Halloween has always been kind of a big thing at our home. I’ve known people over the years who wouldn’t let their kids trick or treat since they considered it a “pagan” holiday. Come on man! Let the kids have some fun while they’re young and innocent! This old world will rough them up soon enough.
One thing about Halloween, in recent years we’ve noticed that a lot of kids started to mail it in on their costumes. That was disappointing. Not this year. This year was exceptional. Nearly all the trick
or treaters who made it to our doorstep had put some serious time and thought into their outfits and we loved every minute of it. The best dressed award went to a young man who came as Michael Jackson’s Thriller. This kid had it down. The red leather jacket and pants, plus he had on a wig, and someone (probably mom) did an outstanding job on his makeup. A total team effort. When he rang the bell, I looked out and shouted, “we’ve got the Thriller!” The kid was impressed that we knew who he was supposed to be. He was proud of his outfit, as he should have been. Good job young man.
Which brings us to baseball. Now that the season is over and with free agency and the lockout looming, what will the Royals do? Will they mail it in, or will they go all out trying to assemble a winner? Time will tell.
There’ll be a few free agents changing teams. Will the Royals spend the cash needed to land any of them. The Padres have a trio of pitchers hitting free agency that will draw interest from many teams: Michael King, Casey Mize and Adrian Morejon. Some Royal pundits have written that they’d like to see the Royals make a play for Morejon. Having seen the guy pitch, I just don’t see how the Padres will let him get away. He’ arguably the best reliver on the market and will draw a premium price, which might be out of the Royals comfort zone.
Which brings us to the Royals perpetual dilemma: Without enough cash or nerve to play at the big boy table, they usually end up throwing money at second or third tier free agents in hopes that they work out. Sometimes it does. Sometimes you get a Michael Wacha or a Seth Lugo. Most of the time you end up with the Hunter Renfroe’s of the world, guys who were perfectly capable and good players at one time, but that time was before the Royals signed them.
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Every winter, the Royals Review staff gets together and makes their season predictions. Being somewhat anal retentive, I keep track of my picks and their success, or lack of. Mostly lack of. Baseball is nearly impossible to accurately predict. 162 games spread over most of seven months. Some players develop, some regress. Many get injured.
My picks for the 2026 season were mostly terrible.
I had Bobby Jr. as the best hitter for the Royals and that was a win, as he outpaced the roster in almost every offensive category. That was the easy selection.
I picked Cole Ragans as the best pitcher, and he may well have been, had his arm not fallen off. Michael Wacha was the best pitcher, and by a wide margin, so congrats to him.
For the Royals won/loss record, I was wildly optimistic and had them pegged at 90 and 72! Wow! They showed me. Their final tally came in at a painful 69-93 mark.
I had the American League division winners as: Toronto, Detroit and Seattle. That’s an oh for three.
I picked the Royals, Yankees and Red Sox as the Wildcard teams. Amazingly, I got two of the three right. No comment on my KC pick.
Over in the National League, I had the division winners being the New York Mets (!), Chicago Cubs and of course the Dodgers, which is almost a gimme. But the Mets! Good Lord, how stupid could I be? Turns out plenty stupid, and I do that so well. But the Mets?? They never win anything! I should know that by now.
For the wildcards, I went with San Diego, Atlanta and Philadelphia.
When you look at the whole, not bad. Five out of six playoff teams. That’ll play most years.
As for my World Series pick, I had Toronto over the Dodgers. Gulp. I’ll take my medicine there. If Kansas City can’t make it to the Series, I’ll gladly take their expansion brethren from Milwaukee.
For the American League MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year, I went full homer and selected Bobby, Cole Ragans and Carter Jensen respectively.
The actual was: Yordan Alvarez won the MVP with Bobby finishing third. It’d be a shame if Bobby can’t win an MVP in his career. He’s had a couple of close calls but came in second after a historic season by Aaron Judge and now, by his standards, a slightly down season to Alvarez. I think losing Vinnie and Maikel Garcia for so many games hurt Bobby last summer. It always helps to have strong bats around you in the lineup, which creates more scoring and RBI chances.
Cam Schlitter won the AL Cy Young while Cole Ragans rehabs.
Kevin McGonigle rightly took home the AL Rookie of the Year, while Carter Jensen came in 5th. I personally thought Carter should have been around 3rd, but what do I know.
In the senior circuit I went with Shohei, Christopher Sanchez and Nolan McLean.
Pete Crow-Armstrong ran away with the NL MVP award as he should have after an excellent season.
Blue Springs native Jacob Misiorowski took home the NL Cy Young hardware while Sal Stewart of Cincinnati won the Rookie of the Year, while my pick, Nolan McLean came in 4th.
Next year, if there is a next year, I might wait until after the season to make my picks.
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Did you catch the news that former Royal Adalberto Mondesi is ready to make a comeback? Mondesi says he’s 100% physically healthy for the first time in years.
I’m not surprised by the news as Mondesi is just 31, very young in the real world, but starting to get up there in athlete years. Maybe he’s bored. Maybe he’s broke. Who knows? None of that matters. What does matter is that he hasn’t played since April 26th of 2022, when he was still with the Royals. Come spring training, that’ll make it four years since he’s played a game. That alone makes a successful comeback unlikely.
He has some physical talents. Over the final 22 games of the 2020 season, Mondesi went on a 32 for 85 heater (.377) with 12 extra base hits. He drove in 19 and stole another 16 bases in that span. His final 11 games were a tour de force as he hit .476. Aside from George Brett, I’ve never seen a Royal hitter that locked in.
Should the Royals take a flyer on him? Maybe sign him to a minor league prove it deal? Call me crazy, but I don’t hate the idea.
Like many Royal fans, I grew frustrated by Mondesi’s time in Kansas City. The Royals did him no favors by rushing him through the minor league system before he was ready. To top it off, they had him make his major league debut during the 2015 World Series! Against Thor Syndergaard no less.
What the hell were they thinking? I’m old enough to remember how the Texas Rangers mangled the career of former number one pick David Clyde. The Royals’ mismanagement of Mondesi, while not to the degree of the Rangers’ incompetence with Clyde, is at least in the same zip code.
I’d be in favor of them bringing Adalberto in and see if he can make the team. If he defies the odds and makes the team, use him as a utility player and try to get him through an entire season without a physical breakdown. The Royals have spent money in worse ways.
