Royals Rumblings - News for June 18, 2024

The schedule gets easier, but the Royals have to win.

Jeff Passan has a detailed profile on Bobby Witt Jr. that is free to all readers.

Witt’s bugaboos were high fastballs and early-count swings. He didn’t tinker with his mechanics, though. He rarely does. Witt’s best chance at adjusting to high fastballs was cranking up a pitching machine to feed him 105-mph invisiballs. He paired them with sliders that moved more than any human arm is capable of producing.

“I try to do things in the cage that are almost harder than in the game,” Witt said. “Whether it’s more velocity just to try to get me out of my swing and to make me feel uncomfortable, if I speed up the game in the cage, then when I get out to the actual game, it’s even slower.”

Craig Brown writes that the Royals survived the toughest part of their schedule.

Let’s call everyone the Royals have played since May 27 a “likely playoff team.” In those 19 games, the Royals went 7-12. That’s six series total where they lost four, won once (against Seattle) and split against Cleveland when one of the three scheduled was lost to rain.

That’s a stretch of .368 baseball. That’s not good. Not at all. Yet I don’t think it ever felt like the Royals were playing bad baseball. Nine of those losses were by three runs or fewer. Included in their seven victories were three walkoffs.

This is why the first two months were so vitally important. They built a pad where they were 14 games over .500 and positioned themselves as early contenders. They emerge from this stretch nine games better than .500, still in second place in the AL Central and still in position for Wild Card number two.

David Lesky looks ahead on the schedule.

They have 89 games left. Within that are:

18 against the worst of the worst (CHW, COL, LAA, MIA, OAK)

45 against teams in that vague area around .500 (ARI, BOS, CHC, CIN, DET, HOU, PIT, SFG, STL, TBR, TEX, WSN)

26 against good teams (ATL, CLE, MIN, NYY, PHI)

But, of the 45 against teams in the vague area, 28 of those could look much more like the games against the worst teams because they come after the trade deadline. If those teams decide to sell, they could be looking at shells of their current roster.

Michael Wacha and Michael Massey begin rehab assignments.

MJ Melendez won the Sonic Slam contest for a special Royals fan.

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter considers the Michael Kopech trade rumors.

Preston Farr at Farm to Fountains writes about how Javier Vaz played last week.

The Royals and Chiefs make their case for new stadiums to Kansas lawmakers.

Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper are the leading vote-getters for the All-Star Game so far.

Mookie Betts has a fractured hand after getting hit by a pitch from Dan Altavilla.

Gerrit Cole will make his season debut for the Yankees on Wednesday.

The Yankees may lose first baseman Anthony Rizzo for 4-6 weeks.

Oakland designates J.D. Davis for assignment.

Relievers are succeeding with multiple fastballs.

HBO’s series Hard Knocks will focus on the AFC North, the first time it has featured an entire division.

The Atlanta Hawks plan to keep the #1 pick in the draft.

Online shopping has become a marketplace of fake products.

Preserved fruit 250 years old was discovered at George Washington’s Mount Vernon home.

All 28 Pixar movies, ranked.

Your song of the day is The Walkmen with The Rat.