Monday was the first day of full-team workouts at Royals camp in Surprise, and there were tons of tidbits and content on Twitter that were tough to ignore for hardcore Royals fans such as myself. Here’s a clip compilation of some highlights from the first day of workouts: While plenty more clips from Royals camp… Read More So who is Brad Brach? (And why did the Royals sign him over other options?)
The Royals bullpen outlook took a bit of hit today, as this announcement was made in regard to former Royals closer and reliever free agent Trevor Rosenthal: The trade is a bit of a bummer for Royals fans, but not necessarily surprising, especially considering how long it took for Rosenthal to sign with a club.… Read More Newberry, Zuber, Lovelady and the Royals Bullpen Bubble
One Royals reliever who had a tremendous 2020 campaign was Kyle Zimmer, the Royals former 1st round pick (and 5th pick overall) in the 2012 MLB Draft. Drafted to be a top-of-the rotation ace out of the University of San Francisco, Zimmer has been plagued by injury in his professional career. Going into 2020, it… Read More Digging Deeper into Kyle Zimmer’s breakout in 2020 (and what that means for 2021)
Last year, a key to the Royals improvement was the bounce back in the bullpen. After a disastrous campaign in 2018 (ranked 29th in reliever WAR) and a ho-hum one in 2019 (ranked 17th in reliever WAR), the Royals took a big step up in 2020, ranking 12th in reliever WAR and 8th in reliever… Read More Are Royals fans not talking about Scott Barlow enough?
In MLB.com’s most recent “holiday wish list” for all 30 MLB teams, Will Leitch said that the Royals needed “bullpen help” this off-season. Here’s what the former Deadspin founder (and noted Cardinals fan) said in his writeup on the Royals: The Royals have been impressively aggressive so far, and the additions of Carlos Santana and… Read More Will Junis be the next former Royals starter to thrive in the bullpen?
Even though the Winter Meetings have passed, general manager Dayton Moore and the Kansas City Royals have continued to be active players on the free agent market, as evidenced by their most recent move on Monday: The move to re-sign Greg Holland felt expected, especially after his strong bounce-back campaign in Kansas City in 2020,… Read More Greg Holland is back; what does that mean for the rest of the Royals bullpen?
There is no question that pitching depth is a strength of this Royals farm system. According to MLB Pipeline, three of their top-five prospects are pitchers (Asa Lacy, Daniel Lynch, and Jackson Kowar) and they have an additional two beyond those three in the top 10 as well (Jonathan Bowlan and Carlos Hernandez). Thus, it… Read More Three Royals pitching sleepers to pay attention to in 2021
Last off-season, Dayton Moore struck gold by acquiring Trevor Rosenthal and Greg Holland to boost the bullpen in 2020. Even though both Rosenthal and Holland were coming off rough seasons in 2019, Moore was able to sign the former Cardinals and Royals closers to Minor League deals. Much to the benefits of the Royals organization,… Read More Could a Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera “Royals” return be looming?
Edit: Changed the title of this series from “Random Royals Thoughts” to “Random Royals Reflections” because…well…three R’s? I’m a sucker for alliteration. Tampa Bay has struck back, as they tied up the series 1-1 with a 6-4 victory of Los Angeles. And much like Game 1, I developed some thoughts about the Royals that related… Read More Random Royals Reflections from Game 2 of the World Series
From 2013-2016, the bullpen was THE strength of the Royals team. In fact, over that time span, the Royals bullpen accumulated a 22.9 WAR over that four-year span, which led all teams in baseball, according to Fangraphs. However, after a great run, mostly lead by some combo of “HDH” (Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg… Read More The 2020 “Royalty Awards”: Who was the Royals’ best relief pitcher?
