Royals Rumblings - News for April 29, 2015

Royals Rumblings - News for April 29, 2015

Lee Judge applauds Mike Moustakas for his new approach to hitting.

The thing that made the home run even more impressive was the fact that Moustakas singled to left field before and after hitting it; he didn’t hit a bomb and then get pull happy. After that home run I complimented Mike on his approach, but then asked why it took so long for him to figure things out. Moose laughed and said: "Better late than never."

Craig Brown at Royals Authority is impressed.

Naturally, no recap of Monday’s game would be complete without mentioning Mike Moustakas. Four hits! (Every writer worth his salt knows you limit – or completely omit – exclamation points, but if you can’t use them when Moustakas has four hits, you may as well remove them from the keyboard.) In true Moustakas form, he continues to go to the opposite field. He also produced the plate appearance of the season in a nine pitch battle against Corey Kluber in the seventh. With a 2-2 count, he fouled off four pitches in a row before he got a pitch up in the zone and drove it to left for a run-scoring single. Moustakas improved his plate discipline last year and saw more pitches than before. But this… This is simply astounding. Last year, he rolls that ninth pitch over and grounds out to first or second. This year, he stays back and takes it the other way. Amazing.

It’s still a small sample size againsth is 2,000-odd career plate appearance, but the longer this continues, the better you feel about eventually removing that SSS disclaimer.

Sam Mellinger references Royals Review's song contest in his Twitter Tuesday and thinks the Royals have themselves to blame for their reputation.

But the common denominator in these skirmishes is the Royals. Samardzija went punk on opening day, hitting Cain with a pitch, and if the Royals responded immediately it probably would’ve kept some of these things from bottling up and eventually exploding. If the Royals plunk Lawrie or one of his teammates the day after The Slide, same thing. Or, even, if Ventura hits Lawrie in his first at bat instead of after a home run with a five-run deficit. Herrera doesn’t need to point at his head, Ventura doesn’t need to say what he did to Eaton, and it’s been easy to forget but Duffy through high and behind a guy in the first White Sox series.

I certainly don’t think everything that’s happened to the Royals is their fault, and I feel strongly that their general emotion and exuberance should be viewed with joy, and not disdain.

But if the same kid ends up in fights every recess, "he started it," is a lame excuse.

The Royals may have interest in catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who was designated for assignment by the Marlins. The catcher is owed nearly $15 million over the next two years, but presumably the Royals would be responsible for very little of that.

Andy McCullough has the story of the fan who was able to take the photo of Alex Gordon after he crashed into the stands on Sunday to make a catch in Chicago.

Former World Series hero and one-time Royals outfielder Kirk Gibson has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.

The Orioles and White Sox will play a game today in front of no fans, kinda like the Royals and Indians have done this week.

Scary incident on the field for Diamondbacks pitcher Archie Bradley.

Oh wait, there were some fans at the Indians game, like this guy.

A seventeen-year Navy vet made his collegiate baseball debut last night.

Can we separate "Floyd Mayweather - the Boxer" from "Floyd Mayweather - the Domestic Abuser"?

Astrophysicist and all-around awesome dude Neil DeGrasse Tyson talks to Vox.com.

The Wichita School Board finally does the right thing and gives special needs kids varsity letters.

What characters deserve to join The Avengers in the next movie?

The best guest stars in the history of "Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

Just really quickly, I want to address the incident with Halos Heaven. SB Nation affords its editorial staff on each blog a great deal of leeway, but one editor took advantage of that freedom by going way beyond the pale in an abusive and disgusting personal attack on Josh Hamilton. He has been fired and on behalf of SB Nation I apologize to anyone that had the misfortune of having to read that vile article. It is unfathomable to me that anyone on our fine writing staff from Kevin on down to Kevin would ever write such a piece of garbage, or that any of you would tolerate it. For that, I appreciate our community.

SB Nation is a terrific platform that gives a voice to so many of us, but with that freedom comes responsibility. I hope you all feel you have the freedom to voice your opinion, but also realize that our words have consequences. I know things have even been a bit chippy on here lately, but 99% of the time, you guys hold yourselves to a much greater standard than is required, and that is why we have a special place on the interwebs here.

Your song of the day is the Freddy Jones Band with "In a Daydream."