Royals Rumblings - News for December 14, 2016
Sam Mellinger welcomes Jorge Soler and wonders what he means long-term for the Royals.
We’ve always tended to look at 2017 as The Last Year, but the Royals have seven players — Alex Gordon, Sal Perez, Ian Kennedy and Yordano Ventura among them — signed for $72 million in 2018. The payroll that year figures to approach or even surpass $100 million — still a precipitous drop from this year, but not the bottoming out that other clubs have done.
Again, I believe the smarter way is the more painful way, to embrace the benefits of losing, make it hurt for a few years while you pick at the top of the draft, and then come back with another wave of talent like the Royals debuted in the early part of this decade. There are others around baseball who’ve made it work, and some within the Royals front office who would quickly get behind that philosophy.
The Royals, and maybe this is admirable, are taking a different path. They’re going to try to do it all at once.
He echoes the sentiment that the Royals will try to keep winning in his Mellinger Minutes.
Glass and the Royals front office have been clear about wanting stability. They don’t want to be the Marlins. I happen to believe there is value in bottoming out. Maybe not as much value as there used to be, but still, bigger draft pools and higher picks can jump-start the next wave.
But I respect their desire to at least be competitive every year, and the ambition to constantly multitask between building and winning. It’s interesting that the Royals have $72 million committed to seven players for 2018, which means the payroll could be at least $90 million or more.
Craig Edwards at Fangraphs thinks the Royals should not sell Yordano Ventura short.
While Ventura has already experienced success at points in his major-league career, he still just completed his age-25 season. It’s possible he’s still just learning how best to use his pitches in the big leagues. That promise — and not his 2016 performance — is what would make Ventura a trade target. His projections say he should be worth 2.6 WAR in 2017, so even the projections certainly see at least a return to his effective 2015 season. There’s certainly more potential there, but the other advantage Ventura has is his contract and the potential years of control.
Matt Snyder of CBS Sports writes that Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez are among the most overrated players in baseball.
First off, K.C. fans: Yes, I watch the Royals. Yes, I've been to Kansas City. No, I don't hate the Royals. Still, you may hurl your accusations to matt.snyder@cbsinteractive.com.
While 2015 looks like it might've been Hosmer's career year, he fell back to a .266/.328/.433 (101 OPS+) line in 2016. The 25 home runs are OK, but we've already established a ton of homers were hit last season and first base is a slugger position (12 first baseman had more homers). You're looking at a roughly, overall, league average hitter manning a position that should have a big-time bopper.
Again, Hosmer is good. He's just not great.
Mike Petriello of MLB.com assesses the value of impending Royals free agents.
The Royals will get the 71st pick in next year’s draft thanks to the competitive balance lottery.
Tim Collins has signed a minor league deal with the Nationals.
Former Royals outfielder Daniel Nava signs a minor league deal with the Phillies.
John Viril at Kings of Kauffman thinks trading Yordano Ventura is a bad idea.
Alex Gordon’s charity “Alex’s Lemonade Stand” will have an event on January 13.
The Nationals’ off-season is not living up to expectations.
Why the luxury tax is tip money to the 2017 Dodgers.
Colorado pitcher Chad Bettis is diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Why does the home crowd boo on intentional walks?
The Wake Forest football radio guy was fired for giving opponents insider info.
Detroit soccer fans are saying no to the MLS.
All new cars will have wireless vehicle-to-vehicle communication.
The world’s best-value CEOs.
The reviews are starting to come in on the new Star Wars movie, and hey, its pretty good.
Your song of the day is Sonic Youth with Bull in the Heather.