Royals POSTCAST: Vinnie Pasquantino DOMINATES In Kansas City Royals Win Over Washington Nationals

Royals POSTCAST: Vinnie Pasquantino DOMINATES In Kansas City Royals Win Over Washington Nationals

This is the Royals Post Cast, your instant game reaction for the Kansas City Royals, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Royals postcast on the Locked On Network. Your team every day. I’m your host, Chance Lebo, and I’m here to bring you reaction to every single Royals game the rest of the way. Follow me on Twitter, Chance Lebo. That’s cha nceb au. If you cannot make a show live, don’t worry. These episodes are always uploaded for you to listen to ondemand wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for making the Royals Postcast and the Locked on Royals podcast your first listen of the day. Before we get started, remember to subscribe to the channel and turn on our notifications so that you get an alert whenever we go live. Thanks so much for joining the show and feel free to join the live chat. Let me know your thoughts on the game and I’ll do my best to respond to your comments. Getting some uh comments in here. Obviously, uh Royals win tonight. A 8 to5 Royals win. Um six hits all night for the Royals. Not often you see this Royals team or any Royals team for that matter uh score more than they hit. And that was what they were able to do tonight. Eight runs on six hits. And Vinnie Pascantino was the hero of tonight’s game. Uh I don’t think many of us would have seen that coming. Vinnie Pascantino has been in a massive slump here recently. I know that Parker, who’s a fan of the show, one of our biggest fans, saying, “Where are the Vinnie haters at tonight?” Man, I I don’t know if I’d say I’m a Vinnie hater, but I was more of a realist. He’s got to get better if he wants to be in that threehole. And uh before we get into it, obviously, let’s get into what you’ll be talking about. This is what you’ll be talking about. All right. So, I’m not a Vinnie hater at all. I I like Vinnie. Um he’s a he’s a great guy for this team. U my biggest gripe with Vinnie has been his regression. Um when it comes to what he does best and what he did best when he got up to this team. uh when he came up, he was a guy that didn’t strike out a lot, a guy that worked the gaps, a doubles machine, and walked more than he struck out. That has taken a major step back in the last couple of seasons, especially the longer he’s been in the league, the more he’s kind of tried to adapt to be that middle of the lineup bat the Royals need him to be. Um, in this season, my frustration, and some people can call that hate, it might come off as hate. My frustration with Vidy Pascantino has been his selfish uh his selfish at bats. When he came up last year with a runner on third and less than two outs, that ball was in the air and the runner was scoring. He led the league and sacrifice hits or sacrifice flies last season and it was great helping him score runs. And then this season, something changed. Something legitimately changed. He stopped putting the ball in the air. From the All-Star break on, I have continuously hammered home that Vinnie Pascantino has to be better in the middle of that order. He has to be better in that three-hole. The runcoring position, the three hole has to be better there because too many times this season, he’s come up with runners in scoring position or a runner on third in less than two outs. And he has not gotten the job done. He just has not been a very selfless player. He has put the ball in the ground. He has popped it up. he just has not done a very good job. Maybe it’s the pitchers being able to adjust. I’m not saying that he is the only one at fault. There’s It takes two to tango. Baseball is a push and pull sport where you have to take what the pitcher gives you. And so maybe there’s just been a bit of a different approach this season uh for Vinnie Pascantino at the plate given what he’s been seeing up at the plate. But Vinnie tonight had an excellent game. Um hits a sacrifice fly, great base running by Mikel Garcia. We’ll get into that in a little bit because I was a big fan of Mikel Garcia’s game today. I am going to at one point in this show raise my hand as I was wrong, but that’ll be in a little bit. That might be the last thing we do on the show. So, some people don’t see it. I don’t want to admit that I’m wrong in front of a lot of people. But, uh, with Vinnie, um, Mike gets over to third in the first inning. Great base running by Mikel Garcia going first to third on a ground ball. uh give a 100% credit there to Mel Garcia putting himself in scoring position. Then he finally puts the ball in the air and he said it in the post game. He uh he said in the post game that he just had not been doing it enough. He had not been putting balls in the air enough getting sacrifice flies with runners in scoring position. That just had not been something he had done enough this season. And for him to openly admit that, I think it’s great because obviously he he needed to wear it. he needed to at least come to that consensus. And I think we’re finally there with Vinnie. And then in his I believe it was his second at bat was able to uh to slap a ball barely over the fence. I mean barely over the fence. That ball was scorched. An absolute line drive. Let me see uh the uh Savant on that uh on that home run from Vinnie because that was a absolute slap. Uh 93 off the bat, a homer and 26 of 30. He was able to get that ball out. So maybe not hit as hard as a as a line drive, but barely gets out in the right field corner. Um just and then obviously late in the game being able to score another run, adding on fuel to the fire, being able to continue to add on. My biggest uh takeaway from this Royals game tonight, uh the Nationals get one in the fifth, one in the sixth, the Royals get three in the sixth, the Nationals get two in the seventh, the Royals get one in the seventh. Did the Nationals get one in the eighth? Yeah, they did. But the Royals really didn’t need to add that much. They were honestly close to adding in the end. The Royals were able to answer that when they had a lead. They were able to continue to add on to it. They continue to keep throwing logs on the fire. Keep throwing logs on the fire. Continuing to add to that offensive lead. And that’s something that they just have not done at points this season. We’ve talked about the Royals. Say what you want about them. They are not a good comeback team, but this bullpen is really good at pitching with a lead in my opinion at least from what I’ve seen. They have been able to hold leads this season. There’s not been very many blown saves this season for this Royals uh bullpen. I just don’t think they do very I think they do a very very good job of making sure that they keep the leads. I’m going to pull up fan graphs right now because I just don’t feel like they’ve had very many blown saves this season. And I might be wrong. They uh are currently 15 blown saves all season. They are tied for fifth in blown saves. So, or I mean like fifth is good. Fifth is good. Uh top five in baseball and blown saves. So, the bullpen’s been great at keeping leads. They just have needed to get out to those leads to keep them. So, very happy with what I’ve seen from the offense tonight being able to work at bats. And it starts at the top and Spoons brings it up. And I’m going to put my hand in the air. I was 100% wrong. I was carrying the water of Jonathan Indie in the leadoff spot for the longest time this season. I’m not going to say that Spoons’ stat was uh or that he brought up 10 and two and he’s the lead off hitter. I’m not going to uh I’m not going to clarify whether that’s right or not. Feels like they are, but I was carrying the water of Jonathan India as the leadoff man for a lot of this season. I’ve reeled back on that opinion. I don’t think he’s the leadoff guy. I’ve also pushed back on the opinion that Mikel Garcia is not a leadoff guy for this lineup. I’ve said that in a Bobby Wit in a non Bobbywit Jr. lineup, Michael Garcia would hit second. He would be a phenomenal two-hole hitter. He’s had to hit out of position in the eighth hole, seven hole cleanup spot, three hole. They’ve had to move him around. And for him being versatile, that just, you know, tip your cap to him for being an unselfish player. But Mikel Garcia being a viable leadoff hitter was not something I had on my bingo card this season. I’ve been wrong. I I’ll say it. I was wrong about Mel Garcia. I didn’t think he had what it takes to be a leadoff hitter. But tonight had some excellent at bats, two walks, two runs scored, struck out once. And guys, he’s just scorching hot right now. And do I think Mike Striky needs to be a five day a week player? Probably not. I think Mikel Garcia probably against lefty I think heel Garcia against lefties the rest of the season will be the leadoff hitter. I think that’s a foregone conclusion at this point the way he’s been playing. Um and just I I’m so happy to have been wrong about that. I’m not going to grandstand and be like well I was actually right. But I was uh very big fan of what we saw tonight from Mikel Garcia in the leadoff spot. I wouldn’t hate it if they run him back as the leadoff guy next season. Um, I just think that the strides he the strides he has taken this season I I didn’t expect him and you have to feel very good about it. And also, you know, Alex Zumalt has taken a heap of crap from Royals fan base, from Royals Twitter, from anybody with a keyboard to type on. And you know, say what you want, Alex Zumalt was probably a factor somewhat. I’m not gonna say if he was the reason. He might have been a reason, 10% of that reason maybe, but Alex Zumalt at some point had an impact on Mikel Garcia as a hitter. He’s the one positive development we have seen at the plate this season in terms of improving his WRC plus from last year to this year with the Royals, except for of course Adam Frasier who’s been an impressive player as well. But you have to tip your cap to Alex Zumalt for being able to do what he did um with Michael Garcia. Maybe it’s he he doesn’t deserve any credit. Maybe he does, but I think that what we’ve seen so far from this offense, I I don’t think they’re a playoff team, but darn, they’re competitive, and I really enjoy watching them when they’re hitting well. All right, we’re going to hit a break. When we come back, we’ll talk about Michael Waka’s outing. I’ve got some concerns about Michael Waka, and I’ll talk about that when we come back on the Royals Post. If you’re running a business, you know that every mis call is money left on the table. 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August 26th is officially FanDuel Futures Day, a brand new holiday for football fans who live for bold predictions and pre-season hunches. For just 24 hours, FanDuel is giving you deals on NFL season predictions. Whether you’re calling your MVP, eyeing a long shot division winner, or ready to crown your Super Bowl champ uh ready to crown your Super Bowl champ before week one even kicks off. This is your moment. So, take a flyer on the MVP race. I’m going to pull up my bets here because I uh placed a couple of futures bets today in on the NFL. I placed a MVP bet um earlier today on uh pulling it up right now. Uh Baker Mayfield. I had Baker Mayfield as my MVP uh of the season and then also Super Bowl tickets on the Chiefs and the Bills and some uh some feisty division winners. I like the Panthers a little bit. I I like what I’ve seen from Bryce Young and I’m a Bryce Young believer and you can do the same at FanDuel. Visit the FanDuel app today and start planning your futures bets now because futures day is one day and one day only. FanDuel, play your game. All right. Uh Michael Walka has been okay recently. Had a great outing in Toronto. But the one thing I do have concerns about is this right here. I’m putting it up on the screen. Michael Waka’s last six outings. Here are his pitch counts. 79 74 100. That was the Blue Jays outing. 80 78 and 83. Um that’s not great from a guy you just gave a three-year contract to. Um and I don’t know his numbers third time through the order are very concerning. Gave up two earned runs today. um was pretty good. I mean, he retired 13 of the first 14 in today’s game. Um really didn’t have a bad outing by anybody’s standards, I don’t think. Um I I think that he was perfectly fine today. I think he was able to uh at least give you a viable outing, but my concern comes with the fact that he’s in the first year of a three-year contract and you’re not really feeling comfortable with him pitching third time through the order. Now, maybe there’s an offseason change that they’re going to make. I don’t like making tweaks to a pitcher’s arsenal, to a pitcher’s delivery mid-season. That’s not the time to do it in my opinion. I think that Michael Waka has been just as solid as they need him to be and maybe this is it today didn’t give them what they needed because they were depleted as the as a bullpen. Serpa was off the table. Uh Estz was off the table. I thought John Shriber could have potentially been off the table. And so you needed a long outing from Michael Walk. He just didn’t get enough today. We had to see Sammy Long today. We had to see John Shriber for a second straight day. I made a tweet today about Taylor Clark, guys. He’s second in all of Major League Baseball in whip among guys with 30 or more innings pitched. And for the league minimum, you’re going to take that. But I just feel like Michael Walka, you need to you need to protect him a little bit more. If I were resetting the rotation, obviously they didn’t know that Bailey Falter and Ryan Burger would be factors in the rotation. And they obviously didn’t know that Chris Bubich was going to be out for the season and they had no idea how long Michael O Lorenzan was going to be down. But if I were if I were Matt Couturo redesigning this rotation if I if I had another All-Star break where I could set a rotation, I would protect Michael Waka with a guy in front of him that you know is going to give you six innings or at least good work innings and a guy behind him that you’re going to get innings from. Because if you can only rely on Michael Waka to give you five and two/3 innings every outing, then you can’t have a guy going before him like Bailey Falter that needs four relievers to pitch after him to get you through a nine-inninging game. You need to have a rested bullpen with some tricks up your sleeve ready to go. And they didn’t have that tonight. They were able to work their way to a victory thanks to a great offensive performance. But five runs is a lot to give up, especially when the bullpen gave up three. Um, I think Taylor Clark is fine. I don’t think that tonight’s outing had anything to do with the way I feel about him. But you need to have a rested bullpen when Michael Waka pitches because if you’re not going to throw him more than 85 pitches, you at least have to have a break glass in case of emergency plan in case all you know, you know what breaks loose. But, um, I thought tonight’s game for Kansas City was just fine. They now are back to 500. If they win tomorrow, they’ll be back over 500 for the first time in what Lef Fever said was two months. I think that, you know, a lot of people want to talk playoffs. I’m not going to talk playoffs. You can do that if you want to. I I’ll allow you. I am not going to at any chance talk you out of a postseason, you know, flyer, but I don’t think it’s a poss I don’t think it’s a probability. I think it’s a possibility. I don’t think it’s a probability, but uh for the Royals, uh just keep grind, just keep chipping away. Just keep hitting the stone. Pound the stone. That’s the uh the football adage. Just keep pounding the stone every day. Take it one day at a time. Um I I don’t think the Tigers are a replicatable, uh you know, thing that they did last year. I don’t think that’s replicatable, but uh I think that you can obviously uh pencil this team in for 80ish wins on the season. But I appreciate you guys for being here. Hyatt is uh over here chewing on his bones so you guys can’t see him tonight. Sorry about that. But I appreciate you guys for being here. Tomorrow we’ll go live around 3:45 4 o’clock because the Royals have a day game tomorrow wrapping up the series with the Nationals and then a day off on Thursday. So be sure to join tomorrow’s show because I want to talk to you guys. Appreciate you guys always being in here. The usuals, the regulars, we appreciate you guys. if you guys could like the video and uh you know continue to flood the comments if you have questions. If you’re watching this after the fact, I try to go back and uh watch at least check out some of the comments if somebody has a question or a comment or a concern. Um if they have a problem with the podcast, I’ll obviously be happy to answer any kind of questions. Um but if you guys could continue to like the videos, continue to comment, continue to join the live chat, man, I’d really appreciate it. I love you guys. I appreciate you guys for being here. Be sure to join us tomorrow afternoon for another edition of the Royals Post Castle.

Chance Liebau reacts to game two between the Kansas City Royals and Washington Nationals. We discuss Vinnie Pasquantino at the plate, Michael Wacha’s performance on the hill, and what a series win means going forward.

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