Royals Rumblings

Royals Rumblings - News for January 11, 2017

Is it time to think about stadium upgrades already?

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Jan 11, 2017, 8:00am EST

MLB: Cleveland Indians at Kansas City Royals

Royals Rumblings - News for January 11, 2017

Sam Mellinger questions the direction of the Royals.

This is something we’ve talked about before in bites, including here, but the Royals are attempting what could be described as the most difficult thing in professional sports:

They are a small-money major league baseball team trying to win now and build for the future simultaneously.

I believe this is borderline insanity. I believe this is an impossible task taken on in spite of better options on either side. I expect to get more into this as time goes on, because it will be The Story of the next year-plus of the the franchise.

So, no, I don’t believe it’s the right path. But I do understand it, and can respect the ambition even if I believe it to be a mistake.

Also, I suppose this part is important, if the Royals are going to pursue this path, they’ve made two terrific deals.

John Perrotto at Fanrag thinks the Royals are making due the best they can under the circumstances.

What makes Soler particularly attractive is that he is under club control quite affordably through 2020; he has four years and $17.67 million remaining on the nine-year, $30 million contract he signed with the Cubs in 2012 following his defection from Cuba.

“He’s been inconsistent and injury-prone but I still think he has a chance to be special,” a scout from an NL team said. “The tools are all there. He could still be a star. He’s a great upside play.”

At 29, it is doubtful Karns will become a star. He is 14-9 with a 4.41 ERA in 54 games over four seasons with averages of 9.2 strikeouts and 3.8 walks per nine innings.

“For me, he’s a back-end guy in a rotation,” a scout from American League team. “His stuff is really good but he’s never been able to throw strikes consistently and I don’t think that’s going to change at this stage of his career. Still, with an arm like that, you never know.”

Steven Goldman at FanRag thinks the Royals may be punting on 2017.

The Royals do have some outfield prospects coming along, though no Superman is as yet in evidence. In other words, were they expecting to bounce from .500 back to the postseason, Dyson was someone you might have kept around rather than going speculative with Karns, who at this writing doesn’t even have a rotation spot available to him.

It seems strange to put so much importance on a fourth outfielder (3.5, or if you prefer, 3½), but given the team’s lack of moves to bolster the roster for one more run while most of the team is still intact—it doesn’t seem fair to Raul Mondesi to let him go into the season as the starting second baseman, and though I realize that except for 15 minutes of Ben Zobrist, the Royals have done without one for years, that still doesn’t make it right—it seems like even more than dealing of Wade Davis, unloading Dyson was Dayton Moore’s 2017 concession speech.

Dave Helling at the Star says we may be only a few years away from deciding what to do with the Truman Sports Complex again.

Don’t look now, but those lease agreements are now 11 years old. That means the area has just 14 years to figure out if it wants to keep professional sports in the community for several more decades — and, crucially, who will pay the cost.

OK, 14 years is a long time. But it isn’t an indefinite period of time. And the crushing math of big-time sports means the Kansas City area should at least start considering the choices it will face the closer we get to 2031, when the current leases expires.

YanksGoYard worries Peter O’Brien will be the one that got away.

Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain, and Hunter Dozier are some of the early names confirmed for FanFest.

Former Royals reliever Louis Coleman signs a minor league deal with the Reds.

The Rays sign Colby Rasmus.

The Twins and Dodgers are at an impasse on Brian Dozier trade talks.

Carlos Beltran explains why he’s returning to Houston.

Which team fanbases are the most tortured in baseball?

Henry Druschel at Beyond the Boxscore evaluates the different projection systems.

Clickhole marvels at the career of Babe Ruth.

Baylor becomes the fourth top-ranked basketball team to lose this year.

Derrick Rose returns to the Knicks after a bizarre unexplained absence.

Redditors are creating a fake stock market to determine the value of memes.