Royals Rumblings - News for May 19, 2021

At Royals.com, Anne Rogers contrasts Danny Duffy’s current injury against the injury in 2012 that required Tommy John surgery:

But the imaging he had negated any worries that had crept into Duffy’s mind. His MRI was negative for ligament damage, instead showing a forearm flexor strain. Despite landing on the 10-day injured list on Monday, Duffy is thankful his current injury isn’t something worse.

“When I blew out nine years ago, it was progressive,” Duffy said. “It went slowly. Finally, in Chicago on Mother’s Day in 2012, it went on a curveball. Obviously that was in the back of my mind, but after [head athletic trainer] Nick [Kenney] and the doc were like, ‘Dude, you’re going to be just fine,’ I think the biggest worry of the day was getting in that tube because I’m claustrophobic. But we got it done, we handled it. The images were as good of news as it could have been, albeit I still have to go on the IL.

“I’m very confident that this is going to be a speed bump, and we’ll be just fine.”

Craig Brown talks about Duffy’s velocity as it might relate to the injury.

David Lesky breaks down what’s been good and what’s been bad with the KC rotation.

It’s time to take a hard look at Wade Davis’s spot on the team, says Mike Gillespie at Kings of Kauffman.

At The Athletic, Ken Rosenthal recounts how the Kansas City T-Bones came to be called the Monarchs:

But as the two began talking about a partnership to benefit both the team and museum, Kendrick quickly grew excited, thinking, This makes sense. It absolutely makes sense. A deal was struck. A legacy was revived. And on Tuesday night, the Monarchs will be reborn in their season opener at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kan. Their league, the American Association, remains independent, but it became an official partner league of Major League Baseball in MLB’s reorganization of the minors.

“For museums in general and history museums in particular, you’re always trying to establish relevancy. How can I make this history relevant?” Kendrick said. “The Negro Leagues haven’t played in over 60 years. This actually brings the spirit of the Negro Leagues to life.

“When those young players put on those Monarchs pinstripes – and many of them are still dreaming of the opportunity of getting to ‘The Show’ – they will be channeling the spirit of Satchel Paige, of Buck O’Neil, of Willard Brown, Hilton Smith, José Méndez, Ernie Banks, all of those legendary players who wore that Monarch uniform so proudly. And in doing so, they bring them back to life.”

Also at The Athletic, some statistics that stand out to Alec Lewis at this point in the season:

Only three teams in baseball are chasing pitches outside the strike zone more frequently than the Royals. They’re swinging at 34 percent of pitches outside the strike zone, up from last season’s 31.9 percent. And it’s not a great sign for a club that spent the offseason discussing the need for more quality at-bats.

What type of correlation is there between chase rate and successful lineups? Well, last year’s winners of the World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers, led the league in chase rate, swinging at only 26.5 percent of pitches outside the zone.

Royals fans could look at this negatively, but there’s also a potential spin: The Royals might simply be attempting to put the ball in play as much as possible (their 49.3 percent swing percentage ranks third highest in MLB) and they are only striking out 22.4 percent of the time, ranking third lowest in MLB. Regardless, this will be a number to continue to watch.

Revisiting the trade that brought Larry Gura to KC, 45 years ago.

Mike Trout will miss 6-8 weeks with a strained right calf.

White Sox manager Tony La Russa said his own player made a mistake when he hit a home run against a position player pitching. Do we want to do a whole Discourse today about unwritten rules, swinging on a 3-0 pitch, blah blah blah, topped with an out-of-touch fossil throwing his extremely cool team* under the bus? Do or don’t, at your pleasure. Life is short. Anyway, here is Jomboy’s breakdown of the play in question:

*saying nice things about the White Sox burns my very soul into ash, but they have players who are fun and cool. Dang it.

Officials with the Oakland A’s will scope out Las Vegas.

Derek Jeter will be featured in a multi-part docuseries next year.

A former assistant coach for Louisville basketball is facing charges for extorting the team, after trying to demand over a year’s worth of pay or else he would reveal recruiting violations to the media.

The pandemic pet boom has left veterinary clinics overwhelmed, with vets and techs facing burnout.

Leonardo DiCaprio pledges $43m to restore the Galápagos Islands.

Lyrics of popular songs have become increasingly simple over time, finds new study analyzing six decades (1958–2016) of popular music in the US.

Our fun question from Reddit: A mysterious man approaches you, offering $1000 if you can make him laugh. What’s your joke? (I would likely freeze because I have never been able to just, tell a joke on command.)

SOTD: inspired by the trailer for the movie adaptation of ‘Dear Evan Hansen,’ let’s listen to this lovely mashup of music from ‘DEH’ and ‘Hamilton.’

And if you’re in a singing mood, here are videos with someone singing just Lin-Manuel Miranda’s part so you can sing Ben Platt’s part, and vice versa.