Royals Rumblings - News for September 22, 2016

The Star’s Jesse Newell looks at Eric Hosmer’s defense and wonders if the Royals can help it become even better (we’ll just steer clear of the editor’s implication that “even better” has in light of advanced metrics giving him mixed marks defensively).

However, against right-handed hitters, Hosmer had fielded just 28 percent of his chances, compared to a 37-percent MLB average. That might not seem like much, but it’s actually significant; Hosmer is 6.5 outs worse than league average in this tiny sliver, and according to Lichtman, each non-recorded out that turns into a single is worth about 0.75 runs.

So based on how he fields right-handed hitters, we can roughly estimate Hosmer has cost the Royals 4.9 runs — potentially a big impact for a small number of batted balls.

One thing that could limit Hosmer’s range is holding runners on first, which is something out of his control. Lichtman looked this up, and Hosmer actually has held on runners three more times than expected against right-handed hitters compared to league average, so that needs to be taken into account.

Jeffrey Flanagan entertains the notion of the Royals and Edinson Volquez actually exercising a mutual option.

Right-hander Edinson Volquez has two starts left this season, perhaps his last two in a Royals uniform.

Volquez, one of the heroes of last year's World Series championship team, is a potential free agent in 2017. The Royals and Volquez have a mutual option for $10 million (with a $3 million buyout), but keep in mind that the Royals have never exercised a mutual option under the present regime.

But accepting the mutual option could be tempting for Volquez, who has had an off year (5.25 ERA) and would love to stay with the Royals.

David Lesky assesses the Royals’ bonus situation as the season winds down.

Clark Fosler wonders what if Jarrod Dyson bunted more betterer?

At Sports On Earth, Will Leitch ranks the best Wild Card Games. Any guess as to what number one is?

In the FanGraphs realm, Eno Sarris looks at Kenta Maeda, then and now, and Craig Edwards asserts that Alex Reyes might have saved the Cardinals’ season.

BP’s Dustin Palmateer investigates Wil Myers’s second-half slump.

China is trying to corner the market on space wine.

Indigenous Australians are older than the rest of us.

If you were whining about fewer and fewer options when trying to find something to watch, you might not want to hear that Netflix’s goal is to have 50% of its content be Netflix Originals.

The first image from John Wick: Chapter 2 is up, and it looks predictably badass.

Jean-Ralphio and his father, Steve, from Stranger Things meet.

The song of the day is “I Don’t Care What the People Say” by Silver Apples.