Royals Rumblings - News for August 5, 2015

Royals Rumblings - News for August 5, 2015

Andy McCullough was dishing out truth bombs in his chat session yesterday.

Zobrist should become the every-day second baseman, and occasionally spell Alex Rios in right field. Any other scenario is silly. Omar Infante is a terrible hitter in 2015. Among the 159 players qualified for the batting title, Infante’s .556 OPS ranks 158th. 158th! Second to last. That is unplayable for a club with championship aspirations. Especially when you have Ben freaking Zobrist on your roster.

But, yeah, he’ll probably just float around the time while Infante continues to make four outs a night.

Greg Holland has looked shaky, but John Viril likes what he's seen from his velocity lately.

The good news is that Holland’s velocity has ticked up a bit in July. If we look at just his July appearances, Greg Holland’s fastball averages 94.3 mph, which is a whole lot better than the 92 and 93 mph single game averages his was putting up in April and May.

Holland’s strikeout rate (K%) is also trending up. After pretty anemic 23.1% in April and an even worse 18.8% in May, he’s missing more bats with 34.3% in June and 27.5% in July. While Greg Holland’s July results (3.86 ERA) haven’t matched his bump in velocity, his renewed arm life gives some hope that he might recapture a bit of his old self for the stretch run.

Hunter Samuels at Pine Tar Press scouts some Omaha Storm Chasers, including Miguel Almonte.

Almonte’s best pitch is his changeup, although he had become so reliant on that pitch in past years that the organization was limiting his use of it when he was in Northwest Arkansas, so he could focus on fastball command. Now that he’s in Omaha, it appears that the reins are mostly off.

He throws from a low three-quarters arm slot, and seemed to have a consistent release point, for the most part. There were a few pitches where he let his arm drag behind a bit too much, and he opened up a little early on a handful of fastballs, so Almonte does still need to work on that consistency.

His fastball sat anywhere from 90-95 MPH, touching 97 on a few occasions. Almonte’s got a quick arm, and while his delivery isn’t as easy as a guy like Yordano Ventura, it is repeatable, and he has plenty of heat going toward home. He gets some arm-side run on the fastball, boring in on the hands of righties. Despite throwing quite a few pitches in the first and fourth innings, Almonte still was touching 96 toward the end of the evening.

Lee Judge looks at whether the Jays are whiners or the Royals are headhunters.

Here are the ESPN "Outside the Lines" segments on the Royals image around baseball.

KCK RBI breaks ground on a new baseball field.

Jesse Spector of The Sporting News thinks the August waiver trade system could use an overhaul.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny says contracts cannot be ignored when it comes to bullpen roles.

Which teams have gone the longest without sending an All-Star from certain positions?

How baseball's tech team built the future of television.

How "This Week in Baseball" got its iconic theme music.

"Brokelyn" asks SB Nations writer Jon Bois how he got his cool job writing weird articles and playing Madden.

A British soccer club has begun shutting out the media, a troubling trend that could come stateside.

Puerto Rico defaults on its debt.

Why has the "National Lampoon" brand declined so much?

The weirdest things from the "Mad Men" memorabilia auction.

Your song of the day is Alabama Shakes with "Don't Wanna Fight."