Old friend alert!
The Royals still have yet to add the big bat to their lineup, but we went ahead and added a few of our own.
Straight from the University of Kansas, please welcome Trenton Kraxner. He has written for the University Daily Kansan and will be writing recaps and other articles.
Hi, my name is Trenton Kraxner, I am a senior at the University of Kansas currently. I will be graduating this May with a bachelor’s degree in multimedia Journalism. I have always been a big fan of KU, Chiefs and Royals. I also work as the sideline reporter for the Washburn Ichabods football team for the radio. I aspire to become a sports broadcaster or writer somewhere down the line.
I have been a fan of the Royals since birth. I have seen many many lows, but the faith never wavered. I was a huge John Buck and Eric Hosmer fan growing up. Currently, my favorite guys on the team are Lucas Erceg and Vinnie. Some of the things that I want to write here, would have to be discovery pieces. Such as, why is this or that happening. I really enjoy diving deep into things to try and figure out why certain things are happening. I am excited for this upcoming season. Rock Chalk and go Royals!
Also back for a second stint with Royals Review is Connor Moylan. He previously wrote here many moons ago, but we’ve brought him back like the Royals brought back Greg Holland and Wade Davis for a second stint.
Hey everyone, I’m excited to be back on staff at Royals Review. It’s been awhile; my last post here was March 31st, 2014. Back then, I was still pretty fresh out of college and trying to find my way in the world. Since then I’ve been fortunate enough to get married, have a couple of kids and help start a business here in Kansas City.
As a reintroduction, or a new introduction to those of you who have started reading since I left, I’ve been a Royals fan as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories is me crying to my Dad when I found out that Wally Joyner was no longer going to be a Royal, as he was my favorite player for some reason. As a teenager, I fell in love with the 2023 Royals and played so many games of MVP Baseball 2004 to get ready for the next season, convinced Juan Gonzalez was going to lead us to glory that year. By the end of the year I had read my Dad’s entire copy of The New Bill James Historical Abstract as a way to cope and understand how I could have been led so astray in my understanding of baseball.
I will always have a saber bent to how I understand baseball, and there are so many more cool public facing tools that have come out in the last decade that I’m excited to incorporate in my writing compared to what we were all working with in 2013. In my decade away from public writing, however, I have developed a greater appreciation of the narrative and the emotions that the game inspires. I hope to explore facets in my writing at Royals Review, and I’m really excited to get this opportunity to be in community with you all once again.
Also returning is Kevin Ruprecht. Kevin is the old school Kevin. That’s right, he’s the source of the meme. He’s back to cover some game threads and write articles from time to time.
Hi folks. I’m the OG Kevin, picking up the digital pen to come rejoin you all on this Royals journey. Some of you will know me, but to others I will be new. I stopped writing here sometime in…2016 maybe? But I come back to you now at the turn of the tide. I apologize; the first thing you should know about my writing is that I’m an idiot. This article is honestly a pretty solid introduction for what y’all are in for.
At the same time, though, I’m a data analytics person. I’ve spent my entire career in the data space. My academic background is epidemiology, but really what I learned was what we call data science today. I spent almost a decade doing purely data analysis type work. For the past few years, I’ve expanded much more into data engineering as the tech lead for a data engineering team at my day job. I was once capable of producing work like this for Royals Review. We’ll see if I can do anything like that again.
As far as Royals fandom, I’ve been a KC boy ever since I could form memories. I was once on the old jumbotron because I showed up in my little league uniform with some teammates after a game. I baked in the sun as a season ticket holder in, uh, 2012-ish? Jeremy Guthrie is still pitching that game, I think. I completely lost my voice sitting in the right field bleachers at the 2014 Wild Card game. I was there for Yordano Ventura’s brilliant 2014 WS Game 6 performance. I had tickets to 2015 WS Game 6 before those jerks decided to just win in New York. I came to see Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout on a frigid April day in 2018 when my wife was on the verge of delivering our first child (the game ended up being postponed). She was in labor the next day.
Through the absolute rock-bottom of 2004-2006 to the peak of 2015 to the new promise of Bobby Witt Jr, I have been, and always will be, Forever Royal and I Trust The Processtm.
Please join me in welcoming Trenton, Connor, and Kevin!