As well as the draft, we have a 4 game series starting with the Royals today, so I sent some questions off to Will McDonald of Royals Review, SB Nation's Kansas City Royals blog.
Who has been your early season MVP?
I guess by WAR it has been Alex Gordon. I was tempted to answer with Melky Cabrera as well, but his defensive numbers have been terrible. Certainly none of the pitchers are worth talking about, although Collins and Crow have had their moments.
You guys called up Eric Hosmer, how has he looked?
The consensus is that he's looked good and ready. He got off to a very good start, i.e. his first three or four games, which makes a big difference in these matters. The fact that he's holding his own power-wise at such a young age is very encouraging.
Former top prospect Alex Gordon is finally playing like top prospect. What's changed for him?
Not much really. He's having more luck/success on BABIP, which has swung the overall triple slash around. He's walking and striking out less, so really it's all about the batting average. His BABIP is up from .250 last year to .330 this year. That's basically it. I don't really think he's much different, and if his walk rate is down for good, he might actually be getting worse long-term. Defensively, he's been better than expected, which has been nice.
Can we have a quick scouting report of the starting pitchers the Jays going to face?
Short answer: don't worry about it. Looking at the schedule, you're facing someone named Paulino on Monday and TBD on Tuesday. Nice start to a week. Danny Duffy will be a fun watch on Wednesday. I'm terrible on the scouting report type stuff, I'm afraid. Duffy's been a highly-touted young arm that's a big part of the team's path to contention, though he hasn't been fantastic thus far.
Joakim Soria is having a rough start to the year. What's going on with him? Is he going to lose the closer job?
More or less, he already has lost it. Lots of theories on Soria, who has looked "off" from the beginning. His strikeout/swinging strike numbers have been down, his command has been lacking, he's been inconsistent. Some think he's injured, some think he's "lost it" (whatever that might mean) some think he's screwing around with new pitches, etc. The current plan, which I truly don't understand, is that he's no longer the closer, and that when possible he's going to throw two inning stints to try to figure things out. OK then.
The Royals have a bunch a very good looking prospects, are Royals fans buying into the future is bright?
Yes and no. The prospect thing is never going to be fully a driver for mainstream and casual fans. The hardcore fans are excited, partially for good reason, partially out of hope, however. But there's years of accumulated ill will and despair and bitterness too. Lots of default skepticism that "we've heard about prospects before." Which is both true and not true. Still, being skeptical about prospects, of any team, is a nice default position to have.
Anything else we should know about the Royals. You guys wouldn't like to trade divisions would you?
Probably not, although I think in some sense it would be fun being in the AL East. Personally, I'm starting to get burnt out on millions of games against Cleveland and Detroit and the rest. As a pure fan, more Yankee and Red Sox games would be fun, at least for awhile. As for the other question, the Royal bullpen is exciting to watch at times, as its filled with interesting young arms. And Hosmer. Can't forget about him.