Royals Rumblings - News for September 27, 2024

Hold onto your butts!

Day games sometimes make for weird Rumblings. Many official outlets use the game thread to fill up their Royals quota for the day. Also, it’s harder to sift through Tweets for stories as there are a bunch of game thread-style Tweets.

The last few weeks, I’ve been updating playoff odds here. However, this is getting written before the Twins game and the results of that game will have a big impact on the numbers. Here’s some quick links so you can check them this morning:

• Baseball Prospectus
• Fangraphs
• Baseball-Reference

If you want to read The Star’s recap, it’s here. Of course, Ryan had you covered here.

Hooray:

If they make the playoffs, could the Royals see Vinnie Pasquantino in the lineup? He was taking batting practice yesterday in Washington:

“Vinnie is doing really well,” Quatraro said Tuesday, after the injured big-leaguer had hit in a batting cage. “He’s progressing and he hit and felt good. So we are going to keep adding little bit by little bit and see what he can tolerate throughout the week.”

...“In my mind, my season’s not over,” [Pasquantino] said shortly after the injury. “Whether that is realistic or not, I don’t know because we have to be smart about it. I have to be healthy enough to do it and I have to be productive.”

Pete Grathoff had a pair of stories about, I dunno, “novelties” isn’t quite the right word but it’s what we’re going with.

His first was about this Tweet:

His second was about how Hurricane Helene may impact starting pitching for the last series of the year:

The Royals would have missed the Braves’ top two starters had it not been for the storm. But both could be used this weekend. Or they could be saved for a doubleheader Monday with the Mets, as the teams make up the games. The latter would be better for the Royals, who hope to clinch a playoff spot in Atlanta. Braves manager Brian Snitker told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he’s still determining the best plan of action for his pitching staff against the Royals.

At CBS Sports, Matt Snyder takes Rob Manfred to task for letting the Braves/Mets series turn into a scheduling debacle:

The Braves get to stay home to host the Royals, but they still might have to burn through a ton of pitching before the playoffs start on Tuesday. The Mets, meanwhile, are looking at possibly traveling from Atlanta to Milwaukee to Atlanta to San Diego in the span of six days, all the while throwing a wrench in their own pitching plans...

These are professional athletes and no one should feel sorry for the players as human beings or anything, but this really messes with the integrity of the playoffs. A hurricane that gave everyone plenty of warning of its arrival has completely compromised one side of a playoff series the day before it starts — and the league let it happen.

In order to avoid this, all Manfred had to do was be proactive. Alas, that would’ve involved standing up to the ownership of a team. That isn’t really his thing.

Speaking of the Braves, I stumbled across this last week. Three time All-Star and “oft injured” Braves 2B Ozzie Albies* was one of those young players that the Braves signed to long term contracts. Want to know what he does with some of that money? He has a giant aquarium and has a YouTube channel with videos like “Unboxing HUGE Koi Fish!”

*Why do I say “oft injured”? Because when I searched on “site:royalsreview.com” and “Ozzie Albies” to make sure this story hasn’t been mentioned before, more than half of his mentions were Rumblings links to various injuries

At MLB.com, Anne Rogers writes about Cole Ragans’s first full season for the Royals:

Ragans took the mound Tuesday night in Washington looking to help the Royals snap their seven-game losing streak. He delivered his part, tossing six shutout innings to set the tone for Kansas City to eventually win, 1-0, in 10 innings. Ragans worked around three walks in his outing, singling out “shaky command” early in his start as something he needs to improve upon moving forward.

Small adjustments throughout Tuesday night helped Ragans iron out that command, fixing his sights just slightly so he could get back in the zone. The in-game adjustments have been a big part of Ragans’ growth in ‘24, part of the reason he’s been able to come through so often for the Royals this season.

Blog time!

Since David and Craig had posts about Wednesday night’s game, Kevin O’Brien, the Royals Reporter, gets to lead us off:

In my post over the weekend, I lamented the Royals’ strategy of relying more on newly acquired veteran bats after Vinnie Pasquantino’s injury. I felt that the Royals’ acquisitions of Yuli Gurriel, Tommy Pham, and Robbie Grossman and the continued at-bats given to Adam Frazier, Hunter Renfroe, and Garrett Hampson were counter-intuitive.

...Second, I felt that going outside the organization to boost the lineup with Vinnie out messed with this club’s vibes. In April and May, the Royals seemed to be gelling as a group led by their young star (Bobby Witt, Jr.) and youthful energy. After all, “The Boys Are Playing Some Ball” became their catchphrase, not “Old Men Playing Some Baseball.” With older veterans getting more at-bats in September, it felt like those early-season vibes vanished, and thus, the wins.

Blog Roundup:

• Darin Watson at U.L.’s Toothpick: This Date In Royals History—1984 Edition: September 26 - California shuts out the Royals to keep their slim postseason hopes alive
• Preston Farr at Farm to Fountains: A pitcher on the rise: Josh Hansell poised for a strong 2025 season
• Zac Miller at Farm to Fountains: 2024 Report Cards: RHP Chandler Champlain
• Mike Gillespie at Kings of Kauffman: Thursday’s exciting pregame scene should thrill KC Royals fans
• Jordan at Mint Condition: A Bad Time for an Underdog Story

There’s a decent bit of MLB news so let’s make room for that today.

Remember last week when we were talking about Shohei Ohtani’s 50/50 home run ball and what we’d trade for it if we got it? It’s going to auction with an opening bid of $500K. Or was... until a lawsuit stopped the auction:

The suit argued Matus, the plaintiff who attended the Sept. 19 record-setting game against the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park, was the first person to possess the ball after it landed in the outfield stands. Per the lawsuit, Matus grabbed the ball with his left hand, but Chris Belanski, one of the defendants, wrapped his legs around Matus’ arm and wrangled the ball out of his hand.

The White Sox won again and are “up” to 39-120. They have 3 games left against Detroit. Wins are great for the Royals but less good for history. Here’s how Chicago will end, depending on how this final series goes.

• 3 wins: 42-120 - Ties the 1962 Mets for most losses in a regular season in the modern era
• 2 wins: 41-121 - Passes the 1962 Mets, leaving only the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20-134) with more losses
• 1 win: 40-122 - Gives them a .247 winning percentage, the worst since the 1916 Philadelphia A’s
• 0 wins: 39-123 - Finishes them with only 39 wins, the least in the expansion era as the 1962 Mets went 40-120 (only played 160 games); only 4 teams finished with fewer wins and all played 154 game seasons
• Having the worst winning percentage is now off the table. They had to stay at 38 wins to “best” the 1916 A’s at .2345 (38-124) vs .2352 (36-117).

Finally, the A’s played their last game in Oakland after 57 seasons there.

Jeff Passan spitting truth, as per usual:

Tim Keown at ESPN writes a eulogy:

The departure of a major sports franchise, let alone three, is a story most often told through negotiations and recriminations, proposals and counterproposals, public subsidies and private financing. It’s the unending story of owners and commissioners and politicians, all positioning and posturing. But what bobs in the wake when teams leave, whether it’s the Warriors and Raiders in 2019, or the A’s this month, are those left untethered, people who lose jobs, friendships and a vital connection to their community.

I went to a game there this year. It sucks for the fans, good fans. It wasn’t a good stadium any more and hadn’t been for a long time, but there was no good faith by ownership to try and fix that situation. Just another owner trying to screw the city out of as much money as possible.

On Reddit, someone posted a clip of the grounds crew filling up cups and bottles with dirt for the fans.

We revisited Disney rides last week (actually, 2 weeks ago since I switched things up last week). This week, we’re talking about Universal Studios Hollywood, which we also visited while we were out in California. Because consistency is for more organized writers, this time I’m going to write about them in the order we rode them and then rank them all at the end (ed note: This is in no way because that’s how I originally wrote about them and want to lazily avoid extra rewriting). Also, check last week for the disclaimers again: different types of rides, wait times do matter, etc. I’m going to try to not spoil too much but there are times when it’s necessary to describe the ride.

For a little background, Universal is significantly smaller than Disney with 1 park instead of 2. It’s also significantly smaller than Universal in Orlando, too, from what I’ve been told (have not been). We were able to ride every ride except for one in a day that started with 8am early entry (arrived around 7:30) and ended before 5. We also went back for a second day because they had a B1G1 ticket so we took a second half day there. With Disney after this, it might have been a bit much as we did 6 straight days of rope drop and we were really dragging by the end.

When we went, you could pay extra for an hour of early entry into Super Nintendo Land and we did that the first day. As it crept into view, I get why the area is considered a main attraction for the park. When you get to the entrance, it’s a giant warp pipe, and, after some lights and Mario pipe sound effects, you’re face-to-face with a life-sized Mushroom Kingdom. IT LOOKS AMAZING. The coloring looks great. There are “?” blocks you can pound, POW blocks to bash, Pipes to take pictures in, and Mario characters to meet. It’s a self-contained area that is short on rides and small, but it’s packed with fun details, a handful of mini-games, and is visually stunning.

Mario Kart Bowser’s Challenge - We went straight to the main attraction, a ride that can get up to 120+ minutes during the day. Because of that, we walked right on and missed out on a bunch of the fun theming, past all sorts of Mario goodies and Easter eggs (and a lot of line, some of which is in the sun). They give you a little Mario hat visor to click to your head. Then, when you get in your kart, there’s a second VR visor that magnetically clicks to your Mario hat. Then your team of 4 starts the race.

(minor spoiler alert) If I’m ever designing rides, I would steal this absolutely brilliant introduction technique. The tutorial is pixelated like 16-bit Mario Kart. It’s fun but you start wondering what is wrong with all the hype. About the time you start thinking that, your kart swings away from the tutorial level and faces Bowser’s castle gate. Suddenly, the VR looks as clear and crisp as Mario Kart 8. It’s an amazing way to set expectations a little low and then blow them away. (/spoiler)

The race really feels like a live Mario Kart ride should. You get coins for turning the right way and for hitting the Bowser kids with shells (and lose them for hitting your teammates). Eventually, you battle Bowser and finish up on Rainbow Road. It’s a tracked dark ride that’s really effectively done with screens in some parts, and practical effects or animatronics in others. The Augmented Reality helmets work well and the full arsenal of 4D tricks like wind, hot air, and water (I think) are thrown at you. There’s an impressive range of technology at work here and it’s a AAA-level ride, the best in the park. Warning: it’s also prone to breaking down because of all of that. Spoiler: Single rider has really short lines but you can potentially lose your kid because of how the gate exits are designed... or so I’ve heard /whistling innocently/.

Universal has two large sections: the Upper Lot and the Lower Lot. They’re connected by 4 banks of escalators. No, not a set of 4 escalators - 4 banks of /tall/ escalators - that cover a couple hundred feet of elevation change. The Nintendo area is as far from the park entrance as you can get, down on the far side of the lower lot. Considering ride times, unless you want to race back up the hill to the Harry Potter area and race the people coming into the part at 9, it’s best to stay in the Lower Lot, do those rides, and then go to the Upper Lot after you’ve done everything down below.

Transformers: The Ride 3D - This is based on the Michael Bay Transformers and that’s its biggest sin. Otherwise, it’s one of the better rides in the park. It’s a quality dark ride with 3D glasses where you’re riding in an Autobot that’s trying to escape from the Decepticons. There’s a few too many Optimus and Megatron battles and it relies more on screens than practical effects, but it’s quite immersive and well done.

Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride - This reminds me a lot of Expedition Everest. It’s not nearly as long or as elaborate - it’s about 20 years old - and it has Mummy theming. But it’s a dark coaster that goes forward, has some effects like wind and heat - and then rushes you backwards. My son said he didn’t like a scene with scarab beetles, but I think what he didn’t like was going backward in the dark. I can see why some of the old school fans really like this one.

Jurassic World: The Ride - Sigh. It’s a log flume. An elaborate log flume, but a log flume that left me wet for the next 3 hours. Maybe it’s fun to ride later on in the day. The theming is good and there are some cute water effects. You go up and do a nice Jungle Cruise style ride with dinosaurs. There’s some annoyin— I mean, playful- effects where you get splashed up above. But then you get chased by the Indominus (sp? oh, who cares) Rex and your big log flume soaks the two dads who were on the outside while the kids and moms in the middle are mostly dry. And that was after asking the person at the line assignment to try and get us something a bit less wet. Sigh.

After that, it was time to slow down a little and say goodbye to the Lower Lot. The lines in Harry Potter were long, as expected, but the animated stuff was short as can be. We took a picture with a Minion as there were only a couple people in line - later in the day, it would never be less than a dozen people. And then I suggested “The Secret Life of Pets” as it typically has a 30+ minute wait and we could walk right on. Then, we did the Studio Tour as the Early Entry pass gave us Express Lane access to the Tour before 11. However, the lines for that didn’t get long until later on in the day so maybe we wasted a little time doing this.

The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash - When I say we walked right on - we blitzed through all the theming and they were tossing us on “cars” as soon as we got there. You’re a dog trying to be adopted and every time you go in front of a screen, it has some motion capture to make your dog “reflection” do what you’re doing. You chase cats, you launch fireworks, you get soaked a little (I swear - half the rides in the park do that), you get a doggy haircut, and you eventually get adopted. It’s kindof like a simpler version of Remy. It’s cute and simple and fun.

Universal Studios Tour - This was originally the reason why we went to Universal - only 2 of the studio tours in Hollywood allow kids under 10 (WB being the other). As another happy coincidence, the day we were there was literally the 60th anniversary of the Studio Tour to the day. I was thinking it would be more like the WB tour we did a few years ago where you see some famous sets, walk onto a couple of unused ones, and see how movies are made. There’s some of that, but there’s also a lot of little “rides” and “effects” baked into the tour.

There were a couple of hot sets where they were filming as we drove by - I can’t say I recognized the shows that were being done. There’s so many identifiable locations like the Lyon Estates signs from Back to the Future or a sign for Cabot Cove (Murder She Wrote) right on the same set as Jaws. Much of the set for The Good Place was still up like the FroYo shop and the Railroad. Some of my favorite parts of the tour where when we drove by a set and the video on the tram showed a half dozen different movies or TV shows being filmed in the same spot, just with different siding on the facade. There were cute little gimmicks like a 3D Fast and Furious scene, an earthquake in a subway area, a King Kong attack, a creepy Nope (Jordan Peele) scene, and a fun demonstration of rain effects and a flash flood. It was like having a bunch of little rides as part of the tour and you can see how the theme park grew out of this.

With lines getting ever longer into midday, we took some pictures with characters, rode a couple of rides, did single rider on Mario Kart again (about 20 minutes vs the 120-minute wait for regular rider) and got lunch. Then, back to rides.

Kung Fu Panda Adventure - This was in the Dreamworks Theater and had some fun pre-show banter between a bunch of Dreamworks characters like Shrek and Trolls and Pets before settling on Kung Fu Panda being the main adventure. It’s an “immersive” “4D” (I think) movie where you picked a seat in a theater. Then, once the movie starts, the seat bumps and lightly moves with the movie. With no line, it was a fun way to burn some time out of the sun.

Minion’s Super Silly Fun Land - This isn’t so much a ride as the little kids area with a splash pad, midway games, and a little carnival ride that we rode.

Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem - I like the Despicable Me movies. I mean, I don’t like it like my son does and I realize there’s not much depth outside of the first movie, but I like the idea of a competent but not truly evil supervillain, involved dad, Steve Carrell, and the goofy minions. This ride did all that fairly well, even if it feels a lot like The Simpsons ride (below) - just from 2012 instead of 2008. The queue has a lot of good Despicable Me clips to keep kids entertained, including a minion quiz. All the new clips for the pre-ride area and ride feel like they fit within the franchise’s ethos. The ride has a bit of the “runaway roller coaster” motif and borrows from “Soarin” with lots of cars in a room with a big screen.

Finally, we went to the Harry Potter area. It’s really well done and Orlando’s is supposed to be even better. It feels completely immersive and was clearly the inspiration for Galaxy’s Edge. We rode the couple of rides there, we had butter beer, we looked at people dressed in robes, etc. We went into Olivander’s and bought a wand to play with. The spells are finicky and they know this is a bit of a problem as they have cast members dressed as wizards trying to help kids in some of the magic locations. All in all, it’s a really well done area

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - We had a bit of an issue where it broke down partway through and some of the parts didn’t work, so I’m coming at this after a little disjointed experience. But this is a really good dark ride and I want to ride it again. It feels like a souped up version of Peter Pan and I mean that in a good way. You’re on floating vehicles and going over scenery and dodging practical effects like a giant Whomping Willow. However, there are also giant screens with newly recorded Harry Potter scenes that are tightly integrated into the story. This ride gets massive bonus points for theming, though our line was only 15 minutes long when we went so we didn’t get to see it all. The ride is housed in a giant Hogwarts Castle replica that serves as the backdrop to the Hogsmeade section of the park. There are tons of references and scenes all along the line and just creative uses for technology like having the giant portrait wall with mostly portraits but also a couple of video screens that felt more interactive. I get why this consistently has a high ranking on the Golden Ticket for “Best Dark Ride”, winning from 2011-2015. This is likely the 2^nd best ride in the park but we just didn’t get to experience it fully.

Flight of the Hippogriff - Honestly, this one is pretty weak and I don’t get why it had a 35 minute wait while Journey was only 15. Usually, it’s the other way around. It’s not much more than a glorified carnival roller coaster. It’s cool because it’s up against the Hogwarts backdrop of Forbidden Journey but that was a much better ride. It’s also really short.

We were getting tired so we just bailed on The Simpsons ride and did it the next morning. As noted below, the Simpsons area is really well done – like walking around in the cartoon. We also missed out on the Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular show.

The Simpsons Ride - I think in its day, this was a premium ride. It’s still good, but some aspects of it are starting to look a little long in the tooth as it’s from 2008. The Krustyland entrance is good and the “Sideshow Bob wants to kill the Simpsons” works well, though the rest of the ride theming is... fine. It’s not bad, but all of Springfield is tremendous so it’s hard to top that, especially in a queue, though a wealth of Simpsons clips keep people entertained in line. The new Simpson clips in the different waiting areas and on the ride maybe aren’t the freshest, but they have a timeless quality. It’s a moving car ride with a screen in front and groups of 8 are led into one of many of these ride projector rooms - however the cars are not “stadium” seating with the 2 rows so I had a hard time seeing over the person in front of me and Anthony had to look between people. A big drawback is that the Simpson animation on the ride is in 3D - not like 3D glasses but like the Halloween 3D episode - it would look better in drawn animation. Or if you’re committed to the 3D animation, go all the way and make it a 3D ride - if they wanted to refresh the ride, that’s where I’d start. It’s still good, just feeling a little aged.

Below are my ride tiers for the park

Headliner

1. Mario Kart Bowser’s Challenge

The best rides in the park

2. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

3. Transformers: The Ride 3D

It’s what you’re here for

4. Universal Studios Tour

You should do these, but juggle based on wait times

5. Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem

6. Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride

7. The Simpsons Ride

8. The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash

9. Jurassic World: The Ride (higher if you like wet rides)

Only if you really want to

10. Flight of the Hippogriff

11. Kung Fu Panda Adventure

12. Minion’s Super Silly Fun Land

I tried to find a POV video for Bowser’s Challenge but there just isn’t a good one. The ride seamlessly puts both VR and practical dark ride effects and I have yet to find a YouTube video that can pull that off.

Instead, here’s some Bowser’s Castle from Mario Kart 8: