This week the Kansas City Baseball Vault welcomed back Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star who talked about the Royals and their response to pressure after reaching (and falling out of) first place.

He discussed the offensive struggles of Eric Hosmer and how he should be moved down, as well as the Royals front office's approach to praise and criticism. Mellinger also talked about his newest project, "The Art of Scouting", a book by he and Art Stewart, Royals Hall of Famer and longtime scout. That book is due out in July.

After Sam went to go cover the game, Jeff and Mike talked about Hosmer some more and some of the factors that might have Ned Yost keeping him in the #3 spot. They also talked about lineup construction and its importance (or perhaps lack thereof) and looked at some alternative batting orders.

Be sure to stop by Kelly's Westport Inn if you're in the KC area, and if you're looking to find great baseball stats in one place, Baseball-Reference.com and the Baseball-Reference Play Index are the best places to go. Toss in "Royals" as your promo code to $6 save off the yearly subscription price.

Submit any interesting Royals stat finds to [email protected] for a chance to win a copy of the Art Stewart book or a copy of Willie Aikens' "Safe at Home".