12 Comments

Interested on your thoughts on Barlow. He’s been a great reliever and still putting up good numbers but I noticed last night (at least more than others) he only threw like 3-4 fastballs and they all came in around 90-91. He relied almost exclusively on slider/curve combo which is ok but almost seems a little more like smoke and mirrors. He was good last night, don’t get me wrong, but something seemed off stuff wise.

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Yeah, I should have put in there that I wrote about him on Royals Review today, so you can check it out there! https://www.royalsreview.com/2022/5/27/23144041/leskys-notes-its-been-an-exhausting-couple-weeks

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Yep caught it thanks. I mean…..would it be any more Royals front office to have such a good piece… have him have tommy john right before the trade deadline and get nothing positive out it? That’s royals front office 101 in my eyes. I certainly hope that’s not the case and wish him the best. But if I was a gambling man………

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I wouldn’t jump to an elbow injury like that. Generally decreased velocity and increased slider usage is the opposite of what you see with elbow injuries. But you never know. And yes, definitely very Royals. I think back to 2016 when Cain and Wade were hurt right before the deadline. That may be one of the biggest impacts on the last five years that nobody talks about.

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It doesn’t necessarily have to be TJ or elbow. Even if its nothing and he is only pumping 90 anymore….that alone hurts his trade value when he was just 95-96 last year. I’m not saying its going to happen or anything like that. But man, just another gut punch if that ends up being the case. Truth be told its probably just a bad break if that’s the case…..but I’m past bad breaks and its just bad management in my eyes anymore. True or not….that’s where I’m at. Lol.

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The thing is that a bad break or two happens. When they consistently happen, it’s largely a result of a bad process. We’ll see what happens here and he’s still effective, but he’d bring back a lot more throwing 95.

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Bobby's defense at shortstop. Man. He is going to be special.

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He’s looked better in the big leagues than he did in the minors and he looked good in the minors. Very impressive stuff.

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When I heard we had a callup coming I just had to tune in... to see Brewer lol. No offense to Brewer, but I was hoping it might be someone else.

But beggars can't be choosers and we got a win. In games like that, boy oh boy, little things are giant things; the fact Payamps gave up three singles in a row and no one scored, the MJ block on Barlow's first pitch - that's exciting baseball! That said, I wouldn't mind a blowout (in our favor) tonight for Keller.

I did read your writeup in RR and hope what you're feeling with Kowar is accurate. Suddenly, in the course of just a few months, you could be looking at going from potentially zero legitimate big league starters to three. Now that can change the course of a franchise.

And I second your thoughts on Dane Johnson!

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Ha I think we were all hoping for someone else, but Hicklen is a great guy and actually really fun to watch. I think for a few days, which is all this will be, he makes sense. I think we’ll see Vinnie sooner than later and Pratto not long after.

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hey man, another good write up...love your style. I wanted to get your thoughts on Whit hitting in the 3 spot. Also i have seen that the Mets are hurting in the starting pitching aspect...what do you think of Zack or Keller going in a trade?

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Are you talking about Merrifield hitting third or Witt hitting third? I honestly don't especially have many thoughts on either. If I was building a lineup, I'd probably bump Benny to leadoff, BWJ to second and Merrifield to third, but as long as the best hitters are hitting at the top, I don't care all that much and Merrifield has earned his way back to the top.

I'd support trading any player who isn't going to be around beyond this season or next, so sure. But I doubt the Mets would want Greinke the way he's pitching. Keller would be an okay fit, but also their infield defense is bad and that wouldn't end well for Keller.

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