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Royals Insider Jaylon Thompson
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00:02And now, digging deeper with the teams you follow, it's another Sports Daily Insider interview on KFH.
00:12Glad to have Jalen Thompson in here for us, our Royals Insider.
00:16Glad to have Crestview Country Club on as a great sponsor.
00:19Great time of the year.
00:20Get out 36 holes.
00:22Go play golf.
00:23Go to the pool.
00:24Go play tennis.
00:25Go to the bar.
00:26Go to the restaurant.
00:27Send your kids to the summer camp.
00:28All kinds of activities there at Crestview.
00:30Give them a call.
00:30Tell them we sent you at Sports Daily.
00:32We appreciate their support on the program.
00:35Jalen, we bring you in.
00:35I'm going to let Brady ask you the first question because it's the most pressing question.
00:39Go ahead, Brady.
00:41I think you probably know what this question is, Jalen.
00:45Are the Royals back?
00:47I wouldn't go too far.
00:50Not yet.
00:51Not yet.
00:52But if anyone, and I know there's a lot of fans that say that we don't ask a lot of
00:58the questions that need to be asked.
01:01But if anyone watches the last four games, you've seen the Royals play to what they normally can do, which
01:08is move the bat down the line, play small ball, and have good pitching.
01:14If they can do those three things with some good defense, they can win a majority of the games that
01:21they have on their schedule coming up.
01:24We've seen it.
01:26The Royals are top three in quality starts, and they have an ugly record.
01:33A lot of that's due to the bullpen giving up games and the offense not scoring.
01:38But these last couple of games, you're starting to see them put it together as a team.
01:46And I think that's all fans have been asking for all season.
01:50So I think they're starting to do that.
01:53Let's talk about the bullpen.
01:55We kind of have done the math.
01:57I don't know that we've given enough attention until the last week or so, just because it's been so bad.
02:04But six blown saves, and I don't know if that's the total number.
02:09I don't remember how many of them were blown leads that didn't end up in losses, whatever.
02:14But even if you just took six, we're talking about a 500 baseball team.
02:19So I guess that for the optimist, which I think the three of us are, they're that close to being
02:26a 500 team.
02:27Maybe they're not as bad as we thought.
02:29And maybe it is still within hope.
02:31And maybe they are really only just five and a half games out of a wild card.
02:35But how does that pen get better when it's almost...
02:39I mean, I don't see any path to the Royals making trades to gain players this year.
02:44That would take such a remarkable next 45 days, we probably have, to get to that point where it's like,
02:53boy, that would be unbelievable if they got into a position where they're now trading for players.
02:59Yeah.
02:59Is Alex Lang the closer?
03:02Yeah.
03:03Is he?
03:04Like, is that what they're doing now?
03:05He's done it the last two games.
03:07I mean, they said they're going to mix and match with the ninth inning, depending on who's available and who's
03:13up.
03:14But, I mean, Alex Lang, by default, would be the guy that you probably trust the most in that ninth
03:22inning,
03:22because he's done it before.
03:24You haven't seen Daniel Lynch the fourth do it.
03:26You haven't seen Matt Strom really do it.
03:29And if they were going to put those guys in the ninth inning, they would have done it in last
03:32night's game.
03:33They did not do that.
03:34So, I think that looking at where the bullpen is right now, it's hard to really justify if you get
03:44a lead and get to the sixth inning,
03:46can you win that game?
03:47Because last night's game wasn't a perfect example of, they did that, the Reigns came, the Twins tied it right
03:54back up,
03:54and then they had to win it in the ninth inning.
03:56By the way, Josh Rojas, shout out to him for coming through after getting to the stadium at 8.30,
04:039 o'clock,
04:04and getting around his team.
04:06So, yeah, it's difficult to see this Royals team continue to win games they have to have the bullpen kind
04:15of hold it right there.
04:17So, it's going to be on the offense, it's going to be on the starting pitchers to go as deep
04:21as they can,
04:21get a big enough lead so that you can overcome that.
04:24And they kind of have done that these last couple of games.
04:26I mean, in reality, outside of Ursaic's blown save on Tuesday, they could have won four straight games right now.
04:35And, you know, Jalen, the other thing that's noteworthy to me about these three or four wins,
04:41which easily could have been four or four wins, is that they've been on the road.
04:45The Royals, one of the worst teams going in.
04:47Actually, they finally get the double digits on the win-loss column on the road,
04:53and three of those road wins, three of their ten road wins this season have happened in the last few
05:00days.
05:00So, talk about that.
05:03Is that something that's kind of been, is the clubhouse aware that the road struggles and how big is that?
05:10Not only get back to winning, but do it on the road the last few games.
05:14Yeah, Brady, I think so.
05:15I think they realize where they are at.
05:18And, at some point, you have to think that a team that has as much talent as the Royals have,
05:25they're going to regress back to the mean, and it's not going to be all a disaster all the time.
05:30I just think that you really have to look at these last couple of games, like you said, on the
05:36road,
05:36and the way they've been playing.
05:38The way that they have moved the ball, sacrificed flies, funts, you know, taking the extra bases.
05:46Carter Jensen hit a double down the third baseline, and you saw Kyle Ismail run from first base around to
05:54score.
05:55An aggressive sin, by the way, by Vance Wilson.
05:57And that was a big two-run double there.
06:00And on that play, you saw Jensen get the third.
06:03So, when he gets the third, he scores when there's an error in the field from the Twins.
06:09So, just those things, that putting that pressure, being able to just make the defense react to what you're doing,
06:18those are the things that's going to help this Royals team get back to potentially 500.
06:23And you know that, I've said it before on this show, and I'll say it again.
06:27If you get to July 1st, and you're at 500, or even the All-Star break, and you're at 500,
06:34you got a chance.
06:36You really do.
06:37You got a great chance in this year's American League.
06:40Are they in a position, do you think if they were in that spot, after as rocky as it was,
06:45that they would get aggressive?
06:47Because it does feel like, over time, we're going to see cream rise to the crop.
06:52We always do.
06:53We don't see 500 teams make the playoffs.
06:56You know, it doesn't happen.
06:58So, if they get to that point, does ownership still have the appetite to go and help them?
07:08Because it almost feels certain that they're going to need help.
07:11Like, they don't have Urcic.
07:13They don't really have Urcic or Estevez right now.
07:16I mean, Urcic's going to have to slowly, you know, get his way back, I think.
07:19And they still need him to be good.
07:21But they don't have a lot of the pieces that they thought they were going to have, that they've traded
07:26for over the past few.
07:27No Harvey, no Berger, no Urcic, no Estevez.
07:31That was your back end of the bullpen.
07:33None of them are there anymore.
07:34Will they do something?
07:36I don't see them really doing a lot to go get the big fish.
07:41Because to go get the big fish, that means you have to go and give up some of your top
07:47prospects.
07:47They're on the lower levels.
07:48They're not going to do that.
07:50So, what I think they'll do is they'll find a way to improve on the margins, which they normally try
07:57to do in the first place.
07:58So, it might not be a guy that you might think is all world, but it might be a guy
08:04that could just be another arm or two in that bullpen to give them some options, right?
08:10I think they'll, if they keep falling behind and they don't turn around, I think they'll offload some of the
08:17guys that could be free agents at the end of the year.
08:21Specifically, maybe someone like a Chris Bubich, if he comes back and he pitches well.
08:25Because you can get something for that and you don't know, he probably won't be back next year, given that
08:32they already have Steven Colick pitching well.
08:35And, you know, like you say, you got Ryan Berger, he'll be coming up with Tommy John.
08:38So, I don't know, can't really count on him to be back until maybe late next year.
08:43But they have, like, pitching depth, Linda Avila, that they could use as a starter.
08:47So, you might offload Chris Bubich, depending on where you're at.
08:52But, like I said, the guys that, as far as buying, I don't see that.
08:58Only because, what do you have to really sell besides those in-penning free agents?
09:06Jalen, going back to Urcic and what Jacob mentioned with, you know, kind of his struggles.
09:12What's the approach in the clubhouse right now with Urcic?
09:15Because, you know, he has the talent.
09:16You know, it's not like he doesn't have some stuff.
09:18It's just right now it just seems like kind of a mental issue, understandably so.
09:23If I were in his cleats, I'd be kind of racking my brain trying to think of, like, you know,
09:27how do I get back to the type of mindset I need to get back to after having those blown
09:33saves
09:33and leading the majors right now in blown saves.
09:36Yeah, I think for him it's just a matter of compartmentalizing where he's at right now.
09:43And this is just only on the baseball field because you know Lucas Urcic's story,
09:48he's fought way more than anyone can even imagine, you know, off the field.
09:53So I don't think that it'll be an issue of him getting back to form.
10:00It's just a matter of understanding this is where he's at right now and how do I fix it.
10:07And really, it's about just getting ahead.
10:09If he can get ahead, he can get guys out.
10:12It's just he hasn't been able to get ahead.
10:14And that fastball hasn't been operating where he wants it to be in a strike zone.
10:19So that's the issue.
10:22And if he can figure out just how to get that fastball back working again,
10:26he can be a reliever that you might want to utilize.
10:30Honestly, right now, if I'm the Royals, I would not use him in that ninth inning role,
10:37but let him revert back to being that fireman guy, right?
10:40Be the fireman that comes in in different situations.
10:43Maybe not the highest of leverage, but maybe if the starter gives you five,
10:47he comes in in the sixth inning and you're up three runs and see what happens, you know?
10:51Because they may have two of those guys, Jalen.
10:53They may have him and Lynch now.
10:55That takes a lot of pressure off of the starters.
10:58If you knew every night and you just, even if you rotated them
11:02and you had one of those two guys you could bring in to go more than an inning,
11:07that feels like that takes a ton of pressure off the starters.
11:10And I don't know if it's, I mean, I don't know how Lang works out back there.
11:15Schreiber gave up another home.
11:16Schreiber's kind of regressing back a little bit.
11:19I don't know.
11:20Maybe your most electric guys are using different ways.
11:22They just need, I said this earlier this week,
11:25they just need Ersig to be Ersig again.
11:27Like now, like who cares where he pitches anymore?
11:30They just need him.
11:33They also need Carlos Estevez to be Carlos Estevez.
11:36Where is he?
11:37How close is he?
11:38What can you tell us about him?
11:40He's still regressing.
11:41He's still throwing.
11:42He's, you know, he's playing catch, as they say.
11:46So no way to check yet if his velocity's back?
11:50Yeah.
11:51He hasn't really thrown Michael Bullpen or anything like that.
11:54But they said he feels good.
11:55They said he feels fine.
11:56And, I mean, at this point, that kind of was the toughest blow of the season.
12:03He just wasn't right.
12:04Because now you have to jumble everybody in so many different roles.
12:08And people are doing things they weren't signed to do.
12:12On one hand, it's good because you've got to see Daniel Lynch emerge as a high-leverage guy.
12:17But on the other hand, you've got more pressure on Lucas Ersig.
12:21You've got more pressure on Matt Strom.
12:23Those would be your set-up guys.
12:25And then you've got injuries to Nick Mears.
12:28And you've got guys that are just going down.
12:32And it's hard when your bullpen isn't where you thought it would be to start the season.
12:38But all that to say, what's the one thing that can help a team regardless of anything else?
12:46It's pitching and scoring runs.
12:48You're starting pitching and your offense can alleviate all kinds of different things, right?
12:54You're just going to have to outscore teams and hope the bullpen can hold it down.
12:58And they kind of can, right?
13:00I guess that's the last piece of this.
13:02The offense feels right now more like the offense we thought we'd see.
13:06And that's been for a little while.
13:08That's not just some recent thing.
13:10Like, Dave, they've been pretty good and pretty consistent for a little bit.
13:14And the other part of that is, real quick, Jalen, Bobby Witt.
13:17Now, Aaron Judge is hurt.
13:18This is the MVP year.
13:20Like, this is the year he's got to do it.
13:23The door is open.
13:24The door is open.
13:26But you've got to see Bobby, I think, have more impact offensively.
13:33The defense, yes.
13:34We know he's there.
13:36We know that he's going to have that.
13:38We know he's going to have the building war.
13:39We know he's going to have all that, right?
13:42If you start getting hot, then maybe they'll start saying, okay, Bobby, this is your year, right?
13:47But you're right.
13:48Aaron Judge being injured.
13:49There's no Kyle Rowley this year.
13:52It's anyone's game in the American League to really be the MVP.
13:55There's no, like, consensus guy like, yeah, he's it.
13:58He's the odds-on favorite right now.
14:00Right there with Jordan Alvarez.
14:01They're both right now playing for bad teams.
14:03We'll see.
14:04Jalen, we will follow along at the KC Star, as always.
14:08We appreciate it.
14:09Listen, you've been trying to talk folks off a ledge for a little while.
14:12Maybe this is the week Jalen's on top.
14:15I'm just saying.
14:16They should listen to us.
14:17See, I told you so.
14:18This is your I told you so moment.
14:20Now you've got to lean in, though, to the Royals not blowing that for you this weekend.
14:24That's right.
14:25Three more against the Twins.
14:28Breathe, everybody.
14:29Breathe.
14:30If they win three more games, then we're talking about something.
14:33We're talking about something.
14:34All right, Jalen, we'll talk again next week.
14:36We appreciate it.
14:36We're coming right back.
14:37We've got a little more Sports Daily.
14:38Don't go away.
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