Daily Clips
January 6, 2018
LOCAL
Outfielder Terrance Gore, pitcher Foster Griffin among 19 Royals spring training invitees
January 5, 2018 By Maria Torres/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article193233804.html
Meet Trevor Oaks, the Royals’ newest starting pitcher
January 5, 2018 By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article193239819.html
Trevor Oaks writes message to Royals and their fans
January 5, 2018 By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article193124249.html
Duffy, Gordon, Perez, Butera on list of Royals expected to attend team’s FanFest
January 5, 2018 By Chris Fickett/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article193184019.html
Five things to know about new Royals minor leaguer Erick Mejia
January 5, 2018 By Maria Torres/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article193285114.html
A former Royals player won big on ‘Wheel of Fortune’
January 5, 2018 By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article193303084.html
Six tips for getting athletes to go beyond clichés and tell you the truth
January 5, 2018 By Lee Judge/LeeJudgeKC.Wordpress.com
https://leejudgekc.wordpress.com/2018/01/04/six-tips-for-getting-athletes-to-go-beyond-cliches-and-tell-you-the-truth/
MINORS
2018 Kansas City Royals Top 10 Prospects
January 5, 2018 By Bill Mitchell/Baseball America
https://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2018-kansas-city-royals-top-10-prospects/?utm_source=180105newsletter&utm_medium=email#9hoXGTMYvIE0B4Mg.97
8 Chasers Alums Invited To Royals Spring Training
Non-roster invitees include Schwindel, Staumont, O'Hearn
January 5, 2018 By Andrew Green/Omaha Storm Chasers
https://www.milb.com/storm-chasers/news/8-chasers-alums-invited-to-royals-spring-training/c-264333998
NATIONAL
Oaks begins Royals career at rookie program
Pitching prospect dealt from Dodgers on cusp of big leagues
January 5, 2018 By Jack Baer/MLB.com
https://www.mlb.com/royals/news/trevor-oaks-joins-royals-while-at-rookie-camp/c-264345946
MLB TRANSACTIONS
January 6, 2018 •.CBSSports.com
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/transactions
LOCAL
Outfielder Terrance Gore, pitcher Foster Griffin among 19 Royals spring training invitees
January 5, 2018 By Maria Torres/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article193233804.html
The Royals announced Friday the list of 19 non-roster invitees who will join big-league camp when the team convenes for spring training next month.
Outfielder Terrance Gore, whom the Royals re-signed shortly after non-tendering in December, is among the group, which includes former Phillies utility player Cody Asche and Class AAA Omaha offensive player of the year Frank Schwindel.
Seven of the spots went to pitchers, including left-handers Richard Lovelady and Foster Griffin. Griffin earned a promotion from Class A Wilmington in May and made 18 starts at Class AA Northwest Arkansas, where he amassed a 11-5 record and 3.61 ERA in 104 2/3 innings. Griffin, the sixth-ranked prospect in the organization per MLB.com’s Pipeline, struck out 141 batters overall in 2017.
Lovelady, a hard-throwing reliever, also put together a solid campaign at both Wilmington and Northwest Arkansas, where he had a 1.62 ERA (12 runs in 66 2/3 innings).
Lovelady could compete for a bullpen job with veteran Seth Maness, who re-signed with the organization after posting a 6.13 ERA in 23 games at Omaha last season. Maness, 29, made eight appearances for the Royals early last season, allowing four earned runs and two inherited runners to score.
Righty Josh Staumont will get another chance to impress the Royals. Ranked ninth in the farm system, Staumont progressed quickly after being drafted in the second round in 2015, but ran into trouble last season. He assembled a 5.56 ERA over 26 games (25 starts) and 124 2/3 innings for Northwest Arkansas and Omaha.
Shortstop Nicky Lopez, drafted in the fifth round in 2016, also earned an invite. He had been highly regarded for his glovework but further impressed team officials in the Arizona Fall League, where he was second in the league with a .383 batting average and fourth in on-base percentage (.433) over 20 games.
Pitchers and catchers will report to Surprise, Ariz., on Feb. 13. Everyone else is due in camp by Feb. 18, with the first full-squad workout scheduled for the following day.
Meet Trevor Oaks, the Royals’ newest starting pitcher
January 5, 2018 By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article193239819.html
Biola University, a small, private school in La Mirada, Calif., is no baseball factory. Tucked 16 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, it has produced just two major-league players, brothers Todd and Tim Worrell. Yet five years ago, in the spring of 2013, then-coach John Verhoeven found himself fielding a three-man starting rotation with two promising freshmen.
One was named Josh Staumont, a flame-throwing right-hander who would transfer schools, harness a 100-mph fastball and develop into one of the top prospects in the Royals minor-league system. The other was Trevor Oaks, a right-hander from Riverside, Calif., who on Thursday was reunited with his old college teammate after being traded to the Royals from the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In a three-team trade that included the Dodgers and Chicago White Sox, the Royals parted ways with relievers Scott Alexander and Joakim Soria and received Oaks and infield prospect Erick Mejia from Los Angeles, signaling a coming rebuild. In the process, the Royals positioned themselves do something even more rare: In the not-so-distant future, the Kansas City rotation could feature not just one, but two, pitchers who began their college careers at Biola.
“It’s not too common, I can tell you that,” said Verhoeven, a former major-league pitcher who coached for a decade and a half at the school. “I was head coach for 16 years. Never had a player make the big leagues.”
Oaks, like Staumont, did not finish his career at Biola. While Staumont followed Verhoeven to nearby Azusa Pacific, where their old coach became the pitching instructor, Oaks transferred to California Baptist, near his home in Riverside, before being drafted in the seventh round by the Dodgers in 2014. Yet four years later, the Royals are less concerned with Oaks’ small-college pedigree and more focused on what he could be in the future.
“We think he’s got a chance to be a very durable major-league starting pitcher,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said.
For most evaluators and scouts, the projection begins with Oaks’ potent sinker. As a 24-year-old in the Pacific Coast League last season, he logged a 3.75 ERA in 84 innings for Class AAA Oklahoma City while battling oblique issues. One year before, he led minor-league baseball by inducing 26 double plays while posting a strong ground-ball percentage (64.5 percent) at Class AA Tulsa.
He began the offseason ranked as the Dodgers’ 14th-best prospect and was added to their 40-man roster before the Rule 5 draft. But a stacked roster meant little opportunity for him in the 2018 rotation.
That will change with the Royals. When spring training begins next month, Oaks will compete for a spot in a rotation that, at the moment, features Danny Duffy, Ian Kennedy, Jakob Junis, Nathan Karns and Jason Hammel. Yet the Royals, in the early stages of a rebuilding process, will continue to listen to trade offers for other assets. Among the possibilities: They could seek to dump the salary of Hammel, who is owed $11 million entering the final season of a two-year, $16 million contract. That sort of move could open an additional rotation spot.
The Royals are hopeful Oaks is poised to make his major-league debut. Yet the projections from scouts, who view Oaks as a mid-rotation or back-end starter, suggest some caution. In a scouting report from MLB Pipeline, MLB.com’s ranking of prospects, Oaks was deemed to have an impressive sinker while the rest of his repertoire was rated as “pretty ordinary, with his changeup ranking as his second-most reliable offering ahead of his cutter and short slider.” Others see a ground-ball specialist in a baseball environment where keeping the ball out of the air is paramount.
Oaks also underwent Tommy John surgery following his senior year of high school, which meant a redshirt season at Biola. In the weeks after injuring the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, Oaks called Verhoeven and offered to give up his scholarship.
“Right away, I thought: ‘What a character kid,’” Verhoeven recalls.
In four seasons in the minors, Oaks’s arm has remained healthy. A 6-foot-3 and 220-pound right-hander, he posted a 2.65 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 125 2/3 innings at two minor-league levels in 2015. He logged a career-high 151 innings in 2016 before being dogged by an oblique injury last year. But he pushed forward on his path to the major leagues, sitting on the cusp as the offseason began. On Thursday, that path changed slightly. Oaks found himself traded to another organization in another league. He was, however, reunited with one old teammate.
Trevor Oaks writes message to Royals and their fans
January 5, 2018 By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article193124249.html
Following a three-team trade on Thursday night that netted the Royals two minor-league players, MLB.com ranked Trevor Oaks as the franchise’s No. 19 prospect.
Oaks, who is 6 foot 3 and 220 pounds, will have a chance to make the Royals rotation this season, and general manager Dayton Moore had good things to say about him.
After the trade was completed, the 24-year-old Oaks wrote a farewell message to the Dodgers and their fans. He then wrote to the Royals and their fans.
This is what Oaks tweeted: “To the @Royals organization and its fans: I am so excited and thankful for this opportunity to build new relationships, compete, and win together! I’m looking forward to developing more as a pitcher and to meeting my new teammates, coaches, and staff at Spring Training!”
Duffy, Gordon, Perez, Butera on list of Royals expected to attend team’s FanFest
January 5, 2018 By Chris Fickett/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article193184019.html
Pitcher Danny Duffy, outfielder Alex Gordon, and catchers Salvador Perez and Drew Butera are among the Royals players expected to attend the team’s annual FanFest on Jan. 26-27 at Bartle Hall.
Tickets are $9 for adults and $7 for ages 6-17 on Friday, Jan. 26 and go up to $15 and $10 on Saturday, Jan. 27. Children under 6 are admitted free. The event runs from 2-9 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday with a two-hour exclusive window for season-ticket holders before each day. Tickets can be purchased at royals.com/fanfest or at the Kauffman Stadium box office from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
Here is a list of players expected to attend as of Friday, according to the Royals:
Scott Barlow, Ryan Buchter, Billy Burns, Drew Butera, Hunter Dozier, Danny Duffy, Brian Flynn, Cam Gallagher, Alex Gordon, Jakob Junis, Nate Karns, Ian Kennedy, Kevin McCarthy, Whit Merrifield, Brandon Moss, Salvador Perez, Eric Skoglund, Kyle Zimmer.
Five things to know about new Royals minor leaguer Erick Mejia
January 5, 2018 By Maria Torres/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article193285114.html
The headlining acquisition of the Royals’ three-team trade of relievers Joakim Soria and Scott Alexander was right-handed pitcher Trevor Oaks.
The Royals also nabbed a versatile, switch-hitting infielder from the Dodgers in Erick Mejia, a former Mariners prospect who signed with Seattle in 2012.
Here are five things to know about the 23-year-old from Villa Mela, Dominican Republic.
1. Last season was only his second complete professional campaign, as he’s been slowed by injury. But in the two years since being acquired by the Dodgers in January 2016, he played in 251 games, including a career-high 127 games in 2017.
2. Although he’s spent the majority of his time at shortstop, Mejia logged 346 of his 1,030 innings at third base last season. He hadn’t registered time there before.
3. Mejia was chosen Texas League player of the week for the second time in his career. He hit 11 for 25 with two doubles, four homers and seven RBIs from July 24-30.
“Every pitch looked like a softball,” he said in a Spanish interview with Dominican outlet AME Sportscenter in October. “I felt so good.”
At Class AA Tulsa, he had a .289/.357/.413 slash line and hit 17 doubles, three triples and seven homers with 30 RBIs. He struck out 78 times in 356 at-bats spanning 102 games there.
4. At 5 feet 11 and 155 pounds, it’s not likely Mejia will develop a power stroke. But he has shown off speed, going 28 for 32 in stolen bases and registering 21 doubles and four triples last year.
5. Mejia, who turned 23 in November, played six games for the Águilas Cibaeñas of the Dominican Winter League. He went 5 for 15 with one RBI and five strikeouts.
A former Royals player won big on ‘Wheel of Fortune’
January 5, 2018 By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article193303084.html
Former Royals player outfielder Les Norman never hit a home run in his two seasons in the majors, but he came up big during Friday’s episode of “Wheel of Fortune.
Norman, who hit .169 in 78 games for the Royals in 1995-96, solved four puzzles and took home $17,650. However, Norman missed the big-prize puzzle and lost out on an additional $100,000.
Reached by phone at his home in Greenwood, Mo., Norman said he didn’t feel remorse.
“I got to live a life-time experience with my youngest son and my wife (on hand), and be able to win a trip and some cash and be able to be on a TV show I’ve watched my whole life, I have no regrets,” Norman said.
At the request of a son, Norman made a video and sent it to “Wheel of Fortune,” and a few months later he received an email saying the show would be in Kansas City. He went to a tryout at the Westin Crown Center, and later got an email from “Wheel of Fortune.” The episode was shot in September.
Early in the episode, Norman told host Pat Sajak a bit about his playing time.
“I was a little more of a backup, but I had a few years there,” Norman told Sajak.
After being skunked early, Norman got hot and won four puzzles.
By guessing “Emmy-winning actors and actresses,” Norman won $3,000. He then got “Monkeys Slothes & Toucans,” which only netted $1,000. However, solving that puzzle included a trip to Costa Rica worth $6,000.
Norman then won a toss-up puzzle worth $3,000, guessing “Running on empty.” The final puzzle was “Spinach Artichoke Dip,” and Norman got that and won $4,650.
As the episode’s biggest winner, Norman moved to the big-prize puzzle, but couldn’t get “The usual hangout,” because there were too many missing letters.
Sajak then revealed the prize was $100,000.
The other contestants were Danny, a tattoo artist, and Elisabeth, a retired letter carrier.
“In the past, there have been times I’ve been hard on myself about things, but this was all 100 percent fun,” Norman said. “The production staff at Wheel of Fortune was incredible. They were the nicest people and were for you and helped you every step of the way. Pat and Vanna (White) couldn’t have been nicer people from the little time you got to spend with them. I had a great time. It was a blast.”