Daily Clips
October 18, 2017
LOCAL
Moore pleased by 'next wave' of KC prospects
GM visits Instructional League group that includes Pratto, Melendez, Matias
October 17, 2017 By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/258834154/dayton-moore-sees-royals-prospects-in-arizona/
Just before NBA season starts, Royals send sentimental gift to Craig Sager’s daughter
October 17, 2017 By Maria Torres/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article179269546.html
This realignment proposal would put Royals in division with Cardinals, Cubs
October 17, 2017 By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article179316511.html
Joe Maddon takes heat for not pitching Wade Davis, but what about this question?
October 17, 2017 By Lee Judge/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/judging-the-royals/article179369311.html
Royals help boy who lost baseball collection in Calif. fire
October 17, 2017 By Kaitlyn Alanis/KC Star
http://www.kansas.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article179254076.html
MINORS
Royals' Arizona Fall League overview
No. 11 prospect Lopez off to hot start in AFL after tough Double-A debut
October 17, 2017 By Jim Callis/MLB.com
http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/258743250/kc-royals-arizona-fall-league-overview/
NATIONAL
Expansion Could Trigger Realignment, Longer Postseason
October 16, 2017 By Tracy Ringolsby/Baseball American
http://www.baseballamerica.com/columnists/expansion-trigger-realignment-longer-postseason/#pItAKbUpptvCzKjy.97
MLB TRANSACTIONS
October 18, 2017 •.CBSSports.com
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/transactions
LOCAL
Moore pleased by 'next wave' of KC prospects
GM visits Instructional League group that includes Pratto, Melendez, Matias
October 17, 2017 By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/258834154/dayton-moore-sees-royals-prospects-in-arizona/
The Royals' 2017 regular season was over less than 24 hours when general manager Dayton Moore boarded a plane to Phoenix to check out his next wave of prospects in the Instructional League.
Moore saw players such as 2017 first-round pick Nick Pratto, a first baseman who is ranked No. 1 in the organization by MLBPipeline.com; '17 second-round pick M.J. Melendez, a catcher (No. 10); and outfielder Seuly Matias, a non-drafted free-agent signing ($2.5 million) in '15 out of the Dominican Republic (No. 4).
Moore said he was impressed with everything he saw.
"Everybody feels really good about this next wave of players," Moore said. "The important thing is that there's a high level of energy among them. And the work is being done properly with a plan by the coaching staff.
"We are very pleased with the Draft class of 2017 and look forward to adding to that group."
Though there are no official statistics for the Instructional League, the Royals do keep track. For example, in Pratto's first 17 at-bats, he had two doubles, a triple, a home run and was hitting .412.
"Pratto has a very advanced approach at the plate, an approach that will continue to serve him well as he advances through Minor Leagues," Moore said. "He has an easiness to him in the field and has the ability to be an above-average defender. He looks good and he's right where he should be."
MLB Pipeline.com described Melendez as the best defensive catcher in the 2017 Draft.
"Melendez can really throw and he has power in his bat," Moore said.
Moore also was eager to check in on Matias, whom MLB Pipeline.com described as "one of the toolsiest" players during the 2015-16 international signing period.
"Oh, yes," Moore said. "Saw Matias make an incredible throw from right field from the base of the track and threw a runner out at second base. One quick step and the throw was right on line. He has tremendous tools."
Just before NBA season starts, Royals send sentimental gift to Craig Sager’s daughter
October 17, 2017 By Maria Torres/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article179269546.html
In the 10 months since he died of cancer in December, Craig Sager’s legacy has lived on in conversations.
His daughter Kacy has had them on social media. She’s had them at ceremonies she’s attended with her family in her father’s absence. Craig, the longtime NBA broadcaster who became known for outrageous suits and analytical courtside interviews, inspired more than his fair share of anecdotes, most of them bordering on outrageous.
Kacy has heard so many stories in the last year it’s hard to remember them all.
“I don’t know if he was a magnet for them or if it was just that he was there (at the right time),” she told The Star.
One of the stories resurfaced Monday, when she received an unexpected package with a Kansas City postmark at her home in the Atlanta area, where she was raised.
A powder blue Royals jersey lay within. It was emblazoned with the name Sager and Ernie Banks’ number 14, in honor of her father’s idol. Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez and Mike Moustakas had signed it.
It was a reminder of the vast network her father built, which included the package’s sender, Royals vice president of communications Mike Swanson.
Craig met Swanson when he covered the Royals during his stint at KMBC Channel 9 from 1978-81. The two became roommates, Kacy said, and remained close after Craig moved on to a decades-long career at Turner Sports.
So close that after she was born in 1986, Kacy spent enough time around the Royals to be thought of as a good luck charm. Kacy said her mother, Lisa, who is from the Kansas City area, would hand her baby daughter to a player in the Kauffman Stadium dugout, then watch as the others passed her around.
“They would hold me before games for luck and George Brett told my parents to bring me to all the games because they never lost when I was there,” Kacy said. “He called it ‘The Kacy Factor.’”
The Royals won 13 straight in the presence of Kacy, who was named in tribute to Kansas City’s World Series championship in 1985.
As the first NBA season without Craig approached, Swanson wanted the Sagers to know they were on his mind. Swanson remembered to mail the jersey to Kacy when he underwent knee surgery after the Royals’ season ended, she said.
“He, personally, attributed (the procedure) to all the pickup basketball games they played,” Kacy said. “I told him it didn’t surprise me since dad was dunking on me in grade school.”
This realignment proposal would put Royals in division with Cardinals, Cubs
October 17, 2017 By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article179316511.html
When Major League Baseball expanded prior to the 1998 season, the Royals had a choice: move to the National League or stay in the American League.
The Royals passed on the chance to join the Cubs, Cardinals and the rest of the NL Central, and the Brewers made the move instead.
This mini-history lesson is important to note because Baseball America reported “that there seems to be a building consensus that baseball will soon be headed to a 32-team configuration.” That would then lead to a realignment of divisions.
That story says one proposal would create four eight-team divisions, with the Royals being joined in a Midwest Division by the White Sox, Cubs, Astros, Rangers, Cardinals, Rockies and Brewers. The Twins, Tigers and Indians would go to a North Division.
The Baseball America story notes that Portland and Montreal seem like the logical choices to join Major League Baseball at some point, and that would lead to realignment based on geography.
A 32-team league would allow for 12 teams to make the playoffs (4 division champions and eight wild-card teams), and the proposal would cut the number of games each team would play during the season. Under the proposal, the Royals would play every team in Major League Baseball but not necessarily all of them at home.
Nothing is imminent regarding expansion, but at the All-Star Game in July, commissioner Rob Manfred did say that he has potential cities in mind if two were to join the league.
Joe Maddon takes heat for not pitching Wade Davis, but what about this question?
October 17, 2017 By Lee Judge/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/judging-the-royals/article179369311.html
On Sunday night Game 2 of the NL Championship Series was tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. The Cubs had Brian Duensing on the mound and the Dodgers had Yasiel Puig, Charlie Culberson and a pinch hitter due up.
Duensing walked Puig on four pitches. Culberson bunted Puig to second base and with one out and the winning run in scoring position, Duensing struck out pinch-hitter Kyle Farmer.
That’s when Cubs manager Joe Madden brought in pitcher John Lackey.
Lackey walked Chris Taylor and that brought up Justin Turner, the Dodgers’ best hitter. Lackey threw a 1-0 fastball down the middle and Turner didn’t miss it; he hit a three-run, walk-off homer and the Dodgers won the game 4-1 and went ahead 2-0 in the series.
Critics are questioning Joe Maddon for not using his closer, Wade Davis, to pitch the ninth inning, but few critics have provided an answer to a very important question:
If Wade Davis got the Cubs through the bottom of the ninth inning, who was going to pitch the bottom of the 10th?
Tie games and how big-league managers use their closers
Feel free to disagree and a lot of fans do, but here’s how a lot of big-league managers handle their closers.
If a game is tied going into the ninth inning, the manager of the home team will probably use his closer because if his closer does his job, that buys the home team at least two shots at winning the game; the bottom of the ninth and the bottom of the 10th.
That’s why Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts used closer Kenley Jansen to get through the top of the ninth inning of Sunday night’s game.
The manager of the visiting team is in a different situation.
If the manager of the visiting team uses his closer to get through the bottom of the ninth inning in a tie game, and that closer is limited to one inning, some other pitcher still has to pitch the bottom of the 10th.
The bottom of the ninth inning
Wade Davis threw 44 pitches and 2 1/3 innings on Thursday and after two days rest was limited to one inning on Sunday night. That tells you Davis’ arm was still not 100 percent. Maddon, like a lot of managers, did not want to burn that one inning from Davis in a loss.
If Maddon brought Davis in to start the ninth inning and Davis went 1-2-3, Davis would have been done for the night and it’s likely we still would have seen John Lackey pitching to Chris Taylor and Justin Turner in the 10th.
So how about letting Duensing start the inning, but bringing in Davis instead of Lackey to face Chris Taylor with two outs and a runner on second?
If Davis got Taylor to end the ninth inning, Davis would have to sit through the top of the 10th before pitching again and up-downs — pitching, then sitting, then pitching again — can be hard on a pitcher’s arm. If Maddon was protecting Davis’ arm — and it sounds like he was — he didn’t want to use Davis for one out and then, lose him for the rest of the game.
Same problem with having Davis come in to face Turner after Lackey walked Taylor. For that to work, Davis would have to be warming up while Lackey was pitching to Taylor.
After the game Maddon said he didn’t want to get Davis hot — all the way warmed up — and then not use him. So if Davis was warming up and Lackey got Taylor, Davis would be done for the night without throwing a single pitch in the game.
Why Maddon wanted a lead before bringing in Davis
Big-league managers and their critics believe in using closers when it does the most good, but disagree about when that is.
Pitchers can’t put runs on the board, so use Davis in the ninth inning — either to start the inning or come in with two outs — and Davis would be done for the night and Maddon would still need someone else to pitch the 10th.
Pitcher’s arms only have so many bullets in them, so Maddon wanted to use Davis when it would do the most good: with a lead.
Burn a quality inning from Davis in a loss on Sunday and then, if Davis has a tender arm and doesn’t recover in time to pitch on Tuesday, you’ve made a mess of two games.
Critics might have managed the game differently and next time they’re in charge of a big-league team they should feel free to do so, but what Joe Maddon did wasn’t crazy.
It just didn’t work.
Royals help boy who lost baseball collection in Calif. fire
October 17, 2017 By Kaitlyn Alanis/KC Star
http://www.kansas.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article179254076.html
When 9-year-old Loren Jade Smith’s home burned down during the Santa Rosa fires in California, his destroyed baseball collection hurt the most.
“My saddest things was my baseball collection cards, my 17 jerseys and 10 hats and my baseball from the game ...,” he wrote in a letter to the Oakland A’s — his all-time favorite baseball team. He plays baseball in his backyard all day long, and in his version, the A’s won six world series in a row.
After local news organizations shared a photo of his hand-written letter, A’s president Dave Kaval promised to replace Loren’s collection.