Royals Rumblings - News for September 12, 2017

Royals Rumblings - News for September 12, 2017

Pete Grathoff looks at the Wild Card race and notes it could have a dubious distinction.

Since baseball expanded the playoff field to include two wild card teams in 2012, the Astros’ 86 victories are the fewest for a team to make the playoffs.

So we could see a record-low number of wins for a second wild-card team this season.

Ben Reiter at Sports Illustrated wonders if the Royals’ bet this year will pay off.

It is easy to say that Moore could have restocked his farm system by flipping his impending free agents, but that ignores the conditions of a market in which teams have recently only wanted to part with top prospects for pitching, while most of the Royals’ impending free agents are hitters. The best hitter traded at the deadline was J.D. Martinez—a superstar who has baseball’s seventh-best OPS (.918) over the past four years and who has slugged 21 homers in 45 games for the Diamondbacks, including four on Sept. 4—but in exchange the Tigers failed to command even a single top 100-ranked minor leaguer from Arizona.

Eric Boston at Kings of Kauffman considers re-signing Lorenzo Cain.

That sounds like someone Dayton Moore is going to want in that clubhouse as the team looks to bring in younger players in 2018. Not only can he be a veteran leader for the young guys, but his positive attitude will be a welcomed addition through stretches where the team struggles.

There is also no clear replacement in center field. A major factor for me.

Brandon Moss really likes hitting in Kansas City.

Eric Hosmer is named American League Player of the Week.

The Royals reach the 2 million mark in attendance for the third consecutive season.

Mariners outfielder Jarrod Dyson is out for the year with hernia surgery.

Tigers pitcher Michael Fulmer is also out for the year and will have elbow surgery.

The Nationals have turned into one of baseball’s best franchises.

A’s pitcher Jharel Cotton is raising money for Hurricane Irma victims in his native Virgin Islands.

Baseball is turning internet writers into scouts.

What the last 377,340 games tells us about scoring in baseball.

How the Indians integrate analytics into player development.

Would a four-man outfield work?

The Indians said they were phasing out the Chief Wahoo logo, but they have worn it the great majority of their games.

Ranking the best NFL player celebrations so far.

Alexi Lalas goes off on the US Men’s National team.

A judge rules a monkey does not get copyright protection for a photograph it took.

Are these the 25 best movies about outer space?

This might be the worst new crop of fall TV shows in some time.

Your song of the day is Radiohead with 2 + 2 = 5.