Royals Rumblings - News for May 4, 2020

Royals Rumblings - News for May 4, 2020

Lynn Worthy talks to Brad Keller about how he’s spending his time off.

While he hasn’t faced batters in a game situation in more than a month, he has tried to make the most of this time by focusing on fine tuning details he wouldn’t get to focus on during the daily hullabaloo of the season.

Yes, that includes getting more comfortable with his curveball.

“Me and (Mike) Montgomery were talking about this yesterday,” Keller said. “We’d be kind of trying to figure this out in the middle of the season where we’re caught between going out there and competing versus during our side sessions, trying to get better at the same time.

Jeffrey Flanagan highlights Jorge Soler as the best eye on the team.

Soler also led the Royals with 73 walks last season (only three were intentional) and while he struck out an AL-high 178 times, those punchouts come with the territory for power hitters in today’s game.

What’s unique about Soler is that he’s selective. His chase rate on out-of-zone pitches in 2019, per Statcast, was 24%, well below the MLB average of 28.3%. One area the Royals wanted him to improve the past two seasons was attacking, and that is likely what led him to a career-high 49.9% hard-hit rate.

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter considers carrying Brady Singer on the MLB roster.

Thus, it would have made sense for the Royals to start Singer in Omaha, just so he could continue to develop his changeup against hitters in a less riskier environment (though the PCL hitting conditions certainly aren’t forgiving by any measure; ask Scott Blewett). Furthermore, while Singer held his own in Spring Training of the Top 4 Royals pitching prospects (Singer, Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar, and Kris Bubic), his 4.76 ERA, 1.94 WHIP, and 1.50 K/BB ratio left a little to be desired, even though it was only 5.2 innings of work. While Singer didn’t necessarily do anything to deter the Royals from keeping him off the Opening Day roster in Surprise, he didn’t necessarily to do anything extraordinary to prove to management that he should be on the roster without a doubt.

Singer is not a 100 percent ready for Major League baseball…but he may be 90 percent ready, and with no Minor League baseball a possibility, maybe 90 percent may be enough to convince Moore and Matheny to add him to the 40-man when baseball starts up again in June.

Clint Scoles at Royals Academy looks at who the Royals could select in the draft.

Clint Hurdle could have played SEC football or gone to Harvard, but he chose to play for the Royals.

Former Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos talks about his blockbuster deal in 2015 for Troy Tulowitzki.

Former A’s pitcher Matt Keough dies at the age of 64.

Don’t forget about umpire safety if baseball attempts to return during the pandemic.

We may not have replay this year.

The history of the sacrifice fly.

Andy McCullough writes about the time Dock Ellis set out to hit every single batter he faced.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a Yankees and Nationals fan, misses baseball.

How good was Michael Jordan at baseball?

The ten strangest trades in baseball history.

At age 27, Rachel Luba is one of the only female agents in baseball.

If National League teams have to adopt a DH this year, who would be the candidates for each team?

The NCAA outlines guidelines for bringing back sports.

The NHL may not return until December.

How poop could help stop the pandemic.

As if 2020 weren’t bad enough already, now we have murder hornets.

How Austin Powers haunts the James Bond series.

Your song of the day is Arcade Fire with Month of May.