Royals Rumblings - News for April 3, 2024

It is once again Wednesday.

Obviously the big news is that Question 1 was defeated at the ballot box last night. Max wrote that up last night if you missed it.

But last night’s win in rainy Baltimore was also pretty cool. From Byron Kerr at Royals.com:

Marsh was in the zone all night, allowing only two doubles on 76 pitches, 54 for strikes. The right-hander struck out five and walked one. It was the Royals first win in six tries in Baltimore dating back to the first game of a doubleheader on May 8, 2022. The Royals held the Orioles to three hits. Will Smith notched his first save of the season with a clean ninth inning.

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In his season debut as the fifth starter, Marsh mixed his pitches well. He fired his four-seam fastball and two sweepers to strike out leadoff hitter Gunnar Henderson, setting the tone. Marsh dispatched the first six batters faced before allowing back-to-back doubles to Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser in the third. Marsh wriggled out of trouble with his 88.5 mph changeup that Adley Rutschman lined to Loftin to end the frame.

Bobby Witt, Jr. is a guest on Eric Hosmer’s podcast episode coming out today:

At Kings of Kauffman, Jacob Milham talked to Mervyl Melendez, father of MJ Melendez and himself a longtime baseball coach:

“I have been coaching since I was 22 and have seen a lot of players transition from one place to another,” Mervyl said. I have never had a catcher who has caught his entire career go into the outfield that was good right off the bat. It’s just a difficult transition, especially when you do it at the highest level.”

The KC Royals need notable improvements from MJ Melendez in 2024.

The offseason posed a crucial question for the Melendezs: How would MJ improve from September 2023 to March 2024? Mervyl said it “took a village,” but the initial results are promising. To kickstart his progress, MJ underwent valuable outfield training from World Series-winning outfielder Alex Ochoa during the offseason. Then, Mervyl took over MJ’s fielding work this offseason.

“The bulk of the work, we did here with just me and him,” Mervyl said. “We working on routes and just the takeoff. He already knows how to catch a fly ball once he gets there, but his reaction time was lacking. That is why the analytical numbers were really bad because he took too long to read the ball. Luckily, I can hit a Fungo bat with the best of them.”

Old friend alerts:
The Marlins traded cash to the Diamondbacks for infielder Emmanuel Rivera.
Catcher Sandy Leon signed with the Braves after he opted for free agency at the end of spring training.

A Bay Area reporter shared some rumblings that the A’s met with Sacramento city leaders, and that there will be layoffs.

The Phillies had an eventful win in which Bryce Harper hit three homers, and Ricardo Pinto notched a four-inning save after reportedly arriving from a Triple-A callup in the 4th inning.

Longtime MLB executive Larry Lucchino passed away.

Were you part of the record-setting TV audience for Monday night’s Iowa-LSU women’s basketball game? I wonder if Friday’s Final Four matchup between Iowa and UConn can be bigger!

A lot of creepy lowlifes harass college athletes for ruining their stupid sports bets. Sorry to get so editorial, but if you send angry or even threatening messages to athletes over the bets you chose to place, you should try being a better person!

An earthquake near Taiwan also resulted in some tsunami activity throughout the region.

A 17-year-old worker on Nebraska governor Jim Pillen’s family farm died on the jobsite.

Freight railroads must continue to use 2-person crews according new a new federal rule.

Spotify introduced a Winamp-style miniplayer for the desktop app. Man. Remember Winamp?

Below is a very serious question I’d like us to ponder together:

SOTD: Harry Styles - Satellite