Royals on pace to lose 100 games

Random thoughts on the Kansas City Royals as the once-proud, underfunded, talent-evaluation challenged and moribund baseball franchise cascades toward its first 100-defeat season. Â

 At least we have Mike Sweeney’s nip-and-tuck battle with Boston’s Manny Ramirez for the American League batting title to maintain our interest. It certainly wouldn’t hurt Sweeney’s Hall of Fame chances if he won the silver bat.

Sweeney’s career batting average is .309, four points higher than George Brett’s. That’s a positive. On the flip side, Sweeney is 29 years old and through Sunday’s game had 896 lifetime hits. At the same age, Brett had almost twice as many hits (1,532) as Sweeney.

In other words, Sweeney has virtually no chance of accumulating 3,000 hits and earning an automatic spot in Cooperstown.

 Once upon a time I thought David Howard and Jackie Hernandez were the worst shortstops the Royals have ever had. Now I’m sure it’s Neifi Perez. At least Howard and Hernandez had a clue about how the game is played. Perez has a rocket arm, I’ll grant you, but he may be the worst situational hitter I’ve ever seen.

If runners are in scoring position, Perez would rather swing at the first pitch than eat. And his bunting. Oh, my. If Perez doesn’t bunt to the wrong base or to the pitcher, he pops it up.

Every time skipper Tony Peña ordered Perez to bunt, I wonder how many fans were screaming at their radios and televisions: “Don’t do it, Tony. Perez’ll kill you. He CAN’T bunt.”

Then again, Peña may have had Perez bunt because he knew if he let Perez swing away he would ground into an easy doubleplay.

 Hard to believe but the Royals have made it through the season without reacquiring a player they had once traded away. Joe Randa, Brent Mayne and Michael Tucker are the incumbent Royals’ returnees, and surely they won’t be the last. No doubt the Royals will jump back into the reacquisition business in the off-season.

My leading candidates to wear KC togs again in 2003 are Milwaukee pitcher Glendon Rusch, Detroit utilityman Shane Halter and Boston infielder Rey Sanchez.

Sure, it would be great to have Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye or Kevin Appier back, but the Royals will just have to wait until Damon, Dye and Appier are on the downsides of their careers.

 Perhaps it’s time to move the fences back at Kauffman Stadium. I’m sure KC hurlers Paul Byrd and Jeff Suppan wouldn’t complain. Byrd has surrendered 34 home runs and Suppan 32. How Byrd could be so gopher ball-prone and win 17 games is further evidence bases on balls are worse than homers. Byrd has walked a mere 37 batters in 221-plus innings.

 Speaking of Byrd, once the trading deadline passed, the veteran right-hander  is he a a dead ringer for actor William H. Macy or what?  went from a leading candidate for Comeback of the Year to the American League’s best batting practice pitcher. Then he seemed to regain his form. Perhaps it took Byrd this many years  he’ll be 32 in December  to learn how to pitch in the big leagues, but I don’t believe I would include him in my 2003 pitching pool.

 What do Brandon Berger, Aaron Guiel, Kit Pellow and Donzell McDonald have in common? Answer: They’re Triple-A-caliber players lucky enough to be in the Royals system. How much time do you think those four players would have logged in the big leagues this summer if they were Yankee farmhands?

 Say what you want about Raul Ibañez  that he’s a streak hitter, that he can’t field, that he can’t run  it’s hard to be critical of anyone who makes the big leagues after being a 36th round draft choice out of high school.

 Will the Royals struggle again next year? They will if they keep signing over-the-hill free agents like Chuck Knoblauch.