Royals Rumblings - News for March 7, 2017

Jeffrey Flanagan reports that Ned Yost loves the whippersnappers:

Bonifacio is hitting .462 (6-for-13) with some rather loud outs as well.

And perhaps the biggest eye-catcher of the group so far has been Mondesi, who has been vying for the starting second-base job.

Mondesi is hitting .529 (9-for-17) with a homer and double. And Mondesi has been terrific defensively.

"I've been pleased with our next-wavers," Yost said. "I feel good about them."

Flanagan also notes that Dave Eiland loves the depth of the pitching staff in Surprise:

"It's the deepest group we've had since I've been here," Eiland said. "We're going to have some tough decisions coming down to the end. It's a good problem to have.

"We're going to have to sit down and have some long conversations."

Here's the issue: The Royals have four starters set and six bullpen spots essentially taken already.

David Lesky argues that Raúl Mondesí’s hot start to Spring Training shouldn’t change much:

Yes, you’d absolutely prefer to have good performances than bad performances (most of the time), but there’s still the simple fact that it’s a terrible environment to judge players based on the numbers they put up. I actually had sort of a fear that Mondesi would have a ridiculous spring and make the Royals feel like they have to give him the big league job at second base. They’ve always been ridiculously aggressive with Mondesi throughout the minor leagues with quick promotions and that continued with his trip to the big leagues last season. One common trend that has accompanied each of his promotions is that he likely wasn’t ready for that level.

What I’m getting into here is that even if Mondesi keeps up this fantastic performance from his first few games of the spring, I don’t believe the Royals should start him in the big leagues on Opening Day. It most certainly isn’t that simple, but I’ll get to that in a bit. First, let’s talk about why it’s a bad idea for Mondesi to break camp in the big leagues.

Kelvin Herrera and Nathan Karns looked good in Monday’s 4 - 1 loss to the Diamondbacks.

Mike Moustakas got his first action of the spring at third yesterday.

BP KC’s Clint Scoles sits down with draft prospect Jacob Heatherly for an interview.

BP’s staff weighs in on the intentional walk and Shelby Miller.

FanGraphs is introducing a month-long residency program. Lookout Landing’s Kate Preusser is the first featured writer and wrote about Brazilian flamethrower Thyago Vieira.

Tim Tebow’s first start in a major-league Spring Training game will be against Rick Porcello.

FG’s Travis Sawchik cautions against believing in small sample successes like Gary Sanchez.

Israel (featuring Cody Decker) upset South Korea in the WBC.

Andrew Bogut’s time as a Cav might end up being about two minutes.

Chance the Rapper is a pretty cool dude.

The nine strangest/loveliest dioramas you’ll ever see, including Froggyland.

Venice (not in Italy) is struggling with gentrification as the homeless population grows while techies flood the hip neighborhood.

Cole Sprouse weighs in on Jughead’s [a]sexuality controversy on Riverdale.

Netflix will be releasing a stand-up special a week this year.

The song of the day is “Daytime Friends” by Kenny Rogers.