Royals Get Back to Their Winning Ways

On this week’s episode, the fellas dig into a solid week of winning baseball from the Kansas City Royals. Then, they’re joined by Josh Keiser of One Royal Way to offer up ideas for improving the team for the playoff push. And finally, they preview this week’s games before talking about some weird stuff in the final segment.

Plus, Marc delivers a stellar line from a Keanu Reeves classic!

Segments
Intro – 00:00
Weekly Review – 03:12
Spotlight – 21:17
Weekly Preview – 48:59
Just a Bit Outside – 53:35

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Welcome back to Royals Weekly, I am your host Marcus Mead and joining me as always, the world record holder for the most ranch dressing consumed in a 24 hour period, my brother Mike. See, that just shows how ignorant you truly are. I’m not even the best ranch dressing eater in my trailer park, you know, so, you know, you haven’t seen this trailer park’s ranch consumption. Another question I’ve always heard, I have heard that ranch is not a thing outside the United States and I never like check when I travel outside the United States. Do they not eat ranch dressing in Belgium? I don’t know. I want to know. I’m guessing not, but here’s my thing. You talk about one specific ranch dressing endlessly, and I’ve heard it from you multiple times, so. tonight because the last time I ate pizza there, I got a tub of it. It would be the garlic ranch dressing at Waldo Pizza or some Lee Summit pizza. The same thing. It’s so good. is this ranch dressing. He’s going to be buried with it is what I’m talking about. So anyway, yes, Mike loves ranch dressing. The Europeans apparently do not on this week’s episode. We’ll discuss a bounce back week from the boys in blue. Speak with our friend, a friend of the show, Josh Kaiser, the host of Run One Royal Way about moves that could improve the team. So we’ll play a little game where all three of us get to choose one move to make the team better. And then we’ll preview this week’s games. But first, Mike, we have a new Apple podcast review to to to sell everybody. I know I just saw it. The title makes it seem not that enthusiastic, but they gave us five stars and they’re, you know, very complimentary. And so this comes from someone calling themselves Noah John on Apple podcast. Thank you so much, Noah John, for leaving a review. And the title of it is worth listening to. That’s the whole thing worth listening to. And I’m like, all right, maybe this is going to be a good one, but it was a good one. Noah John writes one of the better royals info sources. Listen every week in season, knowledgeable and fun. I agree with all of that. I listen every week in season two, so I get it. And then a knowledgeable and fun, of course, that’s what we’re going for. So thank you so much, Noah John, we really appreciate it. It really helps us out. Be like Noah John, leave us an Apple podcast review, rate, comment, subscribe, like, give us the thumbs up. I’ve been going back and forth with people on the Substack. Subscribe to the Substack. yeah? make comments underneath there when you read articles or our midweek episode every week and I’ll knock it around with you. I got nothing to do. So yeah, just make sure you’re following and liking us and I’m doing all that sort of stuff. It really, really helps us reach more people. I also want to remind you that BetOnline is your number one source for the NBA and NHL playoffs this season. Every stat, every matchup, and even live odds while the games are being played, when the games are over, head on over to their online casino and get in on a game of blackjack or poker or unwind with one of over 150 slot games. Head to the website today to get in on the action. Don’t forget to use the promo code BLEAV for your 50 % welcome bonus on your first deposit. Bet online, the game starts there. Normally we start our review of last week with roster news, but once again, the Royals have given us zero roster news. It feels like such night and day from last year when everybody was up and down and hurt and not hurt and they couldn’t figure out who belonged in the major leagues and who didn’t. And so they were cycling through players like crazy, but this week we have nothing to talk about roster news wise. So we’re going to get right to the play on the field. After their first losing week of the season last week, the Royals bounced back this week, splitting with the Cleveland Guardians. and taking the series from the Seattle Mariners. They went three and two this week, bringing their overall record to 39 and 27, good for second in the AL Central. That’s four games back from the Cleveland Guardians. Mike, how did you feel about the baseball we saw this week? I actually loved it. You know, I felt like that the rain out that they got against Cleveland was kind of much needed, a much needed reset, if you will. They were ended up being able to split with Cleveland in that series. And then they felt like, honestly, they were pretty much in control of that Seattle series. Most of the time, you know, it felt like the offense was going. Now, the bullpen was still shaky at times, but you got some good starts, even Marsha’s start where he gave up, I think, four earned runs. over five or five innings or so. He’s your fifth starter and he was going up against their number one, which they have like five number ones. So whatever. But I thought it was really good. Had a chance to sweep today. Didn’t quite get it. But man, if today has been if this week was about anything, it was about even when they’re going to lose, they are going to fight like hell and always have a chance to win it in the ninth. They always have a chance to win it in the ninth. And that’s that creates fun baseball no matter what’s going on. Yeah, it really does. And I think about the what was the first game in that series? They get down eight nothing in that Seattle series and they claw their way all the way back and end up winning it in on a walk in a walk off on the end. The night it was a very entertaining week of baseball of nothing else because the Royals played out of their minds to win some really close games and especially some comebacks and things like that. So it was nice to see that I was particularly impressed with the offense against Seattle because the last time they faced Seattle, their pitching staff just owned the Royals. Their offense was terrible. This time around, what’d we get? 10 runs in that first game, eight in the second, and then five or six in today’s game, five in today’s game. They played well against the Seattle rotation. Now, Kirby still had some success today. Yes, they might have the best rotation in baseball. they talk about it on, on the broadcast and stuff, but if you said, Hey, you can only take one rotation in baseball. I’d probably take this one because it’s so young too. a very good young talent in this rotation. And the Royals offense went toe to toe with him and played very well. And so that was contributions from up and down the lineup. We saw Kyle Isbell had a great day today. We saw, you know, guys doing little things at Adam Frazier hit a home run yesterday, you know, like Hunter Renfro has been hot and things like that. Like it’s not just Bobby Wood Jr. carrying the whole team. It’s guys up and down the lineup contributing in various ways. And that’s that’s what they’re going to have to be offensively if they’re going to have success in this. quote unquote, playoff hunt that they’re on. Mike, in a week where the Royals did some winning, almost got a sweep from the Mariners, they’re gonna have some strong performers. So who was your strong performer for the week? Well, you just mentioned him and it’s about time we gave him some props on this podcast because we have been questioning his signing pretty much the entire season. But Hunter Renfro Hunter Renfro looked like the player that you wanted him to be when the Royals signed him. He was seven for 17, which means he didn’t play every game, which is how it should be for Hunter Renfro. He had two doubles, two home runs, six RBI, no walks, but no strikeouts either. And so Hunter Renfro was probably what the best version of Hunter Renfro will be for this team this week. And I like that because one, obviously it helps them win. But if Hunter Renfro is going to be a piece that you think about moving here at the deadline, even if you’re in contention, it helps that he’s hitting. OK, if he can show that he can be valuable to another team, you might be able to trade a Hunter Renfro if you feel like you can replace him, his value in some way in the outfield, whether that’s a combination of Adam Frazier and Dairon Blanco, or maybe it’s bringing someone up like a Drew Waters, whatever it is. He may be able, if he can continue to hit, he may be able to fetch you something in a trade market. Yeah, I didn’t I never I didn’t think about that. But yes, that would be an option for a Hunter Renfro if he if he continues to hit. I mentioned him in my weekly wrap up for our sub stack subscribers in the post that I made today because a lot of his improvement looks like positive regression and it looks like he’s outplaying his secondary numbers. So previously against I mentioned this last week or maybe on the midweek episode, I can’t remember. And it was really tough to understand, but previously he was not doing well against even slow pitches. Well, now he’s doing way better than he should be doing against slow pitches. And so it’s kind of evening out with his performance earlier in the year. He’s getting his positive regression finally. Do I think that what he’s doing right now will last? I don’t, sadly. Because if you look at all the secondary numbers, his expecting batting average is way lower, his expected slugging is way lower. And so this hot stretch that he’s on, he’s getting a lot of good fortune baked into that. But he deserves some of that good fortune because he had some bad fortune baked into his previous enormous slump to start the season. And so great to have Hunter Renfro hitting because they kind of need something from the bottom of the lineup. Another guy that I mentioned in that post I sent out today, Will Smith is also having a lot more success now than they thought than he was having previously in the season. So our strong performers are kind of a redemption tour for a lot of guys that we’ve mentioned on the poor week performers list previous weeks. That’s Will Smith. He went two and two thirds innings this week, zero hits given up. Zero runs given up, zero walks and four strikeouts. And I think the best thing we can say about Will Smith in last week is that it wasn’t just that the numbers were good or the performance was good. The stuff was better. He pitched better. He looked like he was in control against hitters. Finally, you’ll remember even when he got out of some innings in previous outings months ago, he yeah, he maybe soft tossed his way around a couple of hits and yeah, did a little dance and kind of got out of it because he faced a weak enough hitter. This week he actually looked like a good pitcher, which is great to see his velocity was up and his most recent outing. I don’t know about today’s, but in yesterday’s outing, he only threw to like one hitter today, I think. But yesterday he was throwing at about 92, 93, you know, for an average fastball. That’s great for him. He’s doing a lot to lean on his change up more. That’s a plan that they’ve installed to get him back on track. And I think it’s working over his last 15 outings. He’s got something like a one and a half ERA. And so. Hopefully he could become a valuable member of the bullpen. We know we’re looking for a lot of solutions of this bullpen. If he can be one of them, they might even be able to trade him as well at the deadline and get some value from him. Mike, some guys just were not on top of it this week. Let us know who your weak performer was. Yeah, and a couple of different guys that I really wanted to talk about, but had to had to throw this one in there because he we have a rotation that has been carrying this team and we saw our first real hiccup when Michael Walker went down. And so who’s going to step up? They’ve been giving him to Daniel Lynch and Daniel Lynch had a rough start this week. Four innings pitched, six hits, eight earned runs that was really brought to us by two hit by pitchers, two hit, two hit batters. and four walks. So in four innings, you hit two guys and walked four guys. That’s never gonna be the recipe for success. He did have four strikeouts, which who cares when you do that? And when you give up eight earned runs, nobody really cares. You struck out four people. up six free passes, it doesn’t matter how many you strike out. Exactly. And it’s same old Daniel Lynch. This is why you and I had kind of preached some caution in those outings that he had that looked solid. It’s like, OK, that looks solid. And he’s not getting a lot of swing and miss. He’s still has way too many non -competitive pitches for my liking. The change up, especially a lot of times will fly way into the left handed batter’s box for no reason. And so, yeah. I think a lot of people were saying after that start, even though the Royals came back to win that game, I think a lot of people were saying Daniel Lynch probably isn’t the answer when it comes to spot starting for this team. And I completely agree with that because again, when you and I talk about this all the time, just because the results were there maybe in a, in a starter too, doesn’t mean that there was change to create those results. It can mean that he went against a weaker lineup or he went up against a lineup that wasn’t on that time or maybe. when they hit the ball hard, they happen to hit it at people. Like Daniel Lynch is a, right now to me, he is a 4A pitcher and maybe, okay, maybe a 4A pitcher. And he hasn’t shown any progression to say he deserves those starts more than a Jonathan Bolan or an Anthony Veneciano or even a bullpen game. Like I don’t know that he gives you a better chance to win than any of those options. Yeah, Daniel Lynch is, you’re right to say he may be a 4A player, like, because I was thinking about after that inning happened where he gives up all those runs in the first inning, I saw a tweet from a friend of the show, David Leske, who was like, he’s gonna have to wear this one because, you know, they can’t go to their bullpen right now. They have a big long string of games coming up in a row. And I was like, hey, that’s fine. Fringe major league starters are made to wear these. And that’s what he is at best right now. a fringe major leaguer and it’s like the Royals understand that as his role or they wouldn’t let him stay out there and just take this one on the chin, right? Like, and so they know that that’s his role right now. Now, maybe over the off season, he actually works on his arsenal and it gets better and he can be something different. But right now he is, he’s the guy that they have spots starting because they really don’t have a ton of other options. And they’ve already said next outing, he’s going to be, he’s going to have an opener go with them and then he’s going to bulk relieve because they don’t want another eight run. Performance to they want to give him the best chance they can to put successful innings up and that’s to throw the other team off with an opener to start with and let him face the bottom half of the lineup and then go through that way and So that’s the best approach with Daniel Lynch right now And I don’t know see it getting any better anytime this season. Maybe by next season. He’ll have worked on some stuff My week performer for this week is Salvador Perez who hey, everybody’s gonna have some weak weak weeks. I guess you know, he’s He went two for 18 with one double, one RBI, three walks and eight strikeouts. Just was not classic Salvador Perez. His timing looked off. He looked like he just wasn’t. He’d get some pitches down Broadway. He’d swing out of it. Just fell him off. It was that sort of thing. I highly anticipate Salvador Perez finding the groove again and getting hot once more. It will happen. Maybe he’s just saving it for the spotlight of having the New York Yankees in town. Wouldn’t be surprised if he goes off in this four game series. Especially since I know they’re facing at least one left -hander and he loves left -handed pitching. And so. We’ll see on that one. But yeah, Salvador Perez did not have a strong week last. Mike, I want to hear an optimistic theme from you because the Royals won last week. What do you got for a theme this week? I’m going to that classic film, Ocean’s Eleven, the remake, the George Clooney version, where he’s talking to Rusty and it’s a one sided conversation and he’s basically talking himself into adding the last person of their team. And so here’s here’s what it is. It’s a 10 out of do it. Don’t you think? You think we need one more? You think we need one more? All right, we’ll get one more. That is the classic like struck me for two reasons. One, because I think like. That’s got to be what you’re thinking when it comes to adding to this bullpen. You think we need one more? The answer is actually you need two more, but we’ll get to that here in a second. But then it’s also like, is this the conversation they’re having in the eighth inning every every day? Hey, you think we need one more? Yeah, we probably need one more. All right. All right. We’ll get one more. And so because they I mean, I haven’t seen the stats on this, but I want to know who scores the most runs in the seventh inning or later in Major League Baseball. The Royals have got to be in the top five, I would think. They score so many runs in those late innings. And I just it just struck me as like. They’re having like these conversations in their head like we got to get one more, let’s get one more. We did it. Let’s get one more. Yes, that’s interesting. I’d be interested to see that list too, because I’d be interested to see the Royals as an offense have to be high up there. And then I’d like to flip it, see the pitching and I’m guessing the Royals as a bullpen are way up there as well. Meaning they have a lot of runs scored against them and we probably need one more or two more pitchers in the bullpen. But anyway, I’m guessing it works against them and for them if we’re looking at that. My theme for this week comes from a wonderful film that I just watched last night with Riggs and our mother. They had never seen it and I had, but I was like, you gotta watch it if you’ve never seen it. And so it comes from the, you’ve never seen it? It’s Bob’s Renaissance. It’s the Keanissance, come on. This is John Wick is the wonderful film that I’m talking about. And he’s sitting in a chair while with his hands tied behind his back. And he looks up at the mobster villain guy and he says, yeah, I’m thinking I’m back. And it’s just that classic John Wick line from the first one. And you know, Bob delivers a great performance there. And then he goes and he kills another 20. because they don’t understand what you mean by Bob. Sorry, my brother Bob, our brother Bob looks exactly like Keanu Reeves. And so we just pretend that he is Keanu Reeves, okay? And so if I say Bob, I mean Keanu Reeves, okay? You might also notice on our sub stack posts every week, there’s a picture of Keanu Reeves there. That’s like the main image of all of our sub stack posts. People keep asking me, why do you keep using pictures of Keanu Reeves? It’s an ode to our brother Bob, okay? And so that will continue in perpetuity, okay? But yes, because the Royals bounced back from a tough streak, yeah. I’m thinking they’re back. Royals Weekly is brought to you by All In Physical Therapy. You already know that All In Physical Therapy helped turn our mother into Robocop. But what you don’t know is that our mom loved her experience there because of the personal attention she got from Tommy and the staff at All In. 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Okay, that was a terrible bone things in harmony impression I was hoping you would nail it but it wasn’t great 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 all in hyphen PT comm that’s a ll I n hyphen PT comm or give them a call at eight one six four two seven five three zero zero that’s eight one six four two seven five three zero zero Joshua. Welcome. I’m good. How you doing? Good. Pumped to be out of here boys. Awesome, awesome. Let’s see here. I wanna make sure, I can hear you okay. There’s a little echo, but that’s okay. That won’t matter too much. to go. Okay, so we all have things in there. The whole idea behind this is each of us pitches an idea and the other two talk about it, critique it, that sort of thing. So Josh will of course go first. I’ll give you a little intro here, Josh. Let me see. change your microphone. Maybe on the wrong one. I’m not sure just be that’s the camera you’re getting ready to join in. Yeah, can you kick me and try to do that again? Is that too big of a hassle? click the leave button and you’ll leave the studio and then you can come back in. BRB. For those of you watching on YouTube, we’re not cutting this out, so you’re just gonna have to watch it. This is a behind the scenes cut of Royals Weekly. All the people listening to the audio, they’re not gonna hear any of this. This is just for you. I did go to the game yesterday. It was amazing. It was an amazing game. I had a funnel cake. It was great. Thursday. I’m playing a golf tournament tomorrow, too, by the way. Don’t forget you promised me Texas Roadhouse if I come help you move your treadmill. That’s true. I feel like it’s poetic that we’re kicking out the treadmill and kicking in the Texas Roadhouse. That’s really the reason I haven’t been using the treadmills because of places like Texas Roadhouse. How’s it going? How’s this? Is this better? Okay, great. Yeah, I think it was trying to get the laptop mic and that’s never a good thing. You’ll want to be nice and loud because Mike is nice and loud and I have to match sort of levels in editing. And so he’s the one who booms us out of here. So if you’re screaming it, it won’t matter. You scream it as loud as you want to scream it. Yes, exactly. yes, that’s what it is. Just like Robin Williams. All right, here we go. For our spotlight segment this week, we are joined by the lovely and talented Josh Kaiser. He is a cohost of One Royal Way or the One Royal Way podcast on the Kansas City Sports Network. We’ve known Josh for quite a while now. We’ve been meaning to have him on the show. He’s a tip terrific Royals commentator. Josh, thank you so much for joining us today. That’s too many compliments. I’m not, I’m not comfortable with that. I can’t abide by any of those, but, I do, I do appreciate you having me. I’m a weekly weirdo, a weekly weirdo, if you will. so, very, very, very happy to be here. And I just wanted to take a couple of swings here. The, the introductory one liners could I, I prepared a couple for you is can I, can I rattle those off? Okay. do. I’m honored to be joining the man responsible for accidentally piercing Billy Ray Cyrus’s upper ear cartilage, my buddy Marcus. I’d go after Billy Ray any day. huh. And the man whose real life story inspired the film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, three turtles in time, my buddy Mike. Hey, see that I get a good one. You’re stuck holding hands with Billy Ray Cyrus and I’m a Ninja Turtle. So. underrate that third one. I think that third one is underrated honestly. It’s terrible, but I love it. It’s terrible, but I love it. for it must have been greed and cocaine, I think is the two things that was… That’s right. is wild time. The early nineties was a wild time. That’s great Anyway, thank you Josh and if you if nothing else if you hear Josh’s silky deep voice Josh you ever just get offers to read stuff because that thing could just put me to sleep not in a bad way But in like a very sultry way I’ve never been offered things like that. I do in church go hard in the paint, if you will, with some harmonic parts in the worship services, but that’s about as close to performances as I get anymore for this. He’s the entire base section, the entire base section is just Josh over here like. a real problem most of the time. It’s a real problem with that choir. Anyway, we’re going over. I love it. Let’s go. On this week’s spotlight segment, we’re interested in getting Josh’s perspective on things that might improve this Royals team as they look to push for a playoff spot. I think everybody sees that, yeah, they’re a good team, but there are probably some ways they could get better and maybe even good enough to make the playoffs. So we’ll go around the horn with each of us presenting our idea on how to improve the team. It can be a call up, a trade, a shift in strategy or rotation from players. One thing from each of us to improve the team. And since Josh is our distinguished guest, he gets to go first. Josh, what’s the one thing you would do to improve this team? distinguished you guys took all the good ones. I would like to say in this Google doc first off, but, I w I kind of went with my half baked one that, that seems a lot more good in theory than it is an application. And that is to trade for JD Martinez, the New York Mets. I think inserting an 800 OPS guy who is consistently performing, into this lineup, into this middle of the lineup. Is it would do wonders for the inconsistent and shrieky nature of this offense right now. They’re buzzing. They’re, they’re, they’re thriving off of a leaders in the lineup, such as Garrett Hampson and Hunter Renfro and Nelson Velazquez. And apparently MJ Melinda is now after a good couple of games here for him. so I, I, I’m not buying into those performances yet. I do love the fact that they’re stepping up and not being absolute holes in the lineup. That’s huge. But I just feel like the JD Martinez insertion in here does create a little bit consistency with both the offense and the fact that he has playoff experience. He’s been in that postseason. He’s been to the mountain top and they clearly want some veteran leadership in that locker room coming into the season. I can’t imagine why they would want less of it coming into the playoffs. So I feel like it would be a pretty cheap get. I don’t think the Mets are going to the postseason this year in that. That’s a nasty, not least per usual. Maybe it’s a little bit more open with the Braves kind of, I don’t know, also Riley stinks. All of a sudden, McCoon, you went down, Spencer Strider is down. So maybe it’s a little bit more wide open than I think it is, but I do think the Mets will be selling. There’s some interesting names, far more interesting than some of the other sellers going into the, going into June, the middle of June right now. So I feel like JD Martinez could be cheaply acquired and brought in, but that’s a. it’s going to be a little bit harder to apply for some of the reasons you guys are going to bring up. Well, I have a quick question for you first. Do you if they do that, do you think he primarily plays D .H. and then OK, you don’t you’re not seeing him in a corner outfield at all or anything like that. I don’t even know the last time he played a corner outfield, but I’m pretty sure a bush was in office No, I actually, you know what? The reason that I really like this idea is because that one piece automatically makes your lineup feel a lot deeper, a lot longer, I guess, maybe. And so it maybe takes some of that streakiness out of your lineup a little bit more consistent, especially if you think about Bobby with Junior getting on base in front of him is just such a great, I mean, Think about that row of hitters you have to go through in a Bobby Witt Jr., a JD Martinez, a Vinny and a Sal. Like that’s a tough middle of a lineup. You’re gonna be yanking starters out to avoid that, going through that a third time. And so I think it does some things to your lineup that we probably don’t even talk much about. Things like the ability to get a starter out quickly and things like that. The ability to put up a big number early in a game. What do you think they would have to give up to get a guy like JD Martinez? Now the Mets are not very good. JD Martinez is very old. Yeah, he is. I would, I was looking at the, I mean, you got to take it with a grain of salt, but the baseball trade values evaluations of it earlier, last week on the podcast, we did a let’s get transactional game and it was probably in the ballpark. The value was like a Tyler Gentry and Anthony Veneziano. that might not, a lot of the times when they sell those pieces, they want a little bit more like lottery tickets, a little bit lower level guys that they can kind of groom a little bit better. So maybe that’s not enough, but if that’s where your evaluation is, then it shouldn’t take much to get them, I wouldn’t think. Yeah, the only thing I think about when I hear something like that is the way the Royals in particularly use the DH as like this rotational day off for guys like Salvador Perez to keep him in the lineup. They like the flexibility, I think, of that. So you’re trading off that flexibility for more consistency on your offense. And of course, offensive inconsistency has been their big problem. And so I think Martina, as you’re right, offers a lot more consistency, but also lengthens that lineup in such a way that you can now start to imagine. getting a game here, a game there that right now you’re not getting because you just can’t get over the hump, you know? And so Martinez, I think I looked it up earlier, like a 122 weighted runs created plus right now, a guy who has been an offensive performer for a long time. Yes, he’s long in the tooth. And so his numbers are starting to come down from his heights, but still a much more consistent offensive performer like Hunter Renfro or something like that. And Mike actually pitched the notion of trading Renfro who has been hitting more lately. And so if your inclination as the Royals were… let’s get Renfro off the roster, bring in a guy like Martinez who we think has a better chance to face Velocity than Renfro does. And I haven’t looked at those numbers specifically, but maybe he does. Then you have a better chance of saying like, okay, we don’t have to sit this guy against everyone who throws harder than 95, which is what they have to do against such a Renfro. And so, yeah, I think it would be a really interesting trade option. There are not that many bats that you would say the Royals might and should target, and that because there aren’t that many teams that aren’t in it and that sort of thing. but he’s definitely one of them they should give a look to. Hey, one name for you guys, because this is what this kind of move reminds me of, Kendris Morales. Older guy, DH only, came in and provided a consistent level of offense for a team that desperately needed consistent offense, and we saw how that worked out for the Royals. And I don’t think you’re giving up. Like if you got to shift like Nellie to a corner outfield spot, I don’t think he’s going to provide that little, that vast of a difference in the field as JD Martinez would make up for at the plate with the offense. So, and I think you have to figure out that corner outfield spot after this year anyway. So if we’re going to, if we’re going to give Nellie a shot to go earn that spot, to be that guy next year and not just be a DH hitter, then I think that. I mean, why not start now? Why not do it during a postseason run? Why not bring in a veteran like JD Martinez to kind of boost those, boost those buoys, I guess, at this point to see what we can do. And honestly, I don’t know that it’s a huge downgrade in the outfield from a Hunter Renfro to a Nelson Velasquez because Renfro is so limited in terms of his range. Velasquez probably has better range, though not quite an arm that Hunter Renfro has. And so, you know, I think that’s pretty much a wash as well. Mike, what do you got? go ahead, Josh, sorry. be brutal to trade Hunter Renfro now that he’s going. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like, remember? Yeah. Sure. just, he’s getting fortunate. And so, you know, that’s fine. It’s good. But if some other team sitting out there and they’re like, Hey, we could use a bat to help us against pitchers throwing less than 94, give Hunter Renfro, let’s give the Royals a call, then do it because you know what? Do it, you know, because he’s not the answer moving forward either. So like, -huh. You know, you don’t want to, if you can get him off your roster, you want to in my mind. And so I might not get a lot in return, but it’ll be more than nothing. Mike, what are your thoughts on how we can improve this team? OK, well, I feel I feel like I probably took the one that you guys would have liked to do here because well, recency bias, we saw the bullpen struggle a little bit again today. My fix for this team is to trade for Ryan Helsley, the closer for this St. Louis Cardinals and bring up Walter Pennington. So I mentioned earlier this bullpen doesn’t need. Well, no, no, what they didn’t say one thing you said, what are you going to do to fix it? And they’re both bullpen related. So I was like. thing to fix it. One thing to fix it. Mike’s a cheater, everyone. Mike cheats. brought this up so that I could say, hey, one guy’s not gonna fix this bullpen. It will make it, like you were saying with that lineup, it will make it longer, because MacArthur can then move into a different role when you bring in Orion Hesley, which I think he will thrive in more than what he has in the role they put him in. But that’s not gonna do it. That’s not gonna be enough to be a consistently decent bullpen. Hesley moves the needle quite a bit, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t make he doesn’t get to himself, I guess is what I’m trying to say. He doesn’t pitch the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth. And so go go get bring up Walter Pennington. I like Sam Long. I like what he’s been able to do. I like John Schreiber. I like Schreiber. I like Zerpa in the role that you want Zerpa to be in, not the one that we sometimes have to put him in. And even a guy like a Will Smith, I think if you’re saying, OK, you’re our low leverage guy or our mop up guy or our lefty guy, I think he can be OK in those spots. but a guy like Ryan Hesley, if you don’t know anything about him, flamethrower, 100 miles an hour fastball, fantastic slider, throws a little bit of a curve ball, but not much. If you go look at his baseball savant page, it lights up like Moscow in the seventies. I mean, it’s all red, okay? It’s just red all the way across, right? I mean, it’s, thank you. I mean, it’s true though. And now he’s got a good track record as much as a reliever can have. He does have some injury issues in the past, but. And he’s got one more year of control after this year. So it wouldn’t necessarily be a rental. I like this specifically because for me it would be a trade for him. Let him help you get to a playoff run. Start next year with him. Trade him trade him halfway through the season. So you’re not because you’re I mean you’re going to lose him either way. So he’s going to be gone. Go get that big reliever money if he’s healthy. So trade for Helsley. Bring up Walter Pennington and make this bullpen better on the top end and better on the bottom. My questions on that would be a, what are the two spots on the bullpen that you’re switching out? Who, who’s out and who’s, you know, who’s, who’s getting taken out there. I probably option Anderson to start with. That’s probably my first one. And then and that’s that’s probably the. Gosh, I don’t know, that’s tough. The 40 man spots are gonna be tougher than the 26 in this situation, I feel like. Because Anderson, you’ll wanna keep it, you’ll have to stay on the 40 man, you’ll need a 40 man spot for Helsley coming in, you need a 40 man spot for Pennington as well. Those are easy to find. Jake Brunson is still on the 40 man, Colin Selby is still on the 40 man. Easy to find those. Awesome, Noah has an option too, right? Like. get Anderson out of there. And then I probably. I option will climb back down, probably. I don’t I don’t dislike Will Klein or what he’s done, but I probably let him go down and continue working. I think he could be a decent part for this, but I just I don’t think they’re going to just give up on Stratton is the thing. He’s probably the next guy, but I don’t think they’re just going to give him away. So. And somebody, I brought it up Pennington again this, this week, because that’s all I do on Twitter is bring up Walter Pennington. It seems like, but, with those move that that means you got four lefties in that bullpen. Does that, it doesn’t bother me because I do fully believing in Pennington that he is one of the better relievers in this organization. Does that bother you guys as four lefties? Half your bullpen is lefty. It, at the very least it gives me pause because I know that I, I believe that Walter Pennington can get lefties or righties out. I don’t know that Will Smith can evenly get lefties or righties out. I’m pretty sure he can’t. Sam Long, I have a little more faith in than, than Will Smith, but still all these guys are guys and, and Elzerpa just demonstrably has better numbers against lefties than righties. And so, you know, at least two of those four. helps you more against lefties than he does against righties. And there’s probably likely that Pennington and Sam Long have a little bit of a lefty righty split as well. And so that is the one thing where I’m like, I mean, half my brain says, hey, you just want the best relievers you can get. And so I do ultimately think it would be the better move, but it will always be in the back of their minds like, shit, we have four lefties in our bullpen right now. Like we need to get right -handers out too occasionally, you know? And you’ve limited the guys you can go to to do that. Now you’re looking at Stratton. You’re going to have to have him in there. Schreiber, you know, you’re only going to be able to throw those guys against that righty heavy lineups once or twice a week, and then you’re going to have to rely on some of those lefties to get those guys out. That always ends up being the case eventually, but it’s something that they would definitely have to think about. Mike, you gave us a Ryan Helsley trade, but you didn’t give us who might be giving up for this Helsley trade. So who in this organization is going to the St. Louis Cardinals? I think you probably go down to double A and find either a Noah Cameron, maybe even like a Kayden Wallace if they’re looking for a bat, something like that to be the centerpiece. And then probably something else on top of that as well. More of like a. A triple A guy that we’re not sure about, you know, or maybe a CJ Alexander, Tyler Gentry, those types of guys, or even in one of the arms and an Andrew Hoffman or a Viniciano. But yeah, I think you’re going to have to. put in a guy that you consider one of your top 10 prospects in the Royals organization, because I don’t think there’s a lot of people out there who think of those top 10 guys in the Royals organization as being top 10 guys in their organization all the time. And so I think it would take, you know, a Caden Wallace, maybe even a Carter Jensen, Carter Jensen, maybe by himself, I would hope would be able to get that. But yeah. It’s a year and a half of a reliever here we’re talking about. And so he’s a really good reliever. Yes, that is true. That is true. And so, but yeah, I think Cartridge -Ensen would maybe, if that is the case, then I would say no, but. going to be. What is the market for Halesley going to be? It’s him and it’s him and Tanner Scott. And then after that, there’s maybe a guy or two. OK. Mm hmm. conversation. I was gonna put him down here, but I saw Josh mentioning it somewhere and I’m like, well, I don’t wanna take his idea. And so, yeah, but, and I’m not 100 % sure based on who I want them to trade, whether or not the Nationals will be interested in that sort of thing. But yeah, Helsley is gonna have quite a price tag. So I’m gonna give you guys, go ahead. Hellsley doesn’t throw much of a slider either. Right. And I think that was kind of the same thing that I thought about Harvey is both of those guys get by on velocity. Harvey’s got the split finger and, and, Hellsley’s got a pretty, pretty gnarly curve ball. They’ve both dabbled with sliders in the past, but they haven’t really thrown something. Is it okay. got a really good slider and dabbles with the curve. The slider is actually his best pitch by the numbers right now. But the curve, yeah, it’s kind of a kind of a throw when you must. Yeah. I do wonder if, if the Royals could get Hunter Harvey a little bit cheaper and then maybe help him develop the slider in the off season to turn him into an absolute monster next year, give him a little bit extra tool on the tool belt. But, that was why I was kind of, I kind of had my heart set on Hunter Harvey a little bit more than, than Hellsley. But I think the impact that a elite closer, like you’re talking about could be huge for this bullpen, I think, and not. make us so anxious days like today. No kidding. Yes, yeah, and I’m gonna actually mention the closer too because anytime we’re thinking about how to improve this team, the bullpen has to come up, I think number one in our list though. Josh also pointed a couple to a bat that would do good. I’m gonna go ahead and say that to improve the team, I would trade Michael Wacha for Robert Suarez. Robert Suarez is the closer for the San Diego Padres. He has… many years left of control. I think he’s not a free agent until 2028 or something like that. He’s an older player though. He’s like 33 years old. And so what you need to know about Suarez is he throws nothing but gas. He is a flame thrower. He does have a, I think his changeup is secondary pitch. The only other pitch he throws maybe, I’m not exactly sure. But Suarez, you know, he strikes quite a few guys out, but what he really does is he limits walks too. And he, you know, he’s just a… If you look at his savant page, it’s not as quite Moscow in the 70s, but there’s a lot he’s doing right in terms of getting swing and miss, limiting hard contact, good extension, good so many things about him are quality. And he’s the type of guy who would just really, he would come in, he would be the closer immediately. You would start feeling a lot better about the ninth inning as a result of having Robert Suarez. Now, why give up Michael Walker? Michael Walker has an opt out after this year. And if I’m Michael Walker, I’m sitting in my mind and I’m thinking pitchers can always get hurt. You need to go back on the market and try and get yourself a deal that is longer than two years, right? You need to go back on the market and try and find the last team that you’ll play with if you can, right? Like, and so I’m not 100 % convinced that even if the Royals make a playoff run or make the playoffs that Waka is going to stick around for his second season, the Royals have starting options coming back for next year. Kyle Wright, Chris Bubich, and that sort of thing. And so I wonder, they also have Chandler Champlain on the doorstep, Mason Barnett’s not that far away, Noah Cameron, Mike has mentioned as a possibility for being not that far away. Michael Walker is a guy who they should have always been thinking about trading during this year because they only signed him for really one year. And so, hey, if you’re gonna be shrewd, trade Michael Walker, get the help that you need in the bullpen, and then we’ll figure out an answer for the rotation. I think my biggest concern about doing anything is to mess with the chemistry going on in the clubhouse. And I think Michael Walker is a big reason why these starters are so damn good. him and Lugo coming in, injecting a whole new clubhouse culture into that, into that clubhouse is evident. You see it in the, in the dugout every time they come out of the game that they’re huddling up, trying to figure out what they each one of them has seen, how they can grow and do better. And that’s obviously can still happen without Michael Walker here. But it’s just kind of tough to start the year, have a guy kind of, you know, build that foundation, change that clubhouse culture, and then get shipped out. Even though it does, you know, it is a shrewd business making decision and it is a good idea. what are you doing with that fifth roster or re rotation spot for the rest of this season? Well, so Wach is out for what, like another three, two or three weeks, something like that. Probably three at the minimum, right? And so Chris Bubich, I think is a good option. He’s coming right along to like where you would want him to be ready in terms of pitch count to go in and throw five innings in the major leagues. And honestly, he’s mowing through AAA hitters right now. He was mowing through other hitters previously. Is he 100 % back to what Chris Bubich was before he got hurt last year? Probably not. But is he going to be… Better than Daniel Lynch, yes, I think so. And so get him in there. I think he’s an option. I think, and obviously you probably don’t want to make this move this quickly, but Chandler Champlain has looked pretty good in AAA. And so he’s an option. You have Jonathan Boland, you have Daniel Lynch, you have Anthony Vizinato. You can do some things to mix and match with openers and so on and so forth to give yourself a chance, including make handheld Zerpa back into a bulk reliever. That’s an option. I think there are a lot of options for taking Waka’s spot. The difficulty is one, finding out which one you wanna go with, and two, Josh, I’m not a guy who pays much attention or sort of thinks that chemistry is that big of a deal, but that is one instance where I think you’re right, that that might be a concern there is like what that rotation looks like sands the input of a Michael Waka. And that is the one thing that gives me pause, but. At the end of the day, I’m more about true business decisions. And I think it might hurt the chemistry, but I think it’s also, you’re gonna lose that chemistry in six months anyway. And so, you might as well go ahead and take a shot now that that’s the thing to do. So hopefully, Boobich could fill that role. But if not, I think you have some other options too, if you want. Yeah. And if you guys are wondering like, hey, well, what does Robert Suarez look like? Go look and see what he did to the Royals when they were in town. He was friggin good. And and they like found him out of nowhere. They got him on waivers, I think they said. Like, and so I don’t think. Yeah, it’s it’s he’s he’s got they owe him nothing. He’s he’s like a weird kind of guy that they found. And you’re right, he’s bringing serious heat and he limits the walks and. He looks like a dominant closer when he’s out there. And yeah, Michael Walker for him, you know, like you said, it’s basically half a season of Michael Walker. I would probably not. I’m like the Royals, I think. I think bringing Boombich up this early, I think, is not what I would do. And so I’d probably be looking at some of those other options. But it is an interesting point to make. You’re probably not keeping Michael Walker long term, even for next year. So if there’s something you can get for him, maybe you do it. Maybe you trade Michael Walker for a younger starting pitcher even. If you’re thinking long term, like not just, hey, we want to make the playoffs this year. If you’re really thinking long term, let’s think what would the Tampa Bay Rays do? Would they trade Michael Walker? Yes. They might, right. They might go out there and say, hey, let’s do it for the future, even though he’s helping us win this year. Is it any you also have to think of it this way? Is he giving you a level of performance so high that the next the solution, whatever you bring in for him, is going to crush you in the playoff run like and I like what he’s done. I really do like what he’s done. I think he’s given you exactly what you signed him to give you. But. that’s my thing. I’m like, in my mind, I’m like, okay, Waka has been good. He’s been exactly what they want him to be. However, if Daniel Lynch just had to keep going throughout the year, obviously he wouldn’t be good, I don’t think. But would he be such a drop off from what Waka has been that you’d be like, we’ve lost every one of those starts or something like that? I don’t think so. Not if you deployed him in the way that I think they’re gonna deploy him next time with an opener and then he’s the bulk reliever and stuff like that. I think you could do stuff to make up the value that you might be. dropping just a bit in quality of starter to make up for that. I think you could either go with an opener. You could, there’s just things you could do to avoid losing all the value that you lose from trading Michael Walker. And he’s been good, but he hasn’t been like tremendously above league average or anything like that. And so, you know, I think you could get by. It’s one of those things where you’re like, you hurt yourself a little bit every fifth day, but you help yourself tremendously for three or four times a week, right? Like three or four times a week. You know, like, and that’s huge, I think. Mm -hmm. I’d agree. Josh, we really want to thank you for joining us for our spotlight segment this week. We are of course going to have you back on. We haven’t floated this idea to you yet, but we’ve been talking about it amongst ourselves to have you on our live stream for the draft coverage that we’re going to do on draft night. And so if you’re interested in that, come back, but we’ll definitely have you back. Thank you so much for your input. We love One Royal Way. Make sure you’re checking that out every week with Josh on it. We’ll see you again soon, bud. Yeah, I appreciate you having boys anytime I’m in. Let me know. See you boys. 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 fast. We’ve known him for 30 years and trust him far more than we even trust each other. Mark hasn’t given me his real address since 2009. I’m telling you, I do actually live in Barbados. This is not a lie. 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 find you the perfect spot fast. Want to spend your days shanking golf balls into the great beyond? Eric knows the golf scene like Mike knows the inside of a Royals jail. Mike, I know you’ve been there, don’t lie. a great place to catch a game. Find Eric online at ericoxure .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 at 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 can hold his breath for four minutes. It’s incredible. The Royals will wrap up this homestand with a four game series against the old evil empire, the New York Yankees, before hitting the road for the left coast and a three game set against the new evil empire, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mike, tell us about the New York Jankies. Junkies lose. That’s like. First off, the old evil empire is playing the new evil empire tonight. Did you know that they’re playing tonight? So they’re we’re going to be getting the Junkies off of the Dodgers series here. The New York Yankees are 45 and 21, which is good enough for first. That’s before tonight’s game, by the way, because they’re playing at six o ‘clock tonight. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s Sunday night baseball. 45 and 21 first in the AL East for the New York Yankees. They are a dominant ball club again. First game will have Seth Lugo go against Carlos Rodin, a resurgent Carlos Rodin, 31 year old lefty out of North Carolina State, 3 .08 ERA and a 1 .08 whip. He’s got a four seam fastball in the mid 90s still a slider change up cutter and curve ball. He’s having a big time bounce back year thanks in large part to his improved fastball and his lower walk rate. In the second game, we’ll get Brady Singer versus Marcus Stroman, 33 year old righty out of Duke. He’s got a 3 .04 ERA and a 1 .24 whip. He’s got a sinker in the low nineties now, that’s what he’s working or leaning heavy on. A cutter, a slider, a slurve, a split finger and a four seam fastball that he doesn’t throw too much anymore. 4 .52 expected ERA, so maybe some good luck there for him. He’s got a solid ground ball rate at 49 .5%. That third game, we’re not entirely sure, but we think it’s going to be opener and Lynch versus Cody Poteet, 29 year old righty out of UCLA. He’s got a 1 .72 ERA and just a 0 .96 whip and is just three starts. He’s got a low to mid nineties, four seam fastball, a sinker, a change up, a sweeper and a curve ball. He throws either the sinker or the four seamer about 56 % of the time, but his expected ERA is much higher. So maybe we can. Give him some of that bad luck that he’s been so sorely needing recently. The last game will be Alec Marsh versus Nestor Cortez, the 29 year old lefty out of Highly Senior High School in Florida. Is that highly high lie? How do you say that? He Alia. Hi, you like it. You like to play the highlight. Three point six eight ERA for Nestor Cortez so far this year in a one point one two whip low 90s four seam fastball, but he makes his living on. the cutter, the sweeper, and the change. Hitters are slugging 4 -12 against the fastball, which is why he throws the other pitches so much. Sorry, 5 -12. Yeah, 4 -12’s to be pretty good, but not great. He’s walking a career low though, 4 .9 % of hitters, he’s never been much of a walk guy. So that’s gonna be a tough four game series, and I believe Mom and I will be out at that last one, the Marsh versus Nestor Cortez start. Yes, Mike and I exclusively take our mother to baseball games. No one else, just her. And so after the the Jankies come to town, it will be the Los Angeles Dodgers. They’re 41 and 25. They’re leading the NL West and a West. I get my directions mixed up frequently. We don’t have problems for that game, as is always the case for the second series of the week. But as you might imagine, the Dodgers are good at both offense, pitching, defense, you name it. They’re good at it. They’re a. good. They… They have a 121 rated runs created plus as a team. That’s good enough for second baseball. Guess who’s number one, Mike. Uhhhhuhhhh The Yankees, it says so right above what I said right here. Yes, the Yankees are number one offensively, the Dodgers are number two. It’s gonna be a real test of a week for the pitching staff this week. Obviously they have Mookie Betts, Shohei Otani, and Freddie Freeman, the big three everybody’s talking about, and they’re great and they’re doing well this year. But they also have Will Smith and Tiosca Hernandez who are doing great this year offensively, and so it is a rough, rough lineup to face. Pitching wise, they have a 3 .25 ERA, which is good enough for fourth in Major League Baseball. They have Tyler Glass now, they have Yoshinobu Yamamoto, they have Gavin Stone, who’s doing well for them, they’re all having good years. But oddly, their last two starters, James Paxton and Walker Bueller, not having good years this year, both with the RAs over five. Paxton, obviously, a guy they signed this off season, Bueller one of their own prospects. So we’ll see if maybe we get lucky, catch Paxton and Bueller and just crush them. That would be great. We’ll end this week’s episode like we end every episode with the Just a Bit Outside segment where we talk about something that’s interesting to us outside the world of baseball. Mike, you’ve been living that sweet summer life. Tell us what it’s like in Mikeland. man, I have been living that sweet summer life, getting a lot done. But somebody made a comment. And I know I’ve spoken about this in just about outside segment before, but let’s I want to rehash it because somebody said something to me the other day and it made me just cringe really bad. And I wanted to say something back to him. But then I realized you got to let people live their life. And then I also realized I have a platform on here that may not be huge, but it’s it’s it’s a captive audience. So here we go. You’re going to hear what I have to say, damn it. So here’s here’s the advice from. from a non -financial advisor, but a person who knows a lot about personal finance, don’t think of your home as an investment. And that’s what the person said to me. They said, your home’s a great investment. Owning property is a great investment. And all I could think about was, well, is it? Don’t think of the home that you live in as an investment, because investments are meant to return you money, okay? And no matter what you think, the home that you live in is not going to do that. Okay, 99 % of the time it’s not gonna do that. The best way to think of it is as a savings account for your future home spending. Okay, so there’s a couple things that play into this. One, if you factored in what you bought your home for and then once you paid off your loan, let’s say it took you 20 years to do that and then you sold your home and then you think you’re making the difference, you’re like, this is a great investment because we bought it for this amount, sold it for this amount and there’s a whole bunch in between those two amounts. Okay, that’s not right. Okay, because you actually spent a whole bunch of money on what we call debt servicing. You spent a whole bunch of money on maintenance and repairs. You spent a whole bunch of money on taxes and insurance. All of those things sap all that money that you made from your home away. Okay, not to mention the transaction costs on buying and selling homes, all that sort of stuff. But if you think of it as a savings account for your future home spending, it gets a little bit better. Okay, if you and this is where I hate the idea of a starter home. OK, most of us, if we live in a starter home, that’s all the home you’ll ever need, really. OK, now we like to convince ourselves that we need a bigger home or more land or more rooms or whatever. And sometimes that’s necessary if you have a bunch of kids and things like that. But for the most part, your starter home could probably be your home for the rest of your life. OK, and that’s that’s kind of how I try to think of things is like, OK, the money that I spend to buy my home, the home I currently live in, which is the first home I’ve ever owned. When I’m done paying it off, that’s the money I’m going to use for whatever housing I have for the rest of my life. If you think of it that way, your home is actually a pretty good value. Now, I’m not going to call it an investment because it’s not going to return you any money, but you can create the most value from that money by using it then for the rest of your life to buy your next house or to, you know, if you, if you’re closer to, to, you know, the end of your life saying, okay, well, I’m just going to. use that to rent for the rest of this time, or even if you turn around, invest that money and then pull it out to rent or things like that. There’s a lot of different things that you can do, but I don’t like that people often think of their home as an investment. If it were an investment, it would be a terrible one if you actually did the math on it. And so, that’s my advice. Think of your home more as a savings account for your future home spending, not as an investment for your investment portfolio, because it, It’ll just be a disappointment. If you tied that to your investment portfolio, you would think, why do I have this terrible performing investment in my portfolio? When I could have just stuck that in an index fund and made 10 to 13 percent for 20 years, you know, like, yeah, that’s something a lot of people don’t think about. And that is absolutely true. And so what’s funny is I’m only 38. I have owned three homes in my life and I have downsized each time. So I started out with a big house that cost the most of any of the houses I’ve owned, went to what I’ll call a medium sized house. and now I live in a fairly small house. I’m not upsizing. I don’t have a start. My starter home was an ender home, I guess. And I’m getting down to like even smaller. And so, yeah, that’s great. Great thing to think about all of you people. And yes, this is the stuff Mike thinks about in his spare time. So for my just a bit outside this week, I’m talking about the experience of going to the grocery store. It sounds very mundane, but one of the things that I love doing most with my partner is going to the grocery store. because it is a different experience to go to the grocery store with somebody who is really interested in food. My partner is very much interested in food and it is just a joy to go to the grocery store with her because of how excited she gets about various foods, because of how detail oriented she gets about different foods. She like really looks at stuff and gets into it and is always looking for different weird stuff or gets really excited if they have different weird stuff like, and so going to the grocery store with her is almost like an activity for me. Right? And so I would encourage you to go to the grocery store with somebody you know, who’s like really into food and see how the different, the experience might actually be because you might learn stuff. I always learn stuff when I go to the grocery store with Riggs. You might also just have fun getting to see your friend to be joyous. Being at the grocery store is one of my partner’s favorite things because that’s how much she loves food. And they’re the places where all the food is. And so she’s like, great. And even different types of grocery stores. So we went to the Asian market down in river market. not this weekend, but last weekend. And she just, she’s like in heaven when she’s there. And so we’re getting all these different types of foods. I’m learning about all these different types of foods that exist at the Asian market that aren’t in most grocery stores. And it’s just like a really fun, interesting experience to learn more about food. If you go through the grocery store with somebody who knows what they’re talking about, who knows a lot about food and that sort of thing. So just a little bit of a recommendation, go to the grocery store with somebody who knows a lot about food. You might enjoy the experience. That’s all we have this week for Royals Weekly. Thank you so much for tuning in. Make sure to tune in again next week. We’re gonna thanks for joining us here on Royals Weekly presented by BetOnline. We are contractually obligated to say that. Well, we hope you come back for us next week. Thank you so much to Josh Kaiser of One Way or Way for joining us. We really appreciate having him on. We’ll see you next week. Until then, be good to each other. Go Royals!