Royals Rumblings - News for April 27, 2015

Royals Rumblings - News for April 27, 2015

Yordano Ventura is concerned teams may be trying to get in his dome.

"Last year, nobody knew who he was," Yost said. "Now they know who he is. They know how tough he is. They know how good he is. And they’re trying to find alternative ways of beating him. And the majority of the alternative routes that they’re taking is they’re trying to get in his dome. They’re trying to (tick) him off. "They know he plays with emotions. And that’s what they’re trying to do. And, at times, he allows them to accomplish that. And he needs to continue to stay focused and work as hard as he can to let his game do the talking."

Vahe Gregorian writes that Yordano needs to be more composed.

Sure, the White Sox were complicit in this, just like every … single … team the Royals have played this year.

But the X-factor was Ventura, who seems bent not just on defending but antagonizing — and appears incapable of shrugging off being baited. OK, yes, that stuff speaks to his intensity. But it speaks more accurately to how it’s overpowering him.

Dayton Moore defends his star pitcher.

"I think our guys have done an incredible job of managing some of the things that have came their way, early on in the season," Moore said. "It’s not unexpected. When you win, those types of things happen. People are coming for you. That’s part of it." ...

"They love to play," Moore said. "They play with passion. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things as a professional. Our guys realize that. Now you have to go out and do it."

Lee Judge breaks down Thursday's brawl.

Cain was still being physically restrained by Dale Sveum and then third-base coach Mike Jirschele also got involved. Cain wanted a piece of Samardjiza and Sveum and Jirschle were trying to prevent that from happening. Cain pointed at someone off screen, but he was being held back and pulled away. Suddenly Samardjiza came charging into the picture. Clearly, none of his teammates were holding him back, and that’s one of the reasons this thing kept going.

Sveum swung Cain out of Samardjiza’s way, like a matador pulling the cape back at the last second. Samardjiza then bowled into Mike Jirschele. Jirsch and Samardjiza (who looks like a cut-rate Musketeer) fell to the ground. And that’s when Edinson Volquez did something amazing:

He threw the single-worst punch I’ve ever seen in my life.

He also writes that people generally only hate teams that are good.

If you’re mediocre, people don’t hate you. That helps explain what’s been going on with the Kansas City Royals this season. The Royals are no longer an underdog; they’re the American League champs. The Royals are good and they know they’re good and other teams are feeling less charitable toward them.

White Sox pitcher Chris Sale reportedly tried to get into the Royals clubhouse, looking for a fight, but Alex Rios defused the situations.

"Tempers flared a little bit, got a little hot," Sale said, "but this isn't going to turn into Fight Club or anything like that. It's baseball. We got a little upset, tempers got a little high and then that's it. Everyone's just making a little bit bigger deal than it really is."

YOU BROKE THE FIRST RULE OF FIGHT CLUB!!!!

The Royals will make up their postponed Saturday game as part of a doubleheader on July 17.

Kevin Helliker at the Wall Street Journal writes the Royals are still fighting for respect.

It’s true that the Royals and their fans are misbehaving, but not in the way you might think. It started late last summer when the Royals defied projections that they would fail to make the playoffs, fail to win the wild-card game, fail to win the divisional series and fail to win the league championship series. After the Royals tied the World Series at three games each, baseball’s greatest minds looked as though they were watching a felony. But when the San Francisco Giants took Game 7, all was forgiven, and Kansas City was written off as an October fluke....

If our cheer was sustained by dismay that the lowly Royals had made it to the playoffs at all, it was also buoyed by a sense that this team had shed its lowliest feature: its loser image....

From the Weekend Rumblings, Jeff Sullivan at Just a Bit Outside writes about the Royals' amazing ability to make contact.

It's not only that the Royals have the lowest team strikeout rate in baseball. A year ago, they had the lowest team strikeout rate in baseball. The year before, they had the second-lowest. The Royals have been a contact-oriented team. What's most notable is the magnitude of the Royals' advantage over everyone else....

The Royals are in front of the Mets, by more than five percentage points. What does that mean? The gap between first and second place is bigger than the gap between second and 21st place. It's an extraordinary lead, and any time you see such a gap on top of a leaderboard, you know you're dealing with either a data error, or something incredible. This is the latter.

Alex, on that catch.

"I just said, ‘Eff it,’" Gordon said. "And jumped into the stands."

YOLO.

Alex Gordon: Endorsed by Voros McCracken.

Hot take: Alex Gordon is the best defensive left fielder I have ever seen.

— Voros McCracken (@VorosM) April 26, 2015

Rickey Henderson, of all people, thinks the Royals are being too flamboyant on the field.

Does the Royals "bad boy" image fit the city's image?

The Colorado Rockies let our sister site on SB Nation, Purple Row, take over their twitter feed for Saturday's game. (h/t Kevin). Your move, Royals.

I chatted on the "Bless You Boys" podcast about the Royals, and coincidentally, I talk about the dust-up with Oakland at about the same time the Royals were getting into another brawl on Thursday night.

The Angels have finally washed their hands of Josh Hamilton by dealing him to Texas.

Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright injures his Achilles heel while hitting, and is possibly out for the year, raising questions as to whether pitchers should still be hitting.

Orioles fans had to remain in the ballpark after protests outside the stadium over the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police turned violent.

Joon Lee profiles the rise of young Red Sox star Mookie Betts.

Former MTV reporter Tabitha Soren has been chronicling the life of the A's 2002 draft class, written about by her husband Michael Lewis in his book "Moneyball." Looking forward to the photos of Mark Teahen.

Anthony Davis' Pelicans were swept  in the first round by the Warriors, but he's still one of the best rising stars in the game.

What did we learn from Everton's upset of Manchester United?

Get ready for this Thursday's NFL draft. Here is your Chiefs draft coverage from Arrowhead Pride.

NBC anchor Brian Williams may be an even bigger liar than previously thought.

The best jokes of the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

How to set up your Apple Watch in just sixteen steps!

Fivethirtyeight looks at the three types of Adam Sandler movies.

Your song of the day is Culture with "Stop the Fussing and Fighting."