I don’t think Greinke is really a leader type guy. But man, I really hope some of these pitchers on the staff really study him pitching. Good things tend to happen when you move the ball around, change speeds, and fill up the zone. And 99% of the pitching staff has better “stuff” than Greinke at this point as well.
I think it's telling that the guy who seems to be spending the most time with him is Daniel Lynch and he's starting to look like a legitimate big league pitcher.
The person who should study him the most is Singer. From what I know of Singer I'd bet he's the one studying him the least. Even before he went to AAA.
I think everyone here knows how I feel about Singer, so I'd tend to agree. Though they did talk a lot in spring training about how Greinke and Singer had a few conversations, so could be wrong here.
My father used to say if the steak tastes good he didn't care how the cow got slaughtered. I'm dazzled and baffled watching Greinke. Dazzled at how he commands his craft and baffled that no one can hit him lol. It is fun.
And, hey with this Offense, we'll take all the fun we can find. This just seems like one of those years - the O is going to stink, DM and crew will do basically nothing sensical to address it and we suffer all year long.
I'm usually highly optimistic but it all starts at the top and there is ZERO reason to think we're going to make any moves (ideas: fire TB, pull up Vinnie, whatever) other than moving a few pieces around that aren't hitting.
This is lining up to be the most painful Royals season to watch on record. We've had quality start after quality start and here we sit at 7-14 and 6 games back after just 21 games. Truly pathetic even by Royals standards.
Yeah, the offense has been a disaster for the most part. The good news is that the approach maybe seems to be turning a little bit. No starter has gone more than six against them in the last nine games and they've averaged about four pitches per plate appearance against starters with a 9.7% walk rate against them. The problem is the thump is just not there.
The positive to that is Salvy likely won't be a complete mess all year. Bobby Witt Jr. seems to be selling out for contact and the exit velocities have started to show up for him the last few games, so he could be starting to drive the ball soon. And MJ is up now with Vinnie hot almost all year and Pratto starting to heat up. So there's where you can find the hope. I'm not saying I'm expecting them to both get up to the big leagues and light it up, but I still am of the belief that this offense is a placeholder. If and when the Royals are competing for a division title, I would anticipate there only being three, maybe four, Opening Day starters from this year in the lineup.
Doesn't make it any easier to watch right now, though, that's for sure.
They say it is always darkest before the dawn and right now it's black hole dark for our O so something has to give and I think you're probably right regarding BWJ and Salvy.
And Lesky, I hope you're right, but I don't see much hope in the rest of what you said:
- MJ is only up until Cam is good to go again most likely
- Carlos is basically etched in the lineup stone with the LLLLLOOOOOONNNNGGGG shot dream that at some point he'll heat up and someone will take him off our hands. Note to Royals Brass - we are already 1/8th of the way through the year - that's a big enough sample for other teams to know what Carlos can do and what he can't anymore.
So no matter how many potential W's it costs us Carlos will just keep getting ran out there and as long as that happens the Vinnie and Pratto era will just have to wait - and so will us fans on the Wins.
I'm not entirely sure MJ is only up until Cam is good to go. I actually do think it'll be up to MJ. Cam is gone long enough that he can establish himself one way or another and if he's hitting well enough, they'll find a spot. That's why he's playing everywhere in the minors.
And as for Santana, I think it's been largely unnoticed, but he was hitting the ball hard with some rough outcomes and lately has actually been fairly productive. He's hitting .258/.410/.419 in his last nine, which isn't great, but in an offense like this, you can't sit that down right now. My thought is Vinnie and Pratto aren't saving the season if you bring them up right now and it's not hindering their 2023 development if you wait to bring them up, so why not see if there can be some movement on Santana?
I wouldn't be surprised if Perez is still having vision problems. It looks like he's swinging as hard as he can, guessing fastball. On many occasions missing the ball by a foot rather than by an inch/fraction of an inch. Doesn't appear that he's picking up spin at all. Watching his at bats are painful. 80% of the time I can guess correctly the pitch and location of the pitch during his at bats. Is Matheny afraid to give him a full day off and is Bradshaw afraid to say anything because he's "Salvy"?
I honestly hadn't even considered the vision problems. I guess hitting two homers on a day you have blurred vision makes me think that it's not an issue, but that's a really good point. I don't know if anyone is afraid of anything here, but my guess is if this is the issue, Salvy isn't being totally forthcoming about it.
So I know the season is only just getting going and offense is down everywhere, but as you said on Twitter the Royals' offense has been pathetic lately.
It's probably obvious, but at what point do struggling veterans--who are likely going to eventually heat up, but probably not in time to put us back into contention--give up opportunities to the upcoming younger core?
MAT looks like a flippable piece right now. I have seen Santana start turning it around the last week and a half, but also wonder what value his production even means to the next good Royals team. How much longer do these guys try to establish trade value before opportunity cost of not developing Vinnie and Pratto outweighs possible trade returns?
I just mentioned this in the reply above, but I don't think you're helping the Royals enough to bring those guys up right now or hurting their development enough to leave them down for a few more weeks just to hope on Santana bringing *something* back, though I'm not confident. The only thing bringing them up now changes is maybe a few games of fan interest, which isn't worthless, but in the grand scheme of things doesn't make a ton of difference.
Yeah... that has to be true. Hard to not get caught up in the sweaty Royals fan panic vibes after getting swept and then losing to the Cards in a totally winnable game. I do think Santana's warming up is legitimate and expect him to be serviceable moving forward. It's just hard to wrap your head around whether it'll genuinely help with anything. But I agree it's not hurting anything other than the excitement this team is generating right now.
It is super easy to get lost in the moment. I don’t know if Santana’s warmup is legit or not but the metrics support it at the very least. I still maintain that this team is mediocre and not bad but mediocre teams are bad for periods of time and I think that’s what this is.
I don’t think Greinke is really a leader type guy. But man, I really hope some of these pitchers on the staff really study him pitching. Good things tend to happen when you move the ball around, change speeds, and fill up the zone. And 99% of the pitching staff has better “stuff” than Greinke at this point as well.
I think it's telling that the guy who seems to be spending the most time with him is Daniel Lynch and he's starting to look like a legitimate big league pitcher.
Time, they say, is a flat circle and if you believe this is all just a simulation, you might wonder if this simulation simply reset itself.
---------
Hey, this job isn't easy! So now and then I might cut/paste some old code and throw it into 2022, sue me!
The person who should study him the most is Singer. From what I know of Singer I'd bet he's the one studying him the least. Even before he went to AAA.
I think everyone here knows how I feel about Singer, so I'd tend to agree. Though they did talk a lot in spring training about how Greinke and Singer had a few conversations, so could be wrong here.
My father used to say if the steak tastes good he didn't care how the cow got slaughtered. I'm dazzled and baffled watching Greinke. Dazzled at how he commands his craft and baffled that no one can hit him lol. It is fun.
And, hey with this Offense, we'll take all the fun we can find. This just seems like one of those years - the O is going to stink, DM and crew will do basically nothing sensical to address it and we suffer all year long.
I'm usually highly optimistic but it all starts at the top and there is ZERO reason to think we're going to make any moves (ideas: fire TB, pull up Vinnie, whatever) other than moving a few pieces around that aren't hitting.
This is lining up to be the most painful Royals season to watch on record. We've had quality start after quality start and here we sit at 7-14 and 6 games back after just 21 games. Truly pathetic even by Royals standards.
Yeah, the offense has been a disaster for the most part. The good news is that the approach maybe seems to be turning a little bit. No starter has gone more than six against them in the last nine games and they've averaged about four pitches per plate appearance against starters with a 9.7% walk rate against them. The problem is the thump is just not there.
The positive to that is Salvy likely won't be a complete mess all year. Bobby Witt Jr. seems to be selling out for contact and the exit velocities have started to show up for him the last few games, so he could be starting to drive the ball soon. And MJ is up now with Vinnie hot almost all year and Pratto starting to heat up. So there's where you can find the hope. I'm not saying I'm expecting them to both get up to the big leagues and light it up, but I still am of the belief that this offense is a placeholder. If and when the Royals are competing for a division title, I would anticipate there only being three, maybe four, Opening Day starters from this year in the lineup.
Doesn't make it any easier to watch right now, though, that's for sure.
They say it is always darkest before the dawn and right now it's black hole dark for our O so something has to give and I think you're probably right regarding BWJ and Salvy.
And Lesky, I hope you're right, but I don't see much hope in the rest of what you said:
- MJ is only up until Cam is good to go again most likely
- Carlos is basically etched in the lineup stone with the LLLLLOOOOOONNNNGGGG shot dream that at some point he'll heat up and someone will take him off our hands. Note to Royals Brass - we are already 1/8th of the way through the year - that's a big enough sample for other teams to know what Carlos can do and what he can't anymore.
So no matter how many potential W's it costs us Carlos will just keep getting ran out there and as long as that happens the Vinnie and Pratto era will just have to wait - and so will us fans on the Wins.
I'm not entirely sure MJ is only up until Cam is good to go. I actually do think it'll be up to MJ. Cam is gone long enough that he can establish himself one way or another and if he's hitting well enough, they'll find a spot. That's why he's playing everywhere in the minors.
And as for Santana, I think it's been largely unnoticed, but he was hitting the ball hard with some rough outcomes and lately has actually been fairly productive. He's hitting .258/.410/.419 in his last nine, which isn't great, but in an offense like this, you can't sit that down right now. My thought is Vinnie and Pratto aren't saving the season if you bring them up right now and it's not hindering their 2023 development if you wait to bring them up, so why not see if there can be some movement on Santana?
I wouldn't be surprised if Perez is still having vision problems. It looks like he's swinging as hard as he can, guessing fastball. On many occasions missing the ball by a foot rather than by an inch/fraction of an inch. Doesn't appear that he's picking up spin at all. Watching his at bats are painful. 80% of the time I can guess correctly the pitch and location of the pitch during his at bats. Is Matheny afraid to give him a full day off and is Bradshaw afraid to say anything because he's "Salvy"?
I honestly hadn't even considered the vision problems. I guess hitting two homers on a day you have blurred vision makes me think that it's not an issue, but that's a really good point. I don't know if anyone is afraid of anything here, but my guess is if this is the issue, Salvy isn't being totally forthcoming about it.
So I know the season is only just getting going and offense is down everywhere, but as you said on Twitter the Royals' offense has been pathetic lately.
It's probably obvious, but at what point do struggling veterans--who are likely going to eventually heat up, but probably not in time to put us back into contention--give up opportunities to the upcoming younger core?
MAT looks like a flippable piece right now. I have seen Santana start turning it around the last week and a half, but also wonder what value his production even means to the next good Royals team. How much longer do these guys try to establish trade value before opportunity cost of not developing Vinnie and Pratto outweighs possible trade returns?
I just mentioned this in the reply above, but I don't think you're helping the Royals enough to bring those guys up right now or hurting their development enough to leave them down for a few more weeks just to hope on Santana bringing *something* back, though I'm not confident. The only thing bringing them up now changes is maybe a few games of fan interest, which isn't worthless, but in the grand scheme of things doesn't make a ton of difference.
Yeah... that has to be true. Hard to not get caught up in the sweaty Royals fan panic vibes after getting swept and then losing to the Cards in a totally winnable game. I do think Santana's warming up is legitimate and expect him to be serviceable moving forward. It's just hard to wrap your head around whether it'll genuinely help with anything. But I agree it's not hurting anything other than the excitement this team is generating right now.
It is super easy to get lost in the moment. I don’t know if Santana’s warmup is legit or not but the metrics support it at the very least. I still maintain that this team is mediocre and not bad but mediocre teams are bad for periods of time and I think that’s what this is.