It’s a longshot. But where’s the fun in that?"Spring is the time of eternal

optimism in baseball Alex Wood Jersey , regardless how good or bad each team is. It’s time to Believe. For the Kansas City Royals, however, such hopes have already taken a hit. Salvador Perez will almost certainly miss the year after tearing his UCL, the somewhat rare non-pitcher Tommy John injury. However, for the Royals, a team fresh off a 104-loss season that saw no meaningful attempts to improve itself through trades or free agency, Perez’s injury doesn’t move the needle anywhere.Let’s be real here: the Royals are going nowhere this year. Yes, they play in a weak division. But there are plenty of good American League teams to soak up the Wild Card spots, and one glance at the Cleveland Indians roster shows how huge of a gap there is between them.That being said, you didn’t click on this article for a cold splash of water in the face. You came to wonder what the Royals would look like if they suddenly became magically great out of nowhere. You came to read an article that the cool, analytical fans are going to quote-tweet with snark and disdain.Some cold hard facts are also in order, and those facts are that it is possible for a team to immediately become a contender from the depths. Remember, the Minnesota Twins won 59 games in 2016—one more than the 2018 Royals—and won 85 the very next year. So in the vein of some of my fellow writers, let’s pretend a little. If they contend, this is what it’s gonna look like. Gather round, kids: it’s the evening before the AL Wild Card game. First Round Draft Picks Back From the DeadThe Royals suffered 2018 in no small part because a trio of top ten draft picks—Bubba Starling, Kyle Zimmer, and Hunter Dozier—had busted hard. But 2019 was a bizarre year of vengeance, and all three became core cogs in the machine.Dozier was the least surprising. With 409 of big league plate appearances coming into the season Zack Cozart Jersey , a steady spot at third base, and a fully healed wrist after his 2017 fracture, Dozier broke out in a big way. The big Dozier clubbed 25 home runs, provided solid defense, and swiped 20 bags thanks to his sneaky speed. Dozier was voted to the All-Star Game as one of the Royals’ multiple representatives.More surprising were Starling and Zimmer, who made their debuts and impacts in their first year. Starling parlayed a strong spring into an opening day roster spot, a spot secured after Alex Gordon pulled a hamstring at the end of March. While Starling struggled at the plate, he turned out to be every bit the defensive wiz he was predicted to be. On more than one occasion, Ned Yost ran a Terrance Gore/Billy Hamilton/Bubba Starling outfield, which, by the numbers, was the best defensive outfield in baseball. Meanwhile, it turned out that Driveline did indeed resurrect Zimmer, who eventually clocked in mid-to-upper 90s with his fastball and boasted a truly nasty set of breaking pitches. Yost and the Royals kept Zimmer in the bullpen to limit his innings, but Zimmer rewarded them: only a late-season Francisco Lindor grand slam bumped his ERA from a number starting with a ‘1’ to an ERA starting with a “2.”A Steady RotationThe Royals’ exciting finish in 2019 was due to many factors, but the first factor here is both perhaps the most important and most uninteresting. While the Royals’ rotation lacked a true ace, it was instead anchored by a trio of workhorse guys who, more often than not, simply did their job. the very beginning http://www.angelsfanproshop.com/authentic-zack-cozart-jersey , as he squeaked into the last bullpen spot for Opening Day and didn’t look back. It took major arm injuries to Peralta and Diekman, respectively, for Josh Staumont and Richard Lovelady to get called up.With an upper-90s fastball, Staumont often looked like a particularly volatile Yordano Ventura. He struck out 12 batters per nine innings, walking five per nine innings. Yes, Staumont got into trouble on more than one occasion. But Zimmer’s brilliance bailed him out multiple times, and Staumont was simply so dominant that he could make any hitter look like a fool even with wild pitches.As for Lovelady? He was simply effective, offering Ned Yost a skilled lefty in the vein of a less good Andrew Miller to mix and match in the later innings. Young Gun Position PlayersAfter 2018, Adalberto Mondesi’s MVP-worthy campaign in 2019 wasn’t that surprising. Mondesi never learned to walk, doing so at a rate under 4%, but when you hit .300 and do so leadoff you’ll get ample opportunity to shine. And that’s just what Mondesi did. The 24-year-old hit 30 home runs—and stole 60 bases. Every time he stepped to the plate was must-see TV. Meanwhile, O’Hearn didn’t quite replicate his 2018 season. After all, not many players manage a 153 wRC+ over a full season. O’Hearn did manage a wRC+ of 120, though, plenty good enough to lock down first base.But it was Nicky Lopez that surprised many. Lopez forced his way to Kansas City in May after definitively proving that he had nothing left to do in Triple-A Omaha. By July, Lopez had displaced Chris Owings as the go-to utility infielder, and by September Lopez and his truly slick fielding started at second base more often than not. This allowed Whit Merrifield to take on a Ben Zobrist-ian superutility role, a role Merrifield relished (especially when he got to play center field). So, who knows how the Wild Card Game will turn out. But thanks to some unlikely players Albert Pujols Jersey , the Royals had done it. They contended. Take that, pundits at the beginning of the year who thought they would flounder. Such is baseball. GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Listed at 5-foot-7 and 165 pounds, Nick Madrigal doesn’t look like a major leaguer. Then he takes the field.Madrigal is right at home in his first training camp with the Chicago White Sox.“I feel comfortable out here,” he said Monday. “I wasn’t nervous at all or anything. I was just excited to be out here, kind of just back on the field. That was the longest offseason I had ever in my life.”Madrigal was selected by the White Sox with the No. 4 pick in last year’s amateur draft and signed for a bonus of just over $6.4 million. The second baseman then led Oregon State to the NCAA title before playing 43 games in Chicago’s minor league system, finishing at Class-A Winston-Salem.Madrigal made a smooth transition to pro ball, showing off his impressive approach at the plate by hitting .303 with more walks (seven) than strikeouts (five). Whether he returns to Winston-Salem or begins the season with Double-A Birmingham, he could make his major league debut at some point this summer.“He’s a very polished player,” White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “I think now it’s probably just experience, you know, getting to play professional baseball at a different level, allowing his skills to play and you know, as we mentioned before, guys like that, if they put it together they move pretty quickly. They pretty much tell us where they should be. We’re hoping that he’s one of those guys.“He’s very calm, very collected, very confident, quietly confident. And we hope that plays well Mike Trout Jersey , it should play well for him.”It has played well for Madrigal all his life, from his prep career at Elk Grove High School near Sacramento, California, all the way through to his time with the Beavers.“Throughout my life I’ve always played in the biggest games,” said Madrigal, who turns 22 on March 5. “I’ve won at every single level I’ve ever been at, going back to high school, I mean even Cal Ripken league. I’ve played in the biggest games that I could possibly play in and I plan on continuing to do that moving forward.”Madrigal was drafted by Cleveland in the 17th round coming out of high school, but he decided to go to Oregon State. He hit .367 with three homers, 34 RBIs and 15 steals during his final season with the Beavers, rebounding nicely after being sidelined by a broken left wrist.Madrigal was among three Oregon State players to go in the first round last year, joining outfielder Trevor Larnach and shortstop Cadyn Grenier. He said his experience in Corvallis plays a huge role in how he approaches the game.“I was very grateful for all the stuff they taught me at Oregon State,” he said.One of the biggest concerns about Madrigal is his lack of power. He had only seven extra-base hits during his first stint in the minors last year.Getting stronger was one of Madrigal’s biggest offseason goals. He hit the weight room while he anxiously waited to play ball again.“Baseball’s been my life, no matter if we’re in season or out of season,” he said. “When you don’t play that many games, you’re ready to get back to it.”NOTES: OF Daniel Palka said he felt good a day after he left a spring training game with left hamstring tightness. He blamed the trouble on dehydration. “It was just my fault,” he said. “I didn’t hydrate well at all that night or during the day while we were out on the field.” … LHP Carlos Rodon threw 40 pitches in a simulated game. Rodon is one of Chicago’s top candidates to start on opening day. “Just gradually getting into it,” he said.