Royals Rumblings - News for July 5, 2019

Royals Rumblings - News for July 5, 2019

Homer Bailey reflects on his mixed results in Thursday’s loss.

“It was a good-bad day, you know?” Bailey said. “I wasn’t able to go as deep as I wanted to. I left it middle to the one Ramirez hit out. The other run we gave up was a splitter that Lindor went down and got. I thought I battled pretty well. It’s just tough sometimes when you’re ready to walk out and go throw and you have to sit down twice. It was a little humid. Tough to hold onto the ball a little bit. But you’re just gonna have days like that. You try to pitch your way through them.”

Jeffrey Flanagan writes on Jorge Lopez’s frustrations after a tough outing.

“It’s really, really frustrating,” Lopez said. “I’ve got no excuse. I fell behind with the first guy. I threw a right-down-the-middle curveball. I tried to get after the next guy, tried to be down, looking for that ground ball I always try to get. Unfortunately, I didn’t have it. They found holes.”

Some Royals fans and players are lobbying for extended netting even more than they have to protect fans, writes Greg Woods.

Royals vice president of publicity Toby Cook said the team has “no plans at this time to change the netting in the near future.” Doing so, he said, might obstruct fans’ views because the netting would need to be strung at a higher angle, rather than at eye-level, where many fans currently see it.

“Plus, all of those cables that hold it up,” Cook said, “you can see it extending it right up to that side. To extend it any further, you might have cables going all over the place. So it’s under review at this point.”

Mike Petriello at MLB.com looks at under-the-radar trade candidates, like Billy Hamilton and Ian Kennedy.

While his 3.18 ERA is obviously a big step up, that’s not even the extent of it; by advanced Statcast metrics, he’s been pitching like one of the 20 or so best relievers in baseball this year. (It doesn’t hurt that his four-seam fastball has jumped from 91.9 MPH to 93.9 MPH.) The issue here is that Kennedy is still owed the remainder of $16.5 million this year and then $16.5 million more next year, but if the Royals are willing to eat some of that contract, they could find themselves with a surprisingly valuable trade asset in a world where every contender needs relief help.

Doc Riddle at Royals Farm Report profiles prospect Jeison Guzman.

ESPN analysts size up the standings at the halfway point in the season.

What’s up with Wil Myers?

Should every team have an All-Star?

The New York Times interviews former Commissioner Bud Selig about what he likes to read.

A Mets minor league affiliate sets a fire outside the stadium during their fireworks show.

Who is in charge of running the Baltimore Orioles?

The NBA Summer League storylines to watch this year.

Sporting Kansas City is in last place - where do they go from here?

More people are visiting national parks, but we have fewer rangers on staff.

Would it be morally okay to perform Beatles songs as your own in the film Yesterday?

How Seinfeld changed television.

Your song of the day is Ben Folds Five with Army.