Royals Rumblings - News for March 6, 2019

Royals Rumblings - News for March 6, 2019

Lynn Worthy talks to Terrance Gore about his aggressive slides.

Somehow it got “embedded” in his mind that if he slides early he’s going to slow down so much that he’ll just stop before he reaches his destination. That fear of coming up short has always caused him to take those extra two steps before he hits the ground and crashes feet-first into the base.

“It doesn’t feel good, I’ll tell you that, and it’s literally wearing on me as my years are going in pro ball,” Gore said. “Early in my career, I was like, ‘Ah, I’ll be fine. It ain’t no big one.’ Now, I’m like, ‘Ouch. That hurt.’ It’s slowly catching up to me.”

Salvy is out for the year, so will the Royals bring in a new catcher?

Salvador Perez could talk about Tommy John surgery with coach Vance Wilson, who had it twice.

“I haven’t talked to Sal yet, but the biggest thing is that if he has to have the surgery, trust the rehab process,” Wilson said. “To me, we’re one of the best rehab systems around because I’ve been through it. If I had the right rehab with the Tigers, I probably would have played another four or five years.

Jay Jaffe at Fangraphs looks at the history of catchers getting Tommy John surgery and it is not pretty.

Ned Yost won’t be scrutinizing Homer Bailey’s spring performance too much.

“I’ve seen a lot of guys come into spring training, veteran guys,” Yost said. “And I mean they just really struggled during the spring to the point where it’s like, ‘Oh man. Why are we not releasing this guy? Why is this guy still here?’ Right. Then bing. The magical bell rings. I’ve never heard it ring, but they say the bell rings. Then boom. They’re back to who they are. A lot of these guys, they know what it takes to get themselves ready for opening day. That’s their whole focus and concern.”

In his Mellinger Minutes, Sam isn’t getting swept away by Royals optimism quite yet.

They’ll have speed, of course. They might be one of the fastest teams in recent baseball history. But speed has to be on base for it to score, and the Royals were 12th in on-base percentage and plan on giving 550 plate appearances to Billy Hamilton and his career .298 on-base percentage.

The pitching staff has its own concerns.

So, look. All of this could be worked out. Baseball games and seasons are decided in small margins. Eighty wins is possible.

I just don’t think the Royals are close enough to expect that quite yet.

Tim Dierkes at MLB Trade Rumors reviews the Royals’ off-season.

Twins slugger Miguel Sano is out with an injury until May.

Is Kris Bryant the next to get a contract extension?

The Angels ask MLB to investigate Bryce Harper for tampering with Mike Trout.

MLB enters into a transfer agreement with the Mexican Baseball League.

Ben Lindbergh and Rob Arthur at The Ringer got their hands on years of scouting reports from the Reds, here’s what they learned.

Eno Sarris at The Athletic writes about how Sonny Gray is trying to increase his spin efficiency.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy talks about what he wants in his last season.

Rocker Jack White helps renovate a Negro League stadium in Detroit.

Kansas basketball’s streak of Big 12 title is over.

What caused Bob Stoops to come out of retirement to coach in the XFL?

The treatment that cured two patients of HIV won’t work for most patients.

Why deepfake propaganda is not a real problem.

Warner Brothers acquires Hello Kitty.

Your song of the day is Starship with Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.