They are smashing the ball you dumb mother****er. I posted the advanced stats. I'm sorry if youre too stupid to understand what they are saying. What do strikeouts have to do with hitting the ball hard?

LMAO....they're hitting the ball hard.....WHEN THEY ACTUALLY HIT THE BALL!!!! You're a dumbass dlphg9.....

damn, pitchers are dropping injured like flies this year...average innings pitched for a starter last year was just 4.9 ...no wonder bullpens are overused

Pitch clock?

could be a factor...I didnt think of that...maybe not enough time to regroup the shoulder/arm complex
just a thought

I’m sure the dozens of Rays fans are stoked.

Only 4 players are significantly above league average for strikeout percentage. JBJ is above the league avg with a 23.1% strike out rate and league avg is 22.6% and 6 hitters are below league avg for strikeout %. So once again you're dumb as shit.

The traditional innings eating starting pitchers are a thing of the past

Man, I took a look and what I can find may mean that pitchers are getting hurt more. It may just be that there is an initial boom of players added to the IL at the beginning of the new year, so if that's the case, then ignore what I'm about to write.

So far in 2023 there have been 141 pitchers added to the IL and we have only played 13 games. 2020 kinda makes me think that there a large amount of players on IL come at the beginning of the year. These are the IL numbers for pitchers by year

2022 - 427
2021 - 489
2020 - 272 (60 game season)
2019 - 313
2018 - 340
2017 - 295
2016 - 273
2015 - 240

After the COVID year we see a huge uptick in injuries. I was wondering if a lack offseason activities was the reason for the injuries. First we had COVID that kept people from getting together and then we had the lockout. I'm interested to see what the final injury numbers look like at the end of the year, since it'll be the first normal off-season since 2019.

We lead the league in strikeouts, yet you say we are "smashing" the ball!!!!

.204 team batting average!

I don't even want to know the RISP numbers .... I know it's bad.

I think the only thing NEW this year is the front office now has a computer!!!!

Quit repeating what you hear on the talk shows and think for yourself, lmao!

It's right there in the advanced stats. I get you don't understand it. You're dumb and that's ok.

Yeah, you need to update the metrics at which you’re looking.

The Royals average exit velocity and other advanced stats are promising.

It’s not different than the start of the season with Pasquantino. He looked like he was slumping/struggling through the first two series, but the advanced stat indicators showed bad luck more than anything. It has turned around.

I mean, shit, Witt has already drawn 4 BBs. I think it was June before he had 4 BBs last year.

It's crazy to me that there are still baseball fans that follow the game, but are still viewing the game in a 1985 lenses. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like all the RSN telecasts and national telecasts (FOX, ESPN) are very saber-oriented.

The average age of a baseball viewer is like 60, what do you expect?

He's looking at batting average and strikeouts. I don't think he can even grasp something as complex as OPS, so he'd have a tough time with anything slightly advanced.

Matt Quatraro was just talking about Staumont
Get ahead, stay ahead and then use your plus stuff
sounds like a plan

Bummer.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ah, well <a href="https://t.co/9ydVWwQxTL">pic.twitter.com/9ydVWwQxTL</a></p>&mdash; Would it dong? (@would_it_dong) <a href="https://twitter.com/would_it_dong/status/1647027103110688769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I'm not buying the "advanced metrics" stuff yet. I watch the games and I see way too many strikeouts. Taking pitches that are strikes right down the middle then striking out on breaking pitches away. It's rampant. That's nothing to get excited about.

I don't agree with playing the odds when making out the lineup every night either. We should be letting the young guys learn to hit both lefties and righties....not letting a computer fill out the lineup! The Eatons, Masseys, Witts, etc are good athletes that need to play every day to learn the game and build confidence, both at the plate and in the field. We have some good ballplayers....we just don't play them much!!!

I'd love to see the hitting turn around. I just don't see much improvement at the plate from anybody.

LOL, grow up man!

The attendance the past 5 years is abysmal. I know that it’s become a less contributor of revenue over the years, perhaps 30-40% (?) of revenue. But man The Shermanator has to be wondering if he’ll draw flies in this market without a winning team

It’s a vicious cycle. And yeah I know Tampa does it. But.

They got the jab.

The Braves as damn good. And it makes us look even more pathetic.

I have a man crush on the Braves like Mecca does with the Padres.

There's actually some pretty interesting research on the correlation between injury and how kids nowadays specialize in baseball instead of baseball + 3 other sports.

It's brutal what kids get put through these days. Recovery and long term health is thrown out the window to win some meaningless youth game. I blame the parents for not advocating more for their kids.

You're not wrong. While the Braves are a good team, it's rather cliche to write-off losses by crediting the other team with being good. The Royals time-honored business strategy has been to play on the heart-strings of good midwest people. From "we're lucky to have a team", to "well it's a small market", to "there's no salary cap in the MLB", there have been any number of reasons (a.k.a. excuses) offered for being the embarrassment to the league. They don't look to compete year in and year out, they look for that once in a couple of decades random chances of good youth talent and a few decent veterans giving them a run toward glory. They will ride this business model until it doesn't work.

Hopefully we get a new downtown stadium out of the deal as an act of good will and some sort of promise for the system they're trying this time to actually work. I think it's some stats-first system. And so far the stats say our players are in over their heads and the veterans are simply here for a paycheck.

My last year in KC (2016) we had a high school pitcher throw over 130 pitches and was back on the mound two days later.

These Royals prove/reenforce that Spring ball means little to nothing. Another Royals signature business model is to build hope by doing everything they can to win the Spring season World Series while the other teams work a plan for the fall.

I don't live in Missouri or Jackson County, so I don't have a dog in this fight. But it would seem like Sherman would be the one getting a stadium out of the deal. And it doesn't look like he is going to be capable, let alone willing, to shell out for a competitive payroll. So if I did live in a place with a new team owner charging forward with plans for a downtown stadium out of my pocket, I would not vote in support of such measures if the sole purpose of the new stadium is to increase the franchise value so he can turn around and sell it for tax-payer subsidized profits.

Way too deep for KC. We're told we're luck the MLB is here and bad baseball is part of being a small market team, NOT THE BUSINESS MODEL!

I'm in the middle, it sure seems like MLB could see the wisdom of the other major sports leagues if they want all teams on an equal footing.

Same thing is true in basketball. It's going to be interesting in 15 years if we look back and messed up a generation of athletes by specializing in a single sport so much.

Focus on what you're good at if you ask me.

Its not fun to suck.

I was good at basketball and golf. Terrible at baseball. Everything looked like a strike to me. As a result I hated to play baseball.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">He was my breakout pick, so it gives me no pleasure to say this, but Michael Massey looks lost at the plate and may need to go to Omaha to get straightened out.<br><br>The good news is that 3 infielders in Omaha - Samad Taylor, Maikel Garcia, and Nick Lofton - are raking. Pick one.</p>&mdash; Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) <a href="https://twitter.com/jazayerli/status/1647379913932959747?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

If you're going to hire Matt Quatraro, why didn't the Royals go all in and give Peter Bendix a blank check to be the GM instead of promoting J.J. Picollo, a status quo promotion.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">During the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a> rain delay, <a href="https://twitter.com/nlbmprez?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nlbmprez</a> described what made Jackie Robinson the right person to break the MLB color barrier: &quot;Failure was not an option.... It was more than just the racial pressure. He was also carrying the weight of 21 million Black folks on his back.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/n7SNhBQMKV">pic.twitter.com/n7SNhBQMKV</a></p>&mdash; Bally Sports Kansas City (@BallySportsKC) <a href="https://twitter.com/BallySportsKC/status/1647365103379947520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Wonder how much the Chiefs being one of the top teams in the entire league for 5+ years has effected the attendence for the Royals. Only after the 2018 season did the average attendance slip back under 20k. Folks may just have less patience for the bullshit of small market baseball now that we have a consistent championship caliber squad next door.

Winning never gets old!

KC would support a winning Royals team as-well-as a winning Chiefs team.

I think you are right though that there is a correlation.

It is hard to support a bad baseball team when we know what winning is like.

I could do what Massey is doing at the plate. He looks so bad.

I mainly just dont wanna drive to Raytown

This team isn't recovering from this, not at all.

I was telling my wife yesterday that i can support a team that has hope. After so many seasons of not just losing, but bad baseball, I have lost that hope. We will probably make it up to one game in September, but that will likely be all.

Keep these guys in the lineup
Duffy... career 280 BA
Reyes..hit or miss but when he is on

Vinnie and Witt Jr seem to have progressed. Thats really all that matters this season. Hopefully Bubic, Pratto, Isbel, Melendez and the rest of the crew can as well. This season isn't about wins or losses. Everyone knew or should have known this was going to be one of the worst teams in baseball going into the season.

but why should we accept being the worst team in baseball? I wanna win
Besides Gavin Cross, who do have to look forward too?

CALL UP THE YOUNG GUYS LET THEM PLAY

We've got a real promising prospect in the pipeline.

Name is Downtown Stadium, should be up by 2030!

Maikel Garcia
Carter Jansen

We're finally letting the young guys play and seeing what we got, it ain't pretty -- but there was a reason why Dayton always signed dead-end vets and Matheny would play them over his rooks while ruining our bullpen arms to cheat their way to a 70-75 win season.

Because this, right here (especially 5-9 in our lineup) can be much harder to watch. But at least we'll know what we have and hopefully our top brass now has the wisdom and the freedom to draft their way into a regular small market contender. But that will take a while if both Dayton's bats and arms turn out to be a bust.

Exit Velo Park at Kauffman Downtown

These Royals didn't prove spring training doesnt mean anything. They've done the several years in a row. Spring training is preseason football. It tells you nothing.

Thanks for making my point; feeling good about the Royals because of their record in Spring training is wrong. Why? Because when it comes time for "for keeps" the other teams pitch, hit, catch, and all that other important baseball shit...

dont we already know what we have ?

This year was never about winning. It's about development. I'll reserve my judgement for the end of the season. Right now we have 2 guys that are looking pretty damn good. It's early, but Witt is striking out less and walking more than last year which is a very good sign. His EV and Hardhit% are also both higher than last year.

I have faith that MJ Melendez is going to go on a tear pretty soon. He has hardhit% of 69% and his EV is 97.3, both of those are substantially higher than league average. He's just gotten super unlucky. If he can get his strikeout% down around where he was last year, then I think he can really do some damage.

MJ

It's not some type of heavily argued debate or even a remotely original thought, because no one ever thought that spring training mattered and it was proven along time ago that it doesn't.

I hope Bally Sports realizes that few people are going to sign-up for this show.

KC Star still has no full time beat writer to cover the Royals?

JFC yes the Royals are bad but a bad look by the KC Star.

What's to report?

Who is going to pay for it if they do write something?

Bingo

Another loss, we can't let that news get by anybody. Crap they still got another 90+ L's to go!

Letting Bubic pitch with a bad arm is a fireable offense.

Whether or not Bubic was told to throw 75 more pitches after reporting tightness in his forearm would be a good question for someone in that position, I'd think.

Yeah, it's nonsense they have seen them in the minor's spring training. They could have made some moves but our ownership is cheap. Not to mention the Yahoos that fed everyone full of bullshit for 5 years that the team was beating the bible on them instead of baseball fundamentals.

Were you one of those who thought we saw all we needed from Mike Moustakas at the start of 2014?

Has he ever pitched with a good arm?

He is my least favorite Royal ever. I just can't stand the guy. He is the worst starting pitcher I can remember.

Can someone briefly explain why the Royals have been so bad since their championship year? I can see they had a few decent records after 2015 but have mostly been bad.

The previous regime didn’t do a good job turning the farm system over after the wave of talent that led to the title. The change in draft rules hurt them, and they fell behind analytically.

The decision to double-down on a major league coaching staff that had a track record struggling with young player development and analytically backwards:uninterested really wasted four years.

This year is a year where they really need to see what they have and what can be improved with better coaching.

Early returns on pitching (Bubic, Keller) are mostly positive. Same with some of the hitters.

This is a development year any way it’s sliced.

So glad Matheny is gone. I knew we’d turn it around with him gone

It looked like he was starting to get it going.

They'd be at least .500 if there were more bible study time.

You must be new.

It’s obvious to anyone with a brain these guys are jerking off to porn too much and that’s why they’re on pace to lose 120 games

Lol. There are way worst pitchers than Bubic.

We just needed to get rid of Bible study, then we would turn it around.

And we are seeing that evidence already.

Isn't the pitching as a whole performing well above the standards of prior years? That alone is enough to justify flushing the turds like we did.

No, it’s not performing any diff. We are 19th in pitching WAR. Last 3 years we were 28, 19, 17. So not much of a change

While all that was completely idiotic and had really no place when it came to creating a baseball team. It doesn't change that the team lacks talent.

People in a way view this wrong because of last time. Calling up a bunch of young guys, most of them working out to be at least good players and becoming a World Series, team is generally not how it's done. That was a rare occasion of having the #1 farm system and luck coming together.

If you wanna be truthful about how long it'll be before this team is good. It's kinda ugly honestly. A more reasonable way of building a team is you have some good players before young guys come up and you supplement with FA.

It's far more likely they find some good players in this crop of rookies, keep some, lose some, another wave comes and they add a few guys and become a contender but that would be like 27-29 not now or next year.

Home schedule has been brutal so far.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We&#39;ve got a new No. 1 this week.<br><br>How do your rankings look? <a href="https://t.co/w2ZbuLHpDD">pic.twitter.com/w2ZbuLHpDD</a></p>&mdash; MLB (@MLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1648002762901168137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

You guys can yuck it up about the religiosity of the previous regime all you want, but that was just one of a component of issues with the previous coaching staff. (and one that was historical to his time in St. Louis).

I cited Mamoron's inability to manage young talent well, his lack of tactical acumen, and how hard he was on relievers, and how tight his teams played as reasons he was a really bad fit for KC.

He compounded his shortcomings by also hiring a pal as his pitching coach, a guy who had literally never been a pitching coach before, and who had a distinct distrust of and disinterest in analytics and video.

But still... flushing that coaching staff was not going to turn this into a playoff team overnight or year-to-year. This was clearly a build and assess year to everyone except Dayton Moore and the booted-to-the-curb regime.

There are positives (hitting approach still looks solid, Witt and Pasquantino look really good, Melendez is showing good peripherals and waiting for the numbers to catch up, Bubuic and Keller have taken nice steps in results and peripherals).

They're still some time out before they really have this thing running again. They were further away than Moore and co. acted.

What would be really great is to sign some of their quality young guys to long-term deals NOW and build a foundation. Witt, Pasquantino, Melendez, Nick Loftin if he comes up and performs, Keller, Singer, Bubic, etc.

With the idea that those guys can be key pieces/veterans on good times a few years down the road, supplemented by good acquisitions and the farm system.