Royals Rumblings - News for August 30, 2016

Royals Rumblings - News for August 30, 2016

Baseball Prospectus talks to Rusty Kuntz about all the preparation he does before games.

It's just video, video, video, video. Every day you're behind the video for about 4.5 hours. Every day. I get up about nine in the morning, and the first thing I do is turn on the video and see if I can get about three hours knocked out in the hotel. Then I come here and do another hour or hour and a half, and then by that time Topper's giving me more information on more stuff. That's the grind of what it's like at the big leagues.

Now, does everybody do it? No. A lot of guys, the brainiacs upstairs give you a printout of what their projected lineup is going to be and how it matches up with Kennedy, and they give you their idea of where to play defensively. A lot of guys just take that and run with it.

Me, I've been doing it too long. I don't trust a lot of things. I'm not just going to take a piece of paper from upstairs and go, 'Okay, this is where we're going to play them.' The one ingredient they don't have is what that guy on the mound brings. If he brings his A-game, that piece of paper works. But if he's struggling and he can't locate and he can't find the strike zone, I know defensively in the outfield we go straight up on everybody. You can't cheat if he can't locate.

Craig Brown at Baseball Prospectus Kansas city parses the playoff odds.

I’ve seen plenty of discussion about the Royals controlling their own destiny and I’m not so sure about that. There are simply too many teams to climb over in the standings the Royals don’t play down the stretch. This means they have to be dependent upon others to do some dirty work for them. This is where it gets increasingly difficult. With time running down, it’s not enough for the Royals to continue to win at something ridiculous like a .600 pace, they need at least five other teams to falter. It can be done. We’ve seen it happen, and who in their right mind would bet against the Royals?

Edinson Volquez is not focusing on his past few underwhelming starts.

"Physically I feel good. Mentally too," Volquez said. "I've been up and down the whole year. I think I'm feeling better now."

And even in the rough outings, Volquez hasn't made any excuses. He's stood in the clubhouse after losses and owned up to his performance, even when it isn't necessarily all on him.

David Schoenfield lists Alex Gordon as one of the most disappointing players on a contender.

The rotation hasn't been good (until lately), but Gordon has been a big flop after signing as a free agent to return to Kansas City. He hit .208 in April, .215 in May, .208 in June and .195 in August. Yes, there was a DL stint in there, but he has gone from 6.6 WAR in 2014 to less than 2 this year. And that doesn't factor in that he has been atrocious with runners in scoring position, hitting just .149.

Luke Hochevar cheers on the Royals as he recovers from surgery.

Lee Judge writes how the Royals were built on athleticism.

The time George Brett had a walk-off steal of home.

The Dodgers place Yasiel Puig on trade waivers.

The Yankees are trying to refinance $1 billion of debt on their stadium.

What gets a player or manager ejected from a game?

Just a reminder that preseason predictions are awful.

MLB Network reporter Matt Yalloff has suffered a stroke.

The Denver Broncos will roll with Northwestern grad Trevor Siemian as their quarterback.

KU football spends $2 million to upgrade their locker room.

Meet the real artist known as Bob Ross.

SETI is investigating a possible extra-terrestrial signal from deep space.

How AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire solved its Joe MacMillan problem.

Your song of the day is Sturgill Simpson with “Some Days.”