Royals Rumblings - News for May 15, 2025

How much do you trust your starter?

Matt Quatraro doesn’t regret leaving Michael Lorenzen in for the eighth inning last night:

Much is made of being cautious when a pitcher is going through the order a third time, but Quatraro didn’t hesitate in letting Lorenzen pitch to Dubón, who had doubled in his previous at-bat. Dubón’s second double was just fair near the left-field corner. In the sixth, he had scored when Peña doubled to an almost identical spot.

“I mean, none of these decisions are easy, right?” said Quatraro, whose top five bullpen options – Lucas Erceg, Daniel Lynch IV, Steven Cruz, John Schreiber and Estévez – entered Thursday with a combined ERA of 1.46. “It’s the eighth inning, but [Lorenzen] had plenty of stuff. He was strong. That’s a really just unfortunate way for that ball [by Dubón] to bounce right there.”

Davy Andrews at FanGraphs investigates if recent signing Rich Hill has anything left in the tank:

Whether that’s possible remains to be seen. Hill’s success in November is encouraging, and the Royals wouldn’t have signed him if they hadn’t seen something in his Trackman data. But the last time Hill put up an xFIP below 4.00 or a DRA- below 100 was 2019 (except for his brief 2024 campaign, when Hill had a 92 DRA- over his 3 2/3 innings). After hovering around 88 mph for years, his fastball averaged closer to 86 last season. Although it was an extremely small sample, Hill was a different pitcher for the Red Sox, throwing his curveball just 11% of the time and relying on a sweeper that the stuff models loved. It will be interesting to see whether these changes were flukes. Will he stick with the sweeper going forward? Will his four-seamer remain below the all-important DeLorean time travel threshold?

CBS Sports graded Kansas City with a B for their performance through a quarter of the season:

The streakiest team in baseball so far this season. The Royals went 2-9 from April 9-19 and then immediately followed it up with a 16-2 stretch. The rotation is four deep in very good-to-elite starters (Michael Lorenzen is a rock solid No. 5 too), the bullpen has been one of the best in baseball, and Bobby Witt Jr. is a star of the first order. He just needs more help. More help in addition to Maikel Garcia, I should say. Garcia’s been awesome. He and Witt have combined for a .873 OPS. The rest of the Royals have a .598 OPS. The outfield as a unit has a .620 OPS. That won’t cut it. The offense needs more juice. To date though, Kansas City has been very good. Streaky, but very good.

A plan from the state of Missouri to provide funding for new stadiums for the Royals and Chiefs is dead for now:

Gov. Mike Kehoe had attempted to push the plan through the General Assembly on a lightning-fast timeline this week. But the Republican chief executive, a former car salesman who entered office in January, came away without a passed plan. The proposal is almost certain to come before lawmakers again. Kehoe previously signaled he was open to calling a special session if the legislature didn’t approve the measure this week.

The Twins got a late go-ahead home run to push their winning streak to 10 games.

Kiley McDaniel has his latest draft prospect ranking, headlined by Florida State lefty Jamie Arnold.

Aaron Judge is hitting like peak Barry Bonds, so why isn’t he being intentionally walked like Bonds?

The result of the recent conclave has been a financial boon for the White Sox ($).

Speaking of, the White Sox are more relevant than ever now as all their players that maybe could have but didn’t win a title in 1919 are no longer banned.

Also, speaking of old timey ballplayers, meet Jackie Tavener, a role player that once stole his way around the bases in a single inning.

Seattle right-handed pitcher Bryce Miller is headed to the IL with an elbow injury.

Milwaukee left-handed pitcher Jose Quintana is headed to the IL with a shoulder injury.

Boston right-handed pitcher Tanner Houck is headed to the IL with an arm injury.

Angels right-handed pitcher Ben Joyce will miss the rest of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery.

LSU takes over the top spot in this week’s college baseball top 25.

Baseball provided a source of solace for high schoolers in the Pacific Palisades that lost their homes to wildfire.

The Boston Celtics stayed alive with a win over the New York Knicks. The Golden State Warriors were unable to do the same, falling to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Nicolas Cage is starring as John Madden in an upcoming biopic.

Max is being rebranded again, returning to their old moniker.

Kroger is duping shoppers with fake discount listings.

Your song of the day is Let’s Go by The Beaches and Lights.