Former major league third baseman and Royals hitting coach Kevin Seitzer joined the program to talk about hitting approach, the struggles Eric Hosmer encountered and the differences in his approach and that of manager Ned Yost.

Quote from Seitzer on Yost - "I wanted the guys to take one pitch the first time through but Ned wanted them to be aggressive which isn't what I like to teach." "It was a rough seat for me but it didn't matter as it came back as a reflection of me."

Also Aaron Bentley of BaseballInstinct.com joined the podcast to talk about the Chicago White Sox minor league system.

Follow us on Twitter @ClintScoles and @DBLesky

You can email the show at [email protected] or listen to past shows at RoyalsPodcast.com.

You either love him or hate him. He's either an annoying cheerleader or wrapped up in passion for the game. There's not always a lot of gray area when it involves Royals television analyst Rex Hudler.

Hudler took time to talk with us at the Kansas City Baseball Vault about his passion for baseball, his attitude as a player and how it has framed his daily approach as well as how he responds to criticism. We discussed optimism, getting over losses, and what he's said to players since joining the Royals.

The Wonderdog also shared some of his personal stories of raising a child with disabilities and the ways his family has embraced the challenges and blessings involved.

This was a very forthright Hudler and a different side from what you'll see on the Fox Sports Kansas City broadcast. Love him or hate him, he's got something to say.

Bob Dutton has been covering the Royals to some extent since 1987 and became the primary beat writer covering them for the Kansas City Star in 2003. He's seen his share of bad Royals baseball and, on occasion, some good as well.

Dutton took some time out of his schedule to talk with us at the Kansas City Baseball Vault about the Royals in 2013. We made sure to nail down who's going to play right field, asked about the fifth starter spot and sought insight into the 2012 struggles of Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas. We also checked on the status of some prospects who might make it to Kansas City in 2013 including Yordano Ventura and Kyle Zimmer. We also talked about the second base battle and factors in the search for a utility infielder.

We finished off with some hypotheticals about what might happen if Kansas City is near the playoff hunt later in the year.

We're getting anxious for spring training to start, but we can't match the anticipation of Danny Duffy. Duffy took time out of his rehabbing to talk with the Kansas City Baseball Vault about the work he's putting in to get back, his hopeful timetable, and his mindset as he looks to return in the middle of 2013. Last spring, Duffy was the most excited player in Royals camp. This year, he has to hang back while he continues to train after last June's Tommy John surgery. He talked about that need for patience and dealing with frustration.

He's also talked about his return to Twitter and interacting with fans. His new Twitter handle is @DannyDuffy805 and he's looking to regain all of his old followers. And since he's a California kid, we had to see if he's rooting for the San Francisco 49ers in Sunday's Super Bowl. Spoiler alert: that's a yes.

Also, you might stick around for some outtakes at the end of the episode. Mike may or may not have sang.

Rob Neyer was lucky. He started his Royals fandom in 1976 while the Royals were just beginning the first of three straight playoff appearances. That passion for baseball led him to Bill James, then to ESPN.com and now to SB Nation.

He talked with us about growing up a baseball fan, the current state of the Royals, the Wil Myers/James Shields trade and if Kansas City is a baseball or football town.

We also talked with him about writing and the gaps between old school fans and those who dig into some of the stats and how that came out during the MVP and Hall of Fame discussions. We even added some questions about blogging, traditional media and the interaction between the two.

In this week’s Kansas City Baseball Vault, we were joined by our pals Clint Scoles and Dave Lesky from the Pine Tar Press podcast.
We discussed the Hall of Fame vote and the factors that led to nobody being elected, as well as the process of voting. Lumped in with that was a discussion of steroids and other such issues that dozens of BBWAA members were writing about leading up to the final ballot counts.
In other baseball news, we answered a listener question about adding cell phones in dugouts to communicate with the bullpen.
We finished up by talking about projections for the Royals in 2013. Lesky explained some of his problems with the ZiPS system while we talked in general about the players who looked like they might be able to meet those projections, or even beat them.
After the discussion, Troy spoke with Joe Bonsall of famed band the Oak Ridge Boys. I know, “what does that have to do with baseball?”, you might ask. Bonsall is a big baseball fan (of the Phillies to be exact) and the ORB sang the national anthem at then-Royals Stadium before Game 7, so he shared his stories of being a baseball fan and cheering for Kansas City during the Royals dramatic Game 6 win and their series-clinching victory.

Download the full mp3 here or listen in the embedded player above.
The Kansas City Baseball Vault is a weekly podcast that covers the Royals, their minor league affiliates and other aspects of baseball in Kansas City.

The big news in Kansas City wasn't another Royals acquisition but rather the Chiefs signing Andy Reid to be their next head coach. We briefly covered the biggest local story of the day before moving on to the Royals latest moves. We talked about the minor league free agent signings of the last week, including Miguel Tejada and Endy Chavez and our listener question this week dealt with those kinds of deals as well which allowed us to talk a bit about Dayton Moore, intangibles and the Royals approach to building a roster.

Then we brought on Chris Kamler to talk about what's new in his world and to talk about a big pre-spring training event at the Screenland Armour in North Kansas City on February 10th at 4 p.m. We're looking forward to helping out with the event and seeing everyone out to watch a screening of Major League and to take part in other trivia and shenanigans.

The Royals have been quiet since the James Shields trade, but there's nothing wrong with a little speculation, right?

We responded to some listener comments, starting off discussing how well (if at all) the Royals match up for a Giancarlo Stanton deal That got us in a position of evaluating the Royals crop of prospects in relation to other teams. Obviously, we'd all like to have Stanton on the Royals, but what would it take?

That bridged into a conversation about whether we'd trade the last 20 years of Royals baseball for the on-again, off-again, fire sale prone Marlins. It seems like being a Marlins fan isn't the best place to be, but maybe it's not so bad in some ways?

We also talked about international free agents, Eric Hosmer's struggles, and tossed in some outtakes at the end.

Ever since the James Shields trade, the question has turned from "what can the Royals do to get better?" to "how do the Royals win the division?"

To help answer that question, we talked with Mark Simon of ESPN's Baseball Today podcast about his article that addresses that second question. A lot has to go right, Mark admitted, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. He took us step by step through what it'll take to get Kansas City back into the playoffs. There will have to be a couple of leaps, though, and nobody's allowed to get hurt.

Following the discussion with Mark, we talked a bit more about other happenings in the league, including a comparison of the Royals trade and the trade that sent R.A. Dickey to Toronto. While not exactly comparable, they're similar enough that it seemed to be two team going for the same goal in their quest for pitching. We also discussed optimism, pitching staffs and the gap between the Royals and the Detroit Tigers.

After the blockbuster trade of Wil Myers (plus) for James Shields and Wade Davis, we had to go out and get another opinion on the trade.

To do that, we consulted Joel Goldberg of Fox Sports Kansas City. He's excited about the deal and feels that James Shields is a strong pitcher at the top of the rotation and his argument is laid out pretty well. He also touted the clubhouse abilities of Shields and how he may work with Jeremy Guthrie and Jeff Francoeur in that role as leader.

It's an interesting discussion about aces, prospects, Twitter reactions, stats vs. scouts and all sorts of baseball topics tied into one transaction.