Max posted the big news yesterday. A pair of Royals were given “of the month” titles: Jac Caglianone, Noah Cameron win AL honors for August
At The Star, Jaylon Thompson wrote about Caglianone:
On Thursday, Caglianone was recognized as the AL Player of the Month. He is the 13th different Royal to receive the monthly honor. Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. was the last player to do so. In 2024, he was named the AL’s top player for his July surge. Now, Caglianone joins him — alongside other Royals Hall of Famers
such as George Brett, John Mayberry and Mike Sweeney.
And about Cameron:
On Thursday, Cameron was named the AL Pitcher of the Month for August. He joins Royals teammate Jac Caglianone — who was named AL Player of the Month.
It’s the fourth time a pair of Royals have swept the monthly awards. The last time was July 1985 when George Brett and Brett Saberhagen were recognized by the league.
He also profiled Nate Pearson:
“We’ve pursued him for a couple of years just because of the power,” Royals general manager J.J. Picollo said. “There’s stuff and if you look at our advanced analytics, there are things that jump off the page. … The fastball has always been an outlier and the slider is consistent. When he can be in the zone with his fastball, you can see what he can do.”
Michael Massey also got an award:
And there were also Queens of the Diamond:
Blog time!
Royals Keep named their Hitter of the Month and Pitcher of the Month. Considering the news above, those awards went to, you guessed it: Frank Stallone.
Also at Royals Keep, Kevin O’Brien lists their Royals Minor League Pitchers of the Month:
Albus is not a pitcher who’s going to generate much fanfare at first glance. He’s a 19th-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft out of Abilene Christian, a Mid-Major school. He doesn’t cast an intimidating presence on the mound at 5’11, 180 pounds. Furthermore, the numbers have been fine, but not impressive, for a Minor League reliever.
Last season, he posted a 3.54 ERA in 61 IP with the Fireflies. This season, he has a 4.39 ERA in 26.2 IP with the River Bandits. Thus, it is easy to dismiss him as just “organizational bullpen depth.” However, he had an impressive August that should put Royals fans on notice.
In nine outings and 16.2 IP in August with Quad Cities, he posted a 1.08 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, 1.84 FIP, and 29% K-BB%. He has looked in control on the mound, and his quick and efficient style is starting to pay dividends in High-A ball after an initial slow start. For context, Albus made some noise last year in Columbia with an eight-pitch immaculate inning back in late July.
Blog Roundup:
- Darin Watson at U.L.’s Toothpick: This Date In Royals History–1976 Edition: September 3 – Another quiet night on offense means a fifth straight loss
- Brian Burrows at Kings of Kauffman: 3 Royals with the most to prove in the final month of the season
- Trey Donovan at Kansas City Royals on SI: The Kansas City Royals Have Intriguing Relief Prospect in L.P. Langevin
It’s been a while since we’ve done “one-liner” movie reviews. They’re usually a lot longer, of late. However, I haven’t had a lot of time to write up the movies I’ve watched over the summer. So here are the quick hits.
Casablanca (1942) – An excellent movie that is still very watchable today. What more can I say about it that hasn’t already been said over the last century? Amusingly, I watched this and the next one on a the same airplane trip.
The Day the Earth Blew Up (2024) – If you told competent people to make a Looney Tunes movie in 2024, this is what you’d get. It’s a little out of date, it takes a little liberty with the source material, and it’s a little looney. But I think the creative team loved the originals and did a good job modernizing it for a new audience. I want to see Coyote vs. Acme.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) – I’ve seen it a number of times, but never really watched it with a critical eye. Broderick and Ruck are great. It’s such an 80s movie in so many ways. The movie plays Ferris as the hero, despite him basically just being all ego and justifying it by saying he’s all doing it for Cameron (when he’s really not). The Chicago love letter is nice.
The Odyssey (2026) – Worth seeing in a theater, though we didn’t see it in IMAX or whatever. Feels kindof like Gladiator did when it came out back in 2000. Hand an excellent director good source material and a blockbuster budget and they deliver a blockbuster. Bonus points to Nolan for doing it with an “unfilmable” story.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) – This is the first MCU Spider-Man movie that felt like a Spider-Man movie rather than Peter Park, Junior Avenger (and Iron Man protege). As a Spider-Man fan, this was a nice new start after No Way Home was a celebration of the entire big screen franchise.
Clue (1985) – Have also seen it many times. For as big a cast as it has, it’s not quite as funny as it should be. But it’s really buoyed by Tim Curry’s manic energy. RIP.
Wicked (2024) – Deserving of its plaudits. Looks great, acted great, sounds great, and directed great. Deserved to win more than 2 Oscars. I’m not a big musical guy, but that aspect only drags the movie a little in this half. And it’s more than made up for by the spectacular bookend duo of “No One Mourns the Wicked” and “Defying Gravity”.
Wicked: For Good (2025) – There’s nothing terribly wrong with it. However, the payoff isn’t as satisfying or as clean as you hoped from the great setup. Perhaps there was just too much going on in the first part and too much padding in the second part. You could cut it as they get on the train to Oz. But if you did that, it would come at the cost of the there-aren’t-enough-superlatives “Defying Gravity” finale.
The Wizard of Oz (1939) –Like Casablanca, what more can I say about a classic that’s nearly a century old?Saw it twice this summer. The first time was at The Sphere in Las Vegas. I loved being able to see the scene where Oz bursts into Technicolor on the big screen. The second time I watched it was after we watched Wicked.
Masters of the Universe (2026) – I thoroughly enjoyed it. The comedy was good, it looked pretty, and there was a great earnestness in the whole endeavor. The plot was a little clunky and I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea to invest $200m on a mostly dormant and forgotten franchise. But if they make a She-Ra sequel, I’d watch
Masters of the Universe (1987) – Did not get to see because it was not on Amazon and I’m not paying for it. C’mon, Bezos – it can’t cost that much.
The Martian (2015) – This feel-good celebration of science is also deserving of its accolades. I think it would be impossible to not cut a few corners with science for the drama, but I think there’s an honest attempt to be mostly realistic. Also, I thoroughly enjoy the problem-solving genre of “competence porn”, as this has been described.
Project Hail Mary (2026) – It’s hard to not compare this to “The Martian”. I think I liked the former a little more – it’s a bit more tangible, a bit less Treknobabble. However, this has the wonderful buddy pic dynamic that you don’t see as often in science fiction.
FYI: We started the MCU with our son last week. So expect those reviews to start trickling out over the next year, probably in phases.
Idina Menzel is an amazing singer who had kids singing “Let It Go” for a decade. Her version of “Defying Gravity”, the initial well-known version, is a Broadway classic that has quotes like “silliest, most inspiring, most enduring song in recent Broadway history” splashed all over its Wikipedia page. To reinvent it enough to make it a new classic for a new generation – it’s an amazing performance by Cynthia Erivo, accompanied by Ariana Grande. I wasn’t exaggerating when I called it superlative-defying above. I can’t get through the song without getting goosebumps at least a time or two from the raw vocal power.
