Curtis Seaboltz

Mark Twain, who to my mind is the only author who is considerably better than you, said –

once talked about lies, damn lies, and statistics.

But some stats are pretty damn demonstrative and illustrative.

And there's one that I think maybe capsulizes what's wrong with the Royals this year.

They have 30...

Quality starts.

Only the Dodgers have more.

The league average winning percentage when you have a quality start is just over 700.

The Royals are 16 and 14.

Is there a stat you can think of that more describes or illustrates what's wrong with this team?

There are two bits of conventional wisdom I think are conflicting with the Royals right now.

One is that Matt Quattrero is in a situation where he's unlikely to be fired anytime soon, if not in this regular season.

The other is that when a team's lost 16 of 19, somebody's ass needs to be in someone's briefcase, to quote Wilford Brimley.

What happens in that situation?

Someone feels like you need to pay the price, but it ain't going to be the manager, is it?

The only other person, I mean, the person, if it's going to be an in-season change, the only other person with the crosshairs on him has got to be, obviously, Alex Zumwalt.

But if they make a move sometime on this road trip or whatever, I think it might be the right move.

But at the same time, there's a lot of people going to be going,

Now?

I mean, why now?