Royals Rumblings - News for June 29, 2020

Royals Rumblings - News for June 29, 2020

Lynn Worthy talks to Mike Matheny about the shortened season.

Royals manager Mike Matheny, who has yet to manage a game for his new club, refuses to place added pressure on the opening days of the season despite the shortened schedule.

“I had a number of people, some of our staff included, who talked even about us playing 162-game season and how important it was to come out of the gates and we’ve got to have this good start,” Matheny said.

“The truth is a lot of times we can get distracted outside of what we need to do right now. It happens so easy in our game. If we tell ourselves that ‘If we don’t win so many out of the first so many then we’re done.’ First of all, it’s not completely true. And secondly, it becomes a distraction.”

Alec Lewis discusses how the Royals came up with their 60-man club pool list.

We’ll start with development: The Royals added consensus top prospect and 2019 No. 2 pick Witt Jr. to their roster for that exact reason. Witt Jr., who competed last season for the club’s Arizona Rookie League squad, is now 20 years old. He would have pushed his way toward Low-A Lexington this year in a normal season, but a chance to work out alongside MLB veterans at Kauffman Stadium will behoove his future.

Another notable name was Pratto, a first-round pick from 2017 who struggled at the plate last season at High-A Wilmington. In 468 plate appearances last season, Pratto batted .191/.278/.310 with 164 strikeouts, propelling an offseason of development. Pratto, as well as Melendez and Seuly Matias, rebuilt his swing this offseason. The Royals, wanting those strides to continue and to eventually pay off, added him to work alongside the many surefire starters.

Jeffrey Flanagan talks to Dayton Moore about why Asa Lacy was not on the list.

“There was some talk about adding him,” Moore said, “but at the end of the day, we like where he is right now — he’s got a good workout spot at College Station [Texas]. We could only have so many players on the 60. There were a lot of players left off. But hopefully there’ll be an opportunity for many of them this fall in Arizona.”

Clint Scoles at Royals Academy shares his thoughts on the list.

Tyler Dierking at Kings of Kauffman thinks Bobby Witt, Jr. has a bright future.

The top prospects that made each team’s 60-man club pool.

The Mariners release veterans Carlos Gonzales and Wei-Yin Chen.

Reds infielder Blake Trahan opts to retire at the age of 26.

Pirates pitcher Edgar Santana and four minor leaguers are suspended for banned substances.

Jay Jaffe writes that entropy could be the real winner in a 60-game season.

How much randomness will we see in a short season?

Buster Olney writes that baseball is facing its biggest challenge in playing during a pandemic.

The Twins will not allow two of their older coaches to work with the team this year, over coronavirus concerns.

Several Rangers front office employees test positive for coronavirus after returning to the office.

The KBO in Korea will plan to have fans in the stands starting Friday.

The Patriots sign quarterback Cam Newton.

The NBA releases their restart schedule, what are some games to look for?

Disney’s Splash Mountain will get an overhaul to cut ties with Song of the South.

The best episodes of South Park, ranked.

Sixteen years after rigging an online vote, Kellogg’s apologizes and will give Koreans what they want - green onion-flavored Chex.

Your song of the day is Martha and the Vandelles with Dancing in the Streets.