Royals Rumblings - News for February 5, 2020

At the Kansas City Star, Lynn Worthy dove into the work that hitting coaches are doing with Maikel Franco:

[Pedro Grifol and Mike Tosar] asked Franco a lot of questions, he provided answers and they came together to find a solution that worked and also felt comfortable for him.

Franco has used different stances and different mechanical changes through the years because he’s so adaptable. But the result at the end of his time in Miami was a stance that looked similar to a few years ago when he was a force.

Franco didn’t consider a lot of the things they worked on to be “changes” at all because they just felt right to him.

“What that tells us is he’s been there before,” Grifol said.

The Royals aren’t overly worried about whether they’ve got the “new” Franco or the “old” Franco. They believe they can still get the best Franco.

The Royals selected Stephen Woods, Jr. in the Rule 5 draft this winter. Alec Lewis at The Athletic has more about him:

Even as a 6-foot-2 high schooler, Woods threw a baseball with ease. [Albany coach Jon] Mueller almost crossed him off his recruitment list, thinking the young man was headed somewhere bigger. Instead, he contacted the family and explained why Albany could be a good fit.

Early on in the recruiting process, they talked about Woods Sr.’s career. Mueller naturally wondered: Did the son even like baseball? Or was it forced? The answer arrived promptly.

“My dad never threw baseball in my face,” Woods said then and now. “He wanted me to play every sport but football. I just loved baseball.”

The latest episode of the Omaha Storm Chasers’ podcast ‘Between Two Berms’ features Clint Scoles, as well as Tony Boone, who recently transitioned from beat writer at the Omaha World-Herald to Chasers media and public relations manager.

At Kings of Kauffman, Jordan Foote reacts to the ZiPS projections for KC in 2020:

There were a few things that surprised me when looking at the list. First and foremost, Jorge Soler is projected to see his home run (48 to 33) and RBI (117 to 81) totals drop off a ton. He probably won’t be able to replicate his amazing 2019 run, but that level of regression is pretty steep. Adalberto Mondesi, viewed by many as the face of the franchise right now in terms of potential, figures to hit .249.

The Top 100 prospects list from Prospects Live includes five Royals: Bobby Witt, Jr. at #22; pitchers Daniel Lynch at #67, Brady Singer at #88, and Jackson Kowar at #90; and outfielder Erick Pena at #96.

Blockbuster alert:

Kiley McDaniel, who is moving from FanGraphs to ESPN, sums it up:

More details as they unfold here.

And in a separate deal, the Angels traded for Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson.

An arbitrator ruled that when the Cubs waited the precise amount of time to call Kris Bryant up that it coincidentally got them another year of his service time, they somehow were not doing anything untoward.

Joe Posnanski continued his countdown of 100 greatest players with Adrián Beltré at #52:

Everything about him just lit up. He was fun. He was hilarious. He was quirky and weird and silly and so happy every day. You would go to games just to see what he might do. You can only guess that he had this exuberance inside him all along, but it was only the last few years that he let it out for everyone to see.

Pos goes on to list his five favorite funny Beltré moments, which was exactly the kind of joy my day needed and I hope it is the same for yours.

When times are uncertain, count on the Mets being just so Metsy: the sale of the team fell through because, evidently, Fred Wilpon changed the terms at the last minute.

Maybe you’ve already seen this story, but Max waited to include it in yesterday’s Rumblings so that it could go in on the dog-themed day: Chiefs DT Derrick Nnadi has been paying for a handful adoption fees at KC Pet Project all season, and paid for around 100 to celebrate winning the Super Bowl. And Coors Light is following suit!

At Beyond the Box Score, Sheryl Ring spoke with writer Shakeia Taylor, who is up for a SABR Analytics Conference Award. No Black woman has ever won in any category.

In college football news, Mark Dantonio abruptly resigned from his head coaching job at Michigan State, but said it had nothing to do with the lawsuit alleging recruiting violations.

An anonymous Omaha 911 dispatcher had a dramatic save last night:

Dispatchers are incredible heroes and I don’t know what we would all do without them.

The Case Against Stretching.

A terrible place to hide drugs is in a bag labeled “Bag Full of Drugs.”

Fungal spores inside the remains of the Chernobyl reactor seem to “eat” radiation.

Song: Linda Ronstadt - Tumbling Dice.