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OPPOSITION TERRITORY: Kansas City Royals · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:25
Speaker 1: Welcome to Opposition Territory here at the Philadelphia Sports Table
0:28
Speaker 1: podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show
0:32
Speaker 1: in the world, twelve years strong. We got a great
0:35
Speaker 1: guest joining our Opposition Territory show this week, coming to
0:39
Speaker 1: us from Royalsreview dot Com, great esp Nation site, to
0:43
Speaker 1: dive into the Kansas City Royals, what they're doing this season,
0:47
Speaker 1: how their season looks, with what the outlook is for
0:51
Speaker 1: this team. We've got the one and only Matthew Lamar.
0:54
Speaker 2: How you doing, Buddy, I'm doing great. Ready to talk
0:58
Speaker 2: about Royals. It hasn't always been that years past, but
1:00
Speaker 2: the last couple of years have been good to us.
1:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, happy to talk. It is great to have you on, Buddy.
1:05
Speaker 1: And I got to tell you right now, this is
1:07
Speaker 1: the first time that we're doing an Opposition Territory show
1:09
Speaker 1: in all the years that we have been doing this
1:11
Speaker 1: for like well over probably a decade here at this point,
1:15
Speaker 1: that we're actually talking about the Royals. So I can't
1:17
Speaker 1: wait to get into this team with you, because they've
1:20
Speaker 1: always been Look, I have not been to every single
1:24
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball stadium, but I have been out at
1:28
Speaker 1: the Royal Stadium and it was such an amazing experience.
1:31
Speaker 1: It was many many years ago, probably like probably fifteen
1:34
Speaker 1: years ago at this point. What an amazing stadium to
1:37
Speaker 1: be at. There was like it was the most amazing
1:40
Speaker 1: experience where I was actually like sipping on a blue
1:43
Speaker 1: moon watching a fantastic baseball game and watching Zach Grenk
1:48
Speaker 1: break the strikeouts record for the role and yeah, for
1:53
Speaker 1: the Royals franchise. It was that game and it was
1:55
Speaker 1: freaking awesome. It was fantastic. So it's great to have
1:59
Speaker 1: you on. Let's get into the pitching of this Royals
2:03
Speaker 1: team right off the bat here, because Chris Bubick is
2:07
Speaker 1: certainly killing it with his one point six to six
2:09
Speaker 1: e R this season. We've got Michael Watches having a
2:14
Speaker 1: really nice season as well. How would you rate the
2:16
Speaker 1: Royals starting pitching performance so far this season? Say, from
2:20
Speaker 1: a score of one to ten, How would you how
2:23
Speaker 1: would you score this starting pitching staff and their performance
2:27
Speaker 1: here and and why?
2:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I would definitely say probably like a nine.
2:34
Speaker 2: They have been really, really good. You're right, Chris Boobach,
2:36
Speaker 2: Michael Waka, Cole Reagan's those three Seth Lugo right, Seth
2:42
Speaker 2: Lugo was runner up in the science. Yeah, and Cole
2:45
Speaker 2: Reagan's was another top five finisher. Like that, They've done
2:50
Speaker 2: really really well. Reagan's Awaka and Lugo continuing to do
2:55
Speaker 2: well from last year is not very surprising. But you know,
2:58
Speaker 2: you see with injuries all over the place, and you
3:00
Speaker 2: know we've seen some sometime here. Currently Raggans and Lugo
3:04
Speaker 2: or on the injured list, but they'll be they'll be
3:07
Speaker 2: back relatively soon. But you know it's hard, right.
3:10
Speaker 1: And depth is important, yeah, depth is important.
3:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, And to have a healthy rotation is really great.
3:16
Speaker 2: I think you're right in in Highland Chris movie, because
3:19
Speaker 2: he is the guy that really has taken the next step.
3:25
Speaker 2: Really hard for Lugo to take another step, I mean
3:27
Speaker 2: like winning the cyon, you know, but Reagan's also very
3:30
Speaker 2: good right when like that, but they're already really near
3:33
Speaker 2: near the top.
3:33
Speaker 1: Waka.
3:34
Speaker 2: You know, he's a really he's a really good veteran pitcher.
3:37
Speaker 2: You know, he's probably not going to take another step
3:39
Speaker 2: at this point in his career.
3:40
Speaker 1: Bubitch.
3:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's been really really good, which is really really
3:45
Speaker 2: good to see because a couple of years ago he
3:47
Speaker 2: had Tommy John surgery and before you had tom and
3:50
Speaker 2: John surgery. We were seeing some glimpses when he was
3:53
Speaker 2: a starter that he was becoming this kind of picture,
3:57
Speaker 2: this really dominant picture. He's added a couple of pitches,
4:00
Speaker 2: the sweeper, which is no pun intended like sweeping baseball world. Yeah,
4:06
Speaker 2: you know, he's added one of those. He's he's monkeyed
4:09
Speaker 2: with his change up a little bit. So he's done
4:11
Speaker 2: some some good things. Overall, the pitching is absolutely the
4:15
Speaker 2: strength of the team, and historically that hasn't really been
4:19
Speaker 2: the case. I mean, you mentioned Za Grinky. Za Grianky.
4:22
Speaker 2: For a long time was the only real like internally developed,
4:27
Speaker 2: you know, pitcher, and for whatever reason, you know, the
4:31
Speaker 2: front office couldn't find guys at reasonable prices to do
4:36
Speaker 2: well for a long time. So the pitch. So Royals
4:37
Speaker 2: fans are not used to seeing this good pitching. I
4:40
Speaker 2: fear that we are getting too used to it too fast,
4:43
Speaker 2: but you know, it is what it is. There, they've
4:45
Speaker 2: been really great.
4:46
Speaker 1: So nine out of ten, nine out of ten, all right, yeah, yep,
4:49
Speaker 1: all right, very good. Well, as we're moving along here,
4:53
Speaker 1: I want to talk about one particular individual that's really
4:56
Speaker 1: given some depth, I think to the starting rotation for
5:00
Speaker 1: the Royals, and it's about a gentleman you recently wrote
5:03
Speaker 1: about who we know a lot about in Philadelphia, and
5:05
Speaker 1: that's Michael Renson. Has had an interesting career for sure.
5:10
Speaker 1: You know, he's been on more than a few teams
5:12
Speaker 1: here and again, as I mentioned before, you know we
5:14
Speaker 1: saw him in Philadelphia. He was a member of this
5:16
Speaker 1: Phillies team in recent years. But he's really been a
5:19
Speaker 1: big part of the Royals starting pitching depth and and
5:23
Speaker 1: and part of why this starting pitching rotation has really
5:27
Speaker 1: had a productive season. So I'm wondering, you know, based
5:30
Speaker 1: on what you had written about Michael Renson, can you
5:32
Speaker 1: talk about what you've been seeing from him on the
5:34
Speaker 1: mound and how he could be that real key contributor
5:38
Speaker 1: to the team this season.
5:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, Lorenzo has been a real key Yeah, as you said,
5:43
Speaker 2: like a really important pitcher. Because I'm one of the
5:48
Speaker 2: Royal starting pitchers from last year who did well, I'm
5:50
Speaker 2: Alec Marsh started the season on the injured list, he's
5:54
Speaker 2: still on the injured less. He's working his way back,
5:56
Speaker 2: so the Royals needed somebody to fill that spot doing
5:59
Speaker 2: until Marsh Marsh's back, and Lorenzo has absolutely been been
6:04
Speaker 2: that guy. And it's just sort of wild that the
6:06
Speaker 2: Royal has really got Lorenzen for nothing essentially last year.
6:10
Speaker 2: And Lorenzen, all he has done has been really really
6:14
Speaker 2: really good. Yeah, and and and offered great depth. Now,
6:17
Speaker 2: is he as dominant as you know Reagan's are a
6:19
Speaker 2: little like no, But okay, you don't need your fifth
6:22
Speaker 2: starter to be dominant. You need them to get through innings.
6:25
Speaker 2: And his last two starts he went through seven innings
6:28
Speaker 2: at piece. Like he's been really really solid. One thing
6:32
Speaker 2: about Lorenzen that's something to keep an eye on as
6:37
Speaker 2: we move forward. You know, all pictures have differences between
6:41
Speaker 2: the first time through the order, second time through the
6:44
Speaker 2: order of time through the order. Lorenzo, it's really pronounced.
6:47
Speaker 2: So is wOBA that he's been giving up. The first
6:50
Speaker 2: time through the order is two thirty nine. That's that's great.
6:53
Speaker 2: If you don't know what wOBA is, that's great. It
6:56
Speaker 2: goes down to three sixty seven the second time and
6:58
Speaker 2: three ninety the third time.
6:59
Speaker 1: Wow.
7:00
Speaker 2: And so that sort of speaks to his his career
7:04
Speaker 2: as mostly a reliever, right, and yet he has been
7:07
Speaker 2: able to start games with enough of a repertoire. But
7:12
Speaker 2: I think that his his floor really is that even
7:16
Speaker 2: let's say, if Marsh comes back and takes his spot
7:19
Speaker 2: in rotation, I think Lorenzo will also be able to
7:21
Speaker 2: be a contributor in the bullpen because he's been really
7:24
Speaker 2: good that first time through the order less so the
7:27
Speaker 2: second third time, you know, that's okay. But he's been
7:30
Speaker 2: sort of a real like pivot picture, I guess for
7:33
Speaker 2: lack of a lack of a better term, if that
7:35
Speaker 2: makes sense. Yeah, and that that's just really important. And
7:38
Speaker 2: the Rule's got him for basically nothing. And this is
7:41
Speaker 2: the type of picture that the Royals front office, the
7:43
Speaker 2: previous Roles front office just could not acquire. They just
7:46
Speaker 2: could not acquire stable, you know, good decent innings out
7:52
Speaker 2: of their fourth and fifth starters. And that's what Lorenzo
7:55
Speaker 2: is giving the Royals and it's so so valuable and
7:58
Speaker 2: it's it's really it's great to watch him pitched. And
8:02
Speaker 2: also he has like the biggest biceps that I've ever
8:04
Speaker 2: seen in it's unbelievable.
8:08
Speaker 1: The biceps are important, for sure, Yeah, absolutely, yes, absolutely,
8:11
Speaker 1: all right, Well, I want to keep talking about the
8:13
Speaker 1: pitching here for the Royals. Like you said, I mean,
8:15
Speaker 1: it really is the strength of this team here in
8:19
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, and when we look at this pitching
8:22
Speaker 1: depth and and the fact that they really need to
8:25
Speaker 1: be competitive over the course of this entire season. Here
8:30
Speaker 1: again it is their strength, but this team does have
8:33
Speaker 1: some weaknesses as well, even though they're fourth in the
8:36
Speaker 1: AL Central. I'm wondering, do you think this starting pitching
8:40
Speaker 1: staff can also Do you think they can just rise
8:42
Speaker 1: to the occasion to be competitive during the entire course
8:46
Speaker 1: of the season to keep the team where they need
8:49
Speaker 1: to be, at least to be competitive in the AL Central.
8:52
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts here?
8:53
Speaker 2: That's the trick. The rotation was really good last year,
9:00
Speaker 2: mostly the same guys this year. I think what's better
9:04
Speaker 2: about it is they've got some depth. So Kyle Wright
9:06
Speaker 2: should be back at some point this year. They acquire
9:10
Speaker 2: him a couple of years ago from Atlanta. Alec Marsh
9:14
Speaker 2: who did pitch last year, and Noah Cameron is another guy.
9:16
Speaker 2: He has had two really really good starts. I think
9:20
Speaker 2: he's allowed like two hits in his first two MLB
9:22
Speaker 2: starts as a rookie, which is sort of unheard of. Yeah,
9:26
Speaker 2: it's really solid. So I think the Royals are better
9:27
Speaker 2: from a depth depth wise point of view than last year.
9:31
Speaker 2: What I'm worried about is that last year they were
9:34
Speaker 2: all really really healthy. They had like five pitchers start
9:38
Speaker 2: at least twenty four games, and they only had six
9:41
Speaker 2: or seven pitchers like starting pitchers overall. That's really hard
9:45
Speaker 2: to replicate, especially when you think of who is pitching right.
9:48
Speaker 2: You have Seth Lugo, you have Michael Wakat, these guys
9:51
Speaker 2: into their mid thirties. You have Cole Reagan's he's had
9:54
Speaker 2: two Timy John surgeries already. You have Lorenzen who has
9:58
Speaker 2: been pretty good. But as as we've said, is you know,
10:02
Speaker 2: really like a bullpen guy who is outdoing his role
10:06
Speaker 2: as opposed to the other way around. And so I
10:08
Speaker 2: worry that they won't be able to withstand another year
10:13
Speaker 2: where they're able to stay healthy. And we've already seen
10:16
Speaker 2: that a little bit. Reagan's missed to start a couple
10:18
Speaker 2: of weeks ago because of Goren's strain, and cam and
10:21
Speaker 2: nor Camber did a great job. But guess what. Reagan's
10:23
Speaker 2: is on the injured list now Seth Lugo is on
10:25
Speaker 2: the injured list. The good news is that these aren't
10:27
Speaker 2: like you know, arm injuries Lugos for like a finger
10:30
Speaker 2: sort of sprain, and and and Reagan's is a Goreen's brain.
10:34
Speaker 2: These these aren't like, oh no, the UCL is gonna
10:37
Speaker 2: come off, you know or something like that. But like
10:40
Speaker 2: it's really hard to keep continually healthy. And we've even
10:44
Speaker 2: said that from Alec Marsh, right, Alec Marsh hasn't pitched,
10:46
Speaker 2: you know, in months. Kyle Wright has has been injured
10:49
Speaker 2: the whole time the Royals have had him, and so
10:52
Speaker 2: I the strength of the team is the starting pitching.
10:56
Speaker 2: If the starting pitching is not good, the team will
10:59
Speaker 2: fall apart really quickly. And so that depth is going
11:02
Speaker 2: to be really, really really important.
11:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely again, folks, we are talking to Matt Lamar
11:08
Speaker 1: from Royalsreview dot Com, great esp Nation site. Matt, where
11:12
Speaker 1: can folks find you on the social media's out there
11:15
Speaker 1: on the interwebs if they want to follow you and
11:18
Speaker 1: follow everything that's going on that you guys cover over
11:21
Speaker 1: at Royals Review.
11:23
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure. So you can follow us on Twitter
11:25
Speaker 2: and Blue Sky at Royals Review. You can follow me
11:28
Speaker 2: at Blue Sky Matt Lamar over there at the not
11:32
Speaker 2: Twitter Twitter, Yes, I have a Twitter, you can follow
11:35
Speaker 2: me there. But I haven't posted in a long time.
11:37
Speaker 1: All right, sounds good, All right, sounds good. Well, look,
11:41
Speaker 1: I want to stick with the pitching here because but
11:44
Speaker 1: I want to get into the bullpen aspect of where
11:46
Speaker 1: the Royals are currently at. And if I'm not mistaken,
11:49
Speaker 1: the Royals bullpen e r A ranks about fifth in
11:53
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball. A strong, strong bullpen. They're so important
11:58
Speaker 1: and critical in terms of this team's success. Here, just
12:02
Speaker 1: name a couple of guys, John Schreiber, Stephen Cruz, you know,
12:05
Speaker 1: have been looking really good out of the bullpen for
12:08
Speaker 1: the Royals this season. What has this Royals bullpen meant
12:12
Speaker 1: to the team here in twenty twenty five.
12:16
Speaker 2: It's been really big. Last year about this time, the
12:18
Speaker 2: Royals bullpen was really bad. It was it was really bad.
12:22
Speaker 2: And the problem was they didn't have really those power
12:26
Speaker 2: arms who could strike out pitchers or strike out to
12:29
Speaker 2: strike up batters, and so they didn't also didn't really
12:33
Speaker 2: have a closer, and so what that meant was that
12:35
Speaker 2: guys were sort of pitching out of their roles, right
12:38
Speaker 2: like a guy like John Schreiber, you know, mid innings guy,
12:41
Speaker 2: great seventh inning guy, maybe not the best eighth or
12:43
Speaker 2: ninth inning guy. Yeah, right, And so what the Roads
12:45
Speaker 2: did at mid season and in the offseason is they
12:49
Speaker 2: acquired a couple of guys to slide in sort of later,
12:51
Speaker 2: which pushed everybody else down a little bit more into
12:55
Speaker 2: their roles that sort of suited them. So you mentioned
12:58
Speaker 2: Stephen Curruse. Stephen Cruz has been really, really good. Schreiber
13:01
Speaker 2: has been solid, the big name in the bullpen on
13:06
Speaker 2: the back of his Carlos Esteves, who is the closer.
13:11
Speaker 2: He's been good. He hasn't been like great, but he's
13:13
Speaker 2: been good and reliable, which is something that you know,
13:16
Speaker 2: not every team can say absolutely. The real gym is
13:20
Speaker 2: a guy named Lucas Erseg. So Lucas Erseg has a
13:24
Speaker 2: really inspiring story from you know, he was a former
13:29
Speaker 2: hitter and he spent time in the miners leagues as
13:31
Speaker 2: a hitter and then converted to being a pitcher, and
13:33
Speaker 2: then the pandemic hit and during that time, like he
13:36
Speaker 2: was an alcoholic and got sober and switched full time
13:40
Speaker 2: in the pitching and so he's sort of really like
13:42
Speaker 2: later in his career. He's thirty, but he's got like
13:46
Speaker 2: one hundred mile an hour fastball. Like he's really really
13:50
Speaker 2: good and has been like the best pitcher if you
13:54
Speaker 2: remember the sort of last Royals great team in twenty fourteen,
13:58
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen reminds me a lot of way Davis right,
14:01
Speaker 2: and that guy he's not the closer, he's the most
14:03
Speaker 2: talented guy in the bullpen. He's going to come in,
14:06
Speaker 2: he's going to strike batters out, he's going to get
14:08
Speaker 2: out of jams, and that's really really really important. Sometimes
14:12
Speaker 2: he'll even pitch the ninth inning if that sort of
14:15
Speaker 2: lines up with the top of the order, the most
14:17
Speaker 2: important part of the order. So he's really the key there.
14:21
Speaker 2: Hunter Harvey, who the Royals acquired last July, has been
14:24
Speaker 2: good when he's been healthy, and he hasn't been healthy
14:27
Speaker 2: a lot, but he has been good win he has
14:29
Speaker 2: been healthy. So hopefully if the Rose makes the playoffs,
14:31
Speaker 2: he'll be there as well. But you're right, like that's
14:34
Speaker 2: like last year the starting pitching was great, bullpen was leaky,
14:38
Speaker 2: and that's never a good thing to have a guy
14:41
Speaker 2: start go seven innings, give up a run, and then
14:44
Speaker 2: the guy then the eighth inning and you know the
14:46
Speaker 2: game's over because he gives up five runs. That's that's
14:49
Speaker 2: that's probably the worst feeling in baseball.
14:51
Speaker 1: I think absolutely, yep, absolutely, all right, Well, Matt, let's
14:56
Speaker 1: head over to the batting and the offense what we've
15:00
Speaker 1: been seeing here. I know it's a general question, but
15:03
Speaker 1: are the Royals bats and offense? Are they meeting the
15:07
Speaker 1: preseason expectations thus far here in twenty twenty five? And again,
15:12
Speaker 1: I know it's an overall general type of question, but
15:15
Speaker 1: are they meeting the expectations that you all had for
15:17
Speaker 1: this team coming into the season.
15:20
Speaker 2: I would say yes, ish, yes, and that we knew
15:24
Speaker 2: that they would be bad, just to be frank right ish,
15:28
Speaker 2: because they've been even worse than that expected. So it's like, yeah,
15:32
Speaker 2: we know that they'd be bad. It was just a
15:34
Speaker 2: question of how bad, and the answer is very bad.
15:38
Speaker 2: So the Royals have Bobby Wit Junior, who, if not
15:41
Speaker 2: for Aaron Judge, would be the far and away best
15:44
Speaker 2: player in the American League. What's great, it's going to
15:48
Speaker 2: be one of the best Royals players when it's all
15:50
Speaker 2: said and done. He's been very good. Michael Garcia, third baseman.
15:56
Speaker 2: He has turned a corner and is really solid this year,
16:02
Speaker 2: and it's been sort of what his tools have suggested
16:04
Speaker 2: that he could be. So he's been really really fun
16:07
Speaker 2: to watch. He's he's got a good personality, he's very passionate.
16:12
Speaker 1: Outside of that.
16:13
Speaker 2: It's it's it's been pretty bad. Just to give you
16:15
Speaker 2: a couple of stats here, So the Roles have played
16:18
Speaker 2: forty eight games. As we're talking, they're twenty six and
16:22
Speaker 2: twenty two. They're gonna play later later tonight on the
16:25
Speaker 2: West Coast. So the ros have played forty eight games.
16:29
Speaker 2: They have scored three or fewer runs in sixty five
16:33
Speaker 2: percent of their games. Wow, which is crazy. They have
16:36
Speaker 2: scored two or fewer game runs in over forty percent
16:40
Speaker 2: of their games.
16:41
Speaker 1: Wow.
16:41
Speaker 2: So for a team with a winning record, they are
16:44
Speaker 2: often really really frustrating because you just can't like, if
16:47
Speaker 2: the other team scores four or five runs, you're like
16:49
Speaker 2: that the game is over. Yeah, even if the game
16:53
Speaker 2: is not over. Like they have won some of those games,
16:55
Speaker 2: but they've they've been so consistently scoring two runs, three runs,
17:00
Speaker 2: and there's no margin for error at all. They've sent MJ.
17:05
Speaker 2: Melendis to the minor leagues. I think there's no reason
17:09
Speaker 2: that Hunter Renfro will survive for another month. He's been
17:14
Speaker 2: really really bad. But the Royles are also saying, like
17:16
Speaker 2: Salvador Prez is worse than he was last year, and
17:18
Speaker 2: Pascentino's worse than he was last year. Michael Massey is
17:20
Speaker 2: worse than they he was last year. Jonathan Andrea, who
17:23
Speaker 2: the Royals acquired for Brady Singer from the Reds, worse
17:27
Speaker 2: than he was last year. And so everybody's doing worse
17:31
Speaker 2: and some of those players you maybe can't expect them
17:35
Speaker 2: to improve. Like Salvador Prez is thirty five. The Roy's
17:38
Speaker 2: just had their ten year celebration of the World Series
17:43
Speaker 2: just yesterday or a couple this weekend. I guess Salvador
17:47
Speaker 2: Press is still playing. Everybody else on that team is
17:50
Speaker 2: like retired, you know, Salvador Press is still playing. At
17:53
Speaker 2: some point. Salvador Prez is not going to be good
17:55
Speaker 2: anymore because Father Time is undefeated. That's no knock against Salvey, no,
18:00
Speaker 2: not at all. But he's he's not gonna be good
18:02
Speaker 2: forever if he's not good this year. The Royals needed
18:05
Speaker 2: him to be good this year because they were so
18:07
Speaker 2: thin elsewhere. And so there is one prospect to talk about.
18:12
Speaker 2: His name is Jack Caglione. He is He was number
18:15
Speaker 2: six overall draft pick previous year. He has been just
18:21
Speaker 2: absolutely destroying baseball's in the minor leagues. And the question
18:26
Speaker 2: and Royal's land is Okay, when is he gonna, you know,
18:29
Speaker 2: come up to the major league. Should he be already
18:31
Speaker 2: in the major leagues. You have some Royals radio folks
18:34
Speaker 2: who are like or Kansas City radio folks who are like,
18:36
Speaker 2: you'd be here now. The Royles did just promote him
18:39
Speaker 2: to triple A, So he's gonna he's gonna be in
18:42
Speaker 2: trimple A. But for how long? Right? I'm sort of
18:45
Speaker 2: on the side that, like he's been so good and
18:48
Speaker 2: his like exit velocities have been so elite in the
18:52
Speaker 2: minor leagues that there's no way that he's not one
18:54
Speaker 2: of the twenty six best players on the roster. Yeah,
18:57
Speaker 2: but I understand wanting to make sure that you're you're
19:01
Speaker 2: not putting him in a position that he's not ready for.
19:04
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think he's probably ready for it.
19:06
Speaker 2: But you know, it's very little risk to play it safe.
19:11
Speaker 2: And when it comes to.
19:11
Speaker 1: That, Yeah, Well, before I let you leave here, Matt,
19:14
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about just, you know, from an
19:16
Speaker 1: overall perspective again, in terms of this team being competitive
19:21
Speaker 1: in the AL Central, you know, with teams like the
19:24
Speaker 1: Twins and the Tigers both have winning record, you know,
19:27
Speaker 1: towards the top of the AL Central. I'm wondering where,
19:32
Speaker 1: And you may have just answered the question, quite frankly,
19:35
Speaker 1: where this Royals team where they need their biggest improvements
19:39
Speaker 1: as we are here in mid May, looking towards June
19:42
Speaker 1: and the rest of this Major League Baseball season. Where
19:45
Speaker 1: the biggest improvements, particularly that you want to see this
19:50
Speaker 1: Royals team make during the long stretch here.
19:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good question, and I think the answer
19:57
Speaker 2: is that I suspect the Royals team, if they're in
19:59
Speaker 2: the playoff of their lineup is gonna look a lot different.
20:02
Speaker 2: They're gonna have probably three different paces minimum. I think
20:08
Speaker 2: Jack hegle On would be one. Whether he debuts in June, July, August,
20:13
Speaker 2: He's he's probably gonna debut sometime this year. That's one.
20:17
Speaker 2: I think. Uh, they have a couple of in you know, interior,
20:22
Speaker 2: Why why can't it kind of think they have their
20:25
Speaker 2: own their own prospects, A couple of other prospects who
20:27
Speaker 2: aren't like top top prospects, but who can potentially take
20:33
Speaker 2: take up one of the one of the spots in
20:35
Speaker 2: the field. Yeah, there's there's a guy named Nick Lofton
20:39
Speaker 2: who's been doing really well on Triple A. I think
20:41
Speaker 2: he could potentially take Michael Massey's spot. Lofton has played
20:45
Speaker 2: in the big leagues in the last two years a
20:47
Speaker 2: little bit here and there, so it's not like it's
20:50
Speaker 2: a totally new debut for him. I also think that
20:52
Speaker 2: the Royals will get at least one, if not two
20:54
Speaker 2: players at the trade deadline. They know that the offense
21:00
Speaker 2: is the biggest area of opportunity. JJ Piccolo, who's a
21:05
Speaker 2: general manager, has been really good at identifying, okay, so
21:07
Speaker 2: we need to do, you know, improving this way and
21:11
Speaker 2: going out and improving that in that way. Acquiring some
21:14
Speaker 2: players last trade deadline was exactly that, right. The Royals
21:19
Speaker 2: needed bulp and help what they do well. They went out.
21:22
Speaker 2: They got Lucas Erzig, they got Hunter Harvey, they got
21:26
Speaker 2: some guys when they needed to. I think that will
21:28
Speaker 2: happen this year. I don't know who it will be, depends,
21:32
Speaker 2: you know. The the the one thing that Royals fans
21:35
Speaker 2: have a little bit going for them as far as
21:37
Speaker 2: solace for the offensive woes is pretty much every bat
21:41
Speaker 2: that they were linked to last year and free agency
21:44
Speaker 2: has not done well. And so you look at like
21:48
Speaker 2: Erickson Profile who got suspended, or you look at you know,
21:51
Speaker 2: some of the other some of the other players, like
21:54
Speaker 2: it's it's frustrating to watch. But the thing is the
21:58
Speaker 2: team's composition is going to change, and everybody knows that.
22:03
Speaker 2: The trick is As a fan, if you're watching, you're like,
22:06
Speaker 2: I'm sick of them scoring to like two runs in
22:09
Speaker 2: half of the games. They need to do something well,
22:12
Speaker 2: they will do something, and ultimately, the way to think
22:16
Speaker 2: about it is whether they do it in the middle
22:18
Speaker 2: of May or the middle of June, that's not really
22:20
Speaker 2: that much of a difference, especially if the guys who
22:24
Speaker 2: they expected to perform better might be a better option
22:28
Speaker 2: as far as rolling the dice, because it's all about probabilities, right,
22:31
Speaker 2: what's the probability that Vinnie Pascentino is going to be
22:33
Speaker 2: better than some other guy? Well, probably pretty high considering
22:37
Speaker 2: Pascuartino's past performance, and so you know, they've got to
22:40
Speaker 2: be locked in and like maybe Hunter Renfro can turn
22:42
Speaker 2: it around, like he was almost the league league average
22:44
Speaker 2: hitter last year. You know, at some point you have
22:47
Speaker 2: to cut bait. But you're you're weighing those guys against
22:52
Speaker 2: minor league guys and guys from other organizations who you
22:55
Speaker 2: can acquire, who are potentially untested. So that's the trick,
22:59
Speaker 2: And that's the one thing that I you know, try
23:01
Speaker 2: to keep in mind when I'm you know, writing articles
23:03
Speaker 2: and whatnot. But again, sometimes it's hard, right, Like the
23:07
Speaker 2: rest is great. They lose one er games, two to
23:09
Speaker 2: one games like that's I think I said earlier that
23:13
Speaker 2: a bullpen giving up you know, hits and giving up
23:16
Speaker 2: like games at the end. That's the worst way to
23:19
Speaker 2: lose a baseball game. The second orlders worst way to
23:21
Speaker 2: lose a baseball game is to barely score and you lose,
23:25
Speaker 2: and it's just like, well, there's no like fun, you know,
23:28
Speaker 2: because part of the fun of baseball is like, oh,
23:29
Speaker 2: they score runs, you know, if they lose six to four,
23:32
Speaker 2: you know, maybe had a couple of home runs, you
23:33
Speaker 2: got some fun moments. If they lose two to one,
23:36
Speaker 2: three to two, like, you know, that's just not as fun.
23:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you never know who is going to go
23:42
Speaker 1: on a hot streak at any given point. That's baseball
23:44
Speaker 1: that is baseball. We say it all the time watching
23:47
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Phillies here at the Philadelphia Sports Stable podcast show.
23:51
Speaker 1: There are players who are streaky. There are players who
23:53
Speaker 1: are cold for a specific period of time. Players then
23:56
Speaker 1: get hot and get hot at the right time. So
23:59
Speaker 1: it's gonna be interesting to see where this Royals team
24:02
Speaker 1: goes from here for the rest of the twenty twenty
24:04
Speaker 1: five season. Again, folks, Matt Lamar from Royalsreview dot com
24:09
Speaker 1: over at SB Nation and Buddy, I really appreciate you
24:13
Speaker 1: taking the time. Fantastic discussion, great talking Royals with you.
24:16
Speaker 1: I'd love to have you back on the show at
24:18
Speaker 1: some point down the road.
24:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, just let me know.
24:23
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for us here on Opposition
24:25
Speaker 1: Territory this week. Please share our podcast with your friends
24:28
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24:31
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24:39
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