It’s week three of the I70 Baseball Royals Power Rankings, as we basically reach the end of the first quarter of the season. This was an up and down week that ended at 2-4. There are many years that 2-4 in California wouldn’t sound that bad and neither would 20-20.

#5 Billy Butler (Previously: NR) Butler finally broke loose with his best series of the season against the Angels. In the series Butler went 8/13 with a home run and 9 RBI. His contact numbers still aren’t on par with his standards but he’s now on pace for 20 home runs and 120 RBI.

#4 Ervin Santana- (Previously: #5) Santana bounced back with an excellent outing against the A’s in what would be one of three wasted gems on the road trip. His control continues to be remarkable and his 1.46 BB/9Ip is fifth in the American League.

#3 Jeremy Guthrie- (Previously: #2) Guthrie finally took the loss that we had been expecting and just doesn’t look quite as sharp as he did earlier in the season. A part of that is just the fact that very few pitchers are as sharp as Guthrie was early all year long. He’ll get a chance to start a new streak this week vs. Houston.

#2 James Shields- (Previously: #3) Shields continues to move up the rankings despite the fact that he simply cannot buy a win right now. After another outstanding start Shields now ranks 6th in the AL in ERA, 8th in Ks, and 3rd in inning pitches. No one that ranks ahead of him in ERA or innings has less than 5 wins.

#1 Alex Gordon (Previously: #1) Gordon’s 4 hit day on Sunday capped off another outstanding week. He’s on pace to break all kinds of Royals’ records including Willie Wilson’s single season hit record of 232. He carries a 7 game hit streak to Houston and has multiple hits in 20 of the team’s first 40 games.

Honorable mention: Salvador Perez- Perez has yet to show much power in 2013 but he’s been hot at the plate the last week. His nine hits on the week raised his average to .307 on a team that struggled mightily at the plate. Perez has still been a beast on behind the plate as well save for the couple of mental lapses we’ve seen this season.

The St. Louis Cardinals suffered the first crack in their best-in-baseball starting rotation Sunday when they placed Jake Westbrook on the 15-day disabled list with elbow inflammation. The team decided to give Westrbook’s start to rookie John Gast, but they might have been better off to let a more experienced pitcher fill that role.

Joe Kelly made his Major League Baseball debut in similar circumstances last season after Jaime Garcia suffered a shoulder injury in June. Kelly went on to make 16 starts and post a 4-6 record with a 3.53 earned-run average, overall.

Although he didn’t have a winning record, Kelly did an admirable job filling a hole in the rotation last summer. He pitched six or more innings in all but three of his starts, and the Cardinals offense scored two or fewer runs in five of his six losses, and they scored just three in the other.

Kelly moved to the bullpen when Garcia returned in September and pitched well. He allowed just two runs in six appearances, but he also had a consistent workload by pitching about every third day. Manager Mike Matheny has significantly dropped his workload this season, and it’s shown in his results.

Kelly pitched twice in the Cardinals’ season-opening series in Arizona against the Diamondbacks, but he pitched only six more times the rest of April and had the fewest outings for any Cardinals reliever.

And then he imploded when the Cardinals did bring him into ballgames. He has allowed 10 runs in 11.2 innings pitched, but he’s also appeared in just three games in May. Perhaps a bigger role would help him get comfortable again and start to pitch better.

That’s also why a move to the rotation might help. Kelly would be guaranteed to pitch every fifth day, and he would be able to extend his pitch total well beyond what he gets as a member of the bullpen. He hasn’t thrown more than 27 pitches in an appearance this season, and that could quadruple if he moved to the rotation.

Plus, the Cardinals management wouldn’t have to hold its breath with another rookie on the mound to start a game.

Gast has been good for the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds. He’s 3-1 with a 1.16 ERA in seven starts this season in the minors, but there is always an unknown factor that comes into play when a rookie makes a start, and they often don’t pitch very deep into a ballgame.

The Cardinals might have left Kelly in the bullpen because they don’t want to force him to shift between starting and relieving if Westbrook comes back soon, but that shouldn’t be much of a problem since Kelly bounced between the rotation and bullpen last season and worked as a starter in spring training because he was in contention for the fifth spot in the rotation with Shelby Miller.

The Cardinals have even set a precedent for bringing up young pitchers this season when they brought Seth Maness and Carlos Martinez up from the minors. Both of those pitchers went straight into the bullpen and have done well.

Martinez gave up three runs Sunday to the Colorado Rockies in his third appearance, but he had not allowed a run and given up just one hit in his previous two outings. Meanwhile, Maness already has two wins, has allowed just one hit hasn’t walked a hitter in 3.1 innings through three outings.

Martinez and Maness could certainly become starters at some point in their career, yet the Cardinals will still send Gast to the mound while Martinez, Maness and Kelly sit in the bullpen.

Maybe Gast will be great and pitch the way Kelly and Lance Lynn did last season as fill-in rookie starters when they went a combined 23-14 with a combined 3.66 ERA.

But if he’s not, the Cardinals will have wasted games by hoping yet another rookie will do well in the rotation while Kelly sits in the bullpen.

The Cardinals brought an end to a brief slide over the weekend with a series win over the Cincinnati Reds. Despite still not getting the offense going on all cylinders, the strong starting pitching staff continued to hold the fort down in the mean time. After dropping the first game of the series 2-1, club surrendered only three runs over the next two contests to pull itself out of a three-game losing streak, and back atop the National League Central.

Yet, as the club moves back onto the road for a four-game series in Milwaukee beginning this evening, they are grinding out wins in an efficient style, but are still giving the vibe that there is more to come. They finished the home stand at an even 3-3, and take back to the road where they have a NL-high nine wins on the year. Yet before that gets underway, let’s look at three deciding factors in the series that just was against their toughest recent rival:

1. Lynn-sanity: Lance Lynn would be a sprinter’s favorite pitcher. For the second year in a row, he’s opened up a season 5-0. And while he doesn’t have last season’s insane 1.60 ERA that he carried through April, he’s on currently enjoying the best stretch of his career to date. Over his last three starts, he is sporting a 0.85 ERA, surrendering only two earned runs over his last three starts, which have each gone seven innings. Over this same stretch, he’s surrendered only eight hits and eight walks, and has not surrendered a home run since April 15.

However, what’s most telling for Lynn is how much better he’s controlled the ballgame via his work rate. In his first three starts, he crossed over at least 94 pitches in each start, despite not getting out of the fifth inning. Now he is staying at a slightly higher pitch count (averaging 107 per outing), but he’s going two innings longer, and working at a much more efficient rate. Efficiency is what escaped Lynn throughout the late stages of 2012, and half of the first month of the year. While the results of his last few outings aren’t sustainable throughout a full year, the more economical approach is, and that is the next step in Lynn’s evolution as a starting pitcher.

2. Freese Frame: 2012 has not been David Freese’s year so far. After starting the spring swinging a very good bat, he was sidelined by a back injury that kept him out of action through the beginning of the regular season. So far, it’s like he hasn’t shown up yet either. He is hitting only .163 on the year through 49 at-bats, with only two extra base hits. Freese has been held out of the lineup the last two games, and could continue to be out of the everyday lineup while he works out his slump. Whether it’s the fact he’s never quite mended from the injury, or is just plain having the worst breaks possible, him breaking out of his issues is key to the offense balancing out.

3. Stressing the Division: The Cardinals are faring well inside the NL Central thus far. They are tied with Pittsburgh for the most wins inside the division with eight, but they have had particular success with the Reds so far. They have outscored the Reds 26-19 on the season, while working to a 4-2 record early on. Yet looking inside of that breakout doesn’t tell the true story of the Cardinals dominance over the Reds so far. The Reds scored all but six of those runs in one game, and otherwise the Cardinals have dominated the series thus far. The Cardinals have only lost one series at home on the season, and have gone 32-3 vs. the Reds in their last 35 series in St. Louis.

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Jaime Garcia is one of the most dominating pitchers on the team when everything around him is satisfactory. When it’s not, a team such as the Philadelphia Phillies can tag him for eight runs in three innings, as they did Friday in Philadelphia.

Garcia has struggled on the road throughout his career. He has a 15-12 record with a 4.40 earned-run average in road games, but he is 20-11 with a 2.45 ERA in his career at Busch Stadium where he is more familiar with the surroundings and can comfortably prepare for a game the same way every time.

But one more change might have factored into Friday’s poor performance. Regular catcher Yadier Molina had a day off for the first time all season. Tony Cruz got the start instead.

So without his regular home routine and normal catcher, Garcia gave up eight runs on nine hits and two walks. Sure, third baseman Ty Wigginton made a throwing error in the first inning to make four of their eight runs unearned, but four of the Phillies hits went for extra bases, so Garcia got hit around regardless.

Unfortunately, Garcia has too many of those nights, and that keeps him from being one of the better pitchers on not only the Cardinals, but in Major League Baseball.

He has the stuff. He throws his fastball in the low 90s with movement, he has a knee-buckling curveball and owns a changeup that is as good as any top-tier left-handed starter in the game. And when he has those pitches working correctly, he has the potential to throw a no-hitter.

But he also has nights when he can’t command those pitches and simply gets crushed.

That has been the main problem Garcia has fought throughout his five-year career. He looks like a pitcher who can dominate, and at times he does, but mind games tend to get in the way of him being a consistent pitcher who can fill a spot near the top of the rotation.

The problem is Garcia now has five years of big-league experience, and he hasn’t been able to get over those issues.

The Cardinals are aware of these issues. They’ve even manipulated the rotation in recent years to try to minimize the times Garcia has to pitch on the road.

And while it’s great his team is trying to help him out, Garcia has to get past those concentration issues at some point or he is going to become the next Oliver Perez, a left-handed starter who came up with the San Diego Padres in 2002.

Perez, who is now a reliever for the Seattle Mariners, had electric stuff when he debuted and even posted a 2.98 ERA with 12 wins for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2004, but his inconsistency kept him from being Johan Santana or any number of other great left-handed starters.

For the most part, Garcia has had a good start to his 2013 season. He pitched well in spring training after recovering from a shoulder injury and started this season well in his first start on the road. He held the Arizona Diamondbacks to one run in 5.2 innings April 2 in Phoenix and then made two solid starts at home before the Phillies shelled him Friday.

Maybe Molina’s absence had more to do with the poor outing than anything, or perhaps he simply had an off night. All pitchers do. But Garcia is going to have to get beyond those relatively minor differences in each start if he is going to not only help the Cardinals in 2013, but also live up to his long-term potential.

Fourteen games in, the Royals are 8-6 and only a half a game out of first in the A.L. Central. Overall, the team is playing well, but so far they’ve given up 18 home runs, which is fourth in the A.L. and 6th in the Majors. Meanwhile, they’ve hit just five home runs, which is last in the A.L. and 29th in the Majors, just ahead of the woeful Miami Marlins with only three team home runs.

Of the 18 home runs given up, the starting rotation gave up 13, with Jeremy Guthrie (5 HR) and Ervin Santana (4 HR) being the top offenders. The bullpen gave up five homers, with Kelvin Herrera giving up three of them, all in one inning of Tuesday night’s game against the Atlanta Braves.

Of the 18 homers given up, 15 are solo shots, two are two-run homers and one is a three-run homer. In the games the Royals didn’t give up a home run, they’re 4-2. In games where they only gave up solo shots, they’re 3-2. In multi-run homer games, they’re 1-2. What’s interesting are the games where the opposing team hit multiple solo home runs in a game. In those games, the Royals are 2-1.

So why is the Royals pitching staff giving up so many home runs? For Guthrie, it appears he throws a bad pitch once in a while and hitters take advantage of it. So far, he’s 2-0 with a 3.20 ERA with 17 strikeouts and three walks, giving him a 5.67 SO/BB ratio.

Over his career, Santana has a tendency to give up homers and he’s keeping true to form. But he’s got a 2.45 ERA and he’s struck out 19 batters while walking five, giving him a 3.80 SO/BB ratio.

As for Kelvin Herrera’s three homers he gave up, the Royals think he tipped his pitches when he gave up his three home runs against Atlanta. Herrera is a fireball pitcher and they tend to give up home runs.

While the Royals are giving up a lot of home runs this season, how does it compare to last season? In the first 14 games of 2012, the Royals gave up 14 home runs, seven of which were solo shots, six were two-run homers and one was a three-run homer. When they didn’t give up any home runs, they went 2-5. When they only gave up solo homers in a game, they were 1-1. When they gave up a multi-run homer, they were 0-5. Meanwhile, the Royals hit 12 home runs, seven more than this year. But after 14 games, they were 3-11 and in the middle of their 12-game losing streak. Compared to this year, the 2012 Royals gave up more multi-run homers, their team ERA was 4.66, they struck out 105 batters and walked 51, which gave them a 2.06 SO/BB ratio.

The 2013 Royals team ERA is 3.30, which is third in the A.L and fifth in the Majors. They have 122 strikeouts, which is third in the A.L. and fourth in the Majors. The Royals gave up 33 walks, which is second best in the A.L. and fourth best in the Majors. This gives the Royals an impressive team 3.70 SO/BB ratio. Yes, the Royals pitching staff gives up home runs, but otherwise they’re pitching well.

But how long can the Royals pitching staff keep up their low ERA and SO/BB ratio? So far, the Royals are lucky, mainly giving up solo home runs. But they can’t run on luck all season. If they start walking more batters and throwing less strikeouts, more runners will get on base, which increases the chance of multi-run homers. Pitching coach Dave Eiland needs to work with the pitching staff and cut down on the home runs. Meanwhile, hitting coaches Jack Maloof and Andre David need to get the offense hitting more home runs. If this doesn’t happen, the 2013 season could end up being like the 2012 season.

What a difference a week makes. After starting 0-2, the Royals won their third game against the Chicago White Sox. Next, they took two of three from the Phillies and swept the Twins in three games. Now the Royals are 6-3 and first place in the A.L. Central. The offense is scoring runs, the defense only has one error and the starting rotation is pitching well, despite giving up a combined nine home runs.

But the anchor of the bullpen, Greg Holland, isn’t pitching well. In four games over three innings, Holland faced 20 batters and threw 82 pitches, 43 of them strikes. He gave up five hits, four runs, six walks and five strikeouts. Last Saturday, he blew a save against the Phillies by walking three and giving up a walk-off double. Last Tuesday night against the Twins, Holland threw 27 pitches and faced six batters in the rain before getting his second save.

Royals manager Ned Yost hasn’t gave up on Holland and it’s not time to panic yet, despite Holland’s trouble finding the strike zone. Early last year, an injured rib cage affected his performance. After Holland recovered, he posted a 2.08 ERA and became the Royals closer after the Royals shipped Jonathan Broxton to the Reds. If Holland continues to struggle, Yost has a good backup closer in Kelvin Herrera, who’s fared well this season.

Wade Davis isn’t struggling like Holland, but his first two starts haven’t been stellar. In last Friday’s game against Philadelphia, Davis only pitched four innings, throwing 76 pitches, facing 19 batters and giving up nine hits, and four runs, two of those home runs. He also struck out two and didn’t walk anybody. The Royals ended up winning the game 13-4, so his performance didn’t hurt the team. For his second start, Davis pitched five innings, throwing 96 pitches, giving up four hits and three walks. But he struck out six and held the Twins scoreless, getting the win.

Davis needs to adjust to the starting rotation after pitching out of the bullpen with the Tampa Bay Rays last year. His next couple of starts will show if Davis becomes an effective starter or is better suited as a reliever.

After the 0-2 start, it’s good to see the Royals playing well and leading the A.L. Central. And Holland and Davis’ issues are minor. But the Royals have tough upcoming series against the Toronto Blue Jays and the Atlanta Braves, followed by the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers. It’s not getting easier for the Royals and the team’s success may depend on the performance of Holland and Davis.

ROYALS CHARITIES PARTNERS WITH ROYALS GROUNDS CREW FOR HOME RUNS FOR HUNGER ON NOVEMBER 10

Event Gives Fans Opportunity to Participate in
On-Field Batting Practice by Donating Canned Food Items to Harvesters 

KANSAS CITY, MO (October 19, 2012) – As the holiday season nears, Royals Charities and the Kansas City Royals Grounds Crew are hosting the first-ever Home Runs for Hunger event at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday, November 10.  Fans who donate canned food items or make a cash donation to Harvesters-The Community Food Network will have the unique opportunity to take batting practice on the field and shag fly balls in the outfield.

Fans can secure one swing against a pitching machine on the Kauffman Stadium field by donating three non-perishable canned food items or by making a $2 contribution.  There will be a maximum of 20 pitches per participant.  Batters will be entered into a drawing for autographed memorabilia for each home run hit.

Fans will also have the opportunity to shag fly balls in the outfield for 15 minutes by donating $25.  Participants are responsible for bring their own gloves for outfield shagging.  The Royals will provide bats, baseballs and helmets for the event.

Home Runs for Hunger will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (weather permitting).  Please note that children must be at least 48” tall to participate, and all children under the age of 17 will need a waiver signed by a parent or guardian.

As fans enter Kauffman Stadium, Royals staff will be on hand to collect canned food items and donations and will give each participant a number indicating the hitting order and respective number of pitches and/or shagging time.  Family and friends are welcome to attend and may watch from the seating bowl.

Complete details on the event are available at www.royals.com/homerunsforhunger.

Fans who are unable to attend but wish to make a monetary donation may send checks to Royals Charities at One Royal Way, Kansas City, MO 64129.  Please note in the memo of the check that it is for Home Runs for Hunger.

As the area’s only food bank, Harvesters has been helping people in need since 1979.  The Harvesters network includes more than 620 nonprofit agencies throughout a 26-county service area, including emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, children’s homes, homes for the mentally disabled and shelters for battered persons.  Harvesters can feed five people for just $1 and provides food assistance to as many as 66,000 different people each week.

When St. Louis Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter surprisingly returned to the mound Friday to make his first meaningful pitches since Game 7 of last year’s World Series, the Cardinals chances to win playoff games jumped substantially – if they get there.

With #29 healthy, the Cardinals could throw a rotation of Carpenter, Adam Wainwright and Kyle Lohse in the playoffs. On paper, that is a better rotation than the Cardinals had even last year when they won the World Series.

Carpenter is coming off of surgery to fix thoracic outlet syndrome that people expected to prevent him from pitching at all this season. But Carpenter threw five innings and gave up two runs on five hits Friday against the Chicago Cubs before the Cardinals blew the lead and lost 5-4 in 11 innings. But if that’s how Carpenter throws the first time out, he could be back to a strong seven innings by the time the playoffs begin.

Since Carpenter is returning from injury, the Cardinals might use him third in the rotation, but that could be a bonus. The team could throw Wainwright or Lohse in any combination of the Wild Card game Oct. 5 against the Atlanta Braves and then the start of the Division Series. Those two pitchers have a combined record of 28-16 with a 3.37 ERA, and Lohse is in Cy Young award contention with his 15-3 record and 2.71 ERA.

All of a sudden the Cardinals could match-up well against teams they might face in the Division Series. The problem is games such as Friday in Chicago when the team can’t score enough runs and can’t protect leads when it has them.

The Cardinals are 20-26 in one-run games this season, and much of that record has come from the bullpen’s inability to hold a lead, as it failed to do again Friday.

That has perhaps been the most frustrating part of the 2012 St. Louis Cardinals. The starting pitching has been superb for the most part and has kept the team in most every game this season. There have been very few games when the Cardinals got crushed because the starting pitcher was terrible. However, the team has not been able to lock down games at the end, and while the bullpen deserves plenty of blame, the rest of the team isn’t helping.

For example, the Cardinals left the bases loaded in the second inning after scoring one run in Saturday’s 5-4 10-inning win over the Cubs. They also left men on first and third in the sixth and eighth innings without scoring a run. In total, they left 13 runners on base.

That lack of the big hit to take control of a game has been a problem all season. Even though the Cardinals ended April with a 14-8 record, they could have had a much better month.

“We could have had an epic month, and it turned out to be a decent month,” Lance Berkman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “With the potential that this team has, this is a nice month but it’s certainly not our best.”

Unfortunately, that potential never showed up. The Cardinals are still stumbling each time they start to get on a roll. This is the point in the season when opportunities can no longer be wasted because one mistake could allow the Milwaukee Brewers to jump in and steal the second wild-card spot.

But if the Cardinals do make the playoffs, optimism and dreams of another World Series will return when people look at a starting rotation with Carpenter, Wainwright and Lohse. Hopefully the rest of the team can keep up.

The Kansas City Royals have certainly had some historically terrible acquisitions over the years

Anyone who has been a fan of the Royals for any extended period of time has seen it multiple times. The off-season acquisition of a player another team was dying to get rid of (usually a malcontent), being sold to the Royals fanbase as a game-changing pickup. Every team acquires players that don’t pan out. But no team seems to pick guys up that they pencil in as top/middle of the rotation starters, middle of the lineup bats, or closers that end up embarrassing themselves and the rest of us like the Kansas City Royals. Here, we take a look at the worst of the worst, position by position.

Use the buttons below to scroll through the worst acquisition at each position for the Royals.

Catcher: Benito Santiago (2004)

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Santiago came to town with about as much excitement for playing in Kansas City as Juan Gonzalez did at the same time. He made it 49 games before coming down with his own phantom injury, and was then shipped off to Pittsburgh after the 2004 season.

Runner Up: Jason Kendall (2010)

Welcome back to the annual Progressive Game Blog.  For the last four years, the United Cardinal Bloggers have come together to tell the story of an entire game from multiple voices on multiple sites.

This year, not only will you find the voices of many members of the UCB, you will also find some of our friendly Mets bloggers describing the game from their own standpoint.  You can read all of the entries by following along through the main “index” post over at the official UCB Site.

I-70 Baseball will bring you the third inning of today’s game as will Mets Fans For Life.

The Cardinals come to the plate in the top of the third down by three runs as the Mets plated three in the bottom of the second (read about the second inning over at Cards N Stuff.  Young centerfielder Shane Robinson will look to get the Redbirds started in front of pitcher Lance Lynn and the top of the order.

A Texas League single to right put the lead off man on board but an all to familiar story unfolded with Lance Lynn at the plate.  On three consecutive pitches, Lynn was unable to push a bunt into fair territory, and the opportunity to move the runner up 90 feet passed the Cardinals by.  Unable to move the runner into scoring position or out of a force play situation proves once again to be fatal as lead off hitter Rafael Furcal grounds into an inning-ending double play.  Give Shane Robinson credit for a solid attempt to break up the double play as Daniel Murphy attempted to make the turn.

A quick aside as we wait for the bottom of the third inning to play out: I don’t think I have seen any other team in baseball represented as well on the road as the St. Louis Cardinals.  No matter what city they visit, there is almost always a strong representation of Cardinal red in the crowd.  Not to be out done in New York, there is a young lady sitting directly behind the plate sporting the familiar bright red cap adorned with the white STL logo.

What Lynn lacks in ability to drop a bunt, he more than makes up for on the mound.  After a rough second inning, he took the mound to face the middle of the Mets’ order, starting with cleanup hitter Lucas Duda.  After falling behind Duda, Lynn battled back to get him to fly out to left fielder Matt Holliday.  Daniel Murphy would follow with a fly ball towards the right-center field gap, but the defensive positioning was in place to make it a routine out for Carlos Beltran.  Young Mets first baseman Ike Davis would fall behind in the count early and yet work a walk out of Lynn.  After falling behind shortstop Omar Quintanilla, Lynn battles back for his second strikeout of the game and keeps the Mets from causing any more damage.

Working deep into counts is hurting Lynn early on in this game and his pitch count is climbing to out of control proportions as he closes the third with 71 pitches, 41 of which are strikes.  At this rate, the game will soon be in the hands of the Cardinals’ bullpen.  It feels strange to say that any game in the hands of this bullpen is a major concern at this point.  If the Cardinals hope to pull this one out, they will need to get some offense going and some efficient innings for their starter.

Head over to Rally Birds to check out the top of the fourth inning.  Thanks for stopping by our corner of the Cardinals web-o-sphere to check out or commentary.  Here’s hoping this game turns around quickly.