$52? Whoa.

Are you stupid?

-1 :)

It was worth it. The embroidery is top notch and it fits like a dream. Perfectly crafted. I've been trying to get a decent picture of my dog wearing it to use as a new avatar for a while now, but it's hard to get her to sit still.

Vinnie talks hitting:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/vinnie-p...talks-hitting/

Great article. I personally consider Pasquantino to be the best and most valuable player in the whole organization. MJ Melendez a close second. Singer third.

Really interesting insight into the science of hitting. But that interviewer dropped the ball a little bit. I'd have asked VP about the bad shoulder injury he sustained last year from swinging a bat in BP. You hate to see such a serious injury be sustained from something that simple. You can't ask him to stop swinging, ya know?

I fear it'll prove to be a chronic situation, much like the Angels are dealing with as it pertains to Anthony Rendon. I'd argue it's the #1 most important thing when it comes to VP, not his ability to hit well when he's feeling good, which I'd argue can at this point just be assumed.

When he sustained that injury this past year, he said it's happened to him a lot in the past and so he knows by how bad it was this time that it won't keep him out for more than a couple months or so. That didn't seem like such great news to me at all.

A+ to PB for the link, C+ to fangraphs for not asking the actual pertinent question.

I’d still take Jr over him simply by his position and baserunning. I could see him hitting 30 jacks this year too. VP is advance a bat as we have produced since prob Mike Sweeney. We made him C his first few years, hurt his bat. When we made him 1B he OPS like 940 for his career there. VP could get to the 850-900 consistently I think

Fair point PB and dude I'm ramping up heavy for fantasy baseball season. I'm in an AL-Only league and here is the list of players in the order they get taken in those leagues in the first round:

#1 Aaron Judge
#2 Jose Ramirez
#3 Julio Rodriguez
#4 Kyle Tucker
#5 Yordan Alvarez
#6 Bobby Witt Jr.
#7 Vlad Jr.
#8 Bo Bichette Jr.
#9 Shohei Ohtani
#10 Rafael Devers
#11 Gerritt Cole
#12 Mike Trout

Granted, in fantasy, defense means 0.0 and SBs mean a lot. But still, that's INSANE hype on BWJ! I was actually shocked that if I get the #7 overall pick in that draft, it'll be too low of a pick to get BWJ. The market LOVES that guy.

ETA: I'm in a mixed league slow draft right now and BWJ went 8th overall in all of MLB, not just the AL. It went: Trea Turner #1 overall (yours truly), then Acuna - Julio R - Jose R - Judge - Tucker - Alvarez - BWJ - Juan Soto - Mookie Betts - Vlad Jr.

This offseason has now met every expectation for me.

This season news
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">J.J. Picollo says third base is where Hunter Dozier will get the most work this spring. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a> want him in the lineup, and third base “is the best place for him to play every day.” Also says Bobby Witt Jr. will be the SS, 2B is a competition between Nicky Lopez, Michael Massey.</p>&mdash; Anne Rogers (@anne__rogers) <a href="https://twitter.com/anne__rogers/status/1621924263870480385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Long term news. No MJ but his agent is dick**** Boras so it's not surprising
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a> have started exploring extensions for their young core of players and will continue to do so over the next year, Picollo said. Brady Singer, Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino are in that group.</p>&mdash; Anne Rogers (@anne__rogers) <a href="https://twitter.com/anne__rogers/status/1621928829085179908?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Extend Vinnie. NOW. He will be the cheapest too even though he's the best player from the group.

Yes, but no. The Royals know more about that shoulder than any of us do. He separated it just taking swings off a tee in practice. That's a serious issue, Bwillie. Maybe it isn't. But for a team like this to really gamble by locking a young guy up, it isn't VP, even though I love the guy. And it isn't BWJ, due to the defensive concerns you've brought up. It's either Melendez or Singer. Give both a huge, but not too huge, contract now. Let VP play for a full season. If his shoulder doesn't go out, lock that bastard up too.

Trade BWJ for Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson both, because based on how fantasy drafts are going, the Orioles would jump on that.

Lol

They wouldn’t do either straight up

I know PB come on now. It's insane how high BWJ is getting drafted in these leagues, PB, that's all I meant to convey there.

I snagged an invite to the VIP event last night at the K.

First time I'd been in the locker room since they were covered in plastic

Nothing big from it, but a few observations:

Pasquantino is the best interview/commenter, by far. Thoughtful guy, funny, too.

Greinke: Still awkward AF

Quartraro was engaging and said the right things. Picollo is boring AF.

Bags are pretty hard to come by in fantasy baseball these days. Witt provides a lot of them.

You play a little of the fantasy Duncan? You're invited. Name your buy-in. Right now I'm doing $30 slow drafts on RTS, where you get 4 hours for each pick, and the draft literally takes close to a month.

In the mean time it then becomes NFBC50 season right after that.

Then we go to our Yahoo friends and family leagues.

Then it's OC drafting time mid-March. The NFBC $380 dollar leagues with the overall prize attached.

Then on March 31, an actual NFBC draft in Vegas. The Main Event. $200,000 to the overall winner. $7,000 to every league champ. $1,750 per entry. It's a slow build up to that and I'm not saying meet me in Vegas. I can get you into the Yahoo leagues I run if you want. I'd like to get a Royal guru in there.