Fische » The Royals will try to do what they couldn’t do against the AAA

WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Royals Trade Rumors & Hot StoveRoyals Minor Leagues & ProspectsRoyals Review ClassicRoyals Review Users GuideThe 100 Greatest Royals Of All Time2019 Series Previews2019 Royals Opening DayWhite Sox Series Preview: Let’s get it startedNew Glen Perkins Jersey ,25commentsThe Royals will try to do what they couldn’t do against the AAA Storm Chasers - win.EDTShareTweetShareShareWhite Sox Series Preview: Let’s get it startedRick Scuteri-USA TODAY SportsHey, uh, you guys see that it’s baseball season? Well I did! And so did the Royals, by golly! And they’re taking on the Chicago White Sox, the team that tried to sign Bryce Harper and Manny Machado and ended up with Jon Jay and Yonder Alonso. Hey, they got Ivan Nova too. Oh yeah, and they signed some guy named Eloy to a long-term deal before he ever had a big league at bat. And some relievers. So that about sums up their off-season coming off a 100-loss campaign that still didn’t get them the worst record in their division thanks to our friends, the Royals. White Sox vs. Royals - Tale of the Tape, 2018 StatsCategoryRoyalsWhite SoxCategoryRoyalsWhite SoxWhite Sox Projected Lineup - 2018 StatsPlayerPosPAAVGOBPSLGBB%K%wRC+fWARPlayerPosPAAVGOBPSLGBB%K%wRC+fWARWhite Sox Bench - 2018 StatsPlayerPosPAAVGOBPSLGBB%K%wRC+fWARPlayerPosPAAVGOBPSLGBB%K%wRC+fWARLineup/bench projection from RosterResource.comWhite Sox Key Relievers - 2018 StatsPitcherGIPWLK%BB%ERAxFIPWARPitcherGIPWLK%BB%ERAxFIPWARProbable Pitching Matchups – 2018 StatsThursday, March 28th - 3:15pmPitcherGIPWLK%BB%ERAxFIPWARPitcherGIPWLK%BB%ERAxFIPWARAfter an injury plagued season, Carlos Rodon will attempt to get back to where many thought he’d be when he had a strong debut season in 2015. Of course, as Royals fans know all too well, that season is getting farther and farther away and with just 32 starts in the last two years that were just average in the aggregate and another 28 in 2016 that were average, this might just be who he is. The big concern is the strikeouts disappeared in 2018, so if those don’t come back, he may very well far farther, as his xFIP above indicates he probably should have last year. His slider was still lethal last year and without a lot of right-handed thump in the Royals order, he has a good shot to start his season well.Brad Keller is a bit of a surprise Opening Day starter for the Royals, but with Danny Duffy’s injury and no other strong candidates, the team’s best starter last season (both damning for the team and a compliment to him) gets the nod. Keller’s strong finish has to give Royals fans hope that he can at least be close to what he was in 2018. He finished his season going 5-1 in his final eight starts with a 2.25 ERA over 52 innings, but more importantly, he actually saw his velocity rise and his spin rate on his four-seamer rise in the last month of the season. Now we find out if it was for real.Saturday, March 30th - 1:15pmPitcherGIPWLK%BB%ERAxFIPWARPitcherGIPWLK%BB%ERAxFIPWAROf the two who came over in the big Adam Eaton trade to the Nationals http://www.twinsfanproshop.com/authentic-max-kepler-jersey , Reynaldo Lopez was considered the secondary piece with Lucas Giolito the headliner. But so far he’s been the better pitcher, though that’s not really great as he hasn’t been especially good. You’d expect a pitcher with his stuff to be racking up the strikeouts, but that hasn’t really happened for him, though he did improve a bit last season. He did get some more strikeouts in spring training with a 20.6% strikeout rate in spring training facing decent competition, but that’s mostly just noise at this point. With as hard as he throws and as good a stuff as he seems to have, it seems that he gets someone to predict a breakout for him, but I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ve said this a few times on local radio spots now, but I’ll repeat it here. I believe Jakob Junis is going to be the Royals best starting pitcher this year. Why? It’s somewhere between a hunch and an educated guess, but I believe the better framing from Royals catchers this season is going to benefit him the most, stealing him some strikes on his slider and making it a pitch that hitters have an even harder time laying off. Junis spends a lot of time just outside to outside the strike zone, and that’s by design. Help him out just a little bit and he can go from average or so to at least above average pretty quickly. Sunday, March 31st - 1:15pmPitcherGIPWLK%BB%ERAxFIPWARPitcherGIPWLK%BB%ERAxFIPWARGiolito was supposed to break out last year, but then he magically didn’t when he couldn’t throw strikes like at all. He started bad and did improve as the season went on, but he struggled so much early that he couldn’t get back on track. Early indications from spring are that he might be ready for another breakout, but fool me once, well, you know the rest. The Royals should know pretty quick if this is new and improved Giolito or the same old, same old. Jorge Lopez won the Royals third starter job, which is really kind of like the fifth starter, on the strength of a solid spring. And while I believe he’s ultimately ticketed for the bullpen where I think he can actually be good, he’s at least earned the opportunity to see what he can do in the rotation. We saw the upside last year in his perfect game bid against Minnesota, but we also saw the downside in his final start of the year against the Tigers just two starts later when he got lit up for three homers in one inning of work. His fastball isn’t quite as fast as I think you’d expect, but his curve and slider are both plus pitches that should theoretically help play his fastball up. If they’re working Paul Molitor Jersey , he’s working, but he’s going to need to find a way to get more swings and misses with the fastballs if they’re going to work.PredictionThere’s obviously talent on this White Sox roster, but they’re still lacking and didn’t get their targets on the free agent market. So it’s another season of hoping the young guys put it together and figure things out. If they do, this is a team that could just be a starting pitcher or two away. If they don’t, they’ll be playing at the bottom of the division with the Royals and Tigers again. I think the White Sox take two of three in this one to start the season, but do ultimately end up around 90 losses once again. BOSTON — A year ago, Justin Verlander won two games for the Houston Astros in the American League Division Series against the Boston Red Sox, one as a starter and one in relief.Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale was the loser in both of those games — also one as a starter and the other in relief.The two aces, former foes in the American League Central, match up again when their teams square off in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on Saturday night at Fenway Park.Article continues below ...“This is a rematch of last year,” Sale said Friday. “Obviously, the winner of this one goes to the World Series. So like I’ve been saying the whole time, just keep playing the same game, not trying to reach for more, not trying to be better than I am. We shouldn’t play as a team like that, either.”As far as making up for last year, Sale said, “It’s one of those things that you learn more from your mistakes than you do sometimes your successes. You try to flip the script and be better from it, and try to keep the momentum rolling forward.”Sale went 12-4 with a 2.11 ERA during the 2018 regular season, and he is 1-2 with a 6.19 ERA in the postseason in his career.Verlander, who was 16-9 with a 2.52 ERA in the regular season, is 12-6 with a 3.08 ERA lifetime in the postseason, including 12-2 in the LDS and LCS.The Astros Tony Oliva Jersey , who swept the Cleveland Indians in the ALDS, are seeking to become the first repeat World Series champions since the 2000 New York Yankees.“The fun part about this team is that the bar is so high for these guys,” said Astros manager A.J. Hinch, “and they continue to try to work toward exceeding expectations, either personally or as a team. It’s a great attribute for these guys to continue to reach for it.”The Red Sox have home field advantage for this best-of-seven series but the Astros had a major league-best 57-24 road record this season. They had the lowest ERA in baseball for both their starters (3.16) and relievers (3.03).This will be the eighth time Sale and Verlander will faces each other as starters — and Verlander has the clear advantage over the first seven.In this postseason, both won Game 1 of his respective series.Sale, who had pitched only 17 innings since July 27 thanks to shoulder trouble, went 5 1/3 innings, yielding two runs on five hits and striking out eight to beat the Yankees. He also pitched a perfect eighth inning in the Game 4 finale.Verlander beat the Indians in his team’s Game 1, going 5 1/3 inning and allowing two runs on two hits, striking out seven and taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning.According to STATS, in those seven previous games, Verlander is 3-0 with a 2.06 ERA, an 0.98 WHIP and .207 opponents’ batting average against Sale’s teams. Sale is 1-3 with a 3.97 ERA, a 1.26 WHIP and .261 batting average against when pitching against Verlander’s teams.Sale is 5-2 with a 1.83 ERA in seven career regular season starts against the Astros. Verlander is 5-5 with a 2.89 ERA in 18 career regular season starts against the Red Sox – including 3-3 with a 3.51 ERA in 10 starts at Fenway. Both have pitched once against the Saturday night opponent this season.June 1 at Houston, Sale was the loser, allowing four runs on six hits in six innings. The next night, Verlander didn’t get a decision against Boston, going six innings and yielding two runs on three hits in a solid start. The Astros won the game, part of their 4-3 season series win over the Red Sox.Boston’s J.D. Martinez, happy to no longer have to face Sale, squares off against his former team in this series. Martinez, like David Ortiz a decade before http://www.twinsfanproshop.com/authentic-max-kepler-jersey , was released, only to wind up a hero in Boston.“My failures in Houston made me who I am,” Martinez said Friday, adding he has “no animosity” towards the Astros.For the record, Martinez is 9-for-38 (.237) with 16 strikeouts, three homers and six RBIs lifetime against Sale.George Springer, who is fast turning into the new Mr. October, is 5-for-14 (.357) with a homer and Jose Altuve 8-for-24 (.333) lifetime against Sale. But Jake Marisnick is 1-for-11 (.091), Marwin Gonzalez 1-for-9 (.111), Evan Gattis 2-for-12 (.167), Josh Reddick 3-for-14 (.214) and Carlos Correa 3-for-13 (.231).Eduardo Nunez leads the Red Sox against Verlander, going 6-for-18 (.333), while Mitch Moreland is 10-for-32 (.313) and Brock Holt 3-for-10 (.300). But Mookie Betts is 0-for-13 (.000), Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley Jr. are both 1-for-9 (.111), Ian Kinsler 6-for-38 (.158), Sandy Leon 2-for-9 (.222) and Xander Bogaerts 4-for-17 (.235).Moreland, who sustained a hamstring injury in the ALDS, went through a full workout Friday and his spot on the LCS roster will be determined Saturday.For the Astros, Hector Rondon and Joe Smith have replaced Will Harris and Myles Straw on the roster.Red Sox knuckleballer Steven Wright, out with a knee injury, will undergo the same arthroscopic procedure that Dustin Pedroia had in July (from the same doctor) and still hopes to be available for a potential World Series. Pedroia was not able to make it back.