Baseball has had a winter of discontent and the highest payroll in the American League Central now belongs to the Kansas City Royals. After inking star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. to an 11-year extension, it’s certainly going to be something of a culture shock for Royals fans to see a young star of theirs locked up. Royals fans can get attached to the star player, as it’s likely he’ll be around a while. Witt has opt-outs after years seven, eight, nine and 10. Should he not take any of them, the Royals have a three-year club option that would net Witt another $99 million and some change.

It’s also positive to see a team that utterly who had a poor performance last year with only 56 games won to hit the gas and try to accelerate things. In addition, splashing out for the likes of Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, and Hunter Renfroe isn’t exactly pushing the needle more than giving it a playful nudge. The projected $150+ luxury tax payroll is going to rank first in the Central, which should be embarrassing for the other four teams.

What could be big news out of college sports, as the Dartmouth basketball team were ruled to be employees of the university by the NLRB and thus can form a union. This is the similar road that the Northwestern football team tried to navigate some years ago.

In yesterday’s entry into the file “This Ain’t It.