Royals Rumblings - News for December 31, 2020

Royals Rumblings - News for December 31, 2020

Sam Mellinger explains his Hall of Fame ballot.

This all comes up as I’m filling out another Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. I’ve had a system in the past.

First come the eyes — someone like Mariano Rivera, where you simply don’t need to think.

Then comes the brain — statistics, comparisons, invaluable resources like the work done by Jay Jaffe and others.

Then comes the gut — this part is aided by conversations with people who live this stuff, like scouts and former players and executives and writers.

Which is where this year’s process took a thousand different turns.

I voted for the maximum of 10 players — Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, Scott Rolen, Billy Wagner, Gary Sheffield, Todd Helton, Jeff Kent, Andruw Jones and Sammy Sosa.

The Padres seem unlikely to pursue Jurickson Profar after their recent moves and Clint Scoles at Royals Academy thinks the Royals should pounce on him.

Some folks on the interwebs don’t understand how good a player Profar is as he’s one of the younger free-agent options available at not yet 28. Additionally, he’s made himself a plus defensive outfielder the past few seasons. Adjusting for a .290 BABIP, a not ludicrous number, over the past three seasons with just an improved number of singles bumps Profar’s numbers to .273/.349/.463. Over that same time, Whit Merrifield has a .352 OBP and .449 slugging percentage, and he’ll be going into his age 32 season. To get Profar at the numbers he’s being rumored to sign for is much more exciting than people are making it out to be.

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter, looks at the upside on signing Ervin Santana to a minor league deal.

Even though Santana has the experience, he’ll definitely be in a dog fight for a roster spot in Kansas City, and it would not be a surprise to see Santana begin the year in the bullpen if he does pitch well enough this Spring in Cactus League play. The Royals rotation seems set with Danny Duffy, Brad Keller, Minor, Singer, and Bubic, so an injury would have to occur for Santana to get a shot in the rotation. However, Santana has seen success against AL Central hitters before, not only in Kansas City, but with Minnesota as well, and hopefully, he can find some of that magic from 2017 in 2021, even if it is unlikely.

Here is some recent footage of Santana, who was hitting 95 mph on the radar gun.

David Scharff at Kings of Kauffman thinks Whit Merrifield could have a resurgence next year.

Cubs exec Jed Hoyer claims finances did not drive the Yu Darvish trade.

The Twins sign closer Hansel Robles to a one-year deal.

The Phillies get reliever Jose Alvarado in a three-team trade.

Sluggers Eric Thames and Justin Smoak are both headed to play in Japan for the Giants.

Gary Sanchez opens up about his benching in the post-season.

The Rays may be smart, but are they fun?

Why every team in baseball should be willing to take a gamble on Chris Archer.

What do recent deals mean for a potential Francisco Lindor trade?

The best baseball bloopers of 2020.

Howard Megdal writes about all the great baseball players we lost this year.

How Clyde Sukeforth was the Forrest Gump of baseball.

A soccer player is fine after exposing himself in a post-goal celebration.

College programs with self-imposed bans aren’t fooling anyone.

Hollywood must make hard decisions with COVID-19 looming over film sets.

Some shows are blurring the line between TV show and movie.

The 50 best video games of 2020.

Your song of the day is The Mountain Goats with This Year. Glad we survived this year with all our readers! Happy New Year and see you in a much better 2021!