Royals Rumblings - News for April 8, 2020

Jeffrey Flanagan ponders what the Royals would do with the extra roster spots that will come with the shortened season, whenever that is:

The Royals were going to carry 13 pitchers, so along with starters Brad Keller, Danny Duffy, Jakob Junis and Mike Montgomery, that had left two spots likely among Jesse Hahn and Randy Rosario (both out of options), Rule 5 pick Stephen Woods Jr., Josh Staumont, Richard Lovelady and Zuber.

He also had this interesting note in the same piece about manager Mike Matheny keeping in touch with players:

Matheny said he has been in contact with most of his players, although he said it has been challenging to connect with shortstop Adalberto Mondesi, who returned to the Dominican Republic last month. Mondesi did not play in a Cactus League game while still rehabbing from shoulder surgery last fall.

Alec Lewis wrote a really fun piece about the sports talk radio wars in Kansas City, namely between Jason Whitlock and Kevin Kietzman:

Whitlock worked alongside Steven St. John, now a co-host on 810’s “Border Patrol,” and “Magnificent Megan” Maciejowski, who was a Kansas grad. Kansas basketball was dominant as usual, so Whitlock wanted Maciejowski to cover tournament games.

Considering the station received only two credentials, Whitlock phoned the NCAA and asked for another. They granted it.

According to Whitlock, however, after Maciejowski got her credential, Kietzman called the NCAA and said, “Hey, you’ve credentialed a third person from our station. I’m just alerting you because we don’t want to be in violation of your policies.”

The NCAA then informed Maciejowski she could not get a credential.

“He just basically fucked her and me over for no reason,” Whitlock said.

“I don’t specifically remember that,” Kietzman said. “But I won’t deny it. If he says I did it, I probably did it.”

If you missed the post about this yesterday, Mark Teahen and Billy Butler did some storytelling in a long-distance video. It is DELIGHTFUL.

Joseph Werner at Prospect Digest ran down the Top 10 Royals prospects.

From Lynn Worthy at the Star, here’s Matheny on the idea that’s been floated to restart baseball in a quarantine bubble:

“That’s the first step, is that we know that they’re just kind of some ideas that are being thrown out there,” Matheny said when asked for his initial thoughts on the reports. “But I’m excited that Major League Baseball and the commissioner’s office are in conversation and they’re in contact with the powers that be, with our politicians and our health officials, to try to figure out how could we possibly do this. How could we be safe and make sure we’re safeguarding everybody, but also figure out a way to get the game going?

“That’s exciting for me. I know it’s exciting for our players to hear. Whether it goes exactly the way it was outlined today or not, the fact that we see and we hear that there are people trying to figure out how to make this happen — I think our nation needs it right now.”

Angels pitcher and also hitter Shohei Ohtani is close to throwing off a mound again, a huge milestone in his recovery from Tommy John surgery.

Former Cardinals backup first baseman Mark Hamilton is about to graduate med school, right into the COVID-19 crisis.

Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich says there’s about a 50/50 chance that there is any MLB action in 2020.

José Bautista might make his comeback to MLB...as a pitcher.

Longtime Colorado Rockies 1B Todd Helton plead guilty to DUI. He did not crash into anyone else, but it is monumentally stupid, at best, to drive drunk. GET. A. DAMN. UBER.

Here’s a neat infographic of myths from movies vs. reality. It’s very large, so I won’t embed it directly.

The stage version of the show Fleabag will be available on Amazon, with proceeds going to COVID-19 relief efforts. I love Fleabag so much, so this is exciting. Please go treat yourself to Fleabag, unless there are children around.

Legendary folk singer/songwriter John Prine died from complications from Coronavirus.

Today’s music: this performance of ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’ by contestant Grace Leer on American Idol. There is something about this song, that just blows me away when it is performed well. This contestant originally auditioned with a Highwomen song, so I was always destined to like her.