Royals Rumblings - News for February 8, 2018

Baseball Prospectus came out with their PECOTA projections yesterday, taking most of the headlines on a day in the middle of a slow offseason.

Craig Brown at BP Kansas City ran over some of the projections for the Royals.

Soler is tied with Merrifield for the Royals most productive offensive player. As angry as you may be at Merrifield’s projection, you have to be tickled at how PECOTA views Soler. It buys the thunder potential with 24 doubles and 24 home runs. He’s projected to be the Royals top run producer.

Also at BP Kansas City, David Lesky thinks the Royals have stacked up a good amount of potential starters heading into Spring Training.

I think Oaks is probably the seventh starter on this team, which is a big improvement over Eric Skoglund from last season. I didn’t mind the trade of Scott Alexander to get him because I like Oaks as a middle to backend starter. His ground ball tendencies should play well, but I worry a bit that he might throw a few too many strikes given that his stuff isn’t elite and big league hitters will be able to do damage against him. I think he spends much more time in the big leagues than the projections, but I’d say the rates are probably about right.

Jeffrey Flanagan reports on the Royals primary concern in Spring Training will be to figure out what’s going on at first base:

But if Cuthbert were to move to first base, the Royals then would have a hole at third base (assuming they will not sign free agent Mike Moustakas).

Another option at first base, Moore said, would be prospect Hunter Dozier, who was drafted as a shortstop in 2013, then moved to third base. Dozier also has played corner outfield. Dozier, ranked as the club’s No. 3 prospect by MLB Pipeline, has played 12 games in the Minors at first base.

”Hunter Dozier is athletic enough and has good enough hands to play first base,” Moore said.

Flanagan also explores options not presently on the roster.

Royals Farm Report gives a brief remembrance of Malcom Culver.

Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel talk about the prospects they love who didn’t make FanGraphs’ top 100 list. A Royals prospect made the varied and extensive list. Just one, though.

At FanGraphs, Jeff Sullivan posits that the Reds’ ace in the making (and 2017 Shadow Royal) Luis Castillo is already an ace.

Sullivan also tries to remind us what projections actually mean.

The Yankees acquired Russell Wilson because the entirety of baseball is an insufficient farm system.

At Baseball America, Kyle Glaser looks at what the AL Central would look like if their entire team was homegrown without the benefit of trading and free agency.

The Olympic great Peggy Fleming is revisited on the 50th anniversary of her coming out party and its begetting the birth of modern American figure skating.

Stop. Cuddling. Your. Chickens.

Starman and his Tesla will shoot past SpaceX’s intended orbit of Mars and into the asteroid belt.

Alan Sepinwall explores crosses Schur streams and wonders what Parks & Recreation characters would make it into The Good Place. Mike Schur (a.k.a. Ken Tremendous) weighs in at the end.

In advance of the upcoming Mission: Impossible movie, they’ve dropped a video detailing Tom Cruise’s insane helicopter stunt in the sixth installment, Fallout.

Quincy Jones gave a helluva interview. Must-read stuff. Seriously. If you missed it yesterday as it went wild across the internet, read it.

The song of the day is “The Streetbeater” (which many of you would know as the theme song from Sanford & Son) by Quincy Jones: