Royals Rumblings - News for March 31, 2016

First things first, Royals Review's very own overlord, Max Rieper will be on the radio in Farmington, NM on FOX AM 1340/93.9 FM at 8:30 AM CDT, and Josh Ward will be on 1590 WAKR in Akron at 5:45 EDT/4:45 CDT. FOX Sports AM 1340/93.9 can be streamed live here. WAKR can be streamed live here.

At Game of Redemption, Joe Piazza interviews Willie Wilson about Cuba, rules changes, and the legacy of Jackie Robinson.

Jeffrey Flanagan reports that Hosmer could be an MVP candidate:

"We have no idea what [that ceiling] is," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "He's a guy who can run, can hit for average, can hit for power, does winning things on the basepaths. He's a Gold Glover who is probably the best in the game at that.

"And he hasn't even reached his potential. We saw a lot of it last year, but there's more in there."

Rustin Dodd reports that Ian Kennedy's hamstring tightness may not be a huge thing to worry about:

When the Royals signed Kennedy to a five-year, $70 million contract in the offseason, they inspected the health of his hamstring. Kennedy passed the tests. He said he’s experienced no recurring issues. Even on Wednesday, he said the discomfort felt different.

"I’ve had the hamstring before, and it doesn’t feel like" it did Wednesday, Kennedy said. "Not even close to what I did before. So that’s good. (We’re) just trying to be careful with it, more than anything."

Hunter Samuels at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City breaks down Danny Duffy's platoon work in 2015:

In 2015, he more than held his own facing same-side batters, although there was a jump in the opponents’ production, as he allowed just a .211 TAv in those plate appearances. He still didn’t allow a dinger to a left-handed hitter*, but there were a few more pitchers who got better results than him.

*Fun fact: Duffy hasn’t allowed a regular-season home run to a lefty since August, 27, 2011. Since then, he’s faced 321 left-handed batters, and not one of them has left the yard. Oh, and that last lefty batter to homer off of Duffy? Jim Thome, who will be on the Hall of Fame ballot in less than two years.

The real difference was against righties. Among pitchers who faced 300 right-handed batters in 2014, Duffy’s .256 TAv allowed ranked right near the middle, in the 47th percentile. Last year, he allowed a .281 TAv, which put him in the 16th percentile. It wasn’t that Duffy excelled against righties in 2014. It was that he got destroyed by them in 2015.

Baseball Prospectus ranks each team's farm system. As you can imagine, the Royals don't fare especially well, but they've been ranked lower.

Clint Scoles takes a gander at the Kansas City area talent likely to be taken in this year's draft.

Episode Six of the Star's Becoming Royal series is up, and it's about George Brett.

Speaking of George Brett, Uproxx's Mike Ryan catches up with the HOFer ahead of the release of Fastball.

While the Royals released Travis Snider, they did re-sign Peter Moylan to a minor-league deal.

At FanGraphs, August Fagerstrom looks at how Dan Straily got fixed.

While on the subject of reclamation, Matthew Kory shines a light on former Padres' first overall pick of the draft Matt Bush, who made the transition from shortstop to inmate to pitcher and may break camp with the Rangers.

Silicon Valley nerds - er, venture capitalists - are trying to take credit for the Warriors' success.

Slashfilm has an interview with Adam Reed as Archer kicks off its seventh season with its second delightful reboot in three seasons.

You will now be able to chow on brisket where people were killed in film.

At Texas Monthly, Pamela Colloff wrote a feature on a survivor of the Clock Tower shooting on campus at the University of Texas fifty years afterward.

The song of the day is "Rock Bottom Riser" by Smog.