Royals Rumblings - News for April 12, 2016

Royals Rumblings - News for April 12, 2016

Craig Brown at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City marvels at Mike Moustakas drilling the baseball.

He’s yanking the offspeed and breaking stuff, but is going up the middle with the heaters. You see from April and May last year, his average spray angle leaned to the left before moving back to the other side of the field. That follows our eye test where it seemed like Moustakas stopped going the opposite way after his early successes. He recovered after June and gradually built back to where he was going to almost equal parts to left and right by the end of the year. That’s where he is right now on the fastballs, which feels like a good place for Moustakas.

Jeff Passan thinks it is smart for the Royals to keep a guy like Terrance Gore on the roster.

Gore, actually, is more than anything a proxy to marvel one more time at the defending-champion Royals, whose addition of him to their roster dovetails with their style of play. Kansas City understands it is not an offensive juggernaut. It gets that its starting pitching isn't spectacular and it will often rely on its bullpen in close games. And with a decent offense and decent pitching, there may well be a lot of close games, in which case having perhaps the best base stealer on the planet actually isn't a waste of a roster spot at all.

If the 25th man for most teams rots on the bench, getting to use him like the Royals did Gore on Sunday makes the argument in favor of a pinch runner tangible. Gore came in on first base, induced a throwing error from Twins reliever Trevor May that allowed him to third and eventually sped home on a May wild pitch. Gore's speed drew the wild throw at first and made all the difference between an easy game-winning run and a very close play at the plate.

Lee Judge breaks down what Gore can do on the bases.

Gore says after he takes his lead from first base he can get to second base in 3.0 seconds — with a bad jump it’s 3.1. Do the math and you’ll see what a problem Gore presents: catchers can’t do much to speed up their times to second base, so it’s up to pitchers to try to get the ball to home plate in 1 second — and that’s incredibly difficult. Really fast pitcher-delivery times are 1.2 or 1.1, and those times still won’t get Gore....

After the game, I asked Hochevar what he would do if he had Gore on first base. Hochevar said he would ignore him; let Gore steal second and third and then try to strike out the next three hitters.

The Royals are mum on what they will do with the roster when Jarrod Dyson returns.

Tim Collins will have his Tommy John surgery on Friday.

The Royals are ranked second in the first ESPN Power Ranking of the year.

Lawmakers propose a bill to rename the Broadway Bridge to honor Kansas City legend Buck O'Neil.

The Cubs are pretty pleased with their renovated clubhouse at Wrigley Field.

The Orioles aren't pleased with Boston's tobacco ban at the ballpark.

Are the Giants the best organization in baseball?

Writer Stephen King is not a fan of extending protective netting.

Chiefs defensive end Mike DeVito retires.

KU basketball lands top recruit Josh Jackson.

Ken Burns talks to Vox.com about his new Jackie Robinson documentary.

There is a low hum heard around the world. Is it science or mass delusion?

Twenty songs you didn't know Kanye West produced.

Your song of the day is Beck with "Tropicalia."