Royals Rumblings - News for July 31, 2015

Royals Rumblings - News for July 31, 2015

Lee Judge wonders to himself why Ned Yost didn't pull Jeremy Guthrie from his shelling Wednesday.

Why not pull Guthrie after five? I didn’t get to ask Ned Yost that question, but a logical answer might include the name "Corey Kluber." The Indians starting pitcher was throwing lights out and the Royals had no runs and only one hit after five innings. When an ace is dealing, two runs might be a bigger mountain than you can climb — and that was the case Wednesday. If you think Kluber is throwing so well he’s going to make those two runs stand up, you don’t waste any more pitching than you have to on a game that might already be lost.

Craig Brown doesn't see much difference between Guthrie and Chris Young right now.

I mentioned the other day the Royals had an opportunity to shift around their rotation. With their first off day of the second half coming on Monday, they have the opportunity of skipping their fifth starter and keeping everyone on normal rest. That eliminates a Young or Guthrie start for at least one turn, which is kind of like ignoring that grinding sound your car makes when you put it in drive. The club will need to use their fifth starter at the end of next week. They’re not going to a four-man rotation when they hold a nine game lead in the Central and are twenty-plus games over .500. I can’t imagine they’d go to a four-man rotation under any circumstance...

That leaves the Scare Pair. Young or Guthrie. Guthrie or Young. There is no correct answer. Both are going to continue to struggle. ZiPS projects Guthrie to make 11 more starts wit ha 5.65 ERA and a 0.2 WAR. The same projection system pegs Young at a 4.50 ERA and 0.2 WAR in nine starts. At this point, they’re basically the same pitcher. Pick your poison.

Anthony Castrovince writes that Lorenzo Cain has produced the sixth-most surplus value among position players.

6. Lorenzo Cain, Royals WAR: 4.5 SV: $28.8 million

As a first-time arb-eligible player, Cain received a $2.73 million salary for this season, and he's put up near-MVP-caliber numbers for the Royals.

John Viril at Kings of Kauffman thinks the cash the Royals are getting in these deals signals they are under budget constraints.

I talked with Bluebird Banter about the Royals exciting trade deadline, and about Bo Jackson.

The Royals ship Paulo Orlando to Omaha to make room for Ben Zobrist.

Kyle Zimmer could be starting soon, but it won't be for Omaha.

Just visited with Royals assistant GM J.J. Picollo. He says Naturals Kyle Zimmer could be moved to starting rotation very soon.

— paul boyd (@nwapaulb) July 30, 2015

Picollo also said didn't see a need for Zimmer to pitch in Triple-A, so could go from Double-A to majors in Sept.

— paul boyd (@nwapaulb) July 30, 2015

The August 16 game against the Angels has been moved to a night game for ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball."

Dave Cameron at Just a Bit Outside writes that slugging teams like the Blue Jays may struggle in October.

Former big leaguer C.J. Nitkowski writes about what the trade deadline is like from a player perspective.

Here are ten big trades that almost happened.

The Cardinals land a billion dollar television deal, despite currently having one of the worst deals in baseball.

How KU's Cliff Alexander went from prodigy to project.

Rocket League can be America's gateway to soccer.

Is eating chicken morally worse than shooting a lion?

A man loses his "right to be forgotten" case in British court.

Grantland's Andy Greenwald loves the return of "Wet Hot American Summer."

Your song of the day is Bonnie Tyler with "I Need a Hero."