Kommandozentrale » BLOODLINES"The Royals hold the second-overall pick

for this June’s draft http://www.bravesfanproshop.com/authentic-nick-markakis-jersey , and will make their earliest selection since they took Mike Moustakas second in the 2007 draft. The pick has a chance to greatly improve a farm system devoid of much high-upside talent. There is much amateur baseball to be played between now and June, so draft positions can change greatly (Brady Singer was considered to be the top selection at this time last year), but Baseball America has already released its first 2019 Mock Draft. With the first selection, they have the Orioles taking Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman. The switch-hitting junior hit .408/.505/.628 with nine home runs in 67 games for the Beavers last year. With the second overall pick, they have the Royals taking Texas high school infielder Bobby Witt, Jr. So let’s learn more about the young prep star.The name should be familiar to some long-time baseball fans. His dad, Bobby Witt, Sr., was the third overall pick by the Rangers in 1985 out of the University of Oklahoma, and went on to win 142 games in a 16-year career with the Rangers, Athletics, Marlins, Cardinals, Devil Rays, Indians, and Diamondbacks. The younger Witt is a shortstop, described by Baseball America as a five-tool talent with plus skills both offensively and defensively.MLB Pipeline also ranks Witt as the second-best prospect in the draft, although they also note the same concern about his whiffs. But Witt is young, and could make improvement, and they write he “shows good barrel control and some willingness to use the entire field, so he could hit for average if he modifies his aggressive approach.” Even if he never becomes a high-average hitter, his power is very impressive for an infielder at the high school level. He won the High School Home Run Derby at Nationals Park last July during All-Star week. He does not have a huge frame, standing at just over six-feet tall, but has a nice fluid swing and barrels up well http://www.bravesfanproshop.com/authentic-nick-markakis-jersey , reminding me a bit of Carlos Correa. He has topped over 100 mph in his exit velocity and the ball does seem to jump off his bat. He does seem to drift onto his front foot a bit, but has the strength to make that work, hitting a home run one-handed at the home run derby in Washington.MLB Pipeline has his speed as 60 grade and suggests he could be a 20 home run/20 stolen base threat as a big leaguer. He ran a 60-yard dash in 6.4 seconds in St. Petersburg last year, one of the fastest players at the workout.His defense is described by 2080 Baseball as being “fundamentally sound” with solid arm strength. In fact, he has been clocked with a fastball in the low 90s on the mound. Witt has grown up around the game of baseball, an experience that seemed to help the maturation of the young star across the parking lot. He is described as a good student with good make up and mental toughness.Witt will turn 19 just after the draft, so he is not particularly young for his class and he is committed to Oklahoma. The Orioles recenlty hired his uncle, Doug Witt, as a scout.Baseball America has talked to scouts who think the overall depth of the 2019 draft is not looking great so far. But Rutschman and Witt seem to stand heads and tails above the class, at least initially. Luckily, the Royals will have a chance to grab one of them. It’s a longshot. But where’s the fun in that?"Spring is the time of eternal optimism in baseball, 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 Mike Foltynewicz Jersey , 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, 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 http://www.bravesfanproshop.com/authentic-nick-markakis-jersey , simply did their job. the very beginning, 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, the Royals had done it. They contended. Take that, pundits at the beginning of the year who thought they would flounder. Such is baseball.