Royals Rumblings

Royals Rumblings - News for July 10, 2021

Happy Draft Eve!

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Jul 10, 2021, 10:17am EDT

Royals Rumblings - News for July 10, 2021

Mike Matheny laments the absence of the bats in a loss to Cleveland.

“It’s tough on our club when they hang in there on a game that was really just one dimensional with the pitching,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “We just didn’t get a whole lot going. Fortunately, (Jorge) Soler was able to give us an opportunity to go into that ninth inning and try to make something happen.”

Brad Keller had his best start of the year, and it came down to his slider, writes Anne Rogers.

“If I wanted it sweeping, I was able to come down on the seams a little bit,” Keller said. “Especially when I got into those 3-2 counts, I wanted to throw them over the plate, just down. All year I’ve been so out of my mechanics that I haven’t done it a whole lot. Today, I felt like I was able to differentiate between the two.”

The Royals could be sitting in a good position for the draft, writes Lynn Worthy.

“You can make an argument that whoever is going to get picked second in this draft, the Royals are going to get a very similarly-talented player at seven,” said MLB Network analyst and former Colorado Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd.

Baseball Prospectus ranks Bobby Witt, Jr. as the #2 prospect in baseball. He’s in Wichita this week, and told Taylor Eldridge that he thinks he can continue to get better.

“I still think I can improve on all aspects of my game and that’s what I’m going to keep doing,” Witt Jr. told Wichita media this week. “It’s a long season, so I want to steadily get better and better each and every day and just keep working. That’s what I’m going to continually do. This year I’ve learned to just be myself, not try to do too much and just keep things simple.”

He's also pumped to go to the Futures Game in Denver, writes Pete Grathoff.

“I’m just so honored just to get this going and I’m really excited to actually just hit BP out there, just to see what it’s like at Coors Field,” Witt said earlier this month in an interview on the MLB Network. “And then also just be around all the other future stars. I’ve seen their names, I know a couple of the guys, but then just actually get to meet them and just kind of talk baseball with them.

David Lesky at Inside the Crown has a few words for Ballys Sports Kansas City, which has been quite glitchy lately.

It probably wouldn’t have been met with so much online vitriol if not for the fact that it’s been a season of ridiculousness from the rights holder. It started with confusion about the score bug across the bottom of the screen and hasn’t really let up since. And it doesn’t help that MLB’s blackout rules are insane and, well, let’s just say there’s a lot to complain about here. My plea? Get it together. Figure it out. The fans shouldn’t be suffering due to incompetence out of their control.

Alex Duvall has some thoughts on the Royals’ midseason prospect list.

Mike Gillespie wonders if the Royals will pursue Trevor Rosenthal again.

The Royals rank #14 in Fangraphs’ updated Farm System Rankings.

The Negro League Baseball Museum begins the 101 campaign to tell the stories of the league.

It looks like the Cubs are going to be sellers at the trade deadline.

Taijuan Walker and Freddy Peralta are named as All-Star replacements.

Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa will skip the All-Star Game.

Veteran free agent pitcher Cole Hamels will have a showcase for teams next week.

How signability plays a role in the draft.

Robot umps are having some issues too.

What if the Mariners took Francisco Lindor in the 2011 draft?

Ashley McLennan at Fangraphs writes about baseball’s batgirls.