Weekend Rumblings - News for July 20, 2019

Weekend Rumblings - News for July 20, 2019

Jeffrey Flanagan writes about that bizarre eighth inning exchange between Wily Peralta and catcher Meibrys Viloria.

“We had a hard time getting on the same page with the signs,” Peralta said. “I didn’t want to cross him up. We were just not on the same page.

“He’s a young catcher just trying to do a good job.”

Said Viloria, “He told me when I came out the second time that he doesn’t see the signs, so he told me to slow down.”

Alec Lewis at The Athletic writes about those red-hot Royals.

It’s also easy to overreact in baseball. Some game days say so much about a team and its individual parts — the next days, so little. Which is why, even through this winning stretch, Yost kept his confidence level as grounded as a rocket before takeoff.

“These guys were playing their asses off,” Yost said. “They’ve been playing hard all year long. I don’t notice any different mood. Their moods are all pretty much the same. They’re all ready to work.”

Sam McDowell writes how the All-Star break allowed them to re-set.

“The break helped us, I think,” said Kennedy, who closed out Thursday’s win for his 16th save of the season. “It can go one of two ways. Some teams come out and hit a skid right after the All-Star break. We’ve gone the other way, just taking some momentum. Sometimes you can just remove yourself from it, unplug from it, and then you come back, you get that snowball rolling a little bit.”

Flanagan writes that Jake Diekman could soon be on the move, but it doesn’t bother him.

“I don’t even think about the Trade Deadline,” Diekman told MLB.com. “That’s for other people way smarter than me to handle. I’ve been traded too many times to give it too much thought.”

In his Friday notes, David Lesky writes about what he wants to see from Cam Gallagher.

It’s just 66 plate appearances, so it’s not especially telling or anything, but the guy can work a walk and doesn’t strike out all that much. Defensively, he’s ranked very well all season long. So while I’m interested to see what Meibrys Viloria can bring to the team as a catcher and it looks like they’re going to be in a pretty equal split, I think Gallagher deserves a shot to show what he can do. Salvador Perez will be back next season, and while he probably shouldn’t be available to catch until early to mid-May, we all know that he pushes himself hard and has actually shown to be a fast healer. But even if he’s catching by opening day, it won’t be with the same workload he’s had in the past as he works to come back from his surgery, and I think this is a great opportunity for both Gallagher and Viloria to see if they’re up to the task to be a much heavier used backup than we’ve seen in awhile in Kansas City.

Leigh Oleszczak at KC Kingdom writes about the catching situation the rest of the year.

The Angels designate pitcher Matt Harvey for assignment.

Reds manager David Bell sets the franchise record for ejections in a season.

The five trends that could become baseball’s future.

The Phillies are interested in Zack Greinke and Madison Bumgarner.

Home runs are up, but will anyone reach 60 this year?

How a gyroscopic slider turned Luke Jackson’s career around.

What makes each member of this year’s Hall of Fame class a Hall of Famer.

The Yankees now have shirts to let everyone know they are “savages.”

The MLBPA has dropped its lawyer ahead of negotiations with MLB.

Baseball writer Jonah Keri is arrested for domestic abuse.

The anatomy of a Tour de France.

Tiger Woods misses the cut at the British Open.

What is the Apollo 11 landing spot on the moon like now?

Hulu’s Veronica Mars revivial is a repudiation of nostalgia.

Eddie Murphy is close to a $70 million deal with Netflix for a comedy standup comeback.

Your song of the day is Cannonball Adderley with Somethin’ Else.