Royals Rumblings - News for December 28, 2022

New Years resolutions for the Royals, from Anne Rogers:

1. Help key position players take steps forward defensively

The Royals are going into 2023 confident they have some stud hitters in their mix. Of course, improvements need to be made, but what we saw from Bobby Witt Jr., MJ Melendez, Vinnie Pasquantino and others last season — and what they learned — proved that the Royals’ hitting development program has laid a strong foundation.

Where there can be more improvements is on the field. The Royals specifically hired José Alguacil as their infield coach under manager Matt Quatraro to help Witt and the infielders, including second baseman Michael Massey. The Royals are committing to Witt as their everyday shortstop, and he has the tools to stay there, but he must improve from his 2022 numbers. Last season, he posted a -11 outs above average (-9 at shortstop and -3 at third base).

A Jackson County legislator is against the Royals’ plan to extend sales tax in order to build downtown:

“If we were keeping the stadiums where they are? Yes,” Anderson said when asked if he would support the team asking for an extension of the sales tax on a ballot. “If we’re not, no.”

Earlier this month, Royals’ Senior Vice President Brooks Sherman said the earliest the team could put this question on a ballot would be August 2023.

In team chairman John Sherman’s letter, he released to the public a month ago, he said the team was looking to move away from Kauffman Stadium.

“You have Raytown, Independence, Kansas City that all buffer up to each other around the stadiums themselves,” Anderson said Monday. “I believe that if we’re going to invest anything, I think you should invest there.”

At Kings of Kauffman, Mike Gillespie gave a grade to the 2022 season of Taylor Clarke.

Kevin O’Brien at the Royals Reporter took a look at the 2023 roles of Ryan O’Hearn and Edward Olivares.

The Texas Rangers signed Nathan Eovaldi to a 2-year, $34 million contract, adding to a rotation that has already been beefed up with the likes of Jacob deGrom.

Rich Hill signed with the Pirates.

Former MLB outfielder Fred Valentine passed away.

JJ Watt is hanging ‘em up after this season ends.

Denver Broncos GM George Paton took the blame for the various fiascos the team has been saddled with under his direction.

I’m not much of a college football person these days, and I forgot to turn in picks in the family bowl pool, but this is news that was large and important enough to leak out of that world and to me:

I’m going to struggle to adapt to this new information.

A magazine-style quiz to let you know how Online you have been in 2022. I hope you all scored lower than I did.

Clips from The Simpsons illustrate these seven deadly sins of celebrating New Years Eve. (With all that said - do you have any big plans for that night? I don’t do big parties or bottle service anymore, but I’ll be darned if Auld Lang Syne doesn’t make me cry at least once per NYE.)

Cake Wrecks has been one of my favorite websites for several Internet eternities, and posts like this collection of wild apology cakes are why.

Instead of directly borrowing a whole Ask Reddit question, I’m going to simply borrow from this one by asking: are you on social media? What has made you decide to be, or not be, on different platforms?

SOTD: The Killers - Losing Touch