Royals Rumblings - News for July 19, 2019

Royals Rumblings - News for July 19, 2019

Sam McDowell writes about those red-hot Royals.

“We’re playing really good ball right now,” said Brad Keller, who picked up his sixth victory. “The offense is alive and killing it right now. The starters and relievers are doing their job.”

Vahe Gregorian writes that Ned Yost understands the long-term strategy at play.

Yost doesn’t accept losing any more than he accepts moon-landing conspiracy theories, but he understands the implications of what general manager Dayton Moore has stressed is a draft-based reset.

“Generally, in order to get back to the World Series, for a couple years you’re just not going to play .500 baseball,” Yost said. “And if you are playing .500 baseball, the odds of you getting back to the World Series are going to drop dramatically. Because you’re not getting the quality draft picks.”

Patrick Brennan at Beyond the Boxscore writes that Jorge Soler is really coming around.

So what has changed for Soler? For starters, it’s been improvements in both his plate discipline and quality of contact. Starting with his plate skills, which were horrendous to begin the season, he’s shown some steady strides in some key areas. Earlier in the season, much of Soler’s struggles had to do with swinging too often outside the zone and making little contact on those swings. His outside-zone swing percentage ranked into the top half of qualified hitters (74th of 167) in the months of April and May, while his outside-zone contact percentage was the third worst rate in baseball, higher than only Joey Gallo and Brandon Lowe. Not an ideal combination.

But for June and July, Soler has made adjustments for the better. Out of 173 qualified hitters during this time, his outside-zone swing percentage is the 18th lowest. The few times he does swing outside the zone, his contact rate on those pitches, while still bad, has moved up to only the 20th worst rate in baseball. Throw this all together and you get improvements in both the walk and strikeout departments.

Clint Scoles at Royals Academy writes about pitching prospect Bryan Brickhouse.

Physically Brickhouse is more fit than he was previously in his career and the arm he said still feels better than ever. With that same throwing routine he’s comfortable and excited to be just a step away. For now he knows he just needs to continue to work on the control/command and not look too far ahead.. A free agent after the season, the front office will have to take a hard look late this year to see if they want to add him. That’s a question that some 19 months ago the team and Bryan likely didn’t envision they would need to think about.

Alex Duvall at Royals Farm Report takes a look at prospect Gabriel Cancel.

The Yankees gave the Royals $100,000 for Terrance Gore.

Craig Edwards at Fangraphs points out that Gore hasn’t been a very good base-stealer this year.

Baseball America ranks Bobby Witt, Jr #1 in their updated prospect rankings for the Royals, with Jackson Kowar a surprising #2.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone has an epic rant against an umpire.

Jeff Passan at ESPN has ten things to watch for at the trade deadline.

Despite a hot streak, the Giants are still going to be sellers at the deadline.

Three second-half prospects who could impact the penannt race as call-ups.

Mike Minor is sick of all the trade talk.

An oral history of David Cone’s perfect game, which happened 20 years ago this week.

The forgotten All-Star game that helped integrate baseball.

Pumpsie Green, the first African-American player in Red Sox history, dies at age 85.

The New York City triathlon is cancelled due to heat.

Jon Bois made a comic book about the greatest coaching performance in NBA history.

Are there privacy concerns with FaceApp, the popular app that lets you age your photos?

How Peloton is influencing the future of exercising.

The first Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship was as awesome as it sounds.

Your song of the day is Phish with Down With Disease.