When Billy Butler departed as a free agent after the 2014 season, the Kansas City Royals had some options. They had talked openly about preferring to utilize the designated hitter role to be more of a rotation for position players to get a half-day off, so that seemed likely. There were also some free agents […]
Author: David Lesky
Looking Into My Royals Crystal Ball
We are now less than a week from the Kansas City Royals opening up their championship defense. I know we all love baseball and will watch the season unfold, but there’s no need. I’ve taken a look into my crystal ball to determine what will happen during the 2016 season. I won’t give you the […]
Friday Notes
For me, Opening Day always becomes a reality when you can start to see the day on the forecast on whatever weather app you use. So here we are, just over a week from the Royals beginning their title defense and everything is starting to come into focus. Starting pitchers are getting deeper into games, […]
An Early Look at Midseason Trade Targets
You may be looking at your calendar wondering why exactly I’m talking about who the Royals might go after midseason. Spring training isn’t over, and now this guy is talking about the trade deadline (which is August 1 this year, by the way since July 31 is a Sunday and games will be going on […]
Over/Under Jamboree – Kansas City Baseball Vault Podcast
Click here to listen to the first BP Kansas City episode of the Kansas City Baseball Vault! In this episode, hosts Mike Engel and Jeff Herr give their predictions on whether Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez, Lorenzo Cain, Ian Kennedy and Yordano Ventura do better or worse than their projected stats. They also both make bold, […]
Lineup Chatter: Who Should Hit Second?
Ned Yost really likes set roles. He likes to pitch certain pitchers in certain innings. He likes to use defensive replacements in the same situations in every game. And he likes to set his lineup and forget it. Because of that, it’s important to get the batting order right to give the Royals the best […]
Royals Roster Coming Into Focus
One thing I like to do at the beginning of spring training is take a look at the whole spring roster and pick out my 25-man roster. It’s sort of like an NCAA tournament bracket, though, because slowly but surely the real thing begins to look very different than what I predicted. This year was […]
Friday Notes
Note: This was originally published on Pine Tar Press on March 18, 2016. Sometimes things get started in the most innocent of ways. In the summer of 2011, I had a lot of things I wanted to write about regarding the Royals but none of those things were enough to get a full article. So […]
On Eric Hosmer’s Future With the Royals
Note: This was originally published on Pine Tar Press on March 2, 2016. Two days ago, Eric Hosmer spoke with MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan and made it clear that he would be open to a long-term deal with the Royals that would keep him in Kansas City past 2017. My initial reaction to that is wondering […]
Royals Extension Candidate: Mike Moustakas
Note: This was originally published on Pine Tar Press on January 5, 2016. With the Royals pursuit of free agents, one of the big rallying cries to avoid big contracts this year is because of the slew of players who will be eligible for free agency. One of those players is Mike Moustakas, who could […]