12 Comments

Agreed on the annoyance and disgust with Brady, and that hopefully the success of Lynch and Hernandez has Brady realizing that he has to be coachable to make it! And prayers for Dayton and Matheny to make the best decisions (including timing) on O'Hearn, Taylor, Dozier, Rivera, Cam, Carlos, Miner, Wade, Ervin, Holland, and our prospects, as we dream and scheme about how to hopefully have enough successful puzzle pieces for the next championship team, or at least core, and to hopefully draft for a more balanced farm system in the future, so that we have some?/more legitimate CFs and fewer 2Bs.

Expand full comment

I'm sorry, you've never seen a team of six second basemen?

Expand full comment

I like how you dig into the games, and particularly the pitching. While it has been frustrating at times, if you squint just slightly there are some things to be really excited about. I'm liking what I am seeing from Lynch and Hernandez, not the least of which is how they bounce back from poor outings (and really haven't been too many). Singer and Bubic and Keller can dominate, but are frustratingly inconsistent. If these two younger guys can begin to smooth out the rough spots, and we fill out the rotation with a Kowar, or down the road Lacey, things could get very interesting (how would Keller's power arm look out of the bullpen?!). I also hope the Royals are willing to think outside the box with all these young arms (and Minor for now). Maybe a six-man rotation? A thought-provoking article from Yahoo sports today: https://www.yahoo.com/sports/did-the-brewers-discover-the-new-secret-to-pitching-success-in-2021-191712279.html Thanks for the great content, David!

Expand full comment

That's an excellent article on the Brewers, who are among the best in baseball at developing at the big league level, so yeah, very interesting. It's definitely encouraging to see what Lynch and Hernandez have done and I'm very curious to see if Kowar has made similar adjustments whenever he gets another chance.

As for a six-man rotation, I think it's sort of dependent on the starters because one of the benefits of adding that extra starter is potentially being able to stretch starters out a little more with some more time between starts. But if the starter, like Singer, doesn't have the repertoire to get through the lineup three times consistently, it can really overwhelm a bullpen that has to be shorter because of having an extra starter. It's not that it's wrong. It's just important to have the right personnel, which the Royals actually might moving forward!

Thanks so much for reading and for the kind words!

Expand full comment

Agree 100 percent on Ohearn. You should have heard me screaming at the tv in that first inning. His two errors totally changed that whole game. Every one is always ready to give Oliveras a chance to play, me too. But I think Isbel has a chance to be better than Oliveras. No one ever talks about him . What do you think about Isbel's chance of being good?

Expand full comment

I really like Isbel. I also really like Olivares. I would love to see them both get an opportunity, but I honestly don't especially care which one does if it's only one. But yeah, I think Isbel has a chance to be a really nice player moving forward. He's made some big strides throughout the season in Omaha.

Expand full comment

*fumbles with the remote control*

David, what channel is YouTube on?

Expand full comment

I believe you have to turn the TV to 3 and then change to VCR first.

Expand full comment

👆 Tell me you're a geriatric millennial without saying you're a geriatric millennial.

Expand full comment

Hey, that's future NPB all-star Ryan O'Hearn to you, bud!

(But I actually think he could do well in Japan and there's no shame in not being a starting caliber major leaguer. It's the team's fault for running him out there.)

Expand full comment

Yeah, that's fair. We often get upset with the player, but he's just out there living the dream of being a big leaguer. Dayton and Matheny putting him on the roster and in the lineup every day is the problem. And I agree he might do very well overseas.

Expand full comment

My frustration with Singer begins and end with his mental make up. The O'Hern error seemed to knock Singer off his "game" and the next thing you know, Royals are down 3. Singer has got to let things go and focus on the next pitch/batter. There is no reason he should have walked those 2 guys in the first. We can blame O'Hern for his part in the melt down but your pitcher can and has to take control when things unravel- Each play starts with him!

Expand full comment