The Royals

[sys]

didn't someone post an article about how all of cueto's problems lately were because his cutter decided to suck for a bit?  so no big, deal, they fix the cutter and he's back to ace city.  worst case scenario he just doesn't throw the cutter if it's an important game.

[AppleJack]

I'll be at the K too 

[Cartierfor3]

guys its teh ge night at the k we never could pull off

[Cartierfor3]

http://grantland.com/features/2015-mlb-kansas-city-royals-dayton-moore-division-champion/

"To those of us who have lived and died with this franchise for the last 30 years, this is all very confusing — almost as confusing as rooting for a team that’s resting its regulars for the playoffs with five weeks left in the season. That the Royals are the anything of baseball is disorienting enough. For a generation, the Royals were props, redshirts existing only as plot devices. That they are now central characters in baseball’s drama is heady enough; that they are regarded as villains is icing on the cake. Your favorite team can inspire worse emotions than hatred. Pity, for instance."

[AppleJack]

 

[mocat]

They appear a lock to win 90 games for the first time since 1989, which would make them the first team since the 1919-25 Philadelphia A’s to increase their win total six years in a row.

 

[ksupamplemousse]

Is Ventura this good right now if we didn't get Cueto?

Dave Eiland gave some good insight into why Ventura has been so effective lately and why he was so bad earlier on in the season. He was terrified of throwing inside and hitting someone, causing more brawls. He was afraid that his teammates would hate him. Lately he has calmed down and grown more confident in owning the inner half of the plate, regardless of the consequences. If I had to label what kind of problem that is, I might label it "mental", even though I was assured by others on this board that it was mechanical and that mental issues don't exist in sports. Maybe it would have even been good to send him down to a lower level of baseball where he could work on that without so much pressure.

Short answer: Yes, Cueto has absolutely nothing to do with any of this.

[kso_FAN]

http://grantland.com/features/2015-mlb-kansas-city-royals-dayton-moore-division-champion/

"To those of us who have lived and died with this franchise for the last 30 years, this is all very confusing — almost as confusing as rooting for a team that’s resting its regulars for the playoffs with five weeks left in the season. That the Royals are the anything of baseball is disorienting enough. For a generation, the Royals were props, redshirts existing only as plot devices. That they are now central characters in baseball’s drama is heady enough; that they are regarded as villains is icing on the cake. Your favorite team can inspire worse emotions than hatred. Pity, for instance."

So good.

[mocat]

Is Ventura this good right now if we didn't get Cueto?

Dave Eiland gave some good insight into why Ventura has been so effective lately and why he was so bad earlier on in the season. He was terrified of throwing inside and hitting someone, causing more brawls. He was afraid that his teammates would hate him. Lately he has calmed down and grown more confident in owning the inner half of the plate, regardless of the consequences. If I had to label what kind of problem that is, I might label it "mental", even though I was assured by others on this board that it was mechanical and that mental issues don't exist in sports. Maybe it would have even been good to send him down to a lower level of baseball where he could work on that without so much pressure.

Short answer: Yes, Cueto has absolutely nothing to do with any of this.

LOL

[AppleJack]

I'll be in the Gordo Nation seats this evening. And in and around Craft & Draft

[joda]

I was always in the camp of Ace's problems being mental, and while I think some of it was just returning to what he did last year, I do think Cueto coming in helped that happen. He's been hearing all season (and even some of last postseason) about how he's the bad guy and his cockiness and swagger make him the villain, etc. Then Cueto comes in and he sees someone who has carried that cockiness and swagger for quite some time now and used it to become one of the top trade targets at the deadline. Then to make it even better it happens to be a guy from his home country who was already chummy with Volquez and it all lines up to help restore his confidence.

Obviously it's impossible to tell either way if he'd be pitching this well without Cueto, so I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the fun that is a confident Ace.

[Dub]

The clubhouse chemistry debate.  Is it real?

[ksupamplemousse]

Cueto must be a way better mentor than Volquez. Probably took some kind of motivational speaking course or something.

[TownieCat]

Cueto must be a way better mentor than Volquez. Probably took some kind of motivational speaking course or something.

Not trying to downplay Volky's career, but his stat sheet is nowhere close to Cueto's. That matters. It also never hurts to have multiple mentors.

[ksupamplemousse]

Cueto must be a way better mentor than Volquez. Probably took some kind of motivational speaking course or something.

Not trying to downplay Volky's career, but his stat sheet is nowhere close to Cueto's. That matters. It also never hurts to have multiple mentors.

It never hurts to have the juice that comes with being very successful, especially in influencing other people, but let's not act like Volquez is some kind of chump. If Ventura couldn't see that Ed had obviously found a very successful formula over the past couple of years, then he's rough ridin' stupid. I don't think that though. I think Dave Eiland was probably telling the truth, and the only thing really wrong with Ventura is that he got the yips when he was asked to throw inside and it was starting to affect his entire performance.

[Belvis Noland]

Cueto must be a way better mentor than Volquez. Probably took some kind of motivational speaking course or something.

Not trying to downplay Volky's career, but his stat sheet is nowhere close to Cueto's. That matters. It also never hurts to have multiple mentors.

little nugget - Volky is better this year than Shields was last year. 

[ksupamplemousse]

Cueto must be a way better mentor than Volquez. Probably took some kind of motivational speaking course or something.

Not trying to downplay Volky's career, but his stat sheet is nowhere close to Cueto's. That matters. It also never hurts to have multiple mentors.

little nugget - Volky is better this year than Shields was last year.

Cueto was probably calling Shields and telling him what to say #lifecoach

[TownieCat]

Cueto must be a way better mentor than Volquez. Probably took some kind of motivational speaking course or something.

Not trying to downplay Volky's career, but his stat sheet is nowhere close to Cueto's. That matters. It also never hurts to have multiple mentors.

little nugget - Volky is better this year than Shields was last year.

Totally agree. But of those 3 pitchers, Volky has had the least hype by far. I love Volky but he doesn't have the same buzz about him as Shields or Cueto.

[ksupamplemousse]

Cueto must be a way better mentor than Volquez. Probably took some kind of motivational speaking course or something.

Not trying to downplay Volky's career, but his stat sheet is nowhere close to Cueto's. That matters. It also never hurts to have multiple mentors.

little nugget - Volky is better this year than Shields was last year.

Totally agree. But of those 3 pitchers, Volky has had the least hype by far. I love Volky but he doesn't have the same buzz about him as Shields or Cueto.

Hype/buzz is much more for fans than players. I mean, you can't suck and expect to have your advice taken very seriously, but you don't have to be the best player on the team to have your advice heeded by other players.

[mocat]

everybody shut up

[star seed 7]

Is Ventura this good right now if we didn't get Cueto?

Dave Eiland gave some good insight into why Ventura has been so effective lately and why he was so bad earlier on in the season. He was terrified of throwing inside and hitting someone, causing more brawls. He was afraid that his teammates would hate him. Lately he has calmed down and grown more confident in owning the inner half of the plate, regardless of the consequences. If I had to label what kind of problem that is, I might label it "mental", even though I was assured by others on this board that it was mechanical and that mental issues don't exist in sports. Maybe it would have even been good to send him down to a lower level of baseball where he could work on that without so much pressure.

Short answer: Yes, Cueto has absolutely nothing to do with any of this.

Can someone mspaint this post with that douchebag brown hat meme on top of it. tia

[ksupamplemousse]

That was certainly a constructive post.

[joda]

Volky and Cueto also have different styles. When he's on Cueto just exudes bad ass mothafucker. That's much more in line with the persona Ace takes on than Volky.

[ksupamplemousse]

By the time Ventura and Cueto were probably able to even develop a casual relationship, Yo's problems were ironed out. Baseball is not an instantaneous game. Problems take a long time to fix usually. Especially ones that last as long as Yo's did this year. The theories amongst our fanbase really show how little our fanbase generally understands the game of baseball.

[kslim]

everybody shut up

god damn this. calm down people