Welcome to another, albeit different, edition of Slanted Sabr. My weekly column is usually based on numbers and metrics, however, today’s edition will run on pure gasoline as I spew venom towards some of the things in baseball that have been irking me lately, especially over this past week.
Mike Moustakas and Billy Butler
Let’s start with the Kansas City Royals and this whole “Mike Moustakas debacle”. First off, let me state that in no way am I defending Moustakas and his terrible, bottom-feeding numbers on offense. He has been brutal all year (.148/ .218 /.313 and a negative .1 fWAR) and deserves every negative that has been hurled his way. But if you are silly enough to believe that Mike Moustakas is the reason the Royals can’t score any runs, then shame on you. Also, if you have turned a blind eye to Billy Butler and his alarming decline on offense than you have no room to talk about Mike Moustakas.
The Royals sent the Moose down last week in hopes of turning around his mind-numbing start to the season. But behold, a mere 8 days later he was back starting a game against a left-hander–nice accountability in the Royals organization right there. Sure, send a guy down for 8 days and then have him come back up and start against a left-hander–mind you, Moustakas has hit .063 against lefties all year. Way to build his confidence up! And that is just one of the many problems I have with the Royals so far this year.
How about that contract year that Billy Butler is putting up, huh? These kinds of numbers just demand big dollars on the open market, right? Butler is slashing a robust .249 / .301 /.307 and has hit 1 home run in 229 at-bats. He has scored 21 times and driven in 21 runs and is pacing at a negative 0.9 fWAR.
But remember, it’s all Mike Moustakas’ fault, right? Baseball fans are funny sometimes. I’m sure that most Royals fans are giving Butler a free pass this year based on his previous years, but for the Royals all players need to be held accountable, this year especially. This was supposed to be the year the Royals dethroned the Tigers and, if it wasn’t for a piss poor American League Central division, the Royals would probably already be out of striking range from the Tigers.
Wrapping up on the Royals… You wanna diss Mike Moustakas? Go for it. He deserves it, but at least be fair and sling some arrows towards Butler as well. I mean at least Mike Moustakas plays in the field and contributes on defense where he is an above-average defender. Tell me the positive impact that Billy Butler has had on the Royals this year? Crickets, baby.
The Tampa Bay Rays
Now let’s roll right along to the Tampa Bay Rays, a soft spot for me as regular readers know. The Rays are my favorite team and nobody has been more saddened and disappointed by their start so far than me. I keep waiting for them to flip the switch and get the season going, but then I have to witness Erik Bedard start game after game and watch the offense score less than a World Cup Soccer team. It’s baffling, really.
Joe Maddon has always been able to press the right buttons but this year has been the most challenging year I can ever remember for the Rays. They just can’t do anything right, and every player should be held accountable including David Price, Evan Longoria and Wil Myers.
Price has been decent so far for the Rays, but not the team-carrying ace that they so desperately need. I don’t talk about nor post win-loss records–I’d rather slam my head in a car door than talk about wins and loss records–but Price has thrown 84.1 innings so far this year at a 4.27 ERA / 3.24 FIP / 2.82 xFIP rate. His K/9 Rate is 9.60 and he walks less than 1 per 9 innings. David Price is the ace of the staff and will have to be darn near unhittable the rest of the way if the Rays are going to get going.
The offense behind him has been pretty bad and it’s rather alarming when you look at the slow months of May that Evan Longoria and Wil Myers had. Longo suffered through a .237 / .304 /.325 month of May and only had 8 RBI yet scored 16 runs. That just is not going to cut it for a team that is obviously challenged right now. Wil Myers was even worse in May going at a .210/.304/.350 clip and only driving in 14 runs while scoring 12. These two are the Ray’s best players on offense and should be driving in runs and it has obviously been a huge challenge and downfall so far this year. I understand that the season is young and Tampa has suffered a rash of injuries and Wil Myers has just hit the disabled list, but this team is running out of time and something has to give very soon or this season is going to end up in the toilet.
Red Sox and Rays Fight Club
Speaking of toilets, let’s dive in to the atrocious actions of the Red Sox , most notably Mike Carp and David Ortiz after this past weekend’s escapades with the Rays. And let me just clear the air real quick before I get accused of being a slappy or favoring the Rays in this argument–I have little problem with the Red Sox being upset at Yunel Escobar for stealing 3rd in a game where the Rays were up 5 (If you live in a cave and missed any of this, click here). I personally see no problem with what Yunel did and, if the Red Sox didn’t like it, they should not have allowed it to happen. I get that the Red Sox think it was cheap but in the same regard, they would have done the exact same thing given the opportunity. The American League East is a dog fight and every game, every at bat and every base, counts.
I also have no issue with David Price drilling David Ortiz. Ortiz is a showboat and somebody who clearly thinks he is better and bigger than the game. Last year in the playoffs he pimped two home runs against the Rays and literately took 47 seconds to run the bases in one of those games. It’s unacceptable as baseball fans to give a guy a free pass because he took a city under his wing. We all love what Ortiz has done for the city of Boston and how he basically told terrorists and evil doers to piss off and that Boston was ‘our bleeping city’. I get all that. He’s good for Boston but bad for the game. Period. Ortiz had his karma coming to him from his home run walks and got it firmly planted in his backside from Price. So all sides are even now. Be men and move on from it.
That leads us to Brandon Workman throwing behind Evan Longoria and the comments made from David Price over the weekend (again, rock-dwellers click here) . I have no issue with Workman throwing at Longoria. He threw behind him and that was that. What I do have issue with is that little rat, Mike Carp, attempting a career ending slide on Yunel Escobar (here again, rock-dwellers) and the fact that not one national media member seems to want to comment on how cheap and pathetic Mike Carp and the Red Sox are for attempting such a dirty play. In fact, Mr. Red Sox himself, Ken Rosenthal, wrote a column today about how David Price is immature and how Ortiz has earned the right to pimp his home runs. Wait, so it’s okay to take 47 seconds to round the bases but God forbid Yunel Escobar steal 3rd base in a 5 run game?
It is highly laughable to me that people are ignoring the Carp slide and blaming the Rays for any of the nonsense that has gone on lately with these two teams. David Price hit David Ortiz in the small of his back and it obviously had no lingering effects on Ortiz. Carp went for the knockout slide on Escobar and could have ended his career, yet because the Red Sox are obviously in more favor with the media and the brainwashed fans around baseball, we all turn a blind eye to Carp and blame the Rays for everything. Good logic, folks. You all stay real classy.
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