Royals Rumblings - News for June 10, 2021

Royals Rumblings - News for June 10, 2021

David Lesky at Inside the Crown breaks down what little we saw of Jackson Kowar’s short MLB debut.

I think one thing that we see a lot for rookie pitchers is that pitches that get swung through in AAA get fouled off in the big leagues and there was some of that too for Kowar.

I feel the same way about Kowar as I do about Lynch. The first taste was, quite frankly, a disaster, but I still have faith that both of these pitchers can and will be good big league pitchers much sooner than later. I just wish I had more fun things to break down with Kowar from last night.

Craig Brown likes what he saw from Ronald Bolaños.

When the Royals acquired Bolaños from the Padres last year, I was hopeful he could fit into the rotation as another option as the prospects were filtering through the system. The stuff can be absolutely electric. He may struggle with consistency which could lead him ultimately to a bullpen role. But in a year where we’re going to be monitoring pitcher’s workloads coming off the shortened 2020, Bolaños should absolutely get the opportunity to start at some point. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. We won’t know until the Royals make a commitment.

Your Adalberto Mondesi update sounds like a lot of past Adalberto Mondesi updates.

The Royals shuttled Edward Olivares back to Omaha and brought up Carlos Hernandez before last night’s game.

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter questions whether Olivares should get the ticket out of town instead of Kelvin Gutierrez.

So, with this being said, I tried to figure out why the Royals would prefer Gutierrez over Olivares at the time. As I dug deeper into it, I figured it came down to two things really:

1. Gutierrez is older and the Royals want to give him an extended look to see if he is worth keeping long-term.

2. The Royals may be set on Dozier being the regular right fielder from here on out, which puts Olivares as an odd man out with Jarrod Dyson as the primary backup outfielder.

Jim Callis has the Royals going with a different prep shortstop other than Kahlil Watson in his latest mock draft.

7. Royals: Jordan Lawlar, SS, Jesuit Prep (Dallas)The Royals very well could land the top college prospect entering the year (Rocker) or the top prep prospect at the outset of 2021 (Lawlar) at No. 7, though they’d likely have to pay well over slot ($5,432,400) to do so. They also have shown a lot of interest in Watson.

Kevin Goldstein at Fangraphs scripts out what teams may be saying to each other this time of year.

Kansas City Royals

It’s too early to tell. We’ve scuffled of late, but the team played too well early in the season for us to just give up now, and organizationally, we’re not big fans of just dumping. There are plenty of places we can improve upon, but will likely focus on starting pitching if we look to add. Should we go in the other direction, we’d expect a lot of action on Danny Duffy, who should be back in time to give your evaluators a few looks before we need to talk. Jorge Soler could be had for a song, and no, we’re not sure what’s gone wrong there either. Jarrod Dyson could be a nice bench outfielder for someone and Greg Holland could help your relief corps. All in all, we’re probably a month away from engaging in any kind of serious discussions.

Before the season, Bobby Witt, Jr. did an interview with the Women in Media at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

Gerrit Cole is evasive when asked if he uses foreign substances on the ball.

Pete Alonso accuses MLB of manipulating the baseball depending on the free agent class.

Josh Donaldson notes that with attention on foreign substances, some pitchers are seeing their spin rates drop.

What teams have added the most to their spin rates?

Tim Kurkjian thinks baserunning has become an embarrassment for baseball.

There are nine ballparks using humidors on baseballs, what effect has that had on offense?

The Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony is pushed back to September.

Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. is finally having the season people expected of him.

A look at the Canadian roots to modern baseball.

The Australian baseball team pulls out of qualifying for the Olympics.

Rice Unversity is on the verge of hiring former MLB outfielder Jose Cruz, Jr. as head coach.

NCAA President Mark Emmert goes before a Senate committee to discuss athlete rights.

Is there too much international soccer now?

The price for ride-sharing and property-sharing services will likely go up soon to reflect market reality.

A company you’ve probably never heard of caused half the internet to go down briefly this week.

Loki is a fresh start for the Marvel universe.

Your song of the day is Nelly, Florida Georgia Line with Lil Bit.