Kansas City Baseball Vault

The powers that be decided to let Jeff "airquotes" Herr run the show this week and he put together a doozy. After opening with the end of the Royals losing streak and how bad it actually got. In our second segment, we were joined by Alan Jaeger of Jaeger Sports. Alan is an expert in pitching mechanics and trains the "long toss" program. We spoke with him about the pros and cons of Minor Leaguers using long toss and how that training program is sometimes squelched by Major League clubs. We examine those issues in great detail. Then, in our third segment Jeff has some very strong opinions on how the Royals handle their pitching. Finally, we let the cat out of the bag on what our "Big" announcement is. This is an exclusive to our great listeners so you'll hear it here first. We really appreciate the support and look forward to you hearing us (maybe in some other places?) in the future.

The Royals' losing streak hit ten games and the Royalman Report went into therapy mode. We spent some time discussing the streak, but then we focused on the silver linings and we were able to find a few. Mixed in we had Jeff laying on our "therapy couch", we had talks of naked batting practice, Cool Runnings and Kelly's Westport Ben. This streak has been rough on all of us, but hopefully this episode will be a nice distraction until our next win.

We spent the morning of Royals Opening Day dodging raindrops and podcasting from an undisclosed location that may or may not have been near or in the Truman Sports Complex. We spent 90 minutes at a wonderful tailgate in anticipation of what would be a beatdown of Luke Hochevar and the Royals. However, before that happened, we talked with hosts Troy Olsen @kcroyalman, Michael Engel @michaelengel and Chris Kamler @thefakened about Opening Day memories, favorite tailgates and booze. We were joined by Chris Luhning, Justin, the Guys from Shattered City Entertainment and some guy named DJ Bob. Catch the Royalman Report every Sunday night (when we're not live on location) at royalmanreport.com

The bunting was out for the Royals 2012 Opening Day, only the fourth being held by Major League Baseball this week. But the Royalman Report checked the schedules and confirmed the day. We broadcast live from our great sponsor, Kelly's Westport Inn for an Opening Day pre-game show. The "B" team of Chris Kamler and Jeff Herr let things off with our predictions for the upcoming season. Then we took it around the room to many of our favorite listeners (and even Mrs. Fake Ned). Listen closely, as you'll even hear a cameo from KC Royalman himself! Spring is no more. This is OUR TIME now!

We were pleased to feature a trio of local sports commentators on the latest Royalman Report.

Curtis Kitchen covers a bit of everything at CurtisKitchen.com but primarily focuses on the Big XII and Kansas State sports. He also works with 610 sports. He joined us to discuss the Frank Martin escape from Manhattan and the state of KSU basketball.

We then jumped into Royals baseball with Nate Bukaty, who you’ll recognize from his reporting during the Royals pregame and postgame shows. We covered a bit of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game beforehand but then got to talking about the starting rotation, particularly Luis Mendoza‘s potential to continue the success he had last season in Omaha.

Finally we were joined by Robert Ford, who handles the pregame and postgame shows for 610 sports. A key topic was the Yuniesky Betancourt/Chris Getz/Johnny Giavotella second base drama.

We finished up with the usual crew talking about the Alex Gordon contract extension.

It was great to have the trio on the show.

A programming note: We don’t have a show scheduled for Sunday night as usual but will be out at Kelly’s Westport Inn on opening day April 6 for a tweet up among Royals fans, Kings of Kauffman readers and Royalman Report listeners. Anyone (21+) in the KC area can hang out and talk some Royals baseball before the Royals take on the Angels, then stay and watch as the season finally gets underway.

Join us LIVE Friday 7pm at Kelly's for the RMR and OPENING DAY for the Royals! Game on with sound at the bar.

The Royalmen celebrated the First "podiversary" of the Royalman Report. What once started as two Royals fans trying to organize their thoughts has now turned into this... The best podcast in Kansas City. To celebrate, we recorded live from Kelly's Westport Inn and were joined by dozens of our closest friends in our biggest tweetup yet. During this episode, you'll hear about tattoos, the burning of Peyton Manning, the Royals closer situation as well as Fat Billy Joel. You'll hear young Zachary, a Royals fan since 1990 talk about the 5 years he spent in the womb. You'll hear from young Michelle, flip cup "dominator". We also talked to some more knowledgable people in the form of Curtis Kitchen and Dave Darby. And then we balanced that with talking with Jenny and Lance Otto and Laurie "Moose Knuckle" Kunkle. It was a tremendous afternoon and helped accent a great year. Thank you for continuing to listen and help make us the number 1 podcast in Kansas City.

We weren't in the Man Cave, but we still got it together to have a full discussion on the Royalman Report.

It was a busy week for the Royals and we covered the Salvador Perez injury and his potential replacements after surgery. Alcides Escobar signed an extension and we covered the importance and the symbolic gesture behind it. We dug into the pitching staff, particularly the final two starting spots, the enigma that is Luis Mendoza and the overstocked bullpen.

We even tossed in a bit of Chiefs free agency talk.

Along with the discussion there are two interviews within this episode. First we talked with Jeff Montgomery about the coming season and other aspects of Royals broadcast team. After that, Michael Engel interviewed John Dewan, the author of The Fielding Bible and owner of Baseball Info Solutions. He offered insight into the methodology and significance of detailed defensive statistics.

Join us on March 24th as we have a full day of events scheduled at Kelly's Westport Inn. From 2-6 pm we'll hold a fantasy draft with a group of listeners. After that we'll have a remote broadcast and from there we'll help host the @TweetupKC crowd. More details about the event can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/events/232681986827462/

With Senior Editor Michael Engel out on assignment this week, the Royalmen were joined by Justin Ivey of The French Quarter fan club. The men were educated for the majority of the hour by Jason Parks (@ProfessorParks) from Baseball Prospectus and the Up and In Podcast. We talked with Jason about his impressions of Royals Spring Training, who he saw that was "awful" and who impressed him. We also talked Jeff Francouer, Yuniesky Bettancourt and his flagrant man-love for Eric Hosmer. Make plans to join the Royalmen on March 24 at Kelly's for an afternoon and evening of baseball, basketball and booze as we will be doing a live show around 6:00 and then enjoy a March Madness tweetup. Plus, this gives us a chance to have everyone come out to visit our incredible sponsor, Kelly's Westport Inn. It's the place where you buy beer!

On the day before the first Royals spring training game, we gathered on a Saturday night for an episode of the Royalman Report where we discussed the Royals camp news to that point, the addition of Bruce Chen (@ChenMusic) and Willie Aikens (@WAikens) to Twitter and some of the best tweets from Royals players this spring. We also talked at length about Salvador Perez, his extension, and his potential on the team now and going into the future.

We also got minor league pitcher Brooks Pounders on the line and asked him about his experience of being traded, the differences in approach between the Pirates and Royals, and his training with Alan Jaeger and long-toss regimen. Of course we had to talk about the relationships and friendships between players in camp and the enthusiasm that seems to be carrying from the big league team all the way to the lower levels of the minors. And the name - Fake Ned wouldn't let him go without asking him about the name.

A random meeting in the Kauffman Stadium Team Store led Troy "Royalman" Olsen to meet Royals Assistant General Manager J.J. Picollo. After a brief conversation, J.J. agreed to join us on the Royalman Report and this is the result.

Picollo discussed the things the Royals are looking at in Surprise during spring training, who he expects to bounce back, and who the Royals hope to see big breakouts from. The team's thoughts behind the Yuniesky Betancourt signing and reflections on negotiations with Roy Oswalt and Edwin Jackson were also addressed. He also discussed the impact of the new CBA on the Royals draft strategies going into 2012.

We also checked in with Joel Goldberg about what the players are doing down in Arizona. He gave us his insight into what the players are doing, the internal competitions and keeping spring training from getting boring (especially when it's all drills early on). He also talked about how some of the pitchers looked and who might sneak into the rotation.

This week's Fake Ned Minute is a little blue, so we'll call it not safe for work, but he redeemed himself by producing a fantastic bit with Mike McCartney that takes off of a famous scene from a famous baseball movie. Definitely look for that after the Goldberg segment. Fake Ned also paid off a lost bet.