Royals Rumblings - News for May 25, 2022

I’m going to say upfront that today’s Rumblings might be a little light. It feels difficult to think about sports and pop culture after yesterday. Of you, my Rumblings friends, I ask two things: 1) If you DO want to talk about sports and pop culture or Pottery Barn Kids customer service, that is OK! Part of dealing with tragedy is taking time to disengage. It is a survival tactic and incredibly normal. The flipside, therefore, is 2) If you DO NOT want to talk about sports and pop culture, that is also OK! But please do not badger anyone who is needing to do that right now. Thank you. I cherish each of you.

OK, on with it:

Jordan Foote at Inside the Royals on that bummer of a Greinke start:

Greinke challenged Diamondbacks hitters outside, which is evidenced by all of his season-high five strikeouts being by way of pitches way off the plate. Command was also an issue for him, though, which is shown by his four walks being comprised of three fastball misses and a curveball being left way too high in the zone. It was a rough outing overall for the veteran, but manager Mike Matheny believes it was simply one bad night in an otherwise exemplary body of work in 2022.

“He’s been really good,” Matheny said. “That was just one where he didn’t have as good of a feel and wasn’t as sharp. It was a fight. We couldn’t have had a better top [of the] first. Just everything we’d asked for, and then some. That’s a spot where we’re really excited about Zack being on the mound because we know he’s going to know how to get a shutdown inning and get us back in the batter’s box. Just one of those days that it was tough to find.”

It’s been an interesting season for Greinke as, prior to Monday’s game, he wasn’t recording many walks nor striking out lots of hitters. His K/9 is currently the lowest of his career, and his BB/9 was a career-low figure before his four-walk night. Through nine starts, Greinke is averaging over five innings per outing and boasts a 4.53 ERA. Even a few starts ago, many expected his numbers to worsen. They have, and it’s up to Greinke to make sure this erratic start was an isolated incident.

Get to know five new players at Single-A Columbia, courtesy of Jared Perkins at Royals Farm Report.

The White Sox put Luis Robert on the COVID injured list.

Eno Sarris tweeted this really interesting note about a foolish time in Astros player development:

At FanGraphs, Ben Clemens does a deep dive into the weirdness of Giancarlo Stanton’s pull rates on pitches away.

The San Francisco Giants game featured James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett shredding the national anthem to celebrate Metallica Night:

There’s a 30 for 30 next Tuesday about the enduring cultural impact of the And1 Mixtape:

Here’s an adorable WNBA moment:

Hulu is getting a bunch (maybe all?) of the Alien and Predator movies on June 1, and they’re just part of this list of stuff coming to Hulu in June.

Alison of Ask a Manager compiled tons of stories of weirdly outsized reactions to small workplace changes. If you love these stories, she is posting a Part II today!

Here’s a deal on the Solo Stove fire pit. If you love fire pits but have allergies to all that smoke, this might be of interest. It really does reduce smoke to almost nothing, compared to a standard wood-burning fire pit. I have no financial stake in the above link or any affiliate link therein; I just like the product.

10 things to have in your carry-on for every flight. Not a slideshow, just a list! And a pretty good one!

SOTD: new Amanda Shires!!