Not ideal:
Busy day yesterday, but Royals Review had you covered!
First, the Royals revealed the new City Connect jerseys. Anne Rogers also wrote about them. As did Pete Grathoff at The Star. Jaylon Thompson talked to players about them:
“It definitely adds character to the game,” Royals second baseman Jonathan India said. “It makes you feel a little swaggy out there.
It gives you a confidence edge. You just kind of feel that.”
Then, there were some roster moves ahead of the game last night. Jaylon Thompson also wrote about them.
Finally, Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas talked about downtown ballpark plans. The Star had /a lot/ to say about that.
Sam McDowell and Kacen Bayless had the “just the facts” article:
“What I would say to folks is that today is a very material step in the delivery of a downtown baseball stadium that the Royals and the city are interested in opening by Opening Day of 2030,” Lucas said in an exclusive interview with The Star.
Eleanor Nash writes about the Washington Square Park location. Pete Grathoff linked to some renderings. The Kansas City Star Editorial Board claims “Kansas City leaders sprang another Royals stadium surprise on us”.
And last, but certainly not least, Chris Higgins and Dylan Lysen wrote an article entitled “How would KC cover $600M for Royals stadium? Why proposal doesn’t require a vote”:
“This is a baseball stadium footprint that is actually helping fund the development and surrounding development,” Lucas said. “This is a lot like incentives that we do each and every day, as compared to the old votes that we had on full county sales taxes.”
Similarly, public agencies like the Port Authority of Kansas City stags hearings but have not needed voter permission to consider incentives for new apartment buildings and other projects. And recently, the city of Independence staged public hearings but did not need voter permission to sign a deal granting $6 billion-plus in tax breaks for a $150 billion dollar data center.
Oh, wait, that’s the opposite of
Want good news via BlueSky instead?
Listicles?
At The Athletic ($), Jim Bowden’s mailbag mentions the Royals:
What level of production should Royals fans realistically expect from Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone this season? — Lloyd W.
I expect Jensen to be in the conversation with the Tigers’ Kevin McGonigle and the White Sox’s Munetaka Murakami for AL Rookie of the Year. I think Caglianone will hit at minimum between 20 and 25 homers when all is said and done. They are both going to develop into All-Star caliber players over the next three years.
There was a lot of talk about the City Connects so I’ll post it in this section, too:
- At MLB.com, Anthony Castrovince wrote the official introductory piece
- Anthony Gharib wrote that story for ESPN
- He also gives a grade to every City Connect jersey. The Royals get a C. David Schoenfield gave their original City Connect a C, as well (if you scroll down the article)
- Matt Snyder at CBS Sports ranks the eight new jerseys and had the Royals in… 7th
- Meanwhile, Jack Baer at Yahoo had them in 2nd
Blogs!
Yesterday, David Lesky ($) had one called “Two Not So Fun Days in Cleveland for the Royals” while Craig Brown’s was “A painful afternoon in Cleveland”. I’m sure they’re well written and with a wealth of good information that I’m not going to read. I just want to get past this unfun week of baseball.
At Royals Keep, Kevin O’Brien asks if Bobby is “on the verge of breaking out”:
The bat speed isn’t bad, as it’s mostly been above-average this year. However, he’s touched 75 MPH far less than a year ago, and he’s hovered around or below the MLB average bat speed. It’s only a 74 swing sample, which is why I don’t think it’s something to panic about. However, if there’s not an uptick in bat speed, it will be interesting to see how his power will respond with the current swing path-tilt.
Blog Roundup:
- Also, Kevin O’Brien at Royals Keep: Royals Reveal New City Connect Jerseys for 2026
- Jackson Huxel at Royals Keep: The Cornerstone of the Hot Corner: 3 Reasons Why Maikel Garcia is Essential to the Royals’ Success
- Darin Watson at U.L.’s Toothpick: This Date In Royals History–1976 Edition: April 9 – The Royals begin the season with…a shutout loss in Chicago
- Caleb Moody at KOK: Royals’ silent offense has fans begging for do-over on questionable offseason choice
- Also, Caleb Moody at KOK: Royals fans’ reaction says it all after manufactured hype around new City Connects
- Even more Caleb Moody at KOK: Royals’ struggling bullpen could use Triple-A standout now more than ever
It’s that time of year again! Actually, it’s a little past that time of year. It’s time for our Asian Baseball previews. I think last year’s schedule worked pretty well: Three weeks of previews, one week of midseason fun, and then three weeks of wrap-up. Not too much or too little.
Here’s the schedule for this year:
- This week: CPBL
- April 17: KBO
- April 24th: NPB
Here are links to old articles:
- 2020: (CPBL Intro) (Pick KBO team) (May) (Early June) (Late June) (July) (October) (November Season Wrapup)
- 2021: (Asian Baseball Preview) (June CPBL Update) (June KBO Update) (July NPB Update) (Final July Update) (September KBO Update) (September CPBL Update) (October NPB Update) (CPBL Season Wrapup) (KBO Season Wrapup) (NPB Season Wrapup)
- 2022: Writing hiatus
- 2023: (CPBL Preview) (KBO Preview) (NPB Preview) (CPBL Midseason) (KBO Midseason) (NPB Midseason) (CPBL Wrapup) (KBO Wrapup) (NPB Wrapup)
- 2024: (CPBL Preview) (KBO Preview) (NPB Preview) (CPBL Midseason) (KBO Midseason) (NPB Midseason) (CPBL Wrapup) (KBO Wrapup) (NPB Wrapup)
- 2025: (CPBL Preview) (KBO Preview) (NPB Preview) (Midseason) (CPBL Wrapup) (KBO Wrapup) (NPB Wrapup)
For a reminder about competition level, here what Baseball America said in 2020:
Overall, here is the hierarchy of how MLB front office officials and evaluators generally view the quality of the various Asian leagues compared to MLB and the minor leagues.
MLB
NPB (Japan)
AAA
KBO (Korea)
AA
High A
CPBL (Taiwan)
Low A
CPBL – Chinese Professional Baseball League
Country: Taiwan
Opening Day: March 28
International Players: Not a lot of (any?) big name former players in the CPBL but this section will be more populated for the KBO and NPB; Full list from CPBLStats
Former Royals: Royals farmhands have drifted in and out of the league. There are four currently: Pedro Fernandez (Monkeys), Marcelo Martinez (Dragons), John Gant (Dragons), and Eric Stout (Hawks).
Last Season: In 2024, the Uni-Lions won the first half, the CTBC Brothers won the second half, and our Rakuten Monkeys were the wild card team. In 2025, the same thing happened. In 2024, the Lions defeated the Monkeys in the playoff and lost to the Brothers in the Taiwan Series. 2025 looked like history was going to repeat itself. The Uni-Lions had a 2-0 lead in the playoff but lost a game where they led 6-2 in the 6th, were pounded 9-3, and blew a 3-0 game in the 9th. The Monkeys then defeated the Brothers 4-1 in the Taiwan Series to win their first championship since 2019, when they were the Lamigo Monkeys.
Rooting Interest: The Rakuten Monkeys are our squad here at RR. As noted in a previous preview: “they had the first English broadcasts and were the inspiration for my first article”. The red-clad simians won it all last year and are looking to repeat. However, Martinez went to the Dragons in the offseason after the Monkeys spent a lot of their foreign player budget on retaining Fernandez. Sadly, my favorite, Chu Yu Hsien, moved on to the Dragons last season and Father Time may be catching up with the slugger. He has 184 home runs coming into the season and it would be nice to see him get to 200. Making it tougher to cheer on the team is that Rakuten keeps making their own PR nightmares. CPBL Stats describes them as “a lazy organisation that has been running its CPBL team half-heartedly over the past few years” when talking about their food scandal last year and then wrote about not paying for surgery for a player.
World Baseball Classic: Reminder: Taiwan competes under the laughable “Chinese Taipei” moniker because China threatens to use their international clout to exclude them from any international competition if they compete as “Taiwan”. In the opening game of the WBC, they were blanked by a trio of Australian pitchers, losing 3-0. Then they were pummelled 13-0 by Japan. They returned the favor by thumping the Czech Republic 14-0. In their final game in Group C play, thousands of fans flew from Taiwan to Tokyo to watch the team’s first-ever WBC win against Korea:
More than 40,000 fans – mostly from Taiwan – filled Tokyo Dome at noon on Sunday as Chinese Taipei’s cheerleaders danced atop the dugouts and its band blasted music and led chants. Fans were then treated to a dinger-filled, heavyweight spectacle, with Chinese Taipei emerging with an incredible 5-4 victory, the players walking off the field as tears streamed down their faces.
However, the extra-inning win was not enough. Korea, Australia, and Taiwan all finished at 2-2 but Korea advanced based on the tiebreakers. Despite participating in all 6 WBCs, Taiwan has only advanced once from pool play, in 2013.
Random Nuggets:
- Spoiler: The Monkeys won on Opening Day in front of a “sold-out crowd of 40,000 at Taipei Dome”. They defeated the Brothers in historic fashion: “the first-ever game-ending hit-by-pitch in CPBL’s opening game history”.
- Stadium musical chairs may be on the horizon in the CPBL. “Taiwan Life, a subsidiary of CTBC Financial, which also owns the CTBC Brothers baseball team, has secured a 10-year operating right for Chengcing Lake Baseball Stadium, along with a 12.43-hectare land development project surrounding the stadium”. The TSG Hawks, an expansion team from 2024, currently play there. The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions (yes, that’s their full name) christened a new stadium at the Asia-Pacific International Baseball Training Center. They don’t own the stadium and are in a short-term lease but it could turn into a long-term home.
- If you think home run celebrations are still in MLB, they also happen around the world. Here’s one from the TSG Hawks. Hype videos? How about this one for the Uni-Lions? Or this lava-filled one from the CTBC Brothers? Theme nights? The Brothers have a Peanuts theme night coming up. Last one, I promise: Closer intro for the Fubon Guardians.
Links:
- https://en.cpbl.com.tw/ – The Official CPBL site has some parts translated into English
- https://www.reddit.com/r/CPBL/ – CPBL Reddit
- http://cpblstats.com/ – Best English fansite on the web; the author does a lot of the posting in the CPBL subreddit
- CPBL viewing guide for 2026: https://x.com/GOCPBL/status/2037464360797474955
How about some 8-bit awesome? We haven’t revisited Mega Man in years! Seriously: it was 2018. My favorite track from that game was Magnet Man’s but there are a lot of killer themes. This week, we’ll use Hard Man’s music:
