Kansas City Baseball Vault

With a week before opening day, we looked at the few remaining questions about the Royals roster.
Danny Duffy was optioned to Omaha to work as a starter after a brief bullpen tryout didn't work out. Speaking of the bullpen, can they be as effective as they were in 2013? Can Greg Holland repeat his All-Star campaign?
And what about the middle infield? Alcides Escobar and Omar Infante have both been injured at different stages of spring training and have yet to get familiar with each other. Who might fill in if Infante starts the year on the DL?
After mulling over those questions, we talked about past years when success led to increased expectations and if this year's team will fall into the same disappointing pattern. We also offered up a couple of bold predictions for 2014.

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Clint Scoles interviews with a number of different Royals from Spring Training. Interviews include Eric Hosmer, Danny Duffy, Mike Moustakas, Billy Butler, Jason Adam and more.

We were glad to talk to a recurring guest on the Vault this week.

Bob Kendrick is the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and a huge part of the baseball community in Kansas City. We had him join us to share some stories and tell us about the upcoming events at the museum including a visit by Olympian Jackie Joyner Kersee, the Curt Flood Symposium, the Hall of Game inductions, and Dressed to the Nines Day at Kauffman Stadium.

Follow Bob at @nlbmprez on Twitter or visit NLBM.com for more information about the Negro Leagues Museum in the historic 18th and Vine District.

David and Clint were lucky enough to interview two of the most intelligent Royals media personalities around. With Rany the roster breakdown, Santana offseason and last man on the bench options were discussed. The conversation turned to the ownership's commitment, whether Ned Yost is the right man for the job and GMDM performance. Clint and David also discussed David's trip to Arizona and what he saw there.

We had a lot to cover this week and jumped right into talking about the first cuts of camp, including sending John Lamb, Chris Dwyer, Kyle Zimmer, and others to minor league camp. None of the cuts were that surprising, but some - like Dwyer and perhaps Zimmer - may end up in the majors sooner than later.

That led us to dreaming a bit on the pitching prospects in this wave. Buoyed by impressive scouting reports on Sean Manaea, and a strong start for Yordano Ventura, we tried to project a Royals rotation for next year and beyond.

Then Troy talked about his trip to Surprise and what he saw from Lane Adams, Jason Adam, and Lorenzo Cain.

We shifted gears to talk about Luke Hochevar's UCL tear and resulting decision to undergo Tommy John surgery. As a result of losing Hochevar, Wade Davis shifts to the bullpen, and we talked about his viability there. Speaking of the bullpen, we talked about the strange hate for Kelvin Herrera by a chunk of Royals fans, Kansas City fandom, and David Glass - all the good KC topics.

Lo and behold, way back in the days of radio serial dramas, they foresaw the Ervin Santana contract drama. It seems every week there's been a new development. Every week, we're left waiting to tune in to see if there's been any resolution.

Enjoy this experimental micro-podcast.

Finally - spring training games are underway, and while there's not a lot of information to go through yet, storylines are starting up.

Jeff and Mike talked about some of the hitters, the roster construction, and what Danny Duffy and Yordano Ventura's performances mean (so far).

Then we talked about the new play-tracking system that MLB Advanced Media announced. This is a revolutionary system that can track player movements all across the diamond and opens things up to a wide array of new analysis and applications. Links detailing these systems are below.

Finally, we wrapped up celebrating the likely end of Friends In Low Places as the Royals home sixth inning song. Sorry Garth.

Jeffrey Flanagan informs the Pine Tar Podcast about what the Royals think of Billy Butler, who could win the 5th Starter job and how the Royals could finish in the AL Central. Also plenty of talk about Danny Duffy, Omar Infante, Alcides Escobar, Yordano Ventura and others.

The Royals are finally hitting the field and after Monday's intrasquad game there was a little bit of information to process.

But before we got into that, we talked about the potential problem facing the Royals if Ervin Santana doesn't sign with another team. He's reportedly willing to hold out until after the draft to sign - which would mean the Royals wouldn't get a compensation pick for him. We discussed the implications for the Royals and for MLB and what might be down the line for the next CBA.

Back to the intrasquad game. Nobody was terribly worried about any of the performances, nor was anyone raving about anybody's results. Some buzz is developing about Carlos Peguero, so we discussed his status and potential. We also talked about Yordano Ventura "laboring" (as 610's Josh Vernier described it).

And then we brought in Kevin Scobee (@scobes15) to talk about the Royals pitching development in light of their plans for Kyle Zimmer's 2014 workload, Ventura's offseason, and prospect Sean Manaea.

We finished up dissecting some of the factors Jeffrey Flanagan stated would put the Royals into the playoffs.
Bonus: March is coming, and it's one of the best months for, well, anything. The weather starts to change, there's March Madness (and other events), and baseball gets going. So we talked a bit about college hoops and fan expectations. And finished up with some nonsense because we wanted to make sure you knew it was really us.
Bonus: March is coming, and it's one of the best months for, well, anything. The weather starts to change, there's March Madness (and other events), and baseball gets going. So we talked a bit about college hoops and fan expectations. And finished up with some nonsense because we wanted to make sure you knew it was really us.

Pitchers and catchers have reported. Full workouts start Wednesday, and now it's just a waiting game. All is mostly quiet on the Royals front, but they did pick up Jimmy Paredes.

So, okay, that's not big breaking news, but the agreement between Ubaldo Jimenez and Baltimore is a big deal, and we looked at how that deal (4 years, $50 million) stacks up with other free agent starting pitcher deals and what it means for Ervin Santana, who still doesn't have a team. We also looked at what these deals could mean for James Shields and considered how likely an extension might be.

Then we brought in a returning guest. Nearly a year ago, we talked to Anthony Seratelli about his trip to professional baseball and his efforts to get into the big leagues. This winter, the Royals let him go and he's with the Mets now, but we wanted to check on him and see what the adjustment to a new organization is like, how the transition was, and how his approach is going to be this spring as he tries to break into the big leagues after seven years in the Royals minor league system. Follow Seratelli on Twitter at @ars1productions. Remember there is still time to watch and thumbs up Troy's audition video for the MLB Fan Cave at www.VoteRoyalman.com. Thank you!