Royals Rumblings - News for April 29, 2019

Royals Rumblings - News for April 29, 2019

Billy Hamilton didn’t start on Sunday as a precautionary measure due to hamstring tightness.

“He’s been dealing with it a little bit,” Yost said after Saturday night’s game. “Just with the weather it started getting a little bit tighter as the game went on and it was like, man, we don’t want to play with this.”

Alec Lewis at The Athletic writes that Kyle Zimmer is trying to make adjustments.

“I’m working on making some mechanical changes right now,” Zimmer told The Athletic on Thursday before a Friday outing. “It’s not easy to make adjustments midseason, but you just gotta commit to it.”

Zimmer chose to make the changes after the Royals optioned him on April 8. The biggest adjustment: Zimmer is now pitching exclusively out of the stretch at the request of Royals manager Ned Yost, according to Hawkins. The reason for the changes? In three appearances with the Royals to begin the season, Zimmer struggled with command.

Jon Tayler of Sports Illustrated checks in on the Royals’ experiment with speed.

Maybe more studying is needed, because despite all those fast feet, the Royals’ would-be thieves have been caught 11 times in 39 attempts—a 72% success rate that’s below the statistically determined break-even point of 75. “We realize that’s going to happen, guys are going to get thrown out,” Maier says. “It’s a juggling game where we have to be smart with it and not give outs away but not pull the reins too far on these guys and not let them do what they do. You’ve got to live and die by it a little bit.” Nor have all those stolen bases created a juggernaut on offense: The team is averaging 4.56 runs per game, a smidge under the league average (though that represents a big jump from last year’s 3.94).

Todd Fertig at the Topeka Capitol-Journal writes that the Royals have already made a number of puzzling moves this season.

David Hill at Call to the Pen doesn’t think Duda should return once he’s healthy.

Ian Kennedy talks to Lee Judge about the differences between starting and relieving.

As a starter, if you’re warming up and can’t find your curve, you can afford to say, It’s OK, I’ll find it once I’m on the mound; I’ve got 100 pitches to work with, and the warmup pitches between innings, and that curve will show up at some point.

As a reliever, you aren’t going to be on the mound long enough to find anything, so you better have everything working right away. So you throw more off-speed pitches during warmups. You could be two pitches into your outing and need your best curve right now, and if you don’t have it that could be the ballgame.

Rustin Dodd profiles the newest member of the Royals, Kelvin Gutierrez.

Gutierrez has drawn comparisons to former Royals third baseman Joe Randa, who was worth nearly 15 WAR in parts of eight seasons in Kansas City. Dayton Moore, the Royals’ general manager, has likened Gutierrez and Perkins — who has started slow offensively this season at High-A Wilmington — to Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain....

“The thing we knew about Perkins and Gutierrez is that they have a chance to be elite defenders,” Moore told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal last summer, explaining the timing of the deal.

Christian Yelich leaves Sunday’s game with a lower back issue.

The Braves acquire lefty reliever Jerry Blevins.

The Mets designate catcher Travis d’Arnaud for assignment.

Albert Pujols passed Barry Bonds for third on the all-time RBI list over the weekend.

There are a lot more hit batters than there used to be.

Has Scott Boras failed to adapt?

The case for and against a juiced baseball.

The Cubs are allegedly threatening reporters who criticize Addison Russell.

Brewers reliever Jeremy Jeffress bought a food truck and is bringing it to Miller Park.

A ranking of 648 soccer teams across the world.

Josh Rosen handled his trade from the Cardinals to the Dolphins with class.

Meal kits may actually have a smaller carbon footprint than cooking on your own.

Plants might thrive in space better than humans.

After Avengers: Endgame, what happens next?

Your song of the day is John Parr with St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion).