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Royals Rumblings - News for April 12, 2024

Sure, the Royals have a 7 game winning streak. But, more importantly, they’d have a 29 week unbeaten streak on Thursdays if they hadn’t lost Opening Day

By sterlingice
/ new
MLB: APR 11 Astros at Royals
Dang it - Ryan already used the picture I wanted to use
Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Yesterday was a day game (and what a game). That jumbles all the news up. Basically, we get a bunch of recaps, but I’m sure you’ve already read Ryan’s excellent recap (hopefully he wrote it - I’m just guessing as I’m writing this in the afternoon while the game is still going on). Meanwhile, most outlets use the day recap to fill a story spot so they churn out fewer stories. That means less for me to link to and the stuff that I am linking to is usually a little stale. However, we do finish up our Asian baseball previews today with the NPB so that will give you something new to read about.

I know this was reposted by Max (or whoever was manning the RR account) on Twitter yesterday. But, if you didn’t see it, Mark DeRosa did a great job breaking down Vinnie’s at bats on Wednesday for MLB Network:

Speaking of Vinnie, Jaylon Thompson got some, uh, edited, quotes after his big game:

“(Heck) yeah, some frustration set in for me ...” Pasquantino said. “It doesn’t matter when you are winning and that’s something we haven’t been able to say around here the past two years since I’ve been here. It doesn’t (freaking) matter when you are winning. That’s all that matters.

Anne Rogers has the more accurate, less safe for work version.

Thompson also talked to the captain about his role and what he saw in the team:

Salvador Perez sat crestfallen at his locker. The Kansas City Royals captain felt nothing could soothe the sting of a tough loss. “I’ve got to be better,” Perez said. “I have to bring guys home to help my team win.”

Last week, the Royals squandered a winnable game against the Baltimore Orioles. Perez failed to cash in a prime scoring chance in the series opener. The Royals fell 6-4 and later dropped the series. KC headed home with a 2-4 overall record. Perez, who is the lone member remaining from the Royals’ 2015 World Series team, uttered a key phrase.

“The game is going to pay you back,” Perez said.

Blair Kerkhoff reported that there will be a “guest” announcer on the Royals broadcast this weekend: “Wyatt Thompson, the Wildcats’ play-by-play man for football and men’s basketball, will be in the booth for the Royals’ three-game series at the New York Mets starting Friday... [he] will be filling in for Jake Eisenberg, who will be attending a family wedding.”

Kerkhoff also mentions that the cleats from the stolen Jackie Robinson statue in Wichita will have a new home at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Blog time?

Everyone wanted to talk about Vinnie getting hot along with the team. First, Craig:

Pasquantino’s turnaround quietly started in the seventh inning on Tuesday when he worked a five-pitch walk. Against Houston reliever Bryan Abreu, Pasquantino laid off high heat and a couple more fastballs that were a touch low. In his next plate appearance against Josh Hader, he hammered an elevated sinker at 96 MPH for a sharp lineout to center. It was another out, but Pasquantino was on it.

As rookie Spencer Arrighetti was mowing down the Royals the first time through the order, Pasquantino worked another five-pitch walk. He’s been scuffling, but he can still take quality plate appearances. He could’ve offered at that first-pitch fastball. I’m sure it looked tasty. He held off and then watched four more pitches sail beyond the zone.

Then some Lesky ($):

What they were missing, though, was their number three hitter getting into the action. If you had told someone two weeks ago that Vinnie Pasquantino would be hitting .108/.214/.108 through 11 games, I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I’ll bet you’d have said the Royals were something like 3-8. And yet, they were 7-4. Waiting for Pasquantino to get hot had moments of feeling like a fool’s errand even if you were smart enough to recognize the power of the small sample. I was calling for him and MJ Melendez to swap spots. I still think they probably should have, but I was certainly glad they didn’t for last night’s action.

Blog Roundup:

After a couple of week delay, we end our trip around the major Asian baseball leagues with the venerable NPB of Japan (having previously done the CPBL and the KBO).

NPB - Nippon Professional Baseball

Country: Japan

Opening Day: March 29

International Players: Many ex-MLBers ply their trade in the NPB. Some names you might recognize include Marwin Gonzalez, Roberto Osuna, and Gregory Polanco. There’s also Alex Dickerson, Michael Feliz, Domingo Santana, Drew VerHagen, Dayán Viciedo, and, apparently, a ton of former Royals (see below). Apparently, Roughned Odor was going to play for the Yomiuri Giants but quit a couple of days ago when they requested him go to the farm team to start the season. This list from JapanBall appears to be up to date-ish.

Former Royals: Albert Abreu* (Seibu Lions), Orlando Calixte (Chunichi Dragons), Franchy Cordero (Seibu Lions), Maikel Franco (Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles), Foster Griffin (Yomiuri Giants), Taylor Hearn (Hiroshima Carp), Andrés Machado* (Orix Buffaloes), Franmil Reyes (Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters), Matt Reynolds* (Hiroshima Carp), and former farmhand Elvis Luciano (Yomiuri Giants). And, of course, Nori Aoki (Yakult Swallows) is still going at 42 years young. I just kept scrolling through the list and had to add more names! There are only 4 teams in the league /without/ a former Royal. Get on the phone, Tigers, BayStars, Marines, and Hawks!

* Gotta be honest - I don’t remember these guys being on the Royals, but it’s right there on b-r

Last Season: The big story across all of Asian baseball last year was the long championship droughts that ended: CPBL’s Wei Chuan Dragons at 24 years, KBO’s LG Twins at 29 years, and, the longest, NPB’s Hanshin Tigers at 38 years. If you remember (it’s ok if you don’t): this time last year, I wrote about the former MLB’er Randy Bass and the Curse of the Colonel. I thought it was a fun story that I was just now discovering and wanted to share. However, it would be topical with the Tigers defeating Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Orix Buffaloes in the Japan Series. With the curse having been broken, the (significantly damaged) Colonel Sanders statue was buried in a ceremony last month.

Rooting Interest: Back in 2020, the choice was obvious. Longtime Swallow Nori Aoki returned for a second tenure with the team back in 2018 and Alcides “Ambush” Escobar was on the team as well. Escobar has moved on, bouncing between the MLB, AAA, and leagues in Mexico and Venezeula. But Aoki is still playing for the Swallows at 42 years young.

After finishing last in 2020, we thought we had our squad. But then, Munetaka Murakami happened. In 2021, at the age of 21, he won the Central League MVP (think: AL/NL MVP) and led the Swallows to their first title since 2001. He followed that up with another MVP in 2022, but the team lost to the aforementioned Buffaloes in the Japan Series. Last year, Murakami and the Swallows fell back a bit and the two-time MVP signed a contract that he will be posted to MLB after the 2025 season.

Random Nuggets:

  • Sadly, the daily games on FTF Sports are gone, as is the company, near as I can tell - their Twitter, Facebook, and home pages are all gone. After some digging, it looks like they were shuttered by parent company Eleven Sports and became Easy Sports. The NPB Subreddit has a big section in their FAQ about watching games internationally. Subscriptions, VPNs, and varying models abound for the different leagues and teams... so I guess it’s not that different from here. Pacific League TV has an English YouTube channel where they broadcast a game about once a month. The next one is April 21st (Hawks vs Buffaloes).
  • Last year, I linked to an article with the words “Sadly, greedy Yankees fans are already salivating over the prospect of grabbing a number of these NPB players if and when they are posted to MLB”. This year is no different with a CBS Sport article entitled “Yankees, Dodgers, Mets among MLB teams scouting Roki Sasaki’s 2024 season debut in Japan”. You can look to a pair of Dodgers to see how this could unfold for the current Chiba Lotte Marine. If Sasaki, 23, comes over after this season, he would have to take a career path similar to Shohei Ohtani where his bonus would be limited to the international player pool and the team signing him would have 6 years of club control. However, he waited until after he was 25, like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, there would be no limits and he could sign a contract similar to the 12 year/$325M pact the former Buffalo signed this past offseason. All this is to say “screw the Dodgers and their $1B spending spree on 2 players as they greedily look for more”.
  • Before the season, the Japan Times had their previews up for the Central League and Pacific League. Here’s what they had to say about our Swallows:

The Swallows won consecutive pennants in 2021 and 2022 but plummeted 26 games under .500 to finish fifth last season.

Offense was not the problem. The Swallows were hit by injuries(Yasutaka Shiomi) and down seasons (Tetsuto Yamada) but still finished second in runs scored, OPS and homers behind Munetaka Murakami, Japan’s premier slugger, Jose Osuna and Domingo Santana. That trio is not likely to slow down and either Shiomi or Yamada — or both — should bounce back.

Scoring runs won’t be an issue. Preventing them, however, might be. The Swallows posted the worst overall ERA in the CL, with their starters finishing last among the six teams and the bullpen ranking fifth.

  • Former MLB outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo’s tenure as manager of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters has not been as showy as his personality. BIGBOSS’s team has finished last in the Pacific League the last two years and he may not get another season if it happens again.Of course, his entrance this year couldn’t possibly top the hovercraft one from 202. Instead, this year’s was merely described as “WWE-style”. Also, I missed this amazing story last year from James Dator at the mothership. I’ll give you the closing lines as a teaser before you click the link: “It’s nice to know that somewhere in the world uniforms are still beautiful, pure, and reveal an alluring amount of chest... Thank you to the Nippon-Ham Fighters and BIGBOSS for making this a reality”.

Links:

Here’s a game we haven’t revisited in a couple of years and it’s past due: Lumines. We did Shinin (love the URL, wonder if it worked) in 2019, Welcome to the Club in 2020, and Spirits in 2021. How about some Urbanization in 2024?

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