Royals Rumblings - News for July 25, 2023k

Ryan Yarbrough talked about his win over the Guardians on Monday.

“I pitched against them two outings ago,” Yarbrough said. “I’m sure it’s still fresh in their minds. (I was) really just trying to not simplify too much and get too predictable. I really tried to mix things up.” Yarbrough commanded the strike zone by locating pitches in all four quadrants. He threw 99 pitches (67 strikes) and relied on four primary offerings: his curveball, sinker, cutter and changeup.

Matt Quatraro talks about the possibility of his veterans being traded.

“I would assume that Salvy would be here for sure,” Quatraro said. “But you know, I don’t know that. I don’t know that definitely. I know Greinke, he likes it here. You know, I don’t know what his contract status is with no trades and all that kind of stuff. So I’ll know on Aug. 2.”

Craig Brown writes the Royals need to be aggressive at the trade deadline.

Picollo and his staff have to make something happen. It can’t be one of last year’s deals where they’re netting a couple low-level pitching prospects. It has to be larger. They need to figure out a way to maximize returns. They need to show a willingness to be brutal. They need to show this season is an unacceptable indictment of transactions past and get aggressive to fix it. No one should be safe. Everyone should be available. Sure, it would be painful if the Royals shipped Perez to, let’s say Miami, but it’s going to take several years to dig out of this mess and, if we’re being completely honest, the odds are long that even if Perez finishes his career in Kansas City he would be part of the next Royals playoff team. Can you improve your team in the long term with a Perez trade? If the answer is yes, you have to do it.

Jaylon Thompson writes about the 40th anniversary of the Pine Tar Game.

“I was actually watching that game,” Quatraro said. “That was on in New York and I remember, as a Yankee fan at the time, we are going to lose this game. The next three minutes later, we won.”

David Lesky notes the bad baserunning last weekend was not indicative of the entire season.

I think the point is that they’re aggressive (and they should be). They have the fifth-most outs at third, but actually are tied for the 12th-fewest outs at the plate. I’m fine with a team without a ton of power being aggressive. They’re going to get thrown out sometimes, but they need to be. My point is that it isn’t a season-long issue like many believe. But man was it bad this weekend.

CBS Sports ranks Scott Barlow as the 19th-best trade candidate in baseball.

The Kansas City Business Journal notes the Royals have the third-worst attendance in baseball.

The Braves acquire Pierce Johnson from the Rockies and Taylor Hearn from the Rangers.

The Pirates are willing to consider trading All-Star reliever David Bednar.

The Reds are listening on trade offers for Rookie of the Year Jonathan India, but are not inclined to move him.

Ken Rosenthal writes about numerous trade rumors and says that quality relievers will “command high prices.”

An American League team has called in on Cardinals pitcher Steven Matz.

The Diamondbacks and Orioles are interested in Shohei Ohtani.

Guardians pitcher Shane Bieber will be out until mid-September.

Olivia Pichardo becomes the first woman to homer in a college summer wood bat league.

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Tyreek Hill reaches a settlement for an incident in a marina last month.

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