{"id":557932,"date":"2026-02-06T14:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/557932\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T14:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:28:14","slug":"kansas-city-royals-news-new-keith-laws-prospect-list-just-dropped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/557932\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas City Royals news: New Keith Law\u2019s prospect list just dropped"},"content":{"rendered":"

At The Athletic ($), Keith Law published his 2026 Royals Top 20 Prospects<\/a> list.<\/p>\n

When the Royals took Jensen out of a Kansas City high school in the third round in 2021, his body wasn\u2019t great and the assumption was he\u2019d move out from behind the plate and just go be a power-hitting DH, but he\u2019s 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\u2019s even showing close to average speed on the bases.<\/p>\n

He has always drawn walks, but in the past two years he\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Baseball America also published their team rankings<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Jensen\u2019s breakout last year gives the Royals another potential long-term regular to go with Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia, but the team\u2019s misses on three straight top 10 draft picks\u2014Asa Lacy, Frank Mozzicato and Gavin Cross\u2014have left a lasting mark. The early returns on 2024 first-rounder Jac Caglianone are much better, as he\u2019s already graduated.<\/p>\n

Max posted about John Wathan to the Royals Hall of Fame<\/a>. So did Jaylon Thompson at The Star<\/a>. And Anne Rogers at MLB<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Max also wrote about Royals in the World Baseball Classic<\/a> after a couple of announcements yesterday. Thompson wrote about Wacha pitching for Team USA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How about some Royals adjacent stories?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t even know what to do with this headline: \u201cMLB players strike deal to be turned into AI characters<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Rays released (AI-heavy) renderings of a potential stadium site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs got a step closer to their new stadium with the approval of STAR bonds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Wichita Wind Surge showed off a new alternate identity for next year: the Honkers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the 2026 World Cup, Messi and Team Argentina will be training<\/a> at the Sporting Kansas City facilities.<\/p>\n

At Inside the Crown ($), David Lesky asks \u201cHow the 2026 Royals Match Up in the AL Central<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n

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\u2026was wrong. I said they\u2019d 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\u2019s just say that this is an inexact science in a division that is, well, up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Like Max and others, Michael Coyle at Royals Keep looked at players from the local squad<\/a> that were selected to the World Baseball ClassicCaleb Moody at KOK: Royals\u2019 lack of free agent urgency very clear as Padres steal prime utility target<\/a>Jeff Wayman at The Diamond Chronicles: Royals 2026 Non-Roster Invitees<\/a><\/p>\n

This was going to be a nice, fun OT day. I was going to write about the Olympics. I\u2019ve already been binging mixed doubles curling. Team Corey looked strong yesterday, didn\u2019t they (technically, they\u2019re spelled \u201cCory\u201d and \u201cKorey\u201d so I\u2019m splitting the difference with \u201cTeam Corey\u201d; looks like I\u2019m not the only one<\/a>)?<\/p>\n

But, nope, life intervened. So now I\u2019m just going to rant. Unfortunately, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s much of a point to this. Hopefully, I\u2019ll feel mildly better and it will be mildly entertaining. Even if that entertainment comes in the form of \u201cthankfully, this feature of \u2018modernity\u2019 is dumping sewage on someone else today and not me, so I feel a bit of relief\u201d. Or, I guess if you\u2019ve been waiting for that classic 3000-word rant from me, this one\u2019s for you!<\/p>\n

This story all started more than 20 years ago with a computer company that we\u2019ll call \u201cFruit\u201d to protect the innocent<\/a> (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<\/a>. Being the Luddite I am, I didn\u2019t jump on the bandwagon until the last iteration, around 2007<\/a>. Naturally, that was right before they stopped developing the hardware.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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\u2019ve tried. I really have. But I just can\u2019t. I\u2019m sure next year will be the Year of Linux Desktop. I\u2019m pulling for you.<\/p>\n

One of the things I really like about the fruit company (don\u2019t laugh) is their music software, oTunes. Back in the olden days, I loved Llama<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ve tried various music players and music syncing applications on Cyborg phones, but they just don\u2019t work as well. They don\u2019t read the native ID3 metadata keys as well as oTunes. They also don\u2019t do well with my file structure (artist \\ album \\ song).<\/p>\n

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\u2019s a lot more convenient to have a separate music device at those times. While driving, I\u2019d rather the phone be available for navigation without disrupting music. While exercising, it\u2019s nice to have a separate device. I don\u2019t have to risk drop or theft of a $1000 device. I don\u2019t have the constant dopamine temptation of new emails or text messages when I\u2019m trying to get away and exercise.<\/p>\n

I found my replacement\u2026 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cnew\u201d oPod Touch, that would be money well spent.<\/p>\n

Sadly, this meant I couldn\u2019t 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 \u201cgot me\u201d. And when I say \u201cgot me\u201d, I mean in the sense that so much of modern society is about silo\u2019d blame shifting rather than looking at a problem holistically.<\/p>\n

So many mistakes in life are made up of \u201cif you did 5 things right but did 1 thing wrong, it\u2019s definitely your fault\u201d. In some cases, that\u2019s 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\u2019t 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 \u201cif only she hadn\u2019t worn X\u201d or \u201cif only he had protested the right way\u201d. We\u2019ll revisit this in a bit.<\/p>\n

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\u2019m 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

After much searching, I gave up troubleshooting on my own and used Fruit\u2019s online chat. Now, Fruit is well known for their customer satisfaction. By one metric<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

I drove over to my neighborhood Mediocre Buy at the scheduled time. But, when I showed the technician my device, Mediocre Buy Lady didn\u2019t think they could work on oPods. I guess it\u2019s 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\u2019s what she would have done and she couldn\u2019t help me. So far, we\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cThe Technician\u201d as I think he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s \u201cstandard\u201d, but that doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

While I\u2019m not excited about spending $130 on a refurbished device, a used (or \u201cnew\u201d) 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<\/a>. So I agree.<\/p>\n

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\u2019m 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\u2019s kindof a steep price to pay, but it\u2019s worth it to me.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t be right! Then I see it: 32 GB. My 256 GB oPod had been replaced by a 32 GB oPod. That\u2019s functionally useless to me. Elation turns to annoyance.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t imagine they service a lot of them. After all, when I went to pick it up, he said \u201cHey, oPod guy\u201d in the same way that he\u2019d say \u201cHey, abacus guy\u201d 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 \u201cnothing he could do\u201d. He suggested talking to Fruit Online chat to get it sorted out.<\/p>\n

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\u2019m not sure why he can\u2019t. His solution: I\u2019m 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\u2019m already so far down the (wrong) road.<\/p>\n

For a baseball interlude about where I grabbed that language, I was thinking back to this article<\/a> by Joe Posnanski about the day Trey Hillman ruined Gil Meche\u2019s arm for good:<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know. Maybe at some point, when you\u2019re SO FAR down the wrong road, you just go: \u201cWhat the hell, might as well keep going and hope we run into something good.\u201d Maybe it would have been more damaging to have Meche throw 117 pitches and then pull him before the inning was done. I don\u2019t know. I really don\u2019t know. We are in such la-la land here, there can be no logical questions \u2026 these are like \u201cHow would you wash a unicorn?\u201d questions. I do know that Meche threw four more pitches and did get Morneau to fly out to right.<\/p>\n

Before I get off my computer and into my car, I ask Fruit Online Agent #2: \u201cWhat are they going to do and what is it going to cost?\u201d He told me the store will examine the product and \u201cdetermine the cost (if any) and turnaround time for repairs\u201d. I\u2019m sure you can all see where this is going. Because we\u2019ve all done this. Not only have we all done this, but we\u2019ve all done this so many times that we have mental muscle memory for it. We\u2019ve had so much practice that we\u2019re pre-programmed.<\/p>\n

I continued the dance: \u201cI already messaged them about this and they told me to talk to you\u201d. 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t use. And then he hit me with the help desk standard of \u201cI certainly understand where you\u2019re coming from\u201d. I told Fruit Online Agent #2 to cancel the reservation as I didn\u2019t 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: \u201cI 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\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n

I want to be clear: I have no ill will towards Fruit Online Agent #2. But I really hope there\u2019s a circle in Hell<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

So now I\u2019m 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\u2019s quite likely Fruit will use that to blame the customer rather than their own policies.<\/p>\n

The most fun part about modern life is that so often, it\u2019s a choice between a bunch of bad options. Fruit\u2019s manufacturing subcontractor in China had more than a dozen suicides in 2010 due to horrible working conditions. Their (the subcontractor\u2019s) response was to put up suicide nets and force employees to sign liability waivers<\/a>. Fruit\u2019s main cell phone competitor has an entire Wikipedia section entitled Controversies<\/a> and ranges from forced labor to, and I quote, \u201cstealing the corpse of a dead worker\u201d in the \u201cunion-busting activity\u201d section. The maker of Cyborg had to get rid of their motto \u201cDon\u2019t be evil<\/a>\u201d 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<\/a>. That\u2019s just scratching the surface<\/a> with them. And all of them work together to help the government spy on you<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t like one shop, we can just go to another. If they\u2019re all bad, another competitor will supplant them. Only, that\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are other little thought avenues I\u2019ve wandered down:<\/p>\n

Despite what I said above, there are better and worse companies – it\u2019s just that the worst ones want you to think everyone is as bad as they areAs 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\u2019s why they can get away with moreThere\u2019s the myth that a company can\u2019t be morally bankrupt – it\u2019s just a legal framework. Sure it can, if the people leading that legal framework are morally bankrupt and make their business decisions through that lensYou can choose to just not play at all in a modern world. Yes, but that\u2019s a false choice and we shouldn\u2019t have to support slave labor to make a phone call or be ok with child labor and environmental disasters<\/a> if we want to enjoy chocolate. It\u2019s ok for those acts to be illegal and, no, they aren\u2019t the true cost of business<\/p>\n

But we\u2019re well over 3000 words in the OT section today. And all I wanted to do was listen to music and relax.<\/p>\n

While it didn\u2019t totally balance out the above nonsense, I did have a nice experience today.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, I broke a zipper on one of my favorite hoodies. Not like \u201cI broke off the part you pull and now there\u2019s half a zipper left\u201d – 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.<\/p>\n

I looked up \u201czipper repair\u201d 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\u2019s a wedding dress advertising their alteration service. My problem is much smaller and, likely, less financially sustaining for them.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t be able to find except in a thrift store or time machine. As I have said before in this space, talking about clothes<\/a>, \u201cshrinkflation and enshittification comes for everything\u201d. So, yes, while I could have just replaced it for the cost of 2 hoodies, the quality wouldn\u2019t be nearly as good and I\u2019d just have to replace it again. Good old boots theory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I suppose I should (briefly) mention the Superb Owl. Usually, this time of year, I\u2019ll post a song from NFL Primetime (like here, for instance<\/a>). This one was called \u201cCrush\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At The Athletic ($), Keith Law published his 2026 Royals Top 20 Prospects list. When the Royals took…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[5,936,2123,55,2596,2595,4,252,38557],"class_list":{"0":"post-557932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-royals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-kansas","10":"tag-kansas-city","11":"tag-kansas-city-royals","12":"tag-kansascity","13":"tag-kansascityroyals","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-royals","16":"tag-royals-rumblings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116024161418630615","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}