Dayton Moore blames Kauffman Stadium for the Royals poor walk rate - MLB

Know who walks a lot? Players with plate patience and good strike zone judgment Know who doesn’t walk a lot? Players with lousy plate patient or strike zone judgment. Both of those kinds of players are further impacted by playing for organizations which either encourage or discourage players who work the count.

Dayton Moore, general manager of the Kansas City Royals, however, thinks something else is at play with his team’s poor walk rates over the years: the ballpark:

“We have the largest ballpark in terms of square footage of any ballpark in baseball,” Moore says. “When pitchers come here, they have the mindset to use that park — put the ball in play, throw strikes, attack the zone. There isn’t the same fear factor of getting beat deep that you might have elsewhere.

“I think that plays a huge factor in that walk statistic.”

Kansas City Royals walks at home in 2012: 202
Kansas City Royals walks on the road in 2012: 202
Kansas City Royals walks at home in 2011: 235
Kansas City Royals walks on the road in 2011: 207

They had more walks on the road in 2010 than at home. They had a TON more walks at home than on the road in 2009. I’m not sure what exactly this all means, but I will say that blaming opposing pitchers’ approach at Kauffman vs. on the road doesn’t seem to carry a lot of explanatory juice.

What does is the fact that the Royals, as an organization, have never really valued players with plate discipline and have done things like sign Jeff Francoeur to multi-year deals. It’s also worth noting that back in the days of George Brett, Darryl Porter and Amos Otis, the Royals walked a lot. And played in the same ballpark.

So hey, if it makes you feel better to blame the park, Dayton, go ahead. Just please show us some evidence that the park is to blame.

CINCINNATI — The Los Angeles Dodgers placed pitcher Noah Syndergaard on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a blister on the index finger of his right throwing hand.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the timetable for Syndergaard’s return is unknown despite the 15-day designation.

“The physical, the mental, the emotional part, as he’s talked about, has taken a toll on him,” Roberts said. “So, the ability to get him away from this. He left today to go back to Los Angeles to kind of get back to normalcy.”

Syndergaard allowed six runs and seven hits in three innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, raising his ERA to 7.16.

Syndergaard (1-4) has surrendered at least five runs in three straight starts.

Syndergaard has been trying to return to the player he was before Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the better part of the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Roberts said Syndergaard will need at least “a few weeks” to both heal and get away from baseball and “reset.”

“I think searching and not being comfortable with where he was at in the moment is certainly evident in performance,” Roberts said. “So hopefully this time away will provide more clarity on who he is right now as a pitcher.

“Trying to perform when you’re searching at this level is extremely difficult. I applaud him from not running from it, but it’s still very difficult. Hopefully it can be a tale of two stories, two halves when he does come back.”