Year Two of the Matt Quatraro tenure. Time to take a step up this year. Active in free agency and trades this offseason. A new look pitching rotation and bullpen. Will the young players take the leap up offensively? Bobby Witt extension? New stadium? Will Vinny recover from injury? Salvy taking aim at the Royals record book? Will Cole Ragans turn into the best Royals starting pitcher since Greinke 1.0?
Free Agents/Trades Acquisitions
Seth Lugo, SP
Michael Wacha, SP
Kyle Wright, SP
Hunter Renfroe, OF/DH
Will Smith, RP
Chris Stratton, RP
Nick Anderson, RP
Adam Frazier, 2B
Garrett Hampson, INF/OF
Matt Sauer, RP [Reply]
TEAMS in @MLB will regret passing in the draft on JAC CAGLIANONE (drafted #6)who will be a BIG STAR with the @Royals .The Royals fans will love what will become one of the most lethal combo’s @BwittJr Bobby Witt & Jac Caglianone ! [Reply]
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The class of 2024 Wallkill High School senior ended this season as a Rawlings Second-Team All-American and a First-Team All-Region 1 athlete. The pitcher possesses an arm that can throw a consistent 92-94 mph fastball and has even reached speeds of up to 97 mph. Throughout his senior year, DeGroat only allowed 16 hits and six runs across 47 innings pitched, while also clocking in 107 strikeouts to finish out with a 0.60 ERA.
Originally Posted by :
According to various scouting directors, DeGroat isn't expected to be a first-round pick in the MLB Draft, but a potential second-day selection. DeGroat mentioned that it would take a significant amount in a pro-contract offer to stop him from going to Texas. Going along with the collegiate route could allow DeGroat to sharpen up and stand out even more for an early departure from the team for the Draft in the future.
"There's no wrong choice," DeGroat said. "I'm excited for whatever new journeys, whatever new doors are going to open for me."
This season, the Longhorns went 36-24, placing third in the Big 12 and having an appearance in the NCAA College Station Regional tournament. Texas has previously made it to the College World Series in 2021 and 2022 and has looked to build its way back up to champion status ever since.
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ARLINGTON -- Sean Campbell was watching the proceedings of the Home Run Derby from a suite in the upper reaches of Globe Life Field on Monday night when one of his most unique pupils in the MLB Draft League, Dennis Kasumba, came running in.
“Hey, Salvador said we could come down to the clubhouse!” Kasumba yelled.
20-year-old Ugandan baseball player Dennis Kasumba has gone viral multiple times for his intense training videos.
Perez immediately whisked Kasumba out to the couches on the American League sideline during the Home Run Derby and had him take a photo with several of the players. Then, Perez took Kasumba to the tunnel, where he unzipped a bag and gave the younger catcher one of his sets of gear -- mask, chest protector, shin guards -- along with two bats.
“I was very, very happy, because that's All-Star catcher's equipment,” Kasumba said. “Mine was very, very old. I got new catcher's equipment from the best catcher in the world. He's the best catcher in the whole world. Now, I have to be the same catcher, the same person. I'm very, very happy.”
“It meant a lot to me, given that I'm his favorite player,” Perez said. “I'm super excited for that. I thank God that I had the opportunity to meet him.”
Soon, Kasumba and fellow Ugandan player Sempa Shawali Sherican will return to Uganda, where Kasumba will go back to training with the makeshift materials at his grandmother’s home in Kampala, working out tires and empty oil barrels in the muddy alley beside his grandmother’s house in an effort to become a professional catcher.
Viral videos of his workouts are why Campbell -- president of the MLB Draft League -- found a way to get Kasumba and Shawali Sherican to the roster of the Frederick Keys, where they’ve learned for two years under managers René Rivera and Jacque Jones.
Kasumba lives with his grandmother because his father went missing during the Ugandan Civil War. His mother deserted him when he was two months old. He worked in a slaughterhouse before baseball coach Paul Wafula gave him an opportunity by telling him that food would be provided at the baseball field, as detailed last year by MLB.com’s Matt Monagan.
Wafula told him that the catcher is the leader of the team on the field, which led Kasumba to gravitate to that role. He grew to love and idolize Perez as he searched for videos of catching techniques.
“Many people said that Salvador is the best,” Kasumba said. “I wanted to think about that and I searched for him. I saw that he was the best, and I wanted to learn about him. He has a passion. He's a good guy. He's the best in throwing and blocking and with pitchers throwing faster, he can react to the balls and he can throw runners out at second. That's why I wanted to be like him. I was so very happy when I met him.”
I’m so grateful 🙏 thank you so much Mr @SalvadorPerez15 for giving me new catchers equipment and the two bat using in my games. My words can’t explain how much I was happy to meet you sir. I CAN DO EVERYTHING THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRONGER THAN ME🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/HySzovkr0q
With Perez’s help, Kasumba’s skills have improved behind the dish. Campbell remembers with a laugh how after Kasumba came over from Uganda, where pitchers won’t hit 90 mph, he tried to catch a pitch from Taiwanese prospect Chen-Wei Lin. He tried to emulate Perez’s technique of starting with the mitt down and raising it to the pitch, but ended up taking a fastball off his facemask.
Now, he’s able to catch pitches in the high 90s, he says -- and on Tuesday, at Globe Life Field, surrounded by his idol and the stars of the sport, Kasumba’s dreams felt closer than ever.
“I want to thank Mr. Sean Campbell of the MLB Draft League for giving me this opportunity, and MLB, because sometimes, I think about my future,” Kasumba said.
“If not baseball, I think I'd be in the slaughterhouse again -- and in the slaughterhouse, they use drugs, they use many things. Some kids in Uganda, they go mad because of drugs. But I thank God that Mr. Sean Campbell gave me this opportunity.”
But the Derby experience wasn’t all before Kasumba’s return to that situation in Africa.
On Tuesday, Perez took Kasumba, Shawali Sherican and Campbell’s young son around the field with him to meet the All-Stars and shag fly balls together during batting practice, with Kasumba nearly snagging a ball in right field while the left-handed hitting Jarren Duran took some batting practice hacks.
“[I wanted to tell him] that I love him,” Kasumba said. “To help me with my catching skills, because he's the best. Of course, I want to be the best like him.”
But Kasumba didn’t seem to mind that no baseballs came his way; he was too busy animatedly going through throwing motions, which he said he did to mimic one of Perez’s defensive highlights from one of his eight previous All-Star games.
Kasumba wanted to know of Perez’s thought process and mechanics through that play -- and after Perez responded, he grinned and pulled Kasumba into a bear hug. He’d already shown the crew around the star-studded first group of batting practice -- Shawali Sherican really wanted to meet Aaron Judge -- and finally said his goodbyes at the end of batting practice.
“He could really think to play this game,” Perez said. “It's amazing, you know? To get a guy like that, with his history. I thank God. I had to meet him to give him a gift.”
“The generosity that Salvador showed last night, just the compassion, it was unbelievable,” Campbell said. “It's been a great experience, just all-encompassing.”
Perez hopes that this opportunity for Kasumba can lead to far more than just a cameo at this stage sometime down the line, which Campbell says will involve following up with next steps like getting his high school diploma and thus qualifying for the junior college programs that Campbell hopes can be the Ugandan players’ next step towards professional baseball.
“All the sacrifices he's made to try to be a professional baseball player -- it’s something that people have to respect that,” Perez said. “When you think you do something -- when you think you've gone through some bad things, there are people worse off than us.
“When I feel tired and I remember him, it gives me more energy.”
I forgot a great story from a game my wife and I attended earlier this year. We were in section 137, row J or something like us. We noticed this guy a row ahead of us and a few seats down was on the phone a lot, looked like a video call. He was showing whoever was on the other end the action on the field. Then he was showing the people in the row behind some pictures. He was with 2 other guys and they didn't speak much English.
My wife found out what was going on from the people he was showing the pictures to. Turns out these guys were here from Venezuela and one of them had played ball with Salvy when they were young. The picture he had was a team picture with Salvy a year before he was drafted by the Royals. Also on the team and in the picture was Jose Altuve.
The weird thing was, the guy hadn't talked to Salvy since they played together and Salvy had no idea he was there. After the game we tried to get someone's attention in the dugout so they could relay to Salvy, but we were to far away to get anyone's attention.
Nice. Hopefully he turns into something. Royals have done a good job at getting guys signed promptly after the draft in recent years, for what it's worth. Be nice to get these guys a little cup of coffee of pro ball this year before getting into the grind next season. [Reply]
Originally Posted by GabyKeepsMeWarm:
Nice. Hopefully he turns into something. Royals have done a good job at getting guys signed promptly after the draft in recent years, for what it's worth. Be nice to get these guys a little cup of coffee of pro ball this year before getting into the grind next season.
I’d really like to see Caglianone assigned to at least Quad Cities and preferably High A for this season.
Maybe even AA if he proves himself too advanced for those levels.
