Royals Rumblings - News for March 15, 2019

Stories are a bit lean this week.

At the Star, Lynn Worthy profiled catching prospects M.J. Melendez and Sebastian Rivero

While the two competed daily, they also took pride in one another’s success as well as that of their pitching staff. “I think towards the end of the year as a team all the pitchers were trying to compete to not give up runs, not let anyone get on base,” Melendez said. “That was huge, just trying to limit as many runs as possible. I know when either of us had a game where it was a shutout, we were very proud of those moments.”

Rustin Dodd at The Athletic writes about new Royals catcher Martín Maldonado. If you subscribe to The Athletic, they will put your $10 towards their “Best Shape of His Life Institute”. This palace of higher learning is dedicated to finding better sports cliches.

Royals Farm Report is doing a series comparing the farm systems of AL Central teams. Kevin Alex Duvall starts with the Indians.

I gave Kansas City the edge over Cleveland in the top 3 comparison, the top 10 comparison, and in the pitcher comparison, but it was close in all 3. I think the Royals have a better farm system than Cleveland, but it’s close. Taking vague looks at all 30 farm systems, I’d currently have the Royals somewhere between 19-15 and Cleveland in the same range, just behind KC. With the recent injury news to Triston McKenzie in Indians camp, the Royals are closing the gap at the top of the lists and I think the Royals are certainly deeper overall when it comes to known commodities. I really like Cleveland’s system, and I think there’s some helium there that could propel them into the top 15 if their young guys play well this year, but I’m too high on this Royals group to put Cleveland ahead of them right now.

Three stories from the Fansided network.

• At KOK, Bradley Potter gives us “Observations of Spring Training so far”
• Trevor Hooth regales us with “Useless facts about the Opening Day starter history”
• Leigh Oleszczak argues that “Brad Keller deserves Opening Day start”

There’s only one listicle. David Schoenfield predicts the next player for each team in ESPN’s nebulous and borderline ridiculous “Top 100” list.

Kansas City Royals

Who made it this year? (1 player, 26 points) -- Whit Merrifield (75)

Next: Adalberto Mondesi, SS

Mondesi is already a top-100 fantasy player heading into 2019 because of his ability to swipe 50 bags, but I’m not sold on him reaching the top 100 on this list just yet. He had a terrible strikeout-to-walk ratio of 77-11, and batted-ball data said he was fortunate to produce an OPS of .804. Still, he can run and his defensive metrics were above average.

And even though it’s not the Royals, the “hidden ball trick” is never not awesome, and I’ve always had a soft spot for Miggy.

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We, at the Best of Royals Review (TM, patent pending), had a really fun entry all ready to go for this week. But then we looked at the calendar. First off, we realized that Opening Day* is next week! Normally, we wouldn’t let an early international series like that get in our way. However, secondarily, we also realized we would not be able to do Rumblings next week and Opening Day is two weeks from yesterday.

As our devoted readers know, the Best of Royals Review only runs in the offseason and, thus, this is our last one for the 2018-19 offseason. Fear not, the DMIT that aforementioned fun entry is saved for next year. However, all offseason, the plan for our final entry had been this little peek behind the scenes.

Sometimes posts are nominated for their significance in Royals history (major game threads in October, trade posts, etc). Others are nominated for their significance in Royals Review history (Grass Creek, Antiquarian Book Store, Top 100 Royals, Royals Radio Affiliates, editor comings and goings). Still others are nominated for their prose (when we wander to the well of Will writings).

But you may wonder: how do we find these? First off, there’s the Royals Review Classic tag. Many of the site’s most notable articles can be found there. If you like the needle-in-a-haystack approach, you can just use this URL (substituting the year and page number for the time period you’re looking for): https://www.royalsreview.com/archives/2014/1

We also wanted to highlight the yearly “Best of” posts. Most years, the Editor in Chief, with input from the rest of the staff, compiles a list of the best stories from the year. Below are those articles.

2018: The best of Royals Review in 2018

2017: The Best of Royals Review in 2017

2016: The Best of Royals Review in 2016

2015: The best of Royals Review in 2015

2014: The Best of Royals Review 2014

2012: The Best of Royals Review: 2012

2007: Happy New Year: 2007’s Greatest Hits

Maybe some year a really ambitious writer will go back and make “Best of” posts for 2006, 2008-2011, and 2013 (However, today is not that day).

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Beware the ides of March.

-Soothsayer (Julius Caesar)

It’s not as if this is the first time I’ve heard the phrase. The Simpsons referenced it, it’s all over Facebook today, and I’m sure at least one of my high school English teachers taught me about it. But let’s see what 15 minutes of Googling gets you for your trouble.

Wikipedia gives us this:

The Ides of March is a day on the Roman calendar that corresponds to 15 March. It was marked by several religious observances and was notable for the Romans as a deadline for settling debts. In 44 BC, it became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar which made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history.

More for ye olde wiki:

According to Plutarch, a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, “The Ides of March are come”, implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied “Aye, Caesar; but not gone.” ...Caesar’s death was a closing event in the crisis of the Roman Republic.

So, from what I can gather (and I’m sure I can be set straight on discrepancies by someone much better versed in history like Farmhand), Julius Caesar basically undermines the institutions of the Republic to the point of no return. Then his assassination in 44 BC destabilizes the entire government. His son, Octavian (aka Caesar Augustus), takes over in 27 BC and, from that point on, it’s no longer the Roman Republic but the Roman Empire.

For some other oddball trivia about the date, here’s a list of other major events throughout history that have happened on March 15th.

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We’re going to revisit Xenoblade Chronicles today with “Those Who Bear Their Name” (“You Will Know Our Names”). It’s the theme for unique mini-boss fights and an occasional main boss fight.