Archive for June, 2011

The Royals entered 2011 with the game’s best farm system, loaded with hitters, fielders, pitchers both left- and right-handed and many were highly touted by nearly everyone in the game. Then John Lamb – considered by many to be the top pitching prospect in the Royals system – underwent Tommy John surgery.  Mike Montgomery, two years ago the top prospect in the whole system, pitching or otherwise, has struggled in Triple A with a 5.00 ERA over 75.2 innings pitched with a 64 to 46 K/BB ratio. At the big league level, Robinson Tejeda struggled with his velocity and location [...]

To rescue 2011… Yes, it’s still possible. Through several, chain-breaking outcomes, the 2011 fish can still be lured in and pulled out of the sea. This year, the Major League Baseball All Star game will take place in Phoenix, Arizona. Like I say, there are many outcomes that can occur lending hand to a winning season. But by far, the most important outcome will not come at the end of the season. Instead, it comes before the All Star break. The Kansas City Royals need to get back to even before the halfway point. Not only will they enter the [...]

A little house-cleaning before we get started. In honor of Father’s Day the staff at KoK wanted to do something a bit different, and special, for our loyal readers. If you check out the “Contest” tab at the top, or click here, you’ll find a bit of a scavenger hunt for your chance to win a Royals 1985 DVD box set. It’s a pretty cool little prize that takes a minimal amount of effort to win. The deadline to enter is June 19, and the contest has only been up since June 11, so there’s still plenty of time to [...]

This is a good year to be a Royals fan. Sure, we’re 28-36 as I write this post on a Saturday evening, but we have a couple of things to be thankful for this season and by golly, I’m going to write about ‘em. I do this because, let’s be honest, in seasons past the Royals year has typically been decided by the time June rolls around. Sadly enough, we haven’t had a lot to feel good about in previous June months.

The Royalman Report gets the full Kings of Kauffman treatment tonight, as I’ll be joined by our own Jeff Herr to talk about Mike Moustakas, Bubba Starling and the MLB Draft, the “second wave” of The Process and more. You can watch live on the embedded player below or hop over to our livestream page to view. royalmanreport on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free To submit questions or comments, drop us a line on Twitter by following @KingsofKauffman, @RoyalmanReport, @michaelengel, or @TheJeffReport.  You can also leave us a voicemail at 816-394-9578.   Enter our Father’s Day contest for a chance to win [...]

Editor’s note: The deadline to enter this contest was 11:59 pm CST on Sunday June 19.  The deadline has passed, but thank you to all who submitted entries.  Meanwhile, the articles and pages linked in the questions are fantastic reads while you’re here!   Baseball is,traditionally, a game of fathers and sons.  They teach us how to swing, how to throw, how to get in front of the ball, how to get under a pop up.  They coach our little league teams, watch our high school games.  They remind us to keep our back shoulder up, keep our eye on [...]

With this week’s excitement of having the next in a loaded queue of Royals future stars making his big league debut, it’s normal to wonder what else is coming. In baseball, and all sports really, the players and coaches must stay focused on today’s game. We, however, are neither players nor coaches. Today is June 11th. When you flip the page on the schedule, you will see that the 82nd Major League All-Star Game is just 30 days away. While the Royals work on hitting and pitching matchups in Anaheim, I want to take a look at what will happen [...]

There’s little I can say right now since everybody’s attention is focused on the debut of Mike Moustakas tonight in Anaheim. But since they’re on the Pacific Coast, we have to wait longer than usual, so how about some reading to tide you over until the first glimpse of Eric Hosmer and Moustakas in a Kansas City lineup? Obviously, you’ll want to catch up on the week’s proceedings here at Kings of Kauffman: Jeff Herr’s weekly look at the minor leagues is up – Princes of Kauffman Gage Matthews examined our catching situation.  It’s … bleak. Mitch Hall notices others [...]

Your weekly minor league update returns.  It was not a good week for the minor league system.  Kane County has tried to make up some ground, but is still struggling with their young squad.  The Naturals have hit some tough times with little offense and suspect pitching, and Omaha is finally starting to feel the hit of losing some players to the big league club.  Hopefully the younger players in the leagues start to mature and get more consistent so they can move up and get these holes filled on these teams. Here’s how the teams stand: Kane County Cougars [...]

A few weeks ago, I wondered about the impact of events and their symbolism in regards to the progression of the Royals.  Eric Hosmer‘s call-up generated national attention as the first big name prospect from the vaunted Royals system.  That was on another Thursday afternoon following an afternoon game. After Thursday’s win, Kansas City announced that Mike Moustakas would be joining Hosmer in the majors. It’s fitting that during the same week of the MLB draft, Dayton’s Moore’s first draft pick is brought into the big leagues.  Mike Aviles, struggling for most of the season with the exception of a [...]

The catching situation of the Royals has been a major source of debate in the past couple years. With the absence of John Buck and Miguel Olivo, the dynamic duo for several years, the door was open for newcomers. There were lots of theories about what might happen, but in the end the Royals ended up with a two-year contract for gritty veteran Jason Kendall. Brayan Pena was allowed to play every twenty games or so at the start of 2010. And that was that. No one really liked it, but there wasn’t much we could do. Well, we know [...]

So the ruckus is over.  After four pitchers came off the board and Anthony Rendon slipped through, the Royals had options in place. And assuming you’ve read Ryan Wood’s live blog of the first round of selections, you know that the Royals took Derek “Bubba” Starling from Gardner, Kansas. With a strong top six among most draft rankings, the Royals were assured to have someone of quality available with their fifth overall selection.  There was concern that they might do something a bit too creative, but instead they went with the best player on the board.  And Bubba was the [...]