Kansas City Baseball Vault

Kelly's Westport Inn and The Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: A Wild Card Race

Kelly's Westport Inn and The Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Kevin Scobee 2013

The Royals have been unable to develop much starting pitching with Dayton Moore in charge, but that doesn't mean there aren't bright spots. To talk pitching, we brought on Kevin Scobee, former Park University pitcher and former instructor at Regal Athletic, to discuss the evolution of pitcher training and philosophy, specifically focusing on how it relates to the Royals and prospects Kyle Zimmer, Danny Duffy, and others. We also talked about Duffy and Twitter specifically. Duffy's been one of th...

Kelly's Westport Inn and the KC Baseball Vault Present: The All Star Game Mailbag Show 2013

While the All-Star Game was starting up, we got to talking about the second half and our frustrations with the way the Royals finished the first half. Most of our time was spent answering some listener questions about the podcast, the Royals, and baseball in general. That led us down the path of talking about the Royals player evaluation approach and the blindspots they run into when looking at players, including Irving Falu, David Lough, Johnny Giavotella and others. We also talked about some r...

Kelly's Westport Inn and The Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Live during the ASG 2013 Announcement

WE ARE MOVING! Get this feed now at www.soundcloud.com/Royalspodcast ITUNES https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/royalspodcast/id543221056?mt=2 We decided to start recording right as All-Star Game rosters were announced and while Troy thought James Shields or Ervin Santana would be the Royals All-Star representative, I thought it would be Greg Holland. We were both pleasantly surprised to find that we weren't close and two Royals - Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez - would be going to Citi Field for...

Kelly's Westport Inn and The Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Good Bye Frenchy

There were plenty of ideas tossed around on this week’s Vault. We open by talking about Jeff Francoeur, his legacy, his reputation, and his time with the Royals after the team designated him for assignment. We also talked about his replacement on the roster, Johnny Giavotella, and reacted to Sunday’s game. Then, we discussed the rehab progress of Felipe Paulino and what contributions he might make this year. That also led to a discussion of Danny Duffy‘s potential addition this year. Tommy John ...

Kelly's Westport Inn and The Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Thoughts Before A Winning Streak.

May was a tough month. So tough. Grueling. But May is over, and all that was left was to talk about the aftermath and pick up the pieces. We talked about the changes to the coaching staff and what trading Jack Maloof for George Brett means for the team going forward and if it means anything other than window dressing and a PR cover. We also discussed Yordano Ventura's promotion, Danny Duffy's rehab starts, and other moves recently. That led to a discussion about whether fans are setting themselv...

OOTP Baseball 14, Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Eric Edelstein

As you may have heard, Northwest Arkansas Naturals General Manager Eric Edelstein has taken a job that will land him in Reno, and he'll be leaving the Royals organization. But before he left, Troy Olsen caught up with him to talk about the move and to learn a bit more about some Double A prospects. Then we talked about the latest Royals action, including the kneejerk reactions from social media. We tried to make sense of the noise, take a deep breath, and reflect on the long slog of the baseball...

Kansas City Baseball Vault Presents: An Angry Memorial Day

Things are not going well for the Royals. They're stuck in a 4-16 nosedive that has fans angry, players pressing, and seats heating up. So what better way to get the anger out than to talk about it!? Troy and Michael fired up the podcast machine to talk about what's gone wrong, what's potentially going to happen next, and what we'd do. We discussed potential demotions and other moves, potential firings, and considered alternatives to current front office personnel. More specifically, we talked a...

OOTP Baseball 14, Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: First Place worries.

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OOTP Baseball 14, Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: The Bob Gibson Statue Presentation.

How about a bonus Kansas City Baseball Vault episode? While most of our time is focused on the Royals, we're not limited to the big league team and its affiliates. We're still baseball fans overall. So when we were contacted about an event in Omaha to unveil a statue of Bob Gibson (Omaha native), we wanted to check in. So to help us cover the event at the Storm Chasers Werner Park, we sent Kings of Kauffman's Mike Vamosi and Hunter Samuels to check out the festivities. Included in this episode, ...

OOTP Baseball 14, Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Bob Kendrick of the Negro League Baseball Museum, Brad Cook of OOTP Baseball, and Jason Parks of Baseball Prospectus

This week on the Kansas City Baseball Vault, we discussed the young season and the Royals early success in 2013 and shared the elements that stood out to us in the first place start. Then we cycled in some great guests, starting with Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Kendrick's spirits were high following a successful Red Carpet premiere of "42", which saw a packed AMC Theater show the Jackie Robinson biopic. The event featured an collectibles auction and many Royals ...

Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Aaron Stilley and Opening Day 2013

After a long winter, baseball is finally back, and after a week off, we're back talking about the Royals. We gave our first impressions about the first four games of the season and discussed any performances we're worried about yet (stressing that it's only four games so far). We talked about the reactions on social media, both positive and negative, and everyone agreed that there was a lot of overreaction to the Royals first two losses of the year. There's a lot more baseball to go, and it's sa...

Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Curt Nelson

The regular season can't get here soon enough. While the Royals cruise through spring training, we covered a few of the remaining battles while also discussing the final second base decision to keep Chris Getz over Johnny Giavotella. We also talked a bit goings-on in Omaha and brought up the idea of a platoon (or replacement) for Jeff Francoeur and tossed out an idea of trading for David DeJesus. Most of our time this week, however, was spent talking with Curt Nelson, director of the Royals Hall...

Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Spring Training Moves

The Royals were busy trimming the roster and the latest Kansas City Baseball Vault discussed any surprises or disappointments in the cuts as well as what it means for the roster and any position battles going on. Along with that, we talked about the demotion of Luke Hochevar to the bullpen and its impact on the fifth starter race. Eric Hosmer came up and inspired a discussion about concern, worry, and panic. His early spring numbers were strong, but his World Baseball Classic performance was not...

Kelly's Wesport Inn and Kansas City Baseball Vault Presents: Jason Martinez of MLB Depth Charts.

Dayton Moore has talked about "the Process" of building a contender. It's taken a rebuild of the farm system but now it's time to get results. After trading Wil Myers for James Shields, the Royals are closer than they've been in a long time, but what's the actual window for contention? With most of their lineup made up of young players, what can we expect for the franchise in 2013 and ahead? To answer those questions, we talked with Jason Martinez of MLB Depth Charts, Baseball Prospectus and ESP...

Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present:Anthony Seratelli

The Royals start out undefeated in Cactus League play and we decided to figure out if it meant anything. Or even a little bit of anything. Does it improve the team's confidence? Is it a sign of good things in 2013? How did we think the rotation did the first time through? We covered all of those topics and marveled at the Chris Getz homer and what it means for the second base battle. We also talked a bit about what the World Baseball Classic means for the rest of spring training. Paul McCartney ...

Pine Tar Podcast 23.0 w/ Greg Schaum

Its season preview season which means we have to get the opinion of our main man Greg Schaum on the Royals 2013 season. Also on this episode Aaron Bentley of Baseballinstincts.com gives us his evaluation of the Detroit Tigers system.

Kelly's Westport Inn and Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Mike McCartney and Elliot Johnson

While snow fell in Kansas City, the Royals were busy getting spring training underway and taking the field against the rest of the Cactus League. We did our best not to overreact to the action so far, but did discuss Luis Mendoza's potential as a starter, John Lamb's comeback and velocity (as well as that of Noel Arguelles) and Alex Gordon's day off. Then we welcomed the voice of Kauffman Stadium to the show. Mike McCartney's a name you might not know but if you get to see the Royals at home, yo...

Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: JJ Picollo

The Royals are gathering in Surprise, Arizona right now for spring training and taking stock of their talent as the 2013 season starts. Who better to discuss that talent than one of the men who's helped acquire it? Royals Assistant GM JJ Picollo talked with the Vault about a number of prospects and their expected paths to the big leagues, including John Lamb, Kyle Zimmer, Jason Adam and Yordano Ventura. He explained the organization's approach to advancing Bubba Starling and talked about the inp...

Pine Tar Player Podcast 6.0 w/ Kyle Smith and Legends Announcer Keith Elkins

Royals 2011 draftpick Kyle Smith talked with Clint about his stellar 2012 season, his training regiment and what his goals are for 2013. Also on the show Keith Elkins of the Lexington Legends spoke about the new partnership with the Royals at the Single A level, the towns great support for the team and upcoming promotions for the 2013 season.

Pine Tar Podcast 22.0 w/ Kevin Seitzer

Former major league third baseman and Royals hitting coach Kevin Seitzer joined the program to talk about hitting approach, the struggles Eric Hosmer encountered and the differences in his approach and that of manager Ned Yost. Quote from Seitzer on Yost - "I wanted the guys to take one pitch the first time through but Ned wanted them to be aggressive which isn't what I like to teach." "It was a rough seat for me but it didn't matter as it came back as a reflection of me." Also Aaron Bentley of ...

Kelly's Westport Inn and The Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Rex Hudler

You either love him or hate him. He's either an annoying cheerleader or wrapped up in passion for the game. There's not always a lot of gray area when it involves Royals television analyst Rex Hudler. Hudler took time to talk with us at the Kansas City Baseball Vault about his passion for baseball, his attitude as a player and how it has framed his daily approach as well as how he responds to criticism. We discussed optimism, getting over losses, and what he's said to players since joining the R...

Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Bob Dutton

Bob Dutton has been covering the Royals to some extent since 1987 and became the primary beat writer covering them for the Kansas City Star in 2003. He's seen his share of bad Royals baseball and, on occasion, some good as well. Dutton took some time out of his schedule to talk with us at the Kansas City Baseball Vault about the Royals in 2013. We made sure to nail down who's going to play right field, asked about the fifth starter spot and sought insight into the 2012 struggles of Eric Hosmer a...

Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Danny Duffy

We're getting anxious for spring training to start, but we can't match the anticipation of Danny Duffy. Duffy took time out of his rehabbing to talk with the Kansas City Baseball Vault about the work he's putting in to get back, his hopeful timetable, and his mindset as he looks to return in the middle of 2013. Last spring, Duffy was the most excited player in Royals camp. This year, he has to hang back while he continues to train after last June's Tommy John surgery. He talked about that need f...

Kansas City Baseball Vault and Kelly's Westport Inn Presents: Rob Neyer

Rob Neyer was lucky. He started his Royals fandom in 1976 while the Royals were just beginning the first of three straight playoff appearances. That passion for baseball led him to Bill James, then to ESPN.com and now to SB Nation. He talked with us about growing up a baseball fan, the current state of the Royals, the Wil Myers/James Shields trade and if Kansas City is a baseball or football town. We also talked with him about writing and the gaps between old school fans and those who dig into s...

Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Joe Bonsall

In this week’s Kansas City Baseball Vault, we were joined by our pals Clint Scoles and Dave Lesky from the Pine Tar Press podcast. We discussed the Hall of Fame vote and the factors that led to nobody being elected, as well as the process of voting. Lumped in with that was a discussion of steroids and other such issues that dozens of BBWAA members were writing about leading up to the final ballot counts. In other baseball news, we answered a listener question about adding cell phones in dugouts ...

Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Big News at Arrowhead, Little news at the K.

The big news in Kansas City wasn't another Royals acquisition but rather the Chiefs signing Andy Reid to be their next head coach. We briefly covered the biggest local story of the day before moving on to the Royals latest moves. We talked about the minor league free agent signings of the last week, including Miguel Tejada and Endy Chavez and our listener question this week dealt with those kinds of deals as well which allowed us to talk a bit about Dayton Moore, intangibles and the Royals appro...

Kelly's Westport Inn and the Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: 2012 Year End All Request Show.

The Royals have been quiet since the James Shields trade, but there's nothing wrong with a little speculation, right? We responded to some listener comments, starting off discussing how well (if at all) the Royals match up for a Giancarlo Stanton deal That got us in a position of evaluating the Royals crop of prospects in relation to other teams. Obviously, we'd all like to have Stanton on the Royals, but what would it take? That bridged into a conversation about whether we'd trade the last 20 y...

Kansas City Baseball Vault and Kelly's Westport Inn Present: Mark Simon of ESPN

Ever since the James Shields trade, the question has turned from "what can the Royals do to get better?" to "how do the Royals win the division?" To help answer that question, we talked with Mark Simon of ESPN's Baseball Today podcast about his article that addresses that second question. A lot has to go right, Mark admitted, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. He took us step by step through what it'll take to get Kansas City back into the playoffs. There will have to be a couple of ...

Kelly's Westport and The Kansas City Baseball Vault Present: Joel Goldberg

After the blockbuster trade of Wil Myers (plus) for James Shields and Wade Davis, we had to go out and get another opinion on the trade. To do that, we consulted Joel Goldberg of Fox Sports Kansas City. He's excited about the deal and feels that James Shields is a strong pitcher at the top of the rotation and his argument is laid out pretty well. He also touted the clubhouse abilities of Shields and how he may work with Jeremy Guthrie and Jeff Francoeur in that role as leader. It's an interestin...