Royals Rumblings - News for January 27, 2017

Royals Rumblings - News for January 27, 2017

Ned Yost talks about how Yordano Ventura’s death will impact the team.

“Our guys, what’s so special about them, is the brotherhood that they have among themselves, and again, this is going to hurt,” Yost told 610. “They’ve seen Yordano come up as an immature 22-year-old and over the last three or four years really start to grow up and understand what it takes to be successful, and they’ve been there lock in step with him the whole way. They had their arms around him when he did great and they had their arms around him when they didn’t do so great. It’s a special relationship.”

The club announced they will wear a patch honoring Yordano Ventura this year.

The Royals hand out some honors.

Clark Fosler at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City looks at how the roster is shaping up.

BULLPEN: Kelvin Herrera, Joakim Soria, Matt Strahm, Brian Flynn, Scott Alexander, Kevin McCarthy, Brandon League

We will go the traditional route and project a 12-man pitching staff to start the season. I can make a case, even with the early need for a fifth starter, for still being able to break camp with an 11-man unit (I make the same argument every year), but we’ll save it for next month. Right now, Herrera, Soria and Flynn are locks and, unless the Royals want Strahm to lengthen out in the minors, he’s a lock too. After that, it is a true crapshoot and likely will be effected by players not yet signed (Moylan, Holland, Hochevar or many others). I took the easy route, taking two guys in Alexander and McCarthy who saw action last year. My final pick is from the fleet of non-roster invitees. While it may not be League who comes back from oblivion, I will be shocked if someone like that does not break camp with the team. I mean, even when we were all doubting Dayton Moore’s ability as a general manager, the one thing he could always do is find a gem in the scrap heap.

Travis Sawchik of Fangraphs is puzzled by Greg Holland’s choice to pitch in Colorado.

Greg Holland is either a very confident man or the Rockies’ offer to him represented the best that he’d received this offseason or, perhaps, both. There was other reported interest from the Dodgers, Cubs, Nationals, Rays, and Reds.

As a free-agent pitcher recovering either from injury or a poor season works down his preference list of those places he’d like to salvage his career, Coors Field typically comes up near the end.

And there’s evidence to support that line of thinking. Consider: of the 80 most lucrative contracts in the sport’s history, most being free-agent deals, none was awarded to a pitcher who had most recently pitched for the Rockies.

The Mariners will try Jarrod Dyson in the leadoff spot.

Ben Zobrist and Lorenzo Cain are among the best players to never be a Top 100 prospect.

Royals fans rank the team in the bottom ten in Fangraphs’ organizational rankings.

Stephen Drew returns to the Nationals on a one-year deal.

Grant Brisbee thinks the Angels might be sneaky good.

What would an all-free agent team look like?

The Mets are mishandling Michael Conforto.

How much hope and faith is in baseball?

All 50 states ranked by their college football recruits.

Alex Smith is terrible at dodgeball.

How Ray Kroc became an American villain.

Hollywood is turning to books for its biggest productions.

Tostitos has a bag that can tell if you’ve had too much to drink.

Your song of the day is Carrie Underwood with See You Again (h/t cmkeller).