royalsandcelebs

In honor of not having anything that good to write about (and feeling like my last blog should have been a lot more snide), I’ve compiled a list of the most disappointing, soul-crushing, heart-breaking all-time Royals line-up of the last 15 (yes–15) years.

While dropping the names of extremely obscure Royals in the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that I really haven’t had a difficult time coming up with names to use as examples of futility, and it seems to work for all occasions.  Weak starter?  Got one.  Weak middle relief?  Got one.  Weak closer?  Oh, man, do I have a few to choose from!  Whether it be examples of dropped fly balls, balls that bounce off infielders, not running out ground balls, base-clearing brawls, and, even, forgetting how many outs there are in an inning (it’s happened once a year for the last 5–5!–years), I don’t struggle to come up with a guy.  And, due to that, we have this list of the damned.  Here’s our first entry.  Avert your eyes!

Leading off and playing center field,… Chip Ambres! 

Not the most devastating guy to start off with, but he was fast… apparently.  I didn’t notice his speed.  Since getting traded over here for Tony Graffanino in 2005, all I noticed Ambres do is drop fly balls–a lot.  You may remember that wonderful Indians game a few summers back where the Royals had a 5 run lead in the bottom of the ninth and two outs, and Chip dropped a fly ball.  With two outs!  In the bottom of the ninth!  And so did Berroa!  With two outs!  In the bottom of the ninth inning! 

Whether it be colliding with outfielders or dropping routine outs, Ambres was the poster boy for the Royals lack of mechanics pre-Dayton.  He was eventually designated for assignment when we had to make room for our–you guessed it–Tony Graffanino! 

I think what stings most about this trade was that we had a veteran, Graffanino, that we traded just to make a trade.  Less than a year later, we pick up the same veteran!  Why not just hold onto him if you know you’ll getting nothing of value in return!  At least when we traded Giraffanino the following year, we got a guy with some potential, Jorge de la Rosa.

We picked up Cedeno, too, and apparently he was the “key guy” in the trade (Cedeno is no longer in the organization), but Ambres, a career minor leaguer toiling away in the Red Sox organization, immediatelyjoined the ball club and made his Major League debut.  It’s not the greatest sign for your organization when the journeyman outfielder immediately joins your team and makes his Major League debut.  After an extremely underwhelming half a season, Ambres has had a total of three at-bats in the Majors.  Cedeno hasn’t even reached Triple-A.

Oh, and as for that coveted speed?  Three steals in five attempts.  Mission accomplished!

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