Weekend Rumblings - News for September 2, 2017

Weekend Rumblings - News for September 2, 2017

David Lesky at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City isn’t giving up on the season yet.

That said, their chances aren’t completely out yet. They’re a full four games behind the surprising Minnesota Twins, but they play them seven times in the next 10 games. Around their two sets with Minnesota, they get the Tigers and White Sox, both teams the Royals should be able to get some wins against. If they can muster up a run and go 5-2 against the Twins and 5-1 against the White Sox and Tigers, they’re right back in this thing. That’s no easy task because the Twins have somehow become good since deciding to trade their closer and the guy they traded for a week earlier to boost their rotation down the stretch. Part of that is their young core playing really well and I think part of it is beating up on the teams we’re hoping the Royals beat up on surrounding the Twins series, as well as the Blue Jays. Either way, the season gets defined in the next 13 games.

Andres Machado is thrilled to be in the big leagues.

Machado, 6 feet and 175 pounds, possesses a fastball that sits in the mid 90s and can max out at 98 mph. He also possesses a two-seam fastball, a slider and a change-up, he said. He posted a 3.63 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 34 2/3 innings across seven starts at Omaha. As he strung together successful outings, he believed a callup was possible.

“Dayton has been telling me about him for about month,” Royals manager Ned Yost said of GM Dayton Moore. “It just got to the point where we were going to protect him (put him on the 40-man roster) anyway this winter.”

Patrick Brennan at Royals Farm Report gives a scouting report for Machado.

I’ve never really thought Machado could start at the big league level, but I did always think his makeup was a bit intriguing out of the bullpen. His fastball runs at the mid/upper-90s. His best pitch is a nasty slider. The times I’ve seen his changeup, it’s seemed inconsistent.

If his FB/SL combo is working, he can bring some really nasty stuff out of the bullpen. The biggest question with me is how much he can control his offspeed stuff.

Onelki Garcia wasn’t sure he’d ever return to the big leagues after his debut in 2013.

“I felt like trash when I was released,” Garcia told The Star in his native Spanish. “As a ballplayer, that’s how you feel when you’re fired from your organization. All I could tell myself then was that I had to keep working because I already had a daughter, a wife. No one else was going to take care of me.”

Jon Heyman thinks Ned Yost will return next year.

The plan seemed to be for Yost to manage one more year, then possibly retire. Yost’s bosses love him (why not? He got the Royals to consecutive World Series). He’s already accomplished a lot, they look like they’re in for a rebuild and the season can be a grind, but he’s in good shape and there’s no real reason to think he won’t be back.

Rusty Kuntz gives his advice on how to avoid being hit by a foul ball.

A lifelong Royals fan from England gets to visit the K.

The Justin Verlander trade marks the end of an era in Detroit.

Is Giancarlo Stanton the National League MVP?

Free agent Derek Norris is suspended the rest of the season for domestic violence.

Ken Rosenthal wants the Indians to finally phase out their logo.

Joe Sheehan shows a subscriber model can work in sports media.

Why do some baseball statistics get embraced while others don’t?

These Cinderellas in college football might actually be sleepers.

The Ezekiel Elliott suspension is turning into a huge mess for the NFL.

RIP Juicero, the $400 internet-connected juicer.

People aren’t pleased at a proposed female version of Lord of the Flies, written by men.

Mahershala Ali will play an Ozark cop in the next season of True Detective.

Your song of the day is Lee Morgan with You Go to My Head.