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AL Central Notes: Royals pen’, Sale return

The latest news from around the American League Central.

MLB: Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins Jordan Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

The Royals won a World Series and won back to back AL pennants on the back of their amazing bullpen that shut down games late. The 2016 season has mostly been the same story. They have a 3.12 bullpen ERA (lowest in baseball) and a 1.23 WHIP (sixth lowest in the game). Based off of WAR, their bullpen is the fourth best in all of baseball.

This past week would make you question all of that. They went from being a lock-down group to being a liability. During six games this week, Kansas City went 2-4, with their pen’ taking all four losses. With the playoffs getting closer, this is not the time for their pen’ to implode from within.

More from around the American League Central:

  • It’s around this time of year that we get information regarding potential deadline deals, and potential packages that were thrown around. The word going around the baseball world is that in a deal for Chris Sale, the White Sox asked the Red Sox to include Jackie Bradley Jr. as part of a deal.
  • Indians outifelder Brandon Guyer eats protein bars made of crickets, collagen or kale chips. Oh, and he also eats left-handed pitching.
  • Max Kepler is hitting home runs at a very fast pace for Twins standards.
  • The Detroit Tigers find themselves in the playoff hunt because of players they got back from dealing David Price and Yoenis Cespedes.

Standings ‘as of writing’:

Cleveland 79-57 — GB

Detroit 75-62 4.5 GB

Kansas City 71-66 8.5 GB

Chi White Sox 65-72 14.5 GB

Minnesota 51-87 29.0 GB