Royals

[Sparko]

Playing against the pitcher with the lowest BA against in MLB. That said, the Royals are just missing pitches. Something wrong with our prep.
Meanwhile teams are keying on the breaking ball. They know when it is coming. Two HRs on good pitches in the 4th. But they just waited for it.
Royals watching strike one every time too
And another breaking ball left for Alvarez. Q???

[pdub]

Swept.

[Back2Lawrence]

If we don't win 2/3 or better from Cleveland, I'm stepping away for 7 days as a Royal's fan. Not fair weather, just too painful.

We talked a little about the lineup needing 1-2 bats. Vinnie going down might have just caused the house of cards to tumble.

Hope not, but we will see. Astro's pitching, as Sparko said, has been dealing.

[Sparko]

Q is not good enough to salvage this lineup IMHO. Vinnie agrees with me. Develop players and this isn't problem. One reason I bring up Castellanos. He was a key college player FFS. We had a college kid pitch in the series. This team is way too risk averse.

[Sparko]

There was plenty of bad swings to go around today. Massey needs to ignore whatever "coaching" he has been getting. He has been plainly awful. The dead ball is a thing too. Cleveland got two gifts from Wacha, but the ball refused to fly otherwise. DeJong hit one that was crushed but went nowhere. To win this year, you need linedrives. Royals have entered a flyout funk. I attribute it to the dead ball. But they also entered a period where they saw the best pitching in baseball. Cleveland looked pretty bad at the plate too. But six straight is a gut punch.

[Psychhawk]

Don't know about dead ball-other teams still seem to be hitting homers. Royals offense is pathetic right now. One hit through seven innings by a pitcher who was 2-7 with a 4.99 ERA. Are they seeing great pitching or making the pitching look great?

[Sparko]

Offense is down across the MLB. A few years ago they tested something similar and found a mix of ultra live and mostly dead balls. I think they repeated it for 2024. Of course some players, like Ruth, thrive. Faster bat speeds are rewarded. The Royals are not hitting though. Blame the coaching.

[jfish26]

I feel like a lot of your frustration comes from a place of privilege - this team won 56 games last year. Getting to .500 this year would have been a stunning success. Instead, here we are panicking over a really thin team running out of guys (and, for those guys who remain, gas).

That’s not to say the last few days haven’t sucked - they have. But it’s somewhat unreasonable to hold the roster and staff accountable to the standards of a 90+ win team.

[pdub]

I feel like a lot of your frustration comes from a place of privilege - this team won 56 games last year.

I agree and it's also the major reason why I don't think we should have been buying.

[jfish26]

I feel like a lot of your frustration comes from a place of privilege - this team won 56 games last year.

I agree and it's also the major reason why I don't think we should have been buying.

I don’t think any of what we sent out the door is all that problematic.

The most interesting offseason question is Singer. It only takes two other clubs thinking he’s a 2 in order to set yourself up with a system-juicing return…but you do diminish your 2025 chances by a win or two, and there is every reason to expect to need that win or two.

The analysis will be heavily influenced by what you think you’ve got in Kyle Wright (acquired, mid-rehab, for Kowar last offseason).

[Back2Lawrence]

I feel like a lot of your frustration comes from a place of privilege - this team won 56 games last year. Getting to .500 this year would have been a stunning success. Instead, here we are panicking over a really thin team running out of guys (and, for those guys who remain, gas).

That’s not to say the last few days haven’t sucked - they have. But it’s somewhat unreasonable to hold the roster and staff accountable to the standards of a 90+ win team.

agree, but as fanboy, it's perfectly reasonable to be optimistic, and also to step aside when the joy is fading fast. Of course, it can come back just as quickly, especially with 26 games to go and a (still) decent pad for the 3rd wildcard, and 3 games with Minnesota looming.

[jfish26]

I feel like a lot of your frustration comes from a place of privilege - this team won 56 games last year. Getting to .500 this year would have been a stunning success. Instead, here we are panicking over a really thin team running out of guys (and, for those guys who remain, gas).

That’s not to say the last few days haven’t sucked - they have. But it’s somewhat unreasonable to hold the roster and staff accountable to the standards of a 90+ win team.

agree, but as fanboy, it's perfectly reasonable to be optimistic, and also to step aside when the joy is fading fast. Of course, it can come back just as quickly, especially with 26 games to go and a (still) decent pad for the 3rd wildcard, and 3 games with Minnesota looming.

I agree with everything you said. I’m just not going to let myself get TOO upset about it - even being 4-5 games back of the 3rd WC right now would have been an amazingly successful season. All I could possibly have asked for out of this season was an interesting September, and we’ve got that for sure.

[Back2Lawrence]

i'd move Melendez to the 3, and leave him there. Or Fermin. He or Salvy DH everyday. When Salvy isn't playing C or 1b.

[jfish26]

I could see an argument for moving Salvy ahead of Bobby, on the theory that maybe Salvy gets better pitches to hit that way. Of course the tradeoff is that Salvy isn’t scoring from first on a Bobby double even.

[Back2Lawrence]

Definitely don't touch Witt. He's slumping (for him) right now, but I think having Melendez (He's kind of a 2b machine) or Fermin (He doesn't K much) would be best to keep the line moving.

This team, as always, isn't power first. And Vinnie was an RBI machine without having to hit it out of park.

[jfish26]

The bigger structural issue isn’t power, but on-base. But of course they go together: if you don’t have a lot of average-to-good on-base guys (which the Royals don’t), then you need more power (because, of course, the hits you do get need to be better hits).

The good news is that real help is on the way. I would be surprised if you don’t get two really good major league hitters out of Cross, Jensen, Mitchell and Caglianone. The bad news is the window for all of them probably doesn’t open until mid-2025 at the earliest. And probably 2026.

[jfish26]

And the BIGGEST long-term wild card is an optimistic one: what if the Royals really now are one of those teams that can reliably turn discarded arms into guys, developmentally? That would be an absolute game-changer.

[Back2Lawrence]

The bigger structural issue isn’t power, but on-base. But of course they go together: if you don’t have a lot of average-to-good on-base guys (which the Royals don’t), then you need more power (because, of course, the hits you do get need to be better hits).

The good news is that real help is on the way. I would be surprised if you don’t get two really good major league hitters out of Cross, Jensen, Mitchell and Caglianone. The bad news is the window for all of them probably doesn’t open until mid-2025 at the earliest. And probably 2026.

agree, butr right now....Melendez and Fermin are closest to potentially plugging this gap, right now. And if the spare gets us <50miles to finish line. Nirvana. As it relates to expectations.

[Sparko]

I have watched almost every game this season. The big problem has been and remains Q. He has blown enough games to have made the playoffs easily. He has little to do with the turn-around, which could easily lock him into a long contract if people go on emotion. The current slide is his fault for dorking up Erceg's role. And the team being one of the worst I have ever seen at fielding near the mound and plate discipline. The Royals RISP concealed that Q is terrible at scratching out runs. You really feel it now. Base running has been horrible. Need to invest in a skipper who knows the game.

[jfish26]

Yeah, I’m just not going to agree. The roster isn’t appreciably better than a roster that Vegas had for, what, 73 wins? It is lunacy, to me, to lay much blame at the feet of the manager for only winning at least ten more games than Vegas said.