A week ago, my wife and I checked out our local independent league team, the Waterloo Bucks. They play in the Northwoods League, a summer wood-bat college league. Friday night was perfect for baseball, 80 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze from the south.
One of Waterloo’s players is MJ Sweeney, son of Royal legend Mike. MJ plays his college ball at Wichita State. He’s a physical specimen, listed at 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds. He has a smooth left-handed swing and he’s athletic. Unfortunately, he went 0-for-5 in this game. He looked like he was a little too anxious, often swinging at the first or second pitch. If he can put everything together, he could turn himself into a real prospect.
The game was a doozy, with the visiting team, the Willmar Stingers, jumping out to comfortable leads only to have Waterloo battle back. Leading the charge for Willmar was Max Buettenback, who plays collegiately at Nebraska. Young Mr. Buettenback came into the game hitting an absurd .455. He didn’t hurt his average as he went 3-for-5 with a walk on the night. The three hits all left the yard, and he ended the night with a cool .500 average for the season. He makes loud contact when he connects. He’s far and away one of the best players I’ve seen in the Northwoods League, and I’d be shocked if he weren’t picked in this year’s or next year’s draft. Some of the players can be a bit timid. Not this kid. He swings the bat like a knight swinging a sword at a dragon threatening his damsel.
Willmar grabbed a one-run lead in the 8th, thanks to Mr. Buettenback’s third dinger of the night. Waterloo answered with a home run in the bottom of the 9th by Mitchell Iliff to send the game to extras.
With the go-ahead run in scoring position in the 10th, the Bucks wisely gave Buettenback a free pass. The Stingers pushed across a single run to take a 10-9 lead.
Waterloo answered. With one on and two outs, the Bucks’ Nico Newhan, another Nebraska player, put one over the left-center field fence to give the home team an 11-10 victory.
It was an exciting game. I’m always amazed at the commitment shown by these kids who spend the summer living with a host family, hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away from home, just to play ball. If you get the chance this summer, take in a Northwoods League game. It’s a great value and some solid baseball.
The Athletic’s most recent Power Rankings have the Royals at #29, just ahead of the Colorado Rockies. If you’ve followed baseball in the last decade, you’re aware of what a dumpster fire the Rockies organization has been. Scouting, drafting, player development, free-agent signings, you name it, the Rockies have found a way to bungle it. It pains me to think the Royals are in the same neighborhood, but here we are. I’ve been a fan, and a die-hard one, since the beginning. I generally try to stay optimistic, but it’s getting more difficult.
The Royals need an organizational reset, like the one they did when they brought in Dayton Moore. They have the best player in the game and not much else. The minor league system, short of a couple of solid pitching prospects in Class A ball, is filled with marginal prospects and players who are already 25 or 26 years old. In short, the farm system is thin on talent, which means little help is on the way—either through prospect promotions or trade chips.
The organization has had a stunning record of blowing first-round picks. Look, I understand that drafting baseball players is the hardest evaluation in any of the major sports and a bit of a crapshoot. I know I couldn’t do it, and it seems the Royals brass can’t either. But the first-round picks should be the easy ones. This is the round where you pick the no-brainer guys. In the past fifteen drafts (not counting 2025—it’s early, they get a pass), the Royals have only gleaned four contributing players: Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic, Bobby Witt Jr., and Jac. That’s it. They had another with Brady Singer but lost their minds and traded him for a washed-up infielder.
All of this begs a question. Does the problem lie with the scouting process or the player development process? Or, more frighteningly, both? It’s J.J. Picollo’s job to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and make the necessary adjustments. If he can’t, or won’t, do that, it falls on John Sherman to make the necessary changes, starting at the top.
What makes it even more painful is the cross-state rival Cardinals have rebuilt and are in contention. And division-rival Chicago White Sox have quickly retooled (under the eye of former Royal Chris Getz, to boot) and not only have a young and exciting team, they’re in first place in the Central. Ouch.
I figure the Royals would have to win 84 games to secure a wild-card berth. That means they’d need to go 55-33 the rest of the way. That’s a .625 winning percentage. I don’t see that happening.
Of the 1969 expansion teams, which has drafted or signed the most Hall of Fame players as amateur free agents? That’d be Montreal/Washington with five (Tim Raines, Gary Carter, Vlad Guerrero, Randy Johnson, and Larry Walker). The Padres have three (Tony Gwynn, Dave Winfield, and Ozzie Smith), while Milwaukee/Seattle has two (Robin Yount and Paul Molitor). The Royals were the last car in that parade for years with just George Brett to show for it. Carlos Beltrán’s recent election brings them to two.
This piece of trivia doesn’t mean much other than the Royals have had a shortage of top-end talent to work with. Despite that, they do lead the 1969 teams in the only category that is really important, and that’s the number of World Series titles they have. Milwaukee and San Diego are still looking for their first Series title. Montreal/Washington has one.
Daily newspapers have all but disappeared, victims of the internet and their own hubris. I do miss having the sports section of a daily, especially during baseball season. There was nothing quite like the feeling of checking the box scores each day to see who had a big game. The paper was also a great way to keep track of the standings and who the statistical leaders were. For some adventurous entrepreneur, maybe there’s still a market for a baseball-only daily? I think I’d be a subscriber.
Here’s a question for our readers. Which team is your second favorite? Who do you root for besides the Royals and why?
I’ve always been torn between the Red Sox and the Padres. I love going to Fenway. It’s one of the all-time great baseball experiences, one that every die-hard baseball fan should enjoy at least once in their life. Despite that, I probably couldn’t name more than three or four current Red Sox players. Yikes!
I’ve been drawn to the Padres for similar reasons. I usually catch one or two games a year at Petco, which is a fantastic ballpark. The Padres typically have a mixture of veteran and young talent, plus they’ve been a regular trading partner with the Royals and usually have several old friends on the roster. Their GM, A.J. Preller, is a modern-day wheeler and dealer and somehow always seems to put a competitive product on the field. Their fans are some of the best in the sport.
How about you? Who’s your backup team?
