Royals Rumblings - News for December 2, 2020
It’s November 32nd.
Alec Lewis dug into how Michael A. Taylor’s center field defense fits in with the Royals:
Parse the numbers, and the picture will become clearer. Here’s a plus defender, who was granted free agency in October from the Nationals after a seven-year big-league career. Here’s a plus defender, whom Moore and the Royals signed at a cost that may free them up to sign another player such as a middle-of-the-order bat.
“Kauffman is a big outfield,” Taylor said, “and I love playing defense. I think I can help in that way.”
How he’ll help the lineup is a poignant question, but one that misses the true mark on the thought behind this move. Still, it’s relevant.
“We certainly recognize some of the ways that Michael needs to improve offensively,” Moore said. “He understands that as well. We believe there’s some upside there.”
Over at Royals Reporter, Kevin O’Brien dug more into that Lewis piece to see if Taylor will surprise Royals fans in 2021.
At Max’s Sporting Studio, Max Goldstein is intrigued by the Taylor signing.
Jeffrey Flanagan listed the 5 best individual seasons of any Royal ever, including:
2)Willie Wilson, 1980Talk about being overshadowed by Brett in 1980: The speedster Wilson put together one of the great Royals seasons of all time as he led the Majors in hits (230), triples (15) and runs scored (133). He hit .326 with a .357 on-base percentage, stole 79 bases and won a Gold Glove Award.
A trio of Royals avoided arbitration, along with a number of Old Friends with other teams:
The Royals agreed to one-year deals with righties Jesse Hahn and Jakob Junis and outfielder Franchy Cordero, according to Feinsand and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (Twitter links). Hahn signed for $1.75MM in guaranteed money with another $350K available in incentives. Junis will rake in $1.7MM. Cordero will earn $800K in his first arbitration-eligible year.
The Twins outrighted outfielder Eddie Rosario. Should the Royals go there?
Looks like MLB will set a 150-player limit to force teams to keep their farms to just 4 full-season MiLB teams.
What the Braves can tell us about MLB teams’ financial losses in 2020.
White Sox manager (lol) Tony La Russa is going to change his DUI plea from Not Guilty to...some other plea TBA.
The Mets signed Trevor May to a 2-year deal.
A documentary on CC Sabathia is in the works.
The USWNT settled parts of its gender discrimination lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation - everything but the actual wages.
The NBA has a tentative schedule for Christmas day.
Well here is this! I feel like Bill Walton barking like a dog could be pretty polarizing.
Here is Bill Walton making various dog sounds if you’re into that pic.twitter.com/p29r3VV73s
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 1, 2020
An interview with Olivia Munn on gaming and also, like, the meaning of how we spend our existence. [Related to Munn: this thing from The Onion.]
As of yesterday, Quibi is officially dead.
Sad news for science: following the two cable failures that couldn’t be safely repaired, the receiver of the Arecibo Observatory collapsed into the dish.
PSA: not every COVID testing site is legit - scammers have set up fake testing sites, yikes.
What is Crab Rangoon, really?
Free Starbucks for essential workers this month.
There is no way I can paraphrase today’s fun Reddit question because the original is perfect: What is something that is easy peasy lemon squeezy for others, but stressy zesty lemon depressy for you?
SOTD: This Christmas season, I’m leaning into earnestness, even if it’s cheesy. If ever there was a year to drop cynicism for three minutes and just soak in an overwrought duet about what ‘Christmas Is,’ it is 2020. So here are Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus.