Royals Rumblings - News for January 24, 2018

Royals Rumblings - News for January 24, 2018

Danny Duffy is in the best shape of his life.

Royals left-hander Danny Duffy says he can barely remember the last time his left arm felt this healthy.

”It feels great, really great,” Duffy said. “Honestly, I had forgotten what it felt like to throw without any pain or discomfort.”

Duffy had an arthroscopic procedure to clean out some “loose bodies” of cartilage and bone fragments from behind his elbow early last October.

David Lesky at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City thinks that Brandon Maurer could be due for a rebound.

You can see that his release points on all his pitches were considerably higher during the 2015 season before they began to fall off as the season progressed and before his season ending injury. There has been some variance for sure, but the breaking ball has remained significantly lower than when he was pitching so well a couple seasons ago. Again, maybe this means nothing. But it sure seems to me like he’s either still fighting through that shoulder injury or he developed some bad habits while he was and now he’s struggling to get back to where he was.

Alex Duvall at Royals Farm report talks to new Royals pitcher Brad Keller.

Q: What are the biggest challenges that you expect to face jumping from AA straight to the Major Leagues?

“Honing in all of my pitches. In A-ball you can get away with a lot of mistakes, but you can’t at AA. So I’ve gotten that experience. I’m just not gonna change much and just go out there and pitch my game.”

The Diamondbacks sign former Royals pitcher Kris Medlen to a minor league deal.

Former Twins reliever Glen Perkins retires.

Alex Rodriguez and Matt Vasgersian join the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball booth.

Grant Brisbee thinks the pitch clock will bring more chaos and he is ready for it.

George Mitchell talks about the Mitchell Report and PEDs in baseball.

David Glass finishes in the middle of the pack in Fangraph’s community ratings on owners.

Russell Carleton at Baseball Prospectus has an anti-tanking solution.

Can a machine really call balls and strikes more accurately than a human?

News flash - independent league baseball players are not well paid.

Michigan State trustees are saying all the wrong things about their sex abuse scandal.

BRACKETOLOGY!!!!!

We know where the next big earthquakes will happen, but not when.

What is up with all those duplicate European cities in China?

Who was snubbed in Oscar nominations?

Your song of the day is Yeah Yeah Yeahs with Maps.