The Kansas City Royals HiV LOB, Frame Four

When we last checked in with the Royals offense, and had a gander at how well they were (or weren't) advancing base runners -- the HiV LOB, as you well know by now, is a brief look at hits versus runs, in a sort of remedial-statistics class, if you will -- we'd seen some concern in week one, some improvement in week two, and a touch of tepidness in week three. Tepidness was damn near the last thing you wanted to see for this Royals team as a four-game home stand against A.L. East-leading Toronto and a three-game tilt in Minnesota filled all seven days of Kansas City's fourth week in the season. How the boys in blue fared, after the jump.

Week Four

4/27 vs. TOR: 1-7( W); eight hits, seven left on
4/28 vs. TOR: 8-1 (L); six hits, eight left on
4/29 vs. TOR: 3-11 (W); 15 hits, seven stranded
4/30 vs. TOR: 6-8 (W); nine hits, seven left on
5/1 @ MIN: 5-7 (L); 10 hits, five left aboard
5/2 @ MIN: 10-7 (W); 15 hits, 11 left on
5/3 @ MIN: 7-5 (W); 10 hits, four stranded

The week's totals: 63 hits, 49 runs scored, 49 runners left on base. Compared to last week, the Royals generated almost 20 more base hits, more than doubled their runs across the plate, but also left a dozen more on the base path. Now, it stands to reason that the more base hits a team gets, the higher their LOB percentage will be, but logic also dictates that the more base hits you're generating as a team, the more runs you will score, and the more games you will win. In this fourth week of the season, KC averaged nine hits, seven runs per game, which is pretty darn good when you compare that to week one's totals, thus suggesting that the bats, as they say, were still waking up. Add to that that the Royals played seven straight, and came out of the full week with five victories.

This brings the season's totals to 204 hits, 119 runs, and 170 left aboard. The obvious professional sports-blogger thing to do would be to compare those numbers with other teams in baseball, but frankly, we (Editor's Note: By "we" I mean me.) don't care what other teams are doing, as long as they're not beating Kansas City.

This week's surge in power at the plate brings the Royals' on-pace-to-score likelihood up from 630 to 714 in terms of runs for the season. The one aspect to this feature we haven't examined is walks, and that's by design. Bases on balls, you could argue, are sort of a gift. At the same time, they're not. On the one hand, the pitcher isn't giving you anything good to swing at. On the other, you're disciplined enough at the plate to know not to swing at any of his crap. There's also the possibility that he's afraid of you because you've had success at the plate, so he's attempting to paint the corners while you're in the box. For the purpose of this feature, we're examining the success of Royals' bats putting balls into play, and then getting those runners home, and in doing so, we're looking at only hits. Obviously runs are affected by walks, though, so we'll look at them on a monthly basis.

In this first four-week period, 89 Royals batters have walked, which of course only makes the LOB percentage look worse if you try to factor in the total number of guys on base versus the number of runs scored. If, however, you value something like, say, winning games, then BBs work in your favor, especially for a club that could scarcely buy a walk in each of the last three seasons. So, view a walk how you will. We're simply going to view them once a month, and leave the extrapolations up to you.

(photo courtesy of John Sleezer of The Kansas City Star)
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Scores, Fores, and Bores

What a day to be a Spartan. Capturing their third Frozen Four Championship in Michigan State University history, the Spartans served Boston College a healthy serving of misery, as the Eagles fell in the championship game for the second (not quite as bad as four) year in a row. After a period and-a-half of scoreless hockey, BC struck first, only to see MSU equalize things halfway through the third. Just as overtime seemed certain, MSU broke the tie with less than 20 seconds to play in the game. The Spartans would add an empty-net tally to seal their 3-1 victory, but North Dakota's Ryan Duncan would take home a piece of hardware all his own. Duncan became only the second Fighting Sioux to win college hockey's MVP, and only the third sophomore to ever claim the award. North Dakota fell to the Eagles 6-4 Thursday night, a match in which Duncan was held without a point.

In other news, a bunch of dudes walked around this piece of Georgia real estate all weekend looking for a jacket. It was said to be an ethnically diverse group of men, many of whom are suprisingly married to attractive women. HoG's own oNs (a.k.a. Onus) delivered to our lone reader a variety of excruciating stimuli in the form of a slew of posts covering the Masters Invitational, a fantasy golf tournament he drubbed up years ago. Let me tell you, following this annual bucket of orgasm is nothing shy of stellar. It remains impossible to match the levels of exuberance attained on the three -- and by three I mean six -- days the invitational spans. I, for the first year in tourney history, was not invited to play, an oversight I can only attribute to some horrid virtual glitch that the Hootster must alleviate prior to next year's outing. Perhaps the most exhilirating and newsworthy bit to surface from the invitational was that the Irish leapfrogged Blacks (Tiger Woods, y'all), Hispanics, and Asians (Tiger Tiger Woods, y'all) on Hoot's list of races he -- how shall I say this -- despises. I had my money on Polynesians making the top five, but there's always next year.

In still other news, soccer's slated to start soon. Yay. That should be about as exciting as attending the Easter Vigil mass. There's nothing I enjoy more than taking a chore of an hour, stretching it into more than double its length, and looking at your watch every 36 seconds in hopes that at least 15 minutes have gone by. And just when you think you're out of the hole, there's stoppage time. Stoppage time embodies euphoria. It's like that part of church where the service has ended (for the love of Pete, the priest has even said so), but you sing one more song and wait for his Holiness, the altar servers and all the pews in front of you to make their way for the door before you can leave. For real though, soccer's pretty brutal. There're two things I like about soccer a lot. The first, and clearly most important, is the fans. I have tremendous admiration for those across the globe that show support for their club with fantastic fervor and decor. The second thing I really like about soccer falls something along the lines of when it's not on, as in, the off-season. That kicks ass. Now World Cup soccer is pretty cool. The whole world gets into the sport for a month or so, and all 17 American soccer fans talk about how they're gonna get out of bed at crazy-ass hours to watch the games. That's downright devotion. You gotta love that. Just don't talk to me about it. And please, I beg you, don't do the now-overdone Hispanic "Gooooooooooooooolllllllllllllll" shout. I've had plenty already. Read more

Breakfast In Augusta

And we're off, in this cheap desperate ploy for more readers. If you're affiliated with the Masters Invitational pool and are reading this blog for the first time, welcome. We hope you're not offended by our course language, blatant disregard for for the rules of journalism (and grammar) and consistent wrongness in prediction...actually we're not. We hope you are offended, new readers. Fuck you and the mule you rode in on. We hope you hate the HoG and never, ever come back. Readers are a needless accesory to this endeavor.

Quickly, I must address the last post by our blog's administrator, the (redacted). I have no objection to his making sport of the NFL's greatest coach. But the photo was in very poor taste. Yes, that fat lady did show up for Denver Broncos cheerleader tryouts. But so did these. And these. And these, with The Man in back. Smokin'. Just because one tubby tried to make the squad, that's no reason to denigrate the lovely ladies who don the orange and blue. Of course, none of these broads hold a candle to the Kansas City Chiefs Cheerleaders.

Anyhoo, back to the links. The Masters Invitational was, of course dominated by the selections of one Eldrick Woods, the world's No. 1 player and a pretty fair puller of tail. Tiger appeared on eight of the 12 entries, but only three participants elected to start him for Rounds One and Two. Savin' the big gun for the weekend, I assume. Best of luck with that strategy, gents, and we'll see you this afternoon.

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Tiger Woods' Ball Spotter

Although this commercial is now seven years old, its ultimate bad-assness continues to thrive, making it worth an appearance on the HoG. Apparently, this is also the case with the "beloved" Masters Tournament and one Tiger Woods. Tiger's first Augusta National victory came a few years prior to Synchronicity's (unofficial dubbing of the commercial) initial airing, and, after allowing Lefty to nab the green jacket last year, el Tigre looks to return to his ways of winning. Perhaps, if Senor Woods gets off to a poor start, he can reach deep into his bag of tees, and try to pull out something really manly. If he discovers no tricks, he may have to baste his balls with an extra coat of the top-secret, special meast moistener. That always works for my game. Regardless of how Tiger's game goes, I'm really, really looking forward to the HoG's exciting coverage of the fantasy version of this highly esteemed tourney. Dee-lish.

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