Kansas City Royals

In a few weeks, the National League will face off against the American League at Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark in the MLB All-Star Game. The Midsummer Classic is not just an exhibition, since home-field advantage in the World Series is at stake. 

Common sense would say that with so much riding on that one game, each side would want their best players to be on the field. However, looking at the current leaderboard in the American League, that is not the case.

As of the latest update back on June 8, the Kansas City Royals have seven players—Salvador Perez, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar, Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain and Kendrys Morales—who would start the All-Star Game if the voting concluded today.

The current voting system works like this: Fans around the country can go online and submit up to 35 ballots with the players of their choice. It doesn't matter what the player's stats are to that point; if the fan wants to vote for them, they can.

Over in Kansas City—a fanbase that is apparently rejuvenated after last year's surprise run to the World Series—they are sending in their ballots in ridiculous volume.

Enough talk; let's delve into the American League starting lineup if the voting ended today.

Salvador Perez is currently the leading vote-getter of anyone in the MLB, and he has more than double the votes of Oakland's Stephen Vogt, who sits in second place among catchers. But looking at the stats, Perez is nowhere near the best catcher in the league.

Perez has the fourth-highest wins above replacement (WAR) among AL catchers, trailing Vogt, Russell Martin and Brian McCann. Don't like WAR? Okay, all three of the others have at least as many homers, better on-base percentages, better slugging percentages and higher wRC+ totals.

Verdict: Perez has not been the best catcher in the American League so far this year, but he has established himself as a solid backstop, so this is one of the lesser injustices that will be discussed. 

At first base, Eric Hosmer has accumulated the most votes. Yes, he is ahead of two-time MVP and former Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera. While that comes as quite a surprise looking at the two players' overall bodies of work, the All-Star Game is not supposed to take career accomplishments into account, just the current season.

But Cabrera has been better than Hosmer in seemingly every aspect of the game. Cabrera has a higher WAR, more home runs, more RBI, a higher walk rate, a lower strikeout rate, a higher on-base percentage and a higher slugging percentage. 

Hosmer might not even be the second-best first baseman in the league. Mark Teixeira has more than twice as many home runs, more RBI, a higher slugging percentage, a higher walk rate, lower walk rate and a higher wRC+ total than Hosmer.

Verdict: Hosmer is having a breakout season and is finally starting to tap into his massive potential, but he is not the best first baseman in the American League. Cabrera is, and it is a joke that Hosmer has 500,000-plus more votes.

Alcides Escobar is leading the voting at shortstop and, like most of his fellow teammates, it is hard to make a case for him to truly be the best at his position. He does not lead the AL in any statistical category except the lowest strikeout percentage.

He currently sports a terrible .090 isolated power, which is found by subtracting the player's batting average from his slugging percentage. Fellow shortstops Brad Miller, Xander Bogaerts and Marcus Semien all have been worth more wins than Escobar, per FanGraphs, confirming that Escobar really doesn't deserve to start the Midsummer Classic.

Verdict: Escobar is not the best shortstop in the American League. But, like Perez, he is an alright choice because no other shortstop has really separated himself from the pack.

The hot corner is where the biggest travesty is happening. Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson possesses the second-highest WAR in all of baseball—he trails only the red-hot Bryce Harper—yet he finds himself behind Mike Moustakas by more than 1.7 million votes.

If the season ended today Donaldson would garner plenty of MVP consideration. Yet he can't even start the All-Star Game? It is absurd, and I won't even bother to break down the stats because Donaldson beats Moustakas in nearly every category.

Verdict: It's a complete joke; Donaldson is a much better all-around player.

In the outfield, Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon would start the All-Star Game along with Mike Trout. Cain has the most votes. To me, this is perfectly fine. Both Royal outfielders rank in the top seven in WAR, so it is understandable why they are toward the top of the leaderboard.

Verdict: While I think Adam Jones and Josh Reddick deserve some serious consideration, the outfield is just fine. 

The final position to decipher is designated hitter. The leader is—no surprise here—a Royal. It's Kendrys Morales. Maybe there is not a huge crop from which to choose on the ballot since it's hard to classify the position?

Well, Nelson Cruz is a DH option on the ballot. Cruz has been one of the best hitters in MLB to this point, and there is no way to even make a case for Morales.

Verdict: Similar to my third base verdict, refer to that one for further clarification. I won't list the categories that Cruz beats Morales in because there are so many, including batting average, isolated power, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, wOBA and wRC+.

Finally, there are two instances even more ridiculous than the ones previously mentioned. Omar Infante is barely trailing Houston star Jose Altuve—who is currently in first place—despite sporting the worst OPS+ in the entire league, per Baseball-Reference.

And for the icing on the cake, Alex Rios, a Royal, is currently fourth in the standings for AL outfielders. Rios has only played 16 games in 2015.

Sixteen games!

It's not like he has impressed in that limited action, either. He is hitting .220 with one homer and eight RBI.

If this was an exhibition game, this topic wouldn't even need to be debated. Let the fans see who they want to start. But when the game comes with such huge ramifications—home-field advantage in the World Series—there is no excuse to not get the best players on the field.

Clearly, there is still time left to vote, and hopefully the Kansas City fans have already used up all of their votes, so there might not be seven Royals starting the game in July.

But the fact that it is even being considered is not good for the game of baseball, and it should certainly be changed.

All statistics courtesy of FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

Jeremy Guthrie probably wishes he didn't have to work on Memorial Day like most other Americans. 

The Kansas City Royals starting pitcher was absolutely rocked Monday against the New York Yankees, giving up an unbelievable 11 runs while recording just three outs. That put him in the history books for all of the wrong reasons, according to MLB Stat of the Day on Twitter:

Jeremy Guthrie joins Jason Jennings (7/29/07) as only starting pitchers to surrender 11 ER in one inning or fewer. pic.twitter.com/VeVXHZrlMW

— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) May 25, 2015

It also put his performance among some of the worst pitching displays of all time, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports:

By any measure, today's start from Jeremy Guthrie is one of the 50 worst in baseball history. His Game Score of -11 is tied for 32nd worst.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 25, 2015

Yes, Guthrie would probably have much preferred to be grilling and enjoying a beer Monday. Instead, he gave up a two-run homer to Chase Headley, a three-run shot to Brian McCann and another three-run homer to Brett Gardner in the first inning alone. Stephen Drew followed up with yet another three-run bomb in the second inning, which led to Guthrie's early departure.

Guthrie has certainly had an up-and-down season even before Monday's debacle. As Lee Judge of the Kansas City Star noted, he went 1-2 with an ERA of 6.52 over his first five starts before reversing course, going 3-0 with an ERA of 1.96 in his three starts leading up to Monday. 

As Judge noted, Guthrie has struggled at times with the difference in velocity between his fastball and changeup. When he's struggled, he's tended to throw those pitches at about the same speed, allowing hitters to adjust to that velocity. 

Whatever the case was Monday, the Yankees certainly had no issue identifying Guthrie's pitches and teeing off on them. Guthrie and the Royals will simply be hoping he can put this brutal start behind him and regain the form he was showing in the three starts prior to Monday's shellacking.   

It took a lot longer than expected, and it didn't come without heaps of criticism and loads of doubt, but it appears as if Mike Moustakas finally has figured out this Major League Baseball thing.

The Kansas City Royals third baseman, heretofore considered a bust after failing to live up to his potential as the second overall selection in the 2007 draft, has started 2015 much the way he ended 2014, putting him on the path toward what looks like a breakout campaign.

Think back to last October. The Royals, who hadn't reached the postseason in nearly three full decades, were on their way to a World Series that would come down to the very last out of Game 7 with the tying run but 90 feet away. Moustakas, meanwhile, was on his way to a confidence-boosting postseason performance in which he smacked five home runs, which was both the most among all players and a franchise record.

Prior to the start of Kansas City's thrilling run, Moustakas was a career .236/.290/.379 hitter. And 2014 was inarguably his worst season, too, as he set career lows in each of the triple-slash stats. He was so lost at one point in late May that the Royals demoted him to Triple-A for a brief time.

Coming off his powerful postseason and now a month into the new campaign, Moustakas looks like a different hitter altogether—and that's a good thing.

Still only 26 and perhaps building on the confidence acquired from knowing he could hang with some of the best arms in baseball last October, Moustakas has made necessary adjustments that have helped him hit .312/.375/.450 through 27 games.

The biggest change? The lefty-swinging Moustakas, a dead-pull hitter through the first four years of his big league career, has been hitting the ball up the middle and to left field more—and finding success when he does.

In fact, Moustakas has done the least when trying to pull the ball, hitting just .235 (8-for-34). By comparison, he is 8-for-26 (.308) up the middle and—get this—18-for-38 (.474) the opposite way.

Among those opposite-field knocks? Moustakas' first home run that he didn't pull to right or hit out to center—and it came on Opening Day. Here's the highlight:

Entering the season, Moustakas was the exact opposite of a No. 2-style hitter, which made it all the more odd when manager Ned Yost penciled him into the lineup there from the get-go.

Except now, after more than a month's worth of games, that appears to be a stroke of genius. Batting second seems to jibe with Moustakas' new approach, helping him concentrate on using all fields.

This newfound ability to go the other way also can be seen in Moustakas' numbers against southpaws. A .220/.278/.339 career hitter versus left-handers, he has 15 hits in 50 at-bats—that's an even .300 mark—against them so far this year.

Those two elements—hitting the ball to the opposite field and being able to connect against same-side pitching—both come from a batter's understanding and execution of letting the ball travel deep before swinging.

"Last year, everything when [Moustakas] got into the [batter's] box, his strength was pulling the ball," Yost told reporters after Moustakas produced the winning knock in the eighth inning of a 6-5 win over the Minnesota Twins on April 21. "The opposition knew that, and they weren't going to give him anything to pull, so he kept popping up pitches.

"And [this April 21 game] is a perfect example of what he's able to do," Yost continued with his praise of Moustakas, who went 3-for-5 with a home run off lefty Tommy Milone and that game-winning single—to the opposite field—off lefty closer Glen Perkins.

"Off Perkins, he can stay back, bring his hands in and drive the ball the opposite way," Yost said. "Off [another lefty Tommy] Milone, he got a pitch—boom—he can hit it into the seats. He's becoming a more complete, well-rounded offensive player."

As if to prove just that, Moustakas also has focused on combating—and beating—defensive shifts by doing things like this:

And even this:

While everyone expects—or at least wants—all young players with a pedigree like Moustakas' to be instant success stories, it often takes time to adjust to playing in the majors.

Heck, just look at fellow Royals former stud prospect Alex Gordon—also the No. 2 pick, back in 2005—who disappointed initially, looked like a bust after a few years and then finally broke out at age 27 in 2011. Now Gordon is one of the most established all-around players in the game.

Moustakas isn't there yet. He has had hot stretches before (e.g. the first half of 2012), so he needs to prove he can sustain his early-season success for more than a month, let alone over an entire year.

But if he remains productive at the plate, Moustakas may well be on his way to a later-than-expected breakout, and just in the nick of time for a player who more or less was on his last chance this year.

Statistics are accurate through Wednesday, May 6, and courtesy of MLB.com, MiLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter:@JayCat11.

The thought was prevalent through the entire hot stove season.

Knowing the Kansas City Royals could not afford whatever price tag James Shields would eventually have attached to him, therefore losing their ace over the previous two seasons, the thought was the team had no realistic way of replacing their No. 1 starter.

Yordano Ventura was a potential budding star, and maybe Danny Duffy was finally ready to take on a lead role in the rotation. But based on budget and organizational resources, replacing Shields’ overall contributions seemed improbable for the Royals one offseason after winning the American League pennant.

So when they signed Edinson Volquez to a two-year, $20 million contract in December, it made only ripples in an ocean of massive offseason waves. From the Royals’ perspective, though, they believed in Volquez’s standout 2014 and viewed him as a guy who could solidify their rotation.

Through the first calendar month of this season, Volquez is looking like the steal of an offseason that had numerous blockbuster trades and signings.

#Royals Edinson Volquez has a 1.86 ERA over his last 21 starts. Opponents are batting just .221/.301/.303 against him.

— Ace of MLB Stats (@AceballStats) April 28, 2015

More recently, Volquez has a 1.91 ERA through his first four starts as a Royal. His 0.85 WHIP is the fourth lowest in the AL, and his 2.61 FIP is eighth.

Sure, he is currently serving a five-game suspension for his part in the Royals’ brawl with the Chicago White Sox last week, and yes, all four of his starts have come against the weak-hitting Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox.

But still, he’s done what a quality starter should do against those lineups. Volquez has allowed more than one earned run only once this season, and in that start in which he allowed three to the Twins, he was an out away from completing eight innings.

“He's going deep into games and throwing the ball very, very well,” Royals manager Ned Yost told reporters after Volquez’s second outing.

Volquez’s problem has always been command. When he is on, he’s capable of filthy stuff. But when he does not know where it’s going, it can lead to WHIP numbers in the 1.40-1.60 range as he gives up a good amount of hits and walks.

From 2010-2013, Volquez was among the worst in baseball at preventing baserunners. His WHIP in those seasons was 1.53, the third-worst number in the majors during those years. Making matters worse for Volquez was his 69.8 percent strand rate in that time, again one of the worst marks in the majors, according to FanGraphs.

So, when Volquez was allowing baserunners in those four seasons, he was not doing a good job of leaving them on base.

With the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2014, Volquez drastically improved his standing in both categories. His WHIP dropped to 1.23, and when he did allow hitters to reach, he stranded them 77.5 percent of the time.

This season his strand rate has dropped back to previous levels, but his WHIP has also dropped drastically. He also has an 11.8 percent swinging-strike rate this season, which was fifth best in the AL going into Wednesday’s games, FanGraphs says. That mark is also his highest since 2010, when it was 13 percent.

Another change for Volquez is in his repertoire. He started throwing his curveball with a knuckle-curve grip last season with the Pirates. He has continued that trend at a higher occurrence this season, and opposing lineups are hitting .182 against it, according to BrooksBaseball.net.

Maybe it is not a coincidence then that Volquez also has a 2.61 FIP, which would be his career low in that category. It also says he is pitching well even without Kansas City’s vaunted defense behind him.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am *thoroughly* on board with The Edinson Volquez Experience. Hot damn he looks good.

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) April 26, 2015

Volquez has credited this resurgence to some mechanical fixes while in Pittsburgh but also to an overall upgrade in his preparation. Physically, Volquez got into bad delivery habits after he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2009.

According to Vahe Gregorian of The Kansas City Star, Volquez, 31, combed through video of himself throughout his career once he got to Pittsburgh and determined he needed to get back to the basic mechanics of his younger days.

“We’re trying to get his delivery consistent,” Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage told KDKA radio in Pittsburgh last year. “It’s a reconstruction, really, right now. Not only physically, in the delivery, but also mentally.”

There are plenty of recent trends that have transformed Volquez from a once-promising disappointment to an effective front-line starter. If he keeps them up, the Royals will not have missed James Shields one bit.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Last October, the Kansas City Royals were baseball's Cinderella. A scant six months later, they appear to be auditioning for the role of Wicked Stepsister.

The latest salvo came Thursday night, when three Kansas City players were ejected during a rowdy, protracted brawl with the Chicago White Sox. That brought the number of Royals tossed over the team's last half-dozen contests to nine, as the Los Angeles Times' Bill Shaikin noted:

Nine ejections in six games for #Royals.

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) April 24, 2015

Thursday's donnybrook began in the bottom of the seventh, when White Sox center fielder Adam Eaton hit an inning-ending comebacker to Royals starter Yordano Ventura. Ventura yelled an easy-to-lip-read obscenity at Eaton before throwing the ball to first. Eaton reacted, the benches and dugouts cleared, and soon fists and bodies were flying. 

When calmer heads finally prevailed, Ventura was sent packing along with Kansas City outfielder Lorenzo Cain and pitcher Edinson Volquez, plus Chicago hurlers Chris Sale and Jeff Samardzija.

Earlier in the game, Ventura hit White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu with a pitch, and later Sale beaned Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas. 

Oh, and by the way, the Royals ultimately prevailed, 3-2 in 13 innings.

The bad blood between Chicago and K.C.—American League Central rivals who will see plenty more of each other—began brewing on the first weekend of the season when six players were hit by pitches during a three-game set, as Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times notes. 

The White Sox, though, are far from the only club to feel the Royals' new-found wrath.

There's also no love lost between Kansas City and the Oakland A's, particularly Athletics third baseman Brett Lawrie. After Lawrie put a takeout slide on Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar, he was plunked by Ventura and had his head buzzed by a 100 mph fastball from Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera.

Herrera was suspended for five games and Ventura was slapped with a fine, per MLB.com.

On April 12, Ventura was in the middle of another benches-clearing brouhaha in Southern California that involved a staredown at home plate with Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout, who has at least 50 pounds on the slender right-hander. 

You can nitpick the details of each incident and assign blame accordingly, but here's what's undeniable: Kansas City is the common denominator. Everywhere they go, there they are. And they're always, apparently, ready to rumble.

Ventura showed flashes of his testy self in the 2014 World Series, when he gave the stank-eye to then-San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who fired back with a pretty awesome rejoinder, per CSN Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic:

Sandoval on Ventura staring him down: "It's part of the game. Probably, he's jealous that I've got two World Series."

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) October 29, 2014

Still, this is quite an image reversal from a year ago, as ESPN's David Schoenfield points out:

https://twitter.com/dschoenfield/status/591424243503595522

Playing with a chip on your shoulder and refusing to back down is one thing, but Kansas City is treading into murkier territory, testing the line between tough and plain dirty.

"A lot of other teams have noticed the way they've been playing," Lawrie said after his Royals dust-up, per The Kansas City Star's Andy McCullough. "This is some tired stuff that's been going on; a lot of people around the league are watching the style of play that’s been going on."

So far, the bad-boy behavior hasn't impacted the Royals in the standings; after Thursday's win they sit atop the division at 12-4.

Eventually, though, you've got to figure this will become a distraction, if it hasn't already.

At the very least, Kansas City has put itself in the league's crosshairs, meaning future penalties could be swift and harsh. And the Royals can't afford to lose key contributors like Herrera and Ventura if they hope to defend their American League crown.

For now, the best idea is probably to take a deep breath and follow the sage advice skipper Ned Yost dispensed on Opening Day, per USA Today's Paul White, "Let's calm down, it's a long year."

When the Kansas City Royals won the American League last year, many thought it might have been a fluke. The team had to make an incredible comeback just to make the playoffs, then relied on historic bullpen performances and highlight-reel defense on its way to the World Series.

When 2014 ace James Shields signed a contract with the San Diego Padres during free agency, it seemed extremely unlikely for Kansas City to repeat last year’s success. But the team is off to a hot start—it is 7-2 as of this writing, after starting the season 7-0—and its lineup has been mashing. It’s early yet, but it seems perfectly fair to call the Royals contenders.

So what are the keys to Kansas City’s season? What makes the Royals contenders? Here are three things to think about.

Their Offseason Was Better Than You Thought

The Royals’ offseason moves this year garnered a range of criticism. Some, like Grantland’s Ben Lindbergh citing FanGraphs stats, argued that Kansas City took a step backward when it replaced Nori Aoki, Billy Butler and James Shields (5.7 WAR combined) with Kendrys Morales, Alex Rios and Edinson Volquez (minus-0.8 WAR combined, including Kris Medlen).

Others, like ESPN.com’s Christina Kahrl, credited Royals general manager Dayton Moore with an effective offseason and predicted that Kansas City would compete for a title once again.

The truth is somewhere in the middle.

Lindbergh was correct that Morales, Rios and Volquez are not equivalent to Shields, Butler and Aoki. But, as he noted, the former three are projected to improve dramatically in 2015, and there was never much of a chance for Shields to return anyway.

Nine games in, Rios is hitting .321 with an .809 OPS (although he’s now headed to the DL). Morales is even better—.351 average and 1.036 OPS—and the Royals lineup in general has destroyed opposing pitchers. Seven Royals are hitting over .300, and two players (Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer) are likely to improve upon their comparatively slow starts.

Volquez is 1-1, but he’s allowed just four runs and nine hits in 15.2 innings, good for a tiny WHIP of 0.70. He’s coming off two Tommy John surgeries, so the risk of injury is notable. But if he can stay healthy, Volquez will have been a smart (and economic) offseason pickup.

Most importantly, the rest of the Royals roster went largely unchanged, and production hasn’t diminished. The otherworldly trio of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland have allowed just three hits and zero runs in their combined 10 innings pitched. Shortstop Alcides Escobar and catcher Salvador Perez are off to hot starts as well.

And Lorenzo Cain remains Lorenzo Cain:

Lorenzo Cain is just showing off today. pic.twitter.com/filxptJr99

— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) April 16, 2015

Defense and Speed

The Royals’ postseason success last year could be attributed to any number of things: clutch hitting, an unhittable bullpen, key contributions from unexpected sources and even their delirious fanbase. But Kansas City’s defense, and its aggressive baserunning, was arguably what kept the team alive.

Let’s start with defense. In last year’s ALDS, the Royals were saved on two occasions by spectacular defensive plays. First, in the second game of the series, Jarrod Dyson did this:

That double play was essential to the Royals victory, given that it preserved a 1-1 tie that wasn’t broken until the 11th inning.

Then, in Game 3, Cain topped Dyson by robbing the Angels of two consecutive hits (and at least one run):

Surprisingly, Kansas City was a well-below-average defensive team in 2014. But the Royals have retained their speedy youngsters and (at this point) have the league’s sixth-best defense in 2015.

On a different note, the Royals were arguably the best-running team in baseball last year. Per SportingCharts, the Royals stole an average of 0.94 bases per game—and 15 more bases than the second-place team. That aggressive running paid off, particularly in the team’s remarkable Wild Card Game victory against Oakland:

Kansas City is off to a fast start on the bases again, with eight stolen bases in nine games (a number similar to last year’s average). Rios and Cain have stolen two bases each, and while the absurdly fast Dyson hasn’t swiped a base yet, he’s only appeared in three games.

Pitching and batting are less predictable than running and defense. The Royals can expect to improve upon last year’s defense and continue their success on the basepaths.

Youth

This is Royals fans’ biggest cause for excitement. In Kansas City’s loss to Minnesota last night, eight of the Royals’ nine batters were 30 years old or younger—and Morales is just 31. That’s crazy. Eric Hosmer is only 25, Perez is 24 and the oft-criticized Mike Moustakas is 26.

On the other side of the ball, the Royals’ superlative relief trio—Davis, Herrera and Holland—are all 29 or younger. The starting rotation is older (four of the five starters are 31 or older), but the team’s most exciting pitching prospect, Yordano Ventura, is just 23. Ventura is young, and his stuff is nasty:

The Bottom Line

The Royals are young. They can run and play defense, and their offense—so far—has been dominant. Baseball is a long, long season, and the team will undoubtedly grapple with injuries, slumps and downturns. But there is good reason for the Royals to expect a postseason berth.

And, as Kansas City fans saw in last year’s Wild Card Game, anything can happen in the playoffs.

Kansas City Royals outfielder Alex Rios has returned to the lineup after being out since April 13 with a hand injury. 

Continue for updates.

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Rios Activated from the Disabled List

Saturday, May 30

The Royals announced that Rios was activated from the DL on Saturday. Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star reported that the outfielder will bat seventh against the Cubs on Saturday. 

On April 13, Jeffery Flanagan of MLB.com revealed Rios was forced to exit the game after suffering a hand contusion. The injury came with the Royals owning a 6-3 advantage in the top of the eighth inning.

The 34-year-old entered the game with 25 plate appearances to his name in 2015. He was hitting .360 with one home run and seven runs batted in.

Rios was one of the Royals' bigger offseason deals. He and Kansas City agreed to a one-year, $11 million contract. It might be unrealistic to expect the veteran to slug 20 homers again, but the Royals will need him to provide some power in the bottom half of the lineup.

Of all the offseason's hot questions, this might have been the hottest: "Who will be the Kansas City Royals of 2015?" In other words, which team will laugh in the face of expectations, sneak into the playoffs and streak through October?

Here's a radical answer: the Kansas City Royals.

Oh, no one forgot about Kansas City. The Royals are the defending American League champions, after all, a club that fought to Game 7 of the World Series and came within a misplaced Madison Bumgarner fastball of winning it all.

But when it came time for picks and prognostications, many experts bypassed the Royals in favor of other AL Central contenders: the powerful Detroit Tigers, the revamped Chicago White Sox and even the upstart Cleveland Indians, who landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated. (To be fair, another version of the magazine's cover featured KC.)

Yes, it's sexy and exciting to seek out the next big thing. No one gets bonus points for predicting that last year's surprise squad will be this year's surprise squad—how terribly unoriginal.

If you've watched these Royals over the season's first week, however, you've seen a team that's primed to repeat its magical 2014 run.

All the ingredients are there: the speed, the defense, the situational execution, the solid starting pitching and the shutdown bullpen. In short, Kansas City baseball.

"It's the same team in terms of their athletic ability and what they can do on the field," skipper Ned Yost said after the Royals' season-opening sweep of the White Sox, per Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan. "It's a totally different team in terms of their swagger, their confidence, their ability to understand who they are and play winning baseball."

If we're nitpicking, it's not exactly the same team. Several key pieces, including ace right-hander James Shields, are gone. But Yost's point is well-taken; the 2015 Royals have much the same look as the previous edition, with an added dash of big-game experience. 

After thumping the Los Angeles Angels 9-2 on Sunday, Kansas City sits at 6-0. Yes, it's early. No, scratch that, it's way early.

But more important than the Royals' undefeated start is how they've looked getting there—namely, like the team that reeled off a record-setting eight straight wins to open the 2014 postseason.

In fact, they've looked better. The Royals pounded out 14 hits—including three doubles, a triple and a home run—in Sunday's win. Entering the game, they were second in MLB with a .324 batting average. 

But it still begins and ends with the leather, as Lorenzo Cain displayed with a sensational diving catch in the fifth against the Halos that robbed C.J. Cron of a hit.

The play was mostly lost in the shuffle of a blowout that also featured words between Angels star Mike Trout and Royals starter Yordano Ventura and a bench-clearing incident.

But that's sort of the point: Jaw-dropping defense has become the norm in Kansas City, so routine that it's easily overshadowed.

Royals outfielders led all of baseball in both Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) and Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) last season, per FanGraphs. And though right fielder Nori Aoki left via free agency, the core group—Cain, Alex Gordon and super-sub Jarrod Dyson—remains intact.

So why didn't Kansas City generate more preseason buzz? It's partly due to the moves they made (and didn't make) over the winter. ESPN.com's David Schoenfield summed up the thoughts of many when he opined, "No team had a less stimulating offseason than the Royals." 

Working with a small-market budget, the Royals brought in outfielder Alex Rios, designated hitter Kendrys Morales and starters Edinson Volquez and Kris Medlen, all of whom come with warts.

Medlen is still working his way back from a second Tommy John surgery. But the right-hander, who posted a 3.11 ERA in 197 innings in 2013 with the Atlanta Braves, is expected to start throwing minor league rehab games next month, per KansasCity.com's Andy McCullough. 

The rest of the reinforcements are already contributing. Entering play Monday, Volquez owned a 1.13 ERA with five strikeouts in eight innings pitched, while Rios and Morales were hitting .360 and .400, respectively.

Yes, of course, small-sample alert. But the Royals don't need the newbies to be that good. They just need them to pull their weight on an already talented team. So far, so good.

Speaking of good, the AL Central might end up being the most competitive division, top to bottom, in all of baseball. The Tigers look especially fearsome in the early going. They're also 6-0 behind a Miguel Cabrera-led offense that has juggernaut written all over it.

Nothing's guaranteed for the Royals. They might even be underdogs despite all their ability and recent success.

And that's just how they like it. Remember, for all its late-summer and fall heroics, last year's club started out 49-50 before finishing a torrid 40-23.

Bottom line: Count the Royals out at your peril. While you're busy searching for the 2015 version of the Kansas City Royals, they'll go on being the Kansas City Royals.

All statistics current as of April 12 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

The Kansas City Royals locked up one of their most promising young arms Saturday. According to ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick (via SportsCenter), Yordano Ventura agreed to a five-year, $23 million extension with the team. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports provided more detail:

Sources: Ventura deal is for $23M guaranteed. 5 guaranteed yrs, 2 option yrs.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) April 4, 2015

Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan initially reported Thursday that Ventura and the Royals were working on a five-year deal with about $20 million guaranteed that would have a club option for a sixth year.

There wasn't really any threat that the 23-year-old was on the verge of leaving Kansas City. He's not set to become a free agent until 2020 at the earliest. This deal does, however, ensure the team will avoid Ventura's arbitration years from 2017 through 2019, which could've proved costly.

Ventura is coming off a very strong 2014 campaign. He finished with a 14-10 record and a 3.20 ERA. According to FanGraphs, he had the second-highest WAR (2.4) among the Royals' starting pitchers and posted the most strikeouts per nine innings (7.74).

The right-hander also dazzled in the American League Division Series and World Series, during which he threw 19.1 innings, giving up three earned runs and striking out 11 batters.

The Royals announced in March that Ventura will be their starting pitcher on Opening Day, per MLB on Twitter:

.@Royals tap @YordanoVentura for #OpeningDay assignment vs @WhiteSox. http://t.co/MfcICZVbwK pic.twitter.com/gLt2LULkUD

— MLB (@MLB) March 26, 2015

According to ESPN Stats & Info, Steve Busby is the only pitcher in team history younger than Ventura to start an Opening Day:

Yordano Ventura: 2nd-youngest Opening Day starter in Royals history (age 23), surpassed by only Steve Busby in 1973

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 25, 2015

Of course, this extension isn't without risks. Passan noted in his article that it may not bode well for Ventura's health that he is 6'0" and 180 pounds but throws 100 miles per hour. That's a lot of stress placed on a somewhat slight frame.

Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci also put Ventura on his list of pitchers at risk for injury in 2015 because his innings pitched jumped from 150 in 2013 to 208.1 in 2014 (playoffs included).

"The Royals tend to be one of the more liberal organizations when it comes to innings limits, and manager Ned Yost said last spring that Ventura could add 30 to 50 innings (or 20 to 33 percent) to the 150 he threw in 2013," Verducci wrote. "Ventura added 58.1 thanks to Kansas City's playoff run. For a 6'0" right-hander who throws 98 mph, he bears watching."

Despite those concerns, few will argue with the Royals' decision to extend Ventura this offseason rather than waiting another year or two. Ventura has electric stuff, and if he stays healthy, he could be the ace of the staff for years to come.

And even if he blows out his arm in 2015 and is never the same again, the team didn't commit a massive sum financially, so it wouldn't be saddled with a high sunk cost.

Second baseman Omar Infante was a key figure in the Kansas City Royals' surprising run to the World Series last year, but the veteran middle infielder is ailing leading up to the start of the 2015 regular season.

Continue for updates.

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Infante Plans to DH Wednesday

Tuesday, March 10

"Infante plans to resume his throwing program on Saturday. He expects to DH tomorrow. He hopes to play 10 games before Opening Day," reported Andy McCullough of KansasCity.com.

Infante has been bothered by pain in his right elbow as of late, and an MRI revealed it was a result of bone spurs, per Jeffrey Flanagan of Royals.com on March 7. Flanagan did note there was no ligament damage, though.

The Royals are lucky to have caught the injury now since there is still plenty of time remaining in spring training prior to the start of the regular season.

Infante is an important player due to his blend of skills and versatility, so Kansas City will do everything possible to ensure that he is able to heal properly.

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