Royals Rumblings - News for July 12, 2017

Jon Heyman sees the Royals as buyers in July.

The Royals have been suspected to be a likely seller all along, but word is, they are actually preparing to do the opposite and become a buyer. Sources suggest they have scouts out and are looking to buy. “We’re evaluating the landscape, and paying close attention to what may be available in the pitching market,” Royals GM Dayton Moore said. “We’ve been committed to this team.”

Sam Mellinger is “pro-tank”, but if the Royals are close, why not go for it?

Assuming the Royals don’t sell at the deadline — and it would take a shocking series of events for the Royals to sell at the deadline — then missing the playoffs represents the worst case scenario: Not adding talent for the future, and not adding a flag to remember the past. But if they’re within a few games of a playoff spot at the deadline, I don’t know how you’d call it a mistake to go for it. The point of trading away pieces at the deadline is, basically, to someday have a chance at the playoffs. Why give that away now, on the hope that you can get it back later?

David Lesky at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City has some ideas on who the Royals should pursue.

Marco Estrada – As the Blue Jays inch closer to selling with every loss, I imagine Estrada will be a popular name. He’s having a terrible season with a 5.17 ERA and a 7.41 DRA, but he’d been so good the last two years that you trade for him hoping it’s just a weird blip. He’s struck out a ton of batters and has exhibited his typically fantastic control, but he’s gone from allowing less than seven hits per nine to allowing more than nine. His opponent’s TAv is consistent with the past three seasons (all .261 before this year’s .265), so it does seem that he’s dealing with some bad luck. You might get a really nice middle of the rotation piece with him.

David Schoenfield of ESPN writes something nice about each All-Star.

Salvador Perez, C, Kansas City Royals: He's making his fifth consecutive All-Star appearance and having his best season at the plate, which is pretty amazing because the notoriously aggressive hitter is swinging at more pitchers than ever. In fact, at 47.4 percent, he has the highest chase rate on pitches outside the strike zone. That makes him the best at having a terrible approach and yet still being on pace to hit 34 home runs.

While his colleage Eric Karabell projects Salvy to decline in the second half.

During his career, he’s hit 20 points better and slugged 61 points higher before the All-Star break. Last season, he was hitting .283 with 14 home runs for his midsummer trip to San Diego. After that, he hit .201 with eight blasts. This isn’t me being mean. These are numbers that don’t lie, and for a catcher who has averaged a whopping 142 games and 530 at-bats a season over the past four years, we’d all get tired in July and August. At some point in the coming seasons he’s going to break.

He is also skeptical Jason Vargas can keep it going.

Mike Moustakas had a sweet tribute to his mother during Stand Up for Cancer segment at the All-Star Game.

Leigh Oleszczak at KC Kingdom thought her second Royals box from SportsCrate was a big improvement.

Former Royals outfielder Coco Crisp takes a high school coaching job.

The best moments from last night’s All-Star Game included a selfie and a hair flip.

Rob Manfred denies the ball is juiced and mentions a few cities as expansion candidates.

The dollars-per-WAR value for free agents has gone up.

Astros infielder Alex Bregman slid into DMs to set a fan straight.

Adam LaRoche is collecting another team of former big leaguers for the National Baseball Congress in Wichita. You can see the full roster here.

The 1999 Marlins were awful, but they had some of the most colorful personalities in the game.

How many ballparks have you visited?

It looks like Los Angeles is hosting a Summer Olympics Games in the future.

The Conor McGregor/Floyd Mayweather press conference was as crazy as you’d expect.

You can buy an airline that has $8 billion in debt!

This super-soaker designed by a NASA engineer can shoot 270 mph.

The funniest reactions to Amazon’s Prime Day.

Your song of the day is Franz Ferdinand with This Fire.