Royals Rumblings - News for July 9, 2019

Today is the day that the 2019 MLB All-Star Game will take place. The Royals sent just one representative this year, Whit Merrifield, to compete amongst the game’s best. Best of luck to you today, Whit, and congratulations on your continued success. Your story is inspiring and I don’t think Royals fans could be happier for you today. Congrats, and good luck!

Jeffrey Flanagan wrote about Merrifield making his first ASG over at MLB.com.

The Royals admit now it took them too long to recognize Merrifield’s skill set.

“He knew he was good,” Royals manager Ned Yost said, “long before we did.”

Merrifield toiled in the Minors for over six years before he got his Major League break. And even then, after a successful half-season with the Royals, he was shoved back to the Minors in 2017.

Alec Lewis wrote about Merrifield’s journey over at The Athletic KC ($).

“Screw it,” said Bill. They headed west.

Two exits away from home, Whit called again. Bill and Kissy didn’t even let Whit speak first.

“We said, ‘We’re on the way, we’re on the road, we’ll see you in Kansas City!’” Bill says. “He goes, ‘Turn around. They stopped me as I was walking out. They decided to take somebody else.’”

Matthew Lamar writes about how boring the Royals are for being this bad.

The Royals are boring because they have a bunch of boring players. Funny how that works. I’ve gone through the 25-man roster and, with my SCIENTIFIC METHOD and TOTALLY UNASSAILABLE GUT determined the following players to be Definitively Boring:

Jake Diekman, 32

Brian Flynn, 29

Over at Royals Farm Report, we finished up our top mid-season Royals prospect rankings.

Daniel Lynch is close to unanimous top 100 prospect status. Baseball America currently has Lynch ranked at #84 overall, and MLB Pipeline currently has him at #70 overall. FanGraphs currently has Lynch right outside their top 120, but if Lynch hadn’t gotten hurt, and had been promoted to AA Northwest Arkansas like Jackson Kowar, I think he’d pretty unanimously be a top 100 prospect in baseball, and for good reason.

Over at KC Kingdom, Leigh writes that the trade deadline could actually be quite boring for the Royals.

While Ian Kennedy and Danny Duffy could be traded, Kennedy’s contract is a huge problem and Duffy is simply too inconsistent. These are two guys who have several years left on their deal and are doing well for the most part, but it’s just hard to imagine a scenario in which a team is willing to give up decent prospects for either pitcher.

Pete Alonso of the New York Mets won the 2019 Home Run Derby.

But it was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who stole the show last night.

Ken Rosenthal takes a look at the scope of the baseball landscape heading into the All-Star Break and the 2019 trade deadline.

Justin Verlander is uhh, not fond of the new baseballs.

The National Hurricane Center is warning of potential hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico over the next week.

Tariffs could cause a Bible shortage in the US.

Your song of the day is “Peaceful Easy Feeling” by the Eagles.