Royals Rumblings - News for March 22, 2022
John Sherman spoke to reporters on a number of topics, including downtown baseball.
“But we’ve got a really good team working on it. I’m excited to see how that comes out and also excited to see how the community [responds]. I get a lot of feedback that The K is great. Look, my first date with my wife was a Royals-Yankees game in the late 70s. I was out there in 1980, 1985, ‘14, ‘15, so I love Kauffman Stadium. It’s a great place to play baseball. If you think about when Ewing Kauffman and Lamar Hunt got together to do that, whenever it was 50 years ago, it was a really innovative concept. For most football teams 3 yards and a cloud of dust was when they were in the infield.
“But now with baseball, again it’s a great place to play, but we think we can do more. Baseball in higher density areas, if you look around the country in Chicago, Atlanta just did a great project. Atlanta won the World Series, that’s helpful. But in Atlanta I think they had 2.6 million in the ballpark and over 10 million visitors to The Battery. So you can do a lot for a community as far as economic impact. So that’s what we’re studying. We’re looking forward to getting the feedback that will drive those decisions.”
Anne Rogers has more here, like his comments on labor negotiations.
“When we set out, our primary objectives were competitive balance, pay the players fairly and to the best we could, align our interest to grow the game together,” Sherman said. “And there are some things that I like better about it than other parts of it. But when you think about competitive balance, the players respected some things that are important to us. The six-year path to free agency was important to us. It’s really important for a small-market team. The three years to arbitration.”
Brady Singer had a rough spring training debut against the Angels.
“The first was tough,” Singer said. “I think I was a little too jacked up to get out there, trying to be a little too quick. I was trying to slow it down and get it under control. I feel like I definitely did in the second and there towards the start of the third. I felt good towards the end. The first was a little rough.”
Anne writes that Singer was working on his change up.
“I think I got the feel for it,” Singer said. “The grip is right. It feels really good. The other day, we were just working on taking some of the velocity off. Hopefully it showed today. I couldn’t really tell where I was at today, but it seemed slower. I was really happy with it today.”
Alec Lewis has a piece on Royals pitchers talking with the research department on new grips and pitches.
Through the meeting with the Royals’ R&D department and analysis done by his agency, Lynch settled on two offseason priorities: a different curveball and improving the spin efficiency on his fastball.
For years, Lynch has manipulated the grip on his slider to throw a curveball. This offseason, he set out to create an entirely new pitch.
“In the past, I had a hard time getting to the front of the ball,” he said. “I wanted to go in and get as many reps on that as I could to get the feel. I felt like I did. I don’t know what the numbers are, but I added a significant amount of vertical break, which is always good to separate from my fastball.”
Vahe Gregorian writes about Hunter Dozier’s struggles last year.
At some point this time around, though, he realized treating it like that was all becoming self-defeating.
“I really just kind of said, ‘OK, whatever … I’m going to stop pressing; I’m going to stop worrying,’ ” he said. “At that point, I was hitting like .180 or whatever I was hitting. I had to stop worrying about my numbers, just go out and have fun competing and try to get back to what I was doing in 2019.
“Once I did that, things really kind of started opening up again for me.”
Infielder Clay Dungan is impressing the skipper with his play.
“They said, ‘This guy doesn’t miss any mistakes,’” Matheny said. “He’s got great hand-eye coordination, great plate discipline.”
Baseball America has a mock draft out with Virginia Tech outfielder Gavin Cross going to the Royals, with Dayton Moore’s son Robert one pick later.
The fact that Moore fits solidly in this range on talent is going to be an intriguing storyline to follow throughout the year. How does a president handle that decision? Is it awkward at the dinner table if he was there on the board and the Royals pass him up? Would Robert even want to be taken by the team his dad runs? Are these all foolish questions to ask?
Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter marvels at Edward Olivares’ start in spring training.
CBS Sports ranks Bobby Witt Jr. as the #2 prospect in baseball.
Former Royals outfielder Billy Hamilton signs a minor league deal with the Mariners.
The Rockies sign third baseman Ryan McMahon to a six-year, $70 million contract extension.
Arizona signs 40-year old lefty reliever Oliver Perez.
An appeals court rules that a letter that shows MLB hid evidence of the Yankees sign-stealing should be unsealed.
Rays pitcher Shane Baz is shut down 2-3 weeks after elbow surgery.
What does “trying to win” in baseball mean anymore?
Writers at Red Reporter want owner Bob Castellini to sell.
The writers at Beyond the Box Score give their AL Central predictions.
An academic study looks at the effect of baseball’s extra inning ghost-runner rule.
The independent Atlantic League will experiment with rules allowing hitters to advance to first on a dropped third strike even if a runner is at first, and a double-hook DH rule.
Tennesee Volunteers right-hander Ben Joyce raises eyebrows with a 104 mph heater.
The Falcons send quarterback Matt Ryan to the Colts.
How a Netflix show brought millions of new fans to Formula One racing.
Home values are outpacing incomes.
What are the limits of forgiveness?
The most anticipated television shows of the spring.
Your song of the day is Chance the Rapper with No Problem.
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