Royals Rumblings - News for October 17, 2018

Royals Rumblings - News for October 17, 2018

In his Mellinger Minutes, Sam Mellinger addresses why the Royals wanted to bring Eric Hosmer back and not Lorenzo Cain.

I think you’re referring to Hosmer being the one they tried to sign in free agency, and not Cain. That had less to do with who was the better player, and more with who they thought would be a better player in three or four years.

Cain is a star. He is also 32, and will be 33 in April. He has a history of soft-tissue injuries, and his value dips if and when he has to move from center field. For a team that wasn’t expecting to win for a few years, that’s a tough investment.

Let’s say the Royals expected to have a winner by 2021. Hosmer will be 31 then, Cain 35. That’s a huge difference.

Clint Scoles compares the farm system to the 2009 edition.

I don’t know if there is as much talent as there was back in 2009, but I also don’t think that group reached their lofty ceiling as individual players despite back to back World Series appearances. This current edition will be hard pressed to match what those players did but as a group, but they are very talented and probably deeper in terms of the number of possible impact players. The front office added Wil Myers and Aaron Crow to that group which didn’t help much on the field, but did help them get over the hump after the Myers trade. This year the front office can make another impact with a large number of high draft picks including the #2 overall selection.

Drew Osborne at Royals Farm Report takes a look at the pitchers the Royals drafted this year.

The early returns are good. The Royals drafted some guys who can be big league starters and bullpen pieces. They got a lot of tall guys who throw hard and put up the strikeouts. We got some big time RHPs at the top of the draft, some very projectable LHP starters at the top of the draft, some wild card guys with really good arms who could be lock down bullpen arms or 3 or 4 type starters in the top 10 rounds, and a few guys who might catch lightning in a bottle in the rest of the draft.

No one saw Orlando Arcia’s post-season performance coming.

Did the Astros have an employee help them steal signs?

Alex Bregman is not interested in crap outside the strike zone.

Manny Machado admits he doesn’t always hustle.

A look inside the Mets GM search mess.

The Angels opt out of their lease on Angel Stadium.

Will Buck Showalter and Jim Duquette be able to get top jobs again after this year’s mess with the Orioles?

The Marlins are getting a new logo in 2019.

Do umpires tend to eject non-white players more?

Nick Bosa won’t return to Ohio State, and will prepare for the NFL draft.

USA Gymnastics CEO Mary Bono resigns after just five days due to backlash.

What’s behind North Korea’s building boom?

How scammers are stealing manuscripts from publishers.

The making of Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2.

Your song of the day is The Whitest Boy Alive with Burning.