Massey's recent stretch of relative success has me worrying about him less than I was previously where he just looked completely lost. A lot of his batted ball profile is the same as it was last year where he was around a league average hitter (average exit velo is about the same, hard hit rate is up a touch, barrel rate is down about 6 percentage points, ratio of ground balls to line drives to fly balls is about the same), he just needs to keep cutting down on the swing and miss, as you've so aptly pointed out - a lot of these guys' batted ball data is fine, they've just not been getting the bat to the ball often enough.
I had a little worry that if they started making more contact, the extra would come in the form of poor contact. But they've made more contact recently and are still toward the top of the rankings in hard-hit rate, barrel percentage, launch angle and average exit velocity. So that's really encouraging and is true with Massey too. Him, along with a couple others, are such huge keys for this offense, so it's been nice to see.
They were at least interesting the middle part of the week. I’ll take that. Much better to at least be bad and entertaining than just bad and boring. For all my play the best defense talk Melendez and Fermin were not good yesterday…so maybe that’s the best we can hope for. Garcia has made a difference though.
It is interesting to see where the Royals and Orioles stack up. I actually kinda think they are more a .500 team and not a 21-10 team…but who am I to say anything when they are in second place in the toughest division in baseball. Minn leading the central would be 4th in that division. Which is just another kick in the nads for Royals fans seeing how bad this division is. The thing I appreciate about the Orioles….they committed and everyone knew exactly what they were doing. I’ve never got that same vibe from the Royals. I don’t feel like they have ever fully committed to the rebuild. This is one example where it seems to have worked…Tigers are an example of being just as inept as the Royals. But even when they fired the GM….they didn’t really commit to a change. Kinda like how DM was giving JJ the “GM” role a couple years ago. That wasn’t a real change then either. I can appreciate the Orioles for going all in on a plan. They are certainly fun to watch. What would it be like to have Gunnar Henderson, the top prospect coming up, not have to be a savior and playing when he earns it? A lot of different ramblings today. All in all, an entertaining series. Hitting looks better, Cox at least threw strikes (I will say, he was middle/middle with a lot of stuff it seemed like) and looked pretty good.
I think Fermin is a good defender who had a rough game, which happens. Melendez's error was a mental one that turned physical, which is frustrating, but teachable moment and such. Still, yeah, it wasn't great yesterday.
I think the Orioles still need pitching, so my big hope is that the Royals can match up on someone like Brad Keller or, for a much bigger dal, Brady Singer. Of course, both need to get on track. Their start has been great and they can really hit, but if they don't pitch better, I imagine they'll fall back to fourth place by the end, but that doesn't mean their future isn't extremely bright. It's also interesting to me how it felt like they may never turn the corner this time last year, which just shows how fast things *can* shift.
I think that's a great point about the Orioles, and it's one that I've used, too. They blew it up! They knew that fans would be mad losing 100 games (or 115, 108, and 110), but they committed to what they were doing. They played Cedric Mullins. They played Ryan Mountcastle. They played Jorge Mateo. And now they're really good players and the team is really good, to (at least the offense is).
Different note - Isbel…if he’s out a while. Where does that put in in the pecking order going forward? As with Waters (still time), Bubic (IDK now), and now Isbel (who knows how long)….still alot of time left in the year…but the evaluation period for these guys is now getting squeezed and I wonder if someone like Isbel doesn’t get pushed to a 4th outfield role going forward just because they can’t keep evaluating forever. Or the evaluation time becomes what he’s done plus say he comes back in mid June…the 3 months remaining there. Which I would hope you make a decision by then.
I wonder if Isbel isn't already seen as a fourth outfielder, or at least seen as someone who that's the likely future who could push higher up. I'm interested to see Nate Eaton, who I imagine will get the call given that he was pulled from Omaha's lineup. We've talked enough about him since he was with the team so long last year and was up earlier, but I think he was sent down for more of a mental reset and he's performed well. He was a league average hitter in the big leagues last year and an elite defender. If all he needed was that little time off, they might actually be improving offensively with a minimal defensive dropoff. But you're right, time runs out faster than it ever seems and guys are running out of time. But part of the evaluation is them staying on the field too, so it all goes together.
Are you in the market for a lefty who throws 98, 99, sometimes as hard as 103 and has a nearly unhittable offspeed pitch (largely because of his insane fastball) but wilts like Iceberg lettuce left out in the sun if you commit the mortal sin of--gasp!--asking him to pitch two days in a row?
Gotta say, when you put it that way, it sounds like a fine tradeoff. Just don't use him 2 days in a row. Obviously not as valuable as a guy with those attributes who CAN go 2 or 3 days in a row, but he'll still be a valuable piece of a playoff team.
I know that all but the most optimistic (insane?) fans know that in the overall scheme of things, wins and losses aren't really that important. That being said, on the micro level it is just disappointing that the game yesterday was lost by pitchers who will not be here in 2025 (Lyles, Chapman, and Garrett). It just hurts the soul a tiny bit.
I think in some ways I agree with you, but in other ways, the important stuff was good and the unimportant stuff was bad, so it's not *that* big of a deal. But yeah, you come back from 8-1 to take a lead and then lose and it hurts.
We are well past “hurting” over losses. We are now numb and should have seen it coming. It was however a very entertaining game and that’s all we can ask for anymore. Lol
David, if you’ve been hurt 24 times in a 30 game stretch…we need to have a conversation about getting a shrink.
Real hurt is drinking all the koolaid and having Melendez and Bobby Witt on your keeper fantasy team that has OBP as a category. That is real hurt every time I look at. it would shock you to learn i’m in second to last place.
I'm not sure there's really any way to research this unless you have an awesomely powerful database, but I'm willing to bet that no team has ever had all three of its catchers on the roster get XBH in the same inning until yesterday!
Think about that stat for a minute though….Is that a good thing or a bad thing that the royals might be the only team EVER to have three catchers on its roster get an XBH in the same inning. I’m not sure that’s actually a good thing. Lol
It is, you are absolutely right. I’m just saying…what other team other than the royals plays three players that can catch (historically a bad hitting position) in the same game? I’d almost bet the opportunities for 3 catchers to even get a hit in the same inning you could count on one hand. Thankfully, you will look that up for us though. LOL
Before we completely turn our attention to Royals vs A's, let's do a quick review of the Baltimore series….
(Sorry David, I know you probably thought you had disposed of this topic. But then Thursday happened.)
Tuesday, Yarbrough completely lost the strike zone, thus gets bombed and is allowed to throw 80 pitches. Thursday, Lyles is getting bombed and is allowed to throw 102 pitches. In between, Zack gives up absolutely nothing but is permitted only 44 pitches.
Maybe there's a way to explain that that sounds rational-ish. But to me it sounds like a manager in search of a consistent pitching philosophy, who hasn't found one yet. This series against Baltimore includes the first major foulups I've noticed from Quatraro. During a long season a certain number of foulups are inevitable but what concerns me more than that is the day-to-day inconsistency that was on display.
We'll never know but maybe if he hadn't used so many relievers on Wednesday he could have replaced Lyles when he should have on Thursday. What we do know for certain is that his decision-making in game 2 makes little sense in the context of what he did in games 1 and 3.
Wednesday’s early pull, which I still love and guarantee people would have lost their minds about not happening had Greinke done what he typically does a third time through, had literally zero impact on Thursday. Not only did they have a fresh starter in Austin Cox available to throw 5-6 innings, but they also had Hernandez, Taylor, Staumont, Garrett, Chapman and Barlow available. The choice to stick with Lyles had nothing to do with bullpen availability.
I suspect that you're probably right about "zero impact on Thursday." To me that makes the decision to stick with Lyles even more inexplicable. Obviously it's WAY too soon to draw final conclusions about Q, whether pro or con. I just think that this series of incongruous decisions is "of note" as Soren likes to put it. That's all I'm saying, nothing more.
Off topic but hoping you can provide an explanation. Why send Cox back down? Maybe now that there is some tape on him they are worried he will get lit up? And I know there aren't a lot of pitching options, but Heasley? Is there any hope for pitching going forward?
I don’t think it’s as big of a deal as they apparently did, but it was about getting a fresh arm up more than anything. I wouldn’t be too surprised if Heasley goes back down at some point today for another arm.
Massey's recent stretch of relative success has me worrying about him less than I was previously where he just looked completely lost. A lot of his batted ball profile is the same as it was last year where he was around a league average hitter (average exit velo is about the same, hard hit rate is up a touch, barrel rate is down about 6 percentage points, ratio of ground balls to line drives to fly balls is about the same), he just needs to keep cutting down on the swing and miss, as you've so aptly pointed out - a lot of these guys' batted ball data is fine, they've just not been getting the bat to the ball often enough.
I had a little worry that if they started making more contact, the extra would come in the form of poor contact. But they've made more contact recently and are still toward the top of the rankings in hard-hit rate, barrel percentage, launch angle and average exit velocity. So that's really encouraging and is true with Massey too. Him, along with a couple others, are such huge keys for this offense, so it's been nice to see.
They were at least interesting the middle part of the week. I’ll take that. Much better to at least be bad and entertaining than just bad and boring. For all my play the best defense talk Melendez and Fermin were not good yesterday…so maybe that’s the best we can hope for. Garcia has made a difference though.
It is interesting to see where the Royals and Orioles stack up. I actually kinda think they are more a .500 team and not a 21-10 team…but who am I to say anything when they are in second place in the toughest division in baseball. Minn leading the central would be 4th in that division. Which is just another kick in the nads for Royals fans seeing how bad this division is. The thing I appreciate about the Orioles….they committed and everyone knew exactly what they were doing. I’ve never got that same vibe from the Royals. I don’t feel like they have ever fully committed to the rebuild. This is one example where it seems to have worked…Tigers are an example of being just as inept as the Royals. But even when they fired the GM….they didn’t really commit to a change. Kinda like how DM was giving JJ the “GM” role a couple years ago. That wasn’t a real change then either. I can appreciate the Orioles for going all in on a plan. They are certainly fun to watch. What would it be like to have Gunnar Henderson, the top prospect coming up, not have to be a savior and playing when he earns it? A lot of different ramblings today. All in all, an entertaining series. Hitting looks better, Cox at least threw strikes (I will say, he was middle/middle with a lot of stuff it seemed like) and looked pretty good.
I think Fermin is a good defender who had a rough game, which happens. Melendez's error was a mental one that turned physical, which is frustrating, but teachable moment and such. Still, yeah, it wasn't great yesterday.
I think the Orioles still need pitching, so my big hope is that the Royals can match up on someone like Brad Keller or, for a much bigger dal, Brady Singer. Of course, both need to get on track. Their start has been great and they can really hit, but if they don't pitch better, I imagine they'll fall back to fourth place by the end, but that doesn't mean their future isn't extremely bright. It's also interesting to me how it felt like they may never turn the corner this time last year, which just shows how fast things *can* shift.
I think that's a great point about the Orioles, and it's one that I've used, too. They blew it up! They knew that fans would be mad losing 100 games (or 115, 108, and 110), but they committed to what they were doing. They played Cedric Mullins. They played Ryan Mountcastle. They played Jorge Mateo. And now they're really good players and the team is really good, to (at least the offense is).
Different note - Isbel…if he’s out a while. Where does that put in in the pecking order going forward? As with Waters (still time), Bubic (IDK now), and now Isbel (who knows how long)….still alot of time left in the year…but the evaluation period for these guys is now getting squeezed and I wonder if someone like Isbel doesn’t get pushed to a 4th outfield role going forward just because they can’t keep evaluating forever. Or the evaluation time becomes what he’s done plus say he comes back in mid June…the 3 months remaining there. Which I would hope you make a decision by then.
I wonder if Isbel isn't already seen as a fourth outfielder, or at least seen as someone who that's the likely future who could push higher up. I'm interested to see Nate Eaton, who I imagine will get the call given that he was pulled from Omaha's lineup. We've talked enough about him since he was with the team so long last year and was up earlier, but I think he was sent down for more of a mental reset and he's performed well. He was a league average hitter in the big leagues last year and an elite defender. If all he needed was that little time off, they might actually be improving offensively with a minimal defensive dropoff. But you're right, time runs out faster than it ever seems and guys are running out of time. But part of the evaluation is them staying on the field too, so it all goes together.
I'm more bullish on Eaton than most fans are. I'm really curious to see what he does now that he's back on the Royals roster.
Attention, all MLB competing teams!
Are you in the market for a lefty who throws 98, 99, sometimes as hard as 103 and has a nearly unhittable offspeed pitch (largely because of his insane fastball) but wilts like Iceberg lettuce left out in the sun if you commit the mortal sin of--gasp!--asking him to pitch two days in a row?
Well, have I got the guy for YOU!
Gotta say, when you put it that way, it sounds like a fine tradeoff. Just don't use him 2 days in a row. Obviously not as valuable as a guy with those attributes who CAN go 2 or 3 days in a row, but he'll still be a valuable piece of a playoff team.
I know that all but the most optimistic (insane?) fans know that in the overall scheme of things, wins and losses aren't really that important. That being said, on the micro level it is just disappointing that the game yesterday was lost by pitchers who will not be here in 2025 (Lyles, Chapman, and Garrett). It just hurts the soul a tiny bit.
I think in some ways I agree with you, but in other ways, the important stuff was good and the unimportant stuff was bad, so it's not *that* big of a deal. But yeah, you come back from 8-1 to take a lead and then lose and it hurts.
We are well past “hurting” over losses. We are now numb and should have seen it coming. It was however a very entertaining game and that’s all we can ask for anymore. Lol
I don't think that's necessarily true, but it is true that the record has always been secondary.
David, if you’ve been hurt 24 times in a 30 game stretch…we need to have a conversation about getting a shrink.
Real hurt is drinking all the koolaid and having Melendez and Bobby Witt on your keeper fantasy team that has OBP as a category. That is real hurt every time I look at. it would shock you to learn i’m in second to last place.
I didn't say every loss hurts. But some probably should and do.
I'm not sure there's really any way to research this unless you have an awesomely powerful database, but I'm willing to bet that no team has ever had all three of its catchers on the roster get XBH in the same inning until yesterday!
Ooh that's interesting. I'm not sure how I would even star to look that up, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try to figure it out.
Think about that stat for a minute though….Is that a good thing or a bad thing that the royals might be the only team EVER to have three catchers on its roster get an XBH in the same inning. I’m not sure that’s actually a good thing. Lol
Three extra base hits in an inning is ALWAYS a good thing.
It is, you are absolutely right. I’m just saying…what other team other than the royals plays three players that can catch (historically a bad hitting position) in the same game? I’d almost bet the opportunities for 3 catchers to even get a hit in the same inning you could count on one hand. Thankfully, you will look that up for us though. LOL
Trying to win games when it doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter.
Before we completely turn our attention to Royals vs A's, let's do a quick review of the Baltimore series….
(Sorry David, I know you probably thought you had disposed of this topic. But then Thursday happened.)
Tuesday, Yarbrough completely lost the strike zone, thus gets bombed and is allowed to throw 80 pitches. Thursday, Lyles is getting bombed and is allowed to throw 102 pitches. In between, Zack gives up absolutely nothing but is permitted only 44 pitches.
Maybe there's a way to explain that that sounds rational-ish. But to me it sounds like a manager in search of a consistent pitching philosophy, who hasn't found one yet. This series against Baltimore includes the first major foulups I've noticed from Quatraro. During a long season a certain number of foulups are inevitable but what concerns me more than that is the day-to-day inconsistency that was on display.
We'll never know but maybe if he hadn't used so many relievers on Wednesday he could have replaced Lyles when he should have on Thursday. What we do know for certain is that his decision-making in game 2 makes little sense in the context of what he did in games 1 and 3.
Wednesday’s early pull, which I still love and guarantee people would have lost their minds about not happening had Greinke done what he typically does a third time through, had literally zero impact on Thursday. Not only did they have a fresh starter in Austin Cox available to throw 5-6 innings, but they also had Hernandez, Taylor, Staumont, Garrett, Chapman and Barlow available. The choice to stick with Lyles had nothing to do with bullpen availability.
I suspect that you're probably right about "zero impact on Thursday." To me that makes the decision to stick with Lyles even more inexplicable. Obviously it's WAY too soon to draw final conclusions about Q, whether pro or con. I just think that this series of incongruous decisions is "of note" as Soren likes to put it. That's all I'm saying, nothing more.
Off topic but hoping you can provide an explanation. Why send Cox back down? Maybe now that there is some tape on him they are worried he will get lit up? And I know there aren't a lot of pitching options, but Heasley? Is there any hope for pitching going forward?
I don’t think it’s as big of a deal as they apparently did, but it was about getting a fresh arm up more than anything. I wouldn’t be too surprised if Heasley goes back down at some point today for another arm.