BREAK DOWN THE SHOP GUYS OUR WORK HERE IS FINISHED

Heck of a WBC for Kelvin Herrera. Love having that guy on our team.

Relax. At least Frenchy is having a good spring, assuaging any worries we might have about RF.

The fact that Hoch is in the pen and Frenchy is batting 8th (I almost typed "hitting") at least suggests that there is *some* common sense at play in Royals camp.

I don't think that makes up for the fact they're still on the team though...esp when Wil Myers was sitting behind Frenchy.

But the end game was to trade Myers all along, that's why he was never brought up. I've warmed up to the Shields trade....a little bit. Still think it's ****ing stupid in the grand scheme of things.

I think every Royals fan will tussle with the "what if" narrative concerning Myers. I will remain optimistic knowing that we were able to (on paper) make significant rotation improvements without giving up any of our front line guys.

Yes, Wil, might be a star some day, but I'm happy we still have Butler, Gordon, Escobar, Perez, Moustakas and (to some degree) Hosmer.

I will mostly be mad if Hosmer flops and Myers becomes a breakout star.

Has there been any chatter on Starling and Zimmer this spring?

Rany was on Twitter the other day talking about Bubba. It wasn't positive.

He caught over 2000 games, had over 2000 hits, and had a lifetime OBP of .366. Almost all of his hits came while playing catcher, so I'd guess that he would be in the top 5 for career hits while playing catcher and likely in the top 5 for stolen bases while playing catcher as well. The OBP is also pretty stout.

He was well past his prime when he when he donned a Royal jersey, but he was also one of the best catchers in baseball for a number of years.

To be honest, he's a guy who is probably just a little shy of a ticket to Cooperstown...

Rany always skews pessimistic. I can only take so much of him.

Rany is the sunshine, it's Rob who was the rainclouds.

Rany is not like that at all, he's a realist that crunches numbers and uses sabermetrics to discuss things. He loves the royals and when he sees things to like about them he points those out, however it's been hard over the past 15 years.

James Shields directing traffic this morning.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BFzsqkVCAAASkZY.jpg

There are serious and legitimate questions about Bubba Starling's hit tool.

He's a 6 grade or higher on every other skill (power - 6; run - 8; throw- 6; field- 8). The only question is whether he will make enough contact. He's incredibly raw, still, and there's been a lot of talk about adjusting his swing/approach to leverage his skills.

The struggles this spring have focused on hm having slow/not natural reactions. That could be one of two things:

1) He is still adjusting to the mechanical swing work and doesn't have the muscle memory built up yet
2) He just isn't a good reaction guy.

Even if his hit tool doesn't improve, Starling's defense, running ability and power could make him a Drew Stubbs-like player at the MLB level.

He's going to move slowly, regardless. And that's not necessarily a warning sign.