Royals Rumblings

Royals Rumblings - News for April 5, 2016

Baseball is back! Again!

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Apr 5, 2016, 8:00am EDT

Royals Rumblings - News for April 5, 2016

Rustin Dodd has a terrific profile of Dayton Moore and his process and how it is intertwined with his faith.

In the worst times, Moore says, he remembered a conversation with Dave Dombrowski, then the Detroit Tigers’ general manager. It was the year after Moore arrived in Kansas City. The Royals were playing Detroit. Dombrowski had rebuilt the Tigers from 119-game losers in 2003 to American League champions in 2006. Moore was just launching his own long-term plan. Dombrowksi offered advice in plain terms. Do things the right way. If you run out of time, you run out of time.

The Royals would lose 100 games for the fourth time in five seasons. The franchise hadn’t been to the playoffs in two decades. The idea of winning a World Series in Kansas City didn’t just feel far-fetched. It felt like fiction.

"I made an advanced decision," Moore says. "I didn’t know if we were ever going to win. But we’re just going to do everything we can to create a great place to work. We’re going to represent the game of baseball. We’re going to do everything we can to grow baseball in our community. And if we run out of time, we run out of time."

Sam Mellinger writes that the Royals deserve the pomp and circumstance of being champs.

"This is something we’ve been dreaming about for a long, long time," Royals pitcher Danny Duffy says. "I know the fans who’ve been with us since before I was born would say, ‘How long have you been waiting? We’ve been waiting 30 years.’ So I am super ready to see it go up, see that flag fly, and then the rings, man. That’ll be dope."

Ned Yost was a bit uncomfortable celebrating the championship Sunday night with the Mets standing there.

"I think I would have enjoyed it more if we played another team," Yost said.

Mets third baseman David Wright didn't mind.

"They’re the champs. They should celebrate it," Wright said. "If the outcome would have been a little different and we won, I’m sure we would have played a nice video as well. They’re the champs. They deserve it."

Joakim Soria was not very pleased with his performance.

"It’s one of those days that you kind of want to forget," Soria said. "I didn’t feel really good out there. I didn’t hit my spots well."

ESPN's David Schoenfield explains why the Royals will continue to outperform projections.

"In our approach, we're swinging at every pitch like it's going to be a fastball, so when they do throw one we're ready for it," Hosmer said. "I think it's just about staying on the offense and staying on the attack."

This gets back to another Yost philosophy: Don't make his players something they aren't. "The thing that amuses me most is that two years ago, all everyone wanted to talk about was our approach. 'How come we don't take more pitches? How come we don't take more walks?' For me, if you're going to get the most out of your group, you have to let them be who they are instead of trying to mold their game."

Eric Hosmer's bunt single Sunday night was the fastest Statcast has ever recorded a first baseman running home to first.

Sunday night's game drew great ratings locally.

.@Royals begin their title defense w/a 26.4 rating. Best ever local rtg for an #OpeningDay game in any market as far as records go back -'01
— Ben Cafardo (@Ben_ESPN) April 4, 2016