Royals Rumblings - News for May 1, 2024

It’s gonna be May. It is May. Today!

While Cole Ragans leaving the field accompanied by the trainer was a gut-twisting sight, it was just a cramp. Here’s Anne Rogers on the game:

The only blemish on Ragans’ line was three walks, and two of them came in his final inning. He was at 105 pitches after a second consecutive walk in the seventh and was likely coming out anyway, but something concerned head athletic trainer Kyle Turner enough to go onto the field and check on Ragans. While walking off the mound, Ragans screamed into his glove in frustration, and the Royals announced later that he left the game with a left calf cramp.

Ragans remained in the dugout to watch the rest of the inning and the eighth, signaling he’s likely OK. John Schreiber picked him up by getting the final out of the inning and three more quick outs in the eighth before handing it over to James McArthur for his seventh save of the year.

Here’s a great deep dive from John Foley at PitcherList about Brady Singer throwing his four-seamer up might unlock a new look for his career:

He showed that new offering in Spring Training, and has carried that into his first six starts of 2024. After throwing just 32 total four-seamers in the first four seasons of his career, he’s now thrown 79 of them this season, for about 15% of his total pitches. Moreover, he’s deploying that new fastball variant much higher in the zone than his sinker — 2.73 feet on average, against 2.21 feet for the sinker.

Singer has been openly stubborn about sticking with adjustments in the past, instead choosing to rely on his strengths. But last season’s results seem to have created the necessary burning platform for him to adopt and stay with some changes.

When approached in Spring Training about why he was willing to adjust now, Singer was pointed, saying, “Probably sucking. Probably that, yeah.”

“It’s a different look for the hitters,” Singer said. “They can look horizontal with the slider and the sinker. Now being able to look up and down the zone, you change your eye level more. It’s going to be huge.”

Top Pirates prospect Paul Skenes pitched six more shutout innings yesterday, leaving the Omaha Storm Chasers as the only Triple-A team to score on him all season.

Meanwhile, the Storm Chasers were rained out for the fourth consecutive gameday yesterday, so they’ll hope to play a double-header today at 12:08, if anyone wants to follow along.

The Angels selected old friend Amir Garrett. That’s not really the biggest Angels news, since Mike Trout needs knee surgery for a torn meniscus. And the team signed outfielder Kevin Pillar to fill in.

The Diamondbacks and Dodgers were delayed by bees: “In announcing the delay, the public address announcer asked fans to ‘please bee patient’ before playing The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be.’”

And for our cat-loving community members, here’s a related Tweet:

The bookie who took Shohei Ohthani’s money from former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara used casino chips to convert the funds into cash.

After the Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs, LeBron James said he will take time to be with his family and talk to his inner circle before talking to any of us about what comes next for his career.

The DEA might reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

This Ask a Manager letter writer got a prank call from their intern.

The Brokwell malware sounds pretty nasty, so be wary if you have any Android devices.

Tyson Foods is accused of dumping millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into waterways:

The water pollution from Tyson, a Fortune 100 company and the world’s second largest meat producer, was spread across 17 states but about half the contaminants were dumped into streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands in Nebraska, Illinois and Missouri.

This story came out less than a day after the Swindled podcast released an episode about Tyson’s history of various animal, human, and environmental abuses. (Listener discretion advised; it’s pretty upsetting.)

Today’s OT question: what random task have you done recently? I moved the stove and cleaned the floor underneath and walls behind it. I had been putting it off for so long and it took maybe 15 minutes.

SOTD: Taylor Swift - Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?