Royals Rumblings

Weekend Rumblings - News for March 18, 2017

This is March.

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Mar 18, 2017, 10:00am EDT

Weekend Rumblings - News for March 18, 2017

David Lesky at Baseball Prospectus considers the chances of Raúl Mondesí making the team.

All that said, the difficult thing with Mondesi is that while the odds are against him being ready to be a quality big league hitter at this stage of his development, if he did somehow figure things out during the offseason, there’s a chance he’s the Royals best player. That title probably belongs to Lorenzo Cain, but it’s not crazy to think that if Mondesi could somehow hit around .270, he’d carry a .300 or so OBP with a .400 or so SLG based on the power he has from the left side. Combine that with his speed and hopefully better defense at second base than he showed last year, and he could be insanely valuable even without hitting that Part of that is an indictment on the rest of the team, but still, the Royals have to decide whether they believe the Cactus League or believe what they’ve seen before. I’d still start him in AAA, but I understand if they want to see what they can do with him at the big league level to start.

Jon Heyman gives his take on the second base competition.

Word going around is they’d love for top infield prospect Raul Mondesi Jr. to take the second base job

Mondesí is out with back stiffness and is day-to-day.

"[It came up] after BP today," manager Ned Yost said of Mondesi's tightness. "His back was a little stiff, and he's getting an off day tomorrow any way -- it was built in the schedule -- so just give him two. He's been playing a lot."

Veteran reliever Brandon League talks about his comeback attempt with the Royals.

"I had to learn my shoulder all over again," League said of his comeback effort. "It's just different now. The weightlifting and maintenance and everything that it comes with just to pick up a ball has been different. It's kind of trial and error to see how my arm reacts. It's been a definite learning process along the way."

Leigh Oleszczak of KC Kingdom says health is key for the Royals in 2017.

Kansas City Star photographer John Sleezer gives a 360 degrees view of spring training.

Lee Judge answers baseball questions for baseball fans.

Kauffman Stadium is getting a new kosher food cart.

What is the best one-two punch in baseball?

Baseball America has an early mock draft for the June draft.

Michael Pineda had to learn English after miscommunication cost him.

A glitch in “MLB the Show” has horrifying results.

The best Irish ballplayers of all-time.

Mizzou baseball is off to its best start in school history.

The best and worst of day two of the NCAA Tournament.

How MLS is trying to improve officiating.