Royals Rumblings - News for May 29, 2015

Royals Rumblings - News for May 29, 2015

Ben Lindbergh at Grantland writes about how the sharp contrast between the Royals and Padres outfields show the value in an out.

The Royals’ and Padres’ first- and last-place ranks aren’t surprising, although the magnitude of the difference is larger than one might expect. In the current offensive environment, a difference of nine runs translates to one win, which means the gap between the Royals’ and Padres’ outfield gloves represents roughly four wins. I won’t insult you with an "on pace" line; a difference of four wins over a little more than a quarter of the schedule doesn’t imply that the difference will be 16 wins by the end of the season. But we can say that thus far, outfield defense alone has accounted for much of the difference — maybe most of the difference — between the first-place Royals and the mildly disappointing third-place Padres.

The Royals are impressed with how Kris Medlen looks as he rehabs from Tommy John surgery, but his future is very unclear.

"I just don’t know yet," Moore said. "I don’t want to speculate, because I just don’t know. We may need somebody in both roles; we may need somebody in one role. And I think he’s capable of performing in either one. We’re in uncharted waters. A two-time Tommy John guy. We’ve got to manage it little by little, and not get too far ahead of ourselves."

"So we want to make sure that his health and his future is the most important aspect of this exercise, if you will," Moore said. "So we’re going to be conservative. But we also believe that he has the ability to help us in 2015 in some role."

Craig Brown at Royals Authority writes the Royals dominating the All-Star balloting is just a reflection of this being a baseball town.

To my mind, this whole process started back in 2012. Not only did the entire city represent at the All-Star Game, we made headlines for our support of the entire event. We also made headlines for our lack of support of a certain Robinson Cano. And the cheers for Billy Butler were enormous and amazing. It was a helluva party. The buzz carried over through The Trade and of course it reached a crescendo last September and October. The Royals and their fans have made their presence felt nationally.

This is just the culmination of the last three years. Or is it the continuation? The Royals are drawing an average of 31,815 fans per game. That number is astonishing.

Darin Watson of Pine Tar Press gives his impressions after watching the AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals.

Hunter Dozier had a double in three plate appearances. It wasn’t a line drive, though, more of a dunker down the left-field line. Still, it came off De Leon, so there’s no reason to be ashamed of it. On defense, Dozier made a couple of nice plays coming in on the ball, but there were a couple of grounders to his left I thought he should have caught. Dozier is also back at Northwest Arkansas for a second season (first full season) after a disappointing time in Class AA last year. He’s improved a bit, going from .209/.303/.312 last year to .227/.306/.344 this year. But it feels like some of the shine is coming off his star. On the plus side, he does seem to be a patient hitter, something the Royals definitely need. On the other hand, he seems to struggle making contact consistently (55 strikeouts in 173 plate appearances). If he can fix that, he can still be a useful major leaguer.

Pine Tar Press covered Dayton Moore speaking in Omaha about the state of the organization.

Carson Cistulli mentions Naturals pitcher Luke Farrell as a potential fringe prospect.

Which teams have seen their projection change the most since opening day?

The average time of a game continues to go down.

The A's are terrible in one-run games.

Are the Twins for real?

Is Babe Ruth's RBI record wrong?

The Bulls were kinda jerks in the way they fired coach Tom Thibodeau even though he may be one of the best coaches ever.

Co-champs dominate the Scripps Spelling Bee.

The Big 12 has come up with a new rule against showing too many replays that is totally stupid.

The Big 12 college basketball tournament is staying in Kansas City through 2020.

Andy Greenwald at Grantland is high on season two of "Halt and Catch Fire" on AMC.

Are comedians becoming our public intellectuals?

Non-academic skills are important, but what do we call them? Intangibles? Grit?

Taco Bell is considering a delivery service. How much do you tip for an $11 tab?

Your song of the day is Buddy Guy with "Sweet Home Chicago."