Royals Rumblings

Royals Rumblings - News for February 27, 2019

In a Danny Duffy state of mind.

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Feb 27, 2019, 8:00am EST

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Royals Rumblings - News for February 27, 2019

Is Danny Duffy in the best shape of his life?

For Duffy, the reboot began with a man named Mike Swan at the Elite Performance & Rehabilitation Center near his home in Santa Barbara, Calif. Swan, a physical therapist, put Duffy through a pair of three-hour sessions each week. In a building just off the Pacific Ocean, they went to work, focusing on stabilizing Duffy’s left shoulder and strengthening his core.

The program — outlined by the Royals’ medical staff — was crafted to rebuild Duffy’s scapular muscles, which offer stability to the shoulder. The result was a pitcher who entered spring training in, as Royals manager Ned Yost puts it, “arm shape.”

“He’s in a fantastic state of mind,” Yost said.

On the other hand, he’s already dealing with shoulder tightness.

“I think I gassed it a little too much last week,” Duffy said. “Normal spring stuff. I’m not discouraged at all. Maybe a little frustrated.”

Duffy expects to test the shoulder again on Saturday.

“It’s the same crap that [James] Shields dealt with every year,” Duffy said.

Jeffrey Flanagan writes that the Royals are trying to get back to speed and defense.

“I don’t know if we’ve awoken [analytics people] yet to what we do,” Yost said. “I think people still look at us like we’re crazy and we’re stupid. Not our analytical people, though. They’re in with what we’re doing, and they give us suggestions.

“[Our analytical people] don’t buck us. They don’t say ‘Don’t steal!’ and ‘Don’t bunt!’ A lot of those people want to almost outlaw it and completely eliminate it from the game. Our analytical people don’t think that way. They know our style of play.”

Bubba Starling is off to a hot start in camp.

“It’s encouraging,” Royals manager Ned Yost said after Monday’s game. “It’s too early (but) it’s encouraging. It’s a good day, I mean hitting two homers is a big day. You’ve got to continue, but he looks good right now.”

Craig Brown and Colby Wilson has a season preview of the Royals at Baseball Prospectus.

COLBY: Gotta be, and it’s the most exciting part of this little journey we’re going to embark on here. I’ve been beating this drum for a while now, but the smart move is to run and run and never stop running; they’ve cornered the market on speed. The logical extension is to make those PECOTA projections look hilariously low by season’s end.

If you ask me (and I suppose that is what we’re doing here), Gore is the avatar for the 2019 Kansas City Royals: He’s fast, he’s cheap and he’s probably going to be playing somewhere else by the end of July. All these fliers the Royals are taking… if even half pan out, the prospect haul near the trade deadline could be significant and it’s low-key the thing I haven’t heard many people discussing so far. By the end of July, the Royals will probably be worse as a club but better as a franchise, if that makes sense.

Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado agrees to an eight-year, $260 million contract.

Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas signs a four-year, $68 million deal.

Keith Law has Cal first baseman Andrew Vaughn ranked #2 on his draft board.

The Phillies have reportedly offered Bryce Harper over $300 million.

Could the pitch clock allow hitters to “ice the pitcher”?

MLB signs a deal with the independent Atlantic League to test out new rules.

Cincinnati’s nonconformist rebuild is an interesting experiment.

What is a championship window and when is it closed?

The Nevada Gaming Commission turns down MLB’s request not to accept wagers on spring training games.

99 Percent Invisible looks at the history of the building of Dodger Stadium that displaced Hispanic communities.

The father of baseball writer J.J. Cooper has suddenly gone viral due to his dedication to entertainment reviews.

The most awkward parts of the NFL Combine.