How Sweep It Is!

The Royals trailed for all of about six minutes yesterday in grabbing two wins in one day. Rad Keller handled the first game and a bunch of rookies took care of game two.

Yesterday was…a day. It started with the Royals making a trade you don’t see every day. Then we found out that Whit Merrifield was going to be out for a bit. And then they still had two games to play. Add to it that it was hot all day and it was going to be a grind of a day for the Royals. But luckily for them, they were facing a Tigers team that might be as disappointing as the Royals, and even though they had a six-game winning streak after the Royals left town, they lost the last two against the White Sox in their series and then came into Kansas City and looked like the pretty clear second-best team on the field all day.

It’s not often we get to say that about a team playing the Royals, though they are playing some better baseball. I find it interesting that they seem to be a lot more energized since Vinnie Pasquantino was called up, so maybe there’s a bit of a spark there. Before I get to the games, I want to direct your attention below and hope you’ll buy the Royals Farm Report Draft Guide. They do such a fantastic job of covering the draft. You’ll be smarter for it!

Let’s talk some doubleheader baseball.

When I think of the Royals needing innings from a starter, I think back to a game by James Shields in 2014 when the Royals needed some innings and he went out and threw a shutout. This one in the first game of the doubleheader wasn’t exactly like that Shields game in either importance or results, but Brad Keller getting out there and giving the Royals seven innings in the first game of two with the temperature at 93° at game time was absolutely huge.

By game score, it was his second-best start of the season, but I’d argue it’s the best he’s looked all year. The numbers backed it up with 15 swinging strikes. That’s the second-most he’s had in a game all year and tied for the sixth-most in a game in his career. Of his 91 pitches, 73.6 percent were strikes, which is his highest strike percentage of the year and third-highest in his career. He was on point from the first pitch through his last pitch.

He had a little extra giddyup on his fastball, which was nice, but his slider was back to looking like the one he threw early in the season, so maybe he’s worked out the kinks in his mechanics. When he’s throwing this slider, it’s just not fair.

Yes, it’s the Tigers offense, which has been very kind to Keller, but that’s an encouraging start. I don’t think they’re shopping him this deadline, but I don’t know that they aren’t and if they are, that’s a heck of a showcase start.

But it was a Keller start, which means the offense was taking the day off. With their three runs yesterday, the Royals have now scored three or fewer runs in a game he started in 10 of his 17 starts. But luckily, he has Vinnie Pasquantino on his side. And luckily, Pasquantino was facing Michael Pineda. You might recall Pasquantino’s first home run of his career came off Pineda in Detroit. It was a repeat in the fourth inning yesterday.

That thing got out in 4.5 seconds. What a shot.

Then in the sixth, after a Bobby Witt Jr. single and stolen base, Pasquantino had another chance and while he didn’t hit it 400 feet, it did get the job done.

The Royals missed a golden opportunity to score a lot more in that inning when they had the bases loaded with one out. Kyle Isbel struck out in an ugly at bat and then Cam Gallagher hit a routine grounder to short, but Javier Baez got lackadaisical on the throw and bounced it but Spencer Torkelson couldn’t reel it in, so the Royals got one more but nothing else.

The combination of Taylor Clarke and Scott Barlow got the job done in the last two innings to get a game one win, which is always so nice because winning the first game just makes the second game so much less stressful. And, this might be pretty advanced, but no team has ever swept a doubleheader without winning the first game.

An error by Emmanuel Rivera on the first batter followed by an RBI double by the second batter made it seem like the second game would not be so kind. But Daniel Lynch buttoned it up, got out of the inning and then the Royals tied the game in the bottom half of the first to avoid the dreaded first inning deficit. As you know, they are 0-23 when they trail after the first.

Let’s start with Lynch, who was…okay. He had a lot of the same issues we’ve seen from him all year with command. You can see a lot of the fastballs just sailed up and away on him.

But he did get some whiffs on that fastball, five to be exact. And his slider was pretty good as well. But he really focused on his fastball, throwing it 40 times out of 72 pitches. His changeup might have looked as bad as I’ve seen it in the big leagues. It’s not a great pitch for him, but it’s been better than what we saw last night. Given his blister issues and how much of a feel pitch that is, I don’t think that’s a huge surprise.

But like almost always, it was a slog for Lynch. He had to exit in the fifth inning with a cut finger that they say has nothing to do with the blister, but before that, he threw 20 pitches with two strikes, though he was better than in many games. He struggles so much with putting hitters away, which, as I’ve said before, is not great but there are positives with it. Some of it will come with experience and some of it will come with a better pitching coach and I still think that’ll happen. There’s clay to work with there, but it needs to be molded in order to turn him into what he’s clearly capable of becoming.

And now we have to worry about blisters becoming a long-term issue because I don’t totally buy that it was just a cut. Jeremy Affeldt was never the prospect Lynch was, but we’ve seen first-hand in Kansas City what kind of a mess blisters can cause a pitcher, especially one who uses a pitch like a slider that requires a push so much.

The real story in the second game was the lineup, which was different and fun, at least at the top.

David Lesky @DBLesky

#Royals lineup vs. Alex Faedo: Melendez C Witt Jr. SS Pasquantino DH Dozier 1B O'Hearn RF Olivares LF Isbel CF Rivera 3B Lopez 2B Lynch P

First off, I love the idea of MJ Melendez at the top. There are a lot of reasons why catchers generally don’t hit leadoff, but most of them involve catchers generally not being very good hitters. Their lack of speed also doesn’t help. But Melendez has a great feel for the zone and good enough speed, so he makes sense. But a bigger reason why we don’t see catchers at the top as much is that there’s a lot of pressure on a catcher to actually, you know, catch. Think about a scenario at home where Melendez has to catch a long top of the first inning. He gets his pitcher through 23 pitches and then has to immediately throw the gear off and get to the plate and change gears. I think it’s something that some guys can do and maybe Melendez can do it too, but that’s my theory why you don’t see it very often.

Even so, the top of the lineup is pretty fun with three rookies to start things off. You get the sense that Pasquantino is about ready to break out (or maybe he has already) with his advanced knowledge of the zone and his ability to hit the snot out of the ball. And boy did they not disappoint in this one. The first inning started with a Melendez walk, a Witt double to score him and then a Pasquantino walk. Sadly, the Royals would leave the bases loaded when Hunter Dozier and Ryan O’Hearn struck out and Isbel hit a rope right at the right fielder.

In the second, Melendez singled with one on and one out. Then Witt singled and Pasquantino walked again. This time after a Dozier out, O’Hearn came through with a two-out, two-run single to get the Royals lead to 4-1. Then in the third, after a Rivera double and a Nicky Lopez sacrifice bunt, Melendez hit a sacrifice fly to score a run. That was followed by a Witt single and a Pasquantino single up the middle. Oh yeah, Witt also stole third base in that inning.

But the Royals offense, once again, did not tack on for a bit, which allowed the Tigers to creep back into the game with single runs in the fourth and the fifth. Between then and when the Royals would score again in the bottom of the eighth, Paquantino picked up another hit.

Angel Zerpa and Dylan Coleman combined for three scoreless innings to settle things down and allow the Royals to tack on in the eighth. It was a walk to Rivera, a single by Lopez that should have been an error and then it was back to the rookies. Melendez didn’t get a hit, but did advance the runners. Witt then blooped a single for his fourth hit of the game that drove in one and a wild pitch brought another run home to give the Royals a 7-3 lead into the ninth that they’d protect to sweep the doubleheader.

If you were wondering, it hasn’t been that long since they swept a doubleheader. They did it last September, against Cleveland of all teams. But in the two games, they got some fun performances:

• Witt: 6 for 9, 1 2B, 2 runs, 3 RBI, 3 SB

• Pasquantino: 4 for 7, 1 HR, 2 runs, 2 RBI, 2 BB

• Rivera: 3 for 7, 1 2B, 2 R, 1 BB

• Olivares: 2 for 4, 2 BB

• Barlow: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 K

And there’s this on Witt:

Stats By STATS @StatsBySTATS

Bobby Witt Jr. of the @Royals is the first MLB player (rookie or not) to have 6+ hits, 3+ RBI and 3+ stolen bases in a doubleheader sweep (since RBI became an official stat in 1920).

The Royals have now won four of five and are 17-15 in their last 32 games. Not a bad little run.

Crown Jewels

The Royals Made a Trade

I wasn’t planning on writing about anything but the games since there were two of them, but the Royals made a very interesting trade yesterday. They traded their 35th pick in the draft this upcoming week for Drew Waters, Andrew Hoffmann and C.J. Alexander of the Braves. With that 35th pick (which can be traded because it’s a competitive balance pick), the Braves also add the $2.2 million that comes with that pick to their pool and the Royals lose that. My initial thought on the trade is that it has the potential to be outstanding (though that doesn’t seem terribly likely). In my opinion, it’s a risk worth taking, but it is assuredly a risk.

The prize on the surface is Waters, who was the second round pick of the Braves in 2017 and was rated their number one prospect on MLB Pipeline. Opinions differ on him quite a bit, though. Baseball America, for example, was ready to drop him to 15th on their list. He’s not without his flaws. He struggles with pitch selection and plate discipline, so basically his entire approach, which is what has kept him from hitting at AAA in the past. I’ll get back to that in a second. He’s fast enough to handle center and the defense is solid. I think he could spend some time working with Rusty Kuntz to get even better, but defensively, it looks like the Royals have their center fielder of the future.

The issue with his bat is one that actually kind of intrigues me. It’s a weird feeling, but I believe so much in Drew Saylor along with the guys at the big league level - Alec Zumwalt, Mike Tosar and Keoni DeRenne - that this is the exact sort of risk the Royals should be taking on. I don’t know if they’ll be able to get Waters figured out, and the Braves certainly knew when it was time to trade a guy like Christian Pache, but as I said, it’s a risk worth taking with the success they’ve had in altering approach. And even if he never figures it out, I think he can be a quality fourth outfielder with enough power to provide value.

The pitching prospect, Hoffmann, is maybe more interesting than I expected at first. He was a 12th round pick last season, and has done nothing but impress ever since. He’s made 15 starts in high-A this year and the peripherals are all what you want. He’s allowed 63 hits in 80 innings with 90 strikeouts and 21 walks. He’s allowed nine home runs, which isn’t bad either. He has the frame and while I don’t trust the Royals to do with him what I feel like they can do with hitters, his ability to throw strikes is what I like. But it’s not like he’s without any stuff.

He throws his fastball at around 92-93, but I’ve seen reports of him at 95-96 and that he’s able to hold his velocity into games. He has an interesting delivery that offers just a bit of a delay in his windup and I think that gets hitters all flustered, but likely won’t as much at higher levels. He has an average slider and an average changeup, but he reminds me of the type of pitcher the Guardians love. He’s athletic, throws strikes and probably has a little more velocity in him. While I don’t have a ton of faith in what this organization can do for him, they have been better with some minor league development in terms of adding velocity, so maybe there’s something there. I wouldn’t expect an ace or anything, but he can be a three/four type if everything works out for him.

Alexander is pretty purely a throw-in on this deal. He’s a big guy who has played third, first and left and has some power, a little speed and a lot of swing and miss in his game. I’ll be surprised if we spend too much talking about him moving forward, but there’s a little thunder in his bat.

In all, I think this signals a couple of things for the Royals. With the acquisition of Waters, my guess is that it shows the Royals truly will trade Michael A. Taylor. I don’t think they’re trading for Waters without the idea that he’ll be in the big leagues and it’s not the worst idea to get him working with Zumwalt and company right away. I suppose a Benintendi deal could get him to the big leagues too and probably will, but I think they’ll want to see Waters at Kauffman Stadium. The other thing is that it basically assures that they won’t be playing games with slot value and will pay the full freight at pick nine.

No matter how the results play out, I do like the risk here. The 35th pick in the draft isn’t anything to sneeze at, but while past precedent doesn’t equal much in the way of future results, that pick hasn’t exactly been a place for stars. The best is interestingly enough Johnny Damon, but generally there isn’t a lot of big league talent there. The $2.2 million in slot money does hurt a bit, but I also wonder if they don’t make another trade to get back into that competitive balance round and get a few of those dollars back. Ultimately, this is one of those deals that may be forgotten in time, but it has a chance to be big for this team.

Taylor Injured?

On Saturday, the Royals were trailing by a bunch and turned the mound over to Taylor. We had some fun watching him throw and throw hard, but since that outing, he sat out on Sunday, served as the designated hitter in the first game and then sat again in the nightcap. I don’t know if he’s hurt or not, but it seems pretty odd to not play your best defensive center fielder in the field at any point over a three-game stretch. So I have to assume he’s gotten himself hurt from pitching. Maybe it was totally different, but as I said on Twitter yesterday, if he did get hurt pitching in a year where he has more trade value than he ever has and likely ever will, that would vault this to be the absolute most Royals thing ever.