Royals Rumblings - News for August 23, 2024

I’m doing my part: Royals on a 7-week Thursday unbeaten streak!

I was going to jump straight into the links but I think it’s time to stop and smell the context.

The Royals are about to enter their 20-game gauntlet against some of the best teams in baseball: 3v PHI, 4@ CLE, 4@ HOU, 3v CLE, 3v MIN, and 3@ NYY. After that stretch, the rest of the season is 3@ PIT, 3v DET, 3v SFG, 3@ WSN, and 3@ ATL.

They’ve played well lately and put themselves in a good position to hopefully weather some difficult days. The Guardians lead in the Central is down to 2 over both the Royals and Twins. The Royals are also tied with the Twins for the 2nd Wild Card, both teams 3.5 games clear of the Red Sox.

(Everything below here is as of about 6pm yesterday, so this morning’s numbers might be slightly different)

I know run differential isn’t everything, but the Royals have the third best RD in all of baseball! Their +110 is only behind the Yankees +125 and the Dodgers +111. Only two other teams are at +100 with the Phillies at +101 and the Brewers at +100.

Playoff percentages?

Pessimistic PECOTA has them with 87.3 wins for a 64.9% playoff chance, 7.5% to win the division, and 2.7% to win the World Series.

Baseball Reference gets them home at 89.0 with percentages of 82.1%, 16.9%, and 5.8%.

Fangraphs standard projection has them at 88.1 with 75.3%, 19.6%, and 3.1%. Interestingly, if you use their Season-to-Date stats model, that jumps to 90.5 wins and 87.1%, 30.5%, and 9.2%(!).

This season could still end in disappointment and we might look back at this as the high point of the season. But, for now, this is as much as we could have realistically asked for from this team.

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That business aside, onto Jaylon Thompson at The Star. He writes about pitching coaches Brian Sweeney and Zach Bove:

During spring training, the coaches examined the 32-year-old’s career numbers (he turned 33 in July) and considered Wacha’s baseline physical traits. They talked daily about correct pitching grips and various data as Wacha worked to incorporate the new-to-him pitch into his routine.

“We have been using a lot of that tech and stuff to see kind of the movement patterns that I have been getting on it,” Wacha said. “(We were) trying different grips to get the movement that we want. They were all on board with it as well. It was something that I’ve always been searching for.”

Wacha found a consistent grip on his slider earlier this season. He worked with Bove to debut the new grip in an April 23 game against the Toronto Blue Jays. It produced positive results immediately.

Sam McDowell writes about how this late season version of the Royals is the best they’ve been all year:

They are 3 1/2 games clear of Boston in the AL Wild Card race, trailing Cleveland by a smaller margin. That’s an important aspect of the story: They’ve offered themselves some cushion for the gauntlet that comes next.

But a more important aspect: Their trade-deadline additions are particularly relevant in a league that didn’t have perennial All-Star names switching uniforms, and particularly relevant in a league that won’t feature a 100-win team.

It’s as wide open as it’s been in a decade.

There’s opportunity.

Whatever happens, this much is true: The Royals are better suited for it than they have been all season.

Pete Grathoff noted that MJ Melendez won every fan at Wednesday game a sandwich for hitting a homer off of the Chick-fil-A “Fowl Pole”.

At MLB.com, Anne Rogers talks about the Paul DeJong acquisition:

“I think it’s given me a lot of life to be able to come here every day and compete with these guys,” DeJong said. “They’ve had their culture all year, they’ve been doing well, but for me to be able to step in and do what I can do and bring something to this team, it just makes coming to the ballpark a lot more fun.”

How about some fun Royals stats, courtesy of folks on Twitter?

Other outlets are starting to take notice of the Royals. AP’s Dave Skretta wrote about the team:

J.J. Picollo was sitting in the Royals’ dugout hours before a game against the Angels this week, talking about what has been one of the most remarkable turnarounds in major league history. The conversation meandered toward Picollo’s wife, Nicole, and the Royals general manager pointed to the upper deck down the third-base line.

“She likes to sit up there,” he said with a smile. “She likes to be out with the fans.”

Just feigning interest up there, so high above the action?

“Oh no,” Picollo said. “It’s not like she’s bringing a book. She’s very into it.”

That goes for a lot of people in Kansas City these days.

Yahoo’s Russell Dorsey wrote about the AL Central race:

The Guardians have been leading the division for most of the year, and while they still hold a 2.5-game lead, they’ve hit a lull since the All-Star break. Their offense, which carried them in the first half, sits in the bottom half of the league in that span. And while the bullpen has continued to thrive, their starters have an ERA near 5.0.

And while the Guardians haven’t been horrible by any stretch, the Royals have started to hit their stride at the right time, going 19-11 since the break. Minnesota has stayed somewhat steady, going 16-14 in that span.

I know this was yesterday’s news and it’s not really Royals news, but it includes some quotes from former Royals so I’m going to allow it. I think most people have some favorite players they cheer for on other teams and Joey Votto was one of mine. C. Trent Rosecrans, Rustin Dodd and Jayson Jenks wrote about his retirement for the New York Times:

Affeldt: Right in the middle of my delivery, I’d lift my leg and he’d just step out of the box. I’d almost stop my pitch because I thought he called timeout. He didn’t. And then the umpire never called timeout, so I’d throw a ball. And I’d look at him, and he’d just kind of grin. And then he’d do it again. There were a couple times I yelled at him: “If you do that again, I’m gonna hit you in the neck.” But I knew he was bantering. And then the next time I faced him, like two days later, I came set and he looked at me and took his hand off the bat. I kind of looked at him, and he said, “Don’t hit me in the neck, hit me in the head.”

I couldn’t really figure out a way to squeeze something Royals into this story but I’m going to include it anyway. At Fangraphs, Michael Baumann has the humorous “Gen-Z Is Killing the Curveball”:

Deep down, I detest the slider. It is a crude instrument, with none of the curveball’s grace or the changeup’s playfulness. The curveball is a calligraphy brush, all swooping lines and fine control. The changeup is a Blackwing pencil, rich and precise, its marks here one moment and gone the next.

The slider is a crayon.

It is a blunt, imprecise tool, the perfect pitch for this moment in history, an age of postliterate maximalism in all areas of life, baseball included. There’s a (probably apocryphal) story about the Red Army at Stalingrad, depicted memorably in Enemy at the Gates: Soldiers would arrive at the front to find that there weren’t enough rifles to go around. So the Red Army officers would send unarmed men to the front and tell them to take a gun from a dead comrade.

The modern major league team must be restrained by statute to an eight-man bullpen, and the path to the playoffs frequently leaves that many exhausted arms on the injured list. If the GM is Marshal Zhukhov, the slider is the Mosin-Nagant. Do not be alarmed. A bullpen spot will become available soon.

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Blog time!

The big duo of venerable wordsmiths were both writing about Wednesday’s game, specifically Michael Lorenzen and the bullpen. There were also other tidbits.

Craig Brown at Into the Fountains:

This wasn’t the first time Johnny Cueto took the mound at Kauffman Stadium since his 2015 World Series Game Two masterpiece, but it was probably the last time. That’s why it was so nice to see the crowd rise to salute the shimmying right-hander as he walked off the mound after being removed from the game in the seventh inning. And it was equally nice to see Cueto smile and acknowledge the ovation.

That’s a connection that will never be unbroken. Cueto pitched 81 innings in a Royals jersey, plus 25 more in the postseason. A short tenure, but one that will never be forgotten. Don’t think that moment was lost on the guys in the home dugout. They’ve had to live in the shadow of the pennant winners of 2014 and 2015. Legacies loom large when the results go south, especially for an extended period of time. Yet they are a mere 35 games away from entering that postseason nirvana and making their own mark on this franchise and this city.

David Lesky at Inside the Crown ($):

Isbel can be so frustrating because you see swings like that and wonder why he can’t do it more consistently. Though he is hitting .262/.319/.536 in 168 plate appearances since the start of June. So maybe he has found his stride. He was 1 for 25 from July 28 through August 7. Since then, he’s hitting .414/.433/.655. Is he streaky? Sure. But if he can put up that line since the start of June with his defense, there’s no reason to look for center field help anywhere else.

Blog roundup (got some oddball ones today):

• Zac Miller at Farm to Fountains: 10 eye-popping stats among Royals’ prospects
• Darin Watson at U.L.’s Toothpick: This Date In Royals History—1984 Edition: August 22Happy to see a pitcher who’s not Roger Clemens, the Royals score early and often in a win over Boston. (Royals still 2 games under .500 at 62-64 at this point)
• Mike Gillespie at KOK: Look who’s suddenly sizzling for the KC Royals
• Mike Gillespie at KOK (part 2): KC Royals still can’t shake biggest headache
• Jacob Milham at KOK: Why KC Royals fans will not see Nick Pratto back in 2024
• Tim Crawley at NESN: Red-Hot Royals Refuse To Lose Games, Ground To Red Sox In Playoff Race
• Andrew Meyers at Clutch Points: 3 prospects Royals must promote for playoff stretch run

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We continue our tour around Asian baseball. In case you missed the previews back in the Spring, here are links to the CPBL, KBO, and NPB previews. As noted last week: the midseason checks are more laid back than the previews and season wraps. We’ll see what stories around the league filtered back to US audiences and how our rooting interests are doing.

The KBO is as popular as ever, having already broken the single-season attendance record with more than a month to go. Our Hanwha Eagles are noted in the article as they “enjoyed a 17-game sellout streak earlier in the year and have played 41 of their 60 home games in front of a packed house”. I’m sure that’s because they could potentially have their best season since we’ve been following them as they are currently sitting in... 7th place (as opposed to 10th, 10th, 10th, and 9th the last 4 years).

As for the good teams, the Kia Tigers are running away with the league right now at 70-46-2. No one is within 5 games of them. Last week, 20yo Kim Do-yeong became the youngest 30/30 man in KBO history. This week, Yang Hyeon-jong became the new KBO strikeout king:

Kia Tigers left-hander Yang Hyeon-jong was crowned the new career strikeout king in South Korean baseball Wednesday, proving that nice guys can finish first in sports.

Yang struck out Yoon Dong-hee of the Lotte Giants in the top of the third inning of the teams’ Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) regular-season game at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, some 270 kilometers south of Seoul. It was Yang’s 2,049th career strikeout, moving him past former Hanwha Eagles pitcher Song Jin-woo.

The irony is striking: Yang, widely regarded as one of the nicest men in the KBO, has now embarrassed more batters than any pitcher in league history by making them take walks of shame back to the dugout.

Along with the Tigers, the Samsung Lions (64-53-2), LG Twins (62-53-2), and Doosan Bears (62-57-2) are the only teams in the league with winning records. The fight for the 5th and final playoff spot should be tight as the KT Wiz and SSG Landers are virtually tied. But everyone is still in the race with the Eagles 2.0 GB, Lotte Giants 3.0 GB, NC Dinos 4.5 GB, and last place Kiwoom Heroes still only 6.0 GB.

Like the CPBL, the KBO All-Star game sounded quite fun:

Many players brought their children to the ballpark. And there was no shortage of entertaining performances, with one highlight starring Lotte Giants outfielder Hwang Seong-bin, a last-minute injury replacement, as he delivered a rosin bag to his teammate on the mound, Park Se-woong, in a metal box while riding a scooter.

Costumes ranged from a leather jacket to a firefighter’s uniform — for Team Nanum reliever Cho Sang-woo trying to put out the figurative baseball fire — to a King Kong. Dean, who has said he dreamed of becoming a pizza delivery man as a boy, brought real pizza to the plate and gave opposing catcher Yang Eui-ji a slice in the first inning.

Finally, former Korean MLB star Choo Shin-soo is going on a farewell tour this season. Starting back in July, he began “hold[ing] an autograph session at every ballpark in the Korean baseball league... during the Landers’ final series at each road stadium”:

“I’ve had ups and downs throughout my long professional career, and at every turn, love and support from my fans helped me get back on my feet,” Choo said. “I am pleased to have this opportunity to see my fans for one last time.”

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Didn’t really have a song in mind today. Been listening to the Final Fantasy VIII theme this past week but we’ve already done it this year. So how about we revisit Kingdom Hearts with “Destiny’s Force”: