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Royals Rumblings - News for August 12, 2014

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By Max Rieper
John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

Royals Rumblings - News for August 12, 2014

Dayton Moore says newly acquired slugger Josh Willingham will serve as the regular designated hitter while Hosmer is out.

"We see his presence in the middle of our lineup somewhere," Moore said. "And being that presence that can get some big hits for us."

Moore expects Willingham to become the club’s regular designated hitter. He still may split time with Raul Ibañez, but Moore insisted they would not platoon.

Willingham is sad to leave the Twins, but ready to join a pennant race.

You look at the baseball part of it, and they're winning over there," Willingham said. "They have a good group of guys, from what I understand, so from the business part of it, it's a good move for me. I get a chance to win and maybe experience the playoffs, something I haven't been able to do in my career."

Here is the Josh Willingham trade from the Twins perspective at our sister site Twinkie Town.

Speaking of Eric Hosmer, he hopes to swing a bat Thursday after he gets X-rays on his injured hand. He has been out since July 31.

Billy Butler would really, really, really like to stay in Kansas City.

Butler and his wife, Katy, have embraced the Kansas City community for years and often engage in charity functions, most notably with the "Hit a Ton" foundation they started in 2008 that donates food to the needy. And Butler has always dreamed of playing his entire career in Kansas City, just like George Brett did.

And, in fact, Butler has borrowed Brett's oft-used line that "everything I have in life I have because of the Royals." That is why Butler said he would be willing to take less money in a renegotiated deal just to stay with the Royals. "I would definitely be more than happy to make that an option," he says. "I'd do it because I love playing here. It's all I have ever known. There's been a lot of tough years, but there have been a lot of good memories, too. "I don't want to let that go. I've enjoyed every minute of it."

Jeff Sullivan writes that the 2014 Royals are the same as the 2013 Royals - a flawed team with an amazing defense.

This year’s Royals are last year’s Royals, and last year’s Royals were arguably led by a fantastic outfield defense that ranked among the best in recent history. This year the same players are doing the same things, making the pitching staff look better and partially making up for the offense being so consistently, aggravatingly mediocre. Now, I don’t know if the Royals are the best team in the race. I don’t know if they’re going to win the wild card, or the division, or the World Series, or one more game for the rest of the season. There’s so little of the year left that there’s going to be crazy variation around the calculated true-talent estimates. Last year’s similar Royals team didn’t win enough games; this year’s model might manage to pull it off. Regardless of whether it does, the team’s success shouldn’t be that much of a mystery. Part of the team is amazing. It’s just a somewhat unconventional way to be amazing.

David Hill at Kings of Kauffman writes that the bullpen is the Royals biggest advantage.

Should the Royals have a lead through six innings, it feels like they are almost guaranteed a victory. In fact, the Royals are only allowing 0.99 runs per game after the sixth inning, which is fifth in baseball. The Tigers, meanwhile, have allowed 1.58 runs per game after the sixth, which is, again, 28th in baseball.

ESPN's David Schoenfeld set out to see if Wade Davis and Greg Holland are having a historic season as a duo.

Davis and Holland have no doubt been awesome, a big reason Kansas City is a half-game behind the Tigers. The Royals are 51-1 when leading entering the eighth inning (the Tigers, meanwhile, are 54-5). But keep in mind we're in the era of dominant relievers -- heck, 41 of 152 relievers with at least 35 innings have held batters to a batting average under .200 and 46 of those relievers are averaging at least 10 K's per nine. Back in 1990, when Rob Dibble, Randy Myers and Norm Charlton each averaged over 10 K's per nine for the World Series champion Reds, only six relievers did that.

Mellinger is going crazy about how the Royals are making us crazy.

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Kansas City loves watching the Royals win on TV.

Rany Jazayerli has a nice long piece summing the week that was Sung Woo.

Speaking of Sung Woo, he got to throw out the first pitch and meet George Brett.

A couple of girls are the big stars in qualifying for the Little League World Series. Davis pitched a three-hit shutout Sunday to lead her team to Williamsport.

BOMBSHELL!

Its me. The secret is - I really don't care for baseball.

The first trailer for the "Breaking Bad" spin-off prequel series "Better Caul Saul."

RIP Robin Williams.

The Royals have won eight in a row and will probably never lose another game again in our lifetime. Your song of the day is The Go! Team with "We Just Won't Be Defeated."

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