Royals Rumblings - News for March 5, 2021
Lynn Worthy writes about how Daniel Lynch is garnering attention in camp.
“Daniel looks completely different 365 days later than what we saw last year,” Matheny said. “And part of that is a little bit of edge. He wanted to be a part of what we were doing last year. Part of that is our development team, and our pitching development did a really good job.
“Stuff has been there. It’s been fine-tuning some of the idiosyncrasies and some even away from the ball as far as his demeanor, as far as his presence.”
Alec Lewis writes that Professor Barton L. Smith, an aerodynamics expert, thinks Brad Keller is baseball’s most interesting pitcher.
“Keller popped out on top of that list (this winter),” Smith said.
Smith is a Chicago Cubs fan. Truth be told, he’d never heard of Keller, so he did some digging and checked out Keller’s slider, which also seemed to have seam-shifted wake effects.
“That’s why I say he’s the most interesting seam-shifted wake guy in the world,” Smith said.
Mike Matheny says Adalberto Mondesi's foot injury is "moving in the right direction." He'll work on his base-running and sliding at camp today. #Royals
— Josh Vernier (@JoshVernier610) March 4, 2021
David Lesky writes about the Royals prospects with plenty to prove.
My good friend Clint Scoles mentioned that he thought Matias’ swing was shorter in winter ball. I went back and watched what I could find, and I have to say I agree. The home run swing the other day was more like the winter ball swing than the one that saw so many strikeouts even before the major 2019 struggles. 2020 is a huge year for him. He’s in his age-22 season and he was already Rule 5 eligible but didn’t get selected. I anticipate he’ll start in AA when the season starts in May, but if he hits well, the Royals are going to need to add him to the 40-man roster because his power will get selected if he shows well in the upper minors.
MLB.com ranks all the teams by contention status, with the Royals at #21.
We’re doing a lot of divisional-grading-on-a-curve here. But I liked what the Royals did this offseason. Andrew Benintendi and Michael A. Taylor are hardly stars, but they’ve still got upside in them and the Royals didn’t spend much to get either, and Carlos Santana is the OBP bat that the team has been needing for a while now. Heck, I’m not even against the “take a flyer on Wade Davis and Brad Brach” bullpen plan; it’s not like they went all Rockies on either.
Pete Grathoff writes about how Bally’s Kansas City is developing an app, but there are few other options for streaming.
Mike Gillespie at Kings of Kauffman profiles Carlos Hernández.
Some UC-Berkeley students were named finalists for a contest from designing a downtown Royals stadium.
Diamondbacks outfielder Kole Calhoun undergoes knee surgery.
Padres pitcher José Castillo needs to have Tommy John surgery.
The universal DH and expanded playoffs seems to be dead for this season.
Mets GM Sandy Alderson wants to improve the defense.
Jon Lester will have a thyroid gland removed after suffering fatigue.
Who is the next young star to get a long-term contract?
The 23-year old CEO of a minor league team left out of affiliated ball decides to start up his own league.
Baseball will hold Lou Gehrig Day as an annual event to raise funds to battle ALS.
Skip Bayless inks a $32 million deal with Fox Sports.
The home of the Chiefs will now be “Geha Field at Arrowhead Stadium.”
A limited Party Down series is in the works for Starz.
The plot of the new Space Jam sounds...loony.
Your song of the day is Led Zeppelin with Rock and Roll.