Royals Rumblings - News for January 20, 2015

Royals Rumblings - News for January 20, 2015

ESPN's Buster Olney ranks the top teams in baseball, and our Royals are his fourth best team, and the best team in the league.

The defending AL champions have taken steps to hold their ground. James Shields and Billy Butler walked way, but the Royals added mid-level investments in Edinson Volquez, Kendrys Morales and Alex Rios to a strong core of defenders and relievers. They didn't really scare anyone throughout 2014 and they won't scare anyone now, because they aren't a great offensive team and their rotation is good and not great. The Royals aren't going to run away from what should be an incredibly competitive field in the AL Central. But the key pieces of this club -- Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain, Yordano Ventura, the three dominant relievers -- are all in their prime.

David Lesky at Pine Tar Press is skeptical the Royals can repeat their starting pitching performance from last year.

My gut feeling is if the Royals are going to end up keeping pace with last year’s rotation or even bettering it, it’s going to be because Medlen comes back strong when he finally makes it back and is able to supplant one of the veterans. That’s not to say that they can’t be successful with the five they start the year with, but I think they need another upside arm to really be great...

It seemed last year that improving the rotation would be a task that might be too tall, but the 2014 Royals were able to do it. That task isn’t quite as easy in 2015. While it most definitely could happen, I can’t say I’ll predict it.

Ed Conneally of Kings of Kauffman thinks the Royals should retire #25 for Kansas City Monarchs legend and Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige.

25 is the number Satchel Paige is most identified with as a Kansas City Monarch. Paige is in the real Hall of Fame as a Monarch, along with Willard Brown, Hilton Smith, and J.L Wilkinson. All of those men should also be in the Royals Hall of Fame . Why not include these men and make it a Kansas City Baseball Hall of Fame? I know all about and love the Negro League Baseball Museum, already located in Kansas City, MO. The fact that these men are honored there doesn’t mean they can’t also be honored in Kansas City’s baseball capital, Kauffman Stadium.

Andy McCullough reports Royals pitching prospect Kyle Zimmer will throw a baseball this week.

The Royals expect Kyle Zimmer can begin his throwing program this week. He was scheduled for a follow-up on his shoulder today in NYC.

— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) January 19, 2015

Dave Cameron at Fangraphs looks at the unusual financial structure of Max Scherzer's mega-deal with Washington.

Speaking of the Nationals, it looks like they'll be getting the 2018 All-Star Game. San Diego was awarded the 2016 All-Star game recently.

Still some dealin' going on in the dead of January with Dexter Fowler headed to the Cubs and Yovani Gallardo to the Rangers.

Baseball ejections - a visual analysis.

Your guide to the evidence that the Patriots cheated in the AFC Championship game with deflated footballs.

The Seahawks may be good at football, they are bad at Twitter.

Science shows that the saying "nice guys finish last" is a myth. Exhibit A: THE 2014 ROYALS.

RIP Tony Verna, the man responsible for instant replay in sports.

The details of the "Game of Thrones" special are finally known. Its a Christmas episode, guest starring Lady Gaga, Kevin Hart, Michael Strahan, and the minions from "Despicable Me."

The X-Files could be coming back.

Your song of the day is A Tribe Called Quest with "Can I Kick It?"