Royals Rumblings - News for March 30, 2017

At the Star, Rustin Dodd tells of how Alex Gordon is glad to be atop the Royals’ batting order for Opening Day:

For Gordon, the return to the leadoff spot offers a measure of comfort and familiarity. It was six years ago, in the midst of his breakout 2011 season, that he first moved to the role. That was in May. Yost eschewed convention and rolled the dice. The move paid off.

Gordon did not possess premium speed or all the traits of a traditional leadoff hitter. But as the game of baseball evolved, so had the idea of what constituted a valuable leadoff man. Gordon reached base at a healthy clip. He possessed some of the best plate discipline on the team. The change in roles dovetailed with a reconfigured approach at the plate.

In the next five seasons, Gordon made three All-Star teams and helped the Royals win consecutive American League pennants and a World Series title. And much of that production came from the leadoff spot. In his career, he has started 316 games atop the order, the most of any position in the lineup.

Jeffrey Flanagan adds that in addition to being excited to lead off, Gordon is pumped to move around the outfield a bit:

Gordon also has split time between left field and right field this spring. He even logged some games in center.

"It was kind of a surprise," Gordon said. "I've been in left for the last five or six years, but it was nice to see balls from different angles. Got a lot of repetitions in at the other spots.

"Center field is a lot of fun, but we all know it's Cain's job."

Danny Duffy rolled in his last tune-up start, a 0-0 tie with the Rangers.

KC Kingdom’s Leigh Oleszczak attempts to argue that the Royals should move on from Christian Colón because it’s fun to be wrong.

At Baseball Prospectus KC, Clint Scoles looks ahead to the draft, profiling potential draftee Jordon Adell and Daniel Tillo.

Eno Sarris understandably sees the Cubs as a dynasty in the making, but the following chart makes things look bad for a Royals’ second run:

BP’s Zach Crizer fills in the gaps on Daniel Murphy espousing Launch Angle Reform with Ryan Zimmerman and fantastically Eric Hosmer.

R.J. Anderson dives into the influx of internet baseball writers into the scouting community.

Dave Cameron wonders if the Diamondbacks are eschewing their all-low, all-the-time organizational philosophy for their pitchers.

A breakdown of how umpires eject players as they age care of The Hardball Times’ Shane Tourtellotte.

Might baseball be returning to Montréal?

The opening of the Amazon Go shop isn’t going so well.

Toby could still be the Scranton Strangler.

Mosquitoes are weird flyers.

Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman are reuniting on NBC’s The Handmade Project.

What can the superhero genre learn from Legion [SPOILERS]?

The song of the day is “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo” by A Tribe Called Quest.