Royals Rumblings - News for May 4, 2015

Royals Rumblings - News for May 4, 2015

Sam Mellinger writes this may actually be a very good Royals team we have.

No team in baseball is winning more often, and no team in baseball is winning by as much. This is still a relatively small slice of the season, but the Royals have already been tested by drama and injuries. The terminology is changing, or at least it should be.

The Royals aren’t just "playing really well." They are a really good baseball team. It is almost literally impossible for them to keep up this pace, but then, they don’t have to keep up this pace to have a great season. One of the constant questions about this group was how it would respond to the wild, draining, fame-making run of last October.

They have answered emphatically. Kansas City is watching in record numbers to see what comes next.

Jeremy Guthrie switched starts with Jason Vargas Sunday as a more favorable right-handed matchup for Guthrie, but it did not go over well.

Ned still believes in J-Guts.

"Hitters have slumps and pitchers have slumps," Yost said. "You have to allow them, especially when they're veteran guys, to work through slumps. I thought Jeremy threw the ball better today than he did last time. I thought last time he threw the ball better than he did the time before that. I feel like we're making progress."

Yost expressed support for Guthrie, and said he would afford him time to work through this slump. We will see how long the patience lasts.

— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) May 3, 2015

Pedro Martinez thinks Guthrie will right the ship against crummy teams.

Although Guthrie will run into good hitting teams, once he faces flat teams he'll be able to put up some wins for the Royals

— Pedro Martinez (@45PedroMartinez) May 3, 2015

Lorenzo Cain dropped his appeal and began serving on Sunday his two-game suspension for the brawl in Chicago. He can return for Wednesday's game against Cleveland.

Vahe Gregorian likes the budding rivalry between the Royals and Tigers.

Maybe it was best epitomized in the epic showdown Friday night between Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera and Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera. After Herrera struck him out with the 10th pitch of the at-bat, Cabrera smiled in apparent appreciation of the work of Herrera, who is appealing two different suspension rulings by MLB.

"Miggie kind of tipped his hat to him, basically," Ausmus said. All of that nonsense seemed so long ago as this series unfolded between two teams trading first-place, and there’s a reason for that. "I think the guys in this clubhouse respect those guys over there; I think they even like a lot of those guys over there, and I think it probably comes back this way as well …," Ausmus said.

"I think a lot of the guys in both those clubhouses, you could take any one of them from this side and throw him over there and throw a different jersey on, and they’d probably slide right in."

Vahe also writes how another team's trash has become the Royals' treasure.

While the topic of all the resurgent careers amassed here doesn’t come up much among them, Madson said Young did allude to the comeback player of the year award the other day. "He said, ‘I want to hand this off to you next year,’ " Madson said, smiling. "So how cool is that?"

Speaking of Young, he is taking quite a leadership role on this team.

Most nights, Perez runs these meetings, deciding how to attack the opposing lineup. He chooses what and where pitches are thrown, how and why. But on Friday afternoon, the roles were flipped. Young dictated the pregame meeting, the 11-year veteran taking the reins before his debut start of 2015.

"Most of the pitchers listen to me," Perez said. "That's the first one I listen to him."

Greg Holland is looking to return to action on Tuesday.

"I didn't execute everything, but I never do, very few people do," Holland said. "I felt sharp, especially after not throwing to live hitters in almost two weeks. Really glad with the way it went."

Kris Medlen has shipped off to Arizona to rehab his arm.

Alex Gordon's catch against the White Sox last weekend was part of ESPN's Sports Science.

Mariners slugger Nelson Cruz is hitting ALL the home runs.

The Yankees won't pay A-Rod his $6 million bonus for tying Willie Mays on the home run list.

Jonah Keri thinks the Yankees might actually have the best bullpen in baseball.

Not one, but TWO teams over the weekend lost games when baserunners were out after being struck by the ball.

Behold, former Royals catcher Humberto Quintero with a terrific baseball blooper.

Panthers NFL draft pick Shaq Thompson might have been the worst minor league baseball player ever.

Tim Keown at ESPN has a good piece about the "elite youth sports"-complex that has gotten out of control.

Fascinating tips from Pedro Martinez on how to scout hitters.

Nathaniel Grow at Fangraphs looks at baseball's evolving luxury tax.

Here is your complete NFL draft coverage. Here is your full Chiefs draft coverage. Bill Barnwell at Grantland hands out his draft grades here.

Stephen Curry is reportedly your NBA Most Valuable Player.

Did you get the fight? Apparently it was a bit of a disappointment. Here are five things you could have spent for $100 that would have been a better use of your money.

Here is the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight re-imagined in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.

Floyd Mayweather reportedly got reporters Michelle Beadle and Rachel Nichols' credentials revoked due to hard questions on domestic violence. And he seemed like such a nice guy before that.

"The Onion" is big business now.

There is a documentary coming out soon on Carroll Spinney, the man who puppets "Big Bird" on "Sesame Street", and a few fascinating details have leaked.

COWBOYS vs. DINOSAURS. Of course Eric Roberts is in this movie.

Your song of the day is The George Baker Selection with "Little Green Bag."