Royals Rumblings

Royals Rumblings - News for February 21, 2019

Watch Patriot. RIP Harris. Baseball, too.

By Josh Duggan@oldmanduggan Feb 21, 2019, 9:33am EST

MLB: Detroit Tigers at Kansas City Royals

Let’s start with this: Watch Patriot. It’s on Amazon. Yeah, they make shows, too. There are two seasons. Two brilliant seasons. It’s a clear, unique vision not often seen on television. If you watch it, maybe there will be a third. You could be the person who puts it over the edge. Be. Critical. Mass.

The show, created by Steven Conrad, is so good that I would move to Chicago if I could only be in the writers’ room on it.

The MLB Pipeline top 30 prospects for the Royals dropped yesterday.

Jeffrey Flanagan reports that Danny Duffy is fine with the Royals weighing their options for their Opening Day starter:

“I mean it’s an honor and a responsibility,” Duffy said. “But we’ve got five dudes, if not more, who are capable of doing it. After you do your first one, yeah, it was exciting. Anyone can take that with pride.

“But to be honest with you, whatever it takes for me to help. I don’t care if it’s the sixth game I start. I’m just going to take the ball and do my best.

“It is an honor, the meaning of it. It’s great. It’s cool. When Ned brought me in that first time [in 2017] to tell me, it was really cool. But whatever they decide is great.”

Ol’ Jeff also notes that Nedgar S. Yost, Esq., is keeping an open mind with regards to the bullpen’s configuration.

At Prospect Digest, Joseph Werner gives us his Royals top ten prospects list (h/t to Newkirk). Regarding Daniel Lynch, he wrote:

Something happened the moment Lynch donned a uniform in Kansas City’s organization – his fastball morphed from a fringy offering to one of the better ones I saw last season. His fastball was barely scrapping 92-mph as a junior, but he was regularly sitting the mid- to upper-90s during his time with the Legends. He also showed an above-average slider, which I had not seen during his junior season as well. The curveball and changeup are both average. Lynch could prove to be one of the better value picks in the first round last season. There’s some intriguing mid-rotation caliber potential here.

At FanGraphs, Dan Laurila profiles pitchers who took steps forward with developing their sliders, including former Royals farmhand Matt Strahm:

“I started to develop it a little bit in Kansas City, but my knee injury in 2017 kind of put an end to that. Getting traded over here was a little blessing in disguise, to get with Balls [pitching coach Darren Balsley]. He kind of sharpened it up. He made it a legit swing-and-miss pitch for me.[“]

At RFR, Alex Duvall susses out what we can expect from the core hitters at Wilmington.

Whit Merrifield probably wants you all to watch Patriot.

In Kiley McDaniel’s chat at FanGraphs yesterday, he spake thusly of Alcides Escobar:

Go O’SS: O’s bring in Alcides Escobar. Does his tremendous upside mean the Rule 5 Crew of shortstops aren’t going to stick, or is it insurance? Do you think they’ll keep either? Both?

Kiley McDaniel: Well all three have pretty marginal value right now, so since short term production isn’t as important, they’ll keep the ones with the most value, even if they have to sacrifice a little short-term performance

Also, if you’re gonna tank, what SS would you want?

Like, hypothetically, which guy has proven he can’t really hit so much but managers will keep running him out there

So which one is Brady Fiegl and which one is Brady Fiegl?

Jay Jaffe remembers Don Newcombe.

Watch Patriot.

Stop. Stealing. Cacti.

Amy Poehler is set to direct a film for Netflix set in high school, featuring a feminist revolution.

Read how a 14th Century nun faked her own death.

Watch Patriot.

Yesterday was the anniversary of Harris Wittels’s passing. Here’s a link to all the Harris’s Phone/Foam Corners. Here are the four parts of the Jack Sjunior/Bryan Pieces saga.