Weekend Rumblings - News for November 17, 2018

Weekend Rumblings - News for November 17, 2018

David Lesky at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City considers the Royals being creative with pitching roles.

Think about opening a game with someone like Duffy and stacking with righties and letting him go three or four and then moving on to Junis to finish things out against all these righties with his nasty slider. That’s just one example, but I do think the Royals would do well to find a different approach as they’re rebuilding looking toward their next contender. And for those who say Ned Yost is too rigid, I do agree that it might be a factor, but I always go back to him being the one to put Alex Gordon in the leadoff spot, which made all sorts of sense, but was seemingly out of character for Ned. That’s not to say it proves he’s forward thinking, but it does prove that he can be, so we’ll see, I guess.

Mike Wilson at Fox 4 suggests four free agents the Royals should consider.

RP Cody Allen

Another reliever who seems an intriguing “buy low” candidate, Allen was outstanding from 2014 to 2017 out of the Cleveland bullpen, but the closer struggled with walks and the home run ball in 2018.

Additionally, it’s a deep relief pitcher market. Herrera, Craig Kimbrel, Jeurys Familia, Zach Britton, Andrew Miller, David Robertson, Adam Ottavino and Joe Kelly among others are all looking for contracts that figure to be multi-year deals worth eight figures. It’s easy to imagine a reliever like Allen getting lost a bit in the shuffle.

John McCarty at KC Kingdom also likes Allen.

Allen has experience pitching in big time games and in big moments. There are big questions about what the Royals bullpen will be, considering there is not a lot of proven year to year production. If nothing else, Allen could be a nice bounce back candidate to turn into a trade piece at the deadline.

Fansided proposes a fake trade between the Royals and Rockies.

In this swap (again, not in real life, but in simulation), the Colorado Rockies landed outfielder Jorge Soler from the Kansas City Royals in exchange for right-handed reliever Bryan Shaw and minor league pitcher Breiling Eusebio. With the Rockies in need of a corner outfielder with some power at the plate, we felt the move was good for Colorado on a few levels.

Danny Duffy is paying for a California high school team to come to Kansas City and play a game at Kauffman Stadium next spring.

Royals Farm Report has a podcast!

The Red Sox re-sign Steve Pearce on a one-year deal.

The Yankees are moving closer to dealing Sonny Gray.

The Padres want Noah Syndergaard.

The new Marlins neon merchandise is....good?

MLB relaxes restrictions on colors for player shoes.

The Phillies are going to be spending “stupid” money this winter.

The Orioles hire Mike Elias as their new GM.

Is there positional bias in prospect rankings?

How Kevin Brown became baseball’s first $100 million player.

The pros and cons to Kansas hiring Les Miles to coach football.

57 questions about Heinz’s ketchup offer for Patrick Mahomes’ steaks.

Congress wants harsher penalties for robocallers.

Millennials are disrupting Thanksgiving with their tiny turkeys.

An artist buys a Banksy painting for $730,000 just to paint over it.

Your song of the day is the Red Garland Trio with Stompin’ at the Savoy.