Royals Rumblings - News for August 30, 2018

Royals Rumblings - News for August 30, 2018

Another GorDONG moved him into fourth on the Royals all-time dong leaders:

Gordon’s home run was his 10th this season and 170th of his career, surpassing Hal McRae. George Brett (317) is the all-time leader, followed by Mike Sweeney (197) and Amos Otis (193).

Royals starter Danny Duffy even stopped Gordon in the dugout to tell him the news of moving up the home run list.

”I told him that in-game and he said, ‘I don’t care,’” Duffy said, laughing. “I know he does care. He was just in the moment. He’s a gamer. He just wants to win that day.”

At the Athletic (subscribe here and give OMD Amazon bucks), Rustin Dodd looks at what could happen if the Royals don’t worst the Orioles for the first overall pick:

“I think it’s fair to say that Rutschman is the top guy,” Collazo said, “but I don’t want to do a disservice to Witt. He has all the tools. He has incredible power. He has incredible speed. He can impact the game in all phases.”

Ask a collection of scouts and scouting directors for their top choice, and you will find different answers — or at least qualified hedging. Some are strong believers in Witt. (“I could see Bobby Witt’s kid emerging,” one said.) Others, for now, prefer Rutschman. For the teams that will likely occupy the top two picks, it is an attractive problem to have.

Also at the Athletic, Rustin Dodd and Rany Jazayerli select the pitchers on an all-time Royals 25-man roster.

Former RR overlord Craig Brown does 40-man roster trigonometry:

We will see an exodus from the disabled list. Jorge Soler has reported to Omaha for a rehab assignment. He has been the designated hitter for back to back nights for the Storm Chasers, the role he will fill once he returns to Kansas City. Plus, he’s on the 60-day DL, so someone currently on the roster will have to be moved to get Soler back to active status. Ian Kennedy is likely to make a rehab start this week. He’ll get a few major league innings once he’s ready, but won’t cost anyone their spot on the 40-man.

The point is, these roster decisions aren’t easy or straightforward, even when the calendar turns to September. It’s not as simple as the Royals releasing guys like Alcides Escobar or Jason Hammel. You may disagree, but stuff like that just isn’t done. You don’t want to be that team that just releases veterans because the rosters are expanding and you want to look at some kids. The time to release guys like Escobar and Hammel, if that’s the road you decide to take, is in July or August. Not now. Appearances matter. The Royals will create 40-man roster space this winter through the sundry offseason moves, but for the moment, the roster is full and the Royals don’t have a lot of room to maneuver.

At KoK, Morgan Vogels thinks we should be keeping an eye on Brewer Hicklen.

Eric Longenhagen singles out MJ Melendez as the rare prep catcher with the chance to break out on the prospect scene:

MJ Melendez is about to wrap his first full pro season with a .500 slugging percentage. He’s also perhaps the most athletic catching prospect in baseball, with a defensive skillset as polished as it is explosive. The track record of high-school catchers is horrendous — we’ve gone eight or nine years without a highly drafted prep catcher turning into anything — but if forced to pick a player capable of ending this drought, Melendez would be mine.

At FanGraphs:

• Jeff Sullivan points out that Harrison Bader may have a not unreasonable case for NL Rookie of the Year. He also notices that Michael Kopech can’t not throw strikes now.
• Dan Szymborski measures José Ramírez and Francisco Lindor against other 3B/SS pairs in major-league history.
• Craig Edwards notes that the Cubs are about to make bank.
• Jay Jaffe wonders what’s going on with Greg Bird.

At the Athletic, Kelly Wallace provides readers with a lesbian’s guide to rooting for the Cubs after they traded for homophobe Daniel Murphy.

Rachael McDaniel dives into the strange, brief career of Mike Maksudian.

Bland on Blonde: why the old rock music canon is dead.

Netflix may give Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming film, Roma, a theatrical release.

Justin Roiland has a new series ordered to Hulu.

The songs of the day are all courtesy of Jason Isbell. First off, “Alabama Pines” off his record Here We Rest:

Next one is going to be his tribute to The Band, “Danko/Manuel” from his of Austin City Limits, written and originally recorded back when Jason Isbell hadn’t yet hard-lived his way out of the seminal Southern rock outfit The Drive-By Truckers:

Here’s a demo cut of his early single “Seven-Mile Island” which came off sophomore solo effort Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit from 2009:

And here’s a full set of him at House of Blues in Boston:

And for your reading pleasure, I present you with this. I get to see him tomorrow for the sixth time as a solo artist, adding to the five times I saw him with the Truckers.