Daily Clips
March 27, 2018
LOCAL
Royals' final exhibition canceled due to rain
March 26, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
This is the Royals' projected Opening Day lineup
March 26, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Alex Gordon says he’s ‘not talking about last season.’ He expects improvement in 2018
March 26, 2018By Sam McDowell/KC Star
Big Slick Celebrity Weekend tickets about to go on sale: Here's what you need to know
March 26, 2018By Matt Campbell/KC Star
Ned Yost's future may be uncertain, but his Netflix queue is all lined up
March 26, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic KC
Does Alex Gordon need glasses? Probably not
March 26, 2018By Lee Judge/LeeJudgeKC.wordpress.com
Royal visit: George Brett appears Wednesday on 'Modern Family'
Brett will join Kansas City native Eric Stonestreet
March 26, 2018KMBC.com
MINORS
Monday's Royals Exhibition Game Cancelled
Game will not be made up due to inclement weather
March 26, 2018Omaha Storm Chasers
Royals Prospect Primer: High hopes for O'Hearn
Power hitter looking to carry spring momentum into 2018 season
March 26, 2018By Michael Avallone/MiLB.com
NATIONAL
Source: D-backs, Marte agree on 5-year deal
March 26, 2018By Steve Gilbert/MLB.com
Bird to have ankle surgery, miss 6-8 weeks
March 26, 2018By Aimee Sachs/MLB.com
A’s may not want to stay at the Coliseum. But just in case, they want to buy it
March 25, 2018By Matier & Ross/San Francisco Chronicle
The Athletic's AL Central preview: Everyone's still chasing the Indians
March 26, 2018The Athletic Staff
A whole new ballgame: Surface tablets score a big hit with the Kansas City Royals
Microsoft
MLB TRANSACTIONS
March 27, 2018 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
Royals' final exhibition canceled due to rain
March 26, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
The Royals' final exhibition game of Spring Training against their Triple-A team in Omaha, Neb., on Monday has been cancelled because of rain.
The Royals were planning on getting some throwing and batting practice at the indoor facility in Omaha before returning to Kansas City on Monday night.
Left-hander Danny Duffy, scheduled to be the Opening Day starter on Thursday, was expected to throw a side session Monday in Omaha.
This is the Royals' projected Opening Day lineup
March 26, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
The Royals' final exhibition game Monday night against their Triple-A affiliate in Omaha was rained out, and they now have three more days to resolve the final two spots in their bullpen as they prepare to set their 25-man Opening Day roster.
But, their lineup is pretty much established heading into Thursday's Opening Day matchup with the White Sox at Kauffman Stadium at 3:15 p.m. CT.
Projected Opening Day lineup (vs. White Sox right-hander James Shields)
1. Jon Jay CF
2. Mike Moustakas 3B
3. Whit Merrifield 2B
4. Salvador Perez C
5. Lucas Duda 1B
6. Jorge Soler RF
7. Alex Gordon LF
8. Cheslor Cuthbert DH
9. Alcides Escobar SS
Key roles
• Jay likely will get the leadoff role because of his .355 career OBP, and because manager Ned Yost sees Merrifield as a solid run-producer, as well as a capable table-setter.
• Kelvin Herrera will start the year again as the closer, though he lost that job last September. Yost believes Herrera will learn from his 2017 hiccups.
• The Royals won't have any straight platoon situations, but Yost will try to get Paulo Orlando in the lineup against certain tough lefties, thus giving Jay or Gordon a day off.
Injury Updates
• All eyes will be on Danny Duffy's status this week. Duffy is scheduled to be the Opening Day starter, but left his final Spring Training start with shoulder tightness. He threw on the side Sunday, and reported he was fine and ready to go for the opener.
Alex Gordon says he’s ‘not talking about last season.’ He expects improvement in 2018
March 26, 2018By Sam McDowell/KC Star
Alex Gordon walked into an indoor batting cage Monday inside Werner Park, wearing a blue hoodie and Nike tennis shoes. He stretched one foot on each side of home plate, a wide base for his first several warmup swings. They did not include any steps, the focus of the drill simply on timing the baseball’s arrival to the plate.
It’s all part of the meticulous preparation that has become synonymous with Gordon, even during an off day after the Royals’ exhibition game against the Class AAA Omaha Storm Chasers was canceled because of weather. He sticks to it so strictly that he says he is actually “not a huge opening day guy” because it disrupts the routine.
But there’s a different feel for the commencement of his 12th major-league season, all of them with the Royals.
This time, Thursday's opening day represents an opportunity for a reset. And after the worst offensive season of his career in 2017, little feels more necessary.
“I’m not talking about last season,” Gordon said. “It’s over. Why look back at it and worry about it and everything? I’m right here in the moment, feeling good about myself, and that’s all that really matters.
“I kinda learned what’s the point of looking in the past or thinking about what’s gonna happen in the future. The only thing I can handle right now is here today, and that’s what I’m doing.”
So here Monday — three days before the Royals open the 2018 season against the Chicago White Sox at Kauffman Stadium — Gordon is attempting to rebound not only from a down 2017 season but also a slow start to the spring.
He had only 7 hits in 55 at-bats (.127 average), just two of them for extra bases, in spring training. Gordon has historically been a strong performer in the spring.
Spring training statistics matter virtually nothing, and they are rarely a reliable indicator of regular-season success. On the other hand, Gordon acknowledged the results were a product of needing mechanical adjustments to his swing.
“I wasn’t comfortable at the plate,” Gordon said. “This last week, I kinda got in the cage and just (did) extra work and stuff like that to make sure that coming into opening day, I was ready to go. And I feel ready to go now. That’s really all that matters.”
The 2017 season supplied a batch of career-worst figures — the .208 average, .293 on-base percentage and .315 slugging percentage, though he did win a fifth Gold Glove.
The Royals brought in a handful of veterans as late additions to spring training, including outfielder Jon Jay. But as he assessed his roster, general manager Dayton Moore indicated his expectations for Gordon included a bounce-back offensive season.
“I wouldn’t put anything past him,” Moore said. “What’s so remarkable about him is last year we all understand the frustration he had offensively, but to go out and win another Gold Glove and be recognized as the very best (defensive) left fielder in the American League, based on what he went through offensively, just speaks to his mental toughness and his commitment and his desire to win. We expect Alex to rebound and do very well.”
Royals manager Ned Yost said Gordon’s timing was the primary contributor to an 0-for-33 stretch in the spring, and he sent him to minor-league camp for a day in an effort to improve that aspect. Gordon said the slump “showed me some things I needed to work on, not only mechanically but with my approach and everything.”
A few days later, Gordon said he’s more optimistic about the potential final product entering opening day, both individually and for the team. He said the Royals “will surprise a lot of people.”
Yost used the same language to predict the bar for Gordon in 2018.
“I believe in Alex Gordon,” Yost said. “I just think Alex Gordon’s gonna bounce back in a big way. I think he looked really, really good the last couple days in spring training and was pleased with that.
“The thing I always fall back on is you know Alex is gonna give you every bit of effort that he has every single day. ... You believe in guys like that.”
Big Slick Celebrity Weekend tickets about to go on sale: Here's what you need to know
March 26, 2018By Matt Campbell/KC Star
Big Slick Celebrity Weekend organizers had a double announcement on Monday:
First, tickets for the events will go on sale at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 27, at bigslick.org. And also, this year includes a new theme — "More Good."
The ninth annual fundraiser to fight cancer, scheduled for June 1-2, once again will feature local boys Rob Riggle, Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis, Eric Stonestreet and David Koechner and their invited celebrity guests.
"The campaign is designed to pump people full of positivity and usher in more wild fun, more inappropriate laughs and more kicking cancer to the curb," organizers say.
Last year's event raised a record $1.75 million. Since the first one in 2010, Big Slick has raised more than $6 million for the Cancer Center at Children's Mercy Hospital.
The weekend includes three major events for the public:
▪ The celebrity softball game, 5 p.m. June 1 at Kauffman Stadium. Anyone with a ticket to see the Kansas City Royals take on the Oakland A's at 7:15 that night can come early and watch the antics. If you buy at Royals.com/BigSlick, a $5 donation will be made to the fundraiser. Tickets range from $20 to $1,500 for a dugout suite.
▪ The bowling tournament, 10:30 a.m. June 2 at Pinstripes at Prairiefire, 13500 Nall Ave., Overland Park. A VIP bowling ticket, including a spectator ticket, is $2,500. The public is invited to a free block party and street fair outside from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., including a chance to ogle the celebrities arriving on the red carpet.
▪ The party and auction, the main fundraising event of the weekend, will begin at 8 p.m. June 2 at the Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland, 1228 Main St. Tickets range from $50 to a $1,500 VIP ticket. Last year's big-ticket items included visits to the sets of Rudd's "Ant-Man" sequel and Stonestreet's hit TV series, "Modern Family."
In the past, tickets to the bowling tournament and auction sell out quickly. Celebrity guests in previous years have included Olivia Wilde (Sudeikis' fiancee), James Marsden, Jake Tapper, Johnny Knoxville and Al Yankovic.
And in other David Koechner news, the actor/comedian, who recently was grand marshal at the St. Patrick's Day Parade, will perform at Improv Comedy Theater & Restaurant in Zona Rosa nightly May 25-27. Details at improvkc.com.
Ned Yost's future may be uncertain, but his Netflix queue is all lined up
March 26, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic KC
One spring a few years ago, Ned Yost found himself looking to pass the time. He had binged hard on Breaking Bad in 2014, following the exploits of chemistry teacher-turned-meth dealer Walter White. He had plowed through Sons of Anarchy, the crime drama that once ran on FX. He needed another television show to devour, and he settled on The West Wing, cycling through the serial political drama famous for its cast and Aaron Sorkin dialogue.
Actually, he had already watched it once.
“All seven seasons of it,” said Yost, the Royals manager.
Yost, 63, is an old-school manager with old-school tastes, a crusty soul with an unvarnished exterior. He spends winters hunting and skinning deer at his property in Meriwether County, Georgia. He spends off days in Kansas City practicing his marksmanship at a firearms range called Frontier Justice. You probably know the Yost most often seen in public interviews and press conferences.
And yet, the same Ned Yost owns one contemporary habit that confounds expectations and places him in a cohort with tech-savvy millennials and cultural connoisseurs: He’s obsessed with Netflix, the online streaming service.
“It’s perfect to kill time,” Yost said.
In terms of television shows, Yost prefers an eclectic mix. Yet he leans toward the prestige fare that populated cable in the years after The Sopranos and The Wire revolutionized the genre. First, there was Breaking Bad. Yost watched *SPOILER ALERT* Todd shoot the kid on the motorbike while guiding the Royals to the playoffs in 2014. He also had a phase with The Walking Dead. He’s always on the hunt for his next show.
For Yost, who is entering his eighth full season as Royals manager (and more interestingly, the final year of his contract), the custom began when he found himself struggling through morning workouts on the treadmill. Every morning, Yost sought to begin his day by walking for 60 or 70 minutes at various speeds. But too often the sessions were marked by boredom and monotony. He found a solution in an Apple iPad, a subscription to Netflix and an education in modern television.
“They’re all about hour-long programs,” Yost said. “You get on that treadmill, and it makes the time go so much quicker.”
In time, Yost began to exhaust his favorite titles and move onto Netflix’s other selections — documentaries, specials, shows about outer space. Yet he still prefers a well-paced, thrilling television drama. Easier to binge, he says. Better to pass the time. Last spring, the show of the moment was Narcos, the Netflix original series that chronicles the life of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. He cruised through it. Loved the story.
“The problem with that is half the show is in Spanish with English subtitles, and I got to wear my glasses,” Yost said. “I’m sweating my ass off trying to read the subtitles so I know what’s going on.”
***
This spring, as Yost returned to his post to oversee a clubhouse in transition, he altered his routine to a degree. Last October, he fractured his pelvis after falling from an elevated tree stand on his land in Georgia. The injury threatened his life, forced rods and plates into his lower body, and left him spending much of his winter resting in a comfy recliner in his home. The rehab process took months; Yost would spend up to 42 hours at a time in the chair. Still, he mostly eschewed television, preferring quiet solitude.
It aligned with his usual media diet. During the regular season, Yost says, he watches just one show on network television: 60 Minutes on Sunday evenings. He has little time for others. He spends mornings catching up on news and currents events via a CNN app on his iPad. He maintains that he reads little about his team.
But as he arrived healthy to spring training in February, his body was still not quite ready for the daily treadmill abuse. So he has saved his Netflix fix for other moments. He found David Letterman’s new Netflix talk show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. (“Start with President Obama,” he suggests. “It was really good. I thought the one on George Clooney was fantastic.”) He also stumbled upon a documentary on the Voyager space missions, The Farthest.
Inside the Royals’ clubhouse, Yost’s habit is something of a secret. His players know how particular he is about his workout schedule. They know less about his television expertise.
“I know he spends a lot of time on the treadmill,” second baseman Whit Merrifield said.
“You always hear him talking about his steps,” starter Jason Hammel said. “If he gets his steps in, he’s usually pretty happy.”
Yost, though, has at least one kindred spirit in Danny Duffy, the Royals’ Opening Day starter. Duffy spends less time on Netflix than his manager, he says. But he understands his appreciation for Breaking Bad.
“I’ve seen Breaking Bad a hundred times,” Duffy said. “So I might just have to check that out again — check what Walter White is up to.”
That his players know little about his viewing habits is partly by design. Since taking over as Royals manager in 2010, Yost has sought to create a comfortable environment for his players. The goal guides everything he does, from protecting struggling players in interviews to limiting his time in the clubhouse. Hammel loathes blanket categorization, but there is one certainty: Yost is “definitely a players’ manager,” he said.
After parts of eight seasons, the style has resulted in two World Series appearances and one world championship, Yost overseeing one of the most unlikely turnarounds in sports. Once referred to as a “dunce” by the Wall Street Journal, once maligned for his bullpen choices and tactics, Yost is now both the winningest and longest-tenured manager in franchise history.
“Ned is one of those guys that allows us to be ourselves,” Hammel said. “He’s a manager that allows players and teams to create their own identity.”
The only question, of course, is how long he will stay. Yost’s contract, extended before the 2016 season, expires after this season. At some point, when the time is right, he will retire to his farm back in Georgia.
The time is not here yet. Yost is still energized by the job, he says, still motivated. He is still focused on today. Yost and Royals general manager Dayton Moore have yet to discuss the future beyond this year. Those conversations will come “at the appropriate time,” Moore said.