Royals Rumblings - News for May 12, 2015

Royals Rumblings - News for May 12, 2015

Ned Yost is not ready to pull Danny Duffy from the rotation yet.

Danny is not pleased with his performance.

Duffy: "Nobody feels worse than me. I cost my team two games." Says he couldn't locate anything tonight.

— Joel Goldberg (@goldbergkc) May 12, 2015

You'd better believe Lee Judge is all over the fact the Royals manufactured a run late against the Tigers Sunday night.

I once asked Clint Hurdle, manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, what he thought about manufacturing runs vs. playing for the big inning. Clint said that a team that wants to go all the way better know how to do both. Let’s say you’re a team dependent on walks and home runs. That might be a great strategy over the course of a 162-game season, but once you get to October and the pitching gets better — you’ve eliminated the weaker teams — you have to play the game you’re in that night. And if you have two pitchers throwing well, waiting around for walks and home runs isn’t such a great plan — you better know how to manufacture what you need.

Sunday night with the score 1-1 in the tenth inning, the Royals did just that.

Statcast shows Mike Jirschele was wise to hold up Jarrod Dyson on Sunday night.

The throw was on line, and using the Statcast™ data, one could assume that Dyson would have been out by 1.4-1.6 seconds. That means Dyson would have been about halfway home when the throw reached the catcher, say 40-45 feet.

That sounds an awful lot like the distance most Royals players and coaches thought Gordon would have been out in Game 7.

"I was hoping they would make a bad relay to Kinsler or he would bobble it a little," Jirschele said, "and then I would have sent him. But [Dyson] just got to third or a step beyond when Kinsler had it. I wasn't going to send him with Kinsler's arm. No way."

Aaron Todd at Royals Blue doesn't have a problem with Ned Yost being less aggressive on the bases in 2015.

So if Ned Yost has not suddenly become passive and timid, what is he doing when he chooses to keep runners like Lorenzo Cain firmly planted on first base in the late innings of a tie ball game? Simply put, he is putting trust and confidence in his hitters who have already proven on multiple occasions thus far this season that they are worthy of their manager's trust. While still displaying a penchant for aggressive baseball, Yost no longer feels the need to nickel and dime his opponents the same way he did a year ago.

Mike Moustakas rejoined the team Monday after leaving on bereavement leave over the weekend.

Moustakas has asked for privacy regarding the situation. He sought to thank the fans who reached to him and his family over the weekend.

"If you can just tell them all thank you for their well wishes," Moustakas said. "And everything, all the stuff they sent, the tweets and stuff they sent, my family really appreciates all that stuff."

Orlando Calixte was sent down to make room for Moose.

Jason Frasor has been pretty good at getting out of jams this year.

Frasor has stepped right into the Royals' deep and talented bullpen, providing a veteran presence while being able to pitch in almost every situation. Entering Monday, he had allowed one run in 11 1/3 innings, getting his first win of the season on Sunday night.

"Frasor has been a guy that we like to bring on in the middle of an inning and stop the bleeding," Yost said. "And he's done it tremendously with his experience, his competitiveness. He doesn't panic when he gets out there on the mound in those situations."

Jonah Keri has the Royals atop his power rankings this week.

Scott Lindholm of Beyond the Boxscore looks at clutch hitting and old friend Mike Sweeney was one of the clutchiest there ever was.

Buster Olney names George Brett, Frank White, Bret Saberhagen, and Willie Wilson as the "Mount Rushmore" for the Royals, naming them the 19th best quartet in baseball.

Lorenzo Cain shows off his home and his lovely wife and son in this video for Coldwell Banker.

Bubba Starling is likely headed to the disabled list with a hamstring strain.

Former Royals outfielder Jim Eisenreich continues to educate people on Tourette's Syndrome, the affliction that almost kept him out of professional baseball.

The A's are remarkably unclutch, while the Royals do pretty well in high leverage situations.

Adam Dorhauer at Hardball Times looks at the birth of the American League and how it transformed the game.

Chris Schubert at MLB Daily Dish looks at the five teams that will definitely be sellers at the deadline.

Are the defending champs secretly terrible this year, or just unlucky?

Should Brad Ausmus have pulled Miguel Cabrera for pinch runner Rajai Davis on Sunday night against the Royals?

Tom Brady is a cheating cheater, suspended for four games with the Patriots losing draft picks for "Deflate-Gate."

It becomes clear why the Royals lost the World Series now.

@royalsreview pic.twitter.com/NWkHot3Six

— Grant Brisbee (@mccoveychron) May 11, 2015

Chiefs Hall of Famer Bobby Bell is getting his college degree at age 74. He'll be paying back those student loans til he's 100!

Babies dressed as WWE stars.

This is your last chance at stardom, guys. "American Idol" is going off the air after this season.

Why does "The Good Wife" never have Alicia and Kalinda in the same room together anymore?

How Bill Simmons changed sportswriting.

NBC has no idea what its doing with its fall schedule.

Google's self-driving cars have been in eleven car accidents, but none have been the fault of the self-driving cars. Sure, but when I wreck eleven cars, I'm a "menace to the road."

Your song of the day is Tom Waits with "Burma Shave."