Royals Rumblings - News for July 18, 2014
David Hill at Kings of Kauffman read David Glass's recent comments and interpreted them to mean the Royals need to make the playoffs for front office personnel to keep their jobs.
What do these expectations mean for Moore and Yost? While Glass gave both the dreaded vote of confidence, it is clear that he expects far more than for the Royals to hover around .500. Glass wants that playoff berth. He wants October baseball, and for the Royals to return to their place amongst the royalty of baseball. It seems that Glass is tired of waiting.
With that being the case, the pressure may be squarely upon Dayton Moore and Ned Yost to deliver a winner. David Glass indicated that he is willing to increase payroll to bring in key pieces to improve those playoff odds. There should no longer be any excuses. Now, it is time to find out if Moore and Yost can deliver on that promise. David Glass is demanding that the Royals make the playoffs. If that does not happen, he may make wholesale changes. The pressure is now on the front office and the coaching staff.
Craig Brown at Royals Authority doesn't see it as the dreaded "vote of confidence."
Is this a vote of confidence? I don’t think so, for the simple fact the Royals aren’t circling the drain at this point. In other words, Glass doesn’t need to give his management team a vote of confidence. Although we can disagree on this point.
Jeffrey Flanagan dishes out his first-half grades for each Royals player.
The Star asks its readers whether the Royals should trade Billy Butler. The unscientific, online poll is not binding unless Prop 157 passes, and we all pray that it will.
Darin Watson and Pine Tar Press takes a look at the Royals second-half schedule.
Of their 68 remaining games, 52 are against teams at .500 or worse. The 16 games against winning teams include seven against Oakland (gulp), six against Detroit (that’s worked out well so far this season) and three against San Francisco. If the Royals can manage to split those 16 somehow and go 30-22 in the others, that’s 86 wins, which might be enough this season.
In case you missed it, Keith Law has his Top 50 Mid-season Prospect list out, and Kyle Zimmer (#21) and Raul Mondesi (#24) are the only Royals on the list.
John Sickels has a quick take on Spencer Patton, who the Royals dealt Wednesday for Rangers reliever Jason Frasor.
The Mariners, the team we are chasing for the second Wild Card currently, are discussing a deal for David Price and Ben Zobrist, but have apparently moved on from Marlon Byrd. Advantage, DAYTON MOORE.
Is there such thing as a "hot hand" in baseball? This research says yes. Royals fans say, "no."
The Royals are not among the top 50 most valuable franchises in the world, although the guys across the parking lot are.
Tom Emanski may have produced back-to-back-to-back AAU champions, but he has since mysteriously disappeared.
Awful baseball cards, with a couple Royals thrown in.
I didn't need a chart at Fivethirtyeight to tell me that yesterday is the deadest sports day of the year, but here it is anyway.
Grantland's Andy Greenwald looks at some of the movie stars starring on the small screen in TV series this year and which ones made the right move in doing so.
Your song of the day is Van Halen's "Panama."