Royals Rumblings - News for February 16, 2016

Royals Rumblings - News for February 16, 2016

Dave Cameron at Fangraphs writes that re-signing Alex Gordon was one of the best moves of the off-season.

While Lorenzo Cain may be more obviously exciting, and Salvador Perez gets more headlines as the team’s leader on the field, Alex Gordon is the Royals’ best player, and one of the primary reasons they’ve been able to turn their franchise around in recent years. Despite his advancing age, Gordon has sustained his across-the-board skills, and while he won’t be a gold glove left fielder forever, he’s good enough to justify this contract in the next couple of years, even if he’s not that good by the time it expires. Gordon is easy to take for granted, but he may very well have been the second best available free-agent position player, and the Royals managed to bring him back to Kansas City for the kind of price that gets you a back-end starter these days. I have been a pretty vocal critic of a lot of the moves the Royals have made the last few years, but re-signing Gordon was one of the best decisions anyone made this winter.

Craig Brown at Royals Authority says that these two-year deals for Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain give the Royals cost certainty.

By giving two year deals to Moustakas and Cain, the Royals have given themselves a measure of cost certainty heading forward. It will be an interesting contrast when we arrive at next offseason where only four key Royals will be eligible for arbitration, with all of them in their final year of eligibility....

This is something you don’t want to hear, but if the Royals stumble in 2016, the cost certainty of most of their core would help facilitate a trade or two, should the Royals decide to move with haste toward a teardown. Now, I’m not saying that I think it’s likely, only that the players under contract for 2017 have a little more added value. Prepare for any eventuality. That’s just good General Managing.

David Lesky is excited about Kris Medlen.

I’ve talked about this a little bit during this winter, but one player who I think is being forgotten about is Kris Medlen. When the Royals signed him last offseason, the thought was always that he would be able to contribute in some fashion during 2015 but the signing was really about the 2016 season. Well, he did his job in 2015 for the most part. Sure he had his ups and downs, but he was able to contribute in a big way at times. It’s funny because I feel like the expectations for 2015 were higher than they should have been while now the expectations have dropped for 2016. There aren’t exactly a ton of pitchers who have come back from two Tommy John surgeries, so we don’t know for certain what he might be. Given what Medlen was prior to the second surgery, there’s a decent chance that he could be exactly what we were hoping for when the signing was announced last season. I really feel like, inning for inning, he has a chance to be the best pitcher on the staff. There is some concern over his workload, which means they’ll need to be careful with him, but I’m really excited to see him pitch.

The Royals were among the teams to check in on 32-year old Cuban right fielder Alexei Bell.

The Star gives a breakdown of the Royals roster heading into spring training.

The Royals have released infielder Kevin Kuntz, son of Royals coach Rusty Kuntz.

A clean-shaven Danny Duffy talks about the upcoming season.

The Salvador Perez billboard in Westport has become a popular place for selfies.

Lee Judge offers a mea culpa.

DaveO at Clubhouse Conversation talks to former Royals infielder Angel Salazar.

Former Royals third baseman Mark Teahen is inducted into the St. Mary's College Hall of Fame.

The MLBPA says baseball should consider a draft lottery to prevent tanking.

Sam Miller at Baseball Prospectus found some interesting tidbits while reading the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

A history of black Major League baseball players before Jackie Robinson.

Australia won the first World Baseball Classic qualifier.

32 bold NFL off-season predictions.

It is NBA trade rumor season.

The discovery of gravitational waves may mark a new era in science.

Is Hamilton, the musical, the most addicting album ever?

Why was Deadpool such a box office success?

Your song of the day is The Stone Roses with "Love Spreads."