Royals Rumblings

Royals Rumblings - News for July 21, 2020

I saw a baseball game on my TV!

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Jul 21, 2020, 8:00am EDT

Royals Rumblings - News for July 21, 2020

Jeffrey Flanagan talks to Mike Montgomery after his start against the Astros.

“I definitely had a little more nerves when you face a team in a different uniform,” Montgomery said. “First couple of innings, I was just trying to slow it down and get my delivery down.

“I thought I made some good pitches, but I just couldn’t get that last out. All in all, I think it was OK.”

The absence of Jakob Junis could lead to an opportunity for someone else, writes Lynn Worthy.

Matheny has discussed the possibility of the Royals using an “opener” and relying on bullpen pitchers to help carry the load for a thin starting rotation. He’s also alluded to being “creative” in how they deploy their pitchers in a shortened season.

“I think it’s going to open doors for a lot of guys, not just necessarily pitchers who are labeled as starters, but just opportunities to come in and pitch,” Matheny said. “It could be in extended roles.”

Worthy also writes about Brady Singer and his chances of making the team.

Singer features a strong fastball-slider combination, and he’s been working on making his changeup a more consistent pitch. On Saturday, Royals manager Mike Matheny discussed how the Singer’s need for a third pitch may be overstated because of the way he can manipulate his slider and make it work as more than one pitch.

Singer explained how he views his slider.

“I just call it a slider, but sometimes I can have a curveball and a slider that day,” Singer said. “I just manipulate the ball around and it works well.”

And he writes that Bubba Starling is still working on his swing.

“Last year, it seemed like I would get a ball in the zone, but it necessarily wasn’t a ball that I could handle or do something with,” Starling said. “I was just swinging to swing. This year, I’ve got a better approach. Obviously, with Maybs and Brashaw — I’ve been working with them a lot in the cage — we’ve got a million swings in. That’s what’s nice about this quick camp, we’ve still been able to get a lot of swings.”

Starling admitted he still needs to get better with off-speed and breaking-ball pitches, but he has been “hunting” the fastball.

And the result was great last night.

Bubba Starling’s hardest hit ball last year over 131 batted balls was 106.9 MPH. That’s a pretty decent sample size when it comes to max EV. Ranked in the bottom 20% of baseball. That home run tonight was 108.9. Could potentially be a sign that he added a little extra pop
— Patrick Brennan (@paintingcorner) July 21, 2020