Do we have to?"WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Royals Trade Rumors & Hot StoveRoyals Minor Leagues & ProspectsRoyals Review ClassicRoyals Review Users GuideThe 100 Greatest Royals Of All TimeGame XII: Royals v. MarinersNew Caleb Joseph Jersey ,601commentsDo we have to?EDTShareTweetShareShareGame XII: Royals v. MarinersPeter G. AikenIn case you don’t know, the Royals are in a bit of a skid, losing their last nine games. A loss today would give them their first 10 game losing streak since, well, July of last season. The Royals haven’t done a lot of winning lately.They have, however, done a lot of competing in ball games and even leading ball games. Here’s a quick look at those 11 games:March 28: 5-3 winMarch 30: 8-6 winMarch 31: 6-3 loss, never ledApril 2: 5-4 loss, led 4-3 in the 9thApril 3: 7-6 loss, led 6-4 in the 8thApril 4: 5-4 loss, led 3-2 in the 5thApril 6: 7-4 loss, led 4-2 in the 7thApril 7: 3-1 loss, never led past the 2ndApril 8: 13-5 loss, whateverApril 9: 6-3 loss, never ledApril 10: 6-5 loss, tied in 8thFor those counting at home, six of Kansas City’s nine losses have come within two or fewer runs Roberto Alomar Jersey , including four one-run losses. The Royals have also given up 39 of their 67 runs in the 6th inning or later. So, if you’re a glass-half-full person, at least they have been in games and have scored runs at a somewhat-not-awful pace. They are 0-4 in one-run games, which will surely regress to the mean. But yeah, if you’re a glass-half-empty person, they have lost their last nine games, gotten absolutely nothing from hitters not named Whit Merrifield, Adalberto Mondesi, and Alex Gordon, and have a pretty brutal schedule through mid-May. With that being said, let’s play some baseball! Here are your lineups for today’s action. Veteran lefty-swinging outfielder is a late March roster addition"WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Talking Chop User’s GuideTalking Chop PodcastAround the NL EastBaseball Analysis PrimerBraves acquire OF Matt Joyce from Giants (Updated)New,35commentsVeteran lefty-swinging outfielder is a late March roster additionEDTShareTweetShareShareBraves acquire OF Matt Joyce from Giants (Updated)Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY SportsUpdate - The Braves actually acquired Matt Joyce from the San Francisco Giants in exchange for cash considerations. Joyce is currently on a minor league deal and is reportedly willing to open the season in Gwinnett if need be. Over the past few offseasons (but before this one), I really wanted the Braves to sign Matt Joyce. He had a hilariously dreadful 2015 with the Angels and represented an obvious bounceback candidate that offseason — the Pirates snatched him up, and he rewarded them with a 136 wRC+ and 1.9 fWAR in just 293 PAs. He parlayed that into a full-time role with the Athletics in 2017 and a two-year deal with $11 million, putting up a 116 wRC+ and 2.7 fWAR in 544 trips to the plate. But, in the second year of said deal, he didn’t fare nearly as well: an 89 wRC+ and just 0.2 fWAR in 246 PAs.So Nick Markakis Jersey , it’s bounceback time for the 34-year-old Joyce again. Will he do it? Or is this his decline phase, now proceeding in uninterrupted fashion? Looks like the Braves might be finding out:This is actually Joyce’s third team this week: Joyce was released by the Indians, with whom he signed a minor league deal, on March 19. He was scooped up by the Giants on March 20, only to be released from their team earlier today, at which point the Braves got their talons into him. Joyce wasn’t really having a banner Spring Training (.185/.267/.185 with the Indians; .250/.333/.250 with the Giants), but the Braves probably aren’t worried about that too much.On the plus side, Joyce has struck the ball at an above-average rate in each of the past three years. Even his 89 wRC+ from last year was the result of underperforming a perfectly solid .328 xwOBA by a substantial amount (.299 wOBA). He also underperformed his xwOBA, albeit to a lesser extent, during his highly solid 2017. On the minus side, he represents kind of a strange option for a team with Nick Markakis already in the fold and presumably getting the lion’s share of the playing time in an outfield corner. Joyce has a dramatic career platoon split (61 wRC+ against lefties, 121 against righties), meaning that he’s basically a full-platoon bat who plays okay-but-that’s-pretty-bad-since-it’s-in-an-outfield-corner defense. This, makes him more like an exaggerated Nick Markakis coming off a worse season, rather than someone to be paired with Nick Markakis. (Over the last three seasons, Joyce has -3 OAA/-3 CPA; Markakis has -6 OAA / -2 CPA, and neither UZR nor DRS really see much of a difference between them defensively.)But Babe Ruth Jersey , he’s here now, so that’s a thing. It may be a couple years too late, but it is what it is. What’s not clear is what message this sends regarding the status of Adam Duvall: while Joyce does seem like an upgrade over Duvall in some respects (though not necessarily defensively), he’s more redundant from a handedness perspective. In terms of a brief projections outlook, Steamer sees Joyce as interchangeable with Markakis, and really dislikes the prognosis for Duvall. ZiPS, meanwhile, sees Joyce as replacement level while having Duvall only somewhat worse than Markakis. So, it’s kind of a pick-your-projected-below-average-outfielder situation going forward. Cutting Duvall at this point would indeed save the Braves money, but would essentially yoink any chance of reaping platoon advantage with Nick Markakis’ spot away from the team (unless they find a different replacement); while the Braves could definitely play Johan Camargo in the outfield against southpaws, one wonders whether it makes sense to have him replace Dansby Swanson on those occasions instead. In any case, this is all stuff to sort out as the season gets going.Stay tuned to see how this affects the Opening Day roster, if at all.