Royal Revival (OOTP 21)

[artoodeetoo]

The Royals could be setting up their succession plan in the front office, as they have announced a deal to bring in 37-year-old Travis Greenleaf to run the day-to-day ops as the team's new vice-president of baseball operations, emphasizing the analytical side of the game. Greenleaf is currently the most senior member of the analytics team; having led that area for the last four seasons. It's a newly-created position that will work under the umbrella of GM Dayton Moore, and alongside assistant GM J.J. Picollo and scouting director Lonnie Goldberg in tandem.

Moore just turned fifty-four in February, and has been at the helm of the Royals' fortunes since 2006. He has talked openly in recent years about wanting to take a more behind-the-scenes role in the organization since reaching back-to-back World Series in 2014 and 2015, winning it all in the second trip.

The new ownership group led by John Sherman has been in talks about extending Moore's contract, but it doesn't expire until after the 2023 season. It seems that one of Piccolo or Goldberg would be in line to take over the GM role if and when Moore decides to step aside. Perhaps with how numbers-driven baseball has become in recent years, Greenleaf might have a larger role going forward, as well.

"He's a real smart, real intelligent guy," Moore said of Greenleaf. "He's young, he seems to get both sides of the baseball coin, so to speak...I think he still has a lot to learn about the business side of things; operations and the like, but he's going to help us really expand our knowledge of advanced numbers and how we can put them to use on the field and when we try to improve our ball club. Him and Mike (manager Matheny) are already super-tight, so that's a relationship that's already there and humming along. He's also been a big factor in our draft process and how we analyze prospects at the high school and college level, and he'll continue to do that for us."

After a decent showing in the pandemic-shortened season, the Royals don't seem too far from being a factor in the AL Central. Cleveland and Minnesota are still the class of the division, and the White Sox appear to have turned a corner while spending big bucks on the open market to complement their young stars. Detroit has a collection of solid young arms, but appear to still be several years away from seeing any light at the end of the tunnel.

Platform: Steam OOTP 22

[artoodeetoo]

Reserved 1

[artoodeetoo]

Reserved 2

[artoodeetoo]

Reserved 3

[artoodeetoo]

Reserved 4

[artoodeetoo]

The updated prospect rankings from BNN are now in. With three top-ten prospects, the Seattle Mariners have the league's top farm system. In second and third place by wide margins over the rest of the pack, the Rays and Padres trail the Mariners. Detroit is the only other franchise that scored over 100 points in the rankings, with 114 to place fourth. Pittsburgh rounds out the top five team rankings. Both Texas teams, the Rangers and Astros, were the only ones to not place a prospect in the top 100; and rank 29th and 30th, respectively.

Individually, to no one's surprise, Tampa's Wander Franco tops the list for the third straight season, followed by Baltimore catcher Adley Rutschman. Rounding out the top five are Braves outfielder Cristian Pache, Mariners oufielder Julio Rodriguez, and Royals infielder Bobby Witt Jr.

For the Royals specifically after Witt, 2020 first-round pick Asa Lacy jumps in as the Royals' second-best prospect, and 24th-overall. Witt's success with the team in the spring was well-documented, but was ultimately assigned to the alternate site to begin the season. Five of the team's top six prospects could all see action with the Royals in 2021, with only Erick Pena (#195) very unlikely to reach the majors this season; although he did get some reps in the outfield in the spring. Daniel Lynch (#55), Jackson Kowar (#102), and Kyle Isbel (#173) are all on the cusp of the majors, and figure to earn playing time at some point in the 2021 season.

GM Dayton Moore has mentioned that Lacy was "one to watch" to compete for a big-league role in camp earlier this season, but is likely to start his pro career with the Double-A NW Arkansas Naturals. Despite not throwing a professional pitch, he already ranks in front of other well-known prospects like Lynch, Kowar, and Daniel Tillo, who is on the injured list after Tommy John surgery in September.

Some position players to watch in the team's top twenty are the trio of catcher M.J. Melendez (12th), outfielder Seuly Matias (14th), and first baseman Nick Pratto (10th). The former is expected to begin the season with the Double-A Naturals, and the latter two are expected to repeat High-A, although with a different team than in years past with the Quad Cities River Bandits. They all struggled in their first taste of semi-advanced minor league ball. In particular, Matias was disappointing after posting a 31-homerun season with Single-A Lexington in 2018, slipping to just four homeruns in 221 PA with the Blue Rocks of High-A Wilmington, the Royals' old affiliate at that level.

Pratto and Melendez were the team's top two selections in 2017, both out of high school. Melendez has elite bonafides defensively, which makes him more likely to reach the majors even with subpar offense; but Pratto has been disappointing since going 14th overall in that draft as a prep first baseman. He looked to be turning a corner in 2018 with a .280/.343/.443 slash, but much like Matias, slumped to a poor .191/.278/.310 slash line at the next level.

[saintrules]

Dang man, looks like you're doing another Royals dynasty. I've gotta almost give you the space on here, haha. You're going to know this roster 10x better than me & I enjoyed following your original one.

[artoodeetoo]

I went back and forth between doing another Royals one, or rolling with an indy league squad for kicks. Go with what you know is where I landed on this one...

I'll be reading yours, keep up the good work.