. He hung in on some good Verlander curve balls, which seemed to be a team approach, as everyone had a good approach (except the top two, but I will get into that later).And lastly: The most optimistic thing of the year…..Esky drew a walk! That’s right. Hell has frozen over, the cows have come home, and Elvis has left the building. Alcides Escobar is on pace for 162 walks (almost 1 1/2 times more than his career number).Now the bad…..New Guys: The top of the order (and only new additions to the line-up) were pressing. Nori Aoki only struck out 40 times last year. Verlander got him twice. And he looked terrible on both. Omar Infante looked timid, and not ready at the plate. I worry he was rushed back due to a lack of other legit options.The Bullpen: As I stated in my Spring Training Review. These guys are not as good as last year. With Luke Hochevar on the DL we lost a strong presence in the late innings…one we missed today! Due to this fact the Royals had to go to our closer in an non-save opportunity to put out a fire….which he failed at.#Yosted: I hoped with Dale Sveum and Don Wakamatsu helping run things Ned Yost and his poor decision making would be neutralized. But with a sinker baller pitching, a strong ground ball candidate at the plate, and some world class arms and gloves on the infield, Ned pulled the infield ALL the way to the cut. Escobar has an incredibly strong arm, and lots of range. Why minimize these tools by having him in that far. Half depth is enough for him. And if he were back I think he gets that ground ball and throws out the pinch runner Tyler Collins. That’s my take. Hind sight is 20/20 after all.Where do we go from here?
We line ‘me up and go right at them again Wednesday. Vargas vs. Scherzer. Another day game, another chance to show off this squad. We are hanging with what a lot of people are predicting as the A.L.s best team. I think we will be fine. After all 161-1 is still a record!!!!I will leave you with a cool link a Royals Blue fan sent me today that should perk you up just a bit!!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-BjqDBNWCbc
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