Royals Rumblings - News for September 29, 2021

On Brady Singer’s early exit:

The Royals landed three prospects on the MLB Pipeline Prospect Team of the Year: Bobby Witt, Jr., Nick Pratto, and MJ Melendez. Vinnie Pasquantino was on the second team.

1B: Nick Pratto (KC No. 2, MLB No. 66)

AA/AAA: .263/.380/.594, 120 G, 34 HR, 92 RBI, 91 R, 78 BB, 11 SB

Like Melendez, Pratto has taken extremely well to the Royals hitting program in the last two years, leading to a power breakout of his own. His 34 homers are tops among all Minor League first basemen and represent a jump of 25 from his time with Wilmington in 2019. Pratto was one of only three Minor Leaguers this season to post an OBP of .380 or above, a slugging percentage of .590 or above and at least 400 plate appearances. Melendez and Anthony Volpe are the others.

All three of those players are of course in the Omaha lineup, and that team begins their last series of the year today at 12:08. You can listen here or watch on MiLB.tv.

Salvador Pérez is your MLB leader in homers.

Anne Rogers wrote about the Mike Swanson swan song:

“Why is Swanee so good at it?” posed Cubs broadcaster Boog Sciambi, who has gotten to know Swanson while calling postseason games for ESPN. “He’s beloved by the players and beloved by the media. He’s able to execute the job exactly how it should be done.”

Swanson knows how to deal with ownership, management, players and media. In a time when the team-media relationship around MLB sees general distrust, and at times, tension, Swanson advocates for it — and he makes sure his players know.

“I learned so much from the first rookie camp we had after I got drafted, and it’s because of Swanee,” said Mike Moustakas, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 MLB Draft and a core piece of the Royals’ championship team. “The one thing he always told me is go up there and answer the questions honestly. He would make sure we were accountable, but wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you.

“One of the most trustworthy people I’ve ever been around. I was so blessed to be part of the Royals’ organization, and he was a huge part of why we all felt so comfortable.”

The St. Louis Cardinals clinched a postseason berth last night by winning their 17th consecutive game.

Noah Syndergaard pitched for the Mets for the first time in just shy of two years last night, and struck out two in his one inning.

One more Mets thing is this great play by Javier Báez:

Shohei Ohtani makes it clear: improve the Angels or he’s gone.

The Yankees logo is upsetting in this format:

MLB and MLPA agreed to extend Marcell Ozuna’s administrative leave through the end of the postseason, rather than doing week-by-week extensions one at a time.

This YouTuber sent fan mail to 150ish major sports teams, and here’s what got sent back.

Krispy Kreme and Cinnamon Toast Crunch collaborating on cinnamon rolls: does this sound good or gross?

This video is great and was worth watching the whole thing:

This Ask a Manager letter might be too spicy for work: coworker keeps whispering sexually explicit things in the office bathroom.

This is NOT RELATED to the above item, or I don’t know, maybe it is. Today’s Reddit question is simply, what do you do to escape reality? I really leaned on going to almost every Storm Chasers home game this summer. The ballpark has always been my happy place, this year more than ever. So I wonder what is next! I imagine a lot of jigsaw puzzles.

SOTD: Taylor Swift - Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)