Futures Game Photos - Round 2

Here is my second update of Futures Game Photos.  Got some good ones of Yordano Ventura, some more of Wil Myers (notice a trend here?), and some other top prospects you may have heard of.  Enjoy.

Yordano Ventura

Yordano Ventura

Topps should pay me to put this on Ventura's baseball card

Futures Game Photos

For All-Star Sunday I made my way out to the Futures Game where I got to see Jake Odorizzi, Yordano Ventura, and Wil Myers all play and represent KC and the future of the Royals.  My seats were excellent and as such I was able to get a bunch of good pictures.  I got most of them of the Royals prospects but a few others sprinkled in as well.  There will be more to come.

Wil Myers

Buck 100

New 610 Post alert.  Recently, I had the pleasure of talking to Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro League Baseball Museum while on the Royalman Report.  Bob was able to share some stories about Buck and give us the heads up on events coming up this weekend for the Buck 100 events they are planning on having.  It was a special show and the Buck 100 events are going to be great for the Negro League Baseball Museum and Kansas City itself.  Head on over to 610 to read the post here:

http://www.610sports.com/pages/11209444.php?pid=179876

You can listen to the podcast and find all you want to know about the Royalman Report and how to follow the podcast here:

http://kingsofkauffman.com/podcast/

Why 'Moneyball' is Still Relevant

With the release of ‘Moneyball’ (my review should come through in the next few days on The Reeltime Report) this coming weekend there has been a spike in interest in the whole Sabermetric debate.  The Sabermetric debate of course, has always been between the difference of what’s on paper with what’s seen by the “scout’s eye.”  Somebody may be hitting for a high average, but the kinds of pitches they are getting are not what they can plan on seeing consistently.  Adjustments can be made by all players to counteract success, yet the numbers don’t lie, if somebody is hitting a high average with a high on-base percentage (OBP), then they’re helping their team.  Around and around we go.

People who aren’t into baseball statistics and find them confusing and/or annoying (I’m looking at you Jason Whitlock), have decided to take this opportunity to talk about why statistics are ruining baseball.  According to Whitlock Sabermetric honks have “conspired to remove much of the magic and mystery from baseball.”  His inherent point is that the fan loses the “fun” aspect of being a baseball fan if everything can be explained away in numbers.  His argument is that he doesn’t need On-base Plus Slugging to tell him that Albert Pujols is one of the greatest hitters of all time, he doesn’t need WHIP (walks + hits per inning pitched) or xFIP (expected fielding independent pitching) to tell ham that Justin Verland can throw the baseball.