Royals Rumblings - News for June 28, 2024

Nice win last night to start the series

Ed note: I was thinking to myself “man, it’s been a while since the Royals have had a Thursday night game”. I was right - the last one was May 9th in Anaheim. And that one was weird since it was a west coast game so it probably started after I had finished collecting links. The last (and only) 7pm Thursday evening game this season was all the way back on April 4th.

Witt and Salvy are through to Phase 2 of All-Star voting, which runs from Sunday until Wednesday. The top two at each position advance, though both were distance second to their Orioles counterparts.

Catcher: Adley Rutschman (Orioles), Salvador Perez (Royals)These two well outpaced the field in Phase 1. Rutschman is looking for a better Phase 2 result than last year, when he came up short against the Rangers’ Jonah Heim. The 26-year-old has been nothing but stellar — and the Orioles have done nothing but win — since he arrived in the Majors in May 2022. The switch-hitter owns a .297/.350/.470 line with 14 home runs, just six shy of his career high from last year, and he continues to be a tremendous pitch blocker behind the plate. Meanwhile, Perez has a chance to become only the ninth catcher to start seven or more All-Star Games and the third to do so in the past 35 years, after Ivan Rodriguez and Mike Piazza. Even at age 34, Perez remains a threat with the bat, with 12 homers and 47 RBIs.

Shortstop: Gunnar Henderson (Orioles), Bobby Witt Jr. (Royals)AL shortstop was a strong field, but this pair of young stars stood out above the rest. Henderson turns 23 on Saturday; Witt turned 24 on June 14. Both are in their third MLB seasons, coming off breakout 2023 campaigns and now looking to make the Midsummer Classic for the first time. Both excel defensively at short. Henderson, the reigning AL Rookie of the Year, has been spectacular with the bat for Baltimore and holds a slight lead over Judge for the MLB lead in WAR, per Baseball Reference. He is slashing .288/.387/.618 with 26 homers and 13 steals. Witt has less than half as many homers (12), but is batting .311 with 21 steals and an AL-high 102 hits.

One might notice that there are Orioles to vote for at every position except 2B:

Jaylon Thompson had a story about the Phase One All Star results and the stats

Additionally, he wrote about the Royals approach and assets for the trade deadline:

But this season could be different. The Royals look to enter uncharted waters once again and general manager J.J. Picollo plans to be full steam ahead. “We all know there is sort of an artificial timeline,” Picollo said. “You are going to come up against it. Yeah, we’ve either got to go in or we’re going to stay put. And I don’t see us being sellers at all.”

Picollo reiterated that the team goal is to make the playoffs. At the current juncture, he likes that the Royals are in the Wild Card and divisional races. He has doubled down on his intentions. He envisions an “aggressive” approach to streamlining the 2024 roster.

However, it remains to be seen how far the Royals will go to make a move. The club seeks bullpen depth and outfield help. There is still time to address both areas as the MLB trade deadline is set for July 30 at 5 p.m. Central.

Also at The Star, Pete Grathoff wrote about Bobby Witt’s newly announced endorsement deal with Whataburger:

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ love of Whataburger (and its ketchup) is so strong that he helped bring the Texas fast-food chain to Kansas City.

Now another Kansas City sports star from Texas is partnering with Whataburger: Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. on Thursday signed on to be a brand ambassador.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson says Missouri isn’t giving up the teams without a fight:

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday that he expects the state to put together an aid plan by the end of the year to try to keep the Chiefs and Royals from being lured across state lines to new stadiums in Kansas...

“We’re going to make sure that we put the best business deal we can on the line,” Parson told reporters while hosting the Chiefs’ two most recent Super Bowl trophies at the Capitol, where fans lined up for photos.

“Look, I can’t blame Kansas for trying,” Parson added. “You know, if I was probably sitting there, I’d be doing the same thing. But at the end of the day, we’re going to be competitive.”

At Baseball America, Bill Mitchell writes about a Royals prospect from South Korea, Hyungchan Um:

Um struggled in the Arizona Complex League in 2023, playing sparingly and hitting just .220/.305/.320 in 15 games.

One year older and stronger, Um is a completely different ballplayer. He hit .310/.400/.500 with four home runs in 27 ACL games. The Royals promoted the 20-year-old to Low-A Columbia on June 25.

In the Royals blogosphere, Craig Brown and David Lesky ($) talked about the win on Wednesday night.

Blog roundup:

• Darin Watson at U.L.’s Toothpick: This Date In Royals History—1984 Edition: June 27 - Royals pitchers give up five homers and Oakland does something not seen in MLB for almost 20 years.
• Mike Gillespie at Kings of Kauffman: Huge 4 days begin now for the KC Royals
• Thomas Gauvain at Kings of Kauffman: KC Royals Rumors: MLB insider links team to Tampa Bay reliever
• Patrick Glancy at Powder Blue Nostalgia: Second Time Around

Not only have we reached the halfway point in the season, we’ve reached the halfway point in the year. I’m going to be gone for all of July - well, not quite, but enough that I won’t be doing any Rumblings in July. So today’s just going to be a Half Year in Review. We did one of these last year... and then I forgot to do one for the second half so that will come in December this year. This year has been a little more “media”- heavy than I’d like : lots of TV and movie OTs. I mean, that’s not all bad - they’re fun and easy. But I do like trying different stuff, too.

So, yup - this is basically a clip show for Friday Rumblings. I know it’s low effort but I’m still working on trip planning. In August, we’ll start out with some Asian baseball. Or maybe we’ll do some Olympics. I’ve got some other stuff in the works and we’ll just have to see when it’s ready for Fridays.

As a refresher, here’s the ground we’ve covered in the first half for Friday’s Rumblings as well as the SotD in parens:

2024.01.05 Christmas Special Tiers Revisited (Honest Trailers - Rudolph)

2024.01.12 Christmas Movie Reviews (Home Alone theme)

2024.01.19 No OT (2021 Chiefs/Bills NFL PrimeTime)

2024.01.26 OUT

2024.02.02 Lego Amusement Park Part 1 (Lego Movie - Everything is Awesome)

2024.02.09 More Superb Owl Facts (NFL PrimeTime - Power Surge)

2024.02.16 Lego Amusement Park Part 2 (SimCity - Town)

2024.02.23 OUT

2024.03.01 MCU Phase 4/5 Television (Final Fantasy VII - Tifa’s Theme)

2024.03.08 COVID Anniversary, Post-COVID music, and Fall Out Boy (Fall Out Boy - Love from the Other Side)

2024.03.15 CPBL Preview 2024; Panic at the Disco (Panic at the Disco - Do it to Death)

2024.03.22 KBO Preview 2024 (March Madness theme)

2024.03.29 Light Opening Day Discussion (Daniel Powter - Bad Day)

2024.04.05 Great North American Eclipse (Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart)

2024.04.12 NPB Preview 2024 (Lumines - Urbanization)

2024.04.19 Transformers G1 Essential Episodes (Transformers One Preview)

2024.04.26 No OT (Soul Blade - Recollect Continent/Rock)

2024.05.03 Disney+ Movies (Mr. Rogers - It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood)

2024.05.10 Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos (Final Fantasy VIII - Liberi Fatali)

2024.05.17 OUT

2024.05.24 OUT

2024.05.31 Artificial Intelligence Part 1 - General Questions (Daft Punk - Arena from Tron: Legacy)

2024.06.07 AI Themed Movies: The Terminator series (T2 Opening Sequence)

2024.06.14 Artificial Intelligence Part 2 - How to Hack AI (Origa - Rise from GitS: SAC)

2024.06.20 Oakland Coliseum Tickets (Howard Shore - Thoden Rides Forth from LotR: Two Towers)

2024.06.28 Half Year Wrap - 2024 <— You are Here —>

While we’re being meta... see, we’re here!