The Royals escaped from Denver with at least one win, as Maikel Garcia, MJ Melendez, and Bobby Witt, Jr. all homered in Kansas City’s 10-1 victory over the Rockies.
The Royals did lose two of three at Coors Field to a Rockies team that currently sits in last place in the NL West with a record of 32-58. Considering the Royals outscored the Rockies 13-8 in the weekend series, one has to be disappointed that the Royals didn’t take at least two of three.
Kansas City has an off day tomorrow before heading to Busch Stadium in St. Louis for a two-game set in the I-70 Series. It is crazy that MLB somehow cannot coordinate the Royals and Cardinals’ weekend games in St. Louis, but at least this series is in July instead of May, as it was a year ago.
In this edition of the “Jottings,” I will discuss the players who will represent the Royals in Arlington for All-Star weekend, my most recent post on “Farm to Fountains” that looks into John Schreiber’s peculiar season, and a new feature on the Royals Reporter that I hope to activate in the coming week.
Four Royals Players Heading to All-Star Game
Shortly after the Royals’ nine-run win, news broke on ESPN (and social media subsequently) about which players would represent the American and National League squads at the All-Star game at Globe Life Field on July 16th.
Four Royals players made the All-Star game: catcher Salvador Perez, shortstop Bobby Witt, Jr., and pitchers Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans.
The Raising Royals Twitter account tweets about Royals player development at the Major and Minor League levels. After the AL All-Stars were announced, they shared how all four All-Stars originally came to the Kansas City organization.
As Royals fans can see, they haven’t acquired great players in just one way.
With Salvy, they succeeded in international scouting and built an excellent pipeline in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. They didn’t overthink the draft with Bobby and selected the second-best player available after Adley Rutschman went number one. With Ragans, they identified an undervalued pitcher in the Rangers system for whom they could trade Aroldis Chapman and helped him make a couple of tweaks to become an “ace.” And with Lugo, they jumped the market early and invested in a pitcher they knew would fit their budget and mesh seamlessly with their home ballpark and defense.
This shows JJ Picollo and the Royals organization’s work over the past couple of years to make this a well-rounded club at all levels.
Last year was rough, and the 56-106 record demonstrated that (and then some). However, the Royals are 49-43 (seven wins away from their 2023 total) and are sending four players to the All-Star game for the first time since 2016, as 610 AM’s Josh Vernier pointed out on Twitter.
The frustration of June and the early part of July has been challenging. I know Royals fans are starved for a postseason appearance after many seasons of futility, especially from 2018 to 2023. It’s tough to see the Royals regress, and it’s natural for us as fans to want this club not to lose momentum and make the necessary changes to keep it in the playoff hunt.
That said, the Royals earned four All-Star spots because the league—both the players and the commissioner’s office—recognizes that this Royals team is legit and building something noteworthy. They know Royals fans will bring attention and eyes to Arlington on July 16th.
I am not sure you could say the same thing about Oakland, the White Sox, or even the Royals last year when they were among baseball’s worst clubs. Brent Rooker of the A’s and Erick Fedde of the White Sox were statistically worthy of being All-Star game participants. However, they are not bringing the buzz to the game and weekend that the Royals All-Stars will bring. The All-Star game is about building the best possible experience for fans, and Kansas City is contributing to that positively this season.
This Royals season may result in a postseason berth or, heck, a World Series title.
If it doesn’t, though, at least we can celebrate the fact that in 2024, the Royals took a step in the right direction toward being a winning organization again.
Salvy, Witt, Lugo, and Ragans making the All-Star game is one of those examples.
Looking at John Schreiber’s Complicated Year
On “Farm to Fountains,” I wrote about Schreiber’s complicated first season with the Royals.
The post was inspired by his latest rough outing on Friday against the Rockies and the recent widespread disdain he’s received for his performance from Royals fans on social media. I wanted to see if the comments and generally negative impressions were justified.
Frankly, I don’t believe they are. Like many fans of any sport, Schreiber is a victim of recency bias.
Schreiber has had a rough May and June, as I discussed in the post. However, according to Fangraphs, his 0.5 fWAR is the best mark of any Royals reliever this year. It is better than James McArthur’s (0.3), Angel Zerpa’s (0.3), Sam Long’s (0.2), Chris Stratton’s (0.1), Carlos Hernandez’s (0.1), Nick Anderson’s (-0.2) and Will Smith’s (-0.2).
Manager Matt Quatraro should probably ease up on Schreiber’s frequency of use (though I think it’s more due to the lack of options in the bullpen). That will probably change when Picollo makes a trade or two and upgrades the bullpen in the coming weeks.
On the flip side, the calls for the Royals to DFA Schreiber?
Those are ridiculous takes based on some rough recent outings, and the data shows that Schreiber and his pitch mix are still valuable to this Royals bullpen despite his lackluster performance recently. I go into more detail about the ridiculousness of those takes in my post on “Farm to Fountains.”
Forums Coming to Royals Reporter
You may have seen a new menu page on the website that says “forums.” That is because the Royals Reporter site will have a forum for readers and Royals fans to engage in.
I have closed the forums to avoid unwanted posts as I work through the construction process of these forums. That said, in a week, I will open them and actively start different topics for people to engage in.
There will be four forums available to followers of this blog who have an active WordPress account:
- Kansas City Royals Talk: This is for discussing the Royals Major League team, whether through a game thread, a player’s performance, a team trend, or just basic hot stove talk or trade chatter.
- Royals Minor League and Draft Talk: This will discuss Royals prospects, the Minor League affiliates, and the MLB Draft coming up soon (All-Star weekend, specifically).
- Other Baseball Talk: This is about non-Royals baseball, whether it’s other MLB teams, independent league baseball, college and amateur baseball, etc.
- Forum or Site Help Talk: This is related to discussing ideas or suggestions on the forums or website.
I hope that the forums will be a place where better and more private discourse on Royals baseball and baseball, in general, can happen between Royals fans beyond Twitter or Reddit. While I still engage on Twitter, I am growing tired of engaging (or feeling the need to engage) with people who don’t follow me or engage with my content or other content creators I support.
Everyone is free to post what they want; I understand and support if people disagree with my thoughts. That said, I want to give a space for Royals and baseball fans to engage in a fashion that feels less akin to what we see on social media and more organic, akin to what we used to see in the early days of baseball blogging and forums. That’s hard to do on Twitter, even with muting and blocking people.
I would like to see if we can build a community where people are familiar with each other, can discuss Royals baseball, and do so in a safe and private place. I want this forum and site, hopefully, to be more of an online “Breits” like dive bar for hardcore Royals fans who genuinely love the game than the “mega unfiltered social club” that is Twitter, Reddit, and other social media platforms.
If you wish to join this forum, the first step is to create a WordPress account. To make this kind of “fan-centered” place, having anonymous accounts on the forums isn’t a possibility. I will begin opening the forums by the end of this week, with some announcements coming. When posting topics and replying will be live, the etiquette will also be shared in the coming days to ensure we maintain these forums as a safe space for all.
I look forward to sharing more information soon, but the forum page is up on the site now if you want to see what it will at least “look like” on the Royals Reporter.
I appreciate your support and look forward to seeing some people sign up and engage with them through comments and those forums soon!
Photo Credit: Jay Biggerstaff | USA TODAY Sports
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