Baseball: Player development a positive for Omaha Royals this season

With the season over for the Kansas City Royals, the final chapter has been written for Class AAA Omaha as well.

Lenny DiNardo, a Pacific Coast League All-Star after going 10-5 with a 3.32 ERA for Omaha, struggled in his final month in Kansas City. Left-hander Dusty Hughes built on a solid second half with Omaha with a respectable final month in the major leagues. Carlos Rosa struggled in Omaha but was OK in limited duty in Kansas City. Victor Marte struggled in his first trip to the big leagues. And Yasuhiko Yabuta struggled again in the majors, likely bringing his two years with Kansas City to an end.

That basically puts a wrap on Omaha's 64-80 season, in which it finished in last place in the Pacific Coast League's American Conference North Division, 13 games behind Memphis.

“Overall, I'm happy with the season,” Omaha manager Mike Jirschele said. “I'm not happy with the wins and losses part of it, but I'm happy with the development of the players.

“We got our work in, and the guys who needed to get better improved. We sent some guys to the big leagues, and we got some guys back from the big leagues who put up good numbers.”

Omaha's season was marked by strange statistical oddities.

The Royals pitchers could be dominant — they had 17 shutouts, the second-highest total in franchise history and six more than any other PCL team. Omaha was fifth in strikeouts and led the league in fewest walks allowed.

But the pitching also could be terrible — the Royals lost 10 games they led after eight innings, while no other PCL team lost more than four such games. They were 18-30 in one-run games and 3-13 in extra-inning games.

“You look at those late losses, those one-run losses, and a lot of times you lose those earlier in the game when you don't advance runners or get them in from scoring position, or when you don't make plays that you should defensively,” Jirschele said. “I get ticked off when a pitcher can't come in and hold a one-run lead, but when you look at the course of a whole game, we usually had chances to be ahead by four or five runs.”

Early in the year, the Royals' pitching staff included Brian Bannister and Luke Hochevar, though there was little expectation they would be there from start to finish — both spent most of the season in the Kansas City rotation. DiNardo and Bruce Chen, major league veterans, eventually earned promotions, while Kyle Davies came down at midseason before earning his way back to the majors.

Offensively, season-ending injuries to first baseman Ryan Shealy (knee) and outfielder Shane Costa (Achilles) took them out of the lineup early in the season, and an anticipated breakout season never happened for outfielder Chris Lubanski because of a hamstring injury.

First baseman Kila Ka'aihue, after hitting a combined 38 homers in 2008 among Classes AA and AAA and the majors, never had an extended hot streak and finished at .252 with 17 homers and 57 RBIs. He hit a combined .314 in the minors last year, while driving in 100 runs.

“I think he put a lot of pressure on himself to match last season,” Jirschele said. “He had a few streaks this year where he looked like he was getting back to where he was last year, but he was never able to do it consistently day in and day out over a long period of time.”

Ka'aihue didn't get a September promotion, apparently a sign that he's still blocked at the big league level by Mike Jacobs, who had a disappointing season after being acquired in a trade.

Meanwhile, veteran outfielder Cory Aldridge turned 30 and had one of the finest seasons of his professional career. Aldridge has just five major league at-bats, all of them in 2001. He didn't get another chance this September despite hitting .316 with 22 homers and 71 RBIs in 98 games with Omaha.

“You look at his numbers, and they're great for the amount of time he played,” Jirschele said. “At the start of the season, it looked like he was going to be one of the extra guys who we'd get in one or two times a week. But what he did with the bat, we had to play him more. He became a big part of our offense.”

Second baseman Tug Hulett (.291) was solid offensively and got a look in Kansas City, and shortstop Luis Hernandez (.303) added an offensive dimension to his résumé as a slick fielder and also got extended time in the majors.

When they were gone, though, the Royals got spread thin in Class AAA.

“You take Shealy and Costa out of our lineup, those two guys up the middle with Luis' defense, and those are big holes to fill,” Jirschele said.

The Royals got a lift from outfielder Scott Thorman (.297 and 19 homers in 97 games with Omaha), who was acquired in May, and again when Alex Gordon (.313 in 18 games) was sent down from Kansas City for three weeks. Outfielder Mitch Maier and catcher Brayan Pena spent most of the year in the majors.

But as a team the Royals hit just .262 with runners in scoring position. Despite having the best offense in the league in April — when Shealy, Lubanski, Maier, Hulett, Pena and Hernandez were involved — Omaha wound up 12th in the league in batting average and 13th in runs scored.

“The good clubs, anywhere, find a way to get those runs in,” Jirschele said. “It may not be a gapper, but they find a way to get the runs in.”

Contact the writer:

444-1027, rob.white@owh.com