Royals Rumblings - News for April 9, 2025

The Kansas City Royals are cooking in Kauffman.

MLB.com’s Anne Rogers catches up with Kansas City Royals starter Michael Lorenzen after crossing the coveted ten-year mark in MLB service time and picking up the win on Monday.

Lorenzen allowed just one run on five hits, struck out three and didn’t walk a batter in his second start of the season, all en route to his first win of the year. That’s a pretty good way to celebrate the 10-year milestone, and it helps that Lorenzen has a ton of family in town with all three of his older brothers and all their kids visiting. “When you enter the league, and I’m playing with guys who had long careers in Cincinnati, I was a rookie on a pretty vet team,” Lorenzen said of his rookie year in 2015 with the Reds. “You wonder if you’re going to make it that long, and you hope you’re going to make it that long, and you do everything in your power to make it that long.”

David Lesky details Kansas City’s series-opening win over the Minnesota Twins on Monday at Inside the Crown.

If you’ve ever seen a game between the Royals and Twins, the way last night unfolded was probably familiar. There is probably less truth in this statement than it feels like to Royals fans, but the way it unfolded feels like it’s been in reverse about 80 percent of the time. How often have we watched the Royals and Twins and felt like the luckiest hits in the world were scoring runs while the Royals were scorching the ball and getting absolutely nothing from it? Feelings aren’t reality, but it sure did feel like last night was revenge for like 25 years of the Twins blooping their way to wins over the Royals.

Royals Data Dugout breaks down Hunter Harvey’s return to success and what that means for the Royals as a whole.

But rolling out Harvey, Erceg and Estevez affords the Royals a luxury many opponents simply don’t have. It’s a luxury they didn’t have last season, at least not until September and October when Kris Bubic, Angel Zerpa and Daniel Lynch established themselves as trustworthy relief arms. KC can reliably cut the last three innings off contests now, asking their starters to simply secure 15-18 outs. It also minimizes the impact of the middle relievers struggling to start the campaign, including Zerpa and Sam Long, who aren’t being asked to come through in high-leverage spots.

Get a closer look at the new torpedo bat, including the developmental process dating back to 2015.

With the sweet spot closer to the hitter’s hands, the bat will have less flex — which means it will lead to a little better contact on balls hit closer to the hands. This was the reason some of the Yankees players, like Anthony Volpe, made the change to the torpedo shape, with data showing his sweet spot was closer to his hands. “We recommend players to use a little bit of a heavier game bat weight for their torpedo compared to the regular bat,” Jeremiah said. “The reason being, when you do fatten out the barrel slightly at the sweet spot, it changes the density a little bit. The easiest way to describe it is more density, more pop; less density, less pop.”

Craig Brown celebrates an unheralded play from the Royals team captain in Monday’s win at Into the Fountains.

Perez, for his age and size, remains incredibly agile behind the plate with a combination of instincts and reflexes that allow him to continue to thrive. He bounced from behind the plate, grabbed the ball and threw a one-hop seed to Michael Massey at second to nail the runner who broke when the ball bounced away. I continue to marvel at the play of Perez. What a delight.

Former Royals farmhand Brewer Hicklen joins the Detroit Tigers’ outfield roster after Manuel Margot’s injury.

Top prospect Jac Caglianone and Omaha castoff Drew Waters highlight the weekly standouts in the Royals’ farm system.

Kansas City’s Bob Fescoe has a take on making MLB more competitive.

Ahead of Tuesday’s dominant pitching performance, Royals broadcaster Jake Eisenberg shows just how dominant the Royals starters have been in 2025.

Hear more from Lorenzen after his milestone start.

Old friend Richard Lovelady joins the Texas Rangers on a minor-league deal.

Netflix’s “The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox” gives fans a rare look at a historic franchise’s 162-game campaign.

ESPN says new City Connect jersey may “be the worst ever”.

Down on the Farm gives some advanced data on minor-league batters this past week.

Molly Knight laments about some profit margins superseding remembering baseball history.

Minnesota Twins starter Pablo Lopez exited Tuesday’s game early, but manager Rocco Baldelli isn’t too worried.

Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte is set to miss significant time with a hamstring strain.

Why did a baseball matchup between Lehman College and Yeshiva University make national news?

The Denver Nuggets questionably fire their head coach and won’t extend their GM despite a successful season.

The Masters at Augusta National finally brings together golf’s best in a divided sport.

Colt’s offensive lineman Braden Smith talks about obsessive-compulsive disorder pushing him to the brink.

A new reality-style documentary called “Ballkids” will detail the stress that is being tennis ball boys and ball girls.

New York City bodegas and their cats are causing quite the purr.

Is it ever too old to start a family? Just look at these nearly 100-year-old Galapagos tortoises at the Philadelphia Zoo.

In case things weren’t crazy enough, Colossal Biosciences made Jurassic Park seem real and genetically engineered wolves like the long-extinct dire wolves. Yeah, the big ones from Game of Thrones.

Today’s song is I’ll Be Damned by KEYLAND.