Talkin' rainout blues

Witt is off to hit dingers. Quatraro is a good manager. Trade season is here.

Thanks to the rain in St. Louis on Tuesday, the Royals have back-to-back off days just ahead of the extended All-Star break. We’re entering a stretch of idleness that nobody really welcomes, especially in the middle of July.

Still, the remaining five games the Royals will play ahead of the break are of definite importance. The rain in St. Louis means the Royals will play a split doubleheader on Wednesday. From there, it’s off to Boston for a three-game set to close out the first half of the season. The Red Sox have been lava-hot since the start of the month, winning six of seven. They’re currently hosting the A’s and hold a two-game advantage in the race for the Wild Card.

We’ve discussed the importance of various series at different points of the season as the Royals have found themselves in the early mix for a postseason spot. This will be the first time they’re facing off against a club directly ahead of them with Wild Card implications.

First, though, are the Cardinals. The Royals can’t be caught looking ahead. One game at a time and all that. Today, there are two! In the matinee, Alec Marsh will face off against Andre Pallante. In the nightcap, it’s Michael Wacha and Sonny Gray.

With the lack of baseball the last couple of days combined with an early game today, it’s a decent time to empty the notebook. Let’s go.

Let’s start with the coolest news of the week: Bobby Witt Jr. will be a participant in the 2024 Home Run Derby. It’s fun for a couple of reasons. One, as you are well aware from the three trips the Royals have made to Arlington since Witt began his major league career, he’s from nearby Colleyville, Texas. It’s always a homecoming for him when the Royals travel to play the Rangers. Being selected to his first All-Star Game when it’s basically being played in his hometown has to be a thrill. Adding the derby to his itinerary just adds to the excitement. And two, it’s the Home Run Derby.

There are all sorts of rule changes to this year’s edition of the Derby. It’s no longer a head-to-head contest until the semifinals and blah, blah, blah… Baseball can’t stay out of it’s own damn way, can it? I mean, something as simple as a home run derby and you have to go and legislate the hell out of the damn thing. Put down the rule book and hit dingers. How about that?

I’m kind of surprised Witt was selected for this as he’s obviously not a slugger in the normal respects of the adjective, but he’s a guy who can certainly mash. I’m not worried at all about the derby messing with his swing. That’s a myth, anyway.

Gunnar Henderson of Baltimore is also in the Derby, so it will be fun to see who finishes ahead out of those two. They’re both putting up fantastic seasons at short, with Henderson deserving of the starting nod at the position. It should be a fun time. At least until ESPN interviews Pete Alonso while Witt is taking his turn.

Sometimes, I get emails from various sportsbook-type outfits giving me odds for various baseball-related things if I were ever to make a wager. I’m not betting on baseball, but I will pass along that Matt Quatraro is currently the third favorite in the AL Manager of the Year race. He’s behind the favorite, Cleveland’s Steven Vogt, and Boston’s Alex Cora.

I can understand Q being behind Vogt. The first-year manager of the Guardians has his club in front in a surprisingly competitive Central with the best record in the American League. I understand less that Q is behind Cora at this point. As noted above, the Royals are just two games behind the Red Sox and both teams were projected to have seasons that would leave them on the outside of the postseason. Still, the turnaround that Quatraro and his staff have engineered remains one of the best stories in baseball this year. Potential bias aside, how can it not be? You have several teams that decide to basically sit this season out and then the Royals, winners of only 56 games last year, make some moves in the offseason and put together a competitive team. The manager has to get some credit for that.

Have you noticed the early rumblings that signal the start of the trade deadline season? On Sunday the Reds and Giants swapped role players with platoon outfielder Austin Slater heading to Cincinnati. San Francisco gets lefty reliever Alex Young in return. It’s the kind of trade that Jon Becker at FanGraphs wonders if we’ll be seeing more of as the deadline approaches at the end of the month.

Expanded playoffs means more opportunity which, in turn, means more buyers than sellers. There’s just not a lot of opportunity for a contending team to make massive improvements before the end of the month. We’ve gone over it in this space and Becker touches on a Josh Hader-type of trade where a contender deals from a position of strength to make a swap with another contending team as being a potential scenario.

I’ve also seen some chatter in recent days that the Royals should be sellers. Ummm…are those people nuts? There’s no way the Royals should be tearing anything down at this point. Not with all the work they did last winter to get to this point. Not where things currently stand with the team just two games out of a Wild Card spot. The Royals’ issue remains a lack of tradeable assets. They have guys who could help other teams but the return just wouldn’t be especially strong. Still, there will be an opportunity to make moves. It’s just a little more difficult than it used to be.

Central Issues

Guardians 9, Tigers 8 - 10 innings

One night after playing a 1-0 game, the two teams decided to open the offensive floodgates. Cleveland jumped out to an early 6-0 lead on the back of Angel Martínez and Josh Naylor home runs in the first and a three-run rally in the third. Detroit clawed back with home runs from Colt Keith, Gio Urshela (a three-run shot) and Justyn-Henry Malloy. Cleveland plated two runs in the top of the 10th while Detroit could only get their Manfred Man across.

Twins at White Sox - postponed

The rains claimed another game last night besides the Royals. These two will play a traditional doubleheader today in Chicago. That will give you something to watch between Royals games today. Unless you're into the European soccer championships.

Enjoy the baseball—and the soccer—today. There will be plenty to discuss tomorrow.