Chapter 1: What insights does Jack Johnson share about the Royals' recent performance?
Around here we show up for one another. We want the same for our health insurance. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City gets that because they're from here too. It's coverage from folks who know these roads and care enough to walk them with you. That's the benefit of blue. You are listening live to the program. Your teams, your town, your program.
And he has his second homer on the road this season. Goodbye. Homer. Yankees challenge that as Rosario lifts that in the air to left and deep. Thomas back, looking up, and that is long gone. Homer. Colby charges that into left center field and deep. Isbell going to watch it fly. Homer.
Homer.
Grisham powers that. Deep right field. Caglione will watch it fly. Trent Grisham goes yard. Chisholm slams that. Chisholm has entered the party. It's like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines. And now, a man making another late-minute start, Jack Johnson.
Right, you are, Kay. And maybe I would have had a good chance last night to put one, maybe just in the outfield grass, 24 hits for the Yankees. Probably couldn't hit a home run, but considering the pitches were right down the middle from Bailey Falter, maybe. Maybe have a chance. Maybe. No, not really. That's right. I'm your host today, Jack Johnson. I'll be doing the same tomorrow.
Filling in for Seren Petro. That's courtesy. Kyle Collier is producing this thing. And we will be talking about Bailey Falter. We will be talking about the Kansas City Royals. Yet another loss last night. Not their most frustrating, but certainly their most humiliating. 15-1 at the hands of the New York Yankees. I'm not sure we need to spend much time innings four through nine. No.
That game was over. Well, I'll give him this. He got two outs to start the game. On two pitches. On two pitches. Did what J.J. Piccolo thought he would do a lot of when acquiring him from Pittsburgh last trade deadline. He's going to pitch to contact, stay ahead. His fastball up in the zone was his best pitch. Kind of a high-rising fastball.
Yeah, that never happened for Bailey Falter in Kansas City. 21-2, I believe, that he threw for Kansas City. ERA in the double digits. Yeah. Whether you've got a reason for your struggles or not, you are not going to have a lot of time with that team if that number does not dip below double digits.
And with the number of injuries they've had and the opportunities other pitchers have had, it wasn't like he wasn't going to get a shot. I mean, if he was just a serviceable pitcher, he'd have not only would he have a role on this team, he'd have a somewhat important role. But you can't. I mean, did I hear seven of the 16 batters he faced hit the ball more than 100 miles an hour?
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Chapter 2: What were the implications of Bailey Falter's comments after the game?
So if you've got 90 to 91 with no spin, no horizontal movement, you put it middle, middle. I don't care if it's a dude hitting 130. He can square it up. And they did. Many times. I'm surprised you said only seven because it felt like 15. That's what I thought I heard when I was driving in. It was maybe earlier today.
In that first inning, if you were listening on any platform, our intro, I left my headset in that room and I knew when it started, I have more than a few minutes before I get back here because that's how many hits the Yankees had last night.
24. 24 and 15 runs. The fourth most hits ever by a team against the Royals in their history.
And that's just the way it's been. Royals versus Yankees the last 13 games. Yeah. We'll spend a lot of time on that here in the first hour of the show. 3 p.m. hour, we'll have Family Feud, followed by Lebo Sounds to take us into the 4 o'clock hour with Price Carter.
We'll hear from Eli Drinkwitz on Lebo Sounds, give you a little preview here. Love to hear it. I've seen what's been polled.
You have the man, the man behind the curtain. I did, as I would call it. Price Carter talking all things Chiefs in the four o'clock hour. Then in the five o'clock hour, we'll tell you what you need to know. Then we'll have J.J. Cooper talking a little Royals baseball.
But since the Royals are 22 and 33, maybe talk some prospects, Major League Baseball draft, because there are some positive things there that I'm sure he would love to go over. So that'll be around 525, 530. And then we'll wrap things up, as we always do, with the kicker.
We're back to the looking at the future in May.
Well, we'll see, too, if J.J. Cooper believes, man, the American League is not that great. He's terrific. I can't wait to hear what he has to say. And maybe there could be some miraculous run. But I also believe in this, because we see a lot of fans do this when things aren't going well.
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Chapter 3: How did Bailey Falter's pitching affect the Royals' game against the Yankees?
Competitive in the Bronx. They then meet up in the postseason. But K... It's not been competitive since then. They were swept in the Bronx in April of 2025. They were swept in dominant fashion when the Yankees returned to Kansas City. This year in the Bronx was even more dominant than the previous sweep they suffered in 2025. And the first two games of this series, they had the lead.
They were three outs away from snapping that losing streak. And to me, what I saw last night was this game was over before it even started. We knew that... a pitching matchup that included Cam Schlittler, who has 97 to 98 with movement, and he can place it where he wants to, and Bailey Falter and his 9.82 ERA that I guess didn't know he was going to be starting until the last minute.
You knew that game on paper was over before it starts, and we love to use the phrase in baseball, hey, anything can happen. I don't think that was ever going to happen last night. Bailey Falter could have had his A-plus stuff And I think the Royals lose 5-0 because Cam Schlittler's that good.
But what I take such issue with last night, and it's about Bailey Falter, because he's now no longer on the team. He's DFA'd. He could get picked up by somebody. I really don't think so. And he'll probably decline his option to Omaha, therefore making him a free agent. But I've seen this happen a few times in baseball, where a starting pitcher that gets... interrogated, questioned after the game.
What did you see here? Why do you think you got lit up a little bit? More often than not, a starting pitcher will say, I just didn't have my best command today. Credit to them. They had some great at-bats. They were tough to put away. They fouled off a lot of pitches. And those are good hitters over there. They are paid to hit. They are paid to hit guys like me.
Whenever I hear a guy deflect... And you heard some of that from... You did.
From Bailey Falker last night, but... Continue. But...
The overarching takeaway, and it's why players always have to be careful of how they phrase things and word things, and some guys, almost to a fault, will take so much blame. Like, you'll see somebody go throw seven innings of one-run ball, and they'll lose one to nothing. You'll be like, ah, you know, I gotta be better than that. I can't give up that home run. in the eighth inning.
I can't do that. Like, to a fault. And you go, that's not on you. The offense scored zero. And the Royals scored one last night. So the 15 maybe is a moot point. I'm not sure they were going to do a lot off of Cam Schlittler if Michael Walker was thrown, which he was great the day before. But you almost blame the coaching staff.
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Chapter 4: What factors contributed to Bailey Falter's DFA decision?
Not normal. Like, you're not waking up that day going, I've been prepping for a couple days now to be ready to throw on this day. Luinda Ravala gets lit up. I didn't hear Luinda Ravala say, well, guys, I had to warm up in 20 pitches. That's why I wasn't good. Obviously, that's why I wasn't good. I have seen Bailey Falter throw every fifth day a few times.
Did this guy ever know that he was starting? How many scoreless firsts did he ever have? He just didn't. And the stuff wasn't good enough. And I've said this in frustration before, when you have guys go out there and we say uncompetitive pitches, right, Kay? Uncompetitive pitches to guys in the nine hole. Guys hitting a buck 40.
I remember almost losing my mind seeing Cole Reagans throw a 3-2 curveball to Austin Hedges, who is just there to be a defensive catcher. He's a great game caller. Cleveland loves him. You can throw him 97 down the middle and take your chances. It's better than throwing that changeup that misses by four or five feet because you're trying to get him to swing and miss. You're facing Aaron Judge.
I can live with that. A curveball just a little bit out in front, topped it a little bit, and it's in the dirt by a couple of feet. It's not a great pitch. I can live with that. There's also the term uncompetitive pitch when you're just throwing it right down the middle of the guys who can hit it. That to me is not competitive. That's not challenging and saying, here's my fastball, hit it.
If you go back to the MLB app and the tracker of pitches, every time in-play runs or in-play no-out, they were all middle-middle. They were all right down the center. And whether you have five days of prep or a few hours of prep, you're telling me you can't get ready in time? He was never going to throw six innings, Curtis. No. He was there to be the opener.
So you've been in the bullpen for five days. Did you think you were going to be going out there stretched out for five or six? No, the goal was to get through the lineup one time through and go to Luinder Avila as the bulk reliever in the same way they did against Boston. And he knew, I guess earlier than last night, he was going to start against Boston. Guess what? He wasn't good.
He wasn't good. And... If you want to point to this aspect of the first inning last night, Jack Caglione, the snow cone ball, gets overturned. That, at that point, was what? 2-0? 1-0? 1-0. 1-0. If that ball's caught, it's... He's out of the inning. Out of the inning, it's 1-0. And instead, it unravels and gets to four runs. Yeah. That ball was hit 108 miles an hour. That was not a can of corn.
And that would have, I mean, you talk about a blaze being set in the clubhouse. If he was to bring up that, you know, hey, we were one catch away from getting out of the first inning. Even if that happens, how many big league starters have we seen, Kay? Experienced ones, guys that take the blame. They get an error in the field. Shortstop botches it. First baseman can't pick it.
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Chapter 5: How do injuries impact the Royals' pitching lineup?
And two or three runs score. How many of them go, well, it's my job to also bear down and get the final out there? All of them. All of them. All of them will say that. And so it brings me to the point we'll probably discuss the most here. Why he made the comments. And I need to pull these up just so I have them in front of me. This was from Annie Rogers' article.
Does a great job covering the team from LB.com. But it wasā We actually haveāif you want to hear the sound. You know what? That's better than me regurgitating it. So, Kyle, you give me the thumbs up when you're ready for it.
I think that would be cut two. Cut two? He's got it ready to go. He was asked what went wrong. So when we get to thatāsorry. No, you're all good. I should have told you before that.
No, all good. We were either going to say it or we're going to hear Bailey Falter say it, but Kay told you right there. This is what Bailey Falter had to say after the game last night with what went wrong in his outing.
Just falling behind in counts, not hitting locations, not feeling the best either.
Like physically not feeling the best you're talking about there?
I just didn't really have anything behind the ball today, so I don't know if that's just being in the bullpen for five days and then getting a start or not really having a role, just rolling with the punches right now. You mentioned just the long layup. What have you been doing just to try and stay fresh and prepared for an opportunity like this?
I've been in the bullpen the past few days, so I've been trying to do my bullpen routine, just trying to stay ready just in case I do get in the game, and then just another Late minute start. So kind of just a whole ranch in the plan.
Frustration that you're feeling with just the role right now and what you're being asked to do?
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Chapter 6: What strategies are being discussed for improving the Royals' offense?
I don't see it. And I kind of saw Matt Quattrero...
protect him a little bit good stuff believe in him he just didn't have his best today so that other teams could look around and go hey he had a decent year with pittsburgh before he got traded last year we need starting pitching everybody needs depth and you go out there and do that whether i'm not trying to be too dramatic here but we see so many starters get bombed roughed up every time they take the accountability hey i i gotta be ready to go and he said that kind of backhanded that's my job to take the ball and go out and pitch well he never did
And this is a business at the end of the day.
You heard a lot of fans, at least in my Twitter mentions, which are replies, which, as I've said before, is the pulse of the world. Upset that he wasn't more candid in the postgame press conference, Matt Quattro, about how bad things were. Angry that he says Falter has good stuff. He clearly, I think he... I don't think he thinks that.
I think he's, as you said, he's backing a guy who, for the moment, was one of his guys. And that's what a manager will do a lot of times. And to the point where people are like, why aren't you telling the truth about this guy? So he shouldn't have a rub at all with Matt Quattrero. The Royals have had, in their history, 370 different pitchers have thrown at least 21 innings for the Royals.
You know how many have a higher ERA than Bailey Falter? One. Albie Lopez, legendary failure from 2003, one of the few things that went wrong for the Royals that year, 12.71 ERA. He was so bad, I started calling him Albie giving up some runs Lopez. Bailey Falter is right behind him at 12.46. Blaine Boyer from 2018, 12.05. Those are the three guys that were 12.46.
Like last night was because he didn't have enough notice that he was going to pitch in that position. As you said, like, did he ever know he was going to play before? I mean, it's... Was he just sitting in his car in the parking lot looking at his phone and, hey, you're pitching. You've got half an hour. Get dressed and get out there.
They... If if you have seen the inside of the baseball world before, and I'm not saying that I I have to the highest level, like I know when when all this stuff is going on, how it all works. I would say nine out of 10 managers, if not maybe 10 out of 10. You inform guys the day before or the night before. You think about backup catchers, they tell them, and they're like, hey, be ready to go.
Remember when Carter Jensen had the oversleeping situation, they were all aware the night before, hey, Sal, you've got the day off tomorrow. Carter, you're going to be starting. He knew that. Why would Bailey Falter, a pitcher, be treated any differently?
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Chapter 7: How do historical comparisons inform the Royals' current struggles?
He did this five days ago. He did this five days ago in what he called another... late-minute start. You have to have some level of flexibility. Otherwise, if the numbers aren't good enough, you don't deserve a roster spot. You want to have guys that any given day, and managers do this because they'll tell us in the postgame, oh yeah, so-and-so was down today.
We knew that going into that game, we were not going to use him. He was not going to be available. But these other guys, hey, game goes into extras, You've got to be ready to go. You've got to be ready to eat a couple of innings. And that's why last night, I have to wonder, Bailey Falter throws two scoreless? You think this is even brought up?
Or he goes two innings and two runs, a little bit more sustainable? No, it's because he got bombed, and he wanted to give reasons as to why he got lit up. It was not... Oh, I showed up to the ballpark and here I go. I'm not even throwing my hardest just yet. And now you expect me to get this lineup out? Yeah. Well, you are a big leaguer. You do have one of the 26 spots.
You have started a ton of games in your career. You threw, it seemed like, 20 middle-middle pitches. That got crushed when you were previously in Kansas City. You did not have one outing where everybody went, I can live with that. I can handle that out of the long relief role. Your job as a long reliever is to wear it. I always, and I will say this, and I will stand by this for the rest of time.
I have always had respect for Vin Mazzaro. I have always had respect for Vin Mazzaro. He wore it one night. He wore the hell out of that outing. That game was nearly out of hand. It wasn't 9-1. It was not close. And Cleveland was clearly teetering on blowing that game open. 14 runs he allowed. It was 14. And he just kept going out.
over and over and over again because they probably came up to him in the bullpen smacked him on the ass and said kid you gotta wear this if this game gets out of hand you have to throw strikes and your era is gonna be disgusting when this is over but you know what he went out there and to the best of his ability he tried to wear it last night as a two inning guy
I didn't really get the vibe that Bailey Falter was going to wear it. It was... Luendo Ravala had to wear it a little bit. His stuff was not great. He was getting knocked around. But they said, we can't go one plus from our opener, who gave up seven runs, and then you go one plus. Then we're going to be... Out of options for the series finale here.
Which is why they went 2-plus with Falter. Yeah. Two things. One's kind of fun. I actually do think Bailey Falter will be on a Major League mound soon. I think it'll be at the All-Star game. But it won't be during the game. It'll be the night before when he's called upon to be the homerun derby pitcher for everyone.
The second is, if you're a Royals fan, as mad as you were watching that last night, You ought to be pretty happy it happened because that may have been what it took to get one of the worst pitchers in the history of a franchise that's had some bad ones Out of town. Yeah. Because he might still be looking at the next thing. He might have gotten one more.
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Chapter 8: What are the future expectations for the Royals this season?
Do you think Falter looks around the clubhouse, sees Tyler Tolbert, whose one job is to be ready whenever Matt Quintero puts you on the base path? Yeah, I mean, he's got to go out there. You don't hear Tyler Tolbert complaining. We joke about position players pitching. They still tell them, please get three outs here.
We cannot afford to go to another pitcher because you can't throw strikes or you can't get an out. I think he was asked, did he come to you? And he says, no, I asked him. And he's done it. Sure, yeah. He did it in Cleveland earlier this year when they got bombed after Stephen Cruz was tipping pitches, it seemed like. But, yeah, that's not really one you just flush and move on.
And, Kay, you're exactly right. Maybe that's what needed to happen to move on from Bailey Falter. Unfortunately, they don't have a lot of ready options in AAA. They desperately need Chris Bubich back, and they're going to be starting on Tuesday. Fingers crossed everything checks out with that elbow soreness. We'll take a quick break, come back, and roll on on the program.
Hello, darkness, my old friend.
Fitting. I've come to talk with you again. Fitting as we get through the misery on the program on Sports Radio 810 WHB. Not Saran Petro. I'm your host, Jack Johnson.
I guess not while I was sleeping.
Just living through it today.
The Royals will try to snap a... And the baseballs that were planted in the stands still remain.
We could make a whole song out of that. We could. We really, really could. They'll try to avoid another sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees. 13, I believe it is now.
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