Royals Rumblings

Royals Rumblings - News for May 20, 2022

Let the kids play!

By Max Rieper@maxrieper May 20, 2022, 8:00am EDT

Royals Rumblings - News for May 20, 2022

Carlos Hernández struggled with his command on Thursday.

“That’s not what he was looking for,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Hernández’s outing. “Lead walk. Trying to get his emotions under control and trying to get into a rhythm, but it was a bad pace right from the beginning, just a bad pace of play. That doesn’t usually lend itself to good play in general.”

Matheny still has confidence in Hernández despite his rough outing.

“He ended the season last year as our best starter. Then all of a sudden, you’re not able to repeat,” Matheny said. “You start searching, ‘What am I able to do?’ You go through 100 different things in your head. We’ve talked about it many times, young players just having really found who they need to be when they get on that rubber and how they think about their pace, their thought processes, their intensity level, all those things are trial and error. He’s still figuring it out.”

Ronald Bolaños gave the Royals some important innings.

“It was going to be a dogfight, we knew that,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “Knowing that we were really short in the pen too. We just didn’t have many guys that were able to go. We were just going to have to try and scrap our way through it and, hopefully, the offense would keep coming and be resilient.

“I thought Ronald did a nice job. We had to have a couple other guys come through too. Unfortunately, they got the big hit when they needed it.”

David Lesky at Inside the Crown writes about how the rookies set the pace on Wednesday.

I’m always a little bummed when the broadcast starts to pick up on something I was tracking throughout the game because it becomes just a slightly less interesting angle to write about, but I think Royals rookies going 8 for 15 with two home runs, a triple and five RBIs in a 6-2 win is still quite noteworthy and worth talking about because it truly is games like last night where you start to squint and see how everything could fall in place to make the Royals a winner sooner than later.

Craig Brown reacts to the coaching change and how Cal Eldred kept his job.

Since then, the entire staff has collectively taken two steps back. They’ve gone from the middle of the pack and slightly above average to the bottom of the pile, well below the league average.

Pitching prospects are more volatile than their hitting counterparts. Still, the Royals need to hit on as many of these young pitchers they can. Is Eldred the guy to get the most out of these young arms? The evidence says no.

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter looks for signs of improvement in the rotation.

However, Lynch, Keller, and Greinke have been solid contributors in the rotation, which is the reason why the Royals have won 13 games so far this year. Singer may be a force as well, especially if he’s able to utilize the changeup as frequently as he did on Tuesday night against the White Sox.

And while Heasley may not be an “ace” by any means, he works quickly and has held his own on the mound, even if he may struggle the third time around against a batting order in the process.

Mike Gillespie at Kings of Kauffman thinks the Royals have an Andrew Benintendi problem.

On the Royals Farm Report podcast, the guest is Royals minor leaguer Noah Cameron.

Trevor Story becomes the first second baseman to hit three home runs and steal a base in the same game.

Max Scherzer is out 6-8 weeks with an oblique strain.

Four reasons for the Angels’ hot start.

Who do players think is the most underrated player in baseball?

The Cardinals promote top prospects Nolan Gorman and Matthew Liberatore.

How the Reds became the biggest embarrassment in baseball.

Infielder Joe Panik retires.

The wife of pitcher Zach Davies claims he has ghosted her for a year.

Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher rips into Alabama coach Nick Saban.

Greg Olsen will reportedly call Super Bowl LVII.