Royals Rumblings - News for November 28, 2020

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I’ve had no less than 17 helpings of turkey and the subsequent doses tryptophan so I just don’t have the energy for my weekly monologue.

On to the Rumblings... (which were pretty quiet)

The Royals Authentic group is having an auction right now and there are some sweet items up for sale.

Over at The Athletic, Andy McCullough laid out a Black Friday deal for every team and the Royals one makes sense, at least on paper.

Kansas City Royals (26-34)

Adam Eaton, OF

“We expect to win next year,” general manager Dayton Moore said earlier this month. In order for Kansas City to contend in the American League Central, the team must improve its collective on-base percentage, add some left-handed balance to its lineup and compensate for the retirement of franchise icon Alex Gordon. Eaton could aid in each category. His defense isn’t sterling, but it was good enough for a World Series champion in 2019. If you throw out his rotten 2020, he has been an on-base machine in his career, with a .360 mark across nine seasons. And he’s a lefty who can supplement right-handed-hitting outfielders like Whit Merrifield and Hunter Dozier.

I don’t think I’d mind signing Adam Eaton to be a left handed left fielder but I also don’t see the upside in the signing. He had a terrible 2020, he’s entering his age 32 season, and there have been plenty of questions about his locker room presence in the past. I’d rather put that money elsewhere.

Alec Lewis also wrote a very good article about Royals Fall Camp pitcher, Nick Howard’s, battle with the yips.

Howard arrived at home that offseason and Dale offered to play catch. Dad thought the positivity might help, but even in a light catch from 30 feet away, Nick was throwing the ball over his head.

“I was like, ‘Whoa,’” Dale (Nick’s Dad) said. “It was very, very difficult. Very difficult.”

Mike Gillespie at Kings of Kauffman wrote about the future of Randy Rosario with the Royals.

The Royals highlighted five players’ ideal Thanksgiving Day meals. Where are you headed? I think I’m headed to Casa de Soler for that chorizo stuffed turkey.

The Vanderbilt football program announced some pretty big news yesterday ahead of the game against Mizzou.

The new episode of The Mandalorian had a pretty big (I’m told) character reveal on the newest episode on Disney+.

Fantasy Football Player Curse of the Week
Tom Brady, QB, Tampa Bay Bucs

Tis the season to go back for seconds. If you’re following me in any way, you know that my NFL fandom lies with the local reigning World Champs. This week they have a date with the old GOAT himself, Tom Brady, who I played cursed last week. I’m not going to make these self serving tendencies a regular thing (I don’t think) but this week is important.

The Chiefs are coming off two weeks where the pass defense collectively looked really bad against solid offenses. The Bucs are also a solid defense and its led by a guy that has gone up against Andy and co. many times. Sure Tom didn’t have a very good game last week against the Rams and he hasn’t looked great in a few others either. But have you ever written off a goat?

Sometimes you challenge them and they back down. And sometimes they don’t. I’ll hold off for one more week before I write Tom Brady off entirely.

Song of the Day

“Step Into Christmas” by Elton John

It’s officially Christmas season and you can’t get mad at me for listening to Christmas music out in the open. So it’s time to kickoff the season with my personal favorite Christmas song. That title transferred to Sir Elton a couple of years ago, dethroning Mele Kalikimaka by Bing Crosby, who gained the throne mostly because of my affinity for Christmas Vacation and a certain...daydream...scene. But I’ve moved on to a catchier song meant to start every Christmas party off right. It’s only fitting that it’s batting leadoff (this is a baseball blog) for the 2020 holiday season. If you need me, I’ll be at the top of my ladder trying to maintain the balance required to put up lights while trying not to boogy my way to a traumatic brain injury. Have a great Saturday everyone!