Weekend in Review: New Rules, Almost a Huge Embarrassment, Chiefs Thoughts and the Week Ahead

Losing a series to the Tigers is bad enough, but it's a good thing they avoided the sweep.

Since the Royals won back-to-back four-game series against the Red Sox and White Sox respectively, things have been tough for them. They’re just 10-18 and a lot of that has been against the gauntlet of a schedule we talked about coming out of the break. They’ve lost series against the Dodgers, Twins, Rays, Padres, White Sox and Guardians. All of those teams are either obvious playoff teams or teams fighting for playoff spots. You expect that. But they came into the weekend having won eight of 13 against the Tigers, including their only series win in those previous games. But this series…oof.

The Tigers came into the weekend with a team OPS of .623. The lowest team OPS in a season since 2000 is .627. Eras change, so maybe looking at wRC+ is a better measure. And by that measure, their 79 wRC+ coming into the weekend would have been tied for ninth-lowest since 2000. This is a bad offense. Relative to the league this season, they came into the weekend last in homers by 18, last in runs by 22, last in walk percentage and fourth-worst in strikeout percentage. Maybe calling it a bad offense is an understatement. This is a horrific offense. And in the first two games of the series, they scored 18 runs on 28 hits with four home runs against Royals pitching. If that isn’t an argument to gut the entire pitching side of the coaching staff, I honestly don’t know what is. Thankfully order was restored in a much-needed quick game yesterday, but it definitely should not have come to that.

Rule Changes Coming

On Friday, it was announced that the game is going to look a little different next season. Three changes will be coming to the game next year. Let’s take a look at each one. I’ll break down what they mean for the Royals in the coming weeks.

Pitch Clock

Next season, there will be a 15-second timer between pitches with nobody on and a 20-second timer between pitches with runners on base. Batters must be in the box by the time the clock gets to eight seconds. If a pitcher violates the clock, a ball is called. If a batter violates the clock, a strike is called. The timer does reset with a step-off or a pickoff attempt, but pitchers can only disengage with the rubber twice. If they do it a third time, they better pick off the runner because the runner gets to move up a base if he’s not picked off.

I like this one because it’ll really speed up games. It’s been proven in the minors that it just makes everything quicker and the time of game has decreased by nearly half an hour. Ultimately it’s not the actual time of the game that has people up in arms, but the pace of the game, and some pitchers taking so long to deliver (I’m looking at you, Josh Staumont) has really made for a tough game to watch sometimes. I don’t love the disengagement rule because I think that’ll make it easy at times for runners to steal bases, but maybe that’s not the worst thing in the world?

An added bonus to the pitch clock is that it might allow for the pure stuff we see from pitchers to take a step back. If a pitcher doesn’t have 20-25 seconds to collect himself before he gets moving on his delivery, maybe he isn’t able to access 102 with movement like we see from some guys. Maybe that drops to 99, which is soooooooo much easier to hit. Either way, I like this.

Shift Limitations

The new rule is pretty simple. Teams must have at least two players on each side of second base and all four infielders must have their feet on the dirt. That’s pretty much it. I’ve been against the idea that teams can’t have three infielders on either side of a base because that feels like just part of the game, but I’ve never been a fan of the second baseman in short right field. I just hate the idea that a guy can hit a line drive to right that turns into a 4-3 groundout. Why is that different to me than where the infielders are in relation to second base? I don’t know. It just is.

This whole thread from Mike Petriello from MLB.com shows what this change really is.

Mike Petriello @mike_petriello

I thought this might be an interesting way to visualize the new positioning rules. (Fixed an earlier error about outfielders.) This is it. This is all that matters. Setting aside P/C, you just have to have at least 4 infielders, and 2 on either side. So ...

The thing that I found most interesting from that thread is that you can still stack a defender in short right field, but it’s going to leave open a significant amount of real estate in the outfield, so if a guy “just hits it the other way” as so many clamor for hitters to do, that hit the other way becomes an extra base hit pretty easily and could even be a relatively easy inside-the-park home run if the runner is quick. This one will really take some getting used to, but I think it’ll be good for the game in the end. And for anyone who says other sports don’t restrict defenses, I’d highly recommend checking out some rules in other sports.

Bigger Bases

They’re expanding the bases from 15 inches square to 18 inches square. The idea is to reduce injuries, specifically at first base, I think, but really anywhere This just gives some additional space for a runner to go and for the fielder to be on the bag. Because second base is still in the middle, it’ll create a reduction of 4.5 inches between the bases. Combining that with the pitch clock will likely lead to an increase in steals, though I don’t know how much. I think you’ll notice this one far less than the other two, but it seems to make a lot of sense to me.

The Games

Friday - Tigers 10, Royals 2

I don’t think there’s anything even worth talking about in this game, to be honest. Daniel Lynch continued to struggle down the stretch and continued to look like he’s just worn down. I’ve said this before and I’ll probably say it again. I don’t have a huge worry that he wore down last year and he’s worn down this year, but he better be ready to go six months next season or else it’s hard to count on him as anything more than rotational depth because if the Royals are going to be good, they need guys who can make 28-32 starts.

On the bright side, his changeup looked outstanding. His six whiffs on it were tied for his career high and the contact on it was weak. The Tigers went 1 for 8 on the pitch with just a mere single. He was feeling it because he threw 28 of them, which is the second-most we’ve seen from him. But look how good it was.

One issue with Lynch that we’ve all seen is he has this fastball that you feel like should be better, but just, well, isn’t. I wonder if the development of a changeup like that if he can get to it more often can help his fastball. As I say so often, pitching is about changing timing and eye levels. If the changeup can do both, maybe his fastball can play up a little bit more and can help him out. The changeup has rarely been as good as we saw it on Friday, but even in a bad start, maybe that’s something he can take from it.

The offense was pretty non-existent as well, which was not fun to watch from a Royals perspective, but I always think it’s cool when a guy comes into his hometown and pitches well like Joey Wentz did in his first start against his hometown team. He was just very sharp all night long. The Royals helped him quite a bit, I think, but good for him to have a big game in front of so many family and friends. I was at the game and it was a very odd juxtaposition of Royals fans rooting for the Tigers pitcher. I guess they were happy at least when they left because Wentz picked up his first career win.

Saturday - Tigers 8, Royals 4

In some ways, I think this game was one to be thrown away and never talked about again and in other ways, I think it’s worth digging deep into. For one thing, I don’t think they should have been playing after about the second inning. When the rain started, you could tell that Jonathan Heasley simply was struggling to get any sort of grip on the ball. And as much as you can argue that both teams have the same conditions, after Heasley gave up three runs in the top of the third, the rain tapered off for a bit (which was why they were playing of course). It picked up and slowed down throughout the day before they hit that rain delay that ultimately ended it after seven and a half.

But what concerns me is another example of Mike Matheny maybe sticking with a starter longer than he should while he was showing some signs of some issues. Heasley averaged just 91 MPH on his four-seam fastball. His season average was 93.6 MPH. That’s a significant drop. At first I thought maybe it was the wet ball, but he was average just 91.8 MPH before the rain came and he topped out at 93 MPH. Heasley already had an IL stint that came after a start with decreased velocity.

For what it’s worth, he came back in the fourth inning when the rain wasn’t quite as bad and pitched a 1-2-3 inning, but he had thrown 70 pitches through four with decreased velocity and didn’t look especially good. I don’t know. I’m not saying this is quite as bad as the Staumont outing where he threw a career-high in pitches and then went on the IL the next day, but this seems like an unnecessary risk of a young arm with a likely short game (though it ended up almost being full), a day with your best starter the next day and a day off the day after that. I think running Heasley out there was the difference between them having a chance to come back and being blown out again by a bad team, but I’m very interested to see what we see from Heasley his next time out, if he even pitches.

And again, the offense didn’t show up. They scored one in the first and got one back on an RBI groundout in the fourth, picked up a couple in the seventh on some ground balls that the Tigers couldn’t turn into outs and then the rain came and called the game. I still don’t fully understand why a game can be called after the visiting team, while leading, bats and the home team doesn’t get to respond, but that’s the rule, so the game was over and the Royals were facing a sweep unless they got a good performance from Brady Singer on Sunday.

Sunday - Royals 4, Tigers 0

Luckily, they got that performance. I had my fears that it was going to be another one of those days when Riley Greene led off the game with a single, but a slider got a double play ground ball from Victor Reyes and Singer was on his way. I’d been writing that he had been pitching a little tired over his last few starts. I don’t think I’ve changed that opinion after this one, but I do think he might be looking to pitch a little differently.

He threw 42 sliders and 42 sinkers. Why is that relevant? It was just the fifth time in his career he’s thrown at least as many sliders as sinkers. And the slider was really good. He got seven whiffs on 23 swings, but also had 10 called strikes on the slider, which is the second-most called strikes he’s had in a single game with it. I think the Tigers may have let a couple go by they should have swung at, but he was locating it pretty well.

I guess it’s tough to criticize when he can throw one that looks like this:

And then one that looks like this:

I thought his sinker was also very good, even though he continued the trend of missing arm side and up occasionally. He seemed to use the slider to reset himself and he was getting back to a good amount of the backdoor movement from left to right on the pitch, which might also be a reason the slider was so effective, even though it was in the zone.

It was fun to watch him keep the ball on the ground all day. He had a ground ball rate of 83.3 percent, which you might realize is quite high. Of the 21 outs he recorded, 14 came on the ground (with one double play), just one in the air and he had six strikeouts. That, friends, will work. It’s been a bit since I’ve done this, but since his return to the big leagues, here are Singer’s numbers:

21 GS
129 IP
116 H
47 R
44 ER
125 K (24.1%)
30 BB (5.8%)
3.07 ERA

In those 21 starts, he has pitched six or more innings 14 times and seven or more eight times. It was the fifth time he hasn’t allowed a run, the eighth time he’s allowed zero or one and the 13th time he allowed fewer than three runs. By any metric, Singer has shown himself to be a capable big league starter and then some, so at least the Royals have that heading into next season.

The offense didn’t do a lot in this one, but they did enough. A couple of singles and a sacrifice fly got them on the board in the first inning and then a very nice piece of hitting from Drew Waters got them two more in the third.

I just love the ability to drive the ball the other way for him. If he can continue to do that in the big leagues with his defense, he’s going to be just fine. Then two innings later, Michael Massey finally hit his first home run at home.

That’s a pitch a hitter should absolutely do that kind of damage against and Massey did. He has such a nice swing that you just know he’s going to be fine in the big leagues.

And as the crowd was all eyeing a 3:25 Chiefs start, the Royals and Tigers acquiesced with their shortest game of the year. The final out landed in Nate Eaton’s glove at 3:22pm CDT, which got most people to their cars by kickoff and home before the second quarter. It was a pretty perfect win.

Chiefs Chatter

I’d gather a good chunk of you are Chiefs fans as well. If you’re not, that’s okay. A quick scroll will get you to the week ahead. But boy did the Chiefs look sharp yesterday. As someone who is a big football fan but spends so much time focusing on baseball, I thought the idea that losing Tyreek Hill would derail the offense seemed pretty ridiculous, but you also truly don’t know until you see them in action. And no, preseason action doesn’t start. But there’s Patrick Mahomes just slicing through a Cardinals defense that was missing a bit but was pretty good last year. All he did was throw five touchdown passes without a pick. No big deal. I thought Clyde Edwards-Helaire showed more burst than we’ve seen in pretty much his entire career. Of course, Travis Kelce was Travis Kelce and I thought everyone just looked great. If Juju Smith-Schuster hadn’t fumbled toward the end of the first half, I think it would have been a perfect offensive game.

Like most, I think I was most intrigued to see what the defense would look like. A big sack on the first drive of the game kept the Cardinals from converting on their first third down and even though the tackling maybe left a bit to be desired a couple of times early, they were handling pretty much everything Kyler Murray was underthrowing at them. I thought the Cardinals played about as poor of a game as the Chiefs played well, but maybe that’s because the Chiefs were forcing them into that. Narratives are what they are and the final numbers were excellent, but I think it’s important to remember that they allowed 147 yards after they were up by 30 and the vast majority of the starters were sitting and gave up 135 yards in the first two and a half-ish quarters. That’s pretty solid. I’m not a fan of the Thursday night game after playing Sundays, but that’s the hand every team is dealt at some point and this Thursday is a BIG one early in the season against the Chargers.

The Week Ahead

The Royals are off today, which means they’ve won every game before an off-day since the break. Between that and the Chiefs win, it’s a good day to reflect on KC sports. On Tuesday, they start a three-game series with the Twins in Minnesota. It’s a massive series for the Twins. They currently sit 4.5 games behind Cleveland after they got swept by said Cleveland. They have 23 games to play. The Guardians are now on pace for 86 wins but the Twins have five more games against them. They probably need to finish something like 16-7 to have any shot, so this series against the Royals is huge, which means it’s good they’re throwing Joe Ryan and Sonny Gray in the first two games, but also sometimes they get so few innings from their starters that it doesn’t matter. But it’ll be nice for the Royals to get a taste of meaningful games.

After they leave Minnesota, they head to Boston. While the Red Sox have been playing a bit better, they’re out of the race now. Still, they can hit and Fenway is a park that can eat up some pitchers and only Kris Bubic has pitched there among the three Royals starters next weekend. I’m excited to see guys some of the young Royals take aim at the Green Monster, so that’ll be fun, but even though the Royals handled them pretty easily in Kansas City earlier this year, the Red Sox are a better team at home, so this’ll be fun in the way that games at Fenway are fun.