Royals Rumblings

Royals Rumblings - News for May 12, 2017

Give Alex Gordon Gold Gloves for all the outfield positions.

By Max Rieper@maxrieper May 12, 2017, 8:00am EDT

MLB: Kansas City Royals at Tampa Bay Rays

Royals Rumblings - News for May 12, 2017

Hard work by Jason Vargas is paying off this season.

On some days, you could find Vargas in the bowels of a baseball stadium, throwing a medicine ball against a wall. On others, you could find him in a bullpen with Eiland, breaking down his delivery to the most intricate detail. They had the luxury of time and resources, and even when Vargas could not throw a baseball, they do other things, like a simple ‘sock drill’, setting the foundation for the future.

“We really honed in on just cleaning up his delivery and repeating and repeating and repeating and repeating,” Eiland says. “He’s always had good command. But now his delivery is so clean and on time, it’s almost like he’s perfected it.”

Alex Gordon passed his first start playing centerfield with flying colors.

“It was actually easier playing center here than it is in left for me, not dealing with the lights,” Gordon said of the setup at Tropicana Field. “It felt pretty good.”

Are the Royals at a turning point?

"Time will tell," Vargas said. "We've got Baltimore coming in this weekend. We've just got to keep playing solid baseball and keep ourselves in a groove where it's second nature for us to click as a unit."

Darin Watson at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City is ready to see what the kids can do.

And I’m excited to see some of the younger players get a shot. Bring on the kids, I say. We’ve already seen Cheslor Cuthbert be an effective major leaguer; I’m not worried about his poor numbers this season because I suspect this is the first time in his life he has not played every day. Jorge Bonifacio has shown some ability; let’s see if can make the needed adjustments at the plate and improve his defense. Ideally, we could see Matt Strahm stretched out to become part of the rotation. And those are just the guys already here.

I look forward to seeing Jake Junis, Ryan O’Hearn, Corey Toups, Josh Staumont, Ramon Torres, and Jonathan Dziedzic. And hopefully Hunter Dozier can make it back to the majors when he’s healthy. Oh, and Raul Mondesi again, which brings up the Raul Mondesi Corollary to this desire: I only want to see them if they’ve proven they can handle AAA ball. But the good news is several of those guys are off to good starts in Omaha.

Jon Heyman has his notes on all American League clubs.

Eric Hosmer is starting to heat up, perhaps enhancing the Royals’ chances to sign him. They also do love him, and maybe now they can afford him.

Keith Law has his first mock draft of the year, and has the Royals taking prep pitcher DL Hall.

Hall works in the low 90s with a hammer curveball but lacks the command and control of Gore and has some cross-body action in his delivery. He might have more long-term upside, though.

Jay Jaffe at Sports Illustrated writes that Salvador Perez is the face of the Royals.

In his podcast, Buster Olney says Eric Hosmer may be more important to the Royals than to any other team.

Terrence Gore moves up to Omaha.

A little NWA roster news as Terrance Gore promoted to Triple-A Omaha and Elier Hernandez goes to Northwest Arkansas.
— paul boyd (@nwapaulb) May 11, 2017