Royals Rumblings - News for November 4, 2015

Royals Rumblings - News for November 4, 2015

An estimated 800,000 people showed up to the parade and rally yesterday,an amazing crowd, writes Sam Mellinger

So it is no small thing that Kansas City was overloaded with non-workers on a weekday afternoon and generally looked at it as a once-in-a-lifetime inconvenience. It was a logistical nightmare, plans and officials completely overwhelmed by an unprecedented response, and sure, some people complained. But more of them looked around and sort of said, Oh my gawd look at all these people!, and then squeezed in their bellies and smiled to make room for another family walking through.

If you were there, the striking thing wasn’t necessarily the size of the crowd, but the cordialness. Fans overwhelmed downtown, turning a one-block walk into a half hour of sidestepping and excuse-me-ing through a crowd that went forever. The Kansas City Police Department reported just three arrests. In some places, sports celebrations like this mean tearing up a town. Here, it merely meant taking over a town.

This drone footage of the rally is amazing.

Here is the bizarre, amazing, head-scratching, soul-stirring Jonny Gomes speech.

Full Jonny Gomes speech. This is the greatest thing I've ever watched. https://t.co/1OuoQjd4Ya

— Tom (@TJFsports) November 3, 2015

WOW what an unbelievable experience. Thank you to all the @Royals fans that came out to the World Series parade. You guys are the best

— Drew Butera (@drewbutera) November 3, 2015

Rob Arthur of Fivethirtyeight writes this year's Royals are among the best in franchise history.

But compared to other Kansas City outfits, these Royals excel. In only two seasons in the 47-year history of the Royals did a team achieve a higher Elo rating: 1977 and 1980. Neither of these seasons ended with a championship, though the 1980 team took the Phillies to six games in the World Series. The most storied Royals team is probably the 1985 crew, which did take home a World Series win. Led by Cy Young-winning pitcher Bret Saberhagen and future Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett, those Royals defeated the cross-state rival St. Louis Cardinals to take the crown. But as even Brett agrees,5 those Royals fall well short of 2015’s version, with an Elo mark of 1546.4. More traditional measures including run differential and winning percentage agree with Elo in tagging this year’s Royals as the better team.

George Brett proclaims them as the best.

"After watching them play the last two years, I want to congratulate them for two things: Winning the World Series in 2015, and becoming the greatest team in Kansas City Royal history," Brett said as the crowd went wild. "These guys are the best team ever. Ever!"

Tony Blengino of ESPN writes the Royals are one of the new models of success in baseball.

Clubs now, more than ever, are stepping up and locking in their best young players for the long term. As such, pickings are getting slimmer in free agency seemingly every season. Middle and small-market teams have always had one road to competitiveness, and now even the largest of the large-market clubs are realizing that the middle-/small-market model is the way to go: scout better, analyze better, draft better, sign internationally better, develop better. Find an edge, either by traditional or cutting-edge methods that cost a lot less than the generally losing proposition of spending big in free agency. Basically, the team with the best young, homegrown talent wins.

Zachary Levine at Just a Bit Outside looks at lessons learned from the Royals.

Even if the Royals'€™ bunt-happy tendencies have been somewhat overblown, this World Series victory was still a victory for an old-school baseball mentality in pretty much every way and a reminder that "Moneyball" should be collecting dust on your shelf.

But that wasn'€™t at all what that book -- or the statistical revolution --€“ was about, and the Royals'€™ win is a win for analytical thinking and market understanding. You'€™re right too.

In fact, this was probably the biggest win yet for "Moneyball" because it showed that the true lessons live on well past the closing of the large-scale market inefficiency tilting toward on-base skills. The book'€™s legacy is well established as an account of problem solving, and a small-market team in the protagonist team'€™s former city solved pretty much the exact same problem. A historically low-budget team, the Royals did expand their spending some, but for most of their roster construction they concentrated on skill sets like the contact ability that might have been undervalued now and might have played well against power relievers, hence all the comebacks. (They were demonstrably better than average against velocity.)

Kevin Ruprecht, writing for Beyond the Boxscore, agrees that Salvador Perez deserved World Series MVP.

In essence, Perez was always just a part of something. The Royals are not designed for their parts to be individually great; their are designed to ......ugh.... be greater than the sum of their parts (sorry). Or something like that. An individual award is given out, so someone had to receive it. Perez has a pretty good case, but he did not exactly stand out; he just never disappeared.

We've had a few terrific fanposts lately. David Beck writes that David Glass has been an underappreciated reason for the team's success.

ScottD13 writes about just how special this season has been for Royals fans.

DylanLittle has a listicle of things related to the championship victory.

Hoosinole compares the champion Royals to the Phillies championship team witnessed while living in Philly.

Jon Loughridge wants to know what the championship means to you.

John Sickels at Minor League Ball asks whether its worth re-signing a franchise player like Alex Gordon.

A professional gambler won $2.5 million on the Royals winning the World Series.

A drama-filled process has led to Dusty Baker, not Bud Black, being named the new Nationals manager.

Bryce Harper wins the Hank Aaron Award for top offensive player.

Tony LaCava is named interim General Manager of the Blue Jays.

What is the complicated legacy of Torii Hunter?

Track all the contract options around the league that are picked up or declined, mutual or otherwise!

The Titans fire head coach Ken Whisenhunt.

NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth is suspended for two races for crashing into Joey Logano.

The first streetcar in Kansas City in several decades rolls into town.

Is Amazon replacing the public library?

People on Twitter are freaking out that"likes" have been replaced by "favorites" with hearts.

Jon Stewart is headed to HBO.

Your song of the day is ABBA with "The Winner Takes it All."