Royals Rumblings - News for April 24, 2017

Royals Rumblings - News for April 24, 2017

Ned Yost explained his lineup shake up.

“It came to a point last night: Just try something different,” Yost said on Sunday morning. “Alex has been struggling. [Brandon Moss] been struggling. Whit’s been swinging the bat well. [Mike Moustakas] has been producing. Just try something different.”

Jason Hammel takes responsibility for his erratic fourth inning Sunday.

"I've got to trust the stuff and let it work," Hammel said. "For whatever reason, I shifted into trying to make the perfect pitch and overthrowing, and I really got myself and us into trouble. We should have won that ballgame -- the guys came out early and put on some runs against Darvish, who doesn't give them up. So that one's on me."

Salvador Perez is dealing with a stiff neck.

“He slept on it wrong, and he felt it [Saturday],” Yost said. “And he went in the cage and was doing his daily drill work that he does, and it just started getting stiffer and stiffer and tighter and tighter, to the point where he really struggled to turn his neck.”

Rustin Dodd breaks down the mechanical flaw in Matt Strahm’s delivery.

Strahm was tapping his glove with the ball while he delivered pitches to home plate. The slight tap was causing his arm to lag — it wasn’t getting out of the glove quick enough — and his front side to fly open. The result was a pitcher who could not get his fastball down in the zone.

“It was something I wanted to get fixed and get fixed quick,” said Strahm, who was recalled from Omaha on Friday afternoon.

Hunter Samuels at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City marvels at changeups thrown by Royals pitchers.

Royals pitchers have thrown 380 changeups through Wednesday’s action this season, which is a rate of roughly 18.6 percent. The next-highest rate belongs to the Indians, at 13.9 percent. Put another way, the difference between the Royals changeup rate and the second-highest changeup rate is as large as the difference between the second-highest changeup rate and the 19th-highest changeup rate (Astros, 9.2 percent).

Lee Judge writes a new second baseman won’t fix things for the Royals.

The problem was and is the rest of the lineup.

In basketball one guy can make a difference; put LeBron James on just about any NBA team and that team will probably be competitive. You can keep the ball in LeBron’s hands as much as possible and when he isn’t scoring he can serve as a distraction while his teammates do.

Doesn’t work that way in baseball; one guy does not make or break a team.

Ben Almquist at KC Kingdom think its time to get rid of Dale Sveum.

I talked Royals with Joshua Brisco on Sports Sunday on 810 WHB last weekend.

The Red Sox and Orioles had a kerfuffle that led to Matt Barnes throwing a pitch behind the head of Manny Machado.

Miguel Sano punched James McCann in Saturday’s Twins-Tigers game.

Anthony Gose is off to a good start in his conversion to a pitcher.

Dustin Pedroia isn’t angry over Manny Machado’s hard slide into him.

What pitchers are the best at getting swings on pitches in the dirt?

What if everyone kept up their pace from the first three weeks of play?

The Reds video board hilariously trolls bandwagon Cubs fans.

MLB is handing out fines for smokeless tobacco use in clubhouses.

The man behind a bombing attack on the bus of German soccer club Borussia Dortmund was motivated not by terrorism, but by deflating the team’s stock value.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr may miss the rest of the playoffs due to health reasons.

Is Walmart tricking people into saving money?

15 rejected comic book-based television show pilots.

An international church of cannabis opens in Denver.

Your song of the day is The Pixies with Dig for Fire.