Royals Rumblings - News for November 15, 2024

We continue our trip through Asia with the KBO wrap

Unless Max sneaks out a story about it while I’m not looking, the big news for yesterday is more hardware for the Royals! Bobby Witt Jr. was named 1st team all-MLB shortstop, Salvador Perez was named 2nd team all-MLB catcher, and Seth Lugo was named 2nd team all-MLB starting pitcher.

These line up with Jim Bowden’s picks in The Athletic ($):

Shortstop: Bobby Witt Jr., Royals

WAR: 9.4 OPS+: 171

Bobby Witt Jr. is expected to finish second in the American League MVP voting behind Aaron Judge. The 24-year-old phenom slashed .332/.389/.588 with 45 doubles, 11 triples, 32 home runs, 125 runs scored, 109 RBIs and 31 steals. He led the majors in hits and batting average. He became the first shortstop in MLB history with two 30-30 seasons (home runs, steals). He made his first All-Star team and won his first Gold Glove Award. He finished in the 99th percentile in batting run value, base running value and outs above average (defensive range). He was in the 100th percentile in xBA and sprint speed.

He also noted that J.J. Picollo and Matt Quatraro were in the running for executive and manager of the year.

I feel like I’m stealing a little of Greg’s Thursday thunder with this:

At Cronkite News (if you don’t remember who they are, we went over this earlier in the year), Tyler Bednar wrote a long profile of Caglianone:

“The Royals and I, you know, had great communication throughout the whole draft process and everything, and with the innings that I threw this past year, they thought it was best (to) just kind of shut down and focus on hitting this year,” Caglianone said. “Then, we’ll kind of circle back and refigure, you know, next season, in the offseason, kind of talk through things.”

Yesterday was the birthday of a Royals institution and treasure:

We’ve talked about Witt and his baseball card wedding invitations. At MLB Pipeline, Jesse Borek wrote about prospect Logan Britt’s invite:

“It was pretty sick because I saw MJ Melendez’s card and he had a picture of them playing in Kansas City,” Britt said of his reaction to the cards. “Ours was actually a photo taken in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, when we were 13. I’m sitting on a bucket and he’s sitting next to me. He’s got the mullet rocking back in the day, so that was pretty funny.”

Looks like the Crossroads site is dead for the Royals as the former Kansas City Star building is now converting into an AI data center:

“Kansas City has emerged as North America’s fastest-growing hub for AI and machine learning workloads due to its central location, low natural disaster risk, robust fiber optic infrastructure, and affordable green energy,” the company stated. “Patmos expects to have the first 40 MW online and rack-ready in 18 months with the first 5 MW online next month.”

While battling for Grass Creek is of the utmost importance, the Royals have gained ground on the eastern front. They have scored a major victory in Sedalia (which is much closer to KC than St Louis anyway)! Radio station 1050 KSIS will discard their failure-soaked red garment broadcasts for the victorious banner of Royal blue.

Of course, we understand that Cardinals fans have options, and you’ll still be able to hear their games on other area stations. We wish the Cardinals much success, thank the franchise for their long-term partnership, and will miss working with them. However, at 1050 KSIS, we’re excited to take this new direction that keeps us closer to our community, listeners, and local Royals fans.

I believe that is business-speak for “so long, loser Cardinals fans”. No word on if this will nudge Will out of retirement for one last radio affiliate article. If that miracle were to occur, maybe then we can wish for the 17 greatest Royals next.

Blogs?

David Lesky did another “JJ for a Day” column, this one about free agency ($)

One thing I learned from this exercise is that I realized just how difficult it is to build a team. I mean, I knew it before, but thinking through the moves above, I can think of four other ways to get different versions of filling the holes on the roster. Some don’t include trading Singer. Some do. Some include spending all the free agent money on relievers and making trades to fill the other spots.

The Royals Reporter, Kevin O’Brien, posted a “Reporter Jottings”. Among other notes, he’s one of the many, many people who are moving away from Twitter over to BlueSky.

I don’t think this has been posted here yet, even though it was from earlier in the week. Over at U.L.’s Toothpick, Darin Watson writes about (the tragedy of) Jose Rosado:

A strained left hamstring cost Rosado a good chunk of spring training. In fact, his availability for Opening Day was in doubt, and Suppan drew the nod for the first game. Rosado did pitch the third game of the season, picking up a win in Toronto. But soon, there was cause for concern. He was rocked in consecutive starts in New York and Minnesota. His first fastball in the Twins game was clocked at 79 mph. Eventually he got into the low 80s, but his velocity was still way down. The Royals had him skip a start, which seemed to help, as his velocity returned in his next start, a win over the Seattle Mariners. But five days later, he was on the disabled list with tendinitis in his shoulder.

Also, we have a link to later on:

Rosado was able to stay in baseball, at least. He worked in the Yankees’ minor leagues as a pitching coach from 2011-2020, then spent three seasons as pitching coach for the Hanwha Eagles of the Korean Baseball Organization. He also served as the pitching coach for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic in 2013, 2017, and 2023. Last December, he returned to the majors as the Mets’ bullpen coach.

Blog Roundup:

• Mike Gillespie at KOK: Why a reunion with Nicky Lopez could help the KC Royals in 2025
• Rachael Millanta at KOK: KC Royals are the last unsettled team as broadcasters land deal with Prime Video
• Sorry, don’t even have a third link here today

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How about a little MLB news?

The rest of the All-MLB first and second team players can be found here.

The Rays have reached an agreement to play their home games in 2025 in George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. The stadium is the Spring Training home of the Yankees. During the regular season, it hosts the A-ball Tampa Tarpons. Details are still being worked out.

I know we just talked about Taiwan last week, but there was new news this week (though not related to the CPBL). Shohei Ohtani’s 50/50 home run ball, the one that was sold for more than $4M, has a temporary home inside skyscraper Taipei 101.

The buyer was later revealed to be Taiwanese investment firm UC Capital. The firm is a tenant of Taipei 101, which was once the tallest building in the world and still ranks as one of the tallest in Asia.

Until March 2, 2025, the ball will be available for all to see at an exhibition, behind a glass case and under strict guard.

In a segue to our next section, Yasiel Puig signed with KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes.

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This week, we continue our Asian baseball reviews. Last week, we did the CPBL. This week is the KBO. And next week is NPB. Here are the links to our season preview and midseason check for the league.

Before we get to the playoffs, let’s talk about our rooting interest, the Hanwha Eagles, who were already mentioned above in talking about Jose Rosado. They had their best finish since we started following them back in 2020! They were 8th... (out of 10). Their record of 66-76-2 was their best since 2018. They are also saying goodbye to Daejeon stadium, which opened in 1964 and was the oldest and smallest stadium in the KBO.

The Eagles will move into the brand new, 20,000-seat Daejeon Baseball Dream Park in 2025.

The Eagles missed the postseason for the sixth consecutive year in 2024, despite making a push and giving their famously loyal fan base hope.

The Eagles set a single-season sellout record with 47 this year, easily surpassing the previous mark of 36 set by the Samsung Lions in 1995.

The stadium’s last game was also the last in the 20-year career of KBO veteran pitcher Jung Wooram:

Even without the Eagles, the pennant chase* was exciting!

*Is it a pennant chase if you have a laddered playoff and one league?

After the SSG Landers lost 14-5 on Tuesday, September 24th, they didn’t lose again, winning Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Monday. However, the KT Wiz won Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. Both teams ended the regular season at 72-70-2 and played the first ever fifth-place tiebreaker in KBO history.

In the tiebreaker game, The Landers were up 3-1 in the 8th when Mel Rojas Jr., son of former MLB pitcher Mel Rojas, strode to the plate:

As previously mentioned, the KBO has a ladder playoff where the 5th and 4th place teams play. Then the winner plays the 3rd place team. The winner of that series plays the 2nd pla... well, you get the idea. Officially the 5th place/4th place series is called the “Wild Card”. The 4th place team starts out with a 1 game advantage in a best of 3 series and has home field for both games. I have also advocated previously for the MLB to take a look at this model to make the regular season more meaningful. But I digress.

The Wiz were not done with history, yet. No lower seeded team in KBO history has ever won the Wild Card series... until this year. With wins of 4-0 and 1-0 against the Doosan Bears at their Jasmil Baseball Stadium, the Wiz moved on to play last year’s champion, the LG Twins, in the “Semi-playoff”. This is a more traditional best-of-5 series with a 2-2-1 home game format. The Wiz won game 1. However, the Twins won game 2 convincingly and held off a Wiz rally in game 3. The Wiz won game 4 in 11 innings to force a deciding game 5. However, Twins pitcher Im Chan-kyu was just too much, going 6 and giving up 1 run.

The next series, another best-of-5, is the “playoff” and featured the second place Samsung Lions against the third place Twins. The Lions bludgeoned the Twins 10-4 and 10-5 with 7 home runs between the two games. The Twins won 1-0 in game 3 but the Lions returned the favor, ending the series with a 1-0 win in game 4.

While the Lions survived the playoff gauntlet, their rewards was a Korean Series matchup with the Kia Tigers. The Tigers finished the regular season at 87-55-2, 9(!) games ahead of the 2nd place Lions. These two franchises have combined for the most Korea Series championships with the Lions winning 8 and losing the series 10 times. And, while this feels like a misprint, prior to this year, the Tigers have been to the Korea Series 11 times. They are 11-0!

During the regular season, the Tigers were led by 20yo third baseman Kim Do-yeong, who is expected to win the league MVP. He hit .347/.420/.647 and ended with 38 HR and 40 SB, falling just short of being the second 40/40 player in KBO history. “Kim also set a single-season record with 143 runs scored”

On October 21st, the Lions led 1-0 in the 6th of Game 1 but then rain caused suspension of the the game. When play resumed two days later, the Tigers rallied for 4 runs in the 7th and won 5-1. “Game 2 began about an hour after the completion of the suspended Game 1” and the Tigers scored 5 in the bottom of the 1st, en route to an 8-3 victory and commanding 2-0 series lead. The Lions won game 3 behind the strong pitching of Denyi Reyes.

However, that was all they would get in the gentleman’s sweep. The Tigers bludgeoned the Lions 9-2 in game 4 and one headline for game 5 read “Multiple postseason home run records set in Korean Series game”. The Lions were up 5-1 in the 3rd, but the Tigers were just too much and rallied to win 7-5 and claim their 12th title.

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We haven’t revisited Final Fantasy IX in years. How about we just go with “Battle 1”, the standard battle music?