Daily Clips
March 24, 2017
LOCAL
Mondesi making tight battle a four-player race
Yost expects competition at second to go right down to wire
March 23, 2017 By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/220578704/raul-mondesi-in-mix-for-royals-second-base-job/
Throwing 100-plus mph, Royals prospect Josh Staumont crackles with potential
March 23, 2017 By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article140442513.html
After WBC, Pedro Martinez says Eric Hosmer is going to get a huge contract
March 23, 2017 By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article140369788.html
Royals’ Eric Hosmer paid tribute to Yordano Ventura at World Baseball Classic
March 23, 2017 By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article140284023.html
Royals’ Hosmer is a world champion again — this time the WBC
March 23, 2017 FOXSportsKC.com (via AP)
http://www.foxsports.com/kansas-city/story/kansas-city-royals-eric-hosmer-is-a-world-champion-again-this-time-the-wbc-032317
NATIONAL
Royals 2017 preview: How will Kansas City move on from death of Yordano Ventura?
March 23, 2017 By Joe Rodgers/Sporting News
http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/news/kansas-city-royals-2017-schedule-opening-day-roster-lineup-yordano-ventura-fantasy-baseball-odds/1h9uqpvmnls8jzc7lkk1nclld
MLB TRANSACTIONS
March 24, 2017 •.CBSSports.com
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/transactions
LOCAL
Mondesi making tight battle a four-player race
Yost expects competition at second to go right down to wire
March 23, 2017 By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/220578704/raul-mondesi-in-mix-for-royals-second-base-job/
The only position battle in Royals camp has been quite intense this spring.
When camp opened in mid-February, the general thinking was that Christian Colon and Whit Merrifield would battle for the starting second-base job, with third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert a long-shot candidate because he was learning a new position.
Then 21-year-old Raul Mondesi, who spent two months with the Royals last season, bulldozed his way into the conversation by mashing the ball in just about every game he played early on.
Kansas City already knew about Mondesi's elite defensive skills. And the club knew about his breathtaking athleticism. But the Royals were wowed by what they saw at the plate this spring.
"He obviously struggled offensively in the big leagues last season," manager Ned Yost said. "But he's been a different player this spring. He's more confident. You see his personality coming out. And you see what he's capable of at the plate."
Mondesi is hitting .385 with two doubles and two home runs. And three bunt singles.
After relatively slow offensive starts, Colon (.279) and Merrifield (.298) have picked up the pace at the plate as well. But they haven't shown as much as Mondesi. Even Merrifield has taken notice.
"You can't help but see the talent," Merrifield said of Mondesi.
But the problem for Kansas City is roster construction. The one thing that is certain is that it will not be able to keep all four -- Mondesi, Merrifield, Colon and Cuthbert -- on the 25-man roster.
And Colon and Cuthbert are out of options. So keeping Mondesi would require the Royals to make one of two moves: Either send Merrifield, who has options, to Triple-A Omaha to start the season, or deal Colon or Cuthbert to make room.
Neither alternative would seem ideal. Even if Merrifield doesn't win the second-base job, his versatility as a super utility man is a manager's dream. And Merrifield's speed and bunting/hit-and-run abilities are valuable weapons for Yost as well.
Dealing Cuthbert also wouldn't be ideal because Kansas City would like to ease Mike Moustakas back into a full-time third-base role. Moustakas is coming off ACL surgery last May. Yes, Colon or Merrifield could fill in at third base, but not at the defensive level Cuthbert would.
Colon is a former first-round Draft pick who showed up in camp in his best shape as a Royal, and he has shown much more athleticism than in the past, taking extra bases while also improving his defensive range.
Still, if Mondesi continues to impress, the Royals may be left with no other choice but to make one of those hard calls as camp draws to a close. Kansas City talks often about being in a win-now mode, and the club wants to leave camp with its best 25 players.
Then again, the Royals also want to assure that Mondesi's development continues.
"Whatever happens," Yost said, "we want Mondi playing every day. That's important to his development.
"But it's a decision that is going to come down to the end. We've got a week left. It's close."
Throwing 100-plus mph, Royals prospect Josh Staumont crackles with potential
March 23, 2017 By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article140442513.html
On a quiet spring morning last year, Jeff Montgomery slipped into a blue practice jersey, pulled on a pair of white pants and made his way out to the back fields at the Royals’ spring training complex.
Montgomery, a Royals Hall of Famer and the franchise’s career saves leader, had come to camp to take part in the club’s alumni instructor program at minor-league spring training, an annual week where former Royals don uniforms and mingle with the team’s prospects. So it was, on this sun-baked morning, that Montgomery found himself here at the base of the Art Stewart Tower, an observation deck that overlooks a cloverleaf of fields, kibitzing with a group of young pitchers.
It was there, Montgomery says, that he first heard the sound. The way Montgomery remembers it, he was introducing himself to another young pitcher when the first baseball flashed across the corner of his eye. A thunderous pop came next.
Montgomery swung his body around to get a better look, and for the next six months, he couldn’t stop thinking about what he saw. He would tell friends the story. He would rave about the discovery. It was that impressive.
There, on a narrow strip of mounds, squeezed between two back fields, Montgomery could see the future: A 22-year-old with a head of blond hair and a right arm that crackled in the morning air.
The kid’s name: Josh Staumont. Montgomery needed to learn more.
“There was something different,” he says, “about the way the ball was coming out of his hand.”
In that moment, as Montgomery turned back to another minor-leaguer, he knew nothing about the mystery kid. He didn’t know that Staumont, a second-round pick in 2015, was entering his first full season in the Royals’ system, or that just one season later, he would be the top prospect in the organization, according to Baseball America. He didn’t know that the kid had once thrown a baseball 102 mph in college; or that control problems had hampered his draft stock; or that when he was a senior in high school, professional baseball seemed like such an audacious career move that the little-recruited Staumont settled on playing baseball at a small NAIA school just a few miles from his home in La Habra, Calif.
Heck, on that day, Montgomery didn’t even know the correct pronunciation of the pitcher’s name (it’s Staw-mont). But after 13 years in the big leagues, and a stint as a Royals broadcaster, and a lifetime in baseball, he had witnessed this gift before. The fluidity of the arm. The baseball exploding out of the hand.
That whirring sound, like a missile approaching a target.
“I tell people this,” Montgomery says. “There are certain guys. I remember Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. Certain guys like that. When they get on the mound, and they throw a baseball, you don’t need a radar gun.”
It’s easy to pass this off as spring-training puffery, some romantic baseball tale about a young pitcher who has yet to find himself associated with the best prospects in the game. But this is also true: Staumont, now 23, has the tools and profile that make baseball men dream.
At 6 feet 3 and 200 pounds, he possesses an optimum build for a power pitcher. On the right day, he can unleash a baseball 100 mph and spin a breaking ball that leaves opposing hitters in tatters. Inside the Royals’ front office, he has inspired comparisons to Zack Greinke, the last Kansas City pitcher to win the Cy Young Award.
It is partly because of his pitching style, says Royals assistant general manager J.J. Picollo, but also because of his idiosyncratic nature. In interviews, Staumont uses words like “efficacy” and “intrinsic” in the flow of conversation. Other days, he will calmly challenge authority with well-crafted questions.
“It’s his mannerisms,” says Royals assistant general manager J.J. Picollo. “His facial expressions. It’s his body language.
“Like Greinke, he’s convicted. He’s processing.”
Yet he is far from a finished product. In 2016, Staumont walked 104 batters in 123 1/3 innings while splitting time between Class A Wilmington and Class AA Northwest Arkansas. The command issues subsided as the season progressed, but they also invited questions about his future. For now, Staumont’s overpowering stuff is enough to overcome his bouts with wildness. But Royals officials know that won’t last forever.
“That’s going to get magnified,” Picollo says.
So now, after his first spring in major-league camp, Staumont is ticketed for a spot in the starting rotation at Class AAA Omaha or Northwest Arkansas. Club officials view him as a potential midseason option in the bullpen if a need arises. But for now, for an organization on the cusp of transition and still looking for its next homegrown starter, there is more value in Staumont pitching every fifth day.
And still, the question beckons: The Royals never expected Staumont to rise this quickly; now how long can they wait?
“If he’s pitching well, and we need help in the bullpen, he’s the obvious guy,” Picollo says. “We’re going to run into it.”
A Josh Staumont story: It’s a morning last spring. Royals outfielder Brett Eibner steps to the plate during a live batting-practice session on a back field. The day before, Eibner, a 27-year-old former second-round pick, was optioned back to minor-league camp. He has spent three weeks competing against major-league pitchers in Cactus League games, but now he is here, digging into the box against Staumont. A small crowd of fans congregates to watch. Staumont throws three pitches.
98 mph fastball. 98 mph fastball. And then … curveball.
“I don’t even know if Eibner even came close to making contact,” said Jeff Montgomery, who watched from a few feet away. “It was just like total domination.”
Colin Gonzalez grabbed his bag and showed up to the baseball field at Azusa Pacific University preparing for another afternoon as a Royals area scout in Los Angeles County. It was the fall of 2013, and Gonzalez had recently relocated from Florida to Southern California. He expected a routine day on the job.
Azusa Pacific, a small evangelical school, was one of the few schools in the region to hold an official scout day. The school had produced talent, such as big-league catcher Stephen Vogt, but this was not a hotbed. Gonzalez expected to see some players, fill out some reports, then maybe check back in the spring.
Then Gonzalez laid eyes on Staumont.
“You could just hear it,” he says. “It was just thunder coming out of the bullpen.
“It was too good to be true.”
Staumont, a sophomore, was not eligible for the draft that year. He had recently transferred from Biola, an NAIA school in La Mirada. Two years earlier, his fastball had sat in the high 80s and baseball seemed like a nice way to knock some money off his tuition. After minimal interest from the major programs in the area, he settled on Biola. His mother worked there.
“That was literally all it came down to,” Staumont says. “I could play a sport that I loved and get an education.”
But Staumont kept growing. His body kept maturing, and his arm kept throwing harder and harder, surprising scouts and coaches and stretching the laws of physics. In his freshman year at Biola, his fastball clocked in around 93 mph. When he followed pitching coach John Verhoeven to Azusa Pacific the next year, he was consistently hitting 96. Later that same year, he hit 99 mph for the first time.
“He just looked like he was playing catch,” Verhoeven says.
As his velocity spiked, scouts flocked to Azusa. But Staumont’s body was not ready to harness the newfound power. On the mound, he resembled Nuke LaLoosh, the flawed prospect from the movie “Bull Durham.” As a junior, he issued 54 walks in 68 1/3 innings. His coaches described the problems like this: He was used to driving a mid-sized sedan. Now he had to learn how to control an Aston Martin.
“The mind and the body weren’t control over that arm yet,” Gonzalez says.
The Royals would select Staumont with the 64th overall pick in the 2015 draft. They doled out a $964,000 signing bonus. The decision came just six weeks before the club would strip its minor-league pitching depth in trades for Ben Zobrist and Johnny Cueto.
If there was a time to take a chance on a collegiate pitcher with high upside, this was it. The Royals, Picollo says, envisioned Staumont as a project, somebody who would require time and development. But back in Southern California, Verhoeven believed Staumont was ready to take off.
There was something about him, Verhoeven says. He had a plan.