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It is December 16 and MLB still has not revealed whether there will be a DH in the National League.
Jeffrey Flanagan continues his ‘5 best seasons in Royals history’ series with a look at starting pitchers. No surprise which pitcher and what year took the top spot:
1. Zack Greinke, 2009
Greinke put together the most dominant pitching performance in Kansas City history — and less than two years later he asked to be traded. The Royals obliged and hauled in Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain from the Brewers in December 2010, a pivotal point in their march toward a World Series championship in ‘15.
Greinke was at his peak in a Royals uniform in 2009, going 16-8 with an MLB-best 2.16 ERA. He threw a career-high 229 1/3 innings and struck out a career-high 242 hitters. Naturally, he won the American League Cy Young Award that season.
It’s never too soon to look ahead to the top 100 potential draftees for 2021.
Mike Gillespie at Kings of Kauffman kicks off a new series there, making holiday wishes for the Royals:
That’s why we want Lopez’s holiday gift to be a new bat. He needs it.
Take the 2020 season, for example. An excellent argument could be made that Lopez deserved to win a Gold Glove, and there simply isn’t a credible counter argument that he shouldn’t have been a strong candidate. But he failed miserably to show up offensively. He didn’t hit (.201 average) and didn’t get on base enough (.286 OBP).
Lopez went hitless in exactly half the games he played (28 of 56) and had only six multi-hit games.
His two-season big league slash is .228/.279/.307. He has a two-year OPS+ of 57.
Though many media outlets have taken MLB owners at their word that they lost money in 2020, agent Scott Boras pushed back on that claim with an important clarification:
Scott Boras disputed MLB’s assertion that it lost money in this pandemic season today on his annual winter meeting chat, saying teams “lost profits” — not money. An MLB spokesman reasserted in response that “clubs lost $3B — $100M per team.”
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 16, 2020
There’s more in this story. With team and league finances generally so obscured (on purpose), both points are tough to fact-check, but it is worth looking at team owners crying poor with a critical spirit.
Here’s a rundown of players who reached Super Two status around MLB.
The Rangers traded Rafael Montero to the Mariners.
Remember how ugly the negotiations were between MLB and the players’ union while they hammered out details on the truncated 2020 season? We’re in for more of that. Some reports indicate Spring Training will have to be pushed back, but the union is asserting its desire for a full 162-game slate.
Florida basketball player Keyontae Johnson’s condition seems to be improving after he collapsed during a game and put into a medically-induced coma.
A look at the legacy of the Mizzou football player strike of 2015.
Among Us is now available for Nintendo Switch.
Tom Cruise was recorded yelling and cursing at people on the Mission:Impossible set about breaking COVID protocols.
What’s coming to Disney+ in January?
I came across a video titled “Ducks annihilate a bowl of peas” and I knew I had to watch. So now you do too!
Letter #2 in this Ask a Manager roundup spoke in general terms about a gap in salary between her and a male peer, and got in trouble.
SOTD: Taylor Swift released another new album because there has to be some good news. Here’s ‘marjorie.’