Royals Rumblings - News for October 18, 2023

At Royals.com, Jesse Borek has a dispatch from the Arizona Fall League, mostly focused on Gavin Cross:

Just as Cross was preparing for his first extended foray into the upper levels of the Minors with Double-A Northwest Arkansas, an illness hit in early August that wound up sidelining him for the remainder of the year. He played just two games for the Naturals, his last in-game action before arriving in Arizona.

“[Royals director of baseball operations] Mitch Maier [and I] talked about it.” Cross said. “And we both sort of thought it would be a good idea [to play in the AFL]. I didn’t want to end the season with an illness and sort of how it ended. So I actually came out here – I guess I’ve been here for three weeks now just at our facility – trying to get my legs under me, get the swing back and everything.”

Early returns have been promising, as Cross has four hits in his first 14 at-bats in the Fall League. Long a proficient base stealer, he’s also gone 4-for-4 on stolen-base attempts for Surprise through the first two weeks. He was successful on 87.5 percent of his stolen-base attempts in college and swiped 23 bags for Quad Cities this year.

At Kings of Kauffman, Mike Gillespie ponders the leadership vacuum KC might face if Salvador Perez and Zack Greinke depart.

The Phillies hit a bunch of dongs in 10-0 drubbing of the Diamondbacks in game two of the NLCS last night.

A roundup of updates about both Texas teams ahead of game three of the ALCS, which the Rangers lead 2-0.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the earthquake that interrupted the World Series.

Could the Mets be the next landing spot for Brewers manager Craig Counsell?

The latest on the Red Sox’s GM search and interview process.

The Cardinals might be interested in bringing Yadier Molina back in a coaching role.

My Feedly feed provided these two items back-to-back: a list of 20 stories from managers of colorful reasons employees quit their jobs, and then an Ask a Manager letter titled “I had to quit my job because of aggressive nesting geese.”

A bold claim from Lifehacker: “This is the best strategy for cleaning your entire house.”

Twitter/X is testing a scheme to charge new users a dollar per year, to cut down on all the spam accounts. Please do not give Elon Musk your bank information.

The IRS will finally introduce free, direct tax filing in 2024.

Today’s borrowed Reddit question: “What song breaks your heart every time you listen to it?”

SOTD: Journey - Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’