Shealy ‘enhanced his value’ with strong September
In just 20 games, the former-first-baseman-of-the-future for the Royals,
Ryan Shealy, hit .301 with seven homers and 20 RBIs in September.
You already know where this is going: That projects out to 56 homers and 160 RBIs for a full season, which, I think, might make Shealy the first baseman of the future once more.
Seriously, Shealy’s September performance should at least get him back into the picture as a candidate for the job next spring.
Royals manager Trey Hillman apparently thinks so, too.
“I would say he is in very good standing with his performance (in September),” Hillman said Tuesday at his season-ending news conference.
“He enhanced his value.”
Hillman also maintained that Shealy never fell from favor in the Royals’ organization, despite how it seemed.
“He got hit by the injury bug in 2006 and in 2007 and a little this year,” Hillman said. “He maintained a positive attitude and had good production this year. As far as I’m concerned, he is in very good standing.…
“I don’t think anyone (in the organization) counted him out. Honestly, I never heard anyone say ‘This kid can’t play’ or ‘He doesn’t fit in our plans’ or ‘He’s just a fill-in at Triple-A.’ That’s not been the mindset.
“Before I even got the (manager’s) job, he was one of the players that Dayton Moore brought up as one of the possibilities to get the (first-base job). Dayton said he’s got the power, the discipline, the size and he’s a real possibility.”
One of the knocks on Shealy has been his questionable bat speed.
“I don’t necessarily see a slow bat,” Hillman said. “I see average bat speed. I don’t see below average bat speed.
“Average bat speed needs to be on time and he’s shown the ability to do that. We saw him at the ‘K’ hit a 92-93 mph fastball over the center-field wall. And he had a very impressive base hit against Minnesota to right field (to win a game). He utilized the whole field.”
Chiefs rating up
One week after the Chiefs-Falcons game posted a 23.4 Nielsen rating — the lowest Chiefs rating since November of 2001 — the rating bounced back Sunday.
The Chiefs-Broncos game pulled in a 27.3 on Channel 5. Each ratings point is the equivalent to about 9,380 television households in the Kansas City viewing area.
Sunday’s Camping World RV 400 race at Kansas Speedway on Channel 9 had a modest 3.8 rating. For the week that was below the Virginia Tech-Nebraska game on ABC (6.5) and the USC-Oregon State game on ESPN (5.0).
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