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Current Video:AL Hot Corner: Hillman dismissed|
Ken Rosenthal on the Royals' dismissal of Trey Hillman, other coaches on the hot seat and more.
Automatically Generated Transcript (may not be 100% accurate)
I'm Brian -- it's not for another edition of the AL hot corner -- pleased to be joined by foxsports.com. Senior baseball writer Ken Rosenthal breaking down what's happening. In the American League. Get let's start the dugout -- Kansas City Royals are fired -- Hilemon Casey currently in last place the L central but this team's not going anywhere so why they make. This -- now. Well Brian first let's look at the numbers twelve and 2310. And a half games out of first place -- helmet in the final year of his contract. That adds up in the fire the manager paint by number handbook as fire the manager. Now there have been a number of things that have happened here in recent weeks that a raise a lot of eyebrows. Winning Gil -- -- a 120 pitches the most of any pitcher in the majors this season. An incident with Texas where Josh Hamilton forgot to tag up and nobody on the Royals bench noticed. Yuniesky Betancourt failing to catch out pop up nonchalantly. And nothing happening in terms of discipline at least ostensibly from what people could see. It never appeared to me that Trey Hillman how to hold on this team never appear that he had the true respect of his players. He was a great success in Japan but that success never translated here. -- just comes in he's a retread he's a guy was fired -- Milwaukee with twelve games left in the season a few years ago. But has -- worked well with young players in the past. One of the things about the Royals is that they don't have as many young players as you would think. But we'll see you this goes so let's pay some more by number which magic have been the next to go. Proud of -- three. Dave trembling with the Orioles an obvious candidate and yet the Orioles -- like the Royals do not have an obvious replacement standing by. There's nobody on the staff nobody in the minor league system that could simply step in and replaced friendly. Andy Macphail other club president ever patient man come out so sure anything's gonna happen so quickly but let's see if attendance plummets there. Also clearly in Pittsburgh John Russell very similar situation to helmet. Yes the team is going nowhere yes there's a talent shortage but you can really questioned whether he has the right demeanor for this job. He's very stoic the players don't seem to be necessarily responding to him that's another went to watch and I did -- one more. In Texas Ron Washington. And the Rangers currently are in first place but frankly they should be building a lead right now. Considering that the Angels are playing poorly the a's have all these injuries and the Mariners are essentially a team that cannot hit. Washington had a situation the other night where he failed to get the closer Neftali Feliz up in time to into the game. There watching him closely in Texas in if that team stumbles he will be in trouble. Okay let's move on Javier Vazquez and Curtis Granderson not doing much yet in the Bronx so how important is Philip Hughes bad for the Yankees. Certainly in terms of what Vasquez has done or should I say not done. Hughes has been huge guy for them because really he has stepped in and effectively become their number four if not their number three considering that Andy Pettitte. Has a little bit of an elbow issue now. Vasquez was one of their big off season acquisitions. Curtis Granderson was another one Nick Johnson was the third. None of those to this point have panned out the unfairness granderson got hurt and of course now Johnson is heard as well. He has a history of doing that Brian so it remains to be seen just how effective that yankees' offseason will turn out today. Yet at the same time this is the team that is played for the most part extremely well. Finally the Angels off to a slow start here in Southern California but still in contention the week L west how concerned -- -- skipper Mike Scioscia. He has to be very concerned. The Angels are next to last in the American League ERA it's really a stunning development. And yes they lost John Lackey but. That should not equate to be next to last in the league any RA. Their bullpen struggled shields has struggled and of course went days as well. They're gonna need to get a better performance out of those guys also out of the two lefties in the rotation Saunders and Kazmir. Offensively so this is not the Angels team that we've seen in the past. We expected to be less of a running team more of a power type of club. That's not happening. Eleventh in the league in runs per game that's doing is struggled. Brandon Wood at third base looks like an experiment that is bound to fail. The -- has not performed to expectations. Really they've had very few offensive players do what they thought they would do when they went into this season. So yes the Angels have to be worried especially. When Texas has all this young talent it would open is now starting to get its injured players back. Okay again thanks so much for the insides don't forget foxsports.com that you covered draw your baseball needs for cannot ride will see you next.