- 2 days ago
Royals Insider Jaylon Thompson checks in.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00with the teams you follow. It's another Sports Daily Insider interview on KFH.
00:08All right, we welcome you back in here to Sports Daily. Jalen Thompson in
00:12our Royals insider. You can find his work at the KC Star on X at Jalen Thompson. Jalen,
00:20I don't know where to begin, so I'm going to begin with what's been bugging me since
00:23yesterday's historically bad loss. Why, why, why, why, why go to Matt Strom in that situation?
00:33Why? Why would you do, you have maybe baseball's best or one of the best left-handed believers.
00:43You need one out. You need to put out a fire. He's a lefty. Why are you going to Matt
00:51Strom in that
00:51situation? The short answer is that Daniel Lynch pitched two days in a row, so you don't want to
00:58pitch him a third day. Why? And they have Matt Strom on the team.
01:06With a seven ERA. I know. Matt Cottrell is going to use his guys. That's, that's been his whole
01:12thing since he's got here, so. That brings up the next point. Is the, is a change going to have
01:19to
01:19be made after this season? And I know that's a hard question that nobody, I hate, I hate even
01:24asking that question to be perfectly honest with you. That's a weird spot for you. You talk to these
01:29guys every day, but if the Royals are really at the deadline running this back, which is what
01:34everybody thinks they're going to do, which is what you've been saying they're going to do for weeks.
01:37Can you run it back after the last two years of disappointment with Matt Cottrell?
01:44Yes, because of the injuries. If they didn't have the injuries and they were playing bad, then
01:49you have a, probably have a case, but the injuries kind of safeguards him a little bit because
01:56look at, look at the lineup that they rolled out there. I mean, no disrespect to the guys they have
02:02that are playing, but you have guys like Andrew Velasquez, which is a really nice dude, but he's out
02:09there playing. Josh Rojas is out there playing. Tyler Tobert, out there playing. I mean, John
02:16Rave was in center field and had two doubles yesterday. Nick Lofton's playing right field.
02:22That's what you have out there. It's kind of hard to be mad at Matt Cottrell because all
02:28his pieces are hurt. He has 14 people on the injury list right now.
02:32Hmm. Is yesterday the weirdest game you've seen? Is that the weirdest finish you've seen?
02:37Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I'd be honest with you. I, I, I was done. The story was done. It was
02:44all good to go. It was Noah Cameron's night and the bullpen just ruined it for him. And
02:50you know, it's, it's one of those things where you just hate it for him. You hate it for Noah
02:56because that was just an awesome performance. And to see the twins, I don't know if you guys
03:02like, like you're driving down the road and you see a car crash and you don't want to
03:06look, but you just know it's bad. And you just have a feeling it's going to be bad. And
03:13exactly what you thought it was when they brought Matt from, and I was like, he's going to get
03:17a good home run. That's just what he does. I don't know what's wrong. Lucas or say, but
03:22that's, but Jalen, that's why you don't bring in Matt Strom because we all know what's about
03:26to happen. It's Cody Clemons, the Royal killer at the plate. And you're bringing in the
03:31guy who gives up a home run and every appearance, it feels like it comes out to put anybody,
03:35even if it's not Lynch, put literally anybody else out there. And then I agree. I'm agreeing
03:42with you, but what the Rose will say to that, to counter your point will be, well, who do
03:47you want to face the left hand? Literally anybody else. And I know, but that's, that's the thing
03:53though. They're not, they're not going to go against their analytical plan of lefties on,
03:58on out there. So throw a lefty in the face. And I know it's really kind of crazy to do
04:03that,
04:03but if you put John Schreiber out there, he sucks against lefties. So don't put John Schreiber
04:09out there. Nate Pearson just got there. Uh, what's the, uh, McGee just got there. I mean,
04:18is Alex Lang your closer or is Alex Lang not your closer? Cause he didn't pitch the other day.
04:24I understand, but if we're going to stick to our guns and never change anything, Alex
04:29Lang's your damn closer. How about put him out there? I agree. So by the line is they
04:36have no one in that bullpen that can save them. They have no one. And if they trade
04:41Dan Lynch, they really will not have no one. What about Salvador Perez? Can he get you an
04:46out? Yeah, let's get Tyler Tolbert, the pitcher, Tyler Tolbert in there. He's gotten outs
04:50before we needed three pitches yesterday and we couldn't get it. One pitch. Yeah. Yeah.
04:58No kidding. One, one more pitch. Uh, the three headed monster of Urseg, Strom and Lang. Uh,
05:04is it going to work? Is it just broken? Like what, what happened to Lucas Urseg? Uh, you
05:10know, all what happened to Matt Strom? I think I saw something yesterday. Matt Strom was like
05:13a top 10 reliever in baseball this season. Yeah. As much as you want to get on Matt
05:20the trail, you got to get on a hundred percent agree. Yep. Because he, as far as many at for
05:27the, for the Cole Reagan's trade that he made, which was great at the time in 2023, he gave
05:33away Jonathan Bowling. He gave away Evan six for nothing. I mean, that's kind of that those
05:40two trades really stand out. Evan sis. I don't know if you guys remember him, but he's been
05:44pitching well with the Pittsburgh pirates. He traded him for Bailey foster and Bailey foster
05:48hasn't been up since May or April. If that point in time, whatever month it was, he went
05:53down, never came back. He traded from Jonathan Bowling from Matt Strom and Jonathan Bowling
05:58is doing well. And Matt Strom has a seven Oh one ERA. Lucas Urseg does not have it right
06:03now. And it's all mental. It's in between his hands. I don't know what, what he can do
06:10to fix that, but he just, when he gets into trouble, he unravels. And I thought he was,
06:17he, he got two outs in the ninth thing. I was like, Oh, this is going to be good. Right.
06:21Unraveled. He hit a batter and then it just fell apart. So I don't know. I have no answer.
06:26I don't know where to go. Well, let's talk about the trade deadline then, because okay,
06:31we, if the bullpen bullpen arms are moderately attainable, not the high end guys, they'll be
06:39expensive, which makes the Daniel Lynch decision hard. I think you got, is that, but is that
06:45something you think they should trade him? Gotcha. I, he's got control. So I think it's
06:52acceptable if they don't, if they're running it back is maybe that something though, we
06:58should look for it that everyone talks about, they got to get lineup pieces. You always hear
07:03about that, man, with the development of Jensen, with the development of CAGs, with the year Nick
07:09Lofton's having, like, I don't know if I'm subscribing to that. I feel kind of okay about
07:16the lineup next year. I wonder if with Lane Thomas and Starling Marte and some of these other guys that
07:23they'll certainly trade. Can you go get maybe younger, a little more unproven bullpen guys who
07:32have good arms that you could maybe profile into effective relievers? Cause everyone right now
07:38thinks they're going to target, you know, an outfielder or a young bat or whatever. They just
07:42drafted a dude out of slot because he might be available earlier, maybe bullpen something they
07:48target at the deadline, but not, you know, they're obviously not going to go get top names, but they've
07:53been good at those mid-level trades over the years. I don't know if I would trade for bullpen help
08:00at the deadline. If I'm going to, if I'm going to move Lane Thomas, I want someone that can be
08:05a
08:05starting pitcher for me and provide innings. Cause you don't have that next year. You just don't. I
08:10mean, Cole Reagans, you don't know what he's going to be. You don't even know if he might move to
08:15the
08:15bullpen, honestly, depending on due to his injury history. You don't, you have Michael Watkins and
08:22Seth Lugo that's going to be in their mid, they already are in their mid thirties. They're going to be
08:28fit up. So you got, those are three guys right there. Then you have Noah Cameron who
08:32is working hard, getting his way back, which is great. But after that, when their arrival is still
08:38kind of unproven, you don't really have starters. So I'm looking for starters on the Royals and you
08:44figure out the relievers, you can get a journeyman and try to, hopefully they set the tone or pitch
08:50well. Randy Dobnak, if we're really being honest right now, is probably the third best pitcher that
08:55the Royals had right now. Hmm. Uh, when's the trade happening? What's your prediction?
09:01I hope it's not Monday at the deadline. I hope it's earlier than that. It's going to be Monday
09:08at the deadline. It'll be Monday. I think especially after what we saw last year, it does feel like
09:14they'll, who, who's, who's for sure going Lane Thomas, John Stryker, Starling Marte. Yeah.
09:21Those are probably the top three guys that for sure are going to get shipped off because
09:26they're inspiring contracts. Right. Yeah. At the time I would have said Matt Strom, but
09:30nobody's picking that up. Uh, no. Have you heard anything on, on, uh, Chris Bubich? What? Like
09:37he's still working his way back. He's in his throwing program, so he's still progressing.
09:42But has it, has it been good progression? They can't trade him obviously now, which is one of
09:47the major bummers. Um, could, if it, if it goes slow, would he come back on a one-year deal?
09:54Like
09:55he can't, it's, it's, it's bottom value for the Royals and it's kind of bottom value for him.
10:00You know, that's probably something that he would probably consider. And I think the
10:03Royals would consider that too. A one-year prove it type of thing. I mean, I could see that from
10:09both
10:09sides, but for right now, Bubich, he just started his throwing program, um, last week, the week of
10:16July 20th. So he's got to get built back up again. Man. I know. Monday. Bobby, what junior
10:25are you going to come back in the lineup tonight? I don't know if he'll play tonight because you
10:30know, it's a back. They might stay eligible, right? Am I right on, is that timing right?
10:35It's his first day eligible today. Yeah. First day eligible today. They might slow play it a
10:39little bit, but depends on how he feels. Right. But at this point, why bring him back
10:44early when you're 18 games, right? Under 500, right? Or whatever number is, it's, I mean,
10:52he wanted to be healthy for the next season. So I think you just let him get back easy to
10:58play him, you know? And he's not catching you on Alvarez at this point. No, no, no. Alvarez
11:05MVP race at it. I don't see it'd be with a team 18 games in a fight. Yeah. I don't
11:11either. I don't either. Was the Salvi Salvi home run was this week, right? I'm not making
11:16that up. Yeah. It was in Detroit. Yeah. It was in Detroit. I was going to say, it feels
11:19like about 10 years ago now after what we went through yesterday. Uh, the sad part about
11:24that is the Rose could have swept the twins. They got walked out. Isn't that crazy? They
11:28have been playing so well. God, I can't get over how maddening that was yesterday. I mean,
11:37Mondays was Mondays was annoying. Anybody trust Lang? Eh, not really. The Ryan Lefevre's call.
11:45I went back and watched it. It was so funny. So good. Unbelievable. But TJ, you're about to say
11:50I said, what was it like Salvi's home run? We haven't talked about that. You know,
11:55obviously I imagine they won the game too. That was something you brought up that, you
11:59know, you don't want Salvi to hit it in a loss. My favorite part about that was him
12:04hugging Miguel Garcia when he ran around the bases. You know, for, you know, for those
12:08that don't know, Miguel Garcia is the one that gets Salvi ready to go. That's his
12:12guy. That's Salvi's guy for 20 years that he's been with him since he was came up
12:17in the DSL, the Macon Summer League. So there's a reason why Salvi hugged him. He
12:23was the second guy that he hugged after the base. They've been through a lot together.
12:29And Salvi even said that. He was like, no disrespect to the hitting coaches, but Miguel
12:34Garcia gets me going, gets me right. So, I mean, I love to see that. So I thought that
12:40was pretty cool, that relationship. And then hearing from George Brett, who was at Cooperstown
12:45or the Hall of Fame, I just, this whole thing about Salvi being a first ballot Hall of
12:50Famer, being a Hall of Famer, I don't understand why this is a bait.
12:54It, I don't, he, it, and it's crazy too, cause he's so, he's such a lovable baseball
12:59character. I think it'll stop. People are, it's the problem is Jalen, the nerds are being
13:05too nerdy about catcher analytics. That's the problem. I don't, if, if Salvi, who's got
13:13the gold gloves to back it up, if he was to, I, I, listen, Mike Piazza, we didn't have
13:18this kind of conversation with. Yeah. Piazza was not a good catcher. Salvi is one of the
13:23best offensive catchers in the history of this game. Top five for sure. If that should be
13:28enough on its own merit. If you put down, if you said he took his name off and he just
13:33listed out his accomplishments, nine time all-star, five time gold glover, Roberto Clemente
13:37award winner, two world series champion, world series MVP. Oh, top five, going to be
13:43top five in home runs for catchers all time. Played with the same team his entire career.
13:48Yeah. I don't understand why. It's because some nerd in New York is going to say, well,
13:54it's advanced. Uh, XBYQ is only 22nd all time. That's what it's going to be. I've had the
14:02discussion. One of the few that I do have on social media. I've been there. It's a weird
14:07place. We're like, okay, that's cute. Have you ever watched baseball before?
14:12Yeah. My, my, my argument with that is if Joe Mauer got in on first ballot, then Salvi should
14:18get in. Yeah. Uh, Jalen, we appreciate it. We're going to have trades to discuss and break
14:23down the next time we talk. Uh, we'll do it again next week. Follow Jalen on social. What's
14:30that? Do a special show next week? That might be a good idea. You know what? Well, let's
14:35get a dead, let's get a Tuesday visit. Let's put it on the books. We'll talk to Jalen on
14:40Tuesday. We're coming right.
Comments