Royals Rumblings - News for November 1, 2024

Crashing from all the sugar last night?

Per this completely unofficial website, it looks like 102 days until Pitchers and Catchers Report. It has the disclaimer of “Countdown is currently based on pitchers and catchers reporting on February 12, 2025”. That means roughly 3 months until we can start posting stories about who is in the best shape of their lives.

Some quick transaction news. Hunter Renfroe and Chris Stratton exercised their player options and Adam Frazier’s mutual option was declined by the team.

From Pete Grathoff at The Star, Bobby Witt Jr. sent out wedding invitations that were on the back of baseball cards. Ok, that’s really cool.

Ahead of his upcoming wedding, Witt had some one-of-a-kind cards made for some of his teammates as he invited them to be groomsment. Sports Card Investor said the cards were “created by Topps and encapsulated by PSA.”

At The Athletic, Noah Furtado talked to a number of players who caught the last pitch of the World Series, including Drew Butera:

Like Ross, catcher Drew Butera found himself in a backup role with a new team. But it was the Kansas City Royals, and by 2015, Salvador Perez had established himself as a perennial All-Star-caliber player. Butera was safely beyond the spotlight, until he suddenly wasn’t. He replaced Perez, who had been pinch run for in the previous half-inning, to catch the bottom of the 12th with the Royals three outs away from their first World Series win in two decades. With star closer Wade Davis getting warm, though, Butera knew he just needed to play catch.

“I was oddly calm,” he said. “I remember standing next to (pitching coach) Dave Eiland, and at that time, I think we had maybe a three- or four-run lead. I was like, ‘We just won the World Series.’”

Speaking of the World Series, game times were up from 3:01 to 3:19, ratings were also up, and Bob Costas is retiring from baseball play-by-play.

I’m not sure if this is a new story or just updated but at the top of the Royals official page, they have an injuries and moves page with this disclaimer:

The Royals’ injuries and roster moves page will be updated throughout the offseason. Following the conclusion of the World Series, the Royals saw seven players depart for free agency, bringing their 40-man roster to 33 players.

Over at NBC Sports, Christopher Crawford does a recap capsule of the 2024 Royals season:

Team Needs

Not shortstop.

The Royals have a good amount of free agents, but outside of Wacha — who will assuredly decline his option after his strong 2024 campaign, one would have to think — these are mostly bench/platoon options that can be replaced. Kansas City is also in a somewhat-enviable position where they can improve in several areas, and one would have to think they’ll explore the outfield market while also adding a bridge or two to help Erceg. They’re not a championship contending team just yet, but a few more adds to the offensive core and improvement from young players like Melendez and Pasquantino make them closer than anyone could have anticipated in 2023.

Old friend alert: the offseason starts off with an old friend changing teams. Jorge Soler is going from Atlanta to Anaheim. At least he isn’t be moving too far in the alphabet.

Royals Blogs?

I didn’t realize Royals broadcaster Joel Goldberg had a blog. He posted an entry yesterday called “Out of the Park: Validation”:

It was a pleasure to cover the franchise this season, and seeing them return to the postseason for the first time since 2015 was special.

They may have lost in the second round to the New York Yankees, but a packed Kauffman Stadium and playoff ball at “The K” was true validation for fans and players alike, inside and Out of the Park.

David Lesky ($) plays “JJ for a Day”:

Michael Lorenzen

Lorenzen was kind of the test subject for the Royals and their pitching development team. I’m not sure if they saw it that way, but I sure did. They were able to bring in veterans and see improvement from them, but they made swift changes to Lorenzen’s repertoire and found results almost immediately with him. I like him, and I wrote the other day in my free agent preview that I’d be fine enough with him as the fifth starter, but I’m not sure I’d jump at that, and I think another team will want to bring him in the fold before the Royals reach that point with him, so I’d generally just let him walk.

Kevin O’ Brien lists four players who could lose their roster spot:

Nelson Velazquez:

...Even though I believe in Nelly as a fan, it’s evident that the Royals aren’t as optimistic. Velazquez didn’t see any at-bats with the Royals in September, and with Hunter Renfroe likely exercising his player option this winter, Nelly will not have much opportunity for at-bats this spring in Surprise.

Furthermore, the Royals want to sign a corner outfielder to help boost the offensive production in 2025. That is a sign that Kansas City doesn’t believe Velazquez can help in that department and that he could be one to go if they sign that corner outfielder in free agency this offseason.

Blog Roundup:

• Kevin O’Brien (hey, didn’t we just see him at The Royals Reporter in the last link?) at Farm to Fountains: “Royals Decline Frazier’s Mutual Option; Renfroe and Stratton Exercise Options”
• Mike Gillespie at Kings of Kauffman: “Veteran reliever could give KC Royals some key bullpen insurance”
• Rachael Millanta at Kings of Kauffman: “KC Royals legend calls out ESPN for response to Yankees fan incident at World Series”

This had to be written a couple of weeks ago as I was leading a taco around the neighborhood in his pursuit of candy. I’ve done movie “duos” in the past and I tried to do the same here, though I’ll admit some of these pairings are more than a little forced.

Beeltejuice (1988) - If you grew up in the 80s, I feel like this was one of those movies that someone in the neighborhood had sitting around on a VHS cassette that they had worn out. This may be Tim Burton at this Tim Burton-yist and, it’s wildly creative but a little hard to watch at times. There are lots of big, wacky ideas smashed up against each other - many work but not all of them land and not all of them fit together. Michael Keaton is absolutely scene-chewingly brilliant, but don’t let that praise detract from the good work by the rest of the iconically 80s cast. All that said, I don’t particularly care for the movie. It’s just not my grotesque cup of tea.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) - This one fits somewhere between a pointless cash-grab sequel and an airy sequel that is mostly forgettable but keeps the franchise evergreen for another generation. Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara return mostly unchanged, but bouncing off a new cast that includes Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, and Monica Bellucci. There are way too many threads and few are adequately explored. It’s only 104 minutes, short by modern standards, but feels bloated. No one needed a full length “MacArthur Park” musical number. In the end, it could have gone much worse and enjoyed it enough that I felt the theater money was well spent. Well, except for the kid two seats over who was playing on their phone through more than half the movie (WHO DOES THAT?!?).

21 Jump Street (2012) - This movie was dumb, but also smarter and more fun than it had any business being, even taking into account the sheer number of penis jokes. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum’s odd couple comedy generally works because they play it straight and even add a little unexpected heart. I’m not sure the world needed a 21 Jump Street movie and I’m equally unsure if fans of the original cared for this treatment of the TV show. That’s even taking into account the scene where this sophomoric comedy paused to allow a cameo where original cast members Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise cameo broke the fourth wall.

22 Jump Street (2014) - I think everyone involved knows they went to the well one time too many, at the behest of studio bucks. To make up for it, the movie plays even more earnest while simultaneously leaning into making fun of itself. In both movies, Nick Offerman has a scene where he stonefaced delivers hilarious exposition while savaging the Hollywood recycling process - only this time, he also lambasts sequels. The first act is weighed down by a lot of Jonah Hill cringe, but once it gets moving, it’s pretty darn funny, yet again. Aside: If Miller and Lord could get back to work on Beyond the Spider-Verse, that’d be great.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) – Hey, we covered the Ghostbusters franchise back in 2023. This past summer, I was on a cross country plane flight and had just picked out a movie when the woman next to me started a conversation and we talked for a good hour. Then we both wanted to watch a movie and ended on the same one. It was a good airplane movie: something I wasn’t super excited for but felt the captive audience two hours were well spent. It leans a little heavier into the breezy nostalgia than its reboot predecessor but doesn’t have the heart. It’s mostly an ephemeral sequel – didn’t do anything bad but really didn’t advance the franchise any, either.

Paw Patrol: The Movie (2021) – I watched this on the plane ride back with my son. You know how Pixar, especially, tries to not dumb things down for kids and give the parents something? This is not one of those movies. It looks pretty? It’s upbeat? This movie is aimed squarely at small kids and is mostly insipid, even by merchandising cash-grab cartoon standards. I guess if you’re in the “government can control hurricanes” set (please don’t be), this movie has that. Though Cobra Commander did it better.

The American Society of Magical Negroes (2024) - Hm... how do I talk about this without getting into too much trouble (or spoilers)? Well, here goes. I seem to like Justice Smith, reluctant “hero”, more than most and David Alan Grier is really good in this. The premise is interesting. However, it really plays it safe and never really challenges the “magical negro” trope that it’s supposed to be lampooning. The second half plays like a generic romcom while doing generic satire of Silicon Valley and leads you into a twist at the end that almost confirms the trope more than pushes against it. Then again, maybe I’m just not the correct audience.

Moonfall (2022) - I think you know what you’re getting here. Roland Emmerich, who has been chasing his ID4 high since... ID4, gets to ram the moon into Earth with 2020s effects. Aside: have we gone backwards with special effects in the last decade? The cast is mostly a mix of “not good enough”s (Patrick Wilson, John Bradley) and “good but phoning it in”s (Halle Berry, Donald Sutherland). The pacing and script are mostly nonsensical, even by disaster movie standards, and the scope and impact of the event is inconsistent. We get news flashes from around the world until it sometimes randomly blows up on our “heroes”. But for all its flaws, I mostly appreciated act 3: the movie goes all in on selling that the moon is just an ancient, artificial alien structure that’s part of an intergalactic war, tied to the origin of humanity. And it keeps a straight face while doing it. That alone barely made it worth the couple hours of my time.

Gotta be honest: kindof tired, sugar crashing, and out of ideas. How about the ending scene from the original Beetlejuice? It has music.