Royals

[Sparko]

Just watched the Cubs look at 16 pitches in row, five stikes, but probably four not called. Harvey out with back issues after that. Squeezing KC pitchers. MLB not interested in a KC playoff run I think. The balls are different too. Vinnie nailed one with the wind and it stayed in the park. Wisdom reached out and doinked a ball over the batter's eye. Need to test the balls again. Random ballistics. Hitting is mostly down, but there are "live" balls out there semi randomly.

The Royals need a lot of help. Worst base running coaching I have ever seen. The Harvey trade looks like a huge mistake. Mac looks scared shitless now. Whole pen is pretty bad.

[Sparko]

Witt played the greatest, most complete 9th inning I have seen at bat, and in the field. My God. Willed them to the win. Mac got the save.

[pdub]

8th inning is when he put the Royals up.

[Sparko]

That is true. Really end game. Outstanding work in 8th and 9th.

[pdub]

Witt has been money for me when using him in a 3 leg parlay - over .5 singles.

[Sparko]

Witt may be chasing Brett or Williams by the end of the season.

[Back2Lawrence]

6 3+ hit games since break. He’s been amazing.

His dumb fucking base running still helped lose a game over the weekend though.

Live and die with the aggressiveness though, I suppose.

[Sparko]

6 3+ hit games since break. He’s been amazing.

His dumb fucking base running still helped lose a game over the weekend though.

Live and die with the aggressiveness though, I suppose.

I am glad you mentioned the base running. I have never ever at any level seen a worse coached team on the bases. Routinely picked off, misreading pick off moves (poor scouting), over running plays. Happened again yesterday and would have lost the game but Lopez helped them out.

[Back2Lawrence]

It’s definitely frustrating.

For this team, though, playing against conventional wisdom (in today’s analytic world), not reigning in the aggression on the base paths might be the best way to keep them from playing with timidity.

My favorite part of this team is they are playing like 14-15 2.0 (but still in ‘13). Who knows though. 57 games left? It’s a lot but not really if they can avoid a swoon, especially this week out on the road for confidence the last 8 weeks.

Cities are more fun rallying around a baseball team than a football team, IMO.

The Chiefs, with their hyper-level of success and extra hillbilly fanbase might be a current exception.

[Back2Lawrence]

I believe the White Sox just got two of those dead balls you love to reference.

Rally time

[Back2Lawrence]

Well, it was an inning later than I wished for, but I’ll take it.

The Witt Tale continues.

Never like to see it start against a guy making his MLB debut. These dudes work their ass off to get up here.

[Back2Lawrence]

And Sparko…there’s more super aggressive (and this time heads up) base running to put Royals up 2.

I’m with ya in hating to e errors when they happen, but maybe they are a necessary function of this teams’ success?

[Back2Lawrence]

Well, I’ll take it.

Tied with Twins.

+2 games/+3 wins, -1 loss on Red Sox.

[Sparko]

The aggressiveness probably was a wash as Vinnie was thrown out. But Salvy a HIDP machine lately so it was okay. The dead balls were a thing last night. Even Hudler mentioned it. The issue in 2021 when a similar thing happened was that the Yankees seemed to get the most live balls by far. Holding true again I think. Probably need to test them again. MLB is a racket. Big markets vs dwindling ratings cause panic.

[twocoach]

Damn, Bobby Witt is raking it this year, Brett's 1980 season is probably the only season he had that was better than the season Witt is putting together.

[pdub]

Royals also making moves with their meh farm system.
Now their farm system is pretty trash...but they got a couple pitchers who could win them 2-3 games which might be the difference.

[Back2Lawrence]

Coolest thing Royals did this year was bring Pennington up to make his debut in his hometown (Denver).

I was actually thinking they might bring him up for middle relief duty down stretch, and was a bit sad to see him go based on potential/promise.

[jfish26]

Coolest thing Royals did this year was bring Pennington up to make his debut in his hometown (Denver).

I was actually thinking they might bring him up for middle relief duty down stretch, and was a bit sad to see him go based on potential/promise.

Got caught in service time/options limbo, and then became more valuable as a trade chip than a bullpen option. So it goes.

[Sparko]

Got some Fish approved Team control with their haul. I think the Royals got out of it okay.
Crushed the Sox again, who we can now root for breaking alltime loss records.

[pdub]

Bobby Witt hit .489 in July - the 5th highest average in a month since 1930.