Royals Rumblings - News for April 26, 2024

Yesterday’s game was just weird and I was glad the Royals stole it

Let’s talk about yesterday’s game for a minute. It really was odd. I know Ryan covered it here, but I just wanted to blather on more about it.

Really, to have a clean game, they would have had to start it at least an hour earlier and we just don’t do that with sports. Fortunately, before the weather got too nasty, Salvy saw a pitch he liked and bombed it to give the Royals a lead. From there, it felt more like a soccer game than a baseball game. In soccer, football, and basketball - tempo really matters. In baseball, not so much. Except yesterday.

The Jays were trying to play slow and the Royals were trying to go fast. Berrios was working the pitch clock hard but the Royals were swinging at everything (I mean, even more than usual). Meanwhile, Ragans was trying to quickly throw strikes, trusting the elements to help make the batter’s job even more difficult. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it - it was fascinating.

In the 4th, the rain started coming down in earnest and Ragans was really struggling with the baseball and the mound. It appeared to be bothering Berrios less as the grounds crew was coming out in the middle of the innings to clean things up so Berrios would get a clean mound and then it would be soaked by the time Ragans got back out there.

It was raining as much in the top of the 5th as I’ve ever seen rain in a baseball game. The distant thunder and lightning was no longer distant. Ragans was laboring and couldn’t get a grip - of course we were all worried he was going to hurt himself. Isbel made that great catch. And we thought when Bichette (foolishly) flew out - that was the game.

What followed next was dark comedy. Can anyone tell me why anyone came back out for the bottom of the 5th? That should have been “GG, now everyone get on their planes”. There was some noise that Blue Jays manager John Schneider was pushing for the game to keep being played. After Witt fouled out a bunch of pitches to extend the inning, the field was destroyed. Surely, they would stop now, right?

I’ll let Pete Grathoff’s story from The Star pick it up from here:

The Royals’ grounds crew descended on the tarp ahead of the top of the sixth inning and began rolling it onto the field Thursday. But Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider emerged from the dugout and asked the umpires to delay the rain delay at Kauffman Stadium. The grounds crew pushed the tarp back into its place down the right-field line.

Seconds later, they started bringing it back out when they were stopped again by the umps.

Call it tarpus interruptus. The grounds crew was given a new task: start spreading “Diamond Dry” on an infield that was in puddles in hopes of soaking up the moisture.

But seven minutes later, the umpires regained their sanity, noting the futility of covering puddles in a rain storm. The tarp was brought back and put on the field, despite Schneider’s wishes.

They shouldn’t have played the top of the 5th but wanted to get the game official. They definitely should never have played the bottom of the 5th. And they even tried to play the top of the 6th. But, by then, the damage was already done - the tarp was out on an already destroyed field. I wonder if the umps told Schneider that this was a travel day and if they stopped the game, it was going to be stopped for good?

After more than an hour, the sky cleared up and gave them a window:

The word circulated that the game would restart at 6. But on the messy field? How?

Finally, they called it

EDIT: Grathoff got a late story in about what all went down with the field, tarp, and umpire decisions.

16-10. That’s dangerously close to 18-11. Thankfully, they avoided the cursed 16-9.

Speaking of Anne Rogers, yesterday she wrote about “how Pasquantino has become a defensive anchor”:

Through 25 games entering Thursday, Pasquantino has played excellent defense, leading American League first basemen with four Outs Above Average and three runs prevented. The former is tied for second among all first basemen in the Major Leagues, and latter is tied for first. Using FanGraphs’ metrics, Pasquantino leads AL first basemen with five Defensive Runs Saved — four more than No. 2 on that list (Baltimore’s Ryan Mountcastle) — and ranks second among MLB first basemen.

“I don’t know if there’s anything different, maybe just a little bit more comfortable,” Pasquantino said. “I’m working on some more things in more detail than I had before, instead of worrying about just the offensive part of my game, which has been fun.”

Mark Simon talked to Kyle Isbel on the latest episode of the Sports Info Solutions (The Fielding Bible people) podcast. I haven’t listened to it yet so let me know if he’s talking about Satanic rituals or St. Louis high schools and I’ll kill the link. Here’s the description of it he posted to Reddit:

Hi everyone- Hope you don’t mind posting a link to the latest episode of our baseball podcast here. I talked to Kyle Isbel about “impossibles,” how he goes after balls, his Bryce Harper HR robbery, and what tattoo he’d get if he was getting a defense-themed tattoo. Plus, if you stick around, I talk to baseball writer Daniel Epstein on a few topics, and my colleague Brandon Tew about Kansas’ unique approach to D.

Hey, that’s topical:

Onto the blogs.

Craig Brown and David Lesky each talked about the game on Wednesday.

Craig talked about Marsh:

What I was really focused on about Marsh was his pitch mix. On Wednesday, his primary pitch behind the four-seamer was his slider. The game before that, the slider was his fourth-most frequent offering. The game before that, it was his number two pitch. And the game before that…well, how about I just drop his pitch percentage chart from his first four starts.

That’s quite the alteration of the arsenal being deployed against opposing hitters. It’s keeping them off balance and it’s what I think is playing a key role in Marsh’s success. Of course, the stuff has to be good as well.

While David focused on the bats ($):

It’s not just making contact, though. The contact they make is legitimately good contact. Last night, they had 10 hard-hit balls, averaged 89.5 MPH and had two more barrels. They are seventh in baseball in hard-hit percentage, fourth in barrel percentage and fourth in average exit velocity. I know people got sick of hearing about the expected statistics last year, but the Royals offense have a .257/.321/.460 expected line with an xwOBA of .338. Here are the MLB rankings for those stats:

xBA - 9th

xOBP - 16th

xSLG - 2nd

xwOBA - 4th

And here are the actual numbers with their actual rankings:

BA - .239 (17th)

OBP - .306 (22nd)

SLG - .399 (11th)

wOBA - .313 (16th)

There is absolutely a bit of a disconnect here with what the offense is doing over the course of the season and what it feels like they should be doing. This isn’t the first time I’ve written this, but last year, there was a similar issue for the offense underperforming. The difference, though, is that last year, they were making good contact but weren’t making enough of it. Now they’re making a lot of contact and it’s still good contact, but the results just aren’t there. The funny thing about a baseball season is that things tend to even out.

Over at Farm to Fountains, Zac Miller profiled Blake Mitchell:

I say all this to give an example of what Mitchell’s progression may look like given the similarities between him and Jensen. However, it seems like we may all be pleasantly surprised much sooner. Although it’s a small sample size, Mitchell has been off to a hot start in 2024. Through 68 PA, he is slashing .275/.456/.471, with a 30.9 K%, 23.5 BB%, and 173 wRC+.

This is a great start for any player, but this is an incredibly impressive start for such a young player. His ultimate ceiling will depend on how his plate approach translates against the pitchers who will challenge him more in the strike zone in the upper levels of the minors. It is a very encouraging start for Blake Mitchell’s career, and I am eager to see how he continues to perform as he works his way through the minors. Having two young, top-catching prospects in Mitchell and Jensen is needed with Salvy most likely hanging up the cleats in the next few years, paving the way for them to have ample opportunity to earn a spot in Kansas City.

Ontiveros may have been onto something. Although many of us may have been frustrated with the Royals’ process in choosing Mitchell in the 2023 draft, we cannot deny that he is making us eat our words a bit so far. I am happy to admit it and hope that one year, two years, or five years from now we can all join with Ontiveros in saying, “I feel really good about that pick.”

Blog roundup:

• Darin Watson at ULT: This Date In Royals History—1984 Edition: April 25 - An unlikely source powers the Royals to a walkoff win.
• Jacob Milham at KOK: 3 early KC Royals candidates poised for the All-Star Game
• Patrick Glancy at Powder Blue Nostalgia, following up last week’s “Fathers and...” with this week’s “...Sons”

Let’s do a quick couple of “MLB” stories.

The first is a listicle, of sorts. Matt Snyder names his first month All-Stars. The Royals have 1 starter and two honorable mentions:

Catcher - Salvador Perez, Royals

The venerable Sal! He turns 34 next month and there’s surely plenty of wear and tear on that body, but he’s still catching the majority of the games while hitting .348 with six homers and 23 RBI. Get this: He’s already more than doubled his WAR from last season.

First base - Josh Naylor, Guardians...

In the mix: Ryan Mountcastle, Orioles; Vinnie Pasquantino, Royals; Triston Casas, Red Sox

Shortstop - Gunnar Henderson, Orioles

This is neck-and-neck between two players who look capable of winning an MVP. I’ll go with Henderson by the slightest of margins but there’s no wrong answer. Gunnar is hitting .309/.373/.649 with eight homers, 20 RBI, 20 runs and five steals.

In the mix: Bobby Witt Jr., Royals; Anthony Volpe, Yankees

Tucked into Dan Szymborski’s (Szymborski! Szymborski!) article about whether the White Sox can lose 120 games (spoiler: ZIPS has them at an 8.1% chance of the feat currently) is this nugget that I think all rebuilding teams should consider:

It’s tragic – in a baseball sense – that the fans endured a seven-year rebuild only to have the win-now phase amount to only two seasons, one of them severely shortened by the pandemic. And unlike teams that can claim to have suffered an extraordinary series of unfortunate events, this tale is largely one the White Sox wrote for themselves. Coming off a 93-win season in 2021 in which they lapped the division, finishing in first by 13 games, the White Sox suddenly stopped acting like contenders. Rather than addressing their weaknesses, they simply added a couple of relievers (Kendall Graveman and Joe Kelly) and called it an offseason. Despite getting no offensive contributions from second base, the outfielder corners, and designated hitter in 2021, the team’s big position player move was bringing back Leury García on a three-year contract.

Players’ Weekend will be back in August! Yay!

During the weekend, players will wear special New Era caps featuring each players’ uniform number on the side panel in a youthful design. Players also will be able to utilize customized bats during the games and, as is customary throughout the regular season, can wear cleats with personalized designs. There will be no changes to the uniforms or players’ names on their jerseys.

Wait? No! BOOO! That was the best part, you fun-hating cretins.

We’re already over 2000 words so let’s call this one a night. If you need an OT, I think there was some NFL Draft thing last night.

It’s been 3 years since we revisited Soul Blade (the PS1 port of Soul Edge), so we’re long overdue to revisit that excellent soundtrack. Today is Rock’s theme, Recollect Continent: