Royals Rumblings - News for June 18, 2019

Rustin Dodd will be leaving Kansas City for New York. Rustin has been absolutely outstanding for Royals fans while covering the Royals fans. We wish him nothing but the best in the future!

In my time at The Athletic Kansas City, I had the opportunity to tell stories of people like Carter Hope, a baseball prospect who came back from heroin addiction. I was able to get the reporter who was caught in the middle of Hal McRae’s telephone-throwing meltdown in 1993 to relive the experience 25 years later. And while Joel Embiid has become one of the NBA’s most entertaining stars in Philadelphia, I found plenty of people looking to share entertaining memories from his one season at Kansas.

Over at Royals Farm Report, I shared my thoughts on the Royals minor league system at the half-way point of the MiLB season, as well as some stats leaderboards and ten names I expect to be promoted once the All-Star Breaks end at the end of next week.

...With that being said, here is a ranking of the top 10 prospects that I would absolutely promote immediately if it were up to me (excluding players to already make their big league debuts and players that are currently injured):

Michael Gigliotti

Brewer Hicklen

Hunter Dozier is currently rehabbing with the Royals AA affiliate, the NWA Naturals, while he awaits the birth of his child. He should return to KC soon.

Hunter Dozier began a rehab assignment on Monday with Double-A Northwest Arkansas as he works his way back from a right oblique injury. There’s a strong chance that the Royals’ breakout third baseman will be back in time to keep making a case to be an All-Star, and he continues to accumulate enough votes to be considered to start for the American League at third base.

Who is the Royals most deserving All-Star?

With Hunter Dozier on the injured list, Mondesi has passed him for this spot. He’s on pace to steal the most bases in baseball in a decade.

Dayton Moore speaks on Bubba Starling and perspective.

“We certainly have to look at some things with (moving) players who are going to be free agents at the end of the year,” said Moore, who said he’s been getting calls from other general managers checking possibilities. “I don’t anticipate us moving any of our players that we have under (contractual) control for a period of time.”

Wily Peralta is starting to catch his groove again.

Peralta entered Monday night’s series opener against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park having held opponents to a .184 batting average in his previous 12 appearances. He hadn’t allowed a hit in eight of his last 11 outings.

From Royals Farm Report yesterday:

• Prospect Watch: Jon Heasley
• Drew Osborne writes about Drew Parrish’s lights out start during the College World Series.

Jack S. Johnson wonders if the Royals shouldn’t reunite with Mike Moustakas this offseason.

Jesse A. Anderson wonders if the Royals can go .500 over the course of an entire month.

Minors Graphs are back up and running over at ProspectsLive.com.

If you’ve never used Minors Graphs before, you should. They’re a great tool for evaluating MiLB trends. For example:

Former Royals prospect Sam Selman has had some newfound success with the Giants organization, after working out at Driveline last offseason.

The Atlanta Braves have been on fire of late.

Edwin Encarnacion was traded to the New York Yankees.

4 shot, 3 arrested at Raptors’ parade.

1,000 US troops headed to Middle East.

Gloria Vanderbilt has died at age 95.

This is why your dog has “puppy dog eyes.”

Kyle Kashuv had his admission dropped by Harvard.

Amazon not happy with AOC’s “starvation wages” comments.

On this day in history, in 1815, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo.

Also, in 1983, Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.

David Lee Murphy and Kenny Chesney have your song of the day with “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.”