Interview with Mitch of Northwest Arkansas

Below is an interview done with Mitch from Springdale, Arkansas a huge Nothwest Arkansas Naturals fan, who will help us learn a little more about the Royals AA affilate

Tell us a little about yourself ?
I'm 16 (17 on Thursday), I went to my first baseball game in 2001 and fell in love with it. I've been following Arkansas Razorback Baseball since then. I attended my first Minor League game in 2003 (Arkansas Travs vs. Tulsa Drillers) and fell in love with that. When I heard the Naturals where coming to Springdale (where I live) I jumped right on the bandwagon. I'm a huge Naturals fan. I've made 50 of the 58 home games so far and I don't even have season tickets

So have you ever been to a MLB game ?
Yes, In 2005 I went to the A's-Rangers game in Arlington. Had seats in the outfield bleachers. It was a great first experience, a great Facility. I still remember the final score lol. Rangers-5, A's-4

Should folks in Kc make the drive to Springdale to see the Naturals ? Is it worth the drive ?
Oh, no doubt that they should! It's completely worth the drive. Arvest Ballpark is state-of-the-art fantastic. The Naturals are avg about 4,750 fans (Stadium capacity 5,500). It's the most fun you'll have at a Minor League game. From Hecklers row (Above visitors dugout), to Strike the Sasquatch (Mascot), to the great atmosphere!

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Editor's note Tickets are only:

Super-Premium - $12

Premium - $10

Reserved - $8

Lawn Seating - $6

Here's a link to the ticket office

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I'm sure you've had a chance to meet a few of the players. Which players are the most fan friendly ?
While he was here, Paul Mildren was on of the most friendliest person you'll meet. Irving Falu, Ed Lucas, Marc Maddox, and Jose Duarte are some of the most fan friendly players on the Team

Which Nats players do you see as having a good chance to make it to Kc. Which player do you think could be a suprise player ?
The Natural who has a good chance of getting to Kansas City is Mario Lisson. He's batting .214, with 11 homeruns, and 46 rbi's. He's stolen 22 bases, and has been caught 5 times. Lisson is batting .229 with runners on, and .242 with runners in scoring position

A surprise player is not a position player, but a pitcher. Closer Chris Hayes. He's 4-1, 1.58 era with 6 saves. In 51.1 ip, he's giving up 11 runs, on 39 hits, he's walked 9 and struck out 31! Hayes is a unique pitcher. Chris pitches submarine style, when he pitches, his knuckles nearly brushes the dirt on the mound

What do you think of Brian Poldberg's managing ?
I think Brian Poldberg is doing a very fine job of managing this ball club. He's at the Ballpark from atleast 9 am til 12 am every home stand working on the next game. Looking at what needs improvement. He also has a very fine staff behind him. Pitching coach Larry Carter will put the fear of god into you and Tommy Gregg the hitting coach has really turned around some of these players that are struggling at the plate

How tough is it to follow the team with all the callups and new players ?
It's kind of hard. You have to get use to not seeing the players you usually see. Some players that are called up for a game and then go back, for only a new player to come in, it'll mess you up. It's handy for me, cause I have an updated roster with me every home game.

Ok so who is your favorite player ?
Cory Aldridge

How come I've never heard of Cory Aldridge ?
The Kansas City Royals purchased the contract of outfielder Cory Aldridge from the Newark Bears of the Atlantic League at the beginning of July.

Anything else you'd like to share about NWA ?
Northwest Arkansas in it's self is a fantastic place to live. Great bussiness', great communities, and it's still growing! I grew up in Northwest Arkansas and wouldn't have wanted to grow up anywhere else. If you considering moving somewhere, move here!

Thanks for your time
No Problem, the summer has been really slow and it's great to give the inside scoop on Kansas City's newest farm club! Hope to talk more in the future. Go Naturals and Go Royals!!!

Again thanks to Mitch, he does a great job updating the Player Watch threads for the Naturals on Royals Nation. And again here is the Naturals website.

Guillen wants out

EDIT 6:34 PM CT
Jose denies the report. I should delete this but it is a piece of art so I'll just post an edit up here at the top

------------------------------
See here
Of course because we're to harsh on him. Jose you should be thankful you ain't in New York buddy of course you'd believe the Bronx cheer was a good thing wouldn't you ? Of course Enrique Rojas of
ESPNdeportes.com has been wrong before (remember we signed Colon). But this is the type of thing Jose would do, hit a homer then complain that,

he is in "living hell in Kansas City"

that,

he is in a foul relationship with manager Trey Hillman.

So let's look back shall we Jose ? You've made living in Kc hell all by yourself with lack of hustle, lack of production and foul mouth, in fact you really make Emil "Shoot ur eye out" Brown look like an angel.
So you don't get along well with Trey totally understandable. I would expect you to hate the guy that took a bullet for your sucky performance in April.
And the Royals organization, well they've tried, I mean they launched a huge campaign to get you to the All Star game they but your ugly mug on the front of Gameday along with the word Passion.
Jose if you read this feel good knowing I'm not the Royales with Cheese guy because I'm sure he's got something great coming for you, but for now,


Please pardon this blog post I'm writing it with an injured groin.

So would you stop ******' booing me ?

Go West to Oakland

First the good or the bad ?
Bad ok
When Kc heads west to Oakland to play night games it is easy to listen or watch right? I mean c'mon what else are you going to do at 9:o5 PM anyway ?
Yeah that's what I thought.
And if you do stay up to watch (and you better) you could have trouble getting up for work in the morning and that could result in you losing your job.

Now the good news or sorta good news
Oakland is a team that is right now torn down. They've traded Rich Harden, Dan Haren, Nick Swisher, etc. So you'd hope we will do pretty well but, what's annoying is Oakland loses there players but they come back with a new fresh crop while Kc loses there players and still remain down with only average coming up. In fact for almost all season Oakland was in second place in the AL West while Kc was last in the Al Central. But alas now the A's have dropped to 3rd while Kc has gotten out of the cellar at the Tribe's expense.

And don't even get me started on the Rays. Rays and Royals the cellar dwellers of the AL well guess what they did something about it and look where they are. Now I don't think they will make the playoffs this year against the veteran Red Sox and Yanks but they are headed in the right direction while Kc, well.............

It's July 28th and has anyone heard how the Hosmer negotiations are going ???
Didn't think so and look out,

It's almost August

Royals Merch 2 revenge of the merch

Wow and this is part 2 of the hugely popular Royals Merch series that wasn't a series until now.
If you missed part one it's here
~Enjoy





Wow look at these little gems from M&M's chocolate company they come in:



7 oz Bag $ 13



A dispenser with 3 7oz bags $60



10LB Bulk Box $270



Check them out here if I've inspired you to use some of "your" hard earned ca$$$h



Of course if you don't your wife or girlfriend will.







Now we'll go ebay-ing for some great deals,

Ah thee Royal Otter right now there are two of them without any bids for $6 plus $6 S/H and if you don't have one what are you waiting for ? There's nothing better then waking up to this. I think ? Any way here's the link

Enough ebay-ing for I get in trouble

So why not go back to Royals-dot-com shop. And find this awesome Potato head for a mere $16 And I quote:

• This fun toy can now be dressed up to be a fan or mascot of your favorite
  team!
  Comes complete with mutliple* pieces to change his look regularly.
  

  A great fan item - a great collectible!
  

  Clamshell packaged.

Wow a must at least for the clamshell packaged if for nothing else.

*multiple is how it sould be spellt but I'm just quoting it so I can't change it also I don't work for the Royals shop

Wow the hugely popular Royals Zippo lighter for only $27 Just remember only you can prevent forest fires !!

Concord Kansas City Royals Sunshade

Ah for $30 you take home the envy of ALL and I mean ALL your neighbors (unless your a hermit). Just remember please remove before driving.

Your KC Royals Pocket Plate that is:

• Perfect for autographs of your favorite players, perfect size to collect all 30 teams.
  
• The plates are perfect for coasters at work or home.

Oh great after using the coaster, my Joakim Soria autograph is running. Yep a must buy on $16 but hey you get 2.

O yeah the 2 pack of Royals socks when White Sox just won't do $10

Ok there just weird looking I've always thought that but hey they are on sale for only $18 they were $35 that's a savings of $17. See you stay in school so you can tell others how much they'll save when you don't even have the cash.

Finally I give you the two greatest merch finds ever:

We're #99 We're # 99 and................





A Soria All-Star jersey!! (Hey I need to have something serious !!!) but both will but it will put back finance's at $250.

And I hope you enjoy I could go on but let's see if maybe we can't get a third episode in the series.

Just so you know

My name is Ray well Raymond but I go by Ray.
And once again I'm a Royals fan, and even though that team in Tampa wanted me to blog for them so much they changed there name to honor me I'm still a Royals fan. So little Ray's (since I'm obviously Big Ray) I want you to lose for me the next 4 games to show your love for me.

Footsteps down the stairs

(O wait there is my dad so he's now Big Ray, so now I'm little Ray and that Tampa team will be smallest Ray)

Confused yet?
I am. Let's just go with a break down of thoughts.

Pitchers
The main problem with the team since the AS break been the Starting pitchers but I think they will start to come around soon to their pre AS break levels.

Guillen Trade
RotoWorld is reporting the Braves have interest in Jose Guillen, but at this point I'm not sure.
He could get us some decent prospects and open up a slot for Maier everyday but on the other hand if/when his bat gets hot he's the main driving force for the Royals.

Gobble is more then a LOOGY he's injured !!
Gobble has been bothered by a "Lower Back Strain" I'm not buying it. I say we cut him and bring up Musser. (Member of Royals front office is reading this now thinking: Who in the world is Musser ? ) Yeah and maybe option Peralta to AAA
And then recall him the next day!!

How sweet is that !! Now I must go get ready to watch the game or listen not sure which at this point. Bye bye

Thoughts for game 100

Wow what a night to make my return eh ? 19-4 loss. O well we'll get'em tomorrow at least I got 2 bright spots no three from the game:

1. I'm a lot more fan then I should be watching the whole game without missing a pitch wow if you did the same leave a comment I want to see and thank the person. You should win the Nobel prize or at least get something.
   
2. Gobble was destroyed (again what else is new). Oh yeah sweet. I must admit I was pulling for Detroit to cream Gobble so we'd DFA him, and they did how's 1 IP 10 Runs all earned 4 walks 7 hits 1 wild pitch 14 batters faced look ? Looks like a DFA to me. And I will consider dropping my fanship to the Royals if BP is still on the team come Game 101. As give credit to Trey it was hard to watch but I think he did the right thing in leaving BP in.
   
3. Tony Pena Jr. can pitch a scoreless 9th including a K of I-Rod (Madonna's next target the tabloids tell me) a comebacker to the mound and a weak fly to left. A typical outing for a position player except: He had a great sidearm delivery. He all his pitches were 88-90 MPH. His pitches had great movement. If he keeps hitting .150 we need to consider giving him more chances. Remember a lot of SS have became pitchers, plus I'm working on the movie plot right now.

So I'm back and will try to post everyday had some stuff come up but I'm back now. as I try to make this blog somewhat known throughout the Royals web. A big thanks to Jack for his Royals Blog"o"sphere posts on RN that is about all the publicity I've got right now.
But as the Royals improve I'll also look to improve.

Thoughts from Seven-11

Teahen the next Wilson
What a run by Mark Teahen. That boy can run he is one of no the best base runner we have he just kept going and like he said he was shocked, I was shocked, 14,000 at the K were shocked, and Alexie Ramirez was shocked, that Luis sent him. I've learned in baseball to always expect they unexpected except when expecting it. And there is a quote you can bank.

C.C. Sabathia or CC Sabathia ?
Nice article by Flanagan on how Kc never entered the Sabathia sweepstakes even though short like mine. I'm glad we didn't trade for CC as he goes by now dropping the periods (yikes). Because and I quote Moore:

“For what we would have had to give up, it would have been the equivalent of say, Mike Moustakas and others. We’re not prepared to do that.”

Exactly but that won't be stopping us this winter. Sometimes as a Royals fan the thoughts of signing Torii Hunter or CC is the only thing that keeps you going.

Royals have statue
Was also in the Flanagan article. Of course if you read my blog you probally already "own your own" mini statue.

Carlos Silva and Andruw Jones
Are two signing thank God KC did not make Silva is 4-11 and Jones is UNDER the Mendoza line and if you don't know of the Mendoza line read here It's Royals related see here's a clip:

From Wikipedia:

Origin of the term

The term is named for former shortstop Mario Mendoza, who actually hit .198 in the 1979 season. George Brett is believed to have coined the phrase when asked about his batting average.^[1] When shown his average in a newspaper, Brett was said to have made a remark along of the lines of, "I knew I was off to a bad start when I saw my average listed below the Mendoza line.

DeJesus the Kansas City god of RISP
Kagel points out what we all know DDJ leads MLB in RISP (AVG with Runners in scoring position insert is for you dad). So in honor of his .459 RISP I dub him David "The Kansas City god of RISP" DeJesus

See ya I'm off to the game

Class less

So in case you didn't know St.Lou Post-Dispatch Columnist Bernie Miklasz wrote on June 29 2008:
Real Redbirds emerge
A harmless title overall and thanks to RoyalsNation for pointing it out to me but anyway Bernie goes on say:

KANSAS CITY — The Cardinals are in town, which means that baseball matters again in ol' KC,

Ok whatever the hell is that supposed to mean ? Really arrogant.

at least for another interleague weekend against the hated rivals who traveled here from the sophisticated side of the state.

Stupid everyone knows that Mid-Missouri is the sophisticated side of the state uninfluenced by the likes of Illinois or Kansas (sorry my friends in Kansas).

When the Cardinals show up, it's a big deal — not quite as important as the arrival of indoor plumbing in Kansas City around 18, 19 years ago. Still, the Cardinals make this a grand event.

Now that means nothing for Journalism other then name bashing and making fun. Makes you wonder if Bernie was ever picked on in school.

The Royals actually have people in the stands, even if half of them wear red and cheer for the visiting team. Saturday night, the Royals had their first sellout of the season at Kauffman Stadium

I'm sorry mister fact less, that is not a true statement the Fireworks game vs the Giants was also a sellout. Oh no I just compared the Giants to the Redbirds.

as Cardinals fans generously did their part to subsidize the Royals and keep Major League Baseball alive here.

Yeah another dorky point of course if KC did lose the Royals they still wouldn't give the 85' Series trophy to ya.

The atmosphere was fantastic. And the Cardinals finally played like the real Cardinals to win a game instead of extending this gracious KC charity to on-field competition.

Always an excuse never they just outplayed us.

The Cardinals, backed by a strong performance by rookie starter Mitchell Boggs, dominated 5-1 to remind the Royals of the baseball power structure in Missouri. This had become embarrassing, with the Royals going 4-0 against the ruling-class Cardinals in this month's interleague renewal

Until being muffled Saturday night, the Royals had taken nine of their last 13 against the Cardinals in a strange role reversal.

The Royals dominating the Cardinals in baseball is like Missouri bullying Kansas in college basketball.

That may have happened a long time ago, but no one can remember exactly when.

Seems rather strange to compare Missouri and Kansas. Why not Illionis and Kansas ?

All kidding aside — and isn't that what a St. Louis columnist is supposed to do while visiting Kansas City? — the Royals have been playing superb baseball, bringing an 11-1 hot streak into Saturday.

There is kidding and there is bullying all in all I found it to be very class less. Thank goodness for REAL Columnists like Joe Posnanski. I could have wrote with all kinds of slang like the:
UnSaint.Poop is Turdbirds
But didn't because Kansas Citians have class and I think we prove who is the:

sophisticated side of the state

---------------------------------------------
Follow up I wrote Bernie:

Dear Bernie

Your article STLToday: Real Redbirds Emerge was disgrace to all members of the media everywhere. Maybe sir if you'd get your head out of your a*$ you'd do some fact hunting before throwing c**p on the paper. The Cardinals game was not as you put it the "first sellout at the K" sorry but your not that important. As for your article in general it was a sad name bashing episode where all you did was call names and make fun because the Royals won the series.
Your article was much like the hometown Tribune c**p, poor journalism, falty facts.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest please tell me what college you attended because if you made it through I'm a sho-in.

Ray
JC Missouri area

REPLY:

Thanks.

MY REPLY:

Your Welcome

His REPLY:

I always appreciate feedback, positive or negative.
Thanks for taking the time.