Royals Rumblings - News for October 17, 2016

Royals Rumblings - News for October 17, 2016

Jason Evans at Call to the Pen looks at five potential trade destinations for Wade Davis.

If there is ANY club that could use a game-changer at the end of games, it is certainly the San Francisco Giants. We learned that by watching them down the season’s final two months and they drove home that point during the ninth inning of Game 4 of the NLDS vs the Cubs as Bruce Bochy used a conga line of relievers to no avail. Between Hunter Strickland, Sergio Romo, Santiago Casilla, Derek Law and deadline acquisition Will Smith, no one could get the job done.

The key to the Giants’ even year run earlier this decade wasn’t all about Madison Bumgarner. It was the fact that club could turn to guys like Jeremy Affeldt and Romo and know that they would get the job done. The Giants don’t have the prospects that the Dodgers do, but Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans have never been afraid to pull the trigger on a big deal if it will help the club.

Darin Watson at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City looks at the players who threatened the Royals home run record.

Bo Jackson, 1990

Bo followed up his 32 dingers in 1989 with 28 more in 1990. But he did that in just 111 games and 456 plate appearances. At a rate of one home run every 16.3 plate appearances, if Bo had stayed healthy, he would have needed 147 more plate appearances to get to 37 home runs. That’s roughly 35 games, or 146 for the season. That would have been a career high for Jackson, but certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Just one more “what might have been” in his career.

Lee Judge has a Rusty Kuntz quiz.

Q. Why do base runners on first base sometimes start to go and then stop?

A. Runners on first base will sometimes use a “right-knee break” and fake a steal so the coaches can see which middle infielder moves to cover second base. That can be useful on a hit and run or, if there’s also a runner on third base and neither infielder breaks for second, it might reveal that the defense doesn’t plan to throw the ball through to second base. If that’s the case the base is there for the taking — unless the defense decides to switch things up after the fake break.

The White Sox will hire Chris Getz as Director of Player Development. The former Royals second baseman had been working in Kansas City’s front office.

Tim Boyle at Sportsblog says trading Lorenzo Cain makes a lot of sense for the Royals.

Kelvin Herrera will be a judge for a local teacher edition of “Shark Tank”.

Burlington Royals General Manager Ryan Keur is leaving the team.

Jose Bautista thinks baseball is conspiring against the Blue Jays.

Of course Trevor Bauer’s favorite Star Wars movie is Phantom Menace.

Ken Rosenthal writes that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts walked into trouble in Game One.

The Diamondbacks pass over J.J. Picollo and hire Mike Hazen from the Red Sox as their new GM.

The CEO of the Giants writes an open letter to the fans after their disappointing playoff loss.

Keith Law gives his scouting report on Tim Tebow and says he has no business playing professional baseball.

Is baseball doing enough for minority managerial candidates?

Orioles reliever Zach Britton takes issue with the sale of a “game-worn” jersey.

The Big 12’s television partners don’t want the conference to expand.

South Korea wins the League of Legends championship.

Deep space travel may do damage to astronaut’s brains.

Is Christopher Guest’s new mockumentary Mascots a bit too mean?

Peak TV has made the opening credits to a show critical to its success.

Your song of the day is Black Sabbath with Paranoia.