Royals Rumblings - News for March 24, 2017

Royals Rumblings - News for March 24, 2017

Ned Yost is impressed with Raúl Mondesí but is mum on who will get the starting job at second.

"Whatever happens," Yost said, "we want Mondi playing every day. That's important to his development.

"But it's a decision that is going to come down to the end. We've got a week left. It's close."

Josh Staumont has opened some eyes in camp with his velocity.

These days, it seems Staumont cannot go a week or two without somebody asking about his velocity. Yes, he can throw 100 mph. But there’s so much more to pitching, he says.

“It’s just kind of the easiest thing to put on paper,” he says. “It’s just like height and weight. It has very little to do with actually succeeding and your efficacy on the mound. But it is nice to have something that I can rely on.”

The Royals would agree. There is no way to predict exactly where Staumont’s career will go from here. There are still questions about his future, of course, questions about his role. Club officials believe he has the dominating stuff needed to slot into a starting rotation; rival scouts still wonder about his command and third pitch.

But then there’s this: He is one of the few people on the planet who can throw a baseball faster than 100 mph, and that’s a good start.

David Lesky at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City is excited about Mike Minor in the bullpen.

He’s currently ticketed for a spot in the bullpen, and I think I might be getting irrationally excited about it. He threw mostly fastballs, but it sat at 93-95 in the outing. His slider and curve accounted for two of the five swings and misses he got in this outing. Between this outing and what I’ve seen from Minor already this spring, I think he has a chance to be a really big part of a better than expected Royals bullpen. As a lefty who can get out righties as well, he can join Matt Strahm from the left side in providing some tough matchups for opponents. He’s mentioned before that he’s never really been a reliever, so that’s a concern, at least to some extent, but his stuff could be really good out of the bullpen in one-inning stints and could be incredibly beneficial to this team.

Dayton Moore says “we wouldn’t hesitate for Raul Mondesi to be our opening day second base if indeed it ends up playing out that way” on Buster Olney’s podcast.

FiveThirtyEight previews the American League Central Division.

rob: The Royals are so frustrating. I was all ready last season to buy into the idea that they had discovered some secret advantage (in regards to defense, or injuries, or chemistry or something), and then they landed somewhere between mediocre (by W-L) and bad (by Pythagorean record).

There are two problems for Kansas City, in my opinion: One is that, even with a secret advantage that adds 5-10 wins to their final performance, the Royals aren’t likely to be anything better than average. And the second is that sabermetric advantages tend to be ephemeral, as other teams rapidly catch up to whatever magic they developed. Because K.C. is a small-market team, it will have to keep coming up with new and fresh edges in order to keep its head above .500.

John Sickels takes a prospect retrospective on David DeJesus.

The Royals rank fifth in leftfield on Fangraphs’ positional power rankings, but just 26th in rightfield.

Pedro Martinez thinks Eric Hosmer is about to get PAID.

Lee Judge discusses cultural differences in style of play.

Greg Holland says the Rockies have the same championship vibe the Royals had.

Yadier Molina wants an apology from Adam Jones over his WBC comments.

If the Braves fail it will be for the right reasons.

The World Baseball Classic was a ratings winner on television.

Theo Epstein is named the greatest leader in the world by Fortune Magazine.

Jake Arrieta hit a 465-foot home run in spring training off Zack Greinke.

Which March Madness commercial is most likely to ruin your life?

LaVar Ball vs. Stephen A. Smith was profoundly stupid.

Black Mirror is happening! The tiny drone that can pollinate flowers.

Twitter is becoming unbundled by its competitors.

What happens if you put together a reality show, but don’t air the episodes?

Your song of the day is Kurtis Blow with Basketball.