Kansas
Kansas City Royals Hitting, Pitching Like Legit AL Central Contenders
Kansas City Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. hits a three-run home run during the seventh inning of a baseball … [+]
The Kansas City Royals barely lost the race to the absolute bottom of major league baseball last season, finishing 56-106, better than only the 50-win Oakland Athletics. Truth be told, however, they weren’t nearly that bad.
My batted ball-based method saw them as a 68-win true talent club – still awful, but nowhere near the A’s area code. In fact, their offense rated just a little worse than league average, and that was with promising young 1B Vinnie Pasquantino missing most of the season with a significant shoulder injury. They were led by cornerstone SS Bobby Witt Jr., who finished 7th in the MVP voting with a 30 homer/49 steal line.
The pitching? Well, it stunk. Way down in Oakland’s neighborhood. Their staff ranked dead last in the AL in strikeouts, and all but one of their main starters posted ERAs over 5.00.
The one exception – lefty Cole Ragans – was notable, and gave them hope moving forward. After proving unable to draft and develop dominant homegrown starters, they hit big on Ragans, acquired from the Texas Rangers at last year’s trading deadline for reliever Aroldis Chapman. He went 5-2, 2.64, in 12 late-season starts, with a glittering 89/27 K/BB ratio in 71 2/3 innings. He combines raw stuff with polished command, and put it all together immediately upon his arrival in Kansas City.
Still, the Royals knew they didn’t have enough starting pitching on hand, and set out to add more in the middle tier of the free agent market. They brought aboard righties Seth Lugo (three years, $45 million) and Michael Wacha (two years, $32 million) to at least add stability to the rotation. Some prognosticators scratched their heads at these investments, citing them as frivolous expenditures for a club in the early stages of a rebuild. But if they can slot into the rotation and offer them 160-180 innings apiece of mere competence, that would shorten games on a specific basis and the season in general.
And Lugo has been much more than competent in the early going, posting a 1.05 ERA in his first three starts. Now he’s only struck out 13 batters in 25 2/3 innings, so he’s due for some regression on balls in play, but he’s clearly better than other in-house alternatives.
Another big development has been the return of Brady Singer – the rare homegrown starter who has shown flashes of excellence over the years – from a late-2023 back injury. He’s posted an 0.98 ERA and an 18/4 K/BB over his first 18 1/3 innings. Lefty Ragans and righty Singer are the two Royals’ starters with above MLB-average upside.
They need their starters to give them six-plus innings on most nights, as the bullpen is unproven and doesn’t miss a ton of bats. In fact, while the Royals have allowed the fewest runs (48) in the AL through Monday’s games, with the 2nd lowest ERA (2.86), they ranked dead last in the circuit in strikeouts. Their spacious ballpark and the early season cold weather has cut them some breaks so far – while their pitching does appear much improved, you simply cannot be an above average run prevention outfit while striking out so few batters.
But maybe the pitching doesn’t need to be elite for the Royals to contend. Despite the pitcher-friendly nature of Kauffman Stadium, they could ultimately have an above average offense. They’re 1st in the AL with 87 runs scored, and the bulk of the damage has been done by a cadre of youngsters, led by face of the franchise Witt, 24, whose signing of a long-term, huge-money deal was covered in this space not long ago.
Pasquantino, 26, has locked down first base, MJ Melendez, 25, appears to be coming into his own in left field, while Maikel Garcia, 24, and Nelson Velazquez, 25, are holding down third base and DH while showing impressive batted ball metrics that offer hope for the future.
Veteran catcher Salvador Perez, 34, remains a durable, powerful presence behind the plate, and is off to a .339-.369-.565 start that is bettered only by Witt’s (.314-.368-.657). The lineup has length, power and speed. They’re 2nd in the AL in homers and 1st in steals. Again, they might not be THAT good, but I feel pretty comfortable in saying their offense is at least…….good. And in comparison to their track record in recent years, that’s saying something.
So like yesterday’s topic, the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Royals just might have the goods to be heard from in an eminently winnable American League Central. The bullpen is going to need fortification for that to happen, but that’s what the trading deadline is for. This time around, the Royals might be on the other end of the type of trade that delivered them Ragans last year.
Cooler temperatures today, but we will keep a chance of thunderstorms going in south-central Kansas this morning. One or two could be strong.
Temperatures stay cooler in southern Kansas thanks to clouds and rain in the area. Warmer temps and sunshine to the north.
Another chance of severe weather will visit Kansas this weekend, with a complex of strong storms rolling across the area Saturday night.
KSN Storm Track 3 Forecast from Meteorologist Jack Maney:
Wichita:
Today: Mostly cloudy. 60% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 80 Wind: NE 8-18
Tonight: Mostly to partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers. Lo: 62 Wind: NE/E 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 85 Wind: E/SE 5-15
Tomorrow Night: Partly to mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 68 Wind: SE 5-15
Wichita Weekly
Sat: Hi: 87 Lo: 73 Partly to mostly cloudy. 50% chance of showers and storms.
Sun: Hi: 92 Lo: 67 Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Mon: Hi: 82 Lo: 65 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
Tue: Hi: 84 Lo: 66 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 86 Lo: 68 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Thu: Hi: 88 Lo: 69 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
SOUTHWEST: Dodge City, Garden City, Liberal, Greensburg, Guymon
Southwest:
Today: Partly to mostly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 84 Wind: NE/E 10-25
Tonight: Mostly to partly cloudy. Lo: 58 Wind: E/SE 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 85 Wind: SE 8-18
Tomorrow Night: Partly to mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 62 Wind: SE 5-15
Southwest Weekly
Sat: Hi: 92 Lo: 66 Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of showers and storms.
Sun: Hi: 91 Lo: 59 Mostly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Mon: Hi: 82 Lo: 58 Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Tue: Hi: 83 Lo: 60 Mostly to partly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 85 Lo: 61 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Thu: Hi: 89 Lo: 62 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
NORTHWEST: Colby, Goodland, Hill City, Oberlin, McCook
Northwest:
Today: Partly cloudy to mostly sunny. Hi: 86 Wind: NE/E 5-15
Tonight: Mostly clear to partly cloudy. Lo: 61 Wind: E/S 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 86 Wind: S/SE 8-18
Tomorrow Night: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 61 Wind: SE 5-15
Northwest Weekly
Sat: Hi: 90 Lo: 61 Partly to mostly cloudy. 50% chance of showers and storms.
Sun: Hi: 84 Lo: 55 Mostly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Mon: Hi: 78 Lo: 56 Mostly to partly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Tue: Hi: 82 Lo: 58 Partly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 85 Lo: 59 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Thu: Hi: 87 Lo: 60 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
NORTHCENTRAL: Salina, Great Bend, Hays, Russell, Beloit, Osborne
North Central:
Today: Mostly to partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 83 Wind: NE 8-18
Tonight: Partly cloudy. Lo: 60 Wind: NE/SE 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 86 Wind: SE 8-18
Tomorrow Night: Partly to mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 66 Wind: SE 5-15
North Central Weekly
Sat: Hi: 88 Lo: 70 Partly to mostly cloudy. 70% chance of showers and storms.
Sun: Hi: 88 Lo: 63 Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Mon: Hi: 81 Lo: 62 Mostly to partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
Tue: Hi: 84 Lo: 64 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 86 Lo: 66 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Thu: Hi: 88 Lo: 67 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A Kansas fire department is asking people to be more careful about what they throw away.
The Mulvane Fire Department was called to a vehicle fire Wednesday afternoon. The driver of a trash truck had smelled something burning and pulled over to call 911.
When firefighters arrived, they found smoke coming from the back of the truck. In the trash bay, a firefighter discovered a discarded laptop computer with a lithium battery that was heating up.
The department said it was able to remove the battery from the truck and flood the truck with water to cool off the trash. This is the second incident involving a lithium battery crews have responded to this month, according to Mulvane Fire.
Lithium is highly reactive, and when batteries are damaged, they can heat up uncontrollably. The reaction cascades, with the battery getting hotter and hotter until all of the lithium is consumed. In some cases, when exposed to oxygen, lithium can ignite instantly.
The fire department is urging residents to never throw computers or anything with batteries in the trash. Sedgwick County offers this free recycling guide with information on how to properly dispose of a wide variety of household goods and chemicals.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – A power outage is affecting parts of the Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium, leaving some areas and services temporarily limited.
The Zoo announced the outage on Wednesday morning, June 17, saying the webstore and other services may be unavailable while crews work to restore power.
Evergy’s outage map shows the disruption – located near the zoo – is affecting 17 customers. The outage was first reported just before 8:50 a.m. Power is expected to be restored around 10:30 a.m.
The Zoo is asking for the public’s patience as Evergy works to resolve the issue.
The cause of the outage has not yet been identified.
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