Royals Rumblings - News for April 5, 2019

It’s kindof weird to do Rumblings after a day game. It seems like there should be more current news from after the game, but (peak behind the covers), most of Friday Rumblings is written on Thursday afternoon so they can be a bit stale.

That’s what makes my inclusion of this headline from the Star’s Lynn Worthy yesterday so fun: “Kyle Zimmer likely to get chance to make splash for Royals on Thursday in Detroit”

“So he’s going to have an opportunity Thursday to step up. That’s what you try to do, you provide opportunity. Take advantage of it. Stay on the attack. Get after somebody with your good stuff. Everybody’s got good stuff. Get after them! Take advantage of this opportunity and continue to build your role as a reliever down there.”

Spoiler: It did not go well.

Also the Star reported on Andy Reid chatting with Ned Yost on Wednesday:

“We were talking about the difference in analytics between football and baseball a little bit, and I was just showing him some stuff that our analytics people had sent down that we were looking at,” Yost said after Wednesday’s game. “I love when Andy comes over. It’s a great time to sit there and visit with him about the differences in our two sports and how we prepare accordingly but differently. It was a good 45 minutes or whatever it was. We had a good time.”

Thursday was Opening Day for the minor leagues and Pete Grathoff wrote about the excitement around the High-A team:

Here’s why much of the attention will be placed on the Class A-advanced affiliate in Wilmington, Delaware: six of the Royals’ top seven prospects, per MLB.com, will be on the Blue Rocks’ roster. That includes the three pitchers taken in the first round of last year’s draft: right-hander Brady Singer (No. 1 prospect), lefty Daniel Lynch (No. 4) and right-hander Jackson Kowar (No. 7). Catcher MJ Melendez (No. 3), first baseman Nick Pratto (No. 5) and outfielders Seuly Matias (No. 6) and Kyle Isbel (No. 10) are also on the Blue Rocks roster.

Sticking with the Minor League Opening Day theme, Drew Osborne at Royals Farm Report made his predictions for the farm system this year. Here’s a link to the article so you can see the rest:

Overall Top Prospect at the end of the season: MJ Melendez

Overall Top Pitching Prospect at the end of the season: Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch close behind

It’s a quasi-listicle, but it fits with today’s theme. MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo lists where the Royals Top 30 prospects will start the year and has some commentary about the system.

Breakout prospect: Kyle Isbel

Isbel took a leap forward during his junior season at UNLV, before the Royals took him in the third round of the 2018 Draft. The 21-year-old carried that momentum into his professional debut, where he hit .326 with seven homers over 64 games. Isbel finished the year with Lexington, and his initial success, along with his compact swing and patient approach, could be foreshadowing a big full-season debut in ‘19.

Also at MLB.com, Jeffrey Flanagan wrote about Ned and the bullpen:

“For some reason right now, they lack a little conviction,” Yost said. “I don’t know if it’s because we started with nine relievers and they knew someone was going to go when we cut back to eight, and they were pressing or what.”

Joslyn Stamp at Sports Illustrated Kids had a nice little profile for the youngsters: “Whit Merrifield is Living His Dream”.

“A lot of nights I laid in bed thinking ‘I don’t know if I will ever get to the Big Leagues,” he said.

Here’s what’s been happening around the Royals Blogosphere the last couple of days.

• Trevor Hooth at KOK: “Homer Bailey slated to join the rotation”
• Leigh Oleszczak at KC Kingdom: “Wilmington Blue Rocks roster loaded with future Royals stars”
• Also Leigh: “Kansas City Royals continue to make puzzling moves in 2019”
• Walker at Royals Blue: “Zimmer, Party of One”
• David Hill at Call to the Pen: “Terrance Gore taking up valuable roster spot”

We here at Royals Review like to keep you abreast of all things Royals. That’s why we’ve given you just some of the highlights of everyone’s favorite quote in Kansas City, Rex “[the moon] it’s a beautiful planet” Hudler. In what may become a recurring feature, we present to you Things Hud Said (TM, patent pending).

If you or someone you know has heard a Hud-ism this week, bring it to the attention of RR staff and it may be featured on a future Friday. Also, please keep these nice and not mean-spirited. Rex is a lovable goof and, by all accounts, a good dude. It’s just that, sometimes, funny things fly out of his noise hole. Which, really, isn’t that true of all of us?

Fangraphs is looking at future team-building dollars.

Yesterday, Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel posted the “2019 MLB Draft Signing Bonus Pool and Pick Values”. The Royals come in 3rd with $13.1M.

Today, Kiley “Analyzed the Value of International Signing Bonus Money”

An owner can invest roughly $5 million into international market each year and expect a median return of 650% after three years, while a strong 10% yearly compounded return in the stock market over that period would return a 35% return. That sort of return makes clear both the appeal for ownership of signing international players, and capping their bonuses. It also points to how wide a gap exists between the value these players generate for their clubs and their compensation relative to that value.

Over at Beyond the Box Score, something called a “Patrick Brennan” (hey, didn’t we use to have one of those) introduced a system for “forecasting major league hitting performance based off minor league stats“. It’s called KILA. Didn’t we use to have one of those, too?

I know we’re doing a lot of reruns lately, but it’s just been that kind of month. Today we’re revisiting Soul Blade, which, I feel, has some of the best music in the entire Soulcalibur series.