Royals Rumblings - News for May 14, 2020

Will we ever see a Salvy Splash again?

By Max Rieper@maxrieper May 14, 2020, 8:00am EDT

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Royals Rumblings - News for May 14, 2020

In his Mellinger Minutes, Sam talks about the timing of the Royals sale.

It’s hard to imagine that sale taking place now or, if it did, being for the same price. These are generational decisions, with the long-term far outweighing the short, but buying a baseball team just before a global pandemic threatens to shut the sport down for a year is some of the unluckiest, most horrible timing imaginable.

The Royals’ 2020 payroll was scheduled to be around $73 million, which ranked in the bottom five of baseball. They’ll end up paying out significantly less than that with a shortened season, but obviously their revenues will crater.

Sherman and his partners aren’t going broke. They don’t need to worry how they’ll eat. They still might recoup their investment and more depending on what the other side of this looks like.

But, yeah. Man. Just awful luck.

Keith Law has his mock draft out with the Royals taking prep outfielder Zac Veen.

If the top three picks involve the three players listed above, the Royals are the first team that could go high school, maybe cutting a deal with Veen — the consensus top high school player — rather than “settling” for the best college player in the second tier.

Baseball America has them taking New Mexico State second baseman Nick Gonzales.

There is some chatter that the Marlins are interested in Gonzales as well, and after missing out on Torkelson and Martin, perhaps they go with the best bat left on the board. In this scenario, we have Gonzales falling to the Royals. When Gonzales is selected, he will become the first New Mexico State product to go in the first round or even the first three rounds.

Jeffrey Flanagan talks to Joel Goldberg about the “Salvy Splash.”

But as much as Perez has made the Salvy Splash his signature postgame move, here’s a little-known fact: Perez didn’t originate it.

“I can’t remember the year but it was probably 2011,” Goldberg recalled, “and the first ‘Splash’ I remember came from Alex Gordon. It was a getaway night to St. Louis and I just remember I got nailed with Gatorade and my neck was sticky the whole flight to St. Louis. Thankfully it’s a quick flight.”

George Brett reflects on his career with Vahe Gregorian.

“I found out one thing: It’s easier hitting .400 when you’re over .400 than it is when you’re under,” he said.

It weighed on him, though, having to answer the same questions over and over and then being separated from his teammates some to accommodate pre- and post-game news conferences.

At times, he feared he was alienating his teammates, even his brother, Ken.

As he looks back, he supposes maybe the fuss over the chase got him out of focus a bit.

“After talking about it and talking about it for a month, all of a sudden it became very important for me to do it,” he said. “And then I went out and did the one thing that I should not have tried to do: … Go out and try to hit .400.

The union is expected to sign off on a universal DH rule this season.

Former All-Star first baseman Mark Teixiera thinks players should take a 50/50 revenue split.

The governor of Florida says his state is open for professional sports teams.

The Mariners announce pay cuts for some baseball operations staff.

Teams are preparing for employment reductions in June.

The Texas Rangers will host some drive-in concerts at their ballpark.

Craig Edwards at Fangraphs criticizes shortening the draft to just five rounds.

How Dan Kurtz went from online KBO fan to sought-after expert.

A look back at Scott Boras’ playing career.

Armando Galarraga wants credit for a perfect game he tossed that was marred by a blown call.

The ten weirdest stat lines of the last ten seasons.

Julian Casablancas explains The Strokes song Ode to the Mets.