Weekend Rumblings - News for January 8, 2022

Weekend Rumblings - News for January 8, 2022

At Inside the Crown, David Lesky looks back at Kyle Isbel’s season.

As Lewis wrote, Isbel worked with the Royals hitting crew in the minors that had worked wonders for so many and they wanted to fix his “hip slide” as he calls it.

The result was a suggestion: Turn your back foot inward to eliminate pressure that the inside part of his foot had been applying.

“That really cleaned up my path a lot,” Isbel said. “I don’t know (how they figured it out). That’s why they have that job. They help me in so many different ways. They’re amazing. Seriously. I’m so thankful.”

It’s pretty clear in the above video and shots what he did differently. My thought was always that I like his actual swing a lot, but I never especially thought about how his setup might provide him some difficulty to get to it. It definitely makes sense that a new setup could play up his swing much more.

Alex Duvall at Royals Farm Report begins his list of top Royals prospects with those that received honorable mention.

Foster Griffin, LHP

Griffin made his big league debut on his birthday back in 2020 and immediately required Tommy John Surgery after 1.2 IP. He spent most of the 2021 season rehabbing, but did make it back for some live action in the minor leagues. Griffin threw 46 innings between A-ball, AA, and AAA last year to the tune of a 2.93 ERA. He also struck out 42 batters to just 13 walks. Assuming he can return to his pre-surgery form, I don’t see why Griffin wouldn’t get another shot at the big leagues. In his prime, Griffin worked 88-91 with good arm-side run on his fastball, and effectively mixed in a changeup and breaking ball that kept hitters off balance. I don’t have a ton of expectations for him, but I wouldn’t rule out him being a semi-serviceable big league arm at some point either.

Clint Scoles at Royals Academy writes that the international signing period is around the corner.

Currently, the Royals are linked to Henry Ramos, an uber-athletic outfielder, and Juan Olmos, a catcher with advanced acumen behind the dish and a swing for steady contact and future power. The international period will probably grab more attention than usual with no other baseball news. Perhaps the union will see the value of leveraging that news with a draft. I doubt that the bulk of the union cares about 16-year-old kids from the Dominican and how they get used but if they can leverage a draft into some compensation for them to win on their end, I’m sure they will.

Scott White of CBS Sports has five Royals prospects in his top 100 for fantasy baseball purposes.

86. Vinnie Pasquantino, 1B, Royals

Age (on opening day): 24

Where he played in 2021: high Class A, Double-A

Minor-league stats: .300 BA (437 AB), 24 HR, 37 2B, .957 OPS, 64 BB, 64 K

Nick Pratto got all the headlines, but Pasquantino had the better numbers of the Royals first base prospects. It’s rare to find a hitter with as many walks as strikeouts (64), rarer still to find with as many extra-base hits as strikeouts (also 64). He’s a plodder, which gives him a narrow path, but could settle in at DH if Pratto performs as expected.

Scott’s 2022 Fantasy impact: midseason hopeful

Will Leitch at MLB.com looks at the top pop culture moment for each team.

Royals — Better Call Saul: Every time Rhea Seehorn’s Kim Wexler relaxes, she’s wearing an oversized Royals shirt, leading to suspicions that she and Jimmy McGill will end up together in Omaha, sneaking off to Royals games.

Mike Gillespie at Kings of Kauffman explains why Maikel Garcia is on the 40-man roster.

Former Royals Review writer Patrick Brennan appears on the Fangraphs podcast to talk about his new gig as director of analytics for Kansas State.

David Cone joins ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball with Alex Rodriguez and Michael Kay making up the “Manningcast”-style alternate programming.

Red Sox fans at Over the Monster have their targets set on free agent Danny Duffy.

Eric Chavez leaves his coaching gig with the Yankees after just a few weeks to join the Mets.

The Giants need a right-handed bat.

The American League was once again dominant in interleague play oni 2021.

How the Yankees almost acquired Zach Wheeler from the Mets in 2019.

The Antonio Brown saga gets weirder.

The best and worst of NBA All-Star voting so far.

The Athletic set out to destroy newspapers, but then it became one.

5G wireless networks have a tree problem.

A Scott Pilgrim anime adaptation is reportedly in development for Netflix.

Your song of the day is Breeders with Cannonball.