Royals Rumblings

Weekend Rumblings - News for April 18, 2020

What do Royals fans think of the state of the Royals?

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Apr 18, 2020, 10:00am EDT

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Weekend Rumblings - News for April 18, 2020

Jeffrey Flanagan lists who on the Royals he thinks is most likely to become a manager someday.

Royals: Cam Gallagher

OK, so this may seem like a surprise pick — perhaps even to him. But given the parameters of the assignment, picking a potential manager off the present 40-man roster, Gallagher likely fits the bill. For one thing, Gallagher is a catcher, and that has been pretty much a prerequisite for numerous Royals managerial hires — Mike Matheny, Ned Yost, Tony Pena, Bob Boone, John Mizerock (interim), John Wathan and Jack McKeon.

As a player, Gallagher is similar to some of those previous catcher hires. At 27 years old, he is a grinder, known as a better defender than an offensive force. The Royals coaching staff considers him one of the better pitch framers in the game.

The Athletic did a survey of Royals fans, and Alec Lewis reports the results.

How would you describe the state of the Royals?

The write-in answers are a bit tougher to sort through, given many of our survey-takers type in different variations of names. But after a couple hours of clicking around Google Sheets, we surfaced with some results:

The most popular answer: Rebuilding

Ranking a close second: Trending up

The third-most popular choice: A couple of years away

Other popular selections: Mediocre, in transition, underrated, uncertain, treading water, meh

We thought we’d also highlight some more specific responses. Here are a few: “Newly post-2015 honeymoon and back to Dayton Moore business as usual;” “Possibly too confident that they can recreate the magic that fell in place in 14-15;” “The same Royals I’ve had for 26 of my 28 years on this earth;” “Reloading the cupboard for future, not-so-distant, consistent playoff runs;” “When a roller coaster is first starting its slow climb up the big hill.”

At Royals Academy, Clint Scoles thinks MLB teams may take advantage of the uncertain financial situation in the minors.

With these teams hurting I expect smart Major League teams to take advantage and swoop in for business advantage. Despite what is going on now we’ve seen MLB teams purchase other minor league affiliates recently and for the most part when running well these businesses net profit year to year. Teams who want to take more control of their minor league facilities for their players this makes a ton of sense if the opportunity presents itself which it certainly could with this crisis.

Union chief Tony Clark is still optimistic baseball can be played this year.

Mike Trout has his doubts about the owners’ plan to play in Arizona.

An estimate of local TV revenue for all 30 teams.

What soon-to-be free agents stand to lose the most from a postponed season?

Who is the greatest player to wear each uniform number?

Trading away David Price is still netting dividends for the Rays.

Former player Doug Glanville writes about what it would be like to have baseball without fans.

A Jeopardy contestant whiffs on an easy baseball question.

Can MLB learn from baseball returning to action in Taiwan?

Justin Verlander and Kate Upton will be helping first responders.

Why the Cardinals passed on signing Yogi Berra for $500.

Jalen Green decision to play in the NBA G-League pathways program could be a major blow to the NCAA.