Royals Rumblings - News for July 21, 2021

At the Royals mothership, Ryan Herrera doesn’t use the phrase “turning the corner” to describe Mike Minor and Jorge Soler after yesterday’s win, but it’s between the lines:

“We know that we haven’t played well, but guys aren’t just going to give up,” Minor said. “We had a little bit of a break with the All-Star break and we have some off-days coming up and stuff, so guys would probably feel rejuvenated a little bit. It doesn’t matter who we play, we’re still gonna try to get as many ways as we can. Even though it sometimes probably doesn’t look like it, guys are trying.”

For both Soler and Minor, there’s hope that their performances could help spark something of a turnaround in their individual seasons.

Herrera also has more on Danny Duffy and Brady Singer’s placements on the IL, as well as this tidbit about what has changed since Tyler Zuber was last in the Majors:

While with Omaha, Zuber said he’d fixed issues with his posture that occurred during his delivery, when he’d “normally come up and my head would fly out.” That fix has allowed him to better get the baseball where he wants to throw it, which Zuber said was his biggest issue.

Josh Staumont is the latest Royals pitcher to speak to David Laurila at FanGraphs about a pitch, this time his curve:

“The curveball is a comfortable pitch for me. The more thought I take out of it, the better it usually is. Not that you can’t [learn or improve a pitch], but it’s like a mentality. You learn to trust the spin. You created it, right? It’s like some guys with a changeup. Some guys don’t pronate very well, and teaching pronation is hard. A curve ball is more supination, but it’s same concept. You can’t easily teach that to somebody who doesn’t naturally have it. For me, the curveball has always come pretty naturally.”

The Tigers lost part of their rotation for the long term, with the news that Spencer Turnbull needs Tommy John surgery.

At Beyond the Box Score, Sheryl Ring looked at how the shooting outside of the Nationals and Padres game showed the best and worst of people.

The city of Oakland and the A’s don’t seem to be on the same page about the future of the team.

Lil Nas X teased a new single being released on Friday, and is also just a national treasure.

The state of Maine will charge companies to dispose of their non-recyclable packaging, starting at the end of 2023.

Is it possible to fix true crime?

Does the Conservation Reserve Program (basically, if I’m understanding correctly, paying farmers to set aside some land as native grasses and trees) work?

Today’s question that is taken from Reddit: What’s a show that has never had a bad episode? Is it Fleabag?

Some Ask a Manager letters that caught my eye this week: this person had a completely understandable freakout when their office did a big surprise reveal of a bunch of accommodations for their new disability; and a letter writer in here works for a company that thinks everyone should use personal email addresses because they’re more secure????

SOTD: Queen - If You Can’t Beat Them