Baseball Sunday

"He smoked it." —White Sox broadcaster Steve Stone after Cubs catcher Geovany Soto hit a three-run homer after news broke that Soto had tested positive for marijuana at the World Baseball Classic

13The Kansas City Royals are 13th (out of 14 teams) in the American League in runs scored, batting average, walks, home runs, and total bases — they are a very unlucky 13 when it comes to offense.

Running into a wall

Bill James and his people have put together a system where they measure all sorts of base-running acts — how often a runner goes first to third or scores from second on a single, how often he scores from first on a double, how many extra bases a team picks up on wild pitches or sac flies, how many double plays they hit into, etc. — and they use that data to figure how many bases a team gains or loses depending on their base running.

For instance, the Colorado Rockies are the best base-running team in the game. So far this year, they have picked up 61 more bases than the average team. That's pretty meaningful. The San Diego Padres are the second-worst base-running team in baseball. They have picked up 36 fewer bases than the average team.

The Royals? They are a mind-boggling minus-77 bases.

Minus-77. That's like a whole other planet. No other team is even close to that kind of awful. How do they do it? Well, they hit into more double plays per opportunity than any team in the game by far. They have picked up fewer extra bases than any team in baseball by far.

They also don't pick up the extra base — second baseman Alberto Callaspo, just as an example, is one for 15 going first to third on a single. One for 15. To give you a comparison, Chicago DH Jim Thome, who would plead guilty to being really slow (he has zero triples and one stolen base since 2005) is two for seven going first to third.

At long last

Lou Piniella's long-awaited ejection Wednesday night in Pittsburgh should curtail the questioning about his alleged lack of fire.

"I'm done with that," Piniella said with a laugh. "My chest was hurting after the ballgame. The trainer told me to take a nice, cold shower."

Piniella said he simply was arguing a call, not trying to make Cubs fans believe he still has the "fire" inside of him.

Still, he said, "Now I don't have to answer that question anymore."

Has Piniella ever gone 11 straight months without getting ejected?

"My wife ejected me a couple of times last winter," he joked.

—Combined wire reports

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