Kuzul

The San Francisco Giants did it again on Friday, winning another October game they weren’t supposed to. In a tightly contested Game 1 of the National League Division Series, the Giants beat the top-seeded Washington Nationals on the road, 3-2, and earned their ninth straight postseason victory overall, dating back to 2012.

With that, only four teams—and just two franchises—have won more playoff games in a row in Major League Baseball history:

And so the Giants are showing yet again that they can never be counted out in October.

Whether or not you buy into the whole #EvenYear voodoo they have going on, it sure feels like the Giants are going to follow up 2010 and 2012 with 2014, doesn’t it?

It felt that way during Friday’s win, especially considering San Francisco sent noted playoff goat Jake Peavy to the mound against Nationals stud Stephen Strasburg.

But despite this…

…this happened:

Having come over in a July trade from the Boston Red Sox, the 33-year-old Peavy finally got his first October win in his sixth postseason start and 13th season in the majors.

The righty worked the corners of the strike zone up and down, left and right, allowing just five baserunners (two hits and three walks) in 5.2 scoreless innings, tying the longest outing of his playoff career.

San Francisco’s lineup was far from a force, but it dinked and dunked Strasburg to death in his first-ever October outing, managing eight hits off him—all singles—many of which were back up the middle and of the seeing-eye variety.

The Giants put together a good plan of attack and proceeded to execute it with pesky at-bats, which is how they were able to be the first team to notch an earned run off Strasburg, who struck out just two, since Sept. 10.

And so despite this…

…this happened:

Meanwhile, San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy was ready to go to the bullpen as Peavy started to tire in the sixth inning when he gave up a leadoff double and a walk in the span of four batters. Good call, especially given Peavy’s tendency to get knocked around on his third time through the order this year.

In came lefty specialist Javier Lopez to face Adam LaRoche, who posted a .620 OPS against same-sided pitchers in 2014. Except Lopez, who held lefty hitters to a .538 OPS and walked just six in 108 plate appearances this year, issued a free pass to the first baseman to load the bases with two outs. 

Getting the call? None other than 26-year-old rookie Hunter Strickland, a hard-throwing right-hander who had made his MLB debut only a month and two days ago.

Surely this had to be the reckoning, the turning of the tides, yes?

Up stepped Ian Desmond, and despite this…

…this happened:

Although he surrendered a pair of solo home runs in the bottom of the seventh—one an absolute mammoth third-deck blast by Bryce Harper—Strickland still turned the game over to left-hander Jeremy Affeldt, who polished off the frame to keep the Giants ahead.

The Nationals, of course, would get no closer, as the score finished just that way, 3-2, thanks to Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla, the former closer and his replacement.

As Romo said afterward, via Chris Haft of MLB.com:

I think we tapped into our postseason experience. There’s that little extra thing in our chemistry—that focus, that determination—that separates postseason games from regular-season games. Everything seems to matter in the playoffs. We’ve had our backs against the wall in tough environments against tough pitching and tough lineups. It enables us to stick together.

Now San Francisco heads into Saturday’s Game 2 in Washington having snatched home-field advantage. While struggling veteran Tim Hudson is on the hill, it almost feels like it doesn’t matter how he fares. Even if Hudson pitches like he has all second half (4.73 ERA, 1.45 WHIP), the Giants still could come up with a way to win.

And if they don’t? Well, it’s still no biggie: Ace Madison Bumgarner—he of the complete-game, four-hit shutout to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates in Wednesday’s Wild Card Game—is all geared up for Game 3 back in San Francisco.

One way or another, it seems, even-yeared Octobers have a way of falling in the Giants’ favor.

Fellow Bleacher Report MLB Lead Writer Zachary D. Rymer shared a thought about the magical recipe:

Can it really be that simple? Not quite, because that’s taking credit away from the Giants themselves and what they managed to do in 2010 and 2012, and what they quite possibly could do in 2014.

But heck, they certainly make it seem that easy, don’t they?

It’s October, which means the Giants are showing yet again they can’t be counted out. They’re showing that despite all the doubters and the critics and the supposed-to’s, this is, in fact, happening.

Statistics are accurate through Oct. 3 and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

If Major League Baseball’s postseason means one thing, it’s the opportunity to pick the winner of each series and determine ahead of time which team will be crowned World Series champs.

OK, the actual results matter too, but that doesn’t make predictions any less fun. Which is why you’re inexplicably drawn by the lure of finding out how everything is (possibly maybe perhaps) going to play out, even if Tuesday merely marks the official start of the 2014 playoffs as the Kansas City Royals host the Oakland Athletics in the American League Wild Card Game at 8 p.m. ET on TBS.

With unforeseen injuries and unexpected player performances bound to alter the landscape at any time, a lot can change between now and the night the new champions are raising the Commissioner’s Trophy at the end of October.

But if you’d rather have the (potential) results before then, you’ve come to the right place. What follows is one guess as to how everything will unfold between now and the start of the World Series on Oct. 21.

And sure, trying to figure out how the Fall Classic will go this far in advance might seem silly, but we’ll give that a shot too.

After all, our last set of predictions turned out to be on point, so who knows?

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The Kansas City Royals have waited quite a while for this—29 years, to be exact—but at long, long, looooong last, they’re returning to the postseason.

With their 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night, the Royals clinched a playoff berth for the first time since—c’mon, you can do the math!—1985. Finally.

Folks, that’s an eternity in the sports world, as Sam Mellinger of The Kansas City Star reminds:

That’s the longest drought in North American sports, and longer than many of the players on this [Royals] team have been alive. Salvador Perez, the Royals’ two-time All-Star catcher, was born five years after the 1985 World Series.

Heck, it’s an eternity in the real world, too. To put things in context, back in October 1985, Ronald Reagan was president, the No. 1 song on the charts was “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits and the highest-grossing film at the box office was Back to the Future, starring Michael J. Fox.

“It’s been a long time. It’s been a challenging road,” general manager Dayton Moore said to Ben Reiter of Sports Illustrated in the Aug. 25 issue. Talk about an understatement. Then again, Moore has been in the organization only since 2006.

It’s taken the Royals 29 years to make it back to the playoffs—to paraphrase Doc Brown: “Great freakin‘ Scott!”—but the last time they were there, they won it all. So who knows?

While a good amount went right this year for Kansas City to put an end to this unfathomably long rut, clearly a lot more went a whole lot wronger to keep it going as long as it did.

What follows is a rundown of 29 mishaps—various flops, follies and faux pas—that helped define the Royals’ nearly three full decades worth of regular-season futility. There are more out there, we just liked these best.

1. The Royals have become notorious for many things, but one that sticks out is the club’s consistent lack of power throughout its history. Even this season, K.C. ranks dead last in homers—by quite a bit, too.

In 1985, though, slugging first baseman Steve “Bye Bye” Balboni smacked his 36th and final home run on the third-to-last day of the season. Alas, that total remains in the Royals’ record books as the most by any player in a single season—and the lowest by any MLB franchise ever.

2. Trading away promising or even productive young players became a staple of the Royals during this period. No one better embodies that than David Cone, a third-round selection by Kansas City in 1981 who actually was born in the city, too.

Well, despite all that, the club traded the right-hander not once but twice. The first swap came in 1987 when he and Chris Jelic were sent to the New York Mets for catcher Ed Hearn and pitchers Rick Anderson and Mauro Gozzo, none of whom amounted to anything in the majors.

The second time the Royals traded Cone came in 1995, two seasons after he’d re-signed with the franchise as a free agent. The Toronto Blue Jays sent future utility man Chris Stynes along with infielder Tony Medrano and pitcher David Sinnes, the latter two of which never even reached the majors.

Cone, of course, wound up winning 194 games in his 17-year career, and he pitched in 21 postseason games across eight different Octobers with the Mets, Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees, going 8-3. All told, he won five titles.

3. One of the most exciting players in not one but two sports in the 1980s, Bo Jackson was both an All-Pro running back for the Los Angeles Raiders and an All-Star outfielder for the Royals.

Having hit a memorable leadoff homer and winning MVP of the 1989 All-Star Game, his baseball career was just starting to take off when he suffered a career-threatening hip injury in January 1991—while playing in an NFL game. Making matters worse for the Royals, it was a Raiders playoff game, too.

“Four days before I had the hip injury,” Jackson told ESPN in 2012 (h/t Silver and Black Pride), “my wife and I sat down and talked about my sports career and I was planning on announcing my retirement from football that season…I swear to you.”

Just 28 years old at the time, Jackson was never the same and eventually required hip-replacement surgery. Sure, he wound up coming back to baseball, but it wasn‘t with the Royals—and he wasn‘t the same Bo.

4. In 1989, K.C. went 92-70, winning the third-most games in all of baseball but still fell short of October, because the eventual-champion Oakland Athletics won the AL West with a 99-63 mark. Back then, there were just four divisions and only the division winners made it to October.

5. Another regrettable trade of a top pitcher to the Mets, this one from 1991: Right-hander Bret Saberhagen, who had won two Cy Young Awards with the Royals in 1985 and 1989, was jettisoned with Bill Pecota (yes, that Bill Pecota) for a package of an aging Kevin McReynolds, fringe utilityman Keith Miller and one-time top prospect Gregg Jefferies.

Jefferies, the No. 20 overall pick in 1985 (there’s that year again!), would play only one season in Kansas City before being dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals for Felix Jose and Craig Wilson.

Injuries plagued Sabes as a Met, but he also set an MLB record with an 11-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (broken this year by Phil Hughes) and finished third in the 1994 Cy Young voting while in New York.

6. The entire organization became more or less rudderless in the early 1990s. In ’90, GM John Schuerholz, who had built the successful squads of the previous decade, left to take over decision-making duties with the Atlanta Braves, who went on to be one of the consistently great teams of the ’90s.

Then in 1993, franchise founder and owner Ewing Kauffman died—the stadium was named in his honor a month before his passing—and the Royals were turned over to a trust, to be run by a board of directors for seven years until Wal-Mart honcho David Glass bought the team in 2000.

“We didn’t have an owner for seven years,” longtime Royals scout Art Stewart said to Harvey Araton of The New York Times in 2012. “That’s what killed us.”

7. Simultaneously hilarious and dangerous, perhaps the best word to describe this April 1993 tirade by manager Hal McRae is infamous:

8. The 1994 players’ strike came at a bad time for the sport as a whole, but it was especially ill-timed for the Royals, who won 14 consecutive games—the second-longest streak in franchise history—from July 23 through Aug. 5 to climb back into the AL Central race.

K.C. was 64-51 and only four games out of first when the season was canceled and would have had six more weeks to try to run down Chicago White Sox and get to October. If that had happened, almost an entire decade would have been wiped off the 29-year drought. Instead, the Royals went on to eight straight losing seasons starting with 1995.

9. Tony Muser became Kansas City’s manager in 1997, but he took an awfully circuitous route to get there.

A big league first baseman in the 1970s, Muser went on to become the third base coach of the Milwaukee Brewers in 1985. He was in line to become the club’s manager, succeeding George Bamberger, when a scary gas explosion in the Brewers clubhouse during 1986 spring training injured him so badly that he nearly lost his life and missed the entire season.

“When I opened the door, Muser was on fire,” Brewers public relations director Tom Skibosh said via The Associated Press in the aftermath of a blaze that injured 10.

So third base coach Tom Trebelhorn took over late in ’86 and stayed on the bench for five more years, while Muser returned as the hitting coach through 1989. At that point, though, he was sent to the minors to manage Milwaukee’s Triple-A affiliate. From there, Muser joined the Chicago Cubs as hitting coach until 1997. That’s when he was named K.C.’s manager midway through the season, taking over for Bob Boone.

All in all, after Muser lost out on the Brewers job because of a freak accident, it took him more than a decade to land his first MLB managerial gig—and it came with the Royals, who wound up going 317-431 (.424) in his six-year tenure.

Oh, and when the team fired—er, dismissed—him after an 8-15 start in 2002, Muser found out from a reporter first. Poor guy.

10. While on the topic of managers, it’s worth noting here that since last reaching October the Royals have used three different managers in a single season—on three different occasions:

Sure, there were some interims in there, but the above typifies the general lack of cohesion in the clubhouse over an extended period of time.

11. Here’s the great Joe Posnanski, a former Kansas City Star columnist and general Royals apologist/sufferer, on Kansas City’s 77-85 2000 season, which was the first of new GM Allard Baird—and right before things would go from bad to worse in the early part of the aughts:

The Royals pulled off a rather remarkable feat in 2000, something I did not realize in the time:

They led the league in hitting but had a below league-average on-base percentage.

I bolded and italicized that little factoid because it had not happened in the league since 1961, and in many ways I think that sentence perfectly reflects the Kansas City Royals of the 2000s. They were always aiming for the wrong thing. The 2000s decade in baseball may be remembered for our emerging sense of performance enhancing drugs and also for the statistical revolution that, in many ways, changed the way the game was observed, scouted and played. The Royals throughout the decade always would seem one step behind the times. And so, it’s appropriate that the Royals entered their decade of doom leading the league in a category that SEEMED important—batting average—but eighth in the category that WAS important, on-base percentage.

12. Mark Quinn was the very epitome of the Royals’ utter lack of attention to OBP around this time.

A year after finishing third in the 2000 Rookie of the Year voting, Quinn went an astonishing 60 straight games—and 241 plate appearances—without registering a single (unintentional) walk. His streak became so well known that when he finally did take a free pass, on Aug. 30, 2001, the team celebrated by setting off fireworks.

Here’s an account of the occasion from Ken Corbitt of the Topeka Capital-Journal:

As Quinn trotted to first base, the sparse crowd of 12,159 gave him a standing ovation and fireworks—normally reserved for a home run—were set off.

‘It was all in good fun,’ Quinn said. ‘I’m glad to get that monkey off my back. Now everybody can find something else to blow up and make a big deal out of.’

13. Johnny Damon pretty much was the Kansas City Royals in the mid-to-late-1990s. But just as he was about to get expensive while approaching free agency, the club traded him to the Athletics as part of a three-team swap also involving the Tampa Bay Rays in the offseason before the 2001 campaign.

The return? Try closer Roberto Hernandez, catcher A.J. Hinch and shortstop prospect Angel Berroa. Damon, you might remember, finished his career with more than 2,700 hits, 1,600 runs and 400 stolen bases—and helped the Boston Red Sox end the 86-year Curse of the Bambino in 2004.

14. Speaking of Berroa, now is a good time to revisit the three Royals who won Rookie of the Year during this span. That should be a good thing, right? Well, each instance turned out poorly for K.C.

Pudgy, bespectacled designated hitter Bob Hamelin (.282 BA, 24 HR, 65 RBI) won the award in 1994, followed by outfielder Carlos Beltran (.293 BA, 22 HR, 108 RBI, 27 SB) in 1999 and then Berroa (.287 BA, 92 R, 17 HR, 21 SB) in 2003.

Thing is, both Hamelin and Berroa‘s first-year performances were fluky, and each would be demoted to the minors the very season after they earned Rookie of the Year. Hamelin eventually called it quits in the dugout during a Triple-A game in 1997, and Berroa returned to the majors but put up the lowest on-base and slugging percentage in the sport in 2006.

While Beltran was a true star-in-the-making, well…

15. …he became yet another stud the Royals traded away in his prime.

In June 2004, Beltran was a 27-year-old switch-hitting center fielder—just about the most valuable commodity there is—and Kansas City unloaded him to the Houston Astros for a package of infielder Mark Teahen, catcher John Buck and pitcher Mike Wood. Oh, and cash.

In his half-season with the ‘Stros, Beltran went bonkers, launching 23 homers, swiping 28 bases and scoring 70 runs in only 90 games. That propelled them to the playoffs, where he hit .435 and established a new record with eight homers in a single postseason before Houston bowed out in the NLCS.

As fate would have it, Beltran became one of the best October performers in MLB history—while Royals fans were left merely to wonder “What if…”

16. Let’s just go ahead and polish off here the bad trades K.C. made involving what had been a young, dynamic outfield core that was one of the finest around and together from 1998 through 2000. Damon and Beltran have been covered, so that leaves Jermaine Dye, who actually was the second of the three to go.

When it came time to unload Dye in July 2001 before (you guessed it) his salary got too steep, the Royals shipped him out and all they received for a 27-year-old who was an All-Star and Gold Glove winner in 2000 was…shortstop Neifi Perez.

For realz, Allard Baird? Like, the same Neifi Perez who in 2002 posted the second-worst season* (based on FanGraphs‘ wins above replacement) by any player since 1933?

Between the trades involving Damon, Dye and Beltran—all of which happened between January 2001 and June 2004—the Royals proved they were really, really good at giving away productive, in-their-prime talent and getting next to nothing in return.

*The player with the lowest WAR post-1933? That would be none other than outfielder-slash-headcase Jose Guillen, on whom the Royals would choose to make one of their rare free-agent splurges at the price of $36 million in December 2007—10 years after his -3.1 WAR 1997.

17. Beyond their problems with trades, the Royals were pretty inept (or at least, unlucky) when it came to the draft, too.

While they eventually figured things out enough to rank as the No. 1 farm system in baseball in 2011, according to Baseball America, here’s a rundown of their top picks from 1993 (the year after Damon) through 2001 (the year before Zack Greinke) and how they fared—or you know, didn‘t:

Another way to look at that crop? “Combined, they acquired 36 wins and 190 hits in the major leagues,” as Chris Rasmussen of Kansas City’s The Pitch puts it.

However you want to put it, that is almost impossibly bad.

18. “And with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2006 draft, the Kansas City Royals select…Luke Hochevar.”

As bad as the club’s top draft picks from 1993-2001 were, perhaps the biggest bust (or misfire) came in ’06, when the Royals owned the top choice for the only time in franchise history—and didn‘t even have a GM at the time they made the selection.

Baird had just been fired at the end of May, and while an agreement was in place to make Moore (then an assistant with Atlanta) the new GM, he stayed on with the Braves to help them through the draft. And so the Royals were left with interim Muzzy Jackson to call the shots before Moore took over on June 8—after all the picking had been done.

What’s crazy is that the ’06 draft turned out to be one of the best since the turn of the century, so it was a tough one to whiff on, even sans GM. Here’s a rundown of five players who went in Round 1 that the Royals passed on:

By comparison, Hochevar (currently out with Tommy John surgery) has accumulated 2.5 WAR in his seven seasons with K.C. Making matters worse, the big right-hander had been the Dodgers‘ first pick the season before, but Hochevar failed to sign and headed to independent ball for a year, thus teeing up the bust for the Royals.

19. After having never lost 100 games in a season in franchise history from 1969 through 2001, the Royals wound up with—count ’em—four triple-digit-loss seasons in five years from 2002 through 2006.

(Hey, we told you earlier it was going to go from bad to worse.)

20. As for that 2003 team that managed to avoid the 100-loss distinction, it wasn‘t anywhere near as bad as the others during that five-year stretch, but it was more disappointing.

Managed by former big league catcher Tony Pena in his first full season as a skipper, K.C. surprised everyone by winning its first nine games to open the year and 16 of its first 19.

Alas, that only served to up the excitement and raise expectations that ultimately would crash when the Royals entered the All-Star break with a seven-game lead in the AL Central—only to watch it evaporate by Aug. 1, just two weeks later.

21. A bizarre—and extremely scary—incident occurred in a game between the Royals and White Sox on Sept. 19, 2002, at Comiskey Park when two bare-chested fans ran onto the field and attacked Kansas City first base coach Tom Gamboa.

”I had my hands on my hips, and I was looking at the next batter,” Gamboa said afterward via the The New York Times. ”I felt like a football team had hit me from behind. Next thing I knew, I’m on the ground trying to defend myself.”

The Royals bench quickly emptied to come to Gamboa‘s aide as he tried to fight off his attackers, William Ligue Jr. and his son, William III, who was only 15 at the time. The two were arrested.

22. As noted earlier, the Royals are a small-market organization, so they only have so many financial bullets to fire. In 2004, they wasted one by inking Juan Gonzalez for $4.5 million.

OK, so it wasn‘t a ton of money to spend on a former two-time MVP coming off a 24-homer, 70-RBI half-season with the Texas Rangers, but it was a big gamble on a 34-year-old who had played just 152 games the previous two years.

Unsurprisingly, Juan Gone just couldn’t get or stay healthy. He was initially considered day-to-day after straining his back early on, only to wind up going—and staying—on the disabled list.

He played his final game for K.C. on May 21, so the Royals got all of five homers, 17 RBI and 33 games—and a bad back—for their $4 million.

23. Ken Harvey was a fifth-round pick by the Royals in 1999 who split his four seasons in Kansas City between first base and designated hitter. Given his defensive ability (or lack thereof), the team should have just kept him at DH.

Then again, that would have deprived us of Harvey’s various misadventures in the field from 2003 through 2005, including the time he was hit in the back by a relay throw from right field to home plate because he was in a crouch watching the runner come in from third.

Or this dandy:

24. In 2005, the Royals endured a seemingly ceaseless 19-game losing streak that is the longest in the team’s 46 seasons, as well the longest in the majors since the wild-card era began in 1995.

When the slide began, on July 28, Kansas City was 38-64, and when it ended on Aug. 20—more than three full weeks later!—the club was 39-82.

During the course of what was already a tough time, the Royals suffered through a particularly brutal three games from Aug. 6-9 in which they lost 16-1 and 11-0 to the Athletics and then blew a 7-2 ninth-inning lead against the Cleveland Indians by allowing 11 runs and ultimately falling 13-7.

Sheesh, no wonder it wound up being the worst season in franchise history.

25. Merely four years apart, two of Kansas City’s prized young pitchers, Zack Greinke and Danny Duffy, briefly stepped away from baseball and contemplated quitting the game.

Greinke, the team’s top pick in 2002, left spring training in 2006 to deal with his anxiety and bouts with depression. Meanwhile, a third-rounder in 2007, Duffy also walked away during spring training in 2010 after suffering an elbow injury that was expected to keep him out until that May.

Fortunately for the Royals, both pitchers found their way back to the club and have had success since, including Greinke‘s Cy Young season in 2009 and Duffy’s rotation-best 2.32 ERA this season.

26. The seasons of 2009 and 2010 were unofficially known as the “Yuni Years”—as in Yuniesky Betancourt, the awful shortstop whose ineptitude served as a muse of sorts for Posnanski.

Yet, somehow Betancourt, despite the worst WAR (-1.8) in MLB over those two years, convinced K.C.’s coaching staff that he was worth starting at short for 221 games.

Even better, after trading him to the Brewers in December 2010, the Royals’ decision-makers actually (gasp) brought him back for another go in 2012! His lifetime triple-slash line for Kansas City finished at .248/.276/.395—you know, provided the team doesn’t think a third time will be the charm.

27. When Gil Meche, dealing with a right-shoulder injury, chose to retire in January 2011 and forfeit the final year of his five-year, $55 million contract—which called for $12 million—it was an honorable decision but also an odd one. Odd, not as in bad but unusual, as Tyler Kepner of the The New York Times wrote:

When I signed my contract, my main goal was to earn it. Once I started to realize I wasn’t earning my money, I felt bad. I was making a crazy amount of money for not even pitching. Honestly, I didn’t feel like I deserved it. I didn’t want to have those feelings again…

This isn’t about being a hero—that’s not even close to what it’s about. It’s just me getting back to a point in my life where I’m comfortable. Making that amount of money from a team that’s already given me over $40 million for my life and for my kids, it just wasn’t the right thing to do.

After leading the AL with back-to-back 34-start seasons in his first two years with Kansas City, Meche managed just 32 across 2009-10 before he hung ’em up. And repaid the Royals.

28. May 16, 2011, really wasn‘t Vin Mazzaro‘s day. Like, really, really wasn‘t his day.

The right-hander came into a game against the Indians to start the third inning, but he didn‘t provide a lick of relief, registering the following line: 2.1 innings, 11 hits, 3 walks and 14 runs. Yes: F-O-U-R-T-E-E-N.

Here’s the recap of the wreckage from Dick Kaegel of MLB.com:

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Mazzaro is the first pitcher since 1900 to give up 14 or more runs in fewer than three innings.

According to SABR, the last pitcher to allow 14-plus runs in fewer than three innings was Ed Doheny of the New York Giants on June 29, 1899. Doheny was rocked for 17 runs in 2 2/3 innings.

Mazzaro also established a Royals record for most runs given up by a pitcher in one game. The previous mark was 11, by Brian Bannister on June 12, 2010, at Cincinnati; Luke Hudson on Aug. 13, 2006, at Cleveland; and Zack Greinke on June 10, 2005, at Arizona.

29. Remember when we said we were done with the all-too-frequent trades involving the Royals jettisoning in-their-prime outfielders for nada? Yeah, we lied.

Looking to solidify a shaky rotation prior to the 2012 season, the Royals traded 27-year-old Melky Cabrera—coming off a breakout 2011 in which he hit .305 with 102 runs, 18 homers, 87 RBI and 20 steals—to the San Francisco Giants for pitchers Jonathan Sanchez and Ryan Verdugo.

Well, Verdugo made one horrible start in ’12, giving up six runs on eight hits in 1.2 innings in what has been his only big league outing to date.

And Sanchez, who actually had a decent track record of success but was also wildly inconsistent, flamed out so fast (7.76 ERA, 2.04 WHIP in 12 starts) that K.C. flipped him to the Colorado Rockies by that July.

Meanwhile, Cabrera followed up his big ’11 with an even bigger (albeit tainted) 2012, becoming an All-Star that summer and winning MVP honors of that game*, which just so happened to be played in—you guessed it—Kansas City.

*One of the unfortunate lasting memories from the 2012 All-Star festivities was the incessant booing of the Yankees’ Robinson Cano by Royals fans during the Home Run Derby because, as captain of the AL side, he didn‘t pick Billy Butler.

What started out as a silly act pretty quickly turned obnoxious and even a little vitriolic—at a time when the entire baseball-watching world was focused on Kansas City. Fueling the fervor was the fact that Cano, who had won the derby the previous year with his father pitching to him, went without a long ball.

Since that event, the “slugging” Butler has hit exactly 37 homers: 13 in the second half of 2012, 15 in 2013 and nine this year. Maybe Cano was right after all.

As bad, frustrating and embarrassing as these 29 mishaps have been over the past 29 years, they’re a little less so for the Royals and their fans, now that the team finally has made it back to October.

And who knows, if the Royals pull off some postseason miracle and win it all—just like they did in 1985—everyone will look back on these and laugh.

Not that some don’t elicit a chuckle already, anyway.

Statistics are accurate through Sept. 26 and are courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

When David Price takes the mound Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox, he’ll have a lot riding on his left arm, namely the postseason hopes of the Detroit Tigers, whose trade for the former Cy Young winner initially looked like a coup that would put the organization over the top down the stretch and in the playoffs.

But a funny thing happened on the way to October. Instead of soaring, the Tigers stumbled immediately, going 10-12 in the 22 games following the move.

That allowed the Kansas City Royals to climb from four games back in the AL Central to three up. Entering play Tuesday, Detroit (86-70) is just one game ahead of the Royals (85-71), who haven’t made it to the playoffs since 1985.

Just as unexpected, Price, who was acquired to be part of the World Series solution for a club that has advanced to two AL Championship Series sandwiched around their 2012 trip to the Fall Classic, wound up becoming part of the problem.

Price’s overall numbers with Detroit, including a 4.09 ERA and 1.22 WHIP, aren’t as good as they were with the Tampa Bay Rays. On top of that, the left-hander has been especially bad the past five times out.

Since Aug. 27, the 29-year-old has allowed 20 runs on a whopping 45 hits for a 5.81 ERA and 1.68 WHIP in 31.0 innings. Detroit has lost three of those games.

Among those outings was the unmitigated disaster against the New York Yankees, in which Price was treated like a pinata while permitting—count ’em—nine straight hits and registering nary a swing and miss during an eight-run third inning.

Price called it “probably the worst game I’ve ever had in my life,” according to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.

And just last Wednesday, Sept. 17, Price caved again, surrendering five runs on eight hits and three walks over 5.2 frames against the lowly Minnesota Twins, only the last-place team in the Central. Not to mention, he lost the lead not once but twice in the game.

“I’m a better pitcher than this,” Price told Patrick Donnelly of MLB.com following that 8-4 loss.

Not exactly how this was supposed to play out when Detroit obtained Price at the July 31 trade deadline in a blockbuster three-team deal that sent left-hander Drew Smyly and infield prospect Willy Adames from the Tigers to the Tampa Bay Rays, center fielder Austin Jackson to the Seattle Mariners and infielder Nick Franklin to the Rays.

As if to make Price’s subpar performance so far sting even more, Smyly pitched wonderfully in seven starts for his new club, posting a 1.70 ERA and 0.76 WHIP before being shut down in early September with the Rays out of contention and looking toward 2015.

It seemed silly at the time of the trade and still does somewhat given Price’s pedigree and history, but it’s fair to at least raise the possibility that the Tigers might have been better off to now if they’d simply stuck with Smyly all along.

Quite possibly, with Smyly starting instead of Price, Detroit would have a larger lead on the Royals right now because the 25-year-old unquestionably has been better than Price since the swap, leading him in ERA, WHIP and Baseball Reference’s version of wins above replacement (WAR)—and not by small margins, either.

Then again, Price’s 2.68 fielding independent pitching (FIP) actually is better than Smyly‘s 3.07 within the same time frame. That speaks to the 2012 Cy Young winner’s poor luck with balls in play (.328 BABIP) and leaving runners stranded (67.7 left-on-base percentage).

All of which is to say that while Price’s performance has left something to be desired, he’s actually not pitching as poorly as some of the surface statistics indicate. He’s also under team control through the 2015 season, so the risk that comes with a two-month rental doesn’t apply.

Plus, Price does have postseason and big-game experience, having thrown 32 October innings across nine games (four starts) since 2008.

On one hand, Price’s 5.06 ERA in the playoffs doesn’t instill much confidence. On the other hand, well, there’s his win-or-go-home Game 163 gem last year:

As for Smyly? The third-year hurler has seven frames on his postseason resume but no starts. In all likelihood, he once again would have been relegated to the bullpen in the playoffs.

If the Tigers ultimately make it to October for the fourth straight season—and they still control their fate—then Price has a chance to wipe the slate clean and make up for his mediocre showing to date.

With a shutdown start or two in a big spot, Price would put all of his early struggles with the Tigers behind him.

And that’s a good possibility, considering this is a pitcher who not only has been among the best in baseball for a handful of seasons now but also has had his share of success in big spots.

“We’re hoping that with the importance of the next couple of starts that [Price] has, the adrenaline helps and he’s like he was earlier,” manager Brad Ausmus told Donnelly after Price’s latest disappointing turn against Minnesota last time out.

Of course, the flip side is Price pitches poorly yet again Tuesday, the Tigers fail to solidify a postseason spot even heading into the final day of the regular season—and you-know-who is lined up to start that game against the Twins in the middle of one of the worst stretches of his seven-year career.

That would be quite the scenario, and not at all the kind the Tigers thought they would have to get through when they landed Price.

Statistics are accurate through Sept. 22 and are courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The 2014 Major League Baseball postseason is approaching quickly, and the best teams continue to jockey for playoff positioning, if not fight for a postseason berth.

Follow along while we update the playoff picture and provide key notes and information from around the league.

The following teams have already clinched a 2014 playoff berth: Los Angeles Angels, Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles

Teams in bold currently occupy a playoff spot

“x” indicates clinched playoff berth

“y” indicates clinched division title

American League

East

Central

West

Wild Card

National League

East

Central

West

Wild Card

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

If it feels like it’s been a while since the baseball-consuming world has been captivated by Yasiel Puig, that’s because it has. As much as the Los Angeles Dodgers star has emerged as a must-watch, can’t-take-your-eyes-off-him talent through his first two seasons in Major League Baseball, Puig has been oddly absent from headlines and highlights of late.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing given his more than occasional lightning-rod status, except that this lack of Puig lately is very much tied to his downright struggles in the second half. Things have taken such a turn since the 23-year-old earned his first All-Star nod for a dynamite first half that it’s almost as if one of baseball’s brightest stars and most polarizing figures has…vanished.

To show just how stark the drop-off has been, here’s a look at Puig‘s numbers both pre– and post-break:

Obviously, Puig has played only about half as many games since the Midsummer Classic, but even taking that into account, he went from MVP-caliber production from March through mid-July to abruptly performing like a useful utility infielder who knows how to get on base but lacks any pop.

Heck, after going homerless in the Home Run Derby, Puig has hit exactly one out in the two months since.

It’s hard to believe a player can have such divergent halves of the same season.

All of this has led to speculation about how the Dodgers should handle Puig down the stretch as they spend the final two weeks of the regular season trying to hold off the San Francisco Giants in the NL West.

Sure, sitting Puig for a physical and mental break isn’t a bad idea. This is still his first full year in the majors, and there aren’t nearly as many games in Cuba’s Serie Nacional, so he’s never played this much in one season. There’s merit to giving some time to Andre Ethier and Scott Van Slyke, as well as top prospect and September call-up Joc Pederson, as manager Don Mattingly has on occasion.

“The season is long, and it wears you down,” Mattingly said to Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles at the end of August. “It’s part of learning to regulate yourself here, as far as rest or anything else…I think Yasiel‘s really emotional, and it’s hard to be really emotional and play 162.”

Not to mention, Puig has been through plenty of changes, adjustments and transitions in 2014, both on the field and off. He’s been moved around in the batting order as well as in the outfield, and he’s also dealing with the drama and fallout from the ongoing developments surrounding his scary journey to escape Cuba and get to the United States.

Puig‘s struggles have led some, like Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times, to suggest that the Dodgers should give even more time in center field to Ethier:

OK, enough. Enough waiting for the Golden Boy to become an overnight sensation or last year’s overnight sensation to get going again.

The idea is to win right now. In September with a pennant on the line. It’s not time to experiment.

You don’t keep playing Joc Pederson, called up nine days ago, and hope he starts tearing up the majors the way he did Triple-A. You don’t keep sending out Yasiel Puig every night when he’s hit .209 since July 31, which also happens to be the last time he hit a home run.

It’s time to start Andre Ethier in center again.

…The Dodgers just can’t keep waiting and hoping for Puig to get it going. He’s batting .151 (10 for 66) in his last 18 games. This is his first full season in the majors and he’s going through the worst slump of his career.

Maybe he’ll respond to some time off. I know [Dodgers manager Don] Mattingly prefers a set outfield but right now it’s not working. And right now is when it needs to work.

This is obviously a divisive topic—is anything involving Puig not?—and so it’s not surprising that others, like Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com, would argue for sticking with Puig in the hopes that he’ll regain his form:

The problem with Puig right now: His power has simply disappeared, and that’s a dangerous development for [the] Dodgers…It is not, however, a development that ought to prompt Don Mattingly to bench his slumping star, because the truth is that Dodgers still need Puig if they’re going to live up to the World Series expectations that accompany their Major League-leading payroll.

…Whether the Dodgers like it or not, in light of recent results, Puig is still the key to their offense. Even if his power is down, he’s capable of getting on base to create opportunities for Adrian Gonzalez and Matt Kemp. If Puig is hurt, rest him. But if he’s fatigued, test him… Calls to play Andre Ethier over Puig are misguided, because Ethier‘s offensive struggles are of the season-long variety, whereas Puig‘s are a more recent development.

There are indeed other dangerous bats and capable hitters on the team with that record $235 million payroll.

First baseman Adrian Gonzalez, outfielder Matt Kemp and shortstop Hanley Ramirez fall into the former category, and outfielder Carl Crawford and third baseman Juan Uribe fit into the latter. Second baseman Dee Gordon, meanwhile, uses his speed and leadoff role to help set the tone.

But Puig is a huge piece, perhaps more important than any other. If he doesn’t get right, the Dodgers will be a lot less dynamic, a lot less explosive, especially since he’s spent the majority of the time batting in the second spot in L.A.’s lineup.

“It’s time to get him going,” Mattingly told J.P. Hoornstra of the Los Angeles Daily News. “The biggest thing is that we need him. Everything we’ve tried to [do] so far has been trying to get him going, trying to take pressure off him in different spots. When he’s going good, we’re a better team.”

Because of that, and because of how intense and emotional Puig is, the idea of benching him just doesn’t make sense. There’s too much downside, and it’s not as if Puig doesn’t know he’s not playing well.

“I have to get out of this in the 15 or 16 games that remain,” he said to Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times. “If I don’t get out of it now, I don’t know if I’ll get out of it for the playoffs.”

As incredible as Puig was as a rookie last year, he was exposed a bit in his first October. While he came up big with eight hits in 17 at-bats and five runs scored in the NLDS victory over the Atlanta Braves, Puig lost it against the St. Louis Cardinals‘ staff in the championship series.

He went just 5-for-22 (.227) with 10 strikeouts and only one walk on his way to posting a 14-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 41 playoff plate appearances overall. With another October on tap, Puig will need to be better than that if the Dodgers are going to get back to the Fall Classic for the first time since 1988.

After all, the postseason is when the top pitchers and hardest throwers are ready to shut down even the best bats.

Puig should continue to start as September wraps up to find his rhythm and success once again. But if he doesn’t turn things around—and soon—he very well could be on a short leash in October when every at-bat is crucial, especially for a star player.

Then again, Puig needs to make the most of every at-bat right now, because over the second half, he’s looked and played like anything but a star.

Statistics are accurate as of Sept. 15 and are courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Pop quiz, hotshot: Which Major League Baseball team has spent the most days in first place during the course of the 2014 season?

Here’s a hint: Check the picture up top.

Yep, it’s the Milwaukee Brewers, who surprisingly sat atop the National League Central with at least a share of the lead from April 5 until Sept. 1.

That amounts to 159 total days in which the Brewers led their division. The same Brewers who have since imploded to the point where they’ve gone from longtime leader to out of the playoffs entirely if the season ended Tuesday.

As that table shows, Milwaukee (74-70) isn’t the only former division front-runner that has fallen out of first. The Detroit Tigers and Oakland Athletics also have hit hard times, but the Brewers are in much worse shape going forward.

For one thing, the NL Central once again features three teams pushing and shoving against each other to get to October. After the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds became the first trio to make it to the playoffs from the same division in 2013, the Cardinals and Pirates are both in the thick of things—and ahead of Milwaukee—again this year.

That only makes the Brewers’ path more challenging.

Secondly, well, there’s this rather discouraging tidbit from the club’s play-by-play man Joe Block:

Note that Block’s tweet came from Sept. 5, at which point Milwaukee actually was in postseason position. Obviously, that’s no longer the case, which goes to show just how bad things have gotten.

It’s gotten so bad that the players called a closed-door team meeting Sunday, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes:

A sloppily played 9-1 loss to St Louis at Miller Park left manager Ron Roenicke disappointed and the players apparently alarmed enough to finally talk it over. The Brewers have lost 14 of 17 games to go from first place in the NL Central to third place and also out of the two wild-card spots.

“You know what, a sense of urgency is something that we need to get ahold of, as a team, as a unit,” said Jonathan Lucroy. “Something like that kind of wakes you up. We got punched in the mouth today. It’s about time we woke up from our little trance we’ve been in and get moving forward.”

If the meeting had an impact, it hasn’t happened yet: Milwaukee dropped Monday’s game to the Miami Marlins, 6-4, to extend what has been a season-altering poor stretch.

What has gone so, so wrong for the Brewers after everything was going so, so right for much of the season?

For starters, there’s that brutal nine-game losing streak from Aug. 26 through Sept. 4, during which they lost the final two games (and the series) to the lowly San Diego Padres and were swept in another three-game set by the Chicago Cubs, who remain in last place in the Central.

When the Brewers finally won, beating the rival—and now NL Central-leading—Cardinals last Friday, Sept. 5, they stopped the bleeding only temporarily. The Cards took the final two games and the series to put Milwaukee a season-high five games back.

The nine-game skid got most of the attention, but it was really only the nadir of a stretch in which Milwaukee has lost 15 of its last 18 games since Aug. 20, dropping them now six behind St. Louis in the Central and 1.5 in back of the Pirates for the second wild-card spot.

In that time, the Brewers have been outscored by a tally of—get this—111 to 56. In other words, they have been giving up twice as many runs as they’ve scored for nearly three full weeks.

With things that bad, the Brewers were lucky to win the three games they have.

That also goes to show that the team has been struggling in just about every facet of the game lately.

The once-potent offense, sparked by Carlos Gomez, pushed by Ryan Braun, Aramis Ramirez and Lucroy, and propped up by Khris Davis and Scooter Gennett, has fizzled. While Gomez spent a week nursing his way through a sprained wrist, Braun has been battling his own various ailments.

But no one on the team has hit much over the past month, as the club ranks in the bottom half in the sport in everything from runs scored to batting average to on-base percentage.

On the pitching side, the rotation that was so consistent for four-plus months has been anything but. Kyle Lohse (8.20 ERA in his past four starts), Wily Peralta (7.20) and Yovani Gallardo (5.95) have fallen off. Matt Garza made it back from an oblique injury that cost him a month—only to put up a three-inning, six-run stinker his first time out. Top prospect Jimmy Nelson hasn’t provided a lift either, with a 4.81 ERA since being inserted into the five-man rotation midseason.

If not for Mike Fiers, who has been a revelation since being brought back up in early August, things would be (gasp) even uglier.

Even the bullpen has been shaky, too, after being among the best in the game early on. Each of closer Francisco Rodriguez (2.58 ERA versus 4.02 ERA) and key left-handers Will Smith (3.09 versus 6.48) and Zach Duke (1.18 versus 5.65) have pitched significantly worse in the second half than they did in the first.

Make no mistake—there’s talent on the Brewers, and that could be enough to get themselves up off the floor and back to the playoffs for the first time since 2011.

What they don’t have, however, is much in the way of depth. The organization’s minor league system is among the worst in baseball, having rated as either the worst or second-worst in all of baseball entering 2014 by each of Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus and ESPN (subscription required).

Beyond that, rather than bring in some reinforcements, general manager Doug Melvin chose to stand pat at the trade deadline, aside from the minor move to acquire veteran outfielder Gerardo Parra. Then again, perhaps Melvin would have done more had he not been hamstrung by a lack of coveted prospects.

The Brewers, however, are not done, even if it’s felt like it as they’ve gone 21-27 since the All-Star break. On the contrary, they’re still very much in the hunt, but each loss carries more weight and more impact at this stage because of how the season has been spiraling.

Given the Cardinals’ six-game lead in the Central and how poorly Milwaukee has been playing, it’s just about impossible to see a scenario where the Brewers regain first place with only three weeks left. The focus, then, has to be on the more reachable wild card.

If they fall short there too once the season is over, it’ll be amazing to think the Brewers spent the longest amount of time in first place in all of baseball—159 days and no longer counting—but that, in the end, it wasn’t long enough.

Statistics are accurate as of Sept. 8 and come from MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com, except where otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Texas Rangers, beset this season by injuries and poor performance to the point where they currently own the worst record in Major League Baseball, face yet another challenge with the surprise resignation of manager Ron Washington.

The 62-year-old, who has been the club’s bench boss since 2007, decided to step down Friday to deal with what he called “an off-the-field personal matter,” according to T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com.

Here’s Washington’s statement in more detail:

Today, I have submitted my resignation from the job I love — managing the Rangers — in order to devote my full attention to addressing an off-the-field personal matter. As painful as it is, stepping away from the game is what’s best for me and my family.

This is in no way related to the disappointing performance of the team this season. We were already discussing 2015 and looking forward to getting the Rangers back to postseason contention.

Under Washington’s watch, the Rangers have posted a .521 winning percentage, captured two consecutive American League pennants in 2010 and 2011 and came within one strike of winning the first World Series in franchise history in 2011.

While critics have taken to second-guessing Washington’s occasionally questionable in-game decision-making and old-school approach, watching the winningest manager in team history walk away unexpectedly is a blow to a club that already has endured more than its share this year.

The Rangers were expected to once again contend in the competitive AL West entering the season. That goal fell apart early on, primarily due to an avalanche of injuries, including but certainly not limited to: pitchers Derek Holland, Matt Harrison and Yu Darvish, as well as second baseman Jurickson Profar and the club’s two big offseason acquisitions, first baseman Prince Fielder and outfielder Shin-Soo Choo.

Given the team’s talented (if injury-ravaged) core, a quick turnaround certainly is possible. That makes this a coveted skipper’s spot, one that will be filled by bench coach Tim Bogar on an interim basis until the end of the season.

Of course, well-wishes go out to Washington as he deals with this personal matter. And the door appears to be left open to a possible return, if Washington wants the job back.

But if that doesn’t happen and the franchise chooses to go in a different direction than Bogar for a fresh start in 2015, what qualities might the Rangers be targeting for their next manager?

It’s possible the organization could turn to someone already on the coaching staff for a smoother transition, but considering the Rangers have the roster to return to relevance in short order, there’s a good chance experience would be a big factor, too.

That in mind, here’s a list of candidates who could take over as the Rangers’ next manager.

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For every fantasy owner, there comes a point in the season when a should-be stud just isn’t cutting it—so it’s time to cut him. That’s what this is all about: letting you know it’s OK to let go.

Difficult late-season drops can come in all shapes and sizes, from that third-rounder not living up to expectations to the injury-prone star who just can’t get and stay healthy to a midseason pickup who broke out then flamed out.

We get it: Once you’ve invested in a player and become attached, it’s not so simple to say so long. But sometimes it’s for the best. After all, the stakes only get higher and the standings more solidified the longer you wait for a turnaround or rebound that might never come.

With owners everywhere making a push for the playoffs—and a shot to win it all—numbers become more important than names. Even the big ones.

What follows is a batch of players who remain rostered in many leagues, largely because they either were selected as early draft picks or looked like surefire starters at one time only to have since become cut candidates for one reason or another.

But don’t worry: Each player comes complete with suggestions for readily available replacement options. Because as science says, for every drop, there should be an equal and opposite addition.

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The 2014 season has seen a number of notable prospects receive call-ups to the major leagues. With the final month and the corresponding roster expansion approaching, there will be more to come—and soon.

September brings with it 40-man rosters, so Monday should be filled with prospects getting promoted.

During the past week or so, Jorge Soler and Daniel Corcino debuted, among a handful of others.

Soler, as you might’ve heard or seen or read, hit a homer in his very first plate appearance with the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday. Corcino, a right-hander in the Cincinnati Reds’ system, hurled a perfect inning on Aug. 26—which just so happened to be his 24th birthday.

Meanwhile, outfielder Randal Grichuk and reliever Heath Hembree returned to contribute yet again to the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox, respectively.

Highly regarded youngsters such as Marcus Stroman, Jonathan Singleton, Oscar Taveras, Ken Giles and Javier Baez have been seeing regular time for their respective clubs for quite some time now. Others, such as Mookie Betts and Taijuan Walker, have been shuttling up and down between the minors and majors for much of the year.

More young impact talent will be joining the mix too. Who will be the next to reach the major leagues? In order to predict estimated times of arrival this season, we’ve classified the prospects on this list using the following color-coded scale:

• Red: September call-up, at best.
• Green: Call-up within a week/call-up is imminent.

Here’s a look at the top prospect call-up report for Week 22 of the 2014 MLB season.

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