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Royals Rumblings - News for April 12, 2021
Seeing the Royals come back on Sunday has manager Mike Matheny pumped, writes Anne Rogers.
“It fires me up,” manager Mike Matheny said. “When you watch a team go down twice to a good team and the resiliency and the belief they have in themselves and each other — they just keep coming.
“We’re going to have games where we have everything clicking. But the days that you don’t, and you even make mistakes, and you still find ways to fight and scratch and claw your way back into a game — to me, that’s priceless.”
Lynn Worthy quotes the skipper on the tenacious at-bats by Royals hitters.
“Great at-bats,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Benintendi and Santana. “Benny using the middle of the field, and he’s had some bad luck lately where he has been squaring balls up right at people too through the middle. … But you’re talking two guys that we were hopeful would come into this team and be an offensive spark for our club, and that’s exactly what they’ve both been.”
He also writes that it would be cool if Royals/White Sox turned into a rivalry.
“They’ve kind of had our number the last couple years,” Royals third baseman Hunter Dozier said prior to the series. “So yeah, we definitely want to get those games back. We want to play well against them.
“They are picked to finish top in the AL, definitely in our division, but we’re ready to go compete with them. It’s a totally different team this year — that we have. We’re excited and we’re ready for the challenge.”
Craig Brown at Into the Fountains takes a closer look at Brad Keller’s second start.
Of the 15 four-seamers Keller threw (according to classifications found on Baseball Savant), White Sox batters swung at five and didn’t fail to make contact once. They were laying off that pitch, perhaps by design or perhaps because Keller simply couldn’t locate it in the zone.
The slider was the pitch that both Abreu and Mercedes obliterated in the bottom half of the first.
Ben Badler at Baseball America looks at the Royals’ international free agent class.
Sleeper Watch
Venezuelan outfielder Junior Marin moves surprisingly well for his strong 6-foot-3 build, improving his speed by a grade over the past two years to become a plus runner now. He’s a hard-nosed player with an unorthodox swing but has solid contact skills and trended up later in the process while training with Alexis Quiroz.
The Kansas City Business Journal talks to two members of the Royals ownership group, John Sherman and Paul Edgerley.
“I came from a business where we didn’t go to the restroom unless it was cash-flow driven, so it’s very different, but it’s still a financial investment,” Sherman said. “You still try to be financially and analytically decision driven, but you always keep in mind that this is a community asset. Particularly with a local ownership group like we have, there will be times when we stretch a bit to do something special for Kansas City.”
Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter looks at the early metrics on Royals relievers.
Diamondbacks infielder Tim Locastro breaks the record for most successful steals to start a career.
A blown call at home may have cost the Braves a game against the Phillies.
Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez becomes the fifth player to have a three-home run game for three different teams.
Tommy John surgery is recommended for Mariners left-hander James Paxton.
Angels outfielder Dexter Fowler is out for the year with a torn ACL.
MLB still faces a hurdle in overcoming player’s hesitation on vaccinations.
Which teams could take down the Dodgers this year?
Bill Nowlin at Baseball Prospectus looks at what it is like to umpire during a pandemic.
Alex Rodriguez is finalizing a deal to become part owner of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves.
Opening Day rosters included 45 players from rounds of the draft that no longer exist.
Justin Choi at Fangraphs looks at the early results from the new baseball.
Hideki Matsuyama wins the Masters, becoming the first Japanese man to win a major tournament.
Google is shutting down its mobile shopping app.
How a volcano in Iceland could give us a clue to what happened on Mars.
Is a video game renaissance rewriting the future of TV and film?
Your song of the day is Outkast with The Way You Move.