23 Comments

Good progress with Carlos. And I’m beginning to believe with Ragans. Please let them stay healthy!

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I'll maintain that Hernandez's struggles for that short time was based solely on command because the stuff has remained through it all, which is good because he's seen the stuff sort of disappear before.

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Good stuff, David. Cole is looking more and more like the ace of this staff; Witt Junior's defense and offense have so improved that he's moving into the stud category. Relief pitchers...the night before they all looked good. Kowar hasn't learned anything and is working his way back to the minors. Ah, Hernandez. Yes, he came in and kept the shutout going to the 9th but not without putting himself in a jam with his 3 - 2 counts. The 9th...he wriggled through that as well and the Royals stopped the losing streak. Loved watching through Cole's pitching; Taylor did fine and then... Anyway, I now it's trying to see who steps up these days, but I certainly hope the team is looking for relievers who listen and know how to throw strikes next year. I wish the pitching coaches and manager would sit the relievers down and make them watch videos of those pitchers who aren't afraid (or know how) to throw strikes. Most batters are not stupid. Enough of me.

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I would be pretty surprised if they don't do a lot of work to fix the bullpen next season, targeting pitchers who don't walk batters. For what it's worth, Clarke doesn't walk many. I think it's just a longer process than anyone wants to believe to kill old bad habits.

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Not to mention years of poor pitching development by the Royals. Too bad the class of 18 had to go through that.

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Not to mention years of poor pitching development by the Royals. Too bad the class of 18 had to go through that.

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Thanks David! Look I’m all in on Ragans. I see the four pitches, I see the stuff, I see for the most part the command. Is he an ace? Who cares, he’s a solid rotational piece as long as injury doesn’t get in the way. It’s a win for the Royals. I’m not where you are with the pitching development…and that’s ok. Because when I step back and look at it. Ragans is replacing where we expected a Lynch or a Bubic, a Marsh, or a Kowar. So then I’m like, ugh, we aren’t making any ground. Lol. But I’ll give this FO credit for this one, its the first real tangible evidence in my eyes that this group (with a lot of the same people) can do something differently than the last group. It doesn’t change my view overall, but that’s ok. They did a nice job with this one.

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I'm not sure it's entirely fair to say that he just replaced Lynch or Bubic in particular. This group showed that they had made some big strides with Bubic before he got hurt. Were the changes what led him to the injury? Maybe. Lynch also was looking like a legit back of the rotation starter, and he hadn't looked like that at any point previously. He doesn't seem anywhere near what we thought he might be, but it's hard for me to put that on the feet of this particular group. I don't fully believe in the pitching development until we start to see it, but I've heard from enough people who are smarter than I am that they've got some things figured out at least.

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Makes sense, it just gets a convoluted when you don’t make sweeping changes. And it doesn’t really matter either. Pitchers are going to break your heart, and get hurt all the time. Just look at Ohtani now. I know two starters is better than one…..now if we can find a third, that’s better than two…and so forth and so forth. I mean, that’s the hard part, but I feel good about Ragans and Singer in the rotation. It’s also what makes Singer’s trade prospects really interesting to me. Are you taking away one of the two you have….but also maybe you can pick up two just from that. Keep finding em, all you can do.

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Yep, I think they have to be willing to make changes until they find a formula that actually works. I'd really love to see them get Chandler Champlain a start or two at the big league level, but they definitely need to add.

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Agreed...way to early to hand put the Pitching Development stars.... and they aren't any smarter than you...

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I don’t care who they are facing. There is something fun about a pitcher just going out and shoving. And you know, and they know, and pretty much everyone knows they aren’t hitting him. I mean, that’s fun when it is your guy. That’s basically what happened yesterday. We haven’t seen it much…occasionally from Singer. But Ragans stuff is quite a bit better than Singer’s. When its on…yep, I’ll watch this cause I don’t think you guys are hitting it regardless of the lineup. We haven’t seen much of it over the years. Maybe we’ll get to see more of it here!

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Yeah, sometimes the opponent matters. Sometimes it doesn't. I don't know who would have hit Ragans yesterday. It was fun to watch and I'd like to see many more of those!

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On a side note, Dairon Blanco is tied with Elly De LA Cruz for the fastest sprint speed in baseball with Bobby third. Bubba Thompson is fourth, so the Royals now have 3 of the 4 fastest guys in MLB sprint speed this year, in the organization

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Yep, they can really run. And they've generally been using it for good and not evil, though they made a couple of real dumb decisions yesterday.

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I’m about to be the old-school scout in the Moneyball movie.

Ragans looks like he belongs out there. Even in the not-so-good starts so far, he’s kept it together, stayed composed with traffic on the bases, and found a way to keep the Royals in the game through 5 innings. That’s a key thing I look for when I’m watching.

I see Blake Snell.

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I was super encouraged by his "bad" start actually. He didn't seem to have anything going and found a way. That was really nice to see. And he's followed it up with two very good starts.

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So on the last Kaufman Korner, Rany and Soren tried to figure out what an extension for Witt looks like, what would you say? And do you have a guess at the chances are he would actually sign?

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I'm working on something for that soon. It's complicated and I still think that it's either six years or 12-14 years with nothing in between.

My gut is something like 6 years and $100 million with options that can get it up to 12-14 years at about $35 million per year for the other 6-8.

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500 million.

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Really like what I'm seeing with Ragans...surprised by the velocity uptick from Texas...just hope the arm hold up to the new velocity!

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Not gonna lie! My blood pressure went way up when krowar walked 3 batters. Nothing would have surprised me this season. I sure do love the Witt and Garcia combo at the top of the order. It will be nice to see what Vinny can do with that in 24.

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I love watching righties taking fastball pull swings at that changeup that just drifts outside and dies

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