Not a lot of new news (especially since Greg stole all the early morning stories for yesterday\u2019s Rumblings<\/a>; I had already picked out a picture of Tyler Tolbert and everything\u2026 and then saw he had the story yesterday; d\u2019oh)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Moose is going into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame<\/a>:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame unveiled its lineup of 2025 inductees on Thursday at the InterContinental Kansas City on the Plaza.<\/p>\n Headlining the 2025 class is Royals legend Mike Moustakas, the hard-hitting third baseman who helped lead the team to World Series appearances in 2014 and 2015 and a championship in 2015.<\/p>\n Moustakas, 37, was honored at Kauffman Stadium earlier this year, when he officially retired as a Royal after a 12-year career in Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n With the Royals elimination on Tuesday, Fred Zinkle at Yahoo did a season post-mortem and look ahead<\/a>:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The outfield is a completely different story. At 28 years old, Isbel is unlikely to ever become more than a below-average hitter. Still, his ability to play strong defense in center field could make him the regular No. 9 batter in the lineup. Isbel also benefits from the fact that the Royals have no one else in the picture, even in the corner spots. Mike Yastrzemski and Randal Grichuk arrived at the trade deadline to stop the bleeding but are both in their mid-30s and heading to free agency. Addressing this position in free agency will be Kansas City\u2019s No. 1 offseason priority.<\/p>\n Having their preferred rotation members \u2014 Ragans, Wacha, Lugo, Bubic, Cameron and Michael Lorenzen \u2014 secured for next season puts the Royals in an envious position. Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek are also options after they contributed to the rotation down the stretch. This group is deep enough that the front office could trade someone for an outfielder, but the Royals are more likely to retain their depth and use Lorenzen as a swingman if everyone is healthy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Listicle or Listicle-like? We\u2019ve got a couple of those.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At Fangraphs, Michael Baumann proposes to \u201cLet\u2019s Judge Midseason Trades Now<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But I was mildly surprised to learn that the Royals were massive winners in this year\u2019s midseason trade market. Kolek has generated a full win in just four starts, which I can\u2019t get my head around given his modest strikeout rate. The third guy in the Fermin trade, Ryan Bergert, has also been decent in his eight starts. Yastrzemski has hit well, and even Adam Frazier, whose acquisition I mocked two months ago, is hitting .281 since his return to Kansas City. The CBS Sports Staff gives their \u201c2025 MLB Superlatives<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Most improved player: Maikel Garcia, Royals<\/strong><\/p>\n You could argue for Cal Raleigh, Trevor Rogers, Brice Turang, and a slew of others. I went back and forth on who to spotlight here before landing on Garcia. This wasn\u2019t a case of a player just getting better results; this was a case of a player improving their processes and being rewarded for it with a five-win season. Garcia improved almost every facet of his game: he upped his walk rate and slashed his strikeout rate; he more than doubled his career home run total while showing more inclination toward pulling the ball; and he even took the extra base more often during the run of play. In the span of six months, Garcia elevated himself from someone who might require a change of scenery to someone who now looks like a key piece of the Royals core. Good on him. — R.J. Anderson<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n The crew at MLB Pipeline made a listicle of best prospects going to the Arizona Fall League<\/a>:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Royals: Blake Mitchell, C (No. 1\/MLB No. 48)<\/strong> It\u2019s the last Friday Rumblings of the regular season. How about a couple of little baseball nuggets for OT? Crazy, I know.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s the first one, from about a month ago:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The first part is kindof fun, right? Korey Lee both pitched and caught in a game against the Royals in late August<\/a>. I\u2019m not entirely sure why he came into the game as backup C for an inning and then pitched for a pair, but whatever. Who am I to question a rookie manager on a 100-loss team?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The second part is more fun to me. People think of the \u201colden days\u201d either as more stodgy, because it was a long time ago, or wacky, because we\u2019re in the early days of baseball. This as more towards the latter, but nothing like, say, this 2017 nuttiness<\/a> (that I referenced back in 2018<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It was the last day of the season and both the Browns and White Sox had winning records, but weren\u2019t going to win the pennant. In the first game of the doubleheader, the Browns rallied to down the White Sox 10-9.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s the box score<\/a> for that second game. Isbell started his career with the Cubs as a mediocre pitcher. After spending a couple of years in the minors, he returned to the White Sox as a position player, primarily playing 2B and 1B, although he would also play all nine positions in his career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As noted, I love that the local newspaper story<\/a> is called \u201cBROWNS LOST SECOND GAME, BUT ENJOYED THEMSELVES\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Browns only made the playoffs once in their history<\/a> (before moving to Baltimore), a World Series loss in 1944. In 1922, they finished 2nd to the Yankees and this late September game<\/a> could have be the one that cost them. The Yankees scored an unearned run in the 8th and two runs in the 9th to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 win. The pitchers in the game? Bullet Joe Bush, Dixie Davis, Hub Pruett, and Urban Shocker. Gotta love old box scores.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Also, on a blog called Baseball History Daily, in a post aptly titled \u201cThings I Learned on the Way to Looking Up Other Things #28<\/a>\u201d, Isbell reminds us that 100 years ago was not that different than today:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201c\u2019What the dickens are those, Issy,\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019Balls and bats.\u2019 Calmly remarked the Terrible Swede.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019what are you going to do with them?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019I\u2019ll tell you,\u2019 remarked Issy, seating himself on the edge of the box. \u2018I began collecting them in July and saving them up. I knew everyone in Wichita (Kansas, Isbell\u2019s off-season home) would want one of the balls that was used in the world\u2019s championship series.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Another couple of box scores?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When trying to find that Mets-Yankees games from 2017 I linked to above, I asked Gemini. Hey, maybe this is something that AI might be good at? Nope!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I asked about MLB players with most position changes in a game. It linked to a page on MLB.com<\/a> about players who played all 9 positions in a single game. Ok, not bad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And that\u2019s without even mentioning Will Ferrell<\/a>\u2019s Spring Training stunt<\/a>. FYI: If MLB let me do this, I would 100% do it!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gemini\u2019s second answer was less interesting. It mentioned this game<\/a> in 1986 between the Reds and Mets. It does have the novelty of having the pitching list Orosco. Then McDowell. Then Orosco. And then McDowell again. It was extra innings and Davey Johnson stuck one of them in RF and the other on the mound, switching them a couple of times, trying to gain lefty-righty advantage. The Reds were held scoreless and Orosco walked and scored on Howard Johnson\u2019s 3-run homer in the 14th, so I guess it worked out? Still, not a very exciting box score.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When thinking of Royals box scores, in a perverse way, this is my favorite<\/a>. I think Max covered it best<\/a>:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In a game against Detroit, second baseman Esteban German had to leave the game with an injured shoulder. Rather than move a former infielder like Mark Teahen in from right-field to replace him, Bell instead decided to have catcher Jason LaRue make his third base debut, then moved Alex Gordon to shortstop for the first time since high school, and moved the team\u2019s best infield defender, shortstop Tony Pena Jr., to second base. Why hurt yourself at one position, when you can hurt yourself at multiple positions?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Finally, I was going through some baseball cards and ran across the 1954 Bowman card<\/a> of Joe Nuxhall (#76). Nuxhall was a notable player in his own right (per wiki<\/a>):<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Joseph Henry Nuxhall<\/strong> was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball, best remembered for having been the youngest player ever to appear in a Major League game and for spending 40 years as a Cincinnati Reds broadcaster.<\/p>\n Nuxhall played primarily for the Cincinnati Reds. Immediately after retiring as a player, he became a radio broadcaster for the Reds from 1967 through 2004, and continued part-time up until his death in 2007. Nuxhall held the team\u2019s record for career games pitched (484) from 1965 to 1975, and still holds the team mark for left-handers. He pitched 2\u20443 of an inning for the Reds on June 10, 1944, at the age of 15 years, 316 days. Called upon for that single game due to player shortages during World War II, Nuxhall eventually found his way back to the Reds in 1952, and the National League All-Star team in 1955 and 1956. Long known as \u201cThe Ol\u2019 Left-hander,\u201d he compiled a career earned run average of 3.90 and a record of 135\u2013117 during his 16-season career, with all but five of his victories being earned with the Reds. Nuxhall died in 2007 after a long battle with cancer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n But it wasn\u2019t his information that caught my eye. Check out the back of the card on that link, specifically the trivia question.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you can\u2019t see the link, it says \u201cWhat player threw a baseball the fastest?<\/strong>\u201d And the answer was \u201cMark Koenig, Yankees, threw a ball 127 mph in 1930<\/strong>.\u201d Wait?!? WHAT? HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF THIS?!?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Again, we think back to the early days of baseball as this time with players who just weren\u2019t as good as they are now. Turn of the century nutrition, early 1900s training techniques, the color barrier – they just couldn\u2019t compete today, right?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Baseball Almanac has some fun stuff on its site. There\u2019s even an article entitled \u201cThe Fastest Pitcher in Baseball History<\/a>\u201d. It talks about how in 1917, Walter Johnson threw a ball 134 ft\/s, which Google tells me is 91.36 mph. See? A guy nicknamed \u201cThe Big Train\u201d who set all of the early strikeout records, was a touch over 90. That sounds about right.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bob Feller captured a lot of imagination in the 30s and 40s with potential speeds of 104 and 107.9. But the paragraph also mentions he hit 98.6 on something called a \u201cspeeding motorcycle test\u201d and Johnson hit 99.7.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So what\u2019s this about 127 mph?!? First off: who is Mark Koenig? He was an\u2026 infielder<\/a>. Huh? He pitched a total of 16 IP, but they were 8.44 ERA bad, so he stuck with his day job as an infielder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Over at the Yankees subreddit, a user named \u201csonofabutch\u201d had a nice, detailed profile<\/a>, akin to some of what we see on this site. He mentions:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n During his brief conversion to pitching with Detroit, the Tigers had determined, using the primitive tools of the day, that Koenig\u2019s fastball was the fastest ever recorded\u2026 117 mph! Koenig, years later, dismissed the accuracy of the equipment, saying it was physically impossible for a human to throw a ball as fast as they\u2019d measured him.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Was that enough to put the Royals back in the playoff hunt? No, and it wasn\u2019t especially close, even in the depressingly winnable AL Central. But J.J. Picollo had one of the best hit rates of any GM this deadline, so bully for him.
I\u2019m sure that in time we\u2019ll look back on the 2025 deadline and pick winners and losers based on how various prospects developed, or how various newcomers impacted this year\u2019s postseason. But that\u2019s the future\u2019s problem. In the meantime, congratulations to the Brewers and Royals.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n
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A broken right hamate bone suffered in Spring Training limited Mitchell to only 49 games with High-A Quad Cities, and as is the case with many injuries in that area, the issue might have sapped some of his power as he hit only two homers and slugged .296 in that span. Getting to play in some friendly confines in Surprise could help as he moves farther and farther away from the initial issue. Only 21, Mitchell still has plenty of time to meet his ceiling as a slugging backstop with a rocket arm.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n
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