Royals Rumblings - News for March 6, 2018

Royals Rumblings - News for March 6, 2018

Ned Yost is energized by the youth in camp.

“The things that all these kids are learning right now, I think, if you asked them, it might be a little mind blowing with all the information that they’re getting,” Yost said in his office last week. “But the cool thing about it is you see them really taking to it and really retaining it, which is important.

“These kids are some kind of fired up to be here.”

In his mailbag, Jeffrey Flanagan dismisses the possibility of a reunion with some old friends.

As much as the Royals respect Greg Holland and admire what he did for them, he’s not coming back. Kansas City is basically at its payroll cap ($110 million), which also all but rules out Mike Moustakas, unless Moose would be willing to take a Duda-type deal (one-year, $3.5 million). Never say never, but a Moose reunion seems highly unlikely.

Eno Sarris at The Athletic looks at the late breakout from Whit Merrifield and what we should expect going forward.

Even if Merrifield moves to center to take advantage of his speed, there is good precedent for him to settle in as a league-average guy for a few years.

But the cold reality of the aging curve presents itself in the data as well.

The average career wins in this group is around nine, which is a career any ballplayer would be proud of, but it doesn’t represent a whole lot of wins beyond the breakout season. The same group averaged nearly four wins in their breakout season; major-league average play is around two wins. That means, on average, Merrifield is likely to have two or three seasons of average major-league play left in him.

ESPN ranks the Royals 29th in their power rankings for the near future.

The dilemma: Kansas City has a hard road ahead. While flags fly forever, the team has a challenge in making sure the fans they added from 2012 to 2015 stick around for what looks to be a long, painful rebuild. The team was close enough to the playoffs last year to make hanging on to the veterans seem a reasonable move, but the bill has come due in the form of an empty farm system.

The Royals minor league pitching depth ranks 29th, according to milb.com.

Pitching prospect Foster Griffin chats with writer Maria Torres.

Being left-handed, I like the way (Danny) Duffy works. I like the way his mechanics are. Every single one of them, really, have been very open arms to us, which has been really cool. I can’t thank them enough and I think that’s just part of the Royals organization and the guys they bring in.

Rustin Dodd has his first piece up at The Athletic on why he loves covering baseball.

Ichiro Suzuki may be heading back to Seattle.

St. Louis inks infielder Paul DeJong to a six-year deal.

How general managers talk amongst themselves.

The most head-scratching positional eligibility for fantasy baseball in 2018.

Jon Lester is trying to make bad throws on purpose.

Players who could be traded this summer.

The Athletic raises $20 million in its latest round of funding, despite not turning a profit.

What the NCAA tournament would look like without the FBI probe players.

Google will sell Zagat to an upstart restaurant review site.

Why did Facebook ask users a survey question about condoning pedophilia?

Merriam-Webster now recognizes the word “embiggen”, a cromulent made-up word from The Simpsons.

Your song of the day is Arrested Development with Everyday People.