Royals Rumblings - News for April 4, 2025
Time to get back to winning
At The Star, Jaylon Thompson collected quotes from around the league concerning how teams feel about the Royals:
“I think they understood the work that it took,” Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington said. “They are not going to let up on that side, with the work ethic and the commitment that it takes, because that’s how they made the playoffs.
“They had to be committed. The camaraderie that went with all of that work, commitment and effort, they’ve got that now. So each and every one of those guys is not going to let the other down, and that’s how you keep it standing.”
Pete Grathoff talked about how Giancarlo Stanton used one of the controversial “torpedo bats” against the Royals last year in the ALDS:
The “torpedo bat” is the biggest story in the first week of the MLB season, and it came to light after the Yankees hit nine home runs Saturday in a game against Milwaukee. An ESPN story noted the bats have an elongated the barrel (the fat part of the bat that generates the hardest and most contact) and resemble a bowling pin or torpedo.
...Former Royals pitcher Brett Laxton, who is now a bat craftsman for Marucci Sports, noted that Stanton had used a “torpedo bat” in the playoffs last year. Stanton torched the Royals in the American League Division Series, which the Yankees won three games to one. He led New York in batting average (.375), OPS (1.132), doubles (two) and hit one of the Yankees’ three homers in the series.
While Matt was writing about Maikel Garcia yesterday, Anne Rogers over at MLB.com was also writing about his hot start:
All the swing changes Garcia implemented in the spring have helped him in this early part of the season, he and the Royals believe. The small toe tap helps with timing. He’s keeping his weight in the center of his stance rather than falling forward. His bat is resting on his shoulder, and he’s not incorporating the bigger hand pump that he found himself using last year.
“He’s had more reps with the toe tap and is feeling really relaxed in his setup,” hitting coach Alec Zumwalt said. “You see how his bat is on his shoulder and he’s not rushing up. I think it shows how much time he’s got to make decisions right now. He’s controlling the zone, and that was something he told me he wanted to get better at. He’s had success with that in the past, so I don’t think it’s something we’re trying to invent — we’re just trying to pull it back out.
“It’s giving him more time, bottom line.”
MLB Pipeline’s Sam Dykstra listed where all of the Royals top prospects are starting the season and added some commentary:
Players we could see in MLB in 2025
If Caglianone’s power plays like it could, he may be a real possibility for Kansas City by the second half. The Royals have even been open to the possibility of him moving from first base to the outfield to ease his route to the bigs, so if you see him getting time on the grass, start getting excited. More immediate help might come in the form of pitching. Cameron posted a 2.32 ERA in nine Triple-A starts last year, and his above-average curveball, plus changeup and 55-grade control could play meaningful roles for KC when it’s in need of rotation help this summer. Avila was added to the 40-man roster in November, and his mid-90s fastball and low-80s curveball have already proven effective with Omaha. Cerantola was another 40-man add from the bullpen but was slowed this spring by back issues and an illness. He is close to rejoining Omaha after being built back up in Arizona, and his plus fastball-curveball combo could be useful for KC’s relief corps.
Looks like he’s onboard the Jacwagon (TM, patent pending to Jeremy)
Quick little non-Royals note: St. Pete approved paying $22.5M to fix Tropicana Field for next season.
The St. Petersburg City Council voted 7-1 to approve $22.5 million to begin the repairs at Tropicana Field, which will start with a membrane roof that must be in place before other work can continue. Although the Rays pulled out of a planned $1.3 billion new stadium deal, the city is still contractually obligated to fix the Trop.
Speaking of Tampa, the Rays new home in Steinbrenner Field has the “Wildest Wind” in MLB, according to Michael Rosen at Fangraphs (this is the type of story I love there):
When I ran my projections on the expected GMS Field park factors last Friday, I mostly focused on air density, given its strong relationship to run-scoring conditions. I relegated wind considerations to the “future analysis” section, implying its impact was mostly peripheral. I was wrong. GMS Field might surpass Wrigley Field as the park most affected by its wind conditions on a game-to-game basis.
Royals blogs get a section today. Most of the articles were about the Wednesday game or Milwaukee series but there’s still a decent number of articles.
Craig Brown found a weakness with Ragans’s start:
Ragans showed why he’s the Royals’ ace. He punched out 10 Brewers in five innings of work. He recorded 19 swings and misses with 13 of those coming against his four-seamer. His slider and knuckle curve were virtually untouchable. Milwaukee took four hacks against the Ragans slider and missed on three, fouling off the other. On the knuckle curve, they took three swings against and missed twice while fouling off the other.
It was a performance that was both dominant and masterful.
My only wish is that Ragans would put hitters away with a little more urgency. He threw 97 pitches in five innings on Wednesday. I know that because he generates so much swing and miss, his pitch count is going to be elevated earlier in his starts, but I just wish that he didn’t have the kinds of innings like he had in the fourth where he struck out two but also walked a pair in throwing 28 pitches. He then required 23 pitches in the fifth while striking out one and allowing a single. That’s over half of his pitches of the day in just two innings.
David Lesky ($) also mused about his high pitch count:
You can see how it was so dominant in the early-going for him. But ultimately, the Brewers started to make contact. It wasn’t strong contact, but it was enough to foul pitches off and work up that pitch count. The Brewers fouled off seven total fastballs in the first three innings, but the two-strike foul balls are the ones that make the real difference and there were just two of those in the first three innings. In the fourth and fifth, though, the Brewers fouled off 10 fastballs and eight of them were with two strikes. I really would have liked to see Ragans turn to something else.
Maybe he didn’t feel like he had much of anything else. The numbers would suggest that his slider was working and working well. He threw 12 of them, got four swings and got three whiffs on them. But he also maybe was having some trouble locating them, throwing just three of the 12 in the zone and many of them weren’t anywhere near the zone. I thought his changeup, other than the one to Chourio in the first, was really sharp looking, but maybe that scared him off. And his curve often is his “get me a strike” pitch. So maybe it’s simply that he didn’t feel good enough with anything else.
But still, to be at 46 pitches through three and only get through five on 97 pitches is a bit of a letdown and it’s not because of all the strikeouts. He had seven of his 10 strikeouts through three innings on those 46 pitches. Not that you can just pace things out, but if you did that again in his next three, he’d have been through six on 92 pitches with 14 strikeouts. I don’t think anyone would argue that he was throwing too many pitches because he was getting strikeouts. No, he threw too many pitches because the fastball was becoming predictable, and he didn’t go with another pitch to put a hitter away. It’s not something to be concerned with necessarily, but it is something that happened. He really was excellent, but I wish he could have been excellent deeper into the game.
I know a number of RR writers are high on Kris Bubic and Royals Data Dugout is too:
To say I’m high on Bubic in 2025 is an understatement, and Monday’s outing in Milwaukee did nothing to quell my expectations. The left-hander was in control his entire six innings on the bump, piling up eight strikeouts on 15 whiffs, both marks just shy of career highs.
While I suspect Bubic will vary his pitch mix a bit more in future outings, his 92.5 MPH four-seam fastball was plan A, B and C against the Brew Crew. He used it on 51% of his 95 pitches and, thanks to its ability to carry through the zone, generated 11 whiffs.
Blog Roundup:
- Kevin O’Brien at The Royals Reporter: Crown Talk’s Royals Three Stars Awards: March 31st-April 2nd (Milwaukee)
- Darin Watson at U.L.’s Toothpick: This Date In Royals History—1985 Edition: April 2; Three unearned runs cost the Royals a game against Philly (still in Spring Training)
- Patrick Glancy at Powder Blue Nostalgia: Emotional Equivalency V.1: Love & Baseball; How can you not be romantic about baseball?
- Stephen Parello at KOK: Royals got absolute steal with Cole Ragans following Garrett Crochet contract details
The Asia baseball previews never quite fit neatly into the time allotted. There are 3 leagues so they take 3 weeks and I usually use a week for MLB Opening Day, too. Considering all of the leagues start play about the same time, I’m going to do some of them before the league starts (CPBL), some just about right (KBO), and some late. That last group is today’s NPB, which has already been playing for a while.
NPB - Nippon Professional Baseball
Country: Japan
Opening Day: March 28
International Players: There are a number of ex-MLB players in the NPB. Trevor Bauer is probably the most high profile (for all the wrong reasons) and he returned to Japan after a year in the Mexican League. There aren’t quite as many big names as of a couple of years ago. But there are still a number of 5+ year MLB veterans: Tyler Austin, Pedro Avila, Mike Baumann, Spencer Howard, Nick Nelson, Anthony Kay, Drew VerHagen, Austin Voth, Trey Wingenter, and Rowan Wick. As we mentioned in the CPBL preview, Uni-Lions ace Ruei Yang Gu Lin jumped from CPBL all the way up to NPB, signing with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. I’ve used this list from JapanBall the last couple of years and it appears to be up to date-ish.
Former Royals: There was a huge purge of former Royals from the NPB. Of the 10 listed last year, only these 3 remain: Maikel Franco (Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles), Taylor Hearn (Hiroshima Carp), and Franmil Reyes (Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters). Who would have thought that stocking up on failed Royals and Royals prospects from 2017-2023 would go so wrong? But there are new former Royals joining the league like Edward Olivares (Orix Buffaloes) and Emmanuel Rivera (Seibu Lions) as well as longtime Royals farmhands Elier Hernández (Yomiuri Giants) and Yunior Marté (Chunichi Dragons). Remember how last year I had said Brad Keller was signed by the Chiba Lotte Marines, one day after their former ace, Roki Sasaki, announce he was posting internationally? He was invited to the MLB Spring Training and made the Cubs instead after hitting 98 on the radar gun!
Last Season: The SoftBank Hawks, led by MVP Kensuke Kondoh, dominated the Pacific League last year, going 91-49-3, and storming into the Japan Series. In August, the Hiroshima Carp were leading the Central League. But they suffered through a 5-20 September and fell completely out of the playoffs. The Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers stormed by them while the Yokohama DeNA BayStars snuck into the playoffs. The BayStars upset the Tigers and then Giants to make the Japan Series. But the Hawks buzzsaw was too much for them as they fell behind 2-0... but then the BayStars rallied to win the next 4, winning their first title since 1998.
Rooting Interest: The list of former Royals above didn’t include Nori Aoki, who retired last year after 21 seasons and over 2700 hits between NPB and MLB. In 2020, both he and Alcides Escobar were on the 2020 Tokyo Yakult Swallows so our rooting interest was obvious. But now, maybe not so much? There are 7 former Royals in the league but none on the Swallows. It feels just fine in the KBO for us to root for the hapless Hanwha Eagles. But without a former Royal on the Swallows, it feels odd with them having been in back-to-back Japan Series in 2021 and 2022 and winning it all in ‘21. Munetaka Murakami hasn’t been as good as he was in his MVP season of 2021, but he’s still a force and will be posted to MLB after this season. Maybe we’ll go shopping for a new team next season?
Random Nuggets:
- Sadly, there don’t appear to be any easily accessible English games for the NPB. The NPB Subreddit has a section in their FAQ about watching games internationally, but I think it’s falling out of date. It takes a lot of work with different services, VPNs, and subscriptions, so it’s not ideal. Pacific League TV’s YouTube channel has an English game every once in a while.
- This time last year, we were talking about how the big market teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, and Mets were looking at Roki Sasaki. Lo and behold, look where Sasaki is now. Now we’re looking at what big market team will sign Murakami. This won’t be a Sasaki or Ohtani (first contract) situation where he’s limited by international posting rules. It’s going to be an all out bidding war if he has another good season.
- Before the season, the Japan Times had their previews up for the Central League and Pacific League. Here’s what they had to say about our Swallows, who they predicted as 5th out of 6 in the Central League:
If the Swallows are going to claw their way back into the top half of the league, then Shingo Takatsu’s team will need to pitch better.
Yasunobu Okugawa was on the way to becoming a star when injuries derailed him. The 23-year-old is back now, which is good news for Yakult. Kojiro Yoshimura had the best numbers in 2024, going 9-8 with a 3.19 ERA. He needs to have a solid year, while Keiji Takahashi needs to bounce back to the form he showed in 2021 and 2022, when he helped Yakult win back-to-back pennants. Yasuhiro Ogawa, meanwhile, needs to have a rebound season.
Slugger Munetaka Murakami is expected to leave for MLB in the offseason and wants to go out with a bang, but is dealing with an upper-body injury to start the season. New infielder Eigoro Mogi, previously with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, can cover for him at third base but not at the plate. That will largely fall to Jose Osuna, Domingo Santana, and Tetsuto Yamada if he is healthy. Those three and Murakami will be a formidable quartet when in the lineup together.
- The aforementioned previews predicted the following league standings. Central League: Yomiuri Giants, Yokohama DeNA BayStars, Hanshin Tigers, Chunichi Dragons, Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Hiroshima Toyo Carp. Pacific League: Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, Chiba Lotte Marines, Orix Buffaloes, Saitama Seibu Lions, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Links:
- https://npb.jp/eng/ - The Official NPB site has some parts translated into English
- https://www.reddit.com/r/NPB/ - NPB Reddit
- https://www.reddit.com/r/NPB/wiki/index/#wiki_news_links - The NPB Reddit wiki lists a number of other sites
- https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/baseball/ - Japan Times is (per wiki) “Japan’s largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper”
For our SotD, here’s some highlights from Yakult winning their home opener in walkoff fashion. (We’re going to ignore that they came into the game 0-3 after getting swept by the Giants on the road to start the season)
How about this for the random question of the day. I’ve been here... a while. I think maybe 2008? Oh, hey, yeah - I guess so. So, apparently, my SBN profile is old enough to drive a car. And I think everyone knows me by my screen name, as these things go on the internet. However, I was noticing on the predictions thread that I’m the only writer out of the 13 on the site that looks like my user name is straight out of the AOL days. I mean, part of the reason is because it is. Aside: there is somehow more than one “sterlingice” out there in the interwebs, which boggles my mind; it’s not like there’s a specific character or term or whatever out there in fiction with that name and the reason I came up with it was to play computer games with another friend and look like a team. Like this sterlingice Reddit account? Not me. This sterlingice Instagram account? Also not me. This SterlingIce Facebook account? Still not me.
Hokius long ago assumed his human alias to try and blend in with us flesh creatures. I don’t even know where RoyalsRetro went. I wonder if he’s ever going to finish up the 100 Greatest Royals of All Time. Or maybe it will just go down in history as one of those great unfinished symphonies. The long and short is that I’ve been kicking around if I should use my real-ish (admittedly more boring) name? At this point, I’m kindof leaning towards it but wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts on it.