Royals Rumblings - News for April 4, 2017

Royals Rumblings - News for April 4, 2017

Ned Yost was baffled by his bullpen performance yesterday.

“I didn’t anticipate that,” Yost said, responding to a question about the three bases-loaded walks. “Maybe one. But anticipating three?”

Travis Wood owned up to his performance.

“It was unacceptable,” Wood said. “That can’t happen … just wasn’t a good day for me.”

Sam Mellinger says it is one game, but warns this bullpen could be an issue.

“We still have a good bullpen,” Duffy said. “We still have a really good bullpen. Just one bad game. We have 161 left. Our bullpen is great, and I have ultimate confidence in them.”

Duffy is demonstrably correct about this just being one bad game, with 161 left. He is undoubtedly sincere about his confidence in the bullpen, too, and he may even be right about the most important point here — that the Royals bullpen in this post-HDH world is “good,” or “really good,” or perhaps even “great.”

But we don’t know that, and if you polled Royals officials and coaches about their greatest worry for the 2017 season, the bullpen would be the runaway winner. This won’t help.

Jorge Soler tested out his injured oblique.

“He feels really good right now,” said Royals catching coach Pedro Grifol, who interpreted for Soler. “He did some stuff outside and he felt good.”

Soler said he would begin taking dry swings in three to four days. He is eligible to come off the disabled list on April 9 — the start of his stint was backdated to March 30 — but he will likely require more time before he is ready to return to a major-league field. The Royals have not offered a public timetable for his return. But a Grade 1 oblique strain can sideline a player anywhere from seven to 10 days to two to three weeks. For Soler, Monday was his eighth day since the injury.

Christian Colón was relieved to make the Opening Day roster.

Michael Baumann at The Ringer has his MLB power rankings.

23. Kansas City Royals

The Royals didn’t quite hit the hard reset button this offseason, but they lost their best hitter (Kendrys Morales) and best relief pitcher (Wade Davis) from a team that finished .500 last year. And while the baseball implications of Yordano Ventura’s tragic death are ultimately trivial, he’s an enormous loss in the rotation. I don’t think the Royals have that low of a floor, but if they’re going to get from 81 wins back up to the 88 or so it takes to get into the wild-card hunt, I don’t know where those extra seven wins are going to come from.

Other Kansas City sports team supported the Royals on Opening Day.

Lessons from the first full slate of baseball games.

Felix Hernandez had tightness in his groin last night.

Cubs-Cardinals on Sunday night was the highest-rated opener for ESPN in seven years.

The Cardinals sign outfielder Stephen Piscotty to a long-term deal.

Who can help their Hall of Fame chances the most this year?

There are warning signs around Zack Greinke.

Tony Romo is done with football.

Former Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss resigns from his new job after a damaging documentary airs.

Keep your data safe from the apocalypse in this arctic mineshaft.

Yahoo! and AOL may merge under the name “Oath.”

Jason Sudeikis brought burnt ends from Joe's Kansas City onto The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

By request, your song of the day is Third Eye Blind with Jumper.