Royals Rumblings - News for June 3, 2019

Royals Rumblings - News for June 3, 2019

Whit Merrifield talks about the tough series in Texas.

“When you miss mistakes, these guys are good up here, so it’s going to be tough to hit their pitches,” Royals infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield said. “It seemed like all series we didn’t do a good job of hitting balls that split the plate. When that happens, you’re forced to battle against good strike-to-ball sliders or fastballs on the corner.”

Homer Bailey talks about his early exit on Saturday against the Rangers.

“There were some pitches there that I thought we made fairly well that were ground balls through the infield,” Bailey said. “Obviously, the one to Gallo -- I probably could’ve gotten inside a little bit more on that one. I made some pretty decent pitches, and they just found holes.”

Whit Merrifield and Jake Diekman were named Royals Player and Pitcher of the Month for May.

Ned Yost is excited about the draft.

“I’m looking at different scenarios,” Yost said. “We’re going to get a tremendous player. And I’m kind of glad that Baltimore’s picking first. There’s three [top players] … all the talk is Rutschman-Witt, Witt-Rutschman. I woke up in the middle of the night -- it’s crazy what goes through your mind -- I’m like, ‘What if Baltimore takes Vaughn? What do we do then?’”

Royals pitching prospect Daniel Lynch left his start Saturday in the second inning due to an injury.

Lynch sneaks onto the Baseball America top 100 prospect list at #100.

Brady Singer made his Double-A debut.

David Lesky talks about Jorge Lopez’s move to the bullpen.

When the Royals traded for Jorge Lopez, I said multiple times that I thought he was better served as a reliever. I love the curve and I think there’s potential in that changeup. The issue with his fastball is that it just doesn’t do enough to be effective multiple times through an order. It’s a low-spin pitch and something that I think gets more and more hittable as its seen. So what’s the solution? Obviously it’s limiting exposure to it because I believe it can be a very good pitch. Now, I don’t fault the Royals one bit for giving the rotation a shot and if it had gone a little bit less disastrously, I’d have been all for giving him through the trade deadline or even a little bit longer before pulling the plug. But things were bleak and they didn’t really have a choice.

Clint Scoles looks at some players the Royals drafted last year that went to college instead, and discusses the hitting woes in the minors.

Of the thirteen hitters currently in the Royals Top 30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline, the Royals have seven hitting .225 or below with MJ Melendez, Nick Pratto and Seuly Matias all hitting .153 or below as of Thursday morning. Since Matias went on a four home run binge in three games in April he’s hit .102 over his last 36 games with 69 strikeouts in 140 plate appearances, an absolutely horrendous stretch where his body language and reactions appear to be breaking the player. The problems with all of these players aren’t the same but it doesn’t matter, these three alone represent over $8 million dollars in investment and seeing these results is enough for ownership to ask for a major change in the organization.

Shane Emery at Royals Farm Report talks to Bubba Starling.

The Toledo Blade profiles hometown hero Royals first base coach Mitch Maier.

Writing at The Athletic, Mark Simon at Sports Info Solutions ranks the top ten catchers at pitch-framing this year, with Martín Maldonado only getting honorable mention.

Jeff Passan outlines how one team could blow up the draft.

The Diamondbacks have the most early picks, but teams with multiple early picks typically haven’t used them that well.

The Mariners are in sell mode and have traded Jay Bruce to the Phillies.

More home runs were hit in May than in any other month in MLB history.

Want to develop a pitcher? There’s an app for that.

Re-grading the biggest off-season signings from the past winter.

Ranking the best all-time college roster based on their MLB talent.

The Cape Cod League gets all the attention for wood bat college summer leagues, but the Northwoods League is attracting some quality talent.

Liverpool wins their sixth Champions League in a rather dull win over Tottenham.

Andy Ruiz, Jr. shocks the boxing world and become the new WBA, IBF, and WBO heavyweight titleholder.

The case against grit and in favor of trying lots of different things instead of specializing.

Even the bathrooms at the new Disneyworld Star Wars Galaxy Edge take you to a galaxy far, far away.

What was your biggest pop culture disappointment?

Your song of the day is Marvin Gaye with I Want You.