Kansas City Royals: Has The Lesson Been Learned
By Paul York
Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost (3) relieves starting pitcher Edinson Volquez (36) – Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports
One could certainly argue that anytime you rest one, or more, of your best players, you’re willfully not putting your best foot forward. While true, that’s not realistic. The MLB season is a long one, and players need their rest. What is realistic is putting your best foot forward regardless of who is on the lineup card.
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Have you ever gone to a restaurant, ordered something you know you’ll really like, only to have the waitress/waiter tell you they’re out of it? It happens. That’s life.
Does the restaurant just lock their doors, and close up shop because they ran out of a particular entrée? No, the show must go on, and they can still put their best foot forward serving the remainder of the menu.
In a sense, I feel like the Royals closed up shop on Sunday, and absolutely wasted a brilliant outing by Yordano Ventura. Yes, there will be times when your best pitchers best effort still won’t be good enough, but I’m positive this didn’t have to be one of those times.
Yost instead allowed it to be one of those times without putting up a fight, and that, my friends, is precisely how a manager can adversely effect your win-loss total at the end of the year.
My beef with the way Sunday’s game unfolded is three-pronged. Two of which occurred before a single pitch was thrown. In order, they are: Rest, Lineup, Bullpen.
Next: Rest