Mike Aviles is on fire. The 27 year old is batting .341/.372/.659 in his first 11 games with 2 HR's and 5 RBI's. The Royals are 5-6 in games he has started as opposed to the 20-27 record when TPJ starts. Hmm, wonder what the difference is? And can we just quit with the talk that TPJ's hitting would have sufficed if the rest of the team was hitting? The guy is at .154/.174/.191, perfect defense wouldn't make up for that line. F0r crying out loud - he is OPSing .365! I'm not gonna sit here predict that Aviles will continue his current rate of production but he was batting .336/.370/.631 at Omaha so his numbers with KC fall in line with what he has been doing all season. I do expect regression but even if his OPS drops into the .750 range (and since his minor league OPS is .802 that is a reasonable expectation) it still trumps whatever TPJ can offer.
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Ditto Kyle Davies. After going 6-2 2.06 in AAA he is 2-0 with a 1.53 ERA since replacing Tomko in the rotation. He most certainly can't keep that up but anything under 4.50 will do. Speaking of Tomko, is he a candidate for worst free agent signing ever by KC? I'm gonna say yes. I know most people will claim Mark Davis gets that honor but he was coming off a Cy Young Award. Tomko was coming off a 4-12 5.55 season and was handed 3 million dollars and a spot in the rotation. A lot of fans seen this coming before the ink was dry on the contract and yet DM didn't, I don't really know what to think about that.
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Interesting topic on the scout forum about Ryan Ludwick and why KC can't find guys like this. In my opinion (other than Ibanez) KC really don't give guys like this a chance. Some guys just need to play everyday to be productive. Matt Diaz & Jeff Keppinger are two guys that KC had nothing to lose by playing everyday and yet wouldn't do it. Justin Huber may end up being a third. Given Esteban German's lack of playing time it would have made more sense to trade him and keep Huber but I've said all I care to on that topic.
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