Royals Rumblings - News for October 30, 2017

Royals Rumblings - News for October 30, 2017

Alex Duvall at Kings of Kauffman wants to trade Whit Merrifield to Boston.

Before you freak out about me “giving up on Whit,” accuse me of being a “fair-weather fan” or whatever, let’s remove baseball from this scenario. Let’s imagine Merrifield is a stock you can buy on Wall Street.

The Kansas City Royals currently own stock in Merrifield. If I told you that his stock would never get any higher — and you can’t use any of the money he’d net you in the next three years — would you be willing to keep that stock?

What if I told you that you could trade Merrifield’s stock to get stock in a guy who could potentially be worth twice as much as Merrifield? You would be foolish not to trade in on that opportunity. That is where I think the Kansas City Royals will find themselves this offseason.

Jason Pennini at The Baseball Bell Curve profiles some Royals in the Instructional League, including M.J. Melendez and Khalil Lee. (h/t Shaun Newkirk)

The first thing I noticed about Lee is he swings the bat extremely hard. At 5’10 170 (basically my build!) he does not have the look of a power hitter, but make no mistake, he can mash baseballs. There is a lot of loft in his swing due to an uppercut that should result in a high FB% and high ISOs. He hit a deep home run to right center in today’s game. In my looks there was a decent amount of swing and miss on breaking pitches. I don’t have a great feel for Lee’s arm, but have read that he was a two way player in high school so it can’t be half bad.

The Royals show up a few times on this list of worst mid-season trades, including the disastrous deal with the Padres.

Obviously, they failed to help the Royals reach the playoffs, but while Cahill is a free agent and almost certainly won’t be back, Buchter and Maurer are both under club control for multiple seasons and will have opportunities to make this trade look better than it does right now. The Royals were likely going to designate Wood for assignment soon anyway, and he continued to struggle as a member of San Diego’s rotation. Only time will tell, however, if they’ll regret giving up Strahm and Ruiz. Strahm, who turns 26 next month, missed the rest of the season after suffering a patellar tendon tear in July and has yet to establish himself as a dependable big-league starter, while the 18-year-old Ruiz is highly-regarded but spent the season in rookie ball.

Wayne Cavadi at FanRag looks at the top bats selected in this year’s draft, including top Royals pick Nick Pratto.

People love his left-handed swing, but the power seems to be a question mark. He played in Rookie ball, and hit 15 doubles and four home runs, almost all to the pull side. it would be unfair to judge the 19-year-old after 52 games in Rookie ball, but he seems like he still has a ways to go.

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe thinks Eric Hosmer and the Red Sox are an “ideal” match.

Justin Jones at Kings of Kauffman looks at potential first base and centerfield signings for the Royals.

Kansas City is ranked the 11th-best baseball city by Wallethub.

Jeff Passan makes the case for why Yuli Gurriel should be suspended for his racist gesture, while Dylan Hernandez thinks Gurriel has shown contrition.

Both the Astros and Dodgers are claiming the World Series balls are too slick.

The Cubs may be looking to make a big move for a young pitcher.

Dave Martinez will manage the Nationals.

Gabe Kapler will manage the Phillies.

The meaning of 20 wins for pitchers.

Why the World Series once went to a Game Eight (video).

Fake news has infiltrated sports news as well.

Why NFL player Chris Long will donate his entire salary to charity.

A company simply added “Blockchain” to its name, and saw its value surge.

One of the acting credits on Star Trek: Discovery may not be for an actual person.

Is the web series the new TV pilot?

Your song of the day is Madness with One Step Beyond.