Kelly's Westport Inn presents the Kansas City Baseball Vault:

Your hosts Jeff Herr and Michael Engel discussed the last week of Royals baseball and the rebound after a miserable series in Minnesota.

While Kansas City is scoring more, they're still showing disturbing splits on batted balls, and many key players have hit far more groundballs than is ideal. Of course, the Royals are notorious for having the lowest franchise home run record in the majors, so that fact led to a discussion about why.

Sure, the stadium is large, but what about the players? Other teams haven't had issues finding players to hit 40 or more in similarly large stadiums. Jeff focused more on the talent on the team; Michael saw a mix between personnel and surroundings.

In the second segment, the two played a name game regarding James Shields. Is James Shields an Ace? He's certainly a great starting pitcher, but an Ace? How do you define an Ace? Would you take Shields over Felix Hernandez? Jon Lester? Max Scherzer?

Finally, they wrapped up talking about the bullpen, specifically Danny Duffy, and what his success means going forward.

Reach the Vault by email at [email protected].
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