Royals Roundup: Rewind Yourself

I figure it’s my turn to weigh in on the Jason Kendall incident on 610 AM.

Do I think it was out of line by Kendall? Yes, I do.  Do I think Nick Wright was asking a dumb question? No, I do not.  Do I think Mike Moustakas can handle himself with the big bad media? You bet.  If Jason Kendall needs to play protector, or feels he needs to, I can’t stop him from doing so.

But bad form.

He did provide a fantastic line that will be hashtagged on Twitter over and over this year: Rewind Yourself.

That’s all I’ll say about that issue, because there was a lot of stuff going on in the world of the Royals today (and this week):

-The Royals held an intrasquad game today that featured home runs by Jeff Francoeur (off lefty Bruce Chen), Kila Ka’aihue (off Luis Mendoza ) and Eric Hosmer (off Chris Dwyer and to left-center).  Jarrod Dyson did some damage on the basepaths, stealing a couple bases and many young pitchers looked good in action.

Most interesting to me were the lineups for the game.  Sure, it’s barely a glorified scrimmage, but maybe there’s an early hint to how things may shape up in the future?

Maybe it’s looking too hard for something based on one very early spring game, but Dyson and Blanco, traditionally center fielders, took a back seat to Lorenzo Cain and (ominous music) Melky Cabrera.  My knee jerk reaction is the worst case scenario, that Cain starts in Triple A and Melky is our opening day center fielder.  Chris Getz is going to be forcefed to us early on, too, I fear.

Or maybe they’re just messing with different configurations.  There’s another game on Friday, so we can glean some information from that too.

-A note coming from Dick Kaegel at royals.com says that there’s a more than solid chance Eric Hosmer starts the year in Triple A.  That seems a bit faster than what I’d expected.   I have no doubt that he’s ready for Triple A after carving up the Carolina and Texas Leagues last season, but unless they intend on holding him back for service clock purposes (and inspiring another Kendall rant?), that could put him in the big leagues this year.

-If you’re in an area that either hosts the Royals minor league affiliates or gets regular visits from them, you’ll definitely want to check out Clint Scoles’s newest project at 14 for 77.  I think it’s an excellent idea – Minor League Fan Scouting Report Cards.  I see it as a way to use the wisdom of crowds to formulate informal scouting reports on players and would be a fine asset down the line once enough data came through.

The fun part is that we can check things out at the end of the year and see how the players compared to our collected ratings.

-I have a well-dusted history degree, so I greatly appreciate the work Aaron Stilley does both on his own site and at I-70 Baseball where he’s looking back at old Municipal Stadium, where the Royals played for four seasons before Royals/Kauffman Stadium was built.

–Joakim Soria is popping up in the human interest echo chamber that is the early part of spring training, and Josh Duggan made a spot-on comparison that draws eerie parallels between Soria and Brother Mouzone from HBO’s The Wire.

Usually, I think forcing those kinds of comparisons is really difficult because either a show’s character is thinly drawn or presented with too many layers to fit in with how a player does in the one inning or two starts a week or whatever sliver of playing time they get.  Following them closely, we know generally the type of composure Royals players have and how they approach the game and stats tell us how effectively they apply their talent and effort.

That being the case, the Mouzone comparison is apt for two reasons – first, it’s just as precise and calculated as the character (and pitcher), secondly, it fits the no-nonsense style of both individuals.  I’m curious who ends up being Omar Little.  And I’m lobbying for Jeff Francoeur as D’Angelo Barksdale (maybe he’s a leader, but he’s not very good at everything else).

You can stay current on all the Kings of Kauffman content and news by following us on Twitter, Facebook, or by way of our RSS feed.