In recent years, there has been a new game slowly croppingup as a regular pastime of not only Americans, but of people all over theworld. It is the game of poker. In many ways, poker very much resembles thegame of baseball. Today we will look atsome of those similarities.
First, anyone that follows baseball knows that there is animmense amount of strategy that is required in playing baseball. Many times, you have to think on the fly andtake into account not only the ability of your players, but also those of theother team. Poker is much the sameway. Every time a poker player sits downto the table, they have to not only play according to their strengths andweaknesses, but also to the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents.
Also, players must be able to think on the fly in a pokergame. Every hand can present a uniquesituations and they must be constantly evaluating their opponents. Think about Baseball for a moment. A good manager can spot when their player ora player on an opposing team is struggling or not playing their best game. Adversely, they can spot when a player isstreaking. Poker players have to be ableto make these same types of decisions on a daily basis, and sometimes multipletimes during a game depending on how many players trade out from the table.
Next, poker and baseball both have long periods ofinactivity followed by fierce action. For example, if you read sites like Pokerlistings.comand others during a final table, youwill see hand after hand where there is a simple raise and fold. This goes on for hours sometimes. Then, all of a sudden a big pot can brewbetween two players and the fans really get into it. The same happens when a player goes all-infor his tournament life and gets called. The fans erupt into cheers and get on their feet to find out what thehands are and where their favorite players stand.
The above are just a few ways that poker and baseball aresimilar. It should come as no surprisethat some former Major League players like Orel Hersheiser and Jose Cansecohave taken up the game on a serious level, from taking stage on the World Series to the World Series of Poker. Poker will likely never become the nationalpastime like baseball has, but it is a game that is enjoyed by Millions andwill continue to grow in popularity.
Retro got the signing thread up at Royals Review, and Will will be writing something this evening, but I had to get this off my fucking chest.
Today Dayton Moore signed Yuniesky Betancourt to a one-year Major League deal worth $2.0MM with another $500K in additional playing time incentives possible. Betancourt is supposed to be the veteran utility infielder that the Royals have quite publicly stated they've needed. The one who "can play shortstop."
Great.
Color me ecstatic.
If there was anything in the Royals' history with Yuniesky Betancourt that suggested that they were in any way, shape, or form able to accurately evaluate who Betancourt is as a player, perhaps one could convince me that he won't see playing time more than once or *gasp* God forbid twice a week. In a vacuum, this wouldn't be the worst thing possible.
Unfortunately there has been nothing in their nauseating history with one another that contradicts this legitimate concern.
No one who is reading this needs me to explain who Betancourt is as a player. To call him a poor defensive shortstop would be kind. To qualify him as anything other than a poor offensive shortstop would only be short-selling his modest power which comes at the expense of his exceptionally poor judgment of the strike zone.
Over the past three seasons, Betancourt has compiled -0.7 fWAR. One could accuse me of cherry-picking those three years because the first of the three (2009) saw him put up -2.1 fWAR thus negating the worth of his two ensuing seasons of 0.9 and 0.5 fWAR. One would also be discounting the fact that he put up a season with -2.1 fWAR.
This is a player who hasn't had a season in which he has been at least One Win Above Replacement value since 2007 despite the fact that he played in 150+ games in all but his truly abysmal 2009 campaign. He will now be paid $2MM to back up three positions. That $2MM would be worth roughly half a win on the free agent market, a value that Yuniesky Betancourt would struggle to give the team if he were playing full time. He cannot ably play the key position that the team wants him to be able to play. His career UZR/150 is -8.1.
Furthermore, the bigger risk is that his playing time comes at the expense of Alcides Escobar, Johnny Giavotella, and Mike Moustakas. Naysayers will point to the fact that Ned Yost doesn't remember he has a bench--Mitch Maier can corroborate that statement--but the far-from-zero-percent chance remains Betancourt could see significant playing time at the expense of those players.
But really, the most damning aspect of this signing is that Dayton Moore and Company have deemed Yuniesky Betancourt a player that belongs on this team. They saw him play for nearly a season-and-a-half and, even after getting rid of him, decided that he would be a viable option to back up the left three positions on the infield. There is nothing in his last four seasons that suggests this. He has never played an inning at third base in the Majors. He hasn't played an inning at second base since 2005. His bat plays even worse at these other positions. His average arm plays worse at third. His poor work ethic soured Seattle on him, so much so that they were on the verge of non-tendering him when Dayton Moore decided that he had to have The Yunicorn. His mental lapses on the field are well-documented (just click on his name at the bottom of this post). His complete lack of a professional approach at the plate is mind-numbing. There is virtually nothing to like about the package that is Yuniesky Betancourt.
Well, except for plus hands. And plus hands.
Godfuckingdammit.
To put this all much more succinctly, as I tweeted earlier this evening:
The Yuni signing makes me wish that I'd been aborted.
So a fella who goes by the handle MrNegative1 over at Royals Review (where I also do some Royals writing, as nearly every one of you should be aware) posted this clip from MLB.com. The man whose visage has adorned this site from its beginnings is seen talking about being a Royals fan.
As for other content, I do have a couple of things conceptualized. Some Equating Your Royals to a Character in The Wire pieces have been on the back-burner, and I've got another piece that I've been meaning to write but will require quite a bit of research that extends well past baseball. I will get to these when time allows for it. Until then, keep an eye out. Become a fan on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter. You'll find out as soon as they're up.
As Paul Rudd is and has been in the header photo here since Royalscentricity's inception*, it's only fitting that I (as were others, apparently) was approached about this video with Paul Rudd and Rob Riggle debating whether Rob should buy a jet pack or Royals season tickets.
*What a crap movie...
Now unless you are on a quest to re-enact each and every episode of Arrested Development in their entirety and have already procured the Godzilla costume, it seems reasonable that season tickets may not be the worst option. I mean we're not talking about a hoverboard now, are we?
Here's the video:
If I lived in KC (and were wealthy), I'd totally buy tickets just to see Jesus H. Christ manning first night-in and night-out.
Attention Royals dudes and dudettes: Just because I can't go to Royals games, doesn't mean you can't.
For free.
The following comes courtesy of Jay Buerck at StorageMart:
Planning on going to an upcoming Kansas City Royals Game? Why not go for free with tickets from StorageMart of Kansas City? StorageMart is giving away tickets throughout the remaing season to 4 games. The great thing about this giveaway is how simple it is to win tickets to games in August, and September.
Visit the StorageMart Kansas City Facebook page, Click Like, and pick the winner of the game between the Tigers, Red Sox, Indians, or White Sox. It couldn't be easier to win! The dates and opponents remaining for the tickets StorageMart are as follows:
August 7, 2011 vs. Detroit TigersAugust 21, 2011 vs. Boston Red SoxSeptember 4, 2011 vs. Cleveland IndiansSeptember 18, 2011 vs. Chicago White Sox
As the dates approach be sure to check out StorageMart of Kansas City's Facebook Page for your chance to win. While the season may be lost, it is still a great time to check out the future of the Kansas City Royals. The future certainly looks bright with Moustakas and Hosmer manning the corners!
Clearly, free tickets to Royals games are awesome. Why are you still here? Go there. Now.
For those unfamiliar with this series, this is the fourth installment. The previous four entries in the series can be found at the links or you can follow the series tag at the bottom of the entry: Joakim Soria, Dayton Moore, and Chris Hayes. I am also going to do something I have refrained from doing, and that is post this both here and at Royals Review, as the series did start there, and there is a very small segment of the populace that would not happen across that were it only posted here.
If ever there were a piece in this series that screamed out for the comparison to be drawn, it would be the one between Donald Zackary 'Zack' Greinke and Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski.
For the uninitiated, there are only five seasons. 60 hours. Call into work (you've got to have the death of a grandparent that you haven't used to get out of work at your current job, right?), tell them that you will be in next week, and get to work. Then, come back here.
Back? Good.
Our introduction to Roland Pryzbylewski is seeing him accidentally discharge his firearm into a wall in the basement digs that the Barksdale Detail is set up in. He has been dumped on Lieutenant Daniels by Lt. Cantrell from the casualty division, who is casting off the dead weight that is Detective Pryzbylewski as fast as he possibly can. In fact, he is so happy to be rid of Prez that he is willing to part with Det. Leander Sydnor to make it all right by Daniels. Shortly after being place in Daniels' charge, Prez pistol-whips a 14-year-old wiseacre, blinding him in an eye.
If looking for parallels in the form of Zack Greinke's career, one need look no further than his 2005 campaign and the ensuing withdrawal from all things baseball. After showing a little promise in his rookie campaign, Zack Greinke spends his 2005 struggling mightily. Granted, these struggles seem a lot more pronounced if one were to ignore the fact that much of his trouble is the product of a .067 swing in BABIP in the wrong direction and a drop in LOB% of 15.2 points from the prior season. The fact remains that Greinke finishes the 2005 season with an ERA of 5.80 and 17 losses, two things which, when combined with playing on a truly abysmal 106-loss team, disturb him so deeply that he walks away from the game. Perhaps his struggles stem from undesirable environs or perhaps a screw is less than tight, but there is little cause for hope and plenty of reason to suspect that he is beyond repair.
Thanks in large part to the fact that he's married to Commander Valchek's daughter, Prez is effectively protected from any substantive harm that should come to him. Without the aid of Valchek's political omnipresence, Prez is off the force. Instead, he gets relegated to administrative duty, sitting on the sidelines while the rest of the Barksdale Detail rolls in on their first ultimately pointless drug raid.
Typically, electing to walk away from the game would spell the end of a career, but much like Pryzbylewski, Greinke has someone watching over him, making sure he has a place with the team: Allard Baird. Baird assures that his young, troubled player has a home with the club. While Greinke joins the Double-A Wichita team for its 2006 playoff run, his former teammates are closing out yet another 100-loss season.
As Prez sits on the sidelines doing administrative work, his talents begin to shine through. A man who had been an incompetent detective suddenly finds himself in an environment in which he could thrive. Under the tutellage of Det. Lester Freamon, he sees how to do proper police work. Throughout the rest of the investigation, Prez comes into his own, shining given the new opportunity in a fresh setting with a set of duties much more suited to his skill set. It is actually Prez's work that gives the Detail their first break in the Barksdale case, as he cracks the pager codes and deciphers the street-level short-hand.
Greinke returns to Kansas City in 2007 and shortly finds himself thrust into the role of a reliever. It was as a reliever that he was able to become comfortable again at the Major League level. Under the tutellage of Bob McClure, his oft-credited mentor, Greinke learns how to actually pitch, not just throw. Thrust back into the rotation at the season's end, there is cause for hope. As 2008 unfurls his first full season as a starter since 2005), Greinke finally seems poised to live up to his vast potential.
When the second season picks up, Pryzbylewski is adrift without the work on the Barksdale detail. He lets his father-in-law Valchek know that it was the work on the Barksdale Detail that seemed to give his job meaning, and Valchek, having his own ax to grind, commissions his own detail to torpedo a rival for personal reasons. Prez's work with the unit proves invaluable as he takes on more responsibility, but he and Valchek come to blows as the investigation evolves into a much more complicated case in which Valchek's endgame ceases to be the primary thrust of the case. Prez decks Valchek after being berated and shoved in front of the unit and is only saved from insubordination and assault charges by Daniels.
Greinke's 2009 is a season of legend. One that does not need to be expounded upon here. Just as Greinke has become the pitcher everyone thought he could and all seems well through the middle of the 2010 season, he grows frustrated with the state of the franchise and spouts off about how the rebuild would not be in time to help him. His reaction to an untenable situation is understandable but is not necessarily in his best interests.
In the third season, all seems to be going well with Pryzbylewski until he mistakenly shoots a plain-clothes African-American officer, setting off a delayed race relations nightmare for the department. Unable to come to terms with the accidental shooting, Pryzbylewski quits the force despite the support of his African-American brethren.
Greinke remained quiet for a while but in December shot his mouth off for the last time, undermining the efforts of the team to maximize the return they got for him. He got traded shortly thereafter, jettisoned from Kansas City.
When season four picks up, Prez has begun teaching at an inner city school. Things are rocky at first, but Mr. Prezbo takes to the job after a rough patch. It is soon evident that this is his calling, as he tries to take Dukie Weems under his wing. He has a way with the kids that is surprisingly effective. Things can be rough, of course, but it seems like things might just work out for Roland Pryzbylewski.
In a new setting and a different league, Greinke gets off on the wrong foot, injuring himself playing basketball in the offseason. He slowly begins to settle in as a Brewer. His performance seems to have been as well as he can do, but the system defense behind him sets him up for an uphill struggle. His 6.19 K/BB is second best amongst starting pitchers in baseball. His 11.99 K/9, the best. Unfortunately, the deck is stacked against him, and his ERA sits at 5.45, 3.30 higher than his xFIP. He is better suited toward playing in the National League on a team with a chance to contend, but his support system seems like it might try to undercut him.
Clearly the comparisons between Roland Pryzbylewski and Zack Greinke are many, but they are not limited to the narrative arc that each person's life happens to take. Both men are socially awkward and what could aptly be described as weird dudes. Prez is the type of guy who sat listening to "Brown Sugar" over and over to decipher the opening lyric Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields / Sold in a market down in New Orleans. Zack would rather eat Chipotle than legendary KC barbecue and hated lunch time more than anything in school. Neither seem particularly comfortable in their own skin, at least as young men. This makes each man stick out as against type in their respective fields. Prez's struggles could be said to have stemmed from his overcompensation for not being cut from the same cloth as most police. With what we know (or at least think we know) of Zack Greinke, he does not have the personality of your typical professional athlete.
Much like Pryzbylewski, we can see Zack Greinke in what might be a better setting for him. But as he is out there, doing that for which he might be best suited, he does it for someone else. The longer he stays at it, the more distant the memories of what he has done become. He may pop up from time to time, but each time we see him there is less and less that is recognizable to us.
Hello, friends. Obviously, my duties at Royals Review (along with life in general) have slowed the already turgid pace of content coming out here to a total standstill. My apologies for that.
Having had the chance to see the Omaha Storm Chasers Royals for a fourth time this season, there is one issue that lingers when projecting the 'prospects' to the Major League roster. How the hell is Johnny Giavotella's glove going to play anywhere? In the four games I've seen, he spent three nights brutalizing his pitchers with his atrocious defense at second, and a fourth night blowing two grounders in an atypical game at third.
While one could spend days wondering what Giavotella was doing playing third base in the first place, there has been nothing in his defensive performance in an admittedly small sample size of games seen that indicates that he has even a serviceable glove to this writer. He doesn't seem to have decent range. Routine grounders make their way to the outfield all too often. Grounders get booted with disturbing frequency.
It is clear that the Royals have a gaping hole at second in Kansas City. Mike Aviles seems deadset on giving Moore & Co. cause to send him down. Chris Getz is anything but the future of the franchise at second. The one aspect of Giavotella's game that gives one hope is his bat, which is expectantly light on power, but with his suspect defense, can he stick in the bigs?
