12 Comments

Thanks for the analysis David. Very positive today! I cancelled the MLB tv this year as it just wasn’t worth it and I was watching other games. So, depending on your analysis, RR, and highlights now. It just feels like they aren’t moving off from Eldred till the end of the year. Which makes the rest of this year irrelevant to me. I’d like to see Keller pitch better though before the trade deadline. At least have the option to move him. He’s kinda getting in that no mans land where you don’t have a good feel about what should be done. Trade him now when his numbers are creeping up….keep him and see if he improves and possibly move him in the offseason….hard to see resigning him now…but maybe you can lower the price a bit. You’ve talked about it many times….but he’s a tough one.

Expand full comment
author

Things are so bad for the Royals that this qualifies as positive! I just didn't feel like dealing with the negative...again haha. And yeah, Keller, man that's a tough one. Now they're counting on their coaching staff to get him back on track and that's a pretty tough thing to sell. The saving grace is that other smart teams know what they can do with the arms the Royals have and might be willing to pay normal prices for it even if it seems like selling low for the Royals. I guess I don't know that for a fact, but Keller isn't a guy they'd move before the deadline anyway, so I guess we'll see if he can turn things around.

Expand full comment

What are the odds that not a single pitcher has taken a step forward this year. I’m talking bullpen or starting pitching. Every year you have a couple of guys put up career years and a couple guys fall off to even it out. Even with bad coaching….its quite amazing NOBODY has had that better year than last. I guess maybe Tapia.

Expand full comment
author

Yeah, really nobody has gotten any better at all. Keller for awhile looked like it, but obviously he's fallen off.

Expand full comment
Jun 13, 2022·edited Jun 13, 2022

The pitch prior to Heasley's excellent outing ending change-up was a 95 mph fastball. In both of his last two outings, he has gone around 100 pitches, and his last fastball in both was at his maximum velocity. Good sign to me that he can maintain max velo late in games. He has a nice 4 pitch mix, which seems rare for the Royals. Fastball command has been the issue and he seems to have worked through that the last three starts. He has a much better fastball than I realized. Let's keep Cal Eldred away from him.

In other news, looks like Brentz's season may be in jeopardy as he was transferred to the 60 day IL.

Expand full comment
author

He is maintaining velocity, which is a good thing.

Nothing has changed on Brentz. He was transferred to the 60-day because he'll be out longer than 60 days and they wanted to keep Jose Cuas on the roster when they reinstated Garrett from the IL. Since it was the Covid-IL, they didn't have to make a 40-man move to get Cuas up, but with Garrett back, he would have had to be removed from the 40-man (no risk of losing him) and sent back to AAA, but by moving Brentz to the 60-day, that opened up the 40-man spot to keep Cuas there. Brentz is still reportedly progressing the same, but it gave them a little flexibility to move them and kick the can down the road on a 40-man decision.

Expand full comment

I'm still pissed at Matheny and Eldred for not taking Lynch out of Saturday's game when he seemed to be struggling through inning 5. To me, those two lost the game. Does the coaching staff want to win games or are we shooting for a top three draft pick? I love baseball, but am getting tired of this type of coaching and playing. Great Inside the Crown as always. Thank you.

Expand full comment
author

I don't think this was their mindset there, but I will offer a differing viewpoint. Does a win on Saturday ultimately matter? The answer is obviously no. They're in the tank and toast. Okay, knowing that, I could see a scenario where they want to see how Lynch handles that sixth inning. Like I said, I was curious to see. It's similar to Ned never pinch hitting for Alcides Escobar in big moments or running basically anyone out.

There's going to come a time when they need Lynch (or whoever) in that sixth inning. It was a good chance to evaluate. Again, I don't think that was their mindset which leaves it as a problem, but even if you get to the right answer the wrong way, it's still a right answer. I can see an argument why it wasn't the right answer regardless, but my thought was it was useful for development and evaluation even though the end result was bad.

Expand full comment

I see your point quite clearly and I know wins like this don't matter in the standings, but if I'm a player, trying my best to win, I have a hard time losing day in and day out. Yes, it's nice to see how players handle the situations, but the pitcher was gassed (too much coddling to all players because of high salaries, but I won't get into that). How many times does a team need to evaluate their pitchers/players? Okay, I'm just frustrated at seeing another winnable game go down the toilet.

Expand full comment
author

No, I totally get it. And I don't believe that's what they were doing with him, so it was silly if they were actually trying to win the game. What I appreciated about Yost was that when asked, he said pretty clearly that the Royals are going to need these guys in these situations so he's putting them in them. Matheny has never said anything about that before, so I have no reason to believe that's what he's doing.

Expand full comment

My thoughts after yesterday were that now they have gotten the abnormality of a 3 game winning streak behind them, they can get back to doing what they do best. Losing. However, this road trip has some promise. Things could be rough in San Francisco, but they are an even match for Oakland . They could be 3-3 after those two series. The Angels have been playing like the Royals and A's for the past two weeks, so if it continues another week, the Royals could even grab a game or two there. They could possibly have a 5-4 road trip, which would be amazing. I don't know where that level of pitching is going to come from, but it's possible. Sure better than going on a road trip to Houston, New York and Toronto would be.

Expand full comment
author

I feel like the Royals are going to be catching the Angels at the wrong time, as seems to often be the case. Put this trip two weeks earlier and maybe they can get some wins, but that's a team with actual talent. I can't imagine they won't catch fire again.

Expand full comment