Royals Rumblings - News for November 29, 2024

Final Asia Baseball Wrap: the NPB

Ed note: As I mentioned in the comments last week, this was supposed to run last Friday but life intervened so it’s going today

Michael Massey got married this week:

At The Star, Jaylon Thompson wonders what is next for the Royals

“I think we’ve still got to be on the lookout for something that continues to lengthen our lineup out,” Royals general manager J.J. Picollo said. “If we are able to get something that helps out the middle of the lineup, we’d be really happy.”

...The Royals could find themselves in need of another veteran starter. Singer was projected to be the No. 4 starter in the 2025 rotation. Now, KC will need to fill that role. It’s possible the Royals decide to look at internal options that include Alec Marsh, Daniel Lynch IV, Kris Bubic and a returning Kyle Wright.

On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, Darragh McDonald had a segment about the Singer-India trade.

Some Thanksgiving listicles?

At MLB Pipeline, Sam Dykstra gave a prospect-related reason for every team to be thankful:

Royals: Jac Caglianone had the most prodigious power in this year’s Draft class, and his exit velocities in the Arizona Fall League were special, adding to the belief that he can be a one-way star even if his pitching doesn’t translate as well to the pro side.

Also at MLB, there was a major league reason for every team (no author credited):

Royals - Royals fans get to watch Bobby Witt Jr. every day, which is pretty much the best possible gift, all told, especially when you consider that they’re locked into doing so for the next decade. He made his first playoff appearance this year. It won’t be his last.

At CBS Sports, Mike Axisa does the Thanksgiving thing:

Kansas City Royals: Witt becoming a dominant force - Prior to 2024, Alex Rodriguez was the only shortstop in baseball history to win a batting title, a Gold Glove, and a Silver Slugger at any point in his career. Bobby Witt Jr. then did all three in the same season. I think Witt is the closest thing to a perfect player in the game today. You have to nitpick to find a flaw. He’s an elite hitter, an elite defender, an elite baserunner, he posts up every single day. You name it and Witt does it. As an added bonus, finishing second in the MVP voting netted the Royals a Prospect Promotion Incentive draft pick. Witt is helping Kansas City is ways that extend beyond what he does on the field. A franchise player in every single way.

At The Athletic ($), Jim Bowden gave 24 reasons he is thankful for this MLB season:

19. Props to the Kansas City Royals, who won 30 more games this year — improving from 56-106 in 2023 to 86-76 in 2024 — and made the playoffs. A turnaround for the ages.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for the bloggers I get to link to every week! We have 4 stories today, which is more than I was expecting for a holiday week.

Kevin O’Brien, The Royals Reporter, list “Four Things for Royals Fans to Be Thankful For in 2024”, including:

It’s hard to process all the accolades Witt accomplished this past year. And he did this after signing a massive extension. There was no “post-contract” hangover for Witt like there was with Trea Turner after he signed with the Phillies or Julio Rodriguez after he won Rookie of the Year in 2022 and signed an extension with the Mariners, or Wander Franco of the Rays, who…well, you know.

Despite all the pressure, despite all the eyes constantly being on Witt, despite him being the main and sometimes only offensive threat for the Royals, the 24-year-old shortstop frequently delivered. Better yet, not only will he be in Kansas City for a long time, but he is just starting his illustrious career.

At Kings of Kauffman, Rachael Millanta also expanded on a reason to be thankful.

At Farm to Fountains, Matt Chabot lists “Some Royals Prospects That Will Break Out in 2025”:

2B/LF Javier Vaz - Javier Vaz is one of my favorite prospects in the Royals farm system and is a guy that I think is ready to make his mark in 2025. In the 15th round of the 2022 MLB draft the Royals took Vaz out of Vanderbilt and signed him for $125,000. Vaz fell in the draft because of concerns about his size and the potential that he has to be a productive MLB player. Standing at 5’6/150 Vaz is not your typical professional athlete and would immediately be one of the smallest players in the MLB, coming in at the same height and 15 pounds lighter than Jose Altuve.

Finally, while I’m not familiar with him, I enjoyed Chris Bzozowski’s detailed evaluation on Medium of free agent Anthony Santander and lists the Royals as a possible destination:

The Royals - This is a sleeper fit. Kansas City, with India at leadoff (on-base machine) and Bobby Witt Jr. (stud) in the two-hole, could use Santander’s switch-hitting power in the middle of the order. His approach would not have to change much as the RBI guy. The Royals are familiar with players like this — think Salvador Perez. Their spacious right field isn’t ideal for Santander, but they have room at DH in 2027 once Perez is off the books, which could unlock his full offensive potential.

Frankly, the idea of a large Royals contract for Santander scares me, but I enjoyed the read.

Today, we close out Asian baseball for the year. The last couple of weeks, we’ve looked at the CPBL and KBO. This week, we end in Japan with the NPB. Here are the links to our season preview and mid season check for the league.

I know it was linked to in September, but we need more fanfare around the retirement of Nori Aoki.

Swallows Star Norichika Aoki to Retire after 21 Seasons; Has Combined 2,723 Hits in Japan and Major Leagues

Yakult Swallows OF Norichika Aoki’s retirement ceremony will be on Oct 2 at Jingu Stadium vs the Hiroshima Carp

42 year old Norichika Aoki announced his retirement today, but 44 year old Swallows pitcher Masanori Ishikawa stated he wants to continue playing. He’s just 14 Wins away from 200

That tally was from the announcement day. He ended his career with 1956 in NPB and 774 in MLB for a total of 2730. His career triple slash in NPB was .313/.392/.445 and .285/.387/.738 in MLB.

It was a remarkable send off for a player who truly was remarkable.  In his final professional game, Nori Aoki went 2-for-4 including a double, propelling the Tokyo Yakult Swallows to a 5-3 win over the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. 

Aoki was greeted before his retirement game by a large crowd looking to send off the fan favorite in style. He first repaid the fans’ loyalty by slicing a single to left field in the second inning before adding a double as the finishing touch on a memorable night in Tokyo.

I believe that leaves our rooting interest, the Yakult Swallows, without a former Royal. Do we need to pick a new team? That seems like a problem for next spring.

In the Pacific League, the teams that made the playoffs were pretty straightforward. Back in May, the top three teams were the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, and the Chiba Lotte Marines. At the end of the season, the top three teams were... you guessed it... Hawks, Fighters, and Marines.

The Hawks were led by 31yo Kensuke Kondoh, who won the league MVP. He was the only qualified player to hit .300 (.314) and his league-leading OBP of .439 lapped the field (C Tomoya Mori of the Orix Buffaloes was 2nd at .368). Teammate Hotaka Yamakawa’s 34 HR gave him his 4th Pacific League home run crown. Tsuyoshi Shinjo (aka BIGBOSS)’s Fighters didn’t appear to have a standout statistical star but had 3 SPs in the top 12. Of course, you can’t talk about the third place Marines without talking about Roki Sasaki. He missed a number of starts this year and his velocity was down a couple of MPH, but he still had a 2.35 ERA with 129 K and only 83 H in 111 IP.

The playoffs on that side of the bracket played out mostly as expected with 2 being an oddly magic number. Sasaki threw 8 shutout innings and the 3rd seed Marines won 2-0. But the 2nd seed Fighters won Games 2 and 3 to win the series. They were down 2-0 in both the 7th of Game 2 and 3rd inning of Game 3 but rallied to win both games and advance to the Pacific League Final Stage playoff (think ALCS). In that round, the regular season champion starts with a 1-0 series lead. The Fighters only managed to score 2 runs in each of the three games in the series. Meanwhile, the Hawks scored 5, 7, and 3 to get a 4-0 sweep and claim their 20th Pacific League pennant.

The Central League was much more compelling this year. As of our late August update, the Hiroshima Carp were leading the league with the Giants were right behind them and the Tigers and BayStars in striking distance. The Carp suffered a terrible September, going 5-20, and all three teams blew by them, leaving them out of the playoffs.

The Giants dominant pitching gave them the regular season title as they gave up the fewest runs in the league. Pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano was 15-3 with a 1.67 ERA and won his third Central League MVP, previously winning in 2020 and 2014(!). Teammate Shosei Togo and Iori Yamasaki also won double digits - the former went 12-8 with a 1.95 ERA in 180 IP while the latter went 10-6 with a 2.81. Fourth on the team in IP was former Royal Foster Griffin, who went 6-4 with a 3.01 ERA and 126 K in 116.2 IP. The Tigers were also pitching oriented with the top 4 pitchers all throwing 100 IP with ERAs under 3: Hiroto Saiki, Shoki Murakami, Koutaro Ohtake, and Yuki Nishi.

The BayStars were the surprising team sneaking into the playoffs in 3rd. Then they swept the Tigers in the first stage playoff, winning 3-1 and 10-3. In the Final Stage, the Giants started with a 1-0 lead and all games were played in their home stadium, the Tokyo Dome. The series was close with every game full of drama. The BayStars stormed into the series, winning the first three games 2-0, 2-1, and 2-1 and taking a 3-1 lead. But the Giants got up off the mat in Game 4, scoring 3 in the bottom of the 7th en route to a 4-1 win. They knotted up the series after a strong Game 5 start from Yamasaki.

In the deciding Game 6, the Giants scored in the 1st and 4th to take a 2-0 lead. However, Togo was shaky and pulled in the 5th as the BayStars tied it up. In the 9th: “Captain Shugo Maki hit a tiebreaking single in the top of the ninth inning... with a two-out single to left off Tomoyuki Sugano, scoring Keito Mori from third base... DeNA closer Kohei Morihara worked the bottom of the ninth to seal the victory.”

What about the BayStars? From this Japan Series Preview:

Everyone knew the BayStars had a formidable batting order heading into the postseason but there were some serious questions about the pitching. After winning six of eight games in the playoffs, consider those questions answered.

There was much hand-wringing when Trevor Bauer decided not to return to Yokohama this season after winning 10 games last year for the BayStars. Yokohama didn’t panic. The BayStars went out and signed former major league pitchers Anthony Kay and Andre Jackson and both have exceeded expectations.

That set up a Nippon (Japan) Series between the dominant Hawks, the best team in the league, and the Cinderella BayStars. It looked like the favorite would waltz to another title with road wins in Games 1 and 2 of 5-3 and 6-3. However, the BayStars offense came to life and they hit 5 home runs over the next four games and their pitching stifled the Hawks. They won all 3 games in the Mizuho PayPay Dome (4-1, 5-0, 7-0) and went back home up 3-2. Back at their home in Yokohama Stadium, the BayStars logged a 7-run 5th inning en route to a 11-2 series winning game. The MVP was Masayuki Kuwahara. The BayStars OF “had an RBI in five consecutive games, a Japan Series record”. It was the franchise’s 3rd title and 1st in 26 years.

The postseason began in earnest with the news that Roki Sasaki is coming to MLB. The next day, it was announced that former Royal Brad Keller is joining the Marines, Sasaki’s former club.

Back in 2018, I covered Bravely Default (also, I think I understand the OT topic better than I did then - though I don’t think that’s really a good thing).

This is a mash up of a couple of the boss themes. The first one (3 mins) is one of my favorites and it’s really fun live.