Royals Rumblings: News for April 26, 2018

At BP Kansas City, former RR overlord invokes Raymond Chandler when looking at Alex Gordon’s demise:

Gordon maintains he’s healthy. He says the injection into his hip and the time off helped. He’s pain free and, he says, he’s ready to play. The question is, how much longer can the Royals keep him in the lineup? The Royals jettisoned Orlando, which isn’t a big deal at all because it’s like for like at this point. (I can’t believe that’s an actual sentence I wrote.) The Royals owe Gordon an actual truckload of money for this year and next. How long does a rebuilding team keep around a veteran who can’t produce anything at the plate?

The breakups with Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer weren’t fun, but they were the nature of the business. Stars leave small market teams for big paydays. Gordon was different. The star who took the hometown payday. Now it feels like his time in Kansas City won’t have a similar happy ending. The Royals will give him a long leash (they already have), but if he somehow can’t magically rediscover how to drive the ball, it’s not in their best interests to keep him around. And considering everything he’s given to the franchise, that’s a shame it’s come to this.

At Royals Dot Com, Jeffrey Flanagan reports that it looks likely Ian Kennedy will make his next scheduled start and checks in with Ned Yost on how he felt about the crowd at Kauffman cheering Lorenzo Cain’s visiting dong:

“Why would I be surprised?’ Yost said Wednesday. “Oh come on, man. Serious? I fully expected that. That’s why this is one of the best places to play in all of Major League Baseball.

”This fan base, they appreciate their players. They appreciate watching them grow from young upstarts to All-Stars to world champions. They appreciate the journey they took with these guys for six years -- the ins and outs, the bads, the hurts, everything. And they don’t forget.

”Last night was kind of what makes this city, this fan base, this area so attractive to every other Major League player, because you are appreciated if you come in and do your best. They understand that this is a tough game and there are ups and downs. You’re never forgotten if you come in here like Lorenzo Cain did. It just showed how great this city is.”

At his site Bleeding Royal Blue, RR’s Sean Thornton catalogued the most mediocre Royals in the franchise’s long history of mediocrity. On the decidedly blah career of Brent Mayne:

So in an ironic twist, it appears that Mayne’s fWAR (0.0) is actually higher than it is on Baseball Reference (-1.2). This obviously is because of how each site factors their wins above replacement, but it does show how Mayne’s value can shift according to what you are looking for.

If you watched the Royals during what I like to refer to as ‘The Lean Years”, you probably saw Brent Mayne play and you are probably completely agreeing with him ending up at the top of this list. The funny part is that while I am poking a bit of fun toward a list of mediocrity, Mayne is more proof that being average can actually be a strength. Mayne ended up with a 15 year career, got to appear in the playoffs in 2004 and racked up over $13 million dollars in his career. All in all, that speaks of a very blessed career for Mr. Mayne.

With 10% of the season in the books, Dayn Perry grades each team’s season at CBS Sports. The Royals’ grade could be worse.

(Need a sub to bask in the misery on this one)

The Star’s Maria Torres also explores the Acuña connection:

“I saw him by mistake,” said Royals assistant general manager Rene Francisco, who oversees the club’s international operations.

Escobar, Francisco said, asked the Royals if Acuña could work out for the team. They granted permission, took notes and filed the information away.

In the end, the Braves, who offered Acuña a relatively modest signing bonus of $100,000, won the sweepstakes.

At Royals Farm Report:

• Drew Osborne uses Perfect Game’s mock draft from last week as a jumping-off point for a mock of the Royals’ picks wherein he gets to make the picks. Read it.
• RR’s Patrick Brennan recaps Tuesday’s minor league games and has a run-down of prospecty links.

At FanGraphs:

• Craig Edwards wonders if we might see the rare early season trade of Manny Machado.
• David Laurila chats with Braves’ pitching prospect Mike Soroka.
• Jay Jaffe notes that the Houston Astros are still pretty good.
• Sheryl Ring investigates the Angels’ options regarding his contract status if Albert Pujols did in fact lie about his age.
• Jeff Sullivan wants to contextualize late-career Kurt Suzuki—yes, Kurt Suzuki—with a pick the catcher quiz. There’s a Kevin Seitzer bit therein.

Leonys Martín hits dong, then hits dong (h/t to Sweep_the_Leg).

With Brockmire returning last night, John Paschal dives into the world of baseball as seen through the show over at the Hardball Times.

At Baseball Prospectus:

• Ben Carsley commits to the thought exercise of conducting an NFL-style mock draft of MLB prospects.
• Russell Carleton analyzes the value of teams bunting to keep things honest (subscription).

As if there needed to be more cause for subscribing to the Athletic:

Nick Wright is featured for his assertion that LeBron James is the GOAT.

After decades of eluding authorities, it looks like the Golden State Killer—the subject of Michelle McNamara’s posthumously published bestseller I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—may have finally been caught.

Let’s get this penguin in the Olympics.

Sam Rockwell has signed on to co-star in Taika Waititi’s next truly bizarre sounding film, JoJo Rabbit.

But what about the OG maraschino cherry?

John Prine’s music as the soundtrack to life and death.

The song of the day is “Back in the Day” by Ahmad: