Weekend Rumblings - News for February 11, 2023

Jarrett Seidler at Baseball Prospectus writes about Bobby Witt Jr. and defensive projections for young players. [$]

Infield range is pretty tough to actually scout, if I’m being brutally honest. You can tell when a player is too slow or not agile enough for a position, sure, but a lot of what gets picked up as range in modern defensive stats is hidden to the naked eye...

So now we’re back to Bobby Witt Jr. He does the flashy, noticeable things on defense—enough of them to be perfectly fine at third base. But at shortstop, Witt’s just not reacting quickly enough to get to balls, no matter how fast and agile he is; when you’re seeing this great athletic play on TV, you’re missing that before the camera cut to him, he already lost a step or two that he’s now trying to make up.

David Lesky at Inside the Crown considers contract extensions for young Royals, such as Brady Singer.

This is the one that I’ve reported on before they’re talking about a couple of options with him. I don’t know when his arbitration hearing is set for, but they do have a slight time crunch to get something done if they want to avoid that because hearings are happening. From what I understand, they’d love to lock him up into his free agent years, but there’s also some traction on covering arbitration seasons for the simple reason of cost certainty on both ends. I can understand being cautious here. As I’ve said before, a year ago we wondered if Singer was even going to be in the rotation (and he wasn’t until May). Now he’s the best pitcher on the staff. It’s a lot in one year. My guess is something gets done, but I don’t know that it beats his arbitration hearing.

Patrick Karraker at Bally Sports Kansas City gives his analysis of the Royals’ roster.

LOCKS

Scott Barlow, Aroldis Chapman, Dylan Coleman, Amir Garrett, Zack Greinke, Brad Keller, Jordan Lyles, Brady Singer, Ryan Yarbrough

With the addition of three major league free agents and the re-signing of Greinke, the Royals’ pitching staff is more established heading into spring training than it’s been in several years. The most intriguing story line with this group will be whether Keller and Yarbrough, both of whom shuttled between starting and relieving in 2022, are able to earn spots in the Opening Day rotation.

Speaking of Bally’s, their parent company is expected to file for bankruptcy next week.

The federal Opportunity Zones program could provide tax savings for a downtown stadium.

Ron Labinski, a Kansas City-area architect known for his work on baseball stadiums, died last month.

The Cubs sign reliever Michael Fulmer.

Will changes in the dimensions at Toronto’s Rogers Centre create a launching pad?

Should baseball have a mercy rule?

The most impactful off-season signings.

Patrick Mahomes is another example of multi-sport athletes excelling.

The best lineups in the World Baseball Classic.

Does baseball need to do a better job branding its interleague series?

How an empty storefront in Harlem became a lab for MLB pitchers.

Does the Pro Football Hall of Fame have enough receivers?

Tiger Woods commits to play in next week’s Genesis Invitational.

Kansas City has a new flag!

Pixar has new Toy Story, Frozen, and Zootopia movies in the works.

The ethics with de-aging actors in films.

Your song of the day is Pavement with In the Mouth a Desert.