DoolittleBrothers

Slow night at the office tonight. A rainstorm is pelting the KC area with a little hail mixed in for good measure. The Royals are doming in up in Minneapolis tonight so, for better or worst, they’ll be playing. KU was supposed to play MU at Kauffman Stadium tonight. Last I heard, it’s delayed so it might not come off. I suspect a nefarious Jayhawk fan seeded the clouds for fear of being embarrassed in a big-league venue. Anyway, some miscellany cluttering up my head:

KC fielders blow

The other day in the postgame show, Buddy made a comment about the Royals’ defense and how it’s been pretty good so far. The Royals have been the worst defensive team in baseball so far in terms of DER and also have allowed the most unearned runs in the majors. I fail to see how that qualifies as “pretty good.” The pitchers have been complicit in the poor DER standing because of a high line-drive rate but the DER is so low, that can only be partially blamed.

Buck up little Buddyroos

The bullpen problems have really gotten people down. Already I hear grumbling about “not being able to take another 100-loss season.” This is the end result of getting off to a bad start. I didn’t expect the Royals to be good this season. Not many did. But fans want something to believe in, to paraphrase the mighty REO Speedwagon, and I was actually admonished by several readers of my various Royals preview pieces for not being optimistic enough. Hell, I thought I *was* being optimistic, especially when I forecast a 68-win team. I still like the overall direction of the team but, more and more, I think Buddy “We need to be cautious” Bell’s continued employment by the franchise is counterproductive.

UR follow

I think there are a few readers who misinterpreted my UR statistic introduced yesterday. That is, obviously, my fault. I didn’t do a good enough job of explaining it. UR is in no way a measure of a pitcher’s performance. In fact, it’s not a measure of a pitcher at all. It is instead a metric that suggests whether or not a pitcher has been used appropriately. It measures a managerial skill, not a pitching skill.

Crazy people

Have you ever dealt with a crazy person? I’m talking truly, undeniably crazy.

There’s a little of that strain that runs in the family blood so I don’t want to be flippant about it but this morning, there was a crazy woman in my backyard which, amazingly enough, wasn’t nearly as much fun as it might sound.

When I woke up today, I went downstairs with my dog to let him outside and when I opened the door, he started growling. I looked and there was this (to put it kindly) heavyset woman standing in my driveway (which loops in behind the house). She was leaning on my car and appeared to be staring into the backseat.

“Can I help you with something?” I asked.

She made no sign of having heard me.

“Do you want to get out of my backyard?” I asked.

Still, no stir.

“Can you hear me? Hello! Hello! Hello!” I offered.

Silence. She just kept leaning there on my car, staring in the backseat.

I went back inside to mull over my options.

1) I could go running out into the driveway with a broom, yelling, cursing and just generally menacing her. At that point, I wasn’t so much concerned with her presence as I was about the fact that she was so freaking unresponsive. It was unnerving.

2) I could assault her. This seemed highly unnecessary.

3) I could ignore her. After all, she wasn’t really hurting anything.

4) I could call the cops.

At first, I opted for No. 3. I made some tea and my lunch and kept an eye on her. After 25 minutes — and she had not moved a muscle — I decided to call in KC’s finest. The woman was clearly wrong-headed and I’m not especially equipped to deal with such individuals, especially before I’ve had my cup of Earl Grey.

So two cop cars pull up on the street out front so, naturally, all the neighbors saunter outside and start watching. People driving by crooned their necks to see the episode of “Cops” that had broken out.

The police cars went around back. I went with them and kept my distance but stayed close enough to hear. As soon as the cops appeared, the woman finally stirred. The look on her face was like just was expecting them. It was like, “You’re finally here.” At the same time, she kept trying the handle of one of my car doors, as if she wanted to get into the backseat.

Here’s a sampling of some of the things I heard her say:

“I was talking to the police officers in the backseat…There was a woman with the exact same name as mine that was wanted for manslaughter. I was trying to tell them it wasn’t me…They wanted to take me downtown so I could clear my name.”

O-kay. As it turns out, the woman (whom I had regrettably described to the dispatcher as a “street person”) lived in the rental place next door. There is somewhere between six and 97 people who live in that thing which is no bigger than my house. I can never keep track of who lives there but I felt bad about ratting out my neighbor like that.

Turns out — big shock here — she’s a schizophrenic who had gone off her meds. She was harmless enough but I have my fingers crossed that she’ll keep to her perscription from here on out. Once those bad chemical get flowing, there’s no telling what could happen.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 at 5:52 pm and is filed under Blogroll, Royals, Stat Guy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.