Weekend Rumblings - News for April 23, 2022

Weekend Rumblings - News for April 23, 2022

Lynn Worthy writes about the scuffling offense.

“We cannot hide anything,” Perez said of the offense. “We don’t hit really good right now, everybody. I think except for Nicky (Lopez) and (Benintendi), they’ve got pretty good numbers. The rest of the team, the season is up and down. We’re going to try our best every day. Hopefully, it’s coming quick.”

Brady Singer got x-rays after the game after a line drive hit his wrist last night.

“Everything felt good, “Singer said. “Fastball felt like it had a lot of life to it. Slider felt really good. Obviously, I took one off the wrist there, but it’s feeling a lot better. So that’s positive.”

Other than some swelling and being able to see the indentation from the lace marks, Singer said it looked “fine.”

The Royals committed their first error of the season, writes Anne Rogers.

“Until we get our offense clicking,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said, “we’re going to have to make all the plays.”

Sam McDowell analyzes the struggles of Bobby Witt Jr.

What’s he chasing? The slider. And he sure sees a lot of them.

Witt sees a fastball on less than half the pitches thrown his way. A slider is actually the most common pitch — hence the machine work — at 36.6%, per MLB Statcast data. He whiffs on 45.5% of them.

The compliment here is he’s being treated like a legitimate hitter. Pitchers aren’t grooving fastballs because they don’t think they can get away with grooving fastballs against him.

But also: Why risk it? They are sticking to a scouting report that hasn’t yet had a need for deviation. They are pounding the lower part of the strike zone — and the area beneath it — until he proves he won’t swing. Twenty of Witt’s plate appearances have concluded with a pitch in the lower third of the zone or below, and he’s produced just one hit from that lot.

Vahe Gregorian writes why Nicky Lopez bunted in the ninth inning of Thursday’s loss to the Twins.

Afterward, Lopez said bunting wasn’t even a hard decision and he’d do the same thing again.

“Everyone knew I was probably going to bunt there,” he said. “That’s what I do; I just popped it up. More times than not, I’m not popping it up.”

He later added: “Sometimes, it’s baseball, man, it gets away from you.”

Just like this one got away from the Royals. Not because Lopez bunted unsuccessfully, to be clear. If it worked as it typically would, we might be having a different view of the day and thinking about how the Royals won their fourth in a row to climb back above .500.

Marcus Meade at Royals Farm Report has a good piece looking at the pitches Royals hitters are swinging at.

Colloquially, we call pitches the live in the shadows “pitcher’s pitches” because that’s where the pitcher wants the ball. They want hitters to swing at pitches in this zone, and the Royals often oblige, swinging at a whopping 59% of pitches in the shadows. These pitches aren’t easy to hit so the boys in blue are wiffing on 28% of those swings so far this season.

Major League pitchers are good. They live on the edges of and just outside the strike zone. If a team can’t either lay off these pitches or put them in play hard with good launch angles, they’re going to score 2.8 runs a game … like the Royals are currently doing.

MLB Pipeline lists a future closer for each team.

Royals: Dylan Coleman, RHP (No. 22)The 6-foot-5 right-hander first cracked the Majors on Sept. 21 last year, and after impressing again this spring, he hasn’t been back in the Minors since. Coleman has averaged 97.3 mph on his fastball in the bigs, touching as high as 99.3 so far this season, and he’s getting a healthy amount of whiffs (and no hits so far in 2022) on his mid-80s slider.

Preston Farr at Kings of Kauffman scrutinizes the handling of Brady Singer.

Former Royals reliever Greg Holland elects free agency after the Rangers outright him.

The Kansas City Monarchs sign former Cardinals slugger Matt Adams.

The Yankees considered trading slugger Joey Gallo this off-season.

Chicago’s Tim Anderson is suspended for flipping off a fan.

The Baseball Hall of Fame tweaks how the Era Committees will be structured.

The Mets rotation is thriving despite missing some arms to injury.

Jay Jaffe at Fangraphs writes that conditions are ripe for a spate of no-hitters.

Why Dylan Carlson is poised for a breakout with the Cardinals.

Why it’s time for Chicago to allow Friday night games at Wrigley Field.

A look back at when basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird was a high school baseball coach.

Former Braves pitcher Kent Mercker is a big pickleball star now.

Tom Brady restructures his deal to free up some money for the Bucs.

Can Max Verstappen overcome Red Bull’s reliability issues?

How the cryptocurrency industry has written and passed their own laws in state capitols.

Seven ocean mysteries scientists haven’t solved yet.

A study finds Pokémon Go may help with depression.

Your song of the day is Wolf Alice with Bros.