Spring Cleaning

For any still struggling with the Mizzou loss in the Big 12 tournament: this should cheer you up.

See? All better.

Now on to business.

Spring Training is about halfway over and the Royals have already played quite a few games against other teams. Now, these games obviously don't mean anything, but still, the Royals are 9-4 and second in the Cactus League behind World Series Champion San Francisco! They have the greatest run differential as well at +32, and while that may not mean much... there are SOME things we're learning from Spring Training.

The players by all accounts are enjoying their time under Yost much more than under Hillman (through some decoding of typical interview talk), and it has been emphasized a few times that Yost keeps things much more on schedule than Hillman ever did. A lot of the respect for Yost that was absent for Hillman is probably because Hillman never played in the bigs, while Yost caught for a little while, so he knows what it's like to be a player. The issues with Hillman as the skipper are well-documented though, and don't need to be rehashed here. It also can't hurt that Yost has turned an organization like this around before, and Milwaukee is still reaping the benefits of that.*

*Yost's firing in Milwaukee had to be one of the most bizarre in baseball history. His team was in a slump and had lost 11 of 14, but the season was 12 games from over and they were STILL TIED for the division lead at 83-67. He had developed all the players there and most of the seemed disappointed when he was let go. The weirdest thing about it:

"[Yost] didn't have all the answers for what is going on the last two weeks and I'm not sure I have all the answers," general manager Doug Melvin said during a news conference at a hotel in Chicago. "I'm not sure this is the right one, either." Their GM WASN'T SURE firing him was the right move, but they fired him anyway! He thought that might turn them around, though the season wasn't even over. He sacrificed the long term future for wild card finish that odds are they would've attained with Yost as well. Even if they hadn't...the man who turned your organization from a laughing stock into a playoff contender, fired for a two week stretch? Short sighted at best, but good for the Royals. The man develops players.

Whatever the case, Yost is teaching the players a thing or two. Specifically about base-running. That sounds like a small thing to be stressing, but when your team is 29th out of 30 teams in it and 14.2 runs BELOW AVERAGE, it IS significant (and that's just Baseball Prospectus numbers, Bill James has it at 78 bases below average, or almost 20 runs). The number 1 team, the Rockies, were 16.5 runs above average, a difference of 3 wins (just over 30 runs) between the two. And that's just how well they steal, go 1st to 3rd on a hit, 2nd to home on a single, etc. Things that you hardly even notice. 3 wins.

Without quantifying it, just following the Royals every game on their gamecast at the Royals website, I've been pleasantly surprised how many times I've seen players go 2nd to home on singles to shallow center. and in the most noticeable and quantifiable base-running statistic, steals, the Royals lead the league. They have 27 SBs through 14 games, and have been caught stealing 6 times, for an 82% success rate (70%-75% success rate is generally believed to be required to have a positive value for the club). Simple math says that's nearly 2 steals a game and more than 2 attempts per game which dictates a very aggressive philosophy which I personally have felt would help the Royals in recent years. The Royals were 2nd in baseball in batting average last year at .274 but 20th in runs scored. Aggressive base-running is a good way to help fix that. Even Billy Butler has stolen a base this ST, for some perspective on how serious they are about this. They're sending guys.

Naturally this might be a little inflated, pitchers are working on their mechanics and catchers are still getting into the swing of things, probably less worried about throwing guys out* than they would be in a regular season game. But some of it is certainly real. The Royals are evidently placing such an emphasis on it that they've moved it to the first thing done after stretches rather than the last thing done at the end of the day, at the behest of first base coach Doug Sisson. The emphasis is obviously there. The Royals are going to be aggressive, and with Aviles in top form, Getz for as long as he holds the job at second, Escobar a natural base stealer, Cain likewise if Melky doesn't block him forever... they have the team for it. And of course, the day I start writing this post, the KC Star goes out of its way to talk about the emphasis on base-running that I wanted to.

*Though Salvador Perez has been getting rave reviews for his defense at catcher... and in games he's throwing out everybody, reportedly "by a wide margin," and that's including speedsters like Will Venable. He throws like Andy Roddick hits.

There hasn't been a lot of talk about working on plate discipline other than as it pertains to Franceour, really... but the Royals are currently 2nd in baseball in OBP for spring training (at .371). At this point, it's probably just a matter of the Royals facing wild pitchers so far. Wouldn't it be nice if this were a sign of something real, though?

Given that it's Spring Training and only halfway through that, it's tough to say too much about individual players. However, it's clear right now that:

Mike Aviles should never be doubted. He's stealing bases (he has 4 in 10 games), hitting for extra bases, and hitting for average. At first the idea of him batting lead-off this year seemed kind of silly, but he sure can hit, and maybe he's faster than any of us thought.

Kila Ka'aihue, as we all already know, hits for power. He has 3 HRs so far. Now that he finally is getting his opportunity, the AL Central had better prepare...

Hosmer and Moustakas are both looking close to major league ready, in Hosmer's case quite a bit early. Both are hitting very well in their limited opportunities.

Everett Teaford, who came out of relative obscurity last year at age 26 in AA to produce and look like a real prospect, hasn't lived up to it so far in Spring Training. He's gotten lit up in the majority of his appearances so far this spring. Prospects bust all the time, but despite Teaford's struggles he's certainly not finished.

Lance Zawadzki, a 25 year old utility infielder, is hitting like crazy, trying to force his way onto the roster. He has no history of ever hitting before though, so the Royals shouldn't take too much stock in it.

Jesse Chavez and Luis Mendoza are doing terrifying impressions of real pitchers, enough that they are still definitely in contention for bullpen spots. These two are not useful pieces, but they are masquerading as them right now. It's all a trick!