Part I: “What the hell is happening to me?

Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 27 days left until Opening Day on April 1.

No numerical factoids today. Instead, let’s hear from new Royal Elliot Johnson’s wife Nicole. She shared her experiences as the WOTPTBNL. (Wife of the Player to be Named Later, obviously.)

Falu running out of the box in Omaha...toward the Majors?

Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 29 days left until Opening Day on April 1.

29

is the number of home runs Billy  Butler hit last season. It’s also the number of hits Irving Falu had in his 91 Major League plate appearances; the number of putouts Falu had on defense, and the number of runs Tim Collins and Vin Mazzaro gave up.

It was also Mike Sweeney’s jersey number. May we never forget that a healthy Sweeney was legitimately one of the best hitters in the league.

Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 37 days left until Opening Day on April 1.

37

is the number of home runs it would take to set a new Royals record, still.
Here are some ex-Royals who have, at some point in their careers, hit 37 or more dingers.

Jose Bautista (twice)
Jermaine Dye
Carlos Beltran (twice, including 2004, so some of those were WITH the Royals. Ouch.)
Jay Bell
Matt Stairs
Dean Palmer
Juan Gonzalez

It’s not a long list, because hitting 37 home runs isn’t the easiest thing in the world. But is it SO hard that nobody in a franchise can do it for a quarter of a century, especially when that quarter-century contains the steroid* era?

*and other factors, obviously. I’m not a cavewoman.

Maybe this year is finally the year.

Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 39 days left until Opening Day on April 1.

39

is…a number. I don’t have any cool factoids today, so here’s a Johny Giavotella wallpaper I made for a Twitter follower. Click image to go to the full-res version.

Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 40 days left until Opening Day on April 1.

40

is the number of double plays in which Chris Getz was involved on defense last season.

I’ve never sorted the Royals stats page by double plays before. It’s kind of a fun way to look back on last season. 24 different Royals were involved in turning double plays last year. Everett Teaford was the only pitcher to be a part of more than one.

Salvador Perez and Brayan Pena both turned four of them. That surprised me – I certainly remember all of Perez’s more distinctly. Apparently my memory gives very little credit to B-Pain.