Royals Rumblings - News for January 12, 2022

The Royals made a whole bunch of promotions in ops, including Mitch “MITCH!” Maier as summer camp correspondent director of player development:

Mitch Maier has been promoted to director of player development/field coordinator after two seasons as the director of baseball operations. After playing parts of six seasons with the Royals, Maier served as Kansas City’s first-base coach during the 2018 and ’19 seasons. His new role includes overseeing the Royals’ Minor League system. Malcom Culver, previously the assistant director of baseball operations, will continue to assist Maier and has been promoted to assistant director of player development.

Ryan Maid now holds the title of senior director of behavioral sciences and will continue to oversee that growing department in the organization. Jack Monahan has been promoted to director of baseball operations/scouting and player development after five seasons as the coordinator of scouting operations.

Brian Bannister would never have graced the Royals with his day game dominance if not for a clipboard (a Twitter thread, but it will be worth reading, I promise):

Dan Szymborski placed Bobby Witt, Jr. at third base in this depth chart sneak peek, and MJ Melendez nowhere. Full ZiPS for the Royals will come out today.

The Royals will get $6,262,600 in the bonus pool for international signings.

This was posted yesterday, but I want to re-up it. Anderson Miller and MJ Melendez chatted on Miller’s new podcast, which he started during downtime when an ankle injury ended his season. There’s a lot of thoughtfulness and vulnerability in there.

Jeff Passan reported that the MLB players and owners will meet tomorrow.

The Rays’ bullpen catcher, Jean Ramirez, passed away at age 28.

Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams tore his ACL in the national title game on Monday night. I must confess I didn’t watch the game, but so didn’t a lot of folks:

With that said, I’m a die-hard fan of the University of Anyone-But-Bama, so yaaaaay for Georgia! Plus, dogs!

Sporting KC forward Alan Pulido will miss the season due to knee surgery.

An alleged cryptocurrency pump-and-dump scheme has Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather, and Paul Pierce in hot water. WhoOOOoooo could have foreseen unregulated currency markets falling prey to such things?!?

How to stop being so self-deprecating.

Thanks to KCfan55 for bringing this up in the comments yesterday:

A space heater was found to be the cause of a deadly Bronx apartment fire. Fellow renters, how responsive are your landlords/property managers to furnace issues?

The monopoly lawsuit against Meta/Facebook can move forward.

The Oscars will have a host again, for the first time in a few years. Who should do it?

NASA says space debris will absolutely hit the James Webb telescope.

I’ve got two Reddit questions. First, let’s get wistful: What do you miss the most from pre-covid?

And then, to bring the mood back up: What’s a song that instantly puts you in a good mood? (Follow the link for a Spotify playlist of answers from that thread!)

SOTD: Scissor Sisters - I don’t Feel Like Dancing