Royals Rumblings - News for July 14, 2021

Scott Barlow was among a trio of pitchers describing the development of his slider and curve to David Laurila at FanGraphs. There is much more at the link:

“I threw a lot of sliders and curveballs in high school, but the breaks were a lot different because the arm speed was different. But with the curveball, I had an idea of the grip I liked and I stuck with it. It just really came down to committing to it, rather than having it being ‘poppy,’ having the same arm speed as the fastball, and then kind of adjusting. When you first learn to throw it hard, you tend to spike it a lot, throw in the dirt. You kind of understand how to adjust your sight lines — where to start that fastball arm action point — so you can get it in the right location.

Craig Brown at Into the Fountains found 9 numbers that explain the Royals in the first half. Click through to see why it’s a bad thing that they lead the league in this particular stat:

108

This is the number of hits the Royals have that have been classified as “infield hits.” It’s the most in the majors so far in 2021.

Any talk of a Royal turning the corner is an automatic Rumblings mention. This is the way. Lesky poses that question about Brad Keller at Inside the Crown:

Has Brad Keller finally turned a corner? It’s a question that many will scoff at due to the season he’s had, but it’s a fair question after his really, really strong start on Friday night against the Indians. I know the Indians can’t really hit, but they did score a bunch of runs on Saturday, so they’re at least capable. But Keller had them guessing and off balance all night long and had double digit swinging strikes for the second straight start and the seventh time all season.

The Nationals traded pitcher Kyle Lobstein to the Brewers. Lobstein is a great name for a pitcher. Would his counterpart at the plate be, like, Steve Batmeister?

Six things to watch for in tonight’s WNBA All-Star game.

Mammoth cruise ships will be banned from Venice soon, to protect the historic waterways.

The Bootleg fire in Oregon has surpassed 200,000 acres burned.

Bridgerton got an Emmy nom for period costuming, despite using zippers - which weren’t invented until well after the era in which the show was set.

This list of famous people from Council Bluffs, IA (where I live, but am not a native) is amusing to me. Who’s the most famous person from the smallest places you all are from?

SOTD: Lisa Loeb - Stay (I Missed You) because of that GEICO commercial where she parodies it.