Last Minute Thoughts Before It All Starts
On the precipice of 162, I've got some things to say.
We are on the cusp of the 2021 season beginning. You might even be reading this after the season begins. What a world the internet provides! But as the season that is probably the most highly anticipated in Kansas City since 2017 gets underway, I just wanted to clear my head of a handful of thoughts before the season gets started as one final brain dump before we get into the day-to-day of a big league season.
They have a challenge already
The news of the injury to Adalberto Mondesi is a pretty big blow the day before the season is supposed to start. It seemed like he would be hitting third in the lineup (which I didn’t love), but that’s an important piece. Defensively, he anchors an infield with a questionable defender at third and a lesser defender than the Royals had penciled in when spring started at second. So yeah, this has some big-time ramifications for what they look like. The good news is that Dayton Moore spoke at the workout yesterday and mentioned it might not be a long-term thing.
For the Royals to get where they want to be this year, they need Mondesi to be some percentage of the player he was the last 20 games of the year in 2020. He’s arguably more valuable hurt than playing if he’s the guy from the first 40 or so games, but even so, this hurts. Nicky Lopez is now back up and while I actually think he could still figure some things out to be a useful player, he almost certainly hasn’t changed much of anything from his brutal spring that got him demoted. The good news is the defense will still be good at shortstop. For those clamoring for Bobby Witt, Jr., I get it, but as an injury replacement, it just doesn’t make sense right now.
What marks success?
I mentioned this on an answer that’ll appear on a Royals Review Roundtable today, but I think this is the last season where success isn’t marked by wins and losses. Obviously, if they can somehow put together a season where they win 89 games and make the playoffs it would be a success, but they don’t have to do that for 2021 to go down in the win column. Mondesi getting hurt isn’t a great start, but the key for this year is players who figure to be a part of the next good team having good seasons and progressing the way the team hopes they should.
It doesn’t have to be Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch and Kris Bubic in the rotation or really any particular players, but if the Royals get improvement from enough of their young talent to know that they can take the next step in 2022 and 2023, that’s a success. But after this year, the kid gloves are off and the record matters. Let’s say they go my predicted 76-86 in 2021 and do so with great things happening from their young players. If they don’t win in 2022, that’s a failure. So they should enjoy this while they can.
Some team leader predictions
AVG - Whit Merrifield
OBP - Carlos Santana
SLG - Hunter Dozier
wRC+ - Hunter Dozier
2B - Andrew Benintendi
3B - Adalberto Mondesi
HR - Jorge Soler
RBI - Jorge Soler
SB - Adalberto Mondesi
fWAR - Whit Merrifield
IP - Brad Keller
W - Mike Minor
L - Danny Duffy
Starter K% - Brady Singer
Reliever K% - Josh Staumont
Starter BB% - Mike Minor
Reliever BB% - Jakob Junis
Starter ERA - Brady Singer
Reliever ERA - Jesse Hahn
Saves - Greg Holland
The TV situation sucks
They need to figure this out. It’s hard to blame the Royals specifically for this as they entered into a contract for a new television deal last year. Yes, they knew Sinclair had purchased the regional networks, but the details were pretty well unknown and the team didn’t really have a choice as their previous deal was up and they were negotiating in a pandemic. This team’s timing on television deals simply couldn’t be worse.
But the fact that so many people can’t watch these games is ridiculous. The Dodgers have gone through the same issues for years, but there’s a difference between Los Angeles and Kansas City and there’s a difference between the Dodgers and the Royals. This has a chance to really diminish fan growth in Kansas City for years to come if they don’t get this figured out and fast to be able to put the Royals on in homes around the entire city, whether they have cable, Hulu, YouTube TV or whatever. Or they’ll need to put out a how-to guide on using a VPN so fans can use MLB.tv to stream games in their own market. It’s all a mess and just needs to be fixed ASAP.
Some ItC news
You may have seen this on Twitter yesterday, but if you don’t frequent the tweet machine, I mentioned that at some point in the future (I truly don’t know when yet), I will start offering paid subscriptions. You all have been amazing at the start of Inside the Crown, so I want to give away some free subscriptions whenever the time comes that I do offer a paid option. If you’re already subscribed, awesome, you’re in. If not, though, just subscribe the end of the day on Sunday and I’m going to give away as many free subscriptions to those who have subscribed by then as runs the Royals score over the weekend against the Rangers with a minimum of 10. So forward this to your friends and get them to sign up if they haven’t so they can be entered into the drawing.
It’s about freaking time
Let’s watch some baseball!
I'm wondering as far as the TV issue? Could KC possibly get their OWN network or team up with other clubs and forma network? The Yankees Have YES network, The Red Sox, NESN, I think the White SOX is NBC or CBS regional network. Would that get us away from Bally?