Royals Rumblings - News for August 10, 2015
Ned Yost explained Danny Duffy's short stint on Sunday.
The decision to pull Duffy after 3 1/3 innings came quickly — it was Duffy’s shortest outing since May 6 — but Yost believed the hot conditions had sapped Duffy and had caused him to lose his release point. "He’s a heavy sweater," Yost said. "Not a heavy sweater that you wear, but a heavy sweater that sweats. I just think the heat got to him a little bit."
Ned also said he is sticking with Jeremy Guthrie.
Yost said Guthrie was "guaranteed" to make his next start. "Yes," Yost said. "He won the game."...
"Take away two starts and it’s in the low 4.00s," Yost said. "So that’s part of it. I don’t look at ERA."
He's trolling this site, right?
Wade Davis is just getting some R&R.
Yost says Wade Davis unavailable again w/ stiff back. Could've pitched but with lead in division, don't want to push or risk further injury
— Joel Goldberg (@goldbergkc) August 9, 2015
Craig Brown at Royals Authority still thinks the Royals need to do something about the lead-off spot.
At least Yost isn’t pairing Moustakas with Alcides Escobar at the top of the order these days. But damn if Escobar isn’t a pimple at the number one spot. In the AL this year, leadoff hitters own a .327 on base percentage. As a team, the Royals have posted an OBP of .316 from the top spot. Most of that is on Escobar, who has spent the entire year in that position. I’ve written about this at length, but hitting Escobar leadoff continues to be managerial malpractice. Yeah, yeah, yeah… Save your "batting order doesn’t matter" arguments. When you put an out machine with abysmal plate discipline at the top of your offense, that’s going to leave a mark. Escobar has more plate appearances than anyone on this Royals team. That’s not ideal.
Lee Judge thinks some of the Royals' bad reputation might be a bit undeserved.
Now let’s look at who’s hitting all these batters. Once again Pittsburgh is at the top of the list; their pitchers have hit 58 batters. Toronto — the team that felt the Royals were throwing at them — has hit 44 opposition batters, which ties them for fifth on the list. And the Royals — the Bad Boys of Baseball — have hit 29 batters which makes them 24th on the list.
So if Royals batters are near the top when it comes to getting hit by pitches and Royals pitchers are near the bottom when it comes to hitting batters on other teams, why are some people calling the Royals bad boys? Probably because the Royals have cleared the benches on several occasions, but you could see more actually punches thrown by suburban house wives at a Black Friday sale. Most of the time players come out on the field, mill around and try to look like they’re doing something meaningful and those of us in the press box react like we just saw hand-to-hand combat on the beaches of Normandy.
It ain’t a fight if you don’t throw punches.
The memory of his late stepbrother fuels Royals reliever Wade Davis.
In case you missed it, Paulo Orlando was called up and Cheslor Cuthbert was sent to Omaha.
Pete Grathoff imagines the Royals as Star Wars characters.
Here are the scoreboard images of the Royals as Star Wars characters from Sunday.
The Royals may be opening up next season by hosting the Mets.
Here are the results of the MLB Daily Dish General Manager Confidence Poll, with Dayton Moore faring very well.
Joe Posnanski is becoming a convert for pitch clocks in baseball.
Things are going great in the Tigers clubhouse.
Wrigley Field was evacuated for a bomb threat.
Can lessons from sabermetrics be used to evaluate military personnel?
After an exciting off-season, Arsenal opens up their Premiere League season with a dud.
PFT Commentator writes about his time at the Republican debate last week where he asked the pressing question, "Is Joe Flacco an elite quarterback?"
Kansas City Comic Con brought strong crowds over the weekend.
Scientists think we may find alien life in our lifetime.
"Fantastic Four" appears to be a box office bomb.
Andy Greenwald at Grantland writes that Jon Stewart had the perfect goodbye.
Your song of the day is Pearl Jam with "Rearview Mirror."