Royals Rumblings - News for July 8, 2020

If you missed the news around here yesterday, Ryan O’Hearn and Brad Keller tested positive for coronavirus, and Meibrys Viloria and Matt Reynolds hit the Injured List for unspecified reasons.

If the season proceeds, Kansas City will visit manager Mike Matheney’s old home field in St. Louis. The skipper’s thoughts on that?

“I’ve moved on,” he said. “This is my new [baseball] home. All I think about it is that [St. Louis] is going to be a pretty good team and we have to play them six times. We’re playing a team that has a chance to be pretty good.”

Besides, it still seems unlikely there will be any fans at any MLB ballparks come August.

“On a personal side, there’s not going to be any fans there,” he said, “so we just go there and play. And try to win some ballgames.”

Game action! Jill Toyoshiba of the KC Star posted some photos from yesterday’s intrasquad scrimmage.

David Scharff at Kings of Kauffman looks at how the short season is a great time to re-imagine Royals pitchers’ roles:

Luckily for the Royals, versatility among pitchers is one of their current strengths with heat throwing pitchers like Trevor Rosenthal and Josh Staumont, to relievers who could start, or pitch in long relief like Glenn Sparkman and Jorge Lopez.

While trying a new type of play for a bullpen that is already inconsistent may not be seen as the wisest choice, there may be no better time to try experiments than with the short 60 game season ahead.

The limited number of games allows for more use and flexibility of pitchers, and the starting expanded roster allows for more rest as needed while getting things figured out. Unconventional or not, Matheny believes this is the right decision and it’s not just to be different from other teams. Getting everyone on the same page, though, is the starting point.

Seven of the Royals’ top 10 prospects are in summer camp presented by Camping World right now.

Savlador Pérez Instagrammed a health update, with quite the flex on the coffee table behind him.

MLB.tv will be about a buck a game, with the price for the shortened season being announced at $59.99. The blackouts are still in effect. That price is more per game than a standard year’s subscription.

Nine or 10 Angels players are “mysteriously” unaccounted for at their summer camp presented by Camping World. Several teams have had to cancel or postpone practices while waiting for test results during their respective summer camps presented by Camping World.

At FanGraphs, Jay Jaffe explores the layers of the MLB testing fiascos (fiascoes? fiascii?) including a dig into the originally reported 1.7% infection rate among players:

It all sounded like good news, comparatively speaking — any positive test is cause for alarm, given the potentially life-threatening nature of the virus — but it came with a couple qualifiers that weren’t widely noted. The Athletic‘s Brittany Ghiroli reported that “a vast majority of teams had incomplete or pending results. They were not able to submit those to the league by the deadline.” On Tuesday, Sports Illustrated’s Stephanie Apstein reported, “At least 10 teams had not finished their intake testing by the time MLB and the PA released the numbers. At least nine teams still had not finished it on Sunday.”

Victor Robles and Juan Soto, Washington’s delightful young stars, are isolating under the COVID protocol. It has not been announced yet whether they themselves have the virus.

Mookie Betts wants to take a more active role in building the next generation of Black baseball players:

“Obviously MLB can help, but I think it’s on us, the Black players, to bring it to the Black communities and make baseball cool,” he said. “I think that’s where the disconnect is. Us as Black people don’t think it’s that much fun. So we have to find a way to make it fun for the Black community and get more guys here.”

Umpire Joe West thinks the death count from coronavirus is a hoax.

Rob Manfred is not happy with Nationals GM Mike Rizzo, who criticized the clumsy rollout of MLB’s testing process.

The Major League Soccer team in Dallas already had to withdraw from the season due to a Covid outbreak, and now Nashville’s team may be facing the same scenario. Five of their players have already tested positive, with more tests still pending.

Here’s a fun compilation of what some historic figures might look like today.

A case for tipping 50% if you eat at a restaurant In These Times.

At Ask a Manager: “my boss sent a friend to spy on me at my house.”

Why printers add secret tracking dots.

Tax day is next week. Here’s what to do if you can’t pay yours right now. (Generally speaking: it’s cheaper to file and not pay than it is to skip filing in the first place.)

We got an Air Fryer this week, which means I need to scrounge up some Air Fryer recipes. Any favorites among this community?

MUSIC: What if System of a Down existed in medieval times? Hat tip to my brother Porcus, presented by Camping World.