Royals Post Another Winning Week!

On this week’s episode, the fellas break down another winning week from the Kansas City Royals, discuss issues the team needs to address to stay competitive, and preview this week’s games.

Plus, Mike does his best Sean Connery impression, and shockingly … it’s pretty good.

Topics:
04:59 – Weekly Review
22:00 – Spotlight (issues to address to stay competitive)
34:33 – Preview of this week’s games
39:48 – Just a Bit Outside

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Welcome back to Royals Weekly. I am your host, Marcus Mead, and joining me as always, the light of Kim Jong Un’s eye, my brother Mike. I don’t think that guy has any light in his eyes, does he? Isn’t it just like black death? Yeah, pretty much that. Yeah. Yeah, that’s not great, which makes me wonder why you’re such good friends with him, Mike. Why are you guys so tight? here. Should he be seen as a humanitarian? Because he kills thousands and thousands of people every year. But the alternative is living in North Korea. So is he really just freeing them? let me ask you this, how are you and him and Dennis Rodman so close? How’d that happen? know, me and Rodman like to hang it out, cut it up, you know, in Vegas. You know where I’m meeting Dennis Rodman. hanging out. You’re hanging out at those places. Yeah, what a week. Mike and I are hoping to bring you some energy this week, although both of us are dead right now. Mike, because his family, whole family is sick. Me, because I’ve been working all day and I’m a little sick and also it’s a thousand degrees in my house. So if you see me sweating on this episode, those of you who watch on YouTube, that’s because I’m very, very hot. But maybe that’s gonna give me some passion, some fire, some blood, some heat in the blood. And to talk about, yeah, yeah, it’ll be, yeah, which I never am. Welcome back to Royals Weekly. We’re so glad to have you on this week’s episode. We’ll review a very, a winning week from the Royals. We’ll talk about what this team still needs in order to remain competitive this year. And then we’ll preview this week’s games. But first, we got another review. We got a review in from somebody on Apple Podcast. Yay! As always, we encourage you to go leave us a review on Apple Podcast. We will read it here on the show and you get to be a star for five minutes or so. And that’s awesome. We get some funny, some insightful, some great reviews. This one might be one of the best we’ve ever gotten. It’s very well written and I teach writing for a living. So I know what I’m talking about. This review comes from Brian C722 on Apple Podcasts. He writes, well, I shouldn’t say he, Brian writes, I’ve been listening to Royals Weekly for about three years now. And these guys give the absolute best Royals comment. Terry, I assume you meant. Great in -depth analysis for both the minor leagues and the Royals. They keep things positive but realistic, are super knowledgeable about all things Royals. They are the first thing I listen to every Monday and Thursday. Thanks for being a Substack subscriber, Brian. I have their post notifications on their Twitter account. Not threads yet. Sorry, Mike. We’ll get you eventually. And you can tell they work very hard to make this show a success. If you’re a Royals fan and not listening to Royals Weekly, you’re in the wrong with an exclamation point. You are in the wrong. Of course, you can’t hear this to hear that you’re in the wrong, but you know, if you don’t listen to the show, you ain’t living right. Brian’s right here. Thank you so much, Brian C722. We really, really appreciate that. Thank you for doing that. Leave your, be like Brian. Everybody be more like Brian, okay? Leave an Apple Podcast review and subscribe to the Substack. We’re putting out episodes every Thursday. I’ve put out two articles this week. One of them was on, Mike, I don’t even remember. Did you read those? I think one of them was on the bullpen. I read one of them, yeah, that was the one I read. Okay, and then we did the weekly wrap up on Saturday yesterday, or today, earlier today, it came out today. So yeah, subscribe to that sub stack. It’s only $5 a month, you get an extra episode, you get lots of great writing, and you know, Mike does some stuff too. Yeah. Royals Weekly is brought to you by All In Physical Therapy. You already know that All In Physical Therapy helped turn our mother into the human form of a shark nato. But what you don’t know is that mom loved her experience there because of the personal attention she got from Tommy and the staff at All In. They guarantee a personalized one -on -one experience to suit the needs of patients recovering from total joint surgeries, sports injuries, or any kind of injury or pain that you have. I’m thinking of becoming a bionic man. Gonna talk to Tommy about how to get some help with that. Yeah, you’ll need that. All in Physical Therapy is owned and operated by Tommy Frevert with locations in Blue Springs and Lee Summit, but most importantly, they’re in network for nearly all insurance providers. Gotta be in network. It’s basically the 11th commandment right after the shall keep one urinal between myself and the next private part. Yeah, when possible, that is the 11th, or 12th commandment. Or no, 10th commandment, I think. Yeah, I went to Sunday school. If you’re a high school athlete recovering from injury or someone bouncing back with a brand new hip or knee, check out the best physical therapy in the KC Metro at allin -pt .com. That’s A -L -L -I -N -P -T .com. Or give them a call at 816 -427 -5300. That’s 816 -427 -5300. Boy, there is not much roster news again this week, and which is really a good thing. We should take that as like a positive sign. It means the Royals aren’t getting hurt at the major league level, which is great. Salvador Perez did go down with a strained groin slash hip in today’s game. We don’t know that much about that right now. So we’ll talk about that probably on next week episode, but hopefully it’s just a couple of days rest for him and he’s back in the lineup. We do have something to say on Michael Massey. He has moved his rehab assignment to Omaha where he’s been in a few games and he’s hit well so far. Mike, what are your thoughts on what? should or will happen when Massey gets back. Who’s losing their roster spot? How’s playing time gonna work? All that sort of stuff. Well, first, let’s say that there’s some there’s some speculation. There is a chance that Michael Massey is back up with the team as early as tomorrow. Could be the after this this White Sox series when they come back home that maybe that makes a little bit more sense. Give him a few extra days. But I think the simple thing is Massey probably becomes your everyday second baseman at that point. I think that was the plan in spring training. He’s been doing very well in his rehab assignment. So as long as there’s no pain or lingering effects from the injury, he’s your everyday guy at second base. The harder part is what happens to the roster here? The 26 man is a tough, tough thing because the logical choice is Nick Lofton to go down. But Nick Lofton’s been pretty good in the limited time that he’s had. And he’s even had a game or two where he was somewhat the, you know, the hero of the game a couple of games ago. So really tough. You know, the the other choices, really the only other choice to me is Dyrone Blanco. And I hate to see him go because he is so valuable at the end of games. So really that’s gonna be the choice for the Royals. Do you give up Dairon Blanco and send him down, knowing that he helps you so much at the end of games? Or do you send Nick Lofton down knowing that he’s been helped you with the bat recently? Yeah, it makes no sense in my mind to send Blanco down. He’s just too valuable at the end of games. Like he has single -handedly kept them in or won them at least two games this year, maybe three. And it’s that sort of ability that a team hoping to scratch out an extra win here or there to be competitive in the division absolutely needs. So I don’t see any, I think it’s a 2 % chance they send Blanco down. I think Lofton’s going down, but I think that doesn’t make sense, right? Because Lofton is your right -handed bat. Massey, if you’re gonna give him days off, which they’re going to, would likely, or most likely to get days off against tough lefties, who are they gonna put in against tough lefties? Adam Frazier? He’s also a lefty. And it’s like, what’s going on here? We’re not getting any sort of platoon advantage. You can play Hampstead at second, and so maybe that’s somebody who would get those bats. Then what’s Adam Frazier doing, is the question. Like, what is his role exactly? I don’t know. righties and playing third maybe? I don’t know. what’s Massey doing? Like, like that’s the thing. It’s just, it’s really tough to know what role Adam Frazier has if Michael Massey is on this 26 man roster. We’ll see. I’m sure Matt Quatero will get creative with it. I’m sure JJ Piccolo will get creative with it. But to me, I think you’re right. The most likely scenario is Nick Lofton goes down. I’m just not 100 % sure that’s what’s best for the team. On the field last week, it was a strong week for the Royals. They went 4 -2 with a sweep of the Astros, and a narrow series loss to the Metropolitan’s of New York. That brings their overall record to 10 -6, which is good enough for second, in the AL Central. Mike, how do you feel about how the week went? Well, overall it went great. You know, you swept the Astros who do have a very strong lineup. I know the rotation is really hurting right now because of injury, but they still have a very good lineup and you went, you know, you, you, you swept them and that’s fantastic. The week tastes a little bitter because it felt like you were going to win that Mets series. You know, Reagan’s gave you a frigging gem today, six innings, eight strikeouts, no runs, and you couldn’t capitalize. And again, the bullpen looks. a little shaky in giving up that win to the Mets. So tough because you want to win the series against teams you feel like you’re better than. And I feel like the Royals are on par or better than the Mets. And so that was tough, but four and two. I’ll never scoff at a four and two week. Yeah, last year we would have killed for some four and two weeks. I don’t even know that we ever had anything like that. So let’s not get too high on our horse here. You know, like I’ll remember those days. And so, yeah, I’m fine with a four and two week, but you’re right. The bitterness comes in the fact that going into today, you saw Cole Regans against Jose Buto and you thought, OK, we have a good chance to win this Mets series, right? The offense comes out and is way too aggressive, which is crazy to me because Jose Buto. has some command issues, he’ll walk people if you let him walk you. They were not willing to let him walk them. And so they just came out swinging. Butoh looked like a Cy Young candidate as well. And part of that was he just had a really good day. He had good stuff today. He deserves a lot of credit for the way he pitched. But part of it is the Royals came out way too aggressive. Were swinging in bad pitches in good counts. You know what I’m saying? They were up, very first hitter of the game, Michael Garcia is up 2 -0. He swings at a fastball six inches off the plate inside. Next inning Hunter Renfro gets up, he’s up 1 -0, sings it a slider that must be a foot off the plate. And it’s like, what are you doing guys? What are you doing? Like, this is a pitcher who wants to walk you and you’re not letting him, right? Like, and so yeah, they earned that loss today in a lot of different ways. Their bullpen wasn’t great. The umpiring pitched in a little awful ball strike calls to sort of end the game there. But you know, they earned the loss outright as well. So it is a little bittersweet towards the end there, but a four and two week is always a good thing. better than a two and four week. Mike, quite a few people will talk about a standout this week. Who was your strong performer for the week? I’m going to the guy who was my weak performer for last week, I think, Vinny Pasquantino, eight for 19, two doubles, two home runs, three walks to one strikeout. That’s the Vinny Pasquantino that we know and love. You put out something today that I have actually been thinking. And when I read it, I go, I’ve actually been thinking that too. Even that day when he hit the home run that barely got out. That’s what exactly what I was thinking was. You know, he’s got a couple of hits today, but the exit velocities are not very high. And I went and I looked at his, at his average X -Files. That must’ve been last Sunday because I think we were getting ready for this show or for last week’s show. And I was like, you know, let me take a look at what his average exit velocity was. And it was low then. And I’m just still a little concerned about that exit velocity, the amount of pop that he has right now, but can’t, can’t deny he had a fantastic week, including the only run that was scored for the Royals today with a home run. Yeah, our friend Alex Duval, who’s been a guest on the show many times, he tried to reassure me on Twitter. He sort of replied with like, well, his max exit velocity is actually higher than it was last year. He does have one really hard hit ball, like 111 or something this year, which is a good sign of raw power. I’m going to… Alex’s theory that it’s just a timing issue. He’s not catching the barrel very frequently and he’s still getting, you know, 95 plus, you know, enough to have some decent results. I’m gonna be, I’m hopeful for that. I’m hopeful that it’s just a timing thing and it’s not a little bit of a step back in raw power because of the injury. But he did have a great week this week. You know, if he’s a guy who’s not gonna hit with the major exit velocities, but he’s gonna have really good launch angle all the time, it’s not gonna matter, right? Like he’s gonna still produce really well offensively. He’s obviously got the great approach to the plate, three walks, one strike out last week. That’s great to see. So hopefully this is just the beginning of him getting on a heater right now. He gets that timing down a little bit more. and he starts crushing some baseballs. My strong performer for the week is somebody we already mentioned, and that’s Cole Regans. He went out and pitched 11 innings this week. He got two starts. The first one wasn’t great. He sort of gutted out five innings, gave up three runs against the Astros, but a very good lineup they have. But this one was, of course, a gem he put out today. So, totally went 11 innings, 15 hits, three earned runs, 13 strikeouts and only two walks. The 13 strikeouts to two walks is always gonna be a sign of great success for Cole Regans. He’s doing it with a lot of different types of stuff. Today it was fastball heavy and they really had trouble hitting that fastball. He could put it in the middle of the plate and they were still missing it. And so he clearly had the right scouting report on the Mets that they were gonna struggle with his heat. Yeah, and the variance in speed on that fastball was a little bit fun to watch too. It was, he sat pretty much 96 most of the day, but when he needed to get it for a strikeout, he’d go up to 97, sometimes 99. He hit 99, 100 at one point. And so it was kind of cool to see him kind of play around with the different speeds on the fastball. And he located it pretty well today too. So that was awesome. Yeah, he hit 100 at one point today, one of like seven or eight starters so far this year to hit 100 miles an hour in a game. And so that was great to see. It was a great strong stuff from Regans. So hopefully he can continue that run. Hopefully the Royals can keep getting great starting pitching. Not everybody’s rolling right now, Mike. Some people are asterugaling. Who is your re -performer for the last week? Michael Garcia has really struggled. They mentioned it a little bit on the broadcast or they hinted at it on the broadcast today. He’s two for 25. This now that can’t be for this just this week, right? Yeah, he is two for 25 zero extra base hits, two walks, eight strikeouts. As you mentioned earlier, he’s swinging at pitches he should not be swinging at, and he’s swinging through a lot of fastballs or popping them up a little bit and not hitting them hard like he was early in the year. So. Gotta see better from Mikell Garcia. Gotta see him be a little bit more disciplined at the plate. Little bit better swing decisions and I think he’ll be okay. You’re always gonna get the good fielding. He can still run the bases and all that sort of stuff. There’s still value in a Mikell Garcia even in a week when he’s not hitting. But if he’s gonna be the Mikell Garcia we all hope he can be. He’s gotta start doing more damage when somebody throws him a fastball. Yeah, it’s wild to see Garcia got off to a hot start. Somebody put out that they thought that somebody that I didn’t watch the Royal broadcast today. I watched the meth broadcast on my jankies. And they told me that somebody put out on Twitter that Rex was talking about, like, how the swing changed. And Ryan will refer to this occasion. Lefevre will refer to this occasion like, well, he hit those home runs early in the year. That changes the swing. And then he ends up not. That has nothing to do with it. His swing is fine. His swing is exactly where it should be. It’s his approach to the plate that sucks, right? Like he is swinging. He is chasing at 80 or what was it in the 83rd percentile and chase rate right now. And I don’t mean that in a good way. I mean that in a bad way. He’s in a way where maybe I’m wrong there. I can’t remember. I looked it up earlier, but now I can’t remember. What I mean is he’s just swinging at too many pitches on the edges and outside the strike zone right now. And that’s his big issue, right? He’s not having good plate appearances. Like I mentioned earlier, first at bat today. 2 -0 swings at a pitch way off the plate. That is gonna hurt you, all right? Like when you’re doing stuff like that, when you’re too aggressive, cause you wanna get hits because you’re slumping, it’s just gonna get quicksand. You’re gonna go deeper and deeper into your slump. And there was an at bat later in the game where they threw somebody, I can’t remember if it was Buto, if he was out at the time, but it was a one or two or a fastball right down the pipe. And he stared at it. I mean, he just looked at it and he’s swinging at ones off the plate inside, off the plate outside, up all the time. And yeah, so he’s just not seeing the ball really well right now. I don’t think. And, and that’s the results too, for 25. Yeah, another guy not seeing the ball roll right now, Kyle Isbell, my week performer for the week, he went three for 15 with zero extra base hits, zero walks and four strikeouts. Not good for Isbell. He just doesn’t look real confident at the plate right now. Like Garcia, he’s not seeing it well. He’s not real confident in the pitches he’s swinging at. And as a result, sometimes he’s missing pitches that are right down Broadway. He got a 94 mile an hour fastball right down Broadway with two strikes today and struck out. And I’m thinking to myself, it’s two strikes, you’re getting a fastball, it’s right down the middle. You should be in swing mode this whole time because you’re trying to protect the plate. Why are you missing this? You have to, right? I mean, he could have been thinking, because Butoh does have a really good change up, he could have been thinking, I’m looking for a change up here. But still, you have to foul that off. And so you could tell he’s just, he’s not feeling it right now with the plate. And I hate to see that for him because so many fans are doubting his offensive ability. And it’s in there, right? He’s hitting the ball hard. He’s not striking out that much. It’s in there. He just has to find a little more confidence, simplify the game, simplify his at bats, go back to a very sort of stripped down, simple approach and the hits will start to fall. Mike, what was your theme for last week, a week in which we should rejoice because the Royals won? I went with the cinematic Marvel, the masterpiece, the classic film, The Rock, starring Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery. And I went with a line from Connery where he says, losers whine about their best. Winners go home and I’ll say stuff because this is a family show. Stup the prom queen. OK, now, what do I mean by that? I mean, we’re no longer in the mode of, well, we did real good, guys. Good, good job. Moral victory. Nope, that’s over. That’s losers talk. Okay, if you’re gonna be a winner, you go home and you get it done. All right. I work, I, you know, I talk to a lot of different people about the Royals. Some people I work with, some people I coach with, some people, you know, randos that are friends of mine or whatever. And we talk about, okay, it’s good to see them winning. It’s good to see them winning. But there’s always this pessimism about it, right? There’s always this like, well, it’s early or well, you know, they’re the Royals. Calm down. Nope. That’s loser talk. We’re not losers. If you’re going to be a winner, you get it. You got to talk like a winner. You got to act like a winner. You got to be a winner. I’m on board. When I wrote this, we were winning the division. We’re no longer winning the division, but we’re going to contend for the division. Winners mentality. Mike, how come you didn’t do that in your best Connery accent? Do it again. Give me take two with a Connery. Losers whine about their best. Winners go home and strip the prom queen. I got an awesome connery. I can, I can, I got an awesome connery. I got an awesome connery. have a great repertoire of those, but that’s good. That was very good. I was surprised. I don’t even know who else I got. It’s just got her. I can’t I don’t have Nick Cage. I’m sorry. A beige one. Love that movie I’m gonna watch that at some point. I’m going to another classic for mine I just watched started watching it last night and I just thought of it in my mind So I switched quickly because I forgot to fill this out I watched the matrix last night one of my favorite films of all time starring my brother Bob and one of my favorite lines in it I is a line from it. It’s like a dialogue between Keanu Reeves character Neo and Laurence Fishburne’s character Morpheus. And Neo says, so what you’re telling me I’m going to dodge bullets? And he says, no, I’m telling you, when you’re ready, you won’t have to write. And this is what I was thinking about for last week. I’m like. When the Royals are ready and it was kind of fits with your theme really well, actually, when the Royals are ready to be the team that they’re going to be this year. they won’t have to worry about certain things that they’re worrying about right now, right? Like they won’t have to worry about the fact that an umpire screwed Chris Stratton out of three strikes and won a bat today that really kind of cost them the game, right? Like they won’t have to worry about a lot of the things that you mentioned that people will worry about now, right? Which is like, oh, these are the Royals, so they can’t compete. Oh, this is that, you know, like all those sorts of things. When the Royals are ready, those things, or when the Royals, when they’re fan base, when they’re ready, they won’t have to worry about those things. Royals Weekly is brought to you by Eric Ochsher of WestUSA Realty. Phoenix has all of our favorite things. Year -round golf, year -round baseball, and Eric Ochsher of WestUSA Realty. Whether you want to buy your dream retirement home or just stay a while and catch spring training, Eric can help you find the perfect house for you. We’ve known him for 30 years and trust him far more than we even trust each other. Remember that time you tried to convince me that I was your clone? Sounds like something, just like something a clone would say right there. That sounds very clonish. Sounds very clonish. Eric does long -term rentals for the Snowbird crowd and home sales and purchases for those who want to stay a while longer. Are you a baseball player or parent who needs a place in the Phoenix area? Eric will help find the perfect spot for you fast. Want to spend your day shanking golf balls into the great beyond? Eric knows the golf scene like Mike knows a McDonald’s ball pit. Loves it in there. Find Eric online at ericoxer .com if you can figure out how to spell his name. It’s E -R -I -C -K -A -U -X -I -E -R .com. Or just shoot him a text that’s way easier. 480 -383 -9745. That’s 480 -383 -9745. Even if you’re just curious about what he can do for you, he’s 100 % no pressure, one of the best people we know. And he always holds doors open for strangers, sometimes for hours. He’s from the Midwest, that’s what we do. We all know the Royals are flying pretty high right now. That’s awesome. And that should be celebrated. But it’s still early and there are still reasons for, if not concern, consideration. But it’s, so the Royals have seen some good fortune with health so far this year. None of their pitchers have gotten hurt. Their lineup has been almost exclusively healthy except for maybe the Salvador Perez thing today. And they’ve received some good fortune offensively in pitching with quite a few players outperforming their expected numbers. So. Being the wet blankets Mike and I are, we want to consider some things that may need to be addressed by the Royals if they hope to continue their hot start and stay competitive for the whole summer. We’ll each offer three issues that could be addressed to ensure prolonged success from the boys in blue. Mike, since you are technically older than I, we’ll let age go before beauty and I’ll let you go first. Ah, yes, the wiser elder statesman that I am just in our family, though, because, you know, the bar is pretty low. OK, bullpen depth is my number one concern. I think we saw that today and I think we talked about it last week. If we can’t find some more consistently reliable arms in the bullpen, we’re going to end up losing a lot of these games like this late close games. OK, and really, if you think about the structure of our team outside of that bullpen, We’re kind of set up to win a lot of those games with the speed that we have. We’ve got guys who have the ability to hit one out late in a game. We’ve got Diron Blanco, the ultimate closer on the offensive side. But the bullpen right now is just it’s crippling at times. And so I would say if you stop for a second and think outside of MacArthur and now maybe Schreiber, who do you really trust in this bullpen? For me, the answer is not really anybody. It’s no one. I don’t trust Will Smith. I don’t trust Zarpa necessarily in big time situations. I certainly don’t trust Lyles or Sower because they’re both essentially mop up guys. You know, who do you turn to? Who do you turn to? Stratton, still shaky to me. Nick Anderson, still shaky to me. I’m looking for guys you can really count on. And to be honest with you, like, I love that what John Schreiber has done. I think it’s been fantastic. I think the Royals got real value out of a guy and helped him improve on some of the things he was missing, but he’s not the guy I want in the eighth inning. You know, he’s the guy I want in the sixth or seventh or maybe both, but he’s definitely not the guy I want in the eighth inning. So bullpen depth, I think is something if they’re really in contention and want to go out and get pieces, I think they probably do it most aggressively in this spot because one, it’s cheap and two, it’s a huge need. Yeah, I went with something very similar, which is I think that they’re missing swing and miss in the bullpen. They got a lot of guys like Schreiber or, you know, guys who are supposed to be swinging miss that Schreiber’s a guy who’s supposed to be a ground ball guy. He’s like essentially a ground ball pitcher. They have him. They have MacArthur is kind of a swing and miss guy, sort of, but they don’t have that like dominant strikeout pitcher in the bullpen. And sometimes you need a strikeout. Sometimes you really need guys who are going to come in and just miss bats. because maybe you’re facing the heart of a lineup and if they don’t hit miss a bat, it’s probably gonna get barreled or, you know, because the bases are jammed and you need a strikeout or something like that. Like they got in that situation today actually, and they just don’t have anybody to turn to really. I saw somebody online be like, oh, they should have pulled Stratton. And I was like, to put in who? Like, who are they gonna go to in that moment? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to like say, oh, we’ve loaded the bases, bring in MacArthur for a tie game when we might need him to close out a game tomorrow or something like that. Like. And so, you know, I understand why they didn’t change it, you know, directions there, but at the same time, they don’t have a lot of directions to go if they really need a strike out or they need some swing and miss stuff out of the bullpen. So hopefully they’ll be able to address that moving forward. Mike, what’s your number two issue? What’s another thing that the Royals are gonna have to address at some point as they move forward? Well, first off, it got kind of hard to find these, especially since you had already gone and put these things down, but it got kind of hard to find them because, I mean, overall this year, the Royals numbers wise are very high in many, many, many categories, whether it’s pitching or hitting. But the one area on the offensive side that they are not very high in is on base ability. They’re middle of the pack when it comes to walk rate. And the reason why I think that can come back and burn you isn’t necessarily the reason I think a lot of people might be thinking on base ability for me, the ability to take a walk, I think keeps your offense more consistent. And so I think on days when maybe a pitcher is being really good or like today, today was, is a great re you know, example, the Royals couldn’t get to Buto today. One of the reasons they couldn’t score on him is because they are that type of team. They are a very aggressive team. They don’t take a lot of walks. He’s the perfect guy where if you have a great approach, a walk approach, then you’re gonna get to him a little bit more. Maybe you’re gonna get one or two. And he was very good today. So maybe you only get one or two, but guess what? One or two wins you the game today. And so when you got Cole Reagan’s going one or two might win you a game. And so that’s kind of the thing for me. I think their offense becomes a little bit more consistent if they had a little bit better on base ability and you know. I don’t know that that necessarily comes from anybody this year. It would take changes in guys because we’re not going to go out and add anybody. I don’t think. But and with Michael Massey coming back, that probably actually makes it a little bit worse. And so, yeah, I would really like to see that as maybe something moving forward. Even your best hitter, Bobby, what juniors, not a real on base guy. And so I don’t think it’s going to change, but it would be nice if it did. their leadoff hitter isn’t really an on -base guy right now either, to be honest with you. So, no, he really hasn’t been. Yeah, that’s true. He was up in the 12, 13 -walk percentage range in minor league baseball, but he’s never really hit those heights in the majors when he absolutely could, right? Like if he just took more pitches, he would probably get there fairly easily. But yeah, on -base ability really tough to find. And you’re right, Butoh. perfect pitcher to take advantage of. And we don’t talk about this, but there are other things that that does too. So if you think about the game today, had they had a more patient approach at the plate, they also would have driven up Butoh’s pitch count, gotten him out of the game sooner, and maybe they get to one of those relievers that they cycle in, right? Like, because they have to cycle in more relievers, and you’re bound to find one who’s not having a good day that day. And so that ability to do that sort of thing when it’s needed can be really valuable to a team. Another thing that’s really valuable that we talk about a lot is what I’m coming with my second issue, and that’s starter depth, right? So we know that the starting rotation has been healthy up to this point, but you can only stay so. They’re not going the whole season with just these five starters, right? And we may end up with a situation where effectiveness causes us to ditch a starter. Alec Marsh has looked, you know, not great throughout this, you know, start of the season, his first three starts, still very early, but. there might come a situation where somebody gets hurt or somebody’s ineffective and they got to reach down into AAA for a starter. It’s not clear to me who that guy is going to be right now. Jonathan Boland’s pitched pretty well in his three starts. But other than that, Andrew Hoffman’s been hot and cold at times in AAA this year and definitely in the past. And so I’m not really sure where that starter depth is going to come from if they really have any sort of rash of injuries in the starting rotation or ineffectiveness or whatever. If they need to reach down for more than one guy, I think they’re in trouble. If they need to reach down for one guy, it may not be great, right? So starter depth for them, we’re not really sure of. And they’re lucky that they haven’t needed it so far, but it’s a long season. They’re going to need it. Yeah, it’s been really good to see Bolan pitch well in those three outings. We talked about one of them, I think maybe on the midweek episode this past week, but 10 strikeouts I think he had in six innings or something like that. Wasn’t quite as good today, I believe. That’s when he went today or yesterday, but he was good. Yeah, he was good. I think he gave up one run, had three strikeouts or something like that. He was good today. So yeah, but we’ll see. They’re gonna need more than just him for one. And there’s no guarantee that that translates to Major League Baseball either. And so they need to be prepared to have another four or five guys make starts for them this year. Let’s hope that they find a way to find out who those are. All right, Mike, what’s your last issue? What’s the last thing we’re talking about for the Royals here? Well, we can already mention him because he was your week performer for the week. But Kyle is Bill Kyle. You and I have mentioned this for, you know, a year, two years now. Kyle is Bill does not have to be good offensively, but he can’t be bad offensively. You know, he needs to be somewhere around 85 to 100 somewhere in their weighted runs created plus. And he is let me give you a slash line so far this year. Two thirty three for his batting average, two fifty for his on base percentage. and 326 for a slugging. That’s pretty bad. Okay. And so we need, we need something offensively from Kyle Isbell. You have to be able to get something. Now, of course he’s giving you the defensive value. Yes, there’s base running value for Kyle Isbell, but my gosh, you’ve got to be able to hit the ball. You know, he had some tough luck stuff in those first couple innings, hits them all really hard down the right field line that were caught or good plays made on them, but. We need some consistent offense from Kyle Isbell. Something, anything down there. Give me a 250 batting average and somewhere around a 300 on base. Jeez. Yeah, that would be enough from him. Honestly, that’s all it would really take. I know his expected numbers, at least for a while, were a little bit better than his actual numbers, so hopefully that portends some good outcomes for him. I know his strikeout rate is probably still pretty low, which is good. He needs a low strikeout rate. The walk rate is just insanely low right now. I never understood why he didn’t sort of turn himself into the type of hitter who could be an on -base machine, who really like… tried to work counts really well and tried to take pitches and tried to use the walk to his advantage because he doesn’t hit the ball all that hard. He’s not a bopper. He’s not, he’s not a slugger. And so, you know, find other ways to have value. He’s a slasher. Yeah. And so it’s tough, you know, like, hopefully he can find a way to sort of get some more offensive value, get his confidence back at the plate because, you know, it’s not going to do it just to be a defensive player, defensive center fielder. I’m gonna talk about my third issue and it’s your week before for the week. That’s Michael Garcia. They gotta get him on. He can’t get the most played appearances of any hitter this year and be an 80 weighted runs, creative plus guy. That can’t be the case, right? Like if they’re gonna compete for the division, they need a lead off hitter who’s actually gonna get on base. And right now he’s not doing it. And so I think it’s just a matter of getting his approach in place, calming him down, telling him to try not so hard. try less as Ryan likes to say, Ryan Lefevre likes to say a lot because he’s just too anxious right now. He’s too aggressive. It’s too much sling. And as a result, it’s not having a great, a lot of great outcomes. And so if he can do something like that, I think he’s fine. I don’t think they’re going to make any change at third. I think they just have to wait out this slump, but that is an issue that needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed with Alex Humboldt, the, the hitting coach. If they decide to move him out of that lead -off spot anytime soon, who do they put? They can’t, that’s why they can’t do it. They have no other option that makes sense. MJ has done it in the past. I like him so much hitting in the middle of the order though, because he has a lot of power potential. The only other option I would consider would be Nelson Velasquez, because he’s got a decent walk rate. He’s got a good batting average right now. He’s gonna get on base quite a bit. He might be able to do it. in a fairly serviceable way. Obviously you lose any potential for like stolen base stuff or anything like that. He’s not fast, he can’t run like Garcia. He did steal 30 the other day. He’s actually not as slow as you would think looking at his body type, but he is not fast, about a 50th percentile sprint speed from him. So, you know, you’re gonna lose some of that, but I would be willing to give Velasquez a try if they wanna move Garcia out of there. There are no good options, no. He’s the best of bad options. The Royals get a chance to continue their secs, I said success. That was, I don’t know what’s going on in my brain. I need sleep. Let me start that again. I’m not even gonna cut this out. The Royals get a chance to continue their success against the White Sox to start this week with a three game series in Chicago before heading home for a tough home stand that starts with three against Baltimore. It’s Baltimore and Toronto during this home stand. Rough. I’m going to one of those Baltimore games though. Mike, remind us of who the White Sox are, since we’ve forgotten. They aren’t very good. They’re last in the AL Central right now. Yeah, no kidding. Their fans when I forget. So they were bad to start off. Their roster was bad going into the season. And now it’s also hurt. So it’s both they are bad and hurt. They are two and 13. They have only won two baseball games this year. Gosh, it’s nice to say that that’s not us. The first game will be Seth Lugo versus Nick Nastrini, 24 year old right handed pitcher out of UCLA. He’ll be making his MLB debut. G and I absolutely hate. Yeah, we’re happy for him, but we I hate going against guys in their first start. Yeah, the kid from Houston. Yeah. Raggedy or rug. I yes, I was thinking him as regretty because we crushed him in that game He was full of full of regretti of how that I went I Forget I forget I just made a great regretty pun though. So that’s good Nostrini’s got a fastball in the mid 90s, a slider curveball change. All pitches are great above average by MLB pipeline. So but it’s his first time in Major League Baseball. So you should not lose Royals. Shouldn’t lose to a guy pitching for the first time in major leagues. Second game is a very interesting one because the Royals do not have or sorry, the White Sox because of an injury and I can’t remember who it was to. I’m blanking now, but I saw it earlier today. because of an injury to one of their starting pitchers, they have an open spot. So Singer, we don’t know who Singer is going to be going against in that second game. There has been some speculation that former Royals great Brad Keller could get the start in that game. He’s at AAA with them right now, and it seems to set up for him to pitch that game. So don’t be surprised if you see Brad Keller taking the bump in a white socks uniform against the Royals. That will be interesting. That’s the second game. be so wild. Wouldn’t it? Because I didn’t figure he’d be in Major League Baseball this year. think he’ll come out and walk the first hitter just for old time’s sake? I hope so. I hope he does. I hope he comes out and gives up an eight run second inning like he used to do so often. The third game will bring us Michael Walker versus Chris Flexon. Great name. Twenty nine year old right handed pitcher at a Newark Memorial High School in California. Flexon has struggled this year. Eight point seven eight ERA and a one point eight eight whip. He’s got a four seam fastball in the low 90s, a change up a cutter, a curve ball. At this point, none of his pitches are really working and that’s how you get an 8 .78 ERA. He’s getting hit hard with just about all the things that he throws. I thought for a short stretch in the start that he had against us the last time he went, he was actually pitching pretty well. But if I remember right, they left him in and like in the fourth or something, we scored seven or something crazy. So Chris Flexin versus Michael Walker, I like my chances on that one. Yeah, Flexin wouldn’t probably be pitching except they need players so badly. Like they might have already been like, hey, we’re getting out of the rotation here, but they need pitchers so badly. After that, the Royals will head home where they’ll start off with the Baltimore Orioles, their nine and six, second in the AL East. You know this powerhouse lineup and it just got even more powerful. They added Jackson Holliday, the number one prospect in baseball, to their major league roster since the last time we saw Baltimore. And so they have young stars like him, Gunnar Henderson, Colton. and then they have more established guys like Anthony Santander and Ryan Mountcastle, Adley Rutchman, another young great player for them. So their lineup is stacked full of extremely talented hitters, although some of these guys are struggling a little bit this year. hey, hey, you left off one. Ryan O ‘Hern is also on this team. Oddly, he’s not the one struggling tremendously. Santander is not having a good year. Anderson’s not doing great so far. So hopefully those guys are still cold when they get to Kansas City because Kouser is just on fire right now. So hopefully they can sort of tamp down some of the offensive success for those guys. The rotation is more hit and miss for the Orioles right now. It’s led by Corbin Burns, who’s great, and Grayson Rodriguez, who’s great. But Dean Kramer, it is Kramer. We kept calling him Dean Kramer last time, mostly because it’s really funny, but also because it’s spelled that way. But Dean Kramer, Tyler Wells, and Cole Urban have all struggled so far this year. I think Kramer pitched fairly well against the Royals, but everybody else is struggling. Kramer and his other starts have struggled. So we’ll see what the Orioles can give us. We’ll end this week’s episode like we end every episode with the Just About Outside segment, where we talk about something that’s interesting to us outside the world of baseball. Mike, what do you got going on? I know it’s been illness lately for your family, but what else has happened to you this week? Yeah. So when your wife is sick and your kid is kind of sick and you’re just stuck at home for an entire weekend, you get to catch up on a bunch of NFL draft stuff. And so this is my annual NFL draft appreciation tweet or tweet. I’m so tired, too. Is the tweet now. And so. That’s right. I Mark and I, since we were just young pups. You know, we, we have been really into the NFL draft. We’re weirdo draft people and love the excitement of it. Love to know who the chiefs are going to be taking. It’s so interesting now that the chiefs always pick at the end of the, the round, you know, round one and so on, uh, that like there’s a billion different variables and I like to go on and do the mock draft simulator stuff. And I know the chiefs need a wide receiver and I know the chiefs need a left tackle. And so I want them to take wide receiver left tackle with pick one and two. I don’t really care which way they do it, but it’s just. Mike, who do you want to left tackle? Who do you want to receiver? So, you know, they’re picking at 32. So, you know, I think the only realistic guy that I like at left tackle is a guy from BYU, Kingsley Suamitia. Okay, he’s still a project, but he’s very young and he’s got all the kind of measurables that you want, the athleticism you want. He’s still kind of raw. So I don’t know if he starts this year for them, but I would love for them to take him. You’re only going to get him at 32 though. You can’t, you know, any later than that. He may not even be there then. but that’s your only shot. The other guys that are there, I’d say wait till the second round. I wouldn’t get them there. If they’re taking a receiver in the first round, there’s several that I like. If they’re taking a receiver in the first round, if that’s their plan, I’d trade back actually. There’s just so many good ones. I’m a big Ricky Pearsaw fan, but that’s probably high. I say if you get Kingsley in the first round, try and get Ricky Pearsaw with their second pick at 64. if that’s the plan, but I like Lad McConkey there at 32 or if they trade back a little bit. I like I love I like Mitchell out of Texas, too. I’m not quite as high on him as some other people are, but I like the Xavier Worthy would be interesting in the Chiefs offense. Imagine a Tyree Kill type only he won’t. He’s not as big. He won’t be as physical as Tyree Kill can be. But yeah, so really excited for the draft. Really pumped. I’ve done way too many simulations. I’ve looked at way too many of those things. I don’t have time for that sort of thing because I’m an adult, but I used to be way more into the draft than I currently am just because… I wish baseball, I wish MLB did a better job. It is, yeah, it is getting better. I get more into that now just because we do this sort of thing. And I just really it bummed me out when they got real prime time with the draft and it got all like, we’re only doing one day. And here’s a here’s a cancer kid story for every kid. We’re for every kid who gets drafted. It drives me nuts. And it’s just it’s all aimed at the most casual NFL fan. And I don’t I don’t really like that that much anymore. And so, you know, here’s a. really hate that they moved that first round to a Thursday. That kills me. that. And I also hate that they just do the first round on the first day, that every story is about a quarterback. And it’s like, I don’t give a, like the hard, it’s not for hard cores anymore. It used to just be for hard cores. And now, now it’s for the casuals. And I can’t get us into it because of that. That’s fine. I got other stuff I can do. I’m talking about an article that I read on vox .com that was really interesting to me. And I’m talking about the ideas of it really. And the idea for me is the idea of, finding the balance between self -improvement and contentment. Like the ability to say like, I’m happy with where my life is, I’m happy with what I’m doing, and I’m good. Like, I see self -improvement as an important thing. We should always, I’ll be learning something. We should always be thinking about ways in which we can better our lives and so on and so forth. But at the same time, I think sometimes that attitude or that ethos or that disposition, encourages people to not be happy with what they are, what they have, where they’re at in life and all those sorts of things. That worries me a lot because I know when I see a lot of people and I can probably guilty of this as well at times who are like always striving. And as a result, they’re sort of always critical of themselves too. It’s not a striving that sort of both appreciates what you have in the moment and also is trying to move forward. It’s a striving that’s like, oh man. I really wanna look like this person looks. It’s a lot of comparison. You’re like comparing yourself to other people, or you’re comparing yourself to other things or whatever, the stuff you have to the stuff other people have. And it’s not healthy in my mind. Like it’s actually quite unhealthy. And I read this article on Vox the other day that sort of got me thinking about this. It’s called, why it’s so hard to feel enough and what to do about it. If you get a chance, go to Vox .com and read this article. It’s really interesting. But it talks about sort of our instincts to compare ourselves to others. and to sort of constantly be striving for more and to be better and that sort of thing. And while I encourage that as an ethos, I’m reminding myself all the time that my life is great, that I have a lot of great things. Mike and I grew up with very little in our lives and not in terms of like, we had family who loved us and all that sort of stuff and that’s great and that helped us a ton. But you know, we didn’t have a lot of money or anything like that. So I’ve sort of constantly remind myself, hey, you know, 10 year old me would be just thrilled with what I got going on in life. He’d be like, you are the bomb, you know? And so. I gotta remind myself of that constantly. So if you’re having a hard time with things, you know, remind yourself that you have some things that are wonderful and then maybe set some goals based on that. But always remind, I like to remind myself almost daily that the stuff that I have is great. When I talked to my wife about this, especially with regard to how you and I grew up and like Mark said, our childhood was very awesome. We never wanted for love or food. We had all the things we needed, but we didn’t have a lot of extras. And so I always tell my wife, a garage I can park my car in and more than one bathroom. And I feel like I’ve hit the pinnacle. Like a garage I can park my car in, more than one bathroom. Those are huge to me and I have those. who grew up with money don’t realize this. Like the more than one bathroom thing is like the peak for me. It’s the peak. I talk to Riggs about it all the time. It’s like more than one bathroom means so much when you grew up with only one bathroom. Like, and so, yeah, I have more than one bathroom. So I have made it in my mind. To 10 year old me, I am a king. And so that’s good enough for me for now. I’ll keep working on my goals. I’ll keep setting new goals, I’ll keep striving for them, but no matter what, if I got more than one bathroom, I’m living like a king. I hope you’re all living like kings too. I hope we’re all living like kings as the Royals win what, six games this week? Mike, how’s that sound? Six sounds good. We’ll talk to each other next week. Until then, be good to each other. and go Royals.