You know who I like a lot? Rany Jazayerli. I’ve met him a couple of times and he’s a great dude. I’ve been reading his stuff forever, both at Baseball Prospectus and at his own outlets. Some of my favorite stuff of his, however, came back in the day when he and Rob Neyer used to do a back and forth called “Rob and Rany on the Royals” over at Rob’s personal website.
Rob, by then, had grown pretty cranky about his Royals. Rany, on the other hand, always seemed to look on the bright side. He still does that better than most team-specific bloggers, even though he never ceases to be realistic. His criticism, while often sharp, is never spiteful or dismissive. He wants the Royals to be good and thinks they can be one day.
Which is why his latest missive is so ... jarring:Nearly six years after Dayton Moore was hired, in a year when the Royals were themselves so certain that they were going to take a step forward that they boldly unveiled the “OUR TIME” motto, the team has dumped a steaming pile of crap on the curb. Ten straight losses, and even worse, nine of them have come at home. The Royals have the worst record in baseball. Playoff dreams have been extinguished, and it’s still April.
And I’ll confess: I’m this close to losing it.
Royals: if you’ve lost Rany Jazayerli, you’ve lost everyone. This is just ... horrible. And Rany explains why. In total it makes for a pretty good case for the firing of Ned Yost. Or else it would if the front office doesn’t seem to be right on board with Yost’s strategies.
But maybe it’s not all bad. Sports Illustrated has them seventh in their Power Rankings. And no, I’m not making that up.
Sure, there’s a major caveat here: those rankings are based on WAR and what may happen in the future, not on what has gone on so far. That said, any ranking system that has the Kansas City Royals 7th at this point probably needs to think hard about what its mission in life truly is and whether it’s actually carrying it out.