Weekend Rumblings - News for August 31, 2019

Weekend Rumblings - News for August 31, 2019

The Royals publicly announced the sale of the club to Kansas City businessman John Sherman.

“The decision to sell the Royals was difficult for our family,” Glass said in a statement. “Our goal, which I firmly believe we’ve achieved, was to have someone local, who truly loved the game of baseball and who would be a great steward for this franchise going forward. In John Sherman, we have found everything we were looking for in taking ownership of this franchise.”

Jeffrey Flanagan has a bit more on Sherman.

How big of a Royals fan is Sherman?

In 2017, Sherman told the Kansas City Business Journal that he happened to have planned a vacation in Europe during the Royals-Giants World Series. But he kept getting up in the middle of the night to watch the games.

Finally, Sherman’s wife, Marny, told him to go home early. He did. He flew from Paris back to Kansas City and caught Games 6 and 7 at Kauffman Stadium.

Sam Mellinger did some background research on the new Royals owner.

John Sherman is a baseball nerd. That’s how some friends describe him, anyway. He is the kind of fan who not only can go over last night’s game but tell you who’s pitching the next day and who might not be available out of the bullpen.

He reads books that would only appeal to hardcore baseball people, from “Big Data Baseball”(about the number-crunching that fueled the Pirates’ rise from the bottom) to “The Grind” (about the human struggles behind professional sports’ longest season)....

“He’s expressed some pride to me that they were trying some things differently (in Cleveland),” Illig said. “I wouldn’t say the Royals, out of necessity, under the Glasses have done some of that stuff. I don’t think the Glass family is wired the way I’m describing.”

Jorge Soler ties the single-season club home run record.

In his Friday notes, David Lesky dispels the notion that Ryan O’Hearn has been unlucky.

But either way, if you look at exit velocity, you’ll actually see that he’s not that unlucky. The league has hit .635 on balls batted 100 MPH or harder. O’Hearn has hit .596, but if you add just two hits to his total, he’s up to .638. Even if you assume those hits are both extra base hits, maybe a double and a home run, and add them, he’d still be hitting just .190/.282/.357. Look, I’m hoping O’Hearn can prove he’s for real and that he can finish the season strong, but maybe we can put to bed the narrative of how unlucky he’s been because that’s not really the reality here.

Clint Scoles has optimism for Nicky Lopez.

On the surface, the averages don’t see much of a change with his exit velocity for the month up to 85.5 mph just a tad higher than his season EV but during his 11 game hitting streak he has connected on four balls at 100 mph or higher. That isn’t impressive just to see it as Jorge Soler can hit that number tonight along but for Nicky, it’s better, having hit it just 12 times prior in his previous 75 games. That August line is important as what you’re looking for at least to be successful is a Cesar Hernandez (Phillies) type of line (.284/.335/.400). With Nicky’s better defense the Royals would have a 2-3.0 fWAR player which during the pre-Arb years would be an incredible value.

Alec Lewis talks to former Kansas City mayor Sly James about potential new Royals owner John Sherman.

ESPN analyst Rick Sutcliffe talks about growing up near Kauffman Stadium.

Why pitchers expect their outfielders to at least make a “courtesy trot” for home runs.

Bryce Harper is rooting for Mookie Betts to eclipse his $330 million contract.

Hurricane Dorian prompts the Florida State League to cancel the rest of the season.

Lucas Giolito is the most improved pitcher in baseball.

An update on how July trades have fared so far.

Ranking all of Mike Trout’s seasons by greatness.

An autopsy shows Tyler Skaggs had Fentanyl, oxycontin, and alcohol in his system at his death.

Former Mets infielder Wally Backman is arrested on domestic violence charges.

What would the playoffs look like if the season ended today?

Why NFL teams find it so hard to quit quarterbacks.

FiveThirtyEight analyzes college fight songs.

The retail chain Forever 21 prepares for bankruptcy.

How Baby Shark went from a public domain song to the center of a copyright battle.

How Netflix’s Dark Crystal prequel honors Jim Henson’s original.

Your song of the day is Dizzy Gillespie with A Night in Tunisia.