September is here (well, it will be here tomorrow at least), so the A's schedule is packed full of the AL West. I'm really not looking forward to any more games against Seattle, but we can take solace in the series starting today against the woeful Kansas City Royals. As usual, Posnanski puts it best:

But this Royals team reminds me of that 1993 Mets team in this way — they are not without talent. But they will do what’s necessary to lose games. The 2005 Royals went out there every day knowing that the team across the dugout was better than they were. These Royals, on the other hand, are bad when Zack Greinke’s pitching. They are also bad when they score five runs in a game (4-10 record in those games if you can believe that). They don’t SCORE five runs in a game very often … but they still find ways to lose when they do.
...
They are also — and I admit this is an unofficial stat but I’m pretty confident about it — the league leader in times a player forgot the number of outs. The other day, catcher Miguel Olivo ran off the field with two outs which was staggering not because it was unusual (it has to be the third time this year Olivo has forgotten the number of outs) but because only two batters had come to the plate. It wasn’t like it was a long inning or something.
...
They are also — and I admit this is an unofficial stat but I’m pretty confident about it — the league leader in times a player forgot the number of outs. The other day, catcher Miguel Olivo ran off the field with two outs which was staggering not because it was unusual (it has to be the third time this year Olivo has forgotten the number of outs) but because only two batters had come to the plate. It wasn’t like it was a long inning or something.

Ok, that is getting to be a pretty long quote up there (of course, since it's from Posnanski's blog, it only amounts to about one fifth of the whole article). The point is to be thankful that, while the A's are an occasionally frustrating team that is lacking in talent, particularly on the offensive side, they at least can play some defense, hold a lead late in the game, and occasionally surprise you with a clutch hit. I can't say it enough: at least they aren't the Royals.

Links

• Probable pitchers
• Royals stats
• I'm caught up again on the GOG grades. Check your scores for GOGs #41 and #42.

GOG #43 :: The Royals Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! (34 points possible)

Three game series vs Kansas City Royals -- August 31, September 1-2

UPDATE -- answers added below in bold

1. Series outcome [3 points] 2-1 Oakland
2. Edgar Gonzalez is back in the starting rotation. Predict his IP/ER/BB [2 points each] 5 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB
3. Billy Butler's 41 doubles put him in a four way tie for 2nd place (Brian Roberts leads baseball with 48 doubles). In the last series against Oakland, he hit four doubles (including three in one game). How many two-baggers for the Royals big 1B/DH in this series? [3 points] no doubles for Butler
4. I've been pretty critical of Ryan Sweeney, because of his lack of power and inability to take a walk, but the only position players on the team who have posted more wins above replacement are Holliday and Davis (Suzuki is close, though, and Fangraphs WAR doesn't try to evaluate catcher defense, so there is a good argument for Suzuki being more valuable than Sweeney). How many hits in this series for Ryan? [3 points] 3 hits
5. Miguel Olivo is having his best year with the bat, if it's at all possible to say that about someone with a .274 OBP. He has 17 home runs but he is swinging at an amazing 44.5% of pitches out of the zone. Predict his BB/K/HR against Oakland [2 points each] 0 BB, 3 K, 0 HR
6. Kyle Farnsworth has had a very interesting season. A FIP of 3.12 is pretty darn good, as is a K/BB ratio of 3.88. On the other hand, the ERA of 5.40 is not so impressive. The best part is that pretty much all of his meltdowns have come in the late innings of close games. Fangraphs calculates a clutch score which is the difference between win probability added in high leverage and low leverage situations. Farnsworth's clutch score of -3.13 wins is far and away the worst for any player in baseball. Will the A's face Farnsworth in any game where the score is within two runs? Will Farnsworth allow any earned runs in the series (in any situation, not just a close game)? [+1 for each right answer, -1 for each wrong] Yes, Farnsworth did pitch in a two-run game. He did allow one earned run.
7. If they had been able to hang on to all of their players, the Royals could be featuring an outfield of Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, and Jermaine Dye instead of David DeJesus, Jose Guillen, Mitch Maier, Coco Crisp, Mark Teahen, and whoever else. How many RBI for Royals outfielders in the series? [3 points] 3 RBI
8. Twenty eight games is way too few to really say anything, but UZR likes Pennington's defense so far at shortstop. He's been pretty much average in terms of range and double plays, but zero errors on 38 put outs and 86 assists is pretty good. How many assists for Pennington in the series? Will he commit his first major league error? [3 points for the first part, +-1 for the second part] 8 assists, no errors
9. The active roster expands on September 1. The A's will use the extra space to take Crosby off the DL and probably also add some bullpen depth, since Gonzalez is back in the rotation. Guess which new addition to the major league roster contributes the most win probability added for Oakland [3 points] Blevins contributes the most WPA, with +.074 spread over two appearances. Other September call-ups who saw action are Kilby (.014 WPA) and Eveland (.001 WPA).
10. Joe Posnanski has started the push for the Royals to call up Disco Hayes (the nickname "Disco" is because he throws his fastball in the 70's!), a submarining relief pitcher who is currently pitching in AAA Omaha. Will Hayes get a September call up (during this series)? [+1 if right, -1 if wrong] nope

First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm. You all know what to do by now.

Results

Wow, really high scores on this one. I guess I'm being nicer with the questions. Olivo's BB and HR were pretty much gimmes. Same with the Disco Hayes question, and whether or not Pennington would get an error (swatnick pointed out in his entry that it might be more about the official scorekeeper in Oakland than it is about Cliff).

Overall scoring statistics

• mean = 11.8571 points
• standard deviation = 4.81755 points
• mode = 10 points

via cfcp.uchicago.edu

Your Scores

Congratulations to muffinpryde for dominating this GOG! Also, we have three new members of the 200 points club, muffinpryde, swatnick, and oblique, plus Angry Sean is knocking on the door...