Royals Links: Jason Donald, Robinson Yambati, Hall of Fame Voting, & More

Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

It’s a cold day around the midwest. The temperatures and wind chills are lower than Neifi Perez‘s WAR, the Chiefs lost in heartbreaking fashion on Saturday, and there are still 39 days before pitchers and catchers report to spring training. On the bright side, there are just 39 days before pitchers and catchers report to spring training, and that number is shrinking by the day. To take your mind off the cold, here are some Royals-related stories from around the internet from the past few days.

– Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports wrote something about the remaining free agents still available and how their associated draft pick compensation has affected their market. With rumors of the Royals being at least partially connected to several of the players out there, it will be interesting to see if the market crashes enough to give Dayton Moore an opportunity for one more splash this winter.

– In his weekly Friday Notes column at Pine Tar Press, David Lesky mentioned that he thought Jason Donald could have an impact next season for the Royals. Donald was signed to a minor league deal, and will play at Omaha in 2014, but he could provide some depth at the utility infielder position should the need arise.

– At Royal Revival, the guys broke down the next player in their prospect rankings, Robinson Yambati, coming in at #29. Yambati was once thought of more highly as a prospect, but control problems have forced him into a bullpen role. He still has some promise as a guy who can miss a few bats and generate groundballs, but his ceiling appears to be much lower, despite still being just 22 years old.

– Not necessarily Royals-exclusive stuff, but Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times predicts that when the Hall of Fame voting results are revealed on Wednesday, four players will have received the necessary votes to be enshrined in Cooperstown: Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Frank Thomas, and Craig Biggio. Jaffe uses all available data to make his predictions, including the 133 votes that have been publicly released (at the time of this writing). Those votes have been compiled here, and I’ll be very curious to see how it all plays out on Wednesday. Much has been made about all of the worthy candidates on the ballot this year, and with even more Hall-worthy guys being added next year, this vote could be the impetus behind making some changes to the voting process in the future.