Royals Rumblings - News for December 30, 2019

Royals Rumblings - News for December 30, 2019

Dayton Moore talked to Pete Grathoff about the Maikel Franco signing.

“Very similar to many of our young players, he’s had his shares of ups and downs,” general manager Dayton Moore said, “but he’s playing next year at 28 years old, really just entering his prime. I think he’s very hungry and motivated and very talented as well, so it’s a good time to be acquiring a player like Maikel.”

Jeffrey Flanagan also writes about the signing.

“We’ve talked a lot about how the versatility of Dozier and Merrifield can help us with our lineup and this is an example,” Moore said. “That versatility allows us to sign a player like Maikel. Dozier is an elite athlete and he can play third, first and right field.”

An interesting, but not surprising tidbit from David Laurila at Fangraphs.

From 2010-2019, Kansas City Royals batters led the AL in singles and stolen bases. They had the second-most triples and sacrifice hits. They had the fewest home runs, walks, and strikeouts.

Mike Petriello looks at the most extreme plays of the year, including the fastest home-to-first, which came from Kansas City’s Terrance Gore.

He’s fast, is the point, coming in as the 9th-fastest player in 2019, though really in something of a giant tie for third. This one had all the ingredients for a great home-to-first time, because not only does Gore possess the obligatory elite speed this requires, it was also a bunt attempt, meaning that he already had some forward motion on his way to first when he made contact, as opposed to needing to uncoil after a swing. Some credit is perhaps due to third baseman Miguel Sanó here, because he actually made this look a lot closer than it had any business being.

At Royals Academy, Clint Scoles looks at some recent international signees.

The Royals are extremely high on Luis De La Rosa if you couldn’t tell by the comp a front office staff member gave me on him. His ranking where I placed him, Wilmin Candelario, and others is purely out of me forcing myself not to move them too far too fast as Latin free-agent signees in the Royals organization historically have been slow grinders. The only exception to this in the GMDM era was Salvador Perez who made it to the majors fairly quickly at 21 years of age which is pretty young for a catcher. Some of these problems have to be put squarely on the shoulders of their development staff but with changes put in place this offseason the Royals are hoping to cure those ills.

The Royals experienced one of the biggest declines on a list of world’s best paid sports teams.

The Marlins sign outfielder Corey Dickerson to a two-year, $17.5 million deal.

Japanese second baseman Ryosuke Kikuchi will stay in Japan.

The Cubs can still spend, they just don’t want to.

The 2000s trades that shaped the 2010s in baseball.

Joe Sheehan looks at the biggest challenges facing baseball entering the 2020s.

Will Leitch at MLB.com looks at the best baseball movies of all-time.

MLB says it is committed to protecting minor league teams.

Dusty Baker laments the lack of African-American managers in baseball.

Kevin Harlan calling the Chiefs game and the Patriots game at the same time was magic.

LeBron James is named AP Athlete of the Decade.

The FDA officially raises the age to purchase tobacco to 21.

All the tech predictions for 2020 that didn’t pan out.

The Mandalorian finale shows why the show was great.

Your song of the day is The Kinks with Come Dancing.