With the best record in the AL and the biggest lead of any division-leading team, the Royals went out and got better. We talked about the big, unprecedented (for the Royals) trade that sent Johnny Cueto to the Royals for Brandon Finnegan, John Lamb, and Cody Reed. Not only is Cueto an ace, but his arrival also impacts the overall pitching staff and could help Yordano Ventura down the line as well. We also discussed some other trade targets for the Royals and potential extensions for Alex Gordon ...
Jul 28, 2015•1 hr 27 min
Vance Wilson discusses Bubba Starling's development, Alex Liddi's role on the squad and more.
Jul 28, 2015•3 min
Zimmer discusses his outing.
Jul 28, 2015•58 sec
Bubba Starling talks about the adjustments he's made and hitting for the cycle tonight in Arkansas. Photo Credit Mark Wagner
Jul 28, 2015•3 min
In Part 3 of our recording from the Kelly's Westport Inn All Star Game Watch Party, we talked to a few guests to finish the night off. First, we talked with Aaron Gnirk from BigDumbFunShow.com, who was our first producer of the Royalman Report back in 2011. He talked about media and internet radio topics. We also talked with Craig Brown from RoyalsAuthority.com (@royalsauthority on Twitter) about the 2012 All Star Game, the experience of the Wild Card Game in 2014, and the lessons learned by own...
Jul 22, 2015•57 min
In Part 2 of our show during the Kelly's Westport Inn All Star Game Watch Party, we tracked the Royals in the starting lineup, talked about a few Royals highlights, and shared some All Star Game memories involving Royals, including thoughts on Bo Jackson. (Note: This is Part 2 of 3 to be posted this week. Each part is under an hour in length, however.) Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel, and event producer Chris K...
Jul 21, 2015•35 min
After weeks of voting and a first place performance in the first half, the Royals sent six players to the 2015 All Star Game along with manager Ned Yost (and an injured Alex Gordon, who was elected to start, but stayed home on the disabled list). To celebrate, the Vault invited Royals fans to Kelly's Westport Inn to watch the game, talk with other fans, and to give away some prizes. We recorded all night and throughout the game, welcoming old friends and new. In part 1, we talked with David Lesk...
Jul 21, 2015•54 min
The Kansas City Royals have finished the first half with 52 wins. They lead the American league. They've had seven players selected to the All Star team. They're defending AL Champs. So what elements have come together so far for this run? Jeff and Mike discuss the team approach and identity and the breakouts that have brought the Royals to this point. We also revisted our semi-bold predictions from just before Opening Day. We'll talk more about the first place Royals and what lies ahead on Tues...
Jul 13, 2015•1 hr 7 min
The Royals will send a record six players to the 2015 All Star Game after a flood of fan votes and some wicked relief performances. We talked about the elections of Salvador Perez, Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain, and Alcides Escobar to the AL starting lineup, and the relief selections of Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis. Where do they stand in relation to others at their positions? What happened with the fan voting and what's next in that process? We talked about it all this week. We also talked about M...
Jul 08, 2015•43 min
This episode is a bit different. We've talked a lot so far about the Royals and their current play, but one of our goals is to dig into the history of baseball in Kansas City, too. In an effort to do so, this is a rebroadcast of an episode of the old Royalman Report from 2011 when Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, stopped by the studio and shared a number of stories about the Negro Leagues and Buck O'Neil. Note: The events Bob mentions have long been held, so you'll h...
Jul 02, 2015•58 min
Kris Medlen Omaha by KC Baseball Vault
Jun 30, 2015•6 min
This week, we took a look at the upcoming road trip against two interesting teams. Oakland, of course, caused some trouble back in April but haven't played well (thought their run differential is strong). Houston, the Royals' opponent following the A's, are having a great first half but their hitters may not make enough contact to keep it up. We also discussed an article on Business Insider suggesting that the Royals have found a market inefficiency. The article supposes that the Royals are ensu...
Jun 27, 2015•1 hr 12 min
This week we still couldn't believe the incredible turnout by Royals fans in this year's All-Star voting so far and offered some theories for the explosion and discussed the general enthusiasm of the Royals fanbase. We also discussed some of the injuries to Royals starters and the depth of the organization and how it might all factor in down the line.
Jun 18, 2015•1 hr 11 min
Danny Duffy's postgame reaction to his first rehab start in Omaha.
Jun 10, 2015•4 min
The Royals finished May with some weak offense, and it's led to a slight downturn, but we started out tonight talking about instant replay in baseball, focusing on the call that impacted the Royals in their loss against Cleveland on Tuesday, but expanded to talk about it generally and how it can improve. But the Royals didn't lose on Tuesday because of the replay call. They lost because they've had trouble scoring runs lately. Jeff and Mike talked about the slide and how worried it might make us...
Jun 05, 2015•1 hr 15 min
Dayton Moore was in Omaha Wednesday in support of his new book, Bill Fischer day in Papillion and to checkout the Storm Chaser prospects.
May 28, 2015•28 min
After a big series win in Detroit, the Royals remained in first place, despite some adversity and injury. Jeff and Mike talked about the formula for success as well as some concerns for the next five months of the season. Then we welcomed Mike Groopman to the show as our guest. Groopman is Director of Operations/Analytics for the Kansas City Royals. He discussed the philosophy behind building an analytics department, the evolution of the Royals' approach to analytics, and the support he's gotten...
May 13, 2015•1 hr 19 min
This week, we caught up on all the drama surrounding the Oakland and Chicago series, as the Royals ended up branded the bad boys of baseball. We talked about the team concept, the suspensions following bench-clearing incidents, the immaturity of Yordano Ventura (and the role of Jeff Samardzija and Brett Lawrie in all of this, too), and basically what it all means along with the context of what the Royals are doing on the field.
Apr 29, 2015•1 hr 10 min
(recorded 4/16/15) After some illnesses and schedule conflicts, we finally made it back with an opportunity to talk about the Royals' hot start to 2015 and the key contributors. We had an old voice on the show, as Chris Kamler, aka @TheFakeNed, joined us to talk about his book The Silence, The Series, and the Season of SungWoo (available at kamlerbook.com) and the spirit of Kansas City and the magical summer and postseason in 2014. After Kamler snuck away, Jeff and Mike talked about the Yordano ...
Apr 19, 2015•1 hr 44 min
With less than a week until the Royals open their defense of the AL Championship, Jeff and Mike talked about the latest spring training news and the makeup of the roster - which is mostly set, barring injuries. We offered some bold predictions for the upcoming season, some of which are probably nowhere near going to come true - but hey they might. We also wandered down memory lane to recall some past Royals and past seasons and events, including some painful Kansas City sports moments....
Apr 01, 2015•1 hr 5 min
This time around, we talked about the bullpen battles and how the roster is starting to round into shape two weeks from opening day, including the optioning of Brandon Finnegan to Double A. The bulk of this week's show, though, was spent guessing at the production of various Royals in 2015 via our first annual KCBBV Royals Over/Under Jamboree. Will Kendrys Morales hit more than or less than 15 homers? Will Danny Duffy throw more or less than 200 innings? We brought up a handful of other benchmar...
Mar 25, 2015•1 hr 38 min
The topic of the day became injuries. Tim Collins is hurt. Omar Infante is hurt. How does the Collins injury impact the bullpen and its construction? Do the Royals go with an 8 man bullpen as they've promised/threatened? If Infante can't be ready for Opening Day, is Christian Colon good enough to carry it, and if so, who's the utility guy? These questions plus some talk of the March 14 Westport race showdown between Michael Engel and The Fake Ned, plus some random TV discussion because we wanted...
Mar 10, 2015•1 hr 19 min
With spring training starting up, we got caught up on the latest news out there, but mostly talked about prospects and minor leaguers. Every team needs depth and the Royals are no different. We discussed which players might get the call this year, which ones might have an impact, and which prospects are the most intriguing for the next season and beyond. The usual suspects were brought up (Kyle Zimmer, Raul A. Mondesi, Sean Manaea) but we picked out some lesser known names too. And then at the e...
Mar 01, 2015•1 hr 19 min
This week, we welcomed ESPN writer and Fangraphs contributor Dan Szymborski to the show. Szymborski is the creator of the ZiPS projection system geared towards projected each player on each team during the winter. We talked to Dan about what ZiPS is trying to do and the nature of statistical evaluation and its pitfalls and successes, including long-term trends, different WAR calculations, and those who may dismiss such tomfoolery. We also talked about the prognosis for this year, and what may be...
Feb 20, 2015•54 min
So James Shields finally signed. After a week where we talked about how the Royals might have a slim chance to re-sign him, Shields agreed to a deal with San Diego. We looked at the fallout now that it's official and talked about the comparisons to the players the Royals signed ahead of Shields, as well as presented a theory on why two Royals starters - Shields and Ervin Santana - have had to play the waiting game in each of the past two offseasons. Then we discussed the bullpen and some of the ...
Feb 11, 2015•35 min
As the Royals settled some arbitration cases, we talked about some of the potential changes to the game - pitch clocks, shifts, adding offense - that have come up recently and been pitched by new Commissioner Rob Manfred. We also talked about why James Shields hasn't signed yet and the potential that he could end up back on the Royals. He'd be welcomed back by most, but could they fit him in the payroll at this point? We're still a couple of weeks from pitchers and catchers reporting, so Jeff an...
Feb 04, 2015•1 hr 18 min
This week Royalman Troy Olsen joined Mike to talk about the offseason and general impressions, the Royals payroll surpassing $100 million, and what Jarrod Dyson might bring in a trade (and if there's a viable replacement in the system if something might happen). We also discussed Brandon Finnegan's future and how he might fit as a starter or reliever. After a break, we then discussed the Royals Hall of Fame candidates, including Gil Meche, Kevin Seitzer, Mike Sweeney, and the phenomenal Bo Jacks...
Jan 13, 2015•1 hr 18 min
After the holidays, we had to play quick catchup and talk about the signings of Edinson Volquez and Kris Medlen from December. Volquez is important, but more of a complementary piece. Two other pitchers are much more important. Medlen, though, is a small risk for a big reward. We also tiptoed into the Hall of Fame voting question. On Tuesday, the inductees will be named, but this year, the process has been up for debate more than the players themselves. We discussed that and some of the candidat...
Jan 06, 2015•1 hr 23 min
After some winter hibernation, the Royals finally got things going on the transaction front, and we talked about the Royals' moves to fill out the lineup. So we compared Kendrys Morales and Billy Butler and the general market for hitters, including the Royals shift from their goal of a floating DH to settling on Morales. We also discussed Alex Rios and his down 2014. The Royals found themselves with limited options after other teams picked the outfield free agent class clean, but is there still ...
Dec 17, 2014•1 hr 17 min
We knew this day would come but it was time to say goodbye to Billy Butler for his years of service in the Royals organization. We discussed what his move to Oakland may mean for him and what the A's saw in him that the Royals weren't going to pay up for. We also covered the Yasmani Tomas signing by Arizona and what the Royals may have missed out on. Along with that, we caught up on some of the big transactions of the offseason so far, including the trade of Aaron Crow to Miami - a good move in ...
Dec 02, 2014•54 min
