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I hope you get to see some action too. If things had been a little more concrete on a contract, I would probably be down there myself this spring. My sister lives 5 min from the park in Surprise. If they do finalize a contract this week, maybe they will open things up so you can at least see the Minor League players going about their business next week. Have some fun down there either way.

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I cancelled my trip but may reschedule if there is a window to catch some spring training games. I was so looking forward to getting my first In' n Out' double cheeseburger, and then the same animal style. Oh well.

I think that Pratto's somewhat high strikeout numbers down the stretch may justify giving Santana enough time to prove that it was his injuries and so re-establish his value for someone to take his salary and perhaps give us a middling prospect before Nick comes up.

I personally do not think that we need any more veteran pitchers, including relievers, and should not overpay for any, but instead, hold back, and if we can get a great deal to sign them to the minor leagues, or perhaps the major leagues for a really good one, after the frenzy, okay. To me, we just have too many good ones already, even if some are young. Mike Minor fits that for the starters until enough of them kick in to send him to the bullpen or the trade market, and Scott Barlow is old enough and has been through enough for the relievers - though McHugh or Greg Holland at a low price might not crowd anyone out.

I also am somewhat more optimistic that we will finally get a deal this week, or find out pretty quickly that we will not get one, and really put the season in jeopardy, though one or both sides may fake that a bit early in the week before we finally have a break through.

I think the unintended benefit of allowing more contraction of the minor leagues may benefit college baseball and be neutral in terms of impact on the game - so long as we can see young stars in college or the independent leagues, that savings, especially if it helps lead to better pay for the minor leaguers we do have, and the major leaguers in their first 2-3 years, may be a good thing. That approach does not seem to hurt the NFL or NBA - allowing young players to go to college to develop there.

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I think that we'll get a season with about 130-140 games in it and we'll start the season mid-April or so. The players seem more united this time(which is great) and the owners are stumbling over themselves(which is also great). I think we'll see things tilt towards the players again and we can get back to the fun stuff.

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I hope they keep Pratto and Vinny. It is hard right now to see how all our good young hitters will fit (with hoped for MJ/Salvy platoon at C/DH), and Pratto much better at 1B defense than Vinny, but I figure there will be some way with either injury, or both Salvy and Whit starting to get long in the tooth, even if that means another minor league year for Vinny. And I think that can even leave room for Seuly if he can be the minor league's next best Bat Turn Around candidate.

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I have said before that I am opposed to signing any additional major league level free agents. I firmly believe we are at the time where we have enough players knocking on t he major league door and we need to find out what they really are. Starter? Bullpen arm? Closer? Set up man? Organizational filler?

At this time, there is no salary cap or salary floor. I see not signing anyone as saving money today to spend in the future years when we are really going to compete. I believe we will be below .500 in 2022, just at or above .500 in 2023 and competing for real in 2024-26.

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Thank you again for writing such a thorough and well-reasoned article about Royals baseball and baseball in general.

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