Royals Rumblings - News for June 6, 2017

Royals Rumblings - News for June 6, 2017

Ned Yost explains his lineup shake up.

“We’re just trying to find some production,” Yost said. “You look at (Mike Moustakas’) year, he’s got 14 home runs, really been productive swinging the bat … but in the two-hole there hadn’t been a whole lot of RBI opportunities for him.

“We want to try and see if we can create more run-scoring opportunities. We’ll try this to see if they can get on for our big guys in the middle of the order and see if it helps us score more runs.”

Jake Junis will be called up to make the start tonight, with a corresponding roster move to be announced.

Craig Brown looks at the once-again reinvented Mike Moustakas.

Last year, he kept his opposite field approach, going the other way over 30 percent of the time. Injuries, however, short-circuited his season. He also hit into some poor luck, but showed impressive power. At the time of his season-ending knee injury, Moustakas was slugging .500 with a .260 ISO, both of which would have represented career highs.

So far in 2017, Moustakas has kept the power he showed the previous season. With a .513 slugging percentage and .259 ISO, those numbers are in line with his performance in 2016. What’s different is he is no longer taking the ball to the opposite field. His spray chart from this year shows how he’s reverted to primarily a pull hitter.

Could Carlos Beltran be the next Royals player in the Hall of Fame?

In some ways, the Hall of Fame cap decision is not entirely his own. The Hall has the final choice, opting to choose the hat logo from the franchise in which “that player makes his most indelible mark.” Still, the player has some sway in the decision. Recently, pitcher Greg Maddux opted to go into the Hall of Fame with no logo on his cap.

“If I get to that point in my career, hopefully I do (get into of the Hall of Fame),” Beltran said. “I’ll have to sit down and make a decision. Right now, my main focus is to try to help this ball club.”

A career year for Omaha may put Ramon Torres on the radar for the Royals.

Omaha manager Brian Poldberg said the improvement is impressive.

“After last year, we were talking about the left side wasn’t real strong and the right side was pretty good. And he went home this winter and made some drastic improvements,” he said. “When he came to spring training, I wouldn’t have imagined how well the left side has come around. He has just continued to run with it.

“And it wasn’t like it was a weeklong thing. We’re almost two months into the season.”

If All-Star Game rosters were based solely on WAR, Jason Vargas would be the only Royals rep.

The White Sox sign former Omaha reliever Bobby Parnell.

How much is Bryce Harper worth right now?

The Phillies are still bad and there is no obvious fix.

Is the obsession with launch angles helping or hurting hitters?

Which teams have the most homegrown talent in baseball?

Hard to believe this “Hourglass Appreciation Night” promotion in the minors was approved.

Asian baseball is poorly covered in the United States.

Thad Matta will leave Ohio State basketball, here’s who could replace him.

Justin Bieber likes high-level sports.

The problem with Google’s war on annoying ads.

A climber scales Yosemite’s El Capitan with nothing but his bare hands.

Al Pacino will play Joe Paterno in a new HBO movie.

Your song of the day is Ramones with Teenage Lobotomy.