Apr 1, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher James Shields (33) delivers a pitch during the second inning against the Chicago White Sox at US Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

A 2-2 changeup to catcher Tyler Flowers stayed up in the zone and he drilled it to left field for a homer and the game’s only run in the fifth inning. Other than the mistake, Shields was as advertised, scattering eight hits over six innings and striking out six. The White Sox only had a few hard hit balls – the Flowers homer, of course, and an Alex Rios single later in the inning – getting a few bloops to fall in after fighting off inside pitches.

He mixed his pitches well and had good movement on his two seam fastball all day. Shields could have been more efficienct, but gave the Royals what they were looking for from the leader of their pitching staff. He threw 102 pitches with 66 going for strikes.

His counterpart, Chris Sale, was excellent and kept the Royals from making solid contact most of the day while striking out seven and walking just one. The hardest hit ball came off the bat of Salvador Perez in the second inning on a first pitch fastball, driving it to the wall for a long single. Sale used his changeup and breaking pitches to dominate the Royals and in key moments.

The Royals had the bases loaded in the third inning after Jeff Francoeur singled, Alex Gordon walked and Alcides Escobar reached on an infield single. Sale started Butler off with a slider for a swing and miss, got a changeup over for a called strike, then after a slider missed, went with another and got the swinging strike out. Mike Moustakas popped out to the second baseman in shallow right field to end the threat.

Apr 1, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Chris Sale (49) delivers a pitch in the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at US Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

Another blown opportunity came in the seventh when Eric Hosmer led off with a single off Sale and Lorenzo Cain shot a line drive up the middle. Gordon Beckham made a great diving play on the ball, though, and what should have been a single was an out. Francoeur grounded into a double play three pitches later. In the following inning, Escobar got a hit into shallow left center with two outs and chased Sale out of the game. Nate Jones came in and gave up a walk to Butler, allowing Escobar to steal second and go to third on a wild pitch in the process. With Moustakas up, the White Sox went with lefty Matt Thornton and he overwhelmed Moose on three strikes, getting him swinging on a high fastball to end the inning.

The last chance Kansas City had came against Addison Reed. Hosmer walked after Perez grounded out leading off, then stole a base as Cain struck out, but was left standing on second as Francoeur offered at the first pitch slider from Reed and grounded out to shortstop.

Reed threw 15 pitches, six of which were sliders. Perez grounded out chasing one that was going to be low, Hosmer and Cain took two each as balls and the final slider was looking like a borderline strike. He probably could have waited on a better pitch since Reed had yet to locate a slider in the zone.

Aaron Crow and Kelvin Herrera both threw a scoreless inning each. Crow was erratic, but kept his pitches in control enough to retire all three batters. Herrera walked Rios on four pitches, but sandwiched a Paul Konerko flyout between Adam Dunn and Dayan Viciedo strikeouts to get through the inning.

Escobar and Francoeur had two hits each. Butler and Hosmer both had a single and a walk. The Royals stranded seven baserunners. they ran into a very good pitcher and the conditions were as different from the Cactus League as you could find, with a gametime temperature of 44 degrees with wind. Add in some shadows (though Sale would have been good, shadows or not) and it was a low-scoring environment.

After the annoying day off after opening day, the Royals will send Ervin Santana to the mound on Wednesday against Jake Peavy at 1:10 p.m. CST.

Kings of Kauffman – How do you explain the White Sox struggles at home against the Royals at home but being successful largely in Kansas City?

Matt Adams– Mostly chance. This team, as is the case with most, go through hot and cold streaks.  It just so happens that some poor games have been strung together against the Royals.  It would be nice to have some extra consistency against a less experienced team but the White Sox haven’t exactly been able to turn that into an advantage.

Jeremy Guthrie will face the White Sox for the second time in just over a week on Sunday at the K. Photo Credit: Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE

KOK – What is the team’s plan for Chris Sale at this point of the season? 

MA – The idea at this point is to keep him fresh through the year so that he’ll be primed for a playoff run.  It’s tricky with a guy who hasn’t even approached this sort of workload before.  You want to protect him but at the same time you don’t want to miss out on the value that he provides.  Sale is arguably this team’s ace, and you feel much better about winning games when your ace is on the mound.

KOK – On a scale to 1-10 how surprised are White Sox fans with Robin Ventura at this point?

MA – I’d put it at maybe a 2.  Nobody knew what to expect out of Robin before the season started so there isn’t much to be surprised about.  Everybody is psyched about the job he’s done.  The team is in first and the players appear to be pretty relaxed out there.  There are some gripes about his x’s and o’s here and there but overall he’s got the fans feeling good.  A manager doesn’t really need to change his style for fan opinion of him to change.  All that has to shift is the team’s record and the fan opinion will go along with it.

KOK – What’s happened in the brief time since these two teams met last week at the Cell?

MA – Since last we met there was a bit of a moral victory to accompany some big wins.  The White Sox had been notoriously bad playing in the Rogers Center and managed 3 of 4 there.  Again, likely it was just a timing thing along but feels good to not have that hanging over the team.  Paul Konerko has missed the entire week after hitting the 7-day DL from a concussion inadvertently delivered by Jarrod Dyson.  He’s available for the series for the first time since the two teams last played.

For the other side of the conversation check out Southside Showdown

Probable Starters this weekend –

Friday 7:10 pm, Chris Sale (14-3, 2.60) v. Luis Mendoza (6-8, 4.37)

Saturday 6:10 pm, Jake Peavy (9-8, 3.04) v. Bruce Chen (8-10, 5.56)

Sunday 1:10 pm, Jose Quintana (5-2, 2.77) v. Jeremy Guthrie (5-12, 5.75)

How big of an impact has the loss of Mark Buehrle had on the team and rotation?

I really wish I could have answered that a week or so ago so that I could say “none.” Unfortunately now that Chris Sale is no longer in the rotation I think it would be silly to say that there is no effect. Buehrle was a solid pitcher and an innings eater, however he gets romanticized a great deal due to some stand-out performances, the length of his tenure, and his presence for the 2005 run. The 5 guys that we have been running out for the first month of the season did a great job of making his departure a non-issue. As we sit now, a starter short, it’s up to someone like Eric Stults, or maybe in time even Nestor Molina to round out the rotation and not make us miss Mark Buehrle. In any event, I don’t think losing Buehrle is that big of a deal.

I consider him one of the best shortstops around but what’s eating Alexei Ramirez?

I’ll tell you what’s not eating Alexei Ramirez are any ground balls, which is what makes him one of the best shortstops out there and lets the team live with his plate struggles. Alexei is a notoriously slow starter, which we’ve all lazily attributed to him being a Cuban playing in a cold weather city. This season it hasn’t been so cold even though his start at the plate has been. I’m not sure what’s causing him to slump but my admittedly non-scout like eyes don’t notice anything in particular that leads me to believe that he will continue to struggle. He’s hit some balls very hard and has even been going the other way from time to time. He’s not going to get on via walk a whole lot and that will really put a spotlight on a player’s struggles since there is no on-base presence to offset all those slow walks back to the dugout.

Third base has been a game of musical chairs since Joe Crede left Chicago. Is Brent Morel the answer, or, if not, who is?

I really wish he was…and still have a little hope. Brent is the first defensive third baseman the Sox have had since Crede, but his performance at the plate has been less than inspiring. Crede is another guy that has an extreme following not quite reflective of his on-field skill (I’m no exception to this), but at some point you have to lower your expectations for what a 3B is going to be able to do for you. Right now, I’m in the mindset of appreciating that it’s not Mark Teahen. My apologies to you Royals folks, I know he was well liked there but he brought much more frustration than joy here in Chicago.

The closer position has been rotating as well. Hector Santiago has struggled and Chris Sale has undergone an MRI. What are the results of that exam and is this going to turn back into Matt Thornton‘s role in the meantime?

Santiago was an odd choice to begin with, but I’m into watching things be approached differently and was glad not to hear the “proven closer” refrain. If Sale has to remain in the bullpen, I think the idea is to let him close. Should he have to get shelved for a bit or even be able to move back into the rotation it’s more likely that Addison Reed get a shot at closing. Matt Thornton doesn’t have the same velocity that he once did when he was sealing up 8th innings for the Sox and without any sort of pitch assortment it turns into sped up batting practice for the opposition pretty quickly when he’s on the mound. A situational assortment of closers is not beyond the realm of possibility. Without any high profile closing types with agents demanding their players get the saves that translate into dollars, Ventura has a little more freedom in that regard.

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Fans and writers tend to agree on the potential of success for players like Wil Myers or Mike Montgomery and usually there isn’t much disparity of opinion about other first round picks like Aaron Crow or Mike Moustakas. There are differences in the degree of success expected, sure, but Colon, 2009′s first round pick and fourth overall, has supporters who think he’ll be a good major leaguer and those who think that he isn’t anything special.

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The Royalman Report, LIVE Sundays at 7 pm CST

There was quite a bit to discuss this week on the Royalman Report, and to help us cover everything, we welcomed Clint Scoles of Pinetar Press back as our guest in the third segment.

Clint had been down in Arizona observing Royals prospects in the instructional league as well as Arizona Fall League play. We discussed Christian Colon, Wil Myers, Yem Prades, Bubba Starling and more.

We also touched on a discussion about how much a player’s character might matter in scouting and drafting, as well as how age might play into such a discussion. We also talked about Johnny Giavotella‘s hip surgery and what it means down the line, what if the Royals made the World Series, what kind of moves might go on in Major League Baseball – in short, we talked about a little bit of everything.

Also there was a new Fake Ned Minute as well as an appearance by iPhone’s Siri. Sort of.

Next week, we have a special guest as Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, will join us to discuss the approaching celebration of Buck O’Neil’s 100th birthday.

Click the embedded player below to listen to this week’s show or you can download the mp3.

If you want your business featured during breaks on the Royalman Report, contact us at 816-394-9578 or email royalmanreport@gmail.com.  

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If you’re the type that prefers to see the in-studio video stream…check it out below:

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Some scouting reports project he’ll stay at shortstop, some say his limited range will force him to move to second base.  He’ll jump above Jeff Bianchi and Rey Navarro once he signs to be the top shortstop prospect in the Royals system.

I’ll have more tomorrow on Colon, and if you were taking part in the Fansided MLB Draft chat this evening, you will know that Wally will definitely want to chime in on this pick.  (I hear he already bought the Pepto Bismol)

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.

The chat starts at 5:15 pm CST as we get ready for the first picks to come in.  Check in and you can join myself and other Fansided columnists as we discuss the picks.

As for the Royals, more and more noise is coming in that they’re leaning towards LHP Chris Sale over catcher Yasmani Grandal.  Those early reports of an agreement seem to have been smoke and mirrors as Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo have Grandal slipping all the way down to the end of the first round.

In other news, drafts are awesome.

The MLB Draft officially starts at 6:00 pm CST.

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.

Now it is Monday morning and it turns out that someone in the media reported rumor as fact. There is no deal done with Grandal.  As it turns out, industry experts don’t even believe that Grandal is the Royals preferred choice assuming Harper, Machado, and Taillon are off the board when they pick.

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Check in at CallToThePen.com about 3:15 pm CST for the link to the chat room. Then, starting at 5:15 pm CST, join myself, our MLB Director Wally Fish, and other columnists from the Fansided MLB Network to discuss the picks as they come in. The draft starts at 6:00 pm CST.

As Royals fans, you may want to pop in early to be sure to catch our pick at #4 overall. Reports have pointed to KC taking University of Miami catcher Yasmani Grandal, though nothing’s official until it’s announced. Others who may be selected are Manny Machado and Jameson Taillon (if they happen to slip), Drew Pomeranz and Chris Sale.

We’ll see tomorrow. Thankfully, though, with the presence of Mike Moustakas, Michael Montgomery, Eric Hosmer, John Lamb and others, whoever the Royals take this year won’t be the top prospect by default. Considering the strength of this year’s first-round options, that’s a good sign for the Royals farm system.

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.