Royals Rumblings - News for April 22, 2019

Royals Rumblings - News for April 22, 2019

Alex Gordon had good things to say about the offense on Sunday.

“There is no quit in us,” Gordon said. “We are having good at-bats. These are tough pitchers we have faced. Paxton did a good job, but I thought we were having some good at-bats. It was just a matter of time. We have confidence in every inning against whoever pitches over there.”

Danny Duffy could return soon after throwing 5 ¹⁄₃ innings with just one run and seven strikeouts in a rehab start in Northwest Arkansas on Saturday, but Dayton Moore addresses whether it will be as a starter?

“That’s the natural question to ask for a lot of reasons as we’re looking for more consistency in our bullpen and you want to put quality arms in the back end, but we’ve gotta have guys that can start. We’ve gotta have guys that can go out there and set the tone every fifth day. We’ll be open-minded as we go forward. We’ll see what happens. Nothing is locked in.”

Ned Yost is learning how to juggle a relief corps unaccostumed to their new roles.

“You’ve got to be a little more cautious too, but you’ve got push them too because they don’t understand what they’re capable of doing,” Yost said. “They’ve never done it. They don’t know what it’s like to go two out of three. They can do it, most times, but they’ve got to get through it so they understand what it’s like. It’s a double-edged sword. You want to be careful, but you want to teach them how to do and what it feels like to do it.”

Ian Kennedy is impressing with his transition to the pen.

“When we approached him this winter about possibly being in this role, we asked to be open-minded to pitching late, pitching in the middle, however we could possibly use him,” Moore said. “He has been really good. He is attacking the zone, competes well, holds runners, fields his position. He has done a lot of things to put himself in a position to be successful in this role.”

Dayton Moore says a desire to get Jorge Soler into the outfield more factored in the decision to let Brian Goodwin go.

“We don’t need Soler to be just a DH. I don’t think that helps him in his development offensively, so he has to play some outfield as well,” Moore said. “[To lengthen our lineup a little bit], everybody felt that we wanted to get a power-type bat [like Soler] to help along with the development of Ryan O’Hearn and Hunter Dozier. … We like Goody a lot. We traded for him last summer, and I’m glad he is doing well.”

Glenn Sparkman was sent down with a corresponding roster move yet to be announced.

Royals Farm Report provides an update on the Wilmington Blue Rocks.

Leigh Oleszczak at KC Kingdom writes that Hunter Dozier is securing his spot.

Aaron Judge heads to the injured list.

Mike Moustakas has a finger fracture.

Matt Shoemaker is out for the year with an ACL injury.

A closer look at Baltimore’s historically bad pitching.

The Mets have some bizarre rules in using Edwin Diaz.

Just about everything in baseball so far has been extreme.

Justin Verlander wants to be the Tom Brady of baseball.

Tango Tiger wonders how much better it is to throw 95 mph than 91 mph.

The British baseball fan who is visiting 162 games this year.

Michael Avenatti embezzled millions from NBA player Hassan Whiteside.

Reporter Darren Rovell didn’t approve of the LSU gymnastics team being celebrated on a billboard for being national runners-up.

Who is using facial recognition data?

Thirty years after it was introduced, the Game Boy seems to have infinite lives.

A ranking of television Seder episodes, ranked by accuracy.

Your song of the day is Peter Yorn with For Us.