12 Comments
Jun 14Liked by Craig Brown

Brilliant start by Marsh but his first two poor June starts leave me still a bit skeptic. That said, I still

trust him more than I do Brady Singer. I would not be bothered at all to see Singer traded. Please

hurry Kris Bubic.

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Marsh has had a rough patch for sure, but for a number five starter? The Royals are thrilled with what he's done.

And agree with you on Singer. On both counts.

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Jun 14Liked by Craig Brown

Has Marsh raised his ceiling this season? His floor? Definitely feel some development going on for him. Very exciting to imagine a team that can bring pitchers up and develop them more in the majors.

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I think his ceiling remains unchanged as a mid-rotation type of guy. The floor has probably gone up because there's always a chance a guy who washes out of the rotation ends up in the bullpen and there was always talk about Marsh being a power arm in the pen. (Lord knows the Royals could use that.)

I think Marsh is a strong exhibit of a pitcher who works incredibly hard and has the backing of coaches who understand the art.

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Jun 14Liked by Craig Brown

I too, Craig allow myself to become enraged with the MLB Network. O get so tired of all their coverage being all NY and LA. The other 28 teams are like the minor leagues. Have a great weekend.

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Man, I don't ever watch MLB Network. No idea why I stumbled across it when I did. Only myself to blame.

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After the the first 3 games of this series, getting through the first inning unscathed yesterday was absolutely a big deal.

Replay rules across sports generally don't make a lot of sense. The most sensible solution I've heard is make everything reviewable (because it really makes no sense that something like obstruction can't be looked at) and tie replays to timeouts. No official reviews, they're all up to the coach/mgr, and the fear of wasting TOs should regulate and keep them from challenging plays that really don't matter. Of course, baseball doesn't have timeouts in the same way football and basketball do, so that makes it a little trickier. I suppose you could tie it to mound visits, but it probably makes sense to just give teams 1 or 2 a game that you retain if you win the challenge and lose if you don't. That's more or less what they have now, except teams can ask for official reviews or whatever they call it, even if they're out of challenges (not sure who came up with that one), but if you eliminate those and any other outside review, put it all in the manager's hands, and make everything reviewable, I think that would work best. I'm sure there's some scenario I'm overlooking that might throw a wrench into it, because there usually is some weird exception, but on the whole I think it would be a big improvement.

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I've just never been a fan of replay at all. My most Boomer opinion.

VAR in soccer probably comes closest to what we need. An assigned replay official is watching the game and then pausing the action when something needs to be checked. No challenges or other gimmicks. Of course, VAR in general is awful and confusing often frustrating fans.

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Jun 14Liked by Craig Brown

Great recap! I witnessed it in person and it was awesome! And the comeback silenced the loud, obnoxious, baseball-ignorant Yankee “fans” sitting around us. Brilliant.

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Thanks, Don. Amazing comeback.

I'll never understand why some people gravitate to an organization like that. I mean without some sort of proper attachment. Oh well...People probably wonder why I've been writing about the Royals for all these years. We all have our issues.

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Jun 14Liked by Craig Brown

Great pay by Freddy and a heck of an outing from Marsh. That was a big win.

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The Fermin play was so important. So many different guys step up in different ways on this team. One of the reasons I buy the results of the first two months.

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