Royals Rumblings - News for January 10, 2018

Royals Rumblings - News for January 10, 2018

Sam Mellinger refutes the case that Dayton Moore is overrated.

I understand the case. The rebuild took longer than he or anyone else I know thought it should. Too many major decisions since the parade have backfired. One of his great strengths here has been to bend David Glass’ perspective and opinions, and Moore should’ve had the vision to know and convince the owner that the team could not win, rebuild, and save money all at the same time.

I get all that, and more. Just three winning seasons out of 11. Many owners would’ve fired Moore after 2012, so in some ways, he’s lucky he had the chance to see this all through.

But, guys. Pro sports are measured in championships, right? In playoff success? Isn’t that what’s driving so much of the current frustration with the Chiefs?

And Moore helped the Royals dig out from being baseball’s worst franchise to consecutive pennants, a world championship, and an experience that fundamentally changed the sport’s place in Kansas City.

That’s pretty damn good.

Jeffrey Flanagan looks at the new Royals bullpen.

There are some power arms here even if the Royals do trade Herrera. Peralta, acquired from the Brewers, can bring it at 96-98 mph, as can Maurer. McCarthy (3.20 ERA in 33 games) and his heavy sinker could be a quality setup guy. Buchter offers the same type of production from the left side (2.67 ERA in 29 outings with a 0.89 WHIP). Almonte and Machado also bring it at 95-mph-plus, and Smith, acquired in a trade through the Rule 5 Draft, has touched 100 mph. The Royals do love power arms in the ‘pen.

Colby Wilson at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City looks at Jorge Soler and Jorge Bonifacio.

The Jorge’s have a lot of potential, both now and in the future. It’s become chic to consider next season’s Royals, should all the free-agents depart, to be quite devoid of anything worth building around. If dos Jorge’s have slipped so far in the public consciousness, it’s for good reason—Soler was clearly not what was envisioned last season, whether by injury, bad luck or some combination thereof, while Bonifacio was criminally underrated and put in some particularly unfortunate situations as a rookie (outlined by Lesky’s piece here). It’s not hard to see a scenario that involves both becoming, if not cornerstones, then certainly pieces that can be useful to a future contender. Four years from now, with proper development, they’re the kind of low-cost, mid-yield players who form the backbone of a contender.

Aaron Schwenker at Royals Farm Report looks at the outfielders in the farm system.

The sleeper is definitely looked over on this roster. Blocked by the likes of Soler, Bonifacio, Gordon, et al. He will have to crush his way to Kansas City in 2018. His name is Logan Moon, who coincidentally also is 25-years-old. His slash-line in Omaha this year was .336/.368/.542/.910, he had 8 doubles and 1 triple to go along with his 4 HRs over 107 ABs. What might scare one away would be his crazy high BABIP of .432, but he struck out only 28% of the time while driving the ball in the air 40% of the time. Logan will almost certainly start the year in Omaha and if he can sustain these numbers next season over a larger sample size, he might force Dayton’s hand into a 2018 call-up.

A Chicago radio guy threw out a sketchy rumor about the Cubs being interested in Lorenzo Cain.

Justin Morneau officially retires.

Ryan Howard is not - he’s hoping to make a comeback.

Eno Sarris (with a nice shout out to Royals Review) looks at what this slow off-season can tell us about the next few months.

Kiley McDaniel at Fangraphs looks at the status of the stats vs. scouts debate.

What would happen if a baseball game went 50 innings?

Who were the best two-strike hitters in baseball last year?

MLB wants a cut of sports betting revenues if it becomes legal in Indiana.

The new billion dollar Rangers stadium has a fake feel to it.

Ryan Dempster apologizes after making a joke about a minor league team’s dead dog.

The son of Mariners coach Rich Donnelly dies trying to help a motorist.

Your way-too-early top 25 college football ranking for 2018.

Eric Bienemy is the new Chiefs offensive coordinator.

Advocates of Puerto Rico statehood plan to demand representation.

High speed rail may now be competitive with air travel in price and speed.

Here is the driverless pizza oven truck no one asked for.

Your song of the day is Supertramp with Take the Long Way Home.