Royals Rumblings - News for August 30, 2017

Royals Rumblings - News for August 30, 2017

Sam Mellinger says earned goodwill shouldn’t excuse what Danny Duffy did.

Moore mentioned a few times that Duffy was lucky, and he’s right. Too many of us — including me — have driven when we shouldn’t, and anyone who’s never been in an alcohol-related injury accident can be thankful for some level of good fortune.

But that only lasts so long. I want to be clear that the rest of this sentence is speculation, but it’s speculation from a place of compassion, because if there is something else at play with Duffy — addiction, depression, private personal struggles — the risks are going away only in proportion to how honestly and fully the causes are met.

Duffy has so much to give. He has built a great reservoir of goodwill in Kansas City and beyond, both in how he’s treated people privately and causes he’s taken up publicly.

But that’s not reason to dismiss this; it’s reason to meet it head-on.

So about Dayton Moore and his anti-pornography program he mentioned at the presser.

Lee Judge has a good column - no really! - on why the Royals aren’t scoring runs lately.

When the Royals put the first pitch in play they hit .357.

The Royals have done that 572 times this season and, as Ned Yost says, when it works everyone loves it; when it doesn’t, everyone says the Royals should show more patience.

Other teams are paying attention and the Tampa Bay Rays clearly had a plan for throwing that first pitch.

Monday night the Rays threw 31 first pitches and 14 of them were off-speed. If the Rays pitchers threw a first-pitch fastball, they either threw it off the plate for a ball or, if they threw it for a strike, tried to throw it on the outside corner.

Jeff Sullivan at Fangraphs looks at the closest the Royals came to scoring during their streak.

Joe Posnanski compares the Royals to the last team to get shutout four times in a row - the 1968 Cubs.

Rusty Kuntz is out for the season after eye surgery.

Patrick Brennan at Royals Farm Report scouts the Royals prospects in the Arizona Fall League.

Fox Sports Kansas City will air a September 11 game overseas for the troops.

Whit Merrifield plays ball with kids at the Ronald McDonald House.

David Schoenfield of ESPN writes about the World Series matchups we do and don’t want to see, with Royals vs. Cubs on the “no one wants to see this” list.

Is the American League Wild Cad race appalling or beautiful?

Chris Sale becomes the fastest pitcher ever to 1,500 strikeouts.

Giancarlo Stanton is carrying the Marlins.

The Rays will donate revenues from the Astros series moved to St. Petersburg to victims of Hurricane Harvey.

The biggest waiver trades in MLB history.

Wichita may be getting an affiliated minor league baseball team again.

Major League Lacrosse accidentally exposed personal information on all their players.

Who will be the next highest-paid player in football?

Medical journals have a fake news problem.

Why is Netflix releasing so many shows in 2018?

Is a Star Trek homage coming to this season of Black Mirror?

Your song of the day is The White Stripes with Hotel Yorba.