Royals Rumblings

Royals Rumblings - News for April 15, 2022

The bats, they are quiet.

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Apr 15, 2022, 8:00am EDT

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Cleveland Guardians v Kansas City Royals

Royals Rumblings - News for April 15, 2022

Alec Lewis writes about the young starting pitching and balancing patience with performance.

Asked about how the young pitchers fared in general (Kris Bubic, Carlos Hernández, Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar, etc.) in their first times on the mound this season, Perez provided a levelheaded response.

“The good thing is, they’re trying their best,” he said. “They like to compete. They just have to learn a little more. It’s going to take time.”

So, how does he balance his “most important thing” — winning games — with the understandable reality that the Royals’ young pitchers are continuously working to establish themselves and grow?

“Results,” he said.

Craig Brown at Into the Fountains has a few questions after a week of Royals play.

Although the offense has taken up residence in what is all-too-familiar territory, it’s still far too early to draw any conclusions. You know this. We’re talking about 21 plate appearances for most of these guys.

Still, we can look to see where the deficiencies reside. The one-two combination of Whit Merrifield and Bobby Witt Jr. at the top of the order aren’t setting the table. That means the Royals haven’t been able to take advantage of Andrew Benintendi’s scorching hot start. Think back to Salvador Perez’s two home runs on Tuesday in St. Louis. Both solo shots.

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter looks at some Royals hitters off to slow starts.

Santana is continuing to demonstrate his trademark discipline, as his K rate and Whiff rate are in 97th and 94th percentile, respectively, and his chase rate and walk rate are in the 83rd and 82nd percentile, respectively. Furthermore, his average exit velocity, hard-hit, and barrel rates aren’t bad either, as they are in the 63rd-71st percentile range.

Unfortunately, his triple slash line looks a lot different, as Santana is posting a .063/.211/.125 with a wRC+ of 7 and wOBA of .177.

While Dozier and Whit had more palatable xWOBA numbers, Santana’s xwOBA is only .315, which not only ranks in the 42nd percentile but is only better than Adalberto Mondesi (.278) and Witt (.145) when it comes to Royals hitters this year with 10 or more plate appearances.

MLB.com lists one potential impact call up for each team.

Royals: Nick Pratto, 1B (No. 3/MLB No. 61)Bobby Witt Jr., Kyle Isbel and Dylan Coleman opened 2022 in the Majors. Of those with the highest potential remaining in the Minors, Pratto seemingly has the clearest path to K.C. Following his 2021 improvements, Pratto is tapping much more regularly into his plus power from the left side, and his defense at first base could be Gold Glove-worthy in the Majors upon arrival. Unlike Salvador Perez to MJ Melendez, Pratto doesn’t have the same franchise-level player blocking his path on the depth chart.

Jared Perkins at Royals Farm Report profiles pitching prospect Eric Cerantola.

Jordan Foote at Inside the Royals writes that Dylan Coleman is thriving.

The June 1 Royals game against Cleveland will air on YouTube.

The Royals unconditionally released left-handed pitcher Daniel Tillo.

Dan Szymborski lists Salvador Perez as one of his potential bust hitters this year.

Mike Trout hits a 472-foot bomb in Texas.

A strong wind in Chicago causes havoc on pop ups.

Nick Castellanos says he was going to sign with Miami until Derek Jeter left.

Who could replace Wander Franco as MLB’s youngest player?

Who are the rookies turning heads in the first week of the season?

Padres pitching prospect Mackenzie Gore will make his MLB debut.

The average MLB salary went up 5.9 percent this year.