Royals Rumblings - News for September 20, 2016

Royals Rumblings - News for September 20, 2016

Ned Yost and Alcides Escobar explain why they were ejected from Monday’s ballgame.

“I said something I probably shouldn’t have said,” Yost said.

Escobar described his ejection in simple terms.

“I say that’s a bad pitch right there,” he said. “In the at-bat before, he do the same thing, and I don’t say nothing. But the second time I say, ‘I say, clean it up, man. That’s a ball.’ He say, get in the (batter’s box). I say that’s bull. Then he throw me out.”

Eric Hosmer approaches 100 RBI in a season for the first time.

“We felt all along that Eric was a guy that could hit 25 to 30 homers and be a perennial 100-RBI-a-year guy, plus a .300 or .320 hitter,” Yost said. “So he’s continuing to grow.”

Rustin Dodd wonders what the Royals will do about Kendrys Morales next year.

“Every time he’s going through his hot streaks — and even when he’s not — you know that he has the ability to put the ball out of the ballpark and put some runs on the board,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He’s been a good addition to our lineup the last two years.”

Morales’ power numbers — he could be the first Royal to hit 30 homers since Jermaine Dye in 2000 — obscure some elements of his true offensive performance. Morales has just 21 doubles after hitting 41 last season. His batting average and on-base percentage have declined from last year. He has been streaky at times. And his OPS-plus — an advanced metric that takes into account the ballpark — is just 105, or five percent better than the league average. A year ago, it was 127.

And yet, Morales possesses something the Royals lack: The ability to hit the ball out of the park.

“He’s a very smart, professional hitter,” Duffy said. “People don’t use the word ‘great’ a lot in this game, but he’s a great hitter. He knows what he’s doing.

“If you eliminate a month and a half, the dude’s hitting .300.”

Hunter Samuels at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City looks at the adjustments made by Whit Merrifield.

Merrifield is really squaring up fastballs, as his average exit velocity against them this month is north of 93 mph. In July, that number was around 88 mph. And due to Merrifield’s willingness to lay off pitchers’ pitches, he’s getting to see a few more fastballs, which leads to more opportunities to make excellent contact.

The other thing Merrifield’s doing well is not getting too pull-happy. Early in the season, he spread the ball to all fields equally, but when he struggled, he was hitting the ball to the opposite field just 25 percent of the time. This month, he’s hitting the ball up the middle almost 40 percent of the time, and he’s hit more balls to the right side than to the left.

Drew Butera startles Yordano Ventura on the mound.

A 14-year old Royals fan rocked the national anthem over the weekend.

The Giants are having a nightmare second-half.

Trevor Bauer calls Indians beat writer Paul Hoynes a “coward.”

Injuries are ruining post-season rotations.

Coverage of Tim Tebow’s first workout with the Mets was ridiculous.

The Padres honor the wife of teammate Yangervis Solarte, who passed away from cancer.

The Diamondbacks fire their first front office executive for a terrible season.

Joe Girardi manages by the book, and it may be tanking the Yankees’ season.

The Rangers say when they build a new stadium, the old one can be a shopping center.

Curt Schilling and others agree to pay back $2.5 million to Rhode Island for his failed video game company.

NFL writer Jason La Canfora is accused of stealing a Twitter photo and lying about it.

The new Vikings Stadium requires injured players to be carried through...a food court?

Is Houston too good at football to be invited to the Big 12?

What math looks like in the mind.

China is pressuring Hollywood to start casting Chinese actors in prominent roles.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast is now available for free streaming.

Your song of the day is The Greeting Committee with Hands Down.