Royals Rumblings - News for October 8, 2018

Royals Rumblings - News for October 8, 2018

How Adalberto Mondesi helped Whit Merrifield win the stolen base title.

Merrifield was initially dismissive of any correlation, calling it a coincidence. But a few questions later into the interview, he returned to the original talking point and reconsidered.

“Actually, I take that back — since he’s kind of a second leadoff guy right behind me, I started to take more of a gamble, especially with two outs,” Merrifield said. “If I get thrown out, he’s leading off the next inning, which isn’t a bad thing.”

In his Mellinger Minutes, Sam Mellinger is both cautious but hopeful about the Royals.

The Royals are a long way from where they need to be. They’re inconsistent, they strike out too much, they don’t walk enough, and there are potential holes in the defense, particularly in right field and at first base.

The last championship run was built on incredible defense and relief pitching — this core lacks both.

But sure things don’t exist in life or sports and they especially don’t exist in baseball. There’s a core here. It may turn out to be nothing, but it may turn out to be the beginning of the next party.

That’s more than it looked like a few months ago.

John Eshleman at 2080 Baseball profiles a few Royals in Instructional League ball, such as pitcher Yohanse Morel.

Morel’s slider was 82 mph and crude, bouncing the two he showed. There’s tight spin and some bite on the pitch, and while it takes some dreaming, the slider has the ingredients of at least an average pitch.

At 18-years-old, and still yet to appear off the complex, Morel is a long way off from the majors. The ingredients are all here for a mid-rotation starter, as Morel’s frame and athleticism project well for continued gains in both stuff and command.

Drew Osborne at Royals Farm Report profiles prospect Daniel Duarte.

Duarte is described as having a clean arm by the Royals. I don’t know if he will get the chance to start in the future, but the Royals like him and have discussed it. Duarte throws what looks to be a four-pitch mix. He throws a fastball that has some arm side life to it working 92-94 and topping out at 96. Duarte tends to work up in the zone with his fastball but when he throws it down, it has good tilt. I wish he would work down more than he does. Duarte’s best secondary pitch in my eyes is his change up. It is very hard for LHHs to pick up and produced swings and misses.

John McCarty at KC Kingdom thinks the Royals should have traded Danny Duffy last winter.

John Sickels looks at supplemental round picks from this year’s draft, including three Royals pitching prospects.

34) Daniel Lynch, LHP, Kansas City Royals: More college pitching for the Royals, University of Virginia southpaw Lynch posted 1.58 ERA in 51 innings between Appalachian League and Low-A with 61/8 K/BB; already polished and threw harder in pro ball than in college, looks very advanced, likely to open in High-A with rapid promotions possible.

The Royals are one of a handful of teams using biodisesel in their stadium.

Royals hitting coach Terry Bradshaw was inducted into the Windsor High School Hall of Fame in Virginia.

Did Clayton Kershaw finally kill the narrative on his struggles in the post-season?

And has David Price cemented the narrative on his?

It’s Erik Kratz’s world and we’re just living in it.

Mike Moustakas says he could see himself staying in Milwaukee past this year.

The Mets are getting turned down by candidates for their GM job.

Twins slugger Miguel Sano is detained in the Dominican Republic for running over a police officer.

The Marlins may be positioning themselves to make a run at a top Cuban free agent.

Pitchers are increasing their spin rates, but are they doing it with sticky substances?

This is an important time for women in baseball broadcasting.

The Sixers are trying to trademark “Trust the Process.”

The Conor McGregor/Khabib Nurmagomedov UFC fight devolves into chaos.

It looks like the NHL is coming to Seattle.

Youtube’s content for kids is weirder and more globalized than parents could have imagined.

Jon Favreau’s live-action Star Wars television series has some interesting directors lined up.

A ranking of pop star musician’s debuts on the silver screen.

Your song of the day is The Knife with Heartbeats.