Royals Rumblings - News for April 15, 2025

What can wake these bats up?

Anne Rogers writes about the success of Daniel Lynch IV.

Lynch has 29 strikeouts during his scoreless streak. The streak is the third-longest scoreless streak ever by a Royals reliever, only trailing Kelvin Herrera (31 innings in 2014) and Wade Davis (31 2/3 innings in ‘14).

“It’s really cool to be a part of when he first got to the organization and just to watch him grow and mature not only as a pitcher but as a human being,” Stetter said. “He’s ready for anything. He’s a guy that’s just ready for any opportunity he’s going to get, and he’s going to take advantage of it.”

David Lesky looks at the offensive woes and whether some hitters can heat up.

Salvador Perez is such an interesting case. He’s hitting a terrible .213/.262/.344 even with his big home run yesterday. But his xBA is .296 and his xSLG is .525 because he’s still hitting the ball hard and still barreling the ball. The problem I have is that he just looks old. Maybe he just was taking a little time to warm up because this gap has closed, but he’s down 1.2 MPH on his bat speed, but that was more just a few days ago. That said, his sprint speed of 23.3 MPH is second-slowest in baseball (ahead of Corey Seager…wouldn’t have guessed that). So maybe my eyes are deceiving me and he’s about to turn it around.

Craig Brown raves about Cole Ragans.

Kiley McDaniel at ESPN ranks the aces in baseball.

7. Cole Ragans, LHP, Kansas City Royals

To me, the six starters above are the game’s slam dunk aces on both evidence and history. That top group gives way to a group consisting of both veterans who are just past their peaks and some speculative picks who aren’t consensus choices from the evaluators I spoke with. This group could be pretty different by midseason depending on how these starters progress and starts with a pitcher who has been dominant without a large sample size to bank on.

David Schoenfield at ESPN ranks teams by watchability.

12. Kansas City Royals (22)

Star power: 8 | Young talent: 1.5 | Baserunning: 3 | Defense: 3 | Minutiae: 4

Bonus (2.5): +1 for Bobby Witt Jr.’s mullet, +1 for Seth Lugo’s nine-pitch repertoire, +0.5 for Jac Caglianone minor league home run highlights

How much of this score is simply just Witt? A lot of it. Put it this way: How many players in baseball history have hit for power, hit for average, stolen 30 bases a season while also being one of the fastest runners in the league and played Gold Glove defense at one of the two marquee defensive positions? It’s a very short list.

The Missouri Senate passes a bill to allow Clay County to pursue the Royals.

Local business and civic leaders call for elected officials to work quickly to secure stadiums for the sports teams.

The Rays erupt for a nine-run inning against the Red Sox.

Kris Bryant lands on the Injured List with a back injury.

Diamondbacks reliever Justin Martinez throws a 90 mph pitch that acts like a knuckler.

Is the Angels offense....good?

Should the Nationals have been more aggressive last off-season?

What can we make of the jam-packed AL East?

Aaron Judge is named captain of Team USA in the 2026 World Baseball Classic.

Ken Griffey Jr. explains how he became a photographer at The Masters.

Dallas selects Paige Bueckers with the #1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft.

The Suns fire coach Mike Budenholzer after just one season.

Minecraft viewers are making a mess at theaters.

Were dinosaurs headed for extinction even before massive asteroid strike?

Blue Origin sends an all-female flight to space that includes Gayle King and Katy Perry.

Your song of the day is Soup Dragons with Divine Thing.