Royals Rumblings

Weekend Rumblings - News for August 3, 2019

Billy to the bench?

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Aug 3, 2019, 10:00am EDT

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Weekend Rumblings - News for August 3, 2019

Lynn Worthy gets the explanation on why the Royals stood pat at the trade deadline.

While Moore declined to discuss interest in specific players, he acknowledged that the Royals would’ve wanted major-league-ready talent in exchange for players under control for multiple years.

Merrifield, Kennedy and Duffy all fall into that category.

“Dayton has always been a GM that’s been like you know what if we’re going to make a deal, we’re going to make a good baseball deal,” Royals manager Ned Yost said leading into the deadline. “One that’s going to benefit you and that’s going to benefit us and we both win. There’s a lot of teams that don’t look at it that way.”

Jeffrey Flanagan writes that Billy Hamilton is anticipating less playing time.

The Royals were able to move everyone else with expiring contracts either through a trade or by designating them for assignment. Even Hamilton admits he was a bit surprised to still be with the club.

“But I can’t get caught up in being traded or not,” Hamilton told MLB.com. “Everything happens for a reason. I just have to prepare for whatever, whether it’s here or somewhere else.”

It is believed that Royals general manager Dayton Moore made it clear he simply wasn’t going to give away his players on expiring contracts, if he could avoid it, feeling that such a move would be insulting to their market value and to them individually.

David Lesky in his Friday notes writes about being impressed with Cam Gallagher.

The sample is quite small — just 24 games and 76 plate appearances — but he’s shown an ability to take a walk, hit for a modicum of pop. It’s easy to see an area where he really improved. In July, he hit .462 with a .846 slugging percentage against four-seamers with an average exit velocity of 95 MPH. In June, he hit .375 with a .500 SLG and a 91.3 MPH average exit velocity. Both months are outstanding. Go back to May and he hit .267 against four-seamers with no extra base hits and an average exit velocity of 83.7 MPH.

Jorge Soler and Brad Keller are Royals Player and Pitcher of the Month for July.

Clint Scoles at Royals Academy considers a theoretical deal with the Cardinals for Whit Merrifield.

John Calvagno at Notes from the Sally scouts Royals pitcher Carlos Hernandez.

MLB Pipeline updates each team’s top 30 prospect list as does Baseball America.

An extra inning game features an outfielder on the mound, and a pitcher making an assist in left field.

The Angels designate catcher Jonathan Lucroy for assignment.

The Wild Card is not incentivizing teams to improve themselves.

How the Giants earned keeping Madison Bumgarner.

A history of how waiver transactions have evolved over the years.

The Atlantic League is proving change is hard for ballplayers.

Henderson, Nevada tried to get the Diamondbacks to relocate.

Potential 2020 draft pick Blaze Jordan wants to be more than a Youtube sensation.