How would Aaron Nola and Mike Clevinger look in the rotation in 2023? Nola, Singer, Clevinger, Bubic and Lynch make a quality 5, and relegates Keller to the trade market and would help bring us down to AL top 7 in ERA.
Missed Keller pitching well. O’Hearn will be gone when Oliveras returns. It would be great to see what a good manager abandoned pitching coach could do with rot his team. It’s still apparent that pitchers aren’t ready at the start of games or out of the bullpen, Cartervneeds to go, Wilson also, most runners thrown out at the plate, la la land at 3rd.
The roster construction is part of the reason it baffles me they didn’t trade MAT. All he is doing at this point is taking up playing time and making the roster construction more difficult. If you wanted to keep Keller, fine…I get that. Can always use more arms. I can even see it with Barlow and Stautmont. Not smart….but fine. Tayler I don’t quite get. Oh well.
My first thought or question is I don't know how hard they tried to trade Dozier and I get they have to play him some. What I don't get is why they play him every day. He gets a few hits along the way, but to me it's hardly ever when there are runners on with rbi opportunities. I am thrilled to see Isbel have a productive weekend. I was getting a little concerned with his bat. Thanks as always David.
David - It's been a LONG time since we've had reason to say that a Royals hitter is "too patient" or "too picky." But I'm seeing more and more of what you said about Pratto: he takes a lot of good hittable 1st/2nd pitches, which sets him up for the K on something far less hittable. That's contributing to his sub-.200 BA. I've seen some check-swing foul balls on those pitches as well.
You'd think they could coach that out of him. Some guys are coachable when it comes to some things but not when it comes to others. I'm sure that efforts have been made to get him to be more aggressive on those good early-count pitches. It doesn't seem that's done much for him, at least not so far.
I haven't lost any confidence in the Royals' new hitting brain trust. But they need to find a way to fix this and Pratto needs to be willing to implement the fix.
….and speaking of rookies: BWJ continues to make errors at SS. I haven't checked on this but my impression is that early in the season they were mostly throwing errors but now many of them are on fairly routine fielding plays.
He seems to get in too much of a hurry, as if he thinks that every baserunner and batter/runner is faster than Jarrod Dyson. He needs to dial that motor back just a bit. He also takes plays for granted now and then, and we all know how the baseball gods respond to that. I don't know much about Vance Wilson's infield coaching but BWJ needs a little help right now.
IMO Matheny (or somebody with authority over him) needs to lock BWJ in at 3B along with Nicky at SS and quit messing with those two! Just because guys can play multiple positions doesn't automatically mean that's the best thing for them or for the team. We already know what Dozier is at 3B. There's no need to keep learning it over and over again.
With their 2014-15 bullpen the Royals exploited a "cheat code" that allowed them to have far greater success than could reasonably have been expected. Now they have an opportunity to exploit another one, if John Sherman can see it for what it is…
Doubtless Zumwalt, Tosar and DiRenne & company are going to experience very nice paycheck increases in the near future. The question is, who will be signing those paychecks? I'm already quite worried that some large-revenue team is going to buy them away from us.
My hope is that Sherman will see that he can give them unprecedentedly huge salaries, compared with others in similar jobs, and still have his total outlay be less than it would for one decent MLB veteran FA. That's a "cheat code" that could potentially keep working for years.
Are they worth the money? Well, I'll put it this way: have you seen the Baby Royals play lately?
I believe that the Royals are going to overhaul the pitching development from the minors to the majors to salvage Asa Lacy and other prospects that have not met expectations. At the majors to get Singer, Lynch, Bubic, and others to reach their full potential. If they can do for the pitching what they did for the hitting then this team is going back to the days when they were regarded as the standard when it comes to expansion teams rather than a cautionary tale of how fast things can change from a threat to win the division every year to vying for a top ten draft pick.
First, really nice job on the podcast with Soren last night. And I don't say that just because you said out loud what I've been thinking for a couple of weeks: Dansby Swanson sure would be a nice addition on a team that could use another right-handed bat at shortstop.
Open question as to whether he will hit enough but now I understand why the Royals are high on Eaton. 30.1 mph sprint speed and a cannon for an arm. Those are some loud loud tools.
Good to see Isbel have some success at the plate. Hope it is the beginning of a trend.
How would Aaron Nola and Mike Clevinger look in the rotation in 2023? Nola, Singer, Clevinger, Bubic and Lynch make a quality 5, and relegates Keller to the trade market and would help bring us down to AL top 7 in ERA.
Missed Keller pitching well. O’Hearn will be gone when Oliveras returns. It would be great to see what a good manager abandoned pitching coach could do with rot his team. It’s still apparent that pitchers aren’t ready at the start of games or out of the bullpen, Cartervneeds to go, Wilson also, most runners thrown out at the plate, la la land at 3rd.
The roster construction is part of the reason it baffles me they didn’t trade MAT. All he is doing at this point is taking up playing time and making the roster construction more difficult. If you wanted to keep Keller, fine…I get that. Can always use more arms. I can even see it with Barlow and Stautmont. Not smart….but fine. Tayler I don’t quite get. Oh well.
My first thought or question is I don't know how hard they tried to trade Dozier and I get they have to play him some. What I don't get is why they play him every day. He gets a few hits along the way, but to me it's hardly ever when there are runners on with rbi opportunities. I am thrilled to see Isbel have a productive weekend. I was getting a little concerned with his bat. Thanks as always David.
David - It's been a LONG time since we've had reason to say that a Royals hitter is "too patient" or "too picky." But I'm seeing more and more of what you said about Pratto: he takes a lot of good hittable 1st/2nd pitches, which sets him up for the K on something far less hittable. That's contributing to his sub-.200 BA. I've seen some check-swing foul balls on those pitches as well.
You'd think they could coach that out of him. Some guys are coachable when it comes to some things but not when it comes to others. I'm sure that efforts have been made to get him to be more aggressive on those good early-count pitches. It doesn't seem that's done much for him, at least not so far.
I haven't lost any confidence in the Royals' new hitting brain trust. But they need to find a way to fix this and Pratto needs to be willing to implement the fix.
….and speaking of rookies: BWJ continues to make errors at SS. I haven't checked on this but my impression is that early in the season they were mostly throwing errors but now many of them are on fairly routine fielding plays.
He seems to get in too much of a hurry, as if he thinks that every baserunner and batter/runner is faster than Jarrod Dyson. He needs to dial that motor back just a bit. He also takes plays for granted now and then, and we all know how the baseball gods respond to that. I don't know much about Vance Wilson's infield coaching but BWJ needs a little help right now.
IMO Matheny (or somebody with authority over him) needs to lock BWJ in at 3B along with Nicky at SS and quit messing with those two! Just because guys can play multiple positions doesn't automatically mean that's the best thing for them or for the team. We already know what Dozier is at 3B. There's no need to keep learning it over and over again.
With their 2014-15 bullpen the Royals exploited a "cheat code" that allowed them to have far greater success than could reasonably have been expected. Now they have an opportunity to exploit another one, if John Sherman can see it for what it is…
Doubtless Zumwalt, Tosar and DiRenne & company are going to experience very nice paycheck increases in the near future. The question is, who will be signing those paychecks? I'm already quite worried that some large-revenue team is going to buy them away from us.
My hope is that Sherman will see that he can give them unprecedentedly huge salaries, compared with others in similar jobs, and still have his total outlay be less than it would for one decent MLB veteran FA. That's a "cheat code" that could potentially keep working for years.
Are they worth the money? Well, I'll put it this way: have you seen the Baby Royals play lately?
I believe that the Royals are going to overhaul the pitching development from the minors to the majors to salvage Asa Lacy and other prospects that have not met expectations. At the majors to get Singer, Lynch, Bubic, and others to reach their full potential. If they can do for the pitching what they did for the hitting then this team is going back to the days when they were regarded as the standard when it comes to expansion teams rather than a cautionary tale of how fast things can change from a threat to win the division every year to vying for a top ten draft pick.
First, really nice job on the podcast with Soren last night. And I don't say that just because you said out loud what I've been thinking for a couple of weeks: Dansby Swanson sure would be a nice addition on a team that could use another right-handed bat at shortstop.
Open question as to whether he will hit enough but now I understand why the Royals are high on Eaton. 30.1 mph sprint speed and a cannon for an arm. Those are some loud loud tools.
Good to see Isbel have some success at the plate. Hope it is the beginning of a trend.