<\/p>\n
Blair Kerkhoff writes that Tyler Tolbert came up big in the Friday win over the Cardinals<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYou never know when your name is going to be called,\u201d Tolbert said. \u201cYou just have to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n That was the case throughout the game for Tolbert. In the sixth inning, after failing to get down a pair of bunts with a runner on third, he drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to deep center.<\/p>\n \u201cTo stay in the moment and be able to concentrate on that pitch, that was big for him,\u201d Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. \u201cThat ball was smoked.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Anne Rogers has more on how Tolbert stays ready<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a mental thing,\u201d Tolbert said. \u201cA lot of people are like, \u2018Save your energy.\u2019 But for me, it\u2019s a mindset thing. My whole life, I\u2019ve been a starter. It just gets my mind and body ready, like, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re playing a game. Let\u2019s get in that mode. We\u2019re not sitting around and hanging out. Turn the switch on.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n She also provides an update on the knee injury for Bobby Witt Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n If playing one game shorthanded means the Royals can give Witt more time to recover and see how he feels, they\u2019ll do it. Avoiding an IL stint means they would avoid the minimum 10 days without their best player. But they also don\u2019t want to risk a long-term injury, so there are a lot of factors at play.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be what the conversations are with him and [team] Doc [Vincent] Key,\u201d manager Matt Quatraro said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a surgical thing. I know they can put a brace on it. It\u2019s going to be a lot of get the swelling out of there and understand how he feels, and those conversations are going to have to be honest between all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Thomas Harrigan at MLB.com writes about the starting pitcher trade market.<\/a><\/p>\n Kansas City made the playoffs in 2024 and won 82 games a year ago, but the club has cratered in \u201926. The Royals aren\u2019t going to launch a full-scale rebuild when they have\u00a0Bobby Witt Jr.<\/a>\u00a0in his prime, but they badly need to retool.<\/p>\n With starters\u00a0Cole Ragans<\/a>\u00a0(controllable through 2028) and\u00a0Kris Bubic<\/a>\u00a0(pending free agent) both injured, their best chance to do that is dealing veteran hurlers\u00a0Seth Lugo<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Michael Wacha<\/a>, each of whom is signed through 2027 with a \u201928 club option.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Michael Baumann at Fangraphs examines the decline of Salvador Perez<\/a>.<\/p>\n Perez\u2019s power is gone. It just up and disappeared over the winter. And for a player who already couldn\u2019t run, wasn\u2019t much use defensively, and never walks, that was the last Jenga piece. The power was the only tangible skill Perez had left.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s definitively gone. Last year, Perez\u2019s barrel rate was in the 91st percentile and his hard-hit rate was in the 70th percentile. Those numbers are in the 45th and 44th percentiles now.<\/p>\n From last year to this, Perez has lost 1.4 mph of average bat speed and his fast swing rate has been cut nearly in half, from 30.5% to 16.9%. Another hitter could live with those numbers; Perez\u2019s bat speed figures are in the same neighborhood as\u00a0Kevin McGonigle<\/a>\u2019s and\u00a0Kyle Tucker<\/a>\u2019s. But if power is your carrying tool, that little power won\u2019t carry you very far. Maybe Perez is dealing with an injury from which he\u2019ll recover, but for a 36-year-old who\u2019s spent nearly 12,000 innings behind the plate, Occam\u2019s Razor points in another direction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n David Lesky recaps the big offensive night on Thursday against the Cardinals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Kevin O\u2019Brien at Royals Keep writes that the offense has not been a problem this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shohei Ohtani<\/a> is out of the lineup while away on paternity<\/a>.<\/p>\n Travel issues led to the Padres\/Rangers game to have only two umpires.<\/a><\/p>\n Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal<\/a> and White Sox<\/a> pitcher Mike Vasil<\/a> exchange heated words.<\/a><\/p>\n Yankees<\/a> pitcher Cam Schlittler<\/a> strikes out 13 in a shutout win over the Reds.<\/a><\/p>\n Justin Verlander<\/a> is out several weeks with a hamstring strain<\/a>.<\/p>\n How Jacob Misiorowski<\/a>\u00a0became one of the best pitchers in baseball<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Tigers call up the grandson of Jose Cruz, making that family the fifth to have three generations of MLB players.<\/a><\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Byron Buxton isn\u2019t looking for a trade<\/a> out of Minnesota<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jazz Chisholm Jr.<\/a> admits he has never worn a cup, after taking a ball to the groin<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Giants may be ready for a firesale, but can they move those large contracts<\/a>?<\/p>\n Oklahoma and North Carolina square off in the Mens\u2019 College World Series finals this weekend.<\/a><\/p>\n Could the United States actually win the World Cup<\/a>?<\/p>\n Will NFL officiating improve with a new \u201cpractice squad\u201d of refs<\/a>?<\/p>\n Be careful with your dog\u2019s paws in hot weather<\/a>.<\/p>\n A TV series based on the popular RPG novel Dungeon Crawler Car<\/em>l is greenlit for Peacock<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\n