Weekend Rumblings - News for August 28, 2021

Brad Keller lands on the Injured List and may not return for awhile, writes Anne Rogers,

The right-hander was placed on the 10-day injured list on Friday with a right lat strain, and while the Royals haven’t determined a timeline for Keller’s return, he’ll likely be down for a significant amount of time.

“There are still tests to be run, but right now, I’m not excited about this being a post-shoulder issue,” manager Mike Matheny said.

The Royals don’t yet have a grade for Keller’s strain; they’re waiting to get back to Kansas City before beginning further imaging in order to be consistent throughout the process, which will require multiple MRIs.

The Royals brought back Josh Staumont and Edward Olivares.

Lynn Worthy writes about when Matheny noticed something was wrong with Keller.

“I watched that first inning to try to figure out is there something going on physically here that’s not allowing him to make the pitches that he normally would make,” Matheny said. “The life still looked good. His previous few starts looked good. There was nothing leading in that direction. Then, fortunately, Nick saw something in that fifth that said there’s something going on here, let’s just go talk to him.”

Mike Matheny had nice things to say about Jarrod Dyson as he moves on to the Blue Jays.

“We as an industry need to be able to take stories like the one of Jarrod Dyson and throw those on a pedestal, give him a voice to share with a lot of kids out there who have grown up in a lot of the same circumstances, who need to know that there’s a chance to overcome and how you go about your business,” Matheny said. “He was a fantastic teammate here, and every day, he brought light to this clubhouse.

Craig Brown at Into the Fountains writes that Salvador Perez is crushing sliders this year.

I’ve been writing about attacking Perez with sliders off the plate. While that’s a good strategy, the margin for error is nil. That’s because Perez is crushing sliders that catch too much of the zone this year. There’s still some healthy swing and miss on sliders in the zone, but when he connects…lookout. Perez is hitting .420 with a .797 slugging percentage against sliders located in the strike zone in 2021. Miss there, and odds are strong you will be punished.

In fact, Perez is just blistering sliders in general this year.

Lucas Murphy at Inside the Royals looks at who might get called up in September.

Have the Yankees played better or gotten luckier?

Did the Orioles just play the worst stretch of baseball in history?

Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins is out for the year.

Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera plans to retire after the 2023 season.

The Padres are having trouble with the fastball.

The Astros and Nationals mandate vaccines for non-player employees.

Trevor Bauer has his case handed to the district attorney, who will decide whether or not to file charges.

The Chiefs will retire Terez Paylor’s press box seat and donate to his scholarship fund.

Kylian Mbappe may have to stay with Paris Saint-Germain because they hold all the leverage.

How small developers compete with the defaults on your phone.

Why do Costa Ricans live longer than Americans?

The weirdest Star Trek collector plates.

Your song of the day is the Ron Carter Trio with The Golden Strike.