Royals Rumblings - News for March 20, 2015
Jason Vargas was drilled for nine runs in less than two innings of work in a 13-2 loss to the Rockies yesterday.
"I don’t really know what to say, other than anything I was throwing up there, they were hitting," Vargas said. "I’ll go back to work tomorrow."
Andy McCullough details Kris Medlen's year-long comeback from Tommy John surgery.
Wednesday marked 365 days since his second Tommy John surgery. Medlen celebrated by splitting an ice cream cake with Luke Hochevar, a fellow survivor of elbow reconstruction. Then he completed his first bullpen session since undergoing the procedure. "It’s almost symbolic," Medlen said. "Not ‘You’re back.’ But ‘It begins,’ that kind of thing."
Pete Grathoff writes that Royals outfielder Paulo Orlando took to baseball in his native Brazil because he couldn't cut it in soccer.
Royals outfielder Paulo Orlando knows. A native of Sao Paulo, he only played baseball on the weekends.
"There’s no season there," Orlando said. "You just play two games one day, because there are no stadiums with lights. "At the school, I said I play baseball. They said, ‘What? What sport is that?’ Nobody knew baseball."
David Lesky at Pine Tar Press takes issue with Ned Yost's potential lineup already, and not just because Alcides Escobar is leading off
Cain is not the prototypical three hitter in a lineup. Last season, he hit enough that he was actually just fine there. But, and this is something we’ve talked about before too, he had a .380 batting average on balls in play (BABIP). Cain has very good speed, so his BABIP is expected to be a bit higher than most, but that’s absurdly high.
If that comes down and he doesn’t compensate as expected, Cain doesn’t deserve to hit that high in the lineup. The guy hit .251/.310/.348 just a year ago. I love Lorenzo, but the Royals can’t be married to him at the top of the lineup either. This edition of the Kansas City Royals is a team that has a lot of uncertainty, but also a lot of promise. The positive take on the uncertainty is that you never know who’s going to step up and potentially carry the team. The negative take on it is that you never know who is going to come back to earth and potentially be a drain on the team. .
He also gets out his crystal ball to predict the 2015 season.
Former Royal Justin Maxwell is trying to make the Giants and he was pulling for the Royals last fall so he could get a championship ring.
Tony Blengino of Fangraphs writes that Billy Butler to the Athletics makes perfect sense.
Rob Neyer is impressed with Oakland switch-pitcher Pat Venditte.
Pitcher Brady Aiken, the unsigned number one pifck in last year's draft, left an outing for IMG Academy after just 12 pitches with arm discomfort.
The Padres and Dodgers are the frontrunners to land Cuban free agent infielder Hector Olivera.
How will cable unbundling affect pro sports revenues, particularly baseball? Interesting note in the article is that the Royals are expecting a double-digit percent increase in season ticket sales.
The first (real) day of the NCAA Tournament was MADNESS. Here's your complete coverage of Thursday's action.
Former Royals pitcher Aaron Crow had fun at the expense of the Big 12, who had a terrible first day.
Former Chiefs receiver Dwayne Bowe is heading to Cleveland.
The Royals have finished last before, but never last, $100 million in debt, and bankrupt, as this Serie A soccer team in Italy has.
This basketball player has an....unfortunate name (NSFW - language).
The final story for long-time Kansas City Star sportswriter Randy Covitz, who is retiring, on the NAIA college basketball tournament.
Is Lucious Lyon of "Empire" the black Don Draper of "Mad Men"?
"Interstellar" originaly had a darker, simpler ending.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is starring in a fake documentary to re-write history.
Colonizing Mars doesn't seem like such a fanciful idea anymore.
Larry King is cheating at tweeting.
Your song of the day is Madness with "House of Fun."