Royals Rumblings - News for December 4, 2017

Royals Rumblings - News for December 4, 2017

Rustin Dodd examines the value of losing for the Royals.

In interviews, Royals general manager Dayton Moore has publicly mulled the idea of taking a step back, though he loathes the philosophy of “tanking”, a maneuver to intentionally be bad at the major-league level. And yet, the Royals, as currently constructed, are positioned to lose a lot in both 2018 and 2019. They stand to gain from it, too.

There is little value in getting caught in the middle, as Hahn found the hard way. There can be value in losing.

“When a team is pondering the full-scale rebuild,” says Chaim Bloom, the Tampa Bay Rays’ senior vice president of baseball operations, “even independent of any benefits from bottoming out, it’s sometimes might be the right course for them to say: ‘OK, how can we get back to winning 90 games?’ ”

Why Kansas City could be a landing spot for free agent Matt Adams.

The No. 1 goal for the Royals is to find a way to bring Eric Hosmer back as the face of the franchise. If they’re not able to convince him to stay, Kansas City will turn to Plan B… which almost certainly isn’t Adams. In fact, Adams might not even be Plan C.

But the Royals have a tight budget and a bunch of free agents potentially leaving their 80-82, third-place team. It’s not hard to envision them filling a hole at first base in 2018 with a known commodity such as Adams. The fact that he won’t cost much money and would be on a one-year deal is ideal.

Buster Olney writes this is a tough market for top free agents if they want to sign with contenders.

Eric Hosmer hit .318 with 25 homers and won his fourth Gold Glove. His agent, Scott Boras, has been casting Hosmer as a human ticket into the postseason because of Hosmer’s leadership and history of success with the Royals.

But as with Cozart, there appear to be very few potential bidders because so many big-market teams look set at first base....

What's more, the list of free-agent first basemen who will be less expensive than Hosmer is long: Carlos Santana, Yonder Alonso, Lucas Duda, Adam Lind, Mitch Moreland, Logan Morrison, Mark Reynolds and Mike Napoli.

Peter Moylan talks about not being famous in his native Australia.

“Am I well known? Not one bit. I can walk anywhere, any street, in any part of Australia, and not get recognized. If I was an Australian Rules football player, I would be. If I played in the NBA, a lot of people would recognize me. If was a good swimmer or played international soccer or even international hockey — not ice hockey, but field hockey — people would know me. Australia is sports mad, but not so much with baseball. That’s OK. I’m happy to just sit back and not be famous.”

David Hill at Call to the Pen looks at the Royals “Mount Rushmore.”

The Blue Jays get All-Star shortstop Aledemys Diaz from the Cardinals.

The Yankees hire Aaron Boone to manage their club, despite no coaching experience.

MLB’s middle class may have a free agency problem.

What rookie pitchers dazzled according to Statcast last year?

What are the physics behind the famed Japanese “gyro” pitch?

Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters melts down.

What would an eight-team college football playoff look like this year?

CVS will buy Aetna for $67.5 billion.

Microtransactions are changing the pricing structure in video games.

There are still people on Second Life.

Your song of the day is A Tribe Called Quest with Can I Kick It?