You’re right when you say this team rides together. They really do have each other’s back. And it has to be really hard for them to watch MJ look so scared at every at bat. And MJ has to be getting pretty demoralized about his stats. This needs to be fixed soon. Really soon.
Most teams aren't making a move 10 games in or even 15 games in on a guy they were willing to ride with. There is one caveat to that and it's if it's getting in his head. MJ does say all the right things about it, but he's guessing wrong almost every pitch, which is nearly impossible. He's talented enough and has enough power that he should guess right occasionally and hit a ball hard. It's just not happening. My guess is if things don't turn around this week, he won't be on the big league roster when they get back to KC.
I thought the injury to Canha would delay any (other) roster moves (they haven't exactly given Waters a lot of at-bats), but I guess they would rather send down MJ than outright release Renfroe.
The other side of it is that Melendez could theoretically get a chance to work with his stance/swing in a lower pressure environment while Renfroe is what he is. He either gets hot like last year or he gets cut. The Royals probably benefit more from sending MJ down and hoping for Renfroe to turn it around than cutting Renfroe and hoping MJ turns it around.
I listened to Kauffman Corner when you were discussing if the defense is suffering from moving guys around so much. And then India had that rough game at 3B. I think he’s a guy they need to pick a spot for and let him get comfortable there for awhile. Maybe a new team, getting used to a new position (esp if they’re putting him in LF at Kauffman), etc. isn’t giving him a chance to settle in somewhere. You’d hate to see it start effecting his bat.
He’s also been really good at third outside of that game. I’m honestly not sure it’s that big of a deal when guys move around, especially when one of those positions is the position a guy played forever and got drafted at.
I’ve just kind of come to the conclusion this isn’t a group of guys that are going to get on base enough. And that doesn’t mean they will be a bad offense. I think they are better than what they are showing, but I also see a ceiling unless things change.
While I can appreciate the patient approach, I’m starting to get frustrated with the Royals now. This is starting to feel like the old days when a team favorite player just was guaranteed a spot regardless of results. This isn’t even frustration with MJ, this is now frustration with the organization. This is not just 16 games. This is two years and 16 games now fellas. Let’s just make sure winning is the most important thing here. Make the move.
Once a team commits to something, they're not making a move after 10-15 games. They just aren't. No team is. And I know what you're saying about guys like MJ and I get it, but he's being looked at as a bottom of the order hitter. The middle of the order dream is dead and I suppose could get revived, but meh. He's hitting seventh on this team and his career 91 wRC+ is a bit below last year's league average, but that's not a good hitter spot generally. So I sort of get it. They've adjusted their plans and he's no longer a cog in their lineup. I think in a week, they'll have to adjust again and he'll no longer be a cog on their roster.
I completely get what you are saying. Look, a platoon between him and Renfoe should have worked better. Even I would admit that. Nobody in the FO, coaches, player, can argue with any results right now. 16 games or not. I’m just saying it’s time. You aren’t even doing the player a favor at this point.
I agree, but the other issue is that the other options are probably better because very little can be worse, but none are impressive at all. I think they're hoping MJ can take advantage of the short porch and get a little confidence.
The Royals made some insane trades in the early days. Cedric Tallis was incredible. So when there's a trade made 50 years later that could be the best in team history, it's clearly pretty incredible. There's a ways to go to beat Joe Foy for Amos Otis or Roger Nelson and Richie Scheinblum (the last #5 before Brett) for Hal McRae, it has a chance to be right up there in the end.
You're right about Massey. He's played six games in Yankee Stadium and has four homers with an .818 SLG. He went 3 for 7 (all singles) with two walks there in the playoffs last year.
The Harvey injury is going to hurt a little bit. Very glad in the Esteven signing now. 2 of the 3 pitching well is manageable. But the bullpen is thinner now. You have to start to wonder if Harvey is going to stay healthy in general now.
MJ needs to be moved down, not in the order, but to AA baseball for a bit or maybe forever. He doesn't appear to have any idea what he is doing at the plate. He looks hopeless and I bet he feels that way too. Have mercy on him and on the team, send him down. I hope he regroups and regains what I saw him do in Omaha a few years ago, but if not, time to say "good bye".
I know I'm not a valued evaluator of talent, but I don't understand why you bring up a player and then you sit said player mainly on the bench. I know Stanton already mentioned it, but Waters has started only 2 games. He wouldn't have been my first choice to bring up, and I know he made a couple of quick errors, but why not give the guy 75 to 100 at bats to really see what he can do with the bat. It can't be any worse than MJ or HR are doing right now!!!!!
Not that Renfroe is anywhere near a good defender, but Waters has made two errors somehow already. He’s just not a good player and I think they know that. The argument is that neither are MJ or Renfroe, but at some point I just don’t have the energy to argue who is the least bad.
I had an interesting thought watching the game yesterday, at least interesting to me. Admittedly, I watched the game last night after already knowing the result. But all I knew was they won 4-2, not the "how". Watching our best player give up a couple runs by airmailing the relay was weird. BWJ is human I suppose. But what jumped out to me was everything after that. Especially after Bobby then got robbed by Schneeman up the middle. I may have been seeing what I wanted to see, but it seemed like the rest of the team (and especially Ragans) saw that the guy who always picks them up, needing picking up. And pretty much to a man, they did just that. Especially Ragans. If you watch Schneeman's AB's against Ragans after the BWJ troubles, he struck him out both times and seemed like he wanted retribution for his buddy at SS. Almost like he was just toying with him. Again, I may be making all of this up, but it just felt like they rest of the team collectively decided that Bobby's bad throw was not going to be narrative of this game if they could do anything to change that. And change it they did.
That's an interesting perspective. I didn't happen to notice that, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. This team is pretty tight knit, so it wouldn't surprise me.
Time to cut bait with this outfield. They are horrible this year, which is just like last year. It is hard to believe they didn't shore that up in the off season. Send Melendez to Omaha, cut Renfroe, give Waters a good chance and bring Cags up.
I think there could be a good deal for both sides with Ragans and they've already talked to sign the no-years-added extension, but I'm just not sure there's an amount for Bubic right now. Or maybe right now is the perfect time. Bubic still doesn't have a track record to hang his hat on. Maybe it's incentive-laden. I don't know. I just think it's sort of tough with him because of the timing.
Thanks for the hitting breakdown. It has honestly been hard to watch in a way last year wasn't, even though we definitely had our slumps then, too. MJ needs an aura cleanse or something, because the dude is not right.
I read that the league in general is experiencing a hitting slump and that pitchers are striking out historic numbers, though. I still can't believe we went 3 for 4 against Minnesota while scoring a total of 9 runs.
The league average this year is .234/.312/.381. Last year through the third Sunday of the season, it was .243/.318/.391. So it's not that far down. Strikeout rate is right in line with this point last year. The Royals are just in a bad spot right now. They finished last year in a bad spot, but this is a little better from a run-scoring perspective than that at least.
Could there be a correlation between the Royals traditional slow start and the fact that they usually have the largest number of non roster invitees for spring training. JT
I'd say no, mostly because they don't have the largest number. Just from a quick google search, the Royals invited 23 initially while the Rays invited 30, the Dodgers 24, the Guardians 24 and the Phillies 23, just to name five teams I randomly searched. Plus, they were 10-6 last year through 16 games and were hitting better than league average. I think that sometimes teams just start slow.
I agree. They do often look lost in April. They also often have looked lost in May, June, July, August and September. Bad baseball teams are generally just bad and they’ve mostly been a bad baseball team for a long time.
Edit: Looked it up. They’ve had winning Aprils in two of the last four years and five of the last 10 (though three of the five were 2014-2016).
I limit my gambling to a few crazy odds bets at beginning of season as I am not sure I trust myself to bet on a regular basis. The fun thing about the Royals this and last season is noone but maybe the Royals fans here on substack see it coming, so you can find some good deals. Not sure if they are still up but went with these at Fanduel:
Ragans strikeout leader +1700
Q m.o.y. +1300
Dont consider AL champs at +1500 and WS champs at +4000 crazy at all, but a sound investment.
I didn't bet Jr for mvp, because that just seemed like insider trading
You’re right when you say this team rides together. They really do have each other’s back. And it has to be really hard for them to watch MJ look so scared at every at bat. And MJ has to be getting pretty demoralized about his stats. This needs to be fixed soon. Really soon.
Most teams aren't making a move 10 games in or even 15 games in on a guy they were willing to ride with. There is one caveat to that and it's if it's getting in his head. MJ does say all the right things about it, but he's guessing wrong almost every pitch, which is nearly impossible. He's talented enough and has enough power that he should guess right occasionally and hit a ball hard. It's just not happening. My guess is if things don't turn around this week, he won't be on the big league roster when they get back to KC.
That's a hot sports opinion if I ever heard one!
I thought the injury to Canha would delay any (other) roster moves (they haven't exactly given Waters a lot of at-bats), but I guess they would rather send down MJ than outright release Renfroe.
Inventory baby.
The other side of it is that Melendez could theoretically get a chance to work with his stance/swing in a lower pressure environment while Renfroe is what he is. He either gets hot like last year or he gets cut. The Royals probably benefit more from sending MJ down and hoping for Renfroe to turn it around than cutting Renfroe and hoping MJ turns it around.
I listened to Kauffman Corner when you were discussing if the defense is suffering from moving guys around so much. And then India had that rough game at 3B. I think he’s a guy they need to pick a spot for and let him get comfortable there for awhile. Maybe a new team, getting used to a new position (esp if they’re putting him in LF at Kauffman), etc. isn’t giving him a chance to settle in somewhere. You’d hate to see it start effecting his bat.
He’s also been really good at third outside of that game. I’m honestly not sure it’s that big of a deal when guys move around, especially when one of those positions is the position a guy played forever and got drafted at.
I’ve just kind of come to the conclusion this isn’t a group of guys that are going to get on base enough. And that doesn’t mean they will be a bad offense. I think they are better than what they are showing, but I also see a ceiling unless things change.
While I can appreciate the patient approach, I’m starting to get frustrated with the Royals now. This is starting to feel like the old days when a team favorite player just was guaranteed a spot regardless of results. This isn’t even frustration with MJ, this is now frustration with the organization. This is not just 16 games. This is two years and 16 games now fellas. Let’s just make sure winning is the most important thing here. Make the move.
Once a team commits to something, they're not making a move after 10-15 games. They just aren't. No team is. And I know what you're saying about guys like MJ and I get it, but he's being looked at as a bottom of the order hitter. The middle of the order dream is dead and I suppose could get revived, but meh. He's hitting seventh on this team and his career 91 wRC+ is a bit below last year's league average, but that's not a good hitter spot generally. So I sort of get it. They've adjusted their plans and he's no longer a cog in their lineup. I think in a week, they'll have to adjust again and he'll no longer be a cog on their roster.
I completely get what you are saying. Look, a platoon between him and Renfoe should have worked better. Even I would admit that. Nobody in the FO, coaches, player, can argue with any results right now. 16 games or not. I’m just saying it’s time. You aren’t even doing the player a favor at this point.
I agree, but the other issue is that the other options are probably better because very little can be worse, but none are impressive at all. I think they're hoping MJ can take advantage of the short porch and get a little confidence.
No matter how much we talk about the Ragans trade, it’s not nearly enough. He is incredible.
In my head Massey normally rakes at Yankee Stadium (picks a good time for lazy fly balls to right?) so I’m thinking he gets one out tonight.
The Royals made some insane trades in the early days. Cedric Tallis was incredible. So when there's a trade made 50 years later that could be the best in team history, it's clearly pretty incredible. There's a ways to go to beat Joe Foy for Amos Otis or Roger Nelson and Richie Scheinblum (the last #5 before Brett) for Hal McRae, it has a chance to be right up there in the end.
You're right about Massey. He's played six games in Yankee Stadium and has four homers with an .818 SLG. He went 3 for 7 (all singles) with two walks there in the playoffs last year.
JJ deserves credit for both sides of the Ragans/Chapman trade since he signed Adonis Chapman against a lot of people's advice at the time.
That's a good point. I think the concerns were valid ahead of signing him, but it worked out exceptionally well.
Hoping that Ragans hamstring tightness doesn’t turn into a thing. Was surprised he got pulled in the eighth until I saw that news.
It's the same issue he had in the playoffs last year, so I think it should be fine, but worth keeping an eye on.
I honestly think it's as much a dehydration issue as anything; it always happens late in games. Guess the guy needs to hydrate more on the bench?
That or try a banana. I mean what could that cost? $10?
In all seriousness, Ragans strikes me as the type who gets so lost in his start that he actually forgets to drink. Wouldn't surprise me at all.
After seeing all the stuff Witt puts in the “QuikTrip” bucket before the splash, I’m not sure I’d want to drink that dugout water either. ;)
The Harvey injury is going to hurt a little bit. Very glad in the Esteven signing now. 2 of the 3 pitching well is manageable. But the bullpen is thinner now. You have to start to wonder if Harvey is going to stay healthy in general now.
If it's the minimum time, it should be no real issue. Hopefully Cruz takes the opportunity and forces Stratton out with it.
Still, while I agree with you, it's probably true of all pitchers.
MJ needs to be moved down, not in the order, but to AA baseball for a bit or maybe forever. He doesn't appear to have any idea what he is doing at the plate. He looks hopeless and I bet he feels that way too. Have mercy on him and on the team, send him down. I hope he regroups and regains what I saw him do in Omaha a few years ago, but if not, time to say "good bye".
He will likely be demoted to AAA soon enough.
I know I'm not a valued evaluator of talent, but I don't understand why you bring up a player and then you sit said player mainly on the bench. I know Stanton already mentioned it, but Waters has started only 2 games. He wouldn't have been my first choice to bring up, and I know he made a couple of quick errors, but why not give the guy 75 to 100 at bats to really see what he can do with the bat. It can't be any worse than MJ or HR are doing right now!!!!!
Not that Renfroe is anywhere near a good defender, but Waters has made two errors somehow already. He’s just not a good player and I think they know that. The argument is that neither are MJ or Renfroe, but at some point I just don’t have the energy to argue who is the least bad.
I had an interesting thought watching the game yesterday, at least interesting to me. Admittedly, I watched the game last night after already knowing the result. But all I knew was they won 4-2, not the "how". Watching our best player give up a couple runs by airmailing the relay was weird. BWJ is human I suppose. But what jumped out to me was everything after that. Especially after Bobby then got robbed by Schneeman up the middle. I may have been seeing what I wanted to see, but it seemed like the rest of the team (and especially Ragans) saw that the guy who always picks them up, needing picking up. And pretty much to a man, they did just that. Especially Ragans. If you watch Schneeman's AB's against Ragans after the BWJ troubles, he struck him out both times and seemed like he wanted retribution for his buddy at SS. Almost like he was just toying with him. Again, I may be making all of this up, but it just felt like they rest of the team collectively decided that Bobby's bad throw was not going to be narrative of this game if they could do anything to change that. And change it they did.
That's an interesting perspective. I didn't happen to notice that, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. This team is pretty tight knit, so it wouldn't surprise me.
Time to cut bait with this outfield. They are horrible this year, which is just like last year. It is hard to believe they didn't shore that up in the off season. Send Melendez to Omaha, cut Renfroe, give Waters a good chance and bring Cags up.
Chief, Agree 100% but would give Cags a week in Omaha while Waters is playing RF every day to see if he can play at the major league level!
Man, Ragans was so good yesterday. I think I've said it before, but it bears repeating, I'd like to see him and Bubic get locked up in a hurry.
I think there could be a good deal for both sides with Ragans and they've already talked to sign the no-years-added extension, but I'm just not sure there's an amount for Bubic right now. Or maybe right now is the perfect time. Bubic still doesn't have a track record to hang his hat on. Maybe it's incentive-laden. I don't know. I just think it's sort of tough with him because of the timing.
Thanks for the hitting breakdown. It has honestly been hard to watch in a way last year wasn't, even though we definitely had our slumps then, too. MJ needs an aura cleanse or something, because the dude is not right.
I read that the league in general is experiencing a hitting slump and that pitchers are striking out historic numbers, though. I still can't believe we went 3 for 4 against Minnesota while scoring a total of 9 runs.
The league average this year is .234/.312/.381. Last year through the third Sunday of the season, it was .243/.318/.391. So it's not that far down. Strikeout rate is right in line with this point last year. The Royals are just in a bad spot right now. They finished last year in a bad spot, but this is a little better from a run-scoring perspective than that at least.
Could there be a correlation between the Royals traditional slow start and the fact that they usually have the largest number of non roster invitees for spring training. JT
I'd say no, mostly because they don't have the largest number. Just from a quick google search, the Royals invited 23 initially while the Rays invited 30, the Dodgers 24, the Guardians 24 and the Phillies 23, just to name five teams I randomly searched. Plus, they were 10-6 last year through 16 games and were hitting better than league average. I think that sometimes teams just start slow.
Was last year an unusual occurrence or the norm? It's just that the Royals have too many years that they just appear to be lost in April.
I agree. They do often look lost in April. They also often have looked lost in May, June, July, August and September. Bad baseball teams are generally just bad and they’ve mostly been a bad baseball team for a long time.
Edit: Looked it up. They’ve had winning Aprils in two of the last four years and five of the last 10 (though three of the five were 2014-2016).
I limit my gambling to a few crazy odds bets at beginning of season as I am not sure I trust myself to bet on a regular basis. The fun thing about the Royals this and last season is noone but maybe the Royals fans here on substack see it coming, so you can find some good deals. Not sure if they are still up but went with these at Fanduel:
Ragans strikeout leader +1700
Q m.o.y. +1300
Dont consider AL champs at +1500 and WS champs at +4000 crazy at all, but a sound investment.
I didn't bet Jr for mvp, because that just seemed like insider trading