Royals Rumblings - News for February 8, 2016

Royals Rumblings - News for February 8, 2016

Dustin Palmateer at Baseball Prospectus imagines how re-working Salvador Perez's contract could benefit the team.

That's a $13 million additional outlay over the length of Perez's current contract (all guaranteed), but Kansas City also picks up another year of control if its catcher is still effective by 2020. Everybody wins. Of course, the Royals have three important position players approaching free agency in Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, and Eric Hosmer (not to mention pitchers, like Wade Davis), and they've already invested $142 million in Alex Gordon and Ian Kennedy this offseason. They aren't the Yankees or the Dodgers yet, and simply handing Perez more money because he's done a good job isn't generally how small-to-mid market teams operate.

We often think about team spending on how it's used to either acquire new talent from outside the organization or lock up rostered talent further into the future.We don't usually think about a team paying a current player more money because he's outperforming his contract. Maybe that's because that's just simply not how the baseball world works. The Royals have an opportunity to turn that mindset on its head, and in the end, it might help both their bottom line and their ring count. And even if it doesn't work out, the Royals come out of it benevolent trendsetters with a smiling (and slightly richer) catcher.

Lee Judge writes that Alex Gordon is a bit obsessive about his rituals.

One day, Alex Gordon and I were talking while sitting in the Royals dugout. Laid on the dugout bench between us were three fresh pieces of gum, lined up in a row. Greg Holland walked up, grabbed one of the pieces of gum, unwrapped it, and popped it in his mouth. Alex looked at Holly and told him to go back up to the clubhouse and get him another piece of gum. Greg rolled his eyes and asked what kind. At the time, Holland hadn’t been in the big leagues that long and didn’t know that grabbing the piece of gum was a mistake: He was messing with Gordon’s pre-game routine.

Some guys — and Alex Gordon is one of them — have very precise pre-game routines. Alex chews three pieces of gum every day, or at least he did back then. Alex hits the weight room every day. Alex power shags every day.

Clark Fosler at Royals Authority looks at what it will take for Kris Medlen to return to form.

In 2015, opposing hitters posted a .286 average and slugged .595 against Medlen curveballs. FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY-FIVE. By comparison, in 2013, batters managed just a .160 average and slugged just .280. The year before that, .184 and .245. The reason is fairly obvious: it’s all about the break.

In 2013, a Medlen curveball averaged a horizontal break of 6.69 inches. In 2015, the break was just 5.76 inches.

David Lesky at Pine Tar Press thinks Mike Moustakas may end up settling before his arbitration hearing.

Moustakas, of course, is represented by Scott Boras, so a long-term deal probably isn’t the most likely thing in the world right now. Of course, the Royals do have quite a relationship with Boras, with multiple clients currently on the team and multiple clients formerly on the team, so you never know. My guess based on a couple small murmurs I’ve heard is that the Royals and Moose end up with a two year deal for around $14.5 million. If they do end up going long-term, I could see them talking anything from four years or more just so Moustakas could potentially get one more big pay day. Still, don’t expect Moustakas, a player who has a great relationship with the team and front office, to be the first player Dayton Moore goes to a hearing with.

Fox Sports Kansas City will air two FanFest specials hosted by Jon Paul Morosi.

The Royals extend their working agreement with the Burlington Royals of the Appalachian League through 2020.

The Rays officially begin search for a stadium site in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area.

Jose Bautista says he wants to be a Blue Jay for life.

Jayson Stark writes that MLB now has greater parity than the NFL.

Jeff Sullivan at Fangraphs wants your opinion on which pitchers are a true "ace."

Are the Yankees saving all their money to make an eventual run at Bryce Harper?

Matt Jackson, writing for Beyond the Boxscore, finds that younger umpires are getting better and better at calls.

Chiefs safety and cancer survivor Eric Berry is named Comeback Player of the Year.

OTTER BOWL OTTER BOWL OTTER BOWL

Twitter angered users by announcing changes to its timeline.

Astronaut Sally Ride recalls all the stupid sexist questions she was asked by the press.

Beyonce dropped her new single over the weekend, and the internet went crazy over her plugging Red Lobster.

Your song of the day is Mojo Nixon with "Not as Much as Football."