The Last Friday Rumblings before Pitchers and Catchers Report
At The Athletic ($), Keith Law published his 2026 Royals Top 20 Prospects list.
- Carter Jensen, C (No. 10 on the top 100)
Height: 6-0 | Weight: 210 | Bats: L | Throws: R | Age: 22Jensen began the 2025 season in Double A and finished it in the big leagues, getting better at each stop and posting one of the best debuts of any rookie hitter last year. Of all rookies with at least 50 PA — still a small sample — Jensen’s .391 OBP and his .550 slugging percentage each ranked third. He’s a real two-way threat as a plus defensive catcher with a plus arm and above-average receiving skills who also happens to have plus power and an advanced feel for the strike zone. When the Royals took Jensen out of a Kansas City high school in the third round in 2021, his body wasn’t great and the assumption was he’d move out from behind the plate and just go be a power-hitting DH, but he’s worked extremely hard on his conditioning since then, with his body in the best shape of his life right now (and for once, that phrase actually means something), so that now his athleticism comes through more in his defense and he’s even showing close to average speed on the bases.
He has always drawn walks, but in the past two years he’s converted that patience more into production by capitalizing on those favorable counts. In the minors last year, when he was ahead in the count and then put the ball in play, he hit .420/.563/.614. He’s going to be a legit Rookie of the Year candidate this year as a true catcher who could hit 20 homers with a strong OBP, and with 3-plus WAR potential right away thanks to the defense and positional adjustment.
Baseball America also published their team rankings:
- Kansas City Royals Top Prospect: Carter Jensen, C
Jensen’s breakout last year gives the Royals another potential long-term regular to go with Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia, but the team’s misses on three straight top 10 draft picks—Asa Lacy, Frank Mozzicato and Gavin Cross—have left a lasting mark. The early returns on 2024 first-rounder Jac Caglianone are much better, as he’s already graduated.
Max posted about John Wathan to the Royals Hall of Fame. So did Jaylon Thompson at The Star. And Anne Rogers at MLB.
Max also wrote about Royals in the World Baseball Classic after a couple of announcements yesterday. Thompson wrote about Wacha pitching for Team USA.
How about some Royals adjacent stories?
I don’t even know what to do with this headline: “MLB players strike deal to be turned into AI characters”.
The Rays released (AI-heavy) renderings of a potential stadium site.
The Chiefs got a step closer to their new stadium with the approval of STAR bonds.
The Wichita Wind Surge showed off a new alternate identity for next year: the Honkers.
In the 2026 World Cup, Messi and Team Argentina will be training at the Sporting Kansas City facilities.
Royals blogs?
At Inside the Crown ($), David Lesky asks “How the 2026 Royals Match Up in the AL Central”:
It was about this time last year that I looked at the American League Central to determine if the Royals were the best team in the division. I ultimately said that, yes, they were. I…was wrong. I said they’d have the second-best offense in the division, which was kind of damning with faint praise. In my defense, they were the third-best by wRC+ and runs scored. Granted, they were bottom nine in baseball in wRC+ and bottom five in runs scored, but still third-best in the division! So let’s just say that this is an inexact science in a division that is, well, up for grabs.
Blog Roundup:
- Like Max and others, Michael Coyle at Royals Keep looked at players from the local squad that were selected to the World Baseball Classic
- Caleb Moody at KOK: Royals’ lack of free agent urgency very clear as Padres steal prime utility target
- Jeff Wayman at The Diamond Chronicles: Royals 2026 Non-Roster Invitees
This was going to be a nice, fun OT day. I was going to write about the Olympics. I’ve already been binging mixed doubles curling. Team Corey looked strong yesterday, didn’t they (technically, they’re spelled “Cory” and “Korey” so I’m splitting the difference with “Team Corey”; looks like I’m not the only one)?
But, nope, life intervened. So now I’m just going to rant. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s much of a point to this. Hopefully, I’ll feel mildly better and it will be mildly entertaining. Even if that entertainment comes in the form of “thankfully, this feature of ‘modernity’ is dumping sewage on someone else today and not me, so I feel a bit of relief”. Or, I guess if you’ve been waiting for that classic 3000-word rant from me, this one’s for you!
* * * * *
This story all started more than 20 years ago with a computer company that we’ll call “Fruit” to protect the innocent (or something). Back in 2001, they created a music device, the oPod . The oPod was not the first mp3 player, but it certainly sold the most, despite some competition. Being the Luddite I am, I didn’t jump on the bandwagon until the last iteration, around 2007. Naturally, that was right before they stopped developing the hardware.
That said, my little Black oPod Classic was durable. That little guy lasted more than 15 years of exercise, road trips, plane trips, whatever, before it called it quits. I more than got my money’s worth.
When it died, about 2 years ago, I set about looking for a replacement. Despite the religious wars over computer hardware and software, I really don’t mind living in a mixed ecosystem. I want the right tool for the right job. I use the fruit company for their oPod music device and oPad tablets. And my phone is on the Cyborg, which competes with the fruit company. My laptop runs, um, Doors. Everything but Linux. Sorry, guys, I’ve tried. I really have. But I just can’t. I’m sure next year will be the Year of Linux Desktop. I’m pulling for you.
One of the things I really like about the fruit company (don’t laugh) is their music software, oTunes. Back in the olden days, I loved Llama. But, as my music collection grew to contain hundreds of CDs and thousands of songs, oTunes just worked better. It also synchronized with my oPod, which was (is) super handy for podcasts.
In shopping for a replacement for my oPod Classic, I had a strong preference for something that could sync with oTunes. I also wanted something that had tons of space – I have about 100 GB between my music and podcasts. I’ve tried various music players and music syncing applications on Cyborg phones, but they just don’t work as well. They don’t read the native ID3 metadata keys as well as oTunes. They also don’t do well with my file structure (artist \ album \ song).
I even considered getting a Fruit oPhone for its native support of oTunes. However, I mainly use my oPod player for exercising and driving. It’s a lot more convenient to have a separate music device at those times. While driving, I’d rather the phone be available for navigation without disrupting music. While exercising, it’s nice to have a separate device. I don’t have to risk drop or theft of a $1000 device. I don’t have the constant dopamine temptation of new emails or text messages when I’m trying to get away and exercise.
* * * * *
I found my replacement… in the past. The oPod Classic had been discontinued a decade ago. While they could be bought on the secondary market, battery life was bad and replacement parts were difficult to come by. However, Fruit had made the oPod Touch. It was basically a nerfed oPhone: most of the software, including oTunes, but without the ability to make calls.
Unfortunately, the oPod Touch was discontinued in 2022. However, Fruit will still provide service, support, and parts through at least 2027. Considering my old oPod Classic had lasted 15 years, if I could squeeze half of that out of a “new” oPod Touch, that would be money well spent.
Sadly, this meant I couldn’t walk into a retail store and buy a new one. I had to buy one off of Ye Olde Internet Garage Sale. This is always fraught with peril. But I thought it was the best of my options. Maybe it was. But this is probably what “got me”. And when I say “got me”, I mean in the sense that so much of modern society is about silo’d blame shifting rather than looking at a problem holistically.
So many mistakes in life are made up of “if you did 5 things right but did 1 thing wrong, it’s definitely your fault”. In some cases, that’s fair. When driving to work in the morning, you can do everything right for 45 minutes, but then get into an accident on your last turn. The vast majority of fault would be yours, assuming you didn’t have the right of way and turned into traffic. However, we also have ample examples of victim-blaming to escape true culpability in the flavors of “if only she hadn’t worn X” or “if only he had protested the right way”. We’ll revisit this in a bit.
* * * * *
I purchased a 7th-generation 256GB oPod Touch from Glorida Fruit Store on Ye Olde Internet Garage Sale. My new oPod Touch arrived and I’m thrilled. It has more storage and longer battery life than my old oPod Classic. The touch screen takes a little bit of getting used to, but overall, it’s an upgrade. We go on many happy walks, runs, skates, and drives together over the next year. My wife even replaced her old oPod. Life is good.
In January, I came back from vacation and tried to turn it on. Nope. I plug it in. Boot loop. I try to factory refresh the device. Error message. Sigh.
After much searching, I gave up troubleshooting on my own and used Fruit’s online chat. Now, Fruit is well known for their customer satisfaction. By one metric, they have had the best customer satisfaction ratings in the industry for more than two decades. After a longer-than-it-should-have-been (as so many things are) conversation of describing my troubleshooting steps, Fruit Online Agent told me I needed to bring it into a Fruit-Authorized repair store. They scheduled an appointment for me with a nearby retail store.
I drove over to my neighborhood Mediocre Buy at the scheduled time. But, when I showed the technician my device, Mediocre Buy Lady didn’t think they could work on oPods. I guess it’s only partially Fruit-Authorized. To her credit, she asked what was wrong – maybe she could get it working. However, after I described my steps, she told me that’s what she would have done and she couldn’t help me. So far, we’re down an hour in online chat time, 20 minutes of drive time, another 10 minutes wasted in the store, and a burned lunch break. No money, yet.
* * * * *
A couple of days later, on my lunch break, I go to the next closest Fruit-Authorized repair store, which was about 20 minutes away. I explained to the The Technician what was going on. I say “The Technician” as I think he’s the only guy who works there. Seriously: the store closes for an hour from noon to 1 pm, presumably for lunch. I told The Technician the troubleshooting steps I did, the same troubleshooting steps I told to Mediocre Buy Lady, and the same troubleshooting steps I told to Fruit Online Agent.
He wasn’t as familiar with oPods, but his shop did work on them, and he could run some diagnostics. It would cost me a non-refundable $30 fee. But if it needed a repair, he would put that $30 towards the repair cost. I know that’s “standard”, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating. I head home, now out $30, 2.5 hours, 2 lunch breaks, and 2 days without oPod. A few hours later, I get an email saying that the logic board is damaged and it will cost $100 (on top of the $30 already spent) to send it to Fruit for repair.
While I’m not excited about spending $130 on a refurbished device, a used (or “new”) one on Ye Olde Internet Garage Sale costs more than that. Plus, if Fruit is going to restore it, I trust them more than Ye Olde Internet Garage Sale reseller to give me OEM parts and a certified battery, even if they have a less-than-ideal history in the battery department. So I agree.
About a week later, I get an email and text from The Technician saying that my oPod arrived back from fruit. I drive over, pick up my new oPod, and bring it home. Sure, I’m out $130, 3.5 hours, 3 lunch breaks, and 1.5 weeks without my oPod. But I have an OEM refurbished one from the vendor that will (hopefully) last me a few more years. It’s kindof a steep price to pay, but it’s worth it to me.
* * * * *
When I go home, I start setting up the new oPod. It looks shiny and new. No dead pixels. Software runs like new. Then I try to sync it to oTunes. Out of space? That can’t be right! Then I see it: 32 GB. My 256 GB oPod had been replaced by a 32 GB oPod. That’s functionally useless to me. Elation turns to annoyance.
I messaged back The Technician with the problem. He said that Fruit told him to send it in and that was the one they sent back. I can’t imagine they service a lot of them. After all, when I went to pick it up, he said “Hey, oPod guy” in the same way that he’d say “Hey, abacus guy” if he were The Technician at the math store. He looked it up in the Fruit ticketing system: both the old and new serial numbers were for 32 GB oPods. He was sympathetic, but there was “nothing he could do”. He suggested talking to Fruit Online chat to get it sorted out.
A couple of days later, yesterday, I messaged Fruit Online chat again. I described the whole story to Fruit Online Agent #2. I provide all the serial numbers, order numbers, and any other information requested. I can see it on the Fruit Support website – I’m not sure why he can’t. His solution: I’m going to set up an appointment for you with The Technician. Ok, fine. I can burn yet another lunch hour, but if it gets this fixed, so be it. I’m already so far down the (wrong) road.
For a baseball interlude about where I grabbed that language, I was thinking back to this article by Joe Posnanski about the day Trey Hillman ruined Gil Meche’s arm for good:
I don’t know. Maybe at some point, when you’re SO FAR down the wrong road, you just go: “What the hell, might as well keep going and hope we run into something good.” Maybe it would have been more damaging to have Meche throw 117 pitches and then pull him before the inning was done. I don’t know. I really don’t know. We are in such la-la land here, there can be no logical questions … these are like “How would you wash a unicorn?” questions. I do know that Meche threw four more pitches and did get Morneau to fly out to right.
Before I get off my computer and into my car, I ask Fruit Online Agent #2: “What are they going to do and what is it going to cost?” He told me the store will examine the product and “determine the cost (if any) and turnaround time for repairs”. I’m sure you can all see where this is going. Because we’ve all done this. Not only have we all done this, but we’ve all done this so many times that we have mental muscle memory for it. We’ve had so much practice that we’re pre-programmed.
I continued the dance: “I already messaged them about this and they told me to talk to you”. Of course, now he can find the oPod information in his system and informs me that both oPods were 32 GB. He suggested the store replaced my device. I told him I doubted a little repair store is trying to make money reselling a device that hasn’t been made in 3 years. By this time, I knew were on the train to nowhere, but I wanted to give them a chance to make things right.
I stated I was frustrated that I had already spent $130 and multiple days on an authorized repair, only to be left with a device I can’t use. And then he hit me with the help desk standard of “I certainly understand where you’re coming from”. I told Fruit Online Agent #2 to cancel the reservation as I didn’t need to waste another hour of driving to get am unhelpful message from The Technician that I had already given Fruit Support. I was then given more mealy mouthed platitudes: “I understand that the resolution that we presented is not what you are looking for; however, we would like you to know that we carefully considered all circumstances and facts surrounding your request; I know that this is not the outcome you are expecting, but if there is any other issues aside from this one, I could check it out for you…”.
I want to be clear: I have no ill will towards Fruit Online Agent #2. But I really hope there’s a circle in Hell for people who write these scripts and who set up these help desk structures. They abstract away responsibility, shifting the customer service time and expense away from the company and onto the customer. And they do it intentionally.
So now I’m down $130, 5 hours, 3 lunch breaks, and several doses of sanity. It will be weeks before I get any sort of resolution. And the odds of it being a satisfactory resolution are near zero. I left professional but, obviously, unhappy feedback. Though it’s quite likely Fruit will use that to blame the customer rather than their own policies.
* * * * *
The most fun part about modern life is that so often, it’s a choice between a bunch of bad options. Fruit’s manufacturing subcontractor in China had more than a dozen suicides in 2010 due to horrible working conditions. Their (the subcontractor’s) response was to put up suicide nets and force employees to sign liability waivers. Fruit’s main cell phone competitor has an entire Wikipedia section entitled Controversies and ranges from forced labor to, and I quote, “stealing the corpse of a dead worker” in the “union-busting activity” section. The maker of Cyborg had to get rid of their motto “Don’t be evil” because it was too hard to PR away all the evil stuff they were doing. And where do we even start with the maker of Doors? Their sins range from leveraging their monopoly in the 1990s and 2000s to crush any competition and innovation to pushing H1-B Visas so they can abuse the holders to, well, the Epstein Files. That’s just scratching the surface with them. And all of them work together to help the government spy on you.
We all choose which fictions get us through days like today. Some pretend that we all live in the economic equivalent of a small town. If we don’t like one shop, we can just go to another. If they’re all bad, another competitor will supplant them. Only, that’s rarely how things work. Instead, practically every major industry is dominated by a monopoly or oligopoly. If a new competitor tries to emerge, they are either snuffed out with higher entry barriers, bought up by one of the existing members, or supplant one of the existing competitors and live long enough to become the villain.
There are other little thought avenues I’ve wandered down:
- Despite what I said above, there are better and worse companies – it’s just that the worst ones want you to think everyone is as bad as they are
- As the world has grown bigger, each customer is a smaller part of it and can exert less and less influence on any individual company or industry and that’s why they can get away with more
- There’s the myth that a company can’t be morally bankrupt – it’s just a legal framework. Sure it can, if the people leading that legal framework are morally bankrupt and make their business decisions through that lens
- You can choose to just not play at all in a modern world. Yes, but that’s a false choice and we shouldn’t have to support slave labor to make a phone call or be ok with child labor and environmental disasters if we want to enjoy chocolate. It’s ok for those acts to be illegal and, no, they aren’t the true cost of business
But we’re well over 3000 words in the OT section today. And all I wanted to do was listen to music and relax.
* * * * *
While it didn’t totally balance out the above nonsense, I did have a nice experience today.
A couple of weeks ago, I broke a zipper on one of my favorite hoodies. Not like “I broke off the part you pull and now there’s half a zipper left” – so many of my older hoodies and jackets are like that. Nope – the whole zipper just broke in two and disintegrated in my hands. Just one too many trips through the dryer, I guess.
I looked up “zipper repair” online and found that there was a tiny tailor shop five minutes from my house. I had driven by hundreds of times and never noticed it. I grabbed my old hoodie and drove over. In the display window, there’s a wedding dress advertising their alteration service. My problem is much smaller and, likely, less financially sustaining for them.
When I opened the door, I saw a small desk with a computer on it, a couple of racks of dry cleaning, and a curtain over a door to the back. No one was there. But after a few seconds, a woman rushed up to greet me with broken English. She looked quizzically at the hoodie and I explained the problem. She managed to convey to me that it would cost $10 and take 10 minutes. I handed her cash, she took it into the back to her husband. In a few minutes, it was done.
While, yes, $10 to repair a hoodie when you can just buy a new one at WalStore for $20 may not be the most sound financial decision. In my defense, this is an old hoodie – at least 20 years old – the thickness and softness you just won’t be able to find except in a thrift store or time machine. As I have said before in this space, talking about clothes, “shrinkflation and enshittification comes for everything”. So, yes, while I could have just replaced it for the cost of 2 hoodies, the quality wouldn’t be nearly as good and I’d just have to replace it again. Good old boots theory.
I suppose I should (briefly) mention the Superb Owl. Usually, this time of year, I’ll post a song from NFL Primetime (like here, for instance). This one was called “Crush”.
Category: General Sports
