Chapter 1: What are the current options for the Royals this season?
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Looking up, that ball is gone. Brian McMahon shoots one up and out the other way. And the Yankee lead is now 7-0. That's all. Wait, hang on. There was no basketball game last night. There has to be a game for this bit to work.
Oh, that's right. Kyle, just play the regular theme. And now, comforted by the fact that the Royals won't lose tonight, Jack Johnson. I guess you're right, guy. I guess you're right. I forgot there was the... Been doing that with the Royals and the NBA, but the Knicks were so good, there was no game last night. Nothing to watch tonight. Nothing to watch tonight. I guess we can find something.
Not even hockey. NBA. Not even hockey. NBA. And see if the Thunder can put away the Spurs.
I guess. I guess. Which I think they probably will. The Royals will be in Arlington tomorrow. There's regional baseball tomorrow. But if you're an NBA fan, some of us here at the studio are, I guess you do have something to watch. You cannot be disappointed tonight unless you are the loser of tonight's game. And who knows?
Maybe we will talk a little bit NBA finals later on in the show today, but we'll have to find a spot to fit it in because it is, as it usually is, a loaded, jam-packed show. Multiple guests. Multiple games that we will be playing. And I promise you, if you were bored by our Royals talk yesterday, there's really only one segment that we can fit it in.
And it's going to be a mixture of Royals baseball, but more so tailored to a team that is doing something really nobody else in baseball is doing. But keep in mind with this. It's an old school way of playing. Small ball. And one team in the American League is doing it. And the numbers, the advanced analytics, everything is telling them that their offense shouldn't be that good.
But it's a good offense and they have the best record in the American League. So we'll open up the show with that. Then we're going to pivot. to some Kansas baseball talk. They will be hosting their first ever regional in Lawrence beginning tomorrow, a noon first pitch. Dominic Vagley, the ace of the Jayhawks, will be getting the ball.
And so we're going to have one of the play-by-play guys joining us here in about 25 minutes or so, Gabriel Stigers. He's got a lot of insight on what he's seen so far in Lawrence. They had batting practice earlier today. Former Phillies manager who was let go about a month ago. Rob Thompson was there and got a chance to see this band full of Juco bandits, as they like to call themselves.
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Chapter 2: How is the Royals' performance affecting fan sentiment?
It's there can be only one. I think it's the fifth time I've messed that up in the last 24 hours. It's piped incorrectly on the page. Okay. There can be only one. There can be only one.
I'm pretty sure yesterday I said there can only be one. And Lebo made fun of me for it. The clip is in the open. So I don't need to worry about saying it again. Highlander. That's where I'm at. Blair Kirkhoff will join us in the 4 o'clock hour. David Lesky in the 5 o'clock hour. So I did say we'd talk a little Royals baseball. And that would be it. Mm-hmm.
But maybe Leske has more insight than we might have into the small ball thing and to the Royals' 22-34 starts, their 14th consecutive loss to the Yankees.
And there's a couple pieces of sound we'll get to at some point today, one from Matt Quattrero, one from Bobby Wood Jr., the one from Q is probably more important. This is the first time, and one of the things that I do every morning after a Royals game is I go through the sound from the night before, if they've played, and pull some clips so we can talk about it.
This is the first time I just completely ignored anything related to the game itself. I mean, it's all about where this team is right now and where does it go. They're coming off the end of a series, the end of a homestand. There's an off day. knocking around what happened in the fifth inning is meaningless at this point.
Until they get to a situation where they're on an upturn and they're starting to challenge even to get to 500, almost all the discussion about this team is about the overall direction. It's a 10,000-foot view. Not 30,000-foot view, but maybe a 10,000-foot view.
So I think I think last night, maybe it's just not just because they lost seven nothing, but it was it was the culmination of a series in a homestand. And I think today is the first day for me of all right. Now it's not about the individual games anymore.
No, it's. You can't have any conversation about getting things going until you finally flip this script. I mean, we can't talk about the AL wildcard standings. We can't talk about the rest of the American League. I know J.J.
Cooper said yesterday in our conversation, I mean, they're not out of it because nobody in the American League other than the Rays and the Yankees are performing above maybe the expectations. And even the Yankees, I'm not sure that every Yankees fan would say, hey, we're overperforming because they're still behind the Tampa Bay Rays. This Royals team just has a lifeless feel to it.
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Chapter 3: What insights does Gabriel Stigers provide about Jayhawks baseball?
They're third to the last in average attendance this year. They draw fewer people per game than the Royals.
Yeah. And I guess that's just being in St. Pete. I mean, it's a tough place to draw. And I would say that... Tampa Bay has always done an exceptional job of knowing who they are. They don't try to be other teams. They're in a division that includes New York, Boston, Baltimore, the reigning American League champs in Toronto.
And not once have they said, well, we got to be them if we're going to win this division. Baltimore kind of did that. Baltimore had this loaded draft class, tons of top 100 guys, and they said, we got to go and compete with Boston and New York. We have to beat them at their game. Well, Tampa, you'll see where I'm going with this. They have the best record in the American League.
You look at some of the advanced numbers on them, their bottom five in barrel rate, their bottom five in hard hit rate, every metric that would tell you, if you have those numbers, your offense sucks. That's where they lack. Slug, OPS, home runs, all of that, they don't excel in it. But they have the best record in the American League. Why?
Because their analytical department, we know Tampa has a phenomenal one. They've been a pitching factory for years and for probably a decade plus. When you traded a struggling pitcher to Tampa Bay, you kind of clinch up a little bit and go, what do they see in that guy that we don't?
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Chapter 4: What challenges does Kansas face in their upcoming regional?
And nine times out of ten, they found something with that player. But the way they've constructed their offense is built on contact, speed, bunting guys over, putting pressure on the defense. Who does that remind you of? What team in Kansas City does that remind you of? Sounds like 2015 Royals. Exactly. And here's the misconception that, that a lot of people are going to probably fall for.
It's, well, let's just change the philosophy for this Royals team into having the small ball approach. Well, I'm not sure it's a mid-season adjustment. This is something that would have to happen next offseason. But even after those 14-15 teams, the Royals tried the small ball approach. It did not equate to a bunch of victories. They missed the postseason in 16. They missed it in 17.
They were back to losing 100-plus games in 18-19. Then you had the COVID year. They still tried to have this approach of don't strike out, put the ball in play, bunt guys over, put pressure on the defense. But that doesn't work if you don't have good players.
If you don't have good players that can still hit 285 and do that, and the way Tampa does, and then have a couple of crushers in there, like Jonathan Aranda and Yandy Diaz, then it doesn't work. But they have someone like Chandler Simpson, arguably the fastest player in the sport. He can hit well over 340, 350. And what they tell him is don't ever try to launch the ball.
You're so fast that if you hit the ball to the opposite field on the ground, the chances of a shortstop making that play are slim to none. You keep the ball on the ground, that is going to increase your chances of getting a hit. When we have guys on, you know, it's first and second, second and third. It's just about putting bat to ball. It's simple. It's old school.
A lot of people like that approach. And for the Royals, that's where you may need to look in the mirror and go, maybe our philosophy of trying to catch up to this sport and saying home runs win you championships, home runs win you divisions, it might need to be a shift back into what you were, going back to your roots. Because that was winning baseball for the Royals.
The 14 and 15 teams had good players, though. Like Lorenzo Cain, great player. Alex Gordon, great player. Eric Osmer, great player. And then you had a bunch of guys that just also filled out the lineup that were great at what they did. This Royals team is led by a superstar talent in Bobby Witt Jr. And they've got good players around them.
But the Royals should have never built their team to mirror what the top payroll teams are doing. I know that when you're asking those questions, how do you want your offense to look? Everybody's attracted to hard hit balls, to home runs. And you do that more often than not. You square a ball up. They always tell you you'll be rewarded for it. But we're not seeing the Royals be rewarded for it.
We didn't last year. We haven't this year. And I think seeing a team like Tampa Bay have this work effectively, you have to think about it. Because I don't blame the Royals the last couple of years of going, why would we go back to small ball when nobody in the sport is doing it and the ones that are are not winning? There is nothing stopping the Royals from being the Rays or the Brewers. Right.
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Chapter 5: How is the pitching strategy being managed for the Jayhawks?
And that's why I look at this lineup top to bottom. I go, I'm not telling Bobby Witt Jr. how to change his swing. That's a superstar, right? You don't need to tell him how to hit a baseball. Whether this Royals team wins 90 games or loses 90 games, he's going to put up numbers. It's like Mike Trout did for years with the Angels and bad Angels teams, as long as he was healthy, of course.
Like, why are we needing to tell Michael Massey or Kyle Isbell or Isaac Collins or Nick Lofton or Michael Garcia, hit the ball hard, elevate a little bit. Yeah, I get that the result, the best case scenario is good. You hit the ball out of the yard. You have a bunch of home runs. You brought the fences in. So a couple of those warning track balls you're now rewarded for.
But has anybody this year really noticed that big of a difference? I haven't. And maybe it's because this team as a whole is in a tremendous slump.
And the guys you would expect those home runs from have not delivered. I mean, if Vinny Pasquantino was feeling it the way he was a year ago, this year, would those numbers be up?
It's possible. Maybe. I don't know if there is this extra pressure of the fences are in. I was paid to hit more home runs. And I'm not inside the mind of the hitter. Yeah. But when we watch Mikel Garcia swing the bat, what's your favorite hit of his? To me, it's the outside pitch guides it right through the 3-4 hole. That's my favorite.
When he just has that one hopper to the right side, it's almost always to lead off the game when he's going well. I mean, that is his best swing. His best swing is not gapping one to left center. It's just not. To me, when I watch Mikel Garcia swing, that is his best one. Kyle Isbell... It's that five, six-hole line drive or right over shortstop.
Yes, I'm bringing up a lot of opposite field contact, and it's much easier for me to say that and actually go out there and do it. I'm sure a lot of these guys want to have that approach, but I don't know what the philosophy is. Clearly, it's not working. Because you would see the numbers be better across the board if it was.
You bring in Connor Dawson, who was in Milwaukee, a team that, like I said, never spends, but gets the most out of guys. Isaac Collins, believe this or not, was top five in rookie of the year voting in the National League. He's hitting 215 for the Royals. So why does that happen? Why do you see these regressions for players? Why do they bring in certain guys and the numbers just don't translate?
I got it for Jonathan India because he's coming from Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati where the Royals will be next week. It's a trampoline park. You can hit 20 bombs there if you have no power. But in Kansas City, that's not going to work. And here's another thing. There's two instances that come to mind.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of the Royals' hitting philosophy?
They're all AAA guys. They have good players on there. But they also coach up a lot of these other guys. They get the most, even if it's for one year, out of somebody. And they're not making a lot of money. But yet they can go be the one seed in the National League. The Rays can be above the Yankees at this point. I mean, just look at these last three games and what New York did to them. Yeah.
And this Tampa Bay team is ahead of them. And they have competed against them, playing their style of ball. I am somebody that likes to take both sides of it, of analytics and old school. You can't have one without the other. You can't be this super analytical, computer-driven guy that's never played the sport and say, well, I know how it works.
Well, no, because there's old school guys and even the old school guys now might be two years removed from the sport. They've played it. They also know what it takes to be a winner and a champion. And you bring that together, you get a little bit of both. And Tampa for years was kind of seen as this computer driven team doesn't spend any money.
They're looking where nobody else is like the modern day Moneyball A's. But they didn't have Barry Zito and Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez. They have Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda and Chandler Simpson and a couple other great pieces and a good rotation and a good bullpen. And they bring consistency. That's what Kansas City needs to get. It's consistency. It can't be slow start in April.
You climb back into it. Terrible June. Really good July. Because, yes, you might find a way to get back to the postseason, but it's not the recipe of, oh, this team can make a deep run. And maybe Tampa falls out of it. Like, we are in late May, May 28th, May 29th. It could look totally different in July. But it'd be pretty good to be, what, 14, 15 games over 500 right now? Sure.
At this point... The Tampa is one of those teams that, like, wow, they can really ā they're really amazing, but they don't have a flag. Yeah. You can criticize that, too. But they are in the running for a flag. Would you ā Would you take that? I mean, you can't always win it. Would you minimize the odds of winning a World Series by greatly increasing your odds of playing for one?
It's what Cleveland has probably contemplated for so long. It's like you give yourself 10 opportunities. You might go 0-10, but you're there... Ten times.
Yeah. I do think there has to be some attention to the home run. I don't think you want to just. You can't just abandon that. Because, you know, looking at the numbers, when teams hit at least one home run in a game this year, their winning percentage is 597. When they don't, it's 336. Now, that's a difference of 261 points. The Royals are about the major league average in that.
They're actually less affected, a little bit less affected by not hitting a home run than most teams. 500 when they do, 250 when they don't. So you do have to hit the ball over the fence. But it's... I want to see a complete run-up of the numbers when the season's over and see is there a way that you can combine those two?
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Chapter 7: What changes might the Royals need to make for future success?
And. The first option, or the second option, is probably one you can immediately affect change. The other one, you just kind of have to wait and hope they come around. But I'm glad it's not my problem because it's been one of the more perplexing ones all season. People will say, well, you just... Just make a change. Anybody. Well, it can't be anybody. Like the lineup.
Well, this guy shouldn't be hitting third. Who should you put in there? Anybody. You can't just write anybody on the league. You have to make a decision. So the next couple of months of this franchise and how it's going to, I think, it's going to dictate what happens. Well, the next four months for this baseball team is going to dictate what they are the next five years, I think.
Royals are off today. They'll be in Arlington to begin a 10-game road trip beginning on Friday night. Take a quick break, come back, talk some Kansas baseball with Gabriel Stigers. That's next in the program. We are back here on the program on Sports Radio 810 WHB. I am your host, Jack Johnson, filling in for Soren Petro. Curtis Seabolt here. Kyle Collier producing this thing.
Big weekend in Lawrence. The Jayhawks will be hosting their first regional. It includes Arkansas as the two seed, Missouri State as the three seed, and Northeastern actually rated the number one fourth seed among all of the regionals. They will be taking on Kansas tomorrow for a first pitch of 12 noon.
And we're going to talk more about it with Gabriel Stigers, one of the play-by-play guys for Kansas baseball. First things first, Gabriel, how are we doing this afternoon?
Jack, I'm good. It's really good to hear from you, man. We got to talk a little bit about midseason when we were around Wichita. You were with the Wichita Station, and it'll be good to catch up. We've come a long way since then.
Certainly. And I guess back then, it was when Kansas really started to take off. Went on the ridiculous stretch, winning 27 of 30. It rewarded them when it was all said and done of putting themselves in a great position to win the Big 12 in the regular season. Their first conference title since the 1940s, all the way back when it was the Big 7.
And then they go on to surprise and win the Big 12 tournament. And now it's when it all matters. This is what everybody's been waiting for for probably the better part of a month. They will send their ace to the bump and Dominic vaguely.
I want to ask you if you think that's the right move from Dan Fitzgerald, because as we know, if they win that game tomorrow, you're either lined up to play offensively Arkansas, one of the more storied baseball programs in the country, or Missouri State, who has over 100 team home runs this season. Mason Cook's been very, very good.
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Chapter 8: How does the atmosphere in Lawrence contribute to the baseball experience?
But, you know, that's the draw they got. And we're just lucky to be hosting, man. I mean, that's something that's never happened in the program's history. And so I'm not sure anyone is too up in arms about it. But at the end of the day, you did draw. I mean, it's a tough regional. You got Arkansas, who had an argument to host themselves.
And then, like you said, if you move on, you more than likely get Georgia Tech. So... The mentality around this team, it could be game one of the season or it could be, you know, finals of the College World Series. All they're worried about is the day and that game ahead of them. So I'm sure it's in the back of someone's mind, but it's definitely not in the back of Dan Fitzgerald's mind.
He's just worried about today beating Northeastern and then going on to beat the winner of whoever, you know, the later game on Friday, 5 p.m. So we're at noon. against Northeastern and then Arkansas and Missouri State are going to do battle at 5 p.m. a little after. Hopefully there's some bad weather rolling in. Hopefully that doesn't affect the play.
But the structure of it is essentially the two winners play each other and the two losers play each other on game two. That double elimination, like you said, if you lose two games, you're done.
We're talking with one of the KU play-by-play men, Gabriel Stigers, here on the program, Sports Radio 810 WHB. Brady Ballinger was not playing in surprise for the Big 12 tournament. It was Savion Flowers that saved the day in their first game against Baylor, had a really good three-day stretch. But now it appears that they are going to get one of their top bats back.
Do you expect him being full 100%, or do you see him maybe only being at 80-85, and it's just a postseason ball, man. It's do or die at this point.
We heard today at the press conference this morning that he's progressing well, but nothing concrete there. Missing the Big 12 tournament was, I think, more precautionary than anything, and you gave a guy like Xavion Flowers, like you said, a shot to do something. He did some damage, more than a shot. I mean, it was a walk-off home run against Baylor, and he continued to hit.
He knocked in a run in the semifinals. Another guy to keep your eye on is Max Salise Jr., who actually got that start in left field against Baylor, who was later removed for Flowers. That was just a matchup thing, though. Salise is a two-year Jayhawk. He's been in this situation before.
He could also factor in if Brady's not ready to go, but I would anticipate that Ballinger is at least in the lineup.
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