The Kansas City Royals are quite a few seasons removed from a winning baseball season.  This season was supposed to make all the difference and help the team start anew.

One of the caveats to the Royals playing so bad for so long is the lackluster television deal that they have in place.  A deal that will not put all 162 games on the air locally, one of the few deals left out there of it’s kind.  The team finds itself preempted for Kansas City Chiefs coverage and other local events, leaving baseball die-hards yearning for the team to turn it around.

If we can rely on the television ratings, the fans seem ready for this team to do just that.

According to information provided to i70 by Fox Sports, the Royals have set a new record for viewership of a game three times in 2013.   They have also added another game this season in the top-five all time most viewed games in Royals history.

Highest-rated Royals games all time on FOX Sports Kansas City

It is obvious that Kansas City is ready for a winning sports team to take hold.  It is also obvious that they are ready to get behind the Royals in a big way.

The team needs to continue winning and show the city they are ready to be supported.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at i70baseball.
You can follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

Through the first three weeks of the 2013 Major League Baseball season, the St. Louis Cardinals have discovered some young talent in their pitching rotation. Shelby Miller, who had to fight his way into the rotation during spring training, has looked borderline dominant in his first four starts. The rookie hurler might be establishing an early case for the Rookie Of The Year Award.

The National League has a few rookies putting up notable numbers but few have shown the clear-cut edge of Miller. The right-hander has compiled an impressive 26 strikeouts, walked only seven batters, surrendered just one home run and six earned runs, over 25 innings pitched while winning three of his first four starts. His wins, earned run average, runs allowed, and home runs allowed rank first among all rookie starting pitchers.

His competition from rookie-level pitchers in the National League is sparse, but there are a few challengers that are not exactly falling flat to start the season.

To read about the competition for Rookie Of The Year in the National League, follow this link to the Yahoo Article.

Fox Sports has traditionally been a strong supporter of the United States Military.  Their annual presentation of “This One’s For You”, a special broadcast that is sent around the world to military bases both in and out of combat zones, has become a staple of the Major League Baseball season.  They continued that support during the first week of February this year when they sent a group of Fox Sports Girls, current and former Major League Baseball players and Hall Of Famers Rollie Fingers and Wade Boggs to U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr in Germany.

The following photos were provided by Fox Sports.  Use the navigation arrows below the photos to thumb through the 31 images.

Rollie Fingers Meets The Troops

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Rollie Fingers discusses the Wiffle Ball game with the troops on the sidelines.

photo copyright Fox Sports

The event was called “Spring Training To The Troops” and the group converged on the Army base to help brighten the day and lives of military members and their families that are stationed overseas.  During their visit, the contingent of baseball representatives spent time at the Wounded Warrior Center and schools that were on base, in morning work out sessions and meals with the troops and conducting a youth baseball clinic for children of the troops.  The highlight of the trip was the participation in a Wiffle Ball game between the 172nd infantry brigade and the Military Police.  The Fox Sports Girls, who each represented a different territory of Fox Sports coverage, and the current and former major league players each played as well, joining the different teams at various times during the game.

My grandfather was a World War II vet, he was stationed in Korea at the end of World War II.  I used to play with his army equipment when I was little, he still had his army canteens and helmets and everything in the basement.  To go over there, I mean obviously things have changed since World War II but troops are still making the same sacrifices as they were way back then.  But family is important to me and to go over there and see the sacrifices that these men and women are making every day, it really touches you. – Fox Sports Girl Kayla in an interview with i70baseball

Kayla, the Fox Sports Girl representing Fox Sports Midwest, was given some hats and jerseys by the Cardinals to take over to St. Louis military members.  She was able to connect with multiple soldiers from the St. Louis area, providing them with the new alternate jerseys the team will wear on Saturday day games at home.  She was even able to find a soldier that shared her alma mater with her and took a photo with him in his Mizzou hooded sweatshirt.

When asked about training with the troops, Kayla told i70baseball, “We were amazed.  We did this for two days while we were over there and I was like ‘I can’t believe you guys get up and do this every morning’.  We were in the hotel lobby at 5:30 in the morning to get on the bus to go outside in the snow.  By 6 a.m. they are on the ground doing situps, pushups, they just kind of do this circuit training.  We asked them if they were taking it easy on us and they said ‘yea, we are doing kind of a condensed version of our training’.  The second day we were out there running with logs on our shoulders, pushing 800 pound tires, running with gallons of water and after that we went and ran two miles with them in cadence.  That was probably my favorite part.  I’m not a big runner, but to be in those lines with them and doing the chanting, it  didn’t even feel like we ran two miles.  They go through so much and I have the utmost respect with them for that.”

Fox Sports put together an amazing 90 second video about the trip, which you can see here:

Make sure to follow Kayla and the rest of the Fox Sports Midwest Girls on Twitter - @FSMidwest_Girls

Bill Ivie is the editor here at i70baseball.
You can follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

The day pitchers and catchers report is always a special day in the baseball community. It marks the symbolic end to the offseason, but another special day approaches this weekend to mark another step toward the birth of another baseball season.

The St. Louis Cardinals will open their exhibition schedule at 12:05 p.m. Saturday against the Miami Marlins at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida.  That will officially mark the beginning of spring training that more fans can follow, rather than breathlessly waiting on reports of how a second baseman looked while fielding ground balls or how a pitcher looked during a bullpen session.

Admittedly, spring training games aren’t a huge step up from regular spring training workouts. Pitchers will each throw just a few innings and batters who will eventually fill the regular-season lineup will take only one or two at bats, if at all. This year’s Cardinals roster is relatively set for Opening Day, but these will still be baseball games that will gloriously fill the afternoons throughout the rest of February and March.

Some fanatics will surely try to analyze these early games and try to draw conclusions about how a pitcher such as Shelby Miller will perform this season based on a two-inning performance in the first week of March. That outing won’t mean anything in the grand scheme of a season, but hey, it gives fans something to talk about that isn’t contract negotiations or performance-enhancing drugs.

Fans also get a bonus this year because the games will start about a week earlier than normal because the World Baseball Classic will take place during the first half of March, and teams needed some extra time with their players who would be gone for a couple of weeks because of the tournament.

The Cardinals will lose catcher Yadier Molina, rightfielder Carlos Beltran and reliever Mitchell Boggs to the World Baseball Classic, but those three already have defined roles that would only change if they got hurt, which is a whole other issue that comes with the World Baseball Classic.

Otherwise, minor leaguers will fill the field for much of the spring games, but this year fans will likely recognize several of the names in those box scores.

Outfielder Oscar Taveras is one of the Cardinals most highly touted prospects. He hit .321 with 23 homeruns and 94 RBIs with the AA-affiliate Springfield Cardinals last year, and MLB Network recently ranked him as the third-best prospect in all of baseball. In fact, the Cardinals had six players make MLB Network’s list of the top 100 prospects.

Miller came in at 25th, and he will be a strong contender for the fifth spot in the Cardinals starting rotation this year. Trevor Rosenthal ranked 43rd, and he figures to be an important part of the Cardinals pitching staff in 2013.

The other three Cardinals players on the list are unlikely to make the team, but the spring training games should give fans a chance to see second baseman Kolten Wong, as well as pitchers Carlos Martinez and Michael Wacha, for the first time.

Folks have talked about those prospects for more than a year, and this year’s exhibition schedule should allow fans their first chance to see how excited they should be about the Cardinals No. 1-ranked minor league system.

Miller, Rosenthal and Joe Kelly will compete for the fifth and final rotation spot, and Daniel Descalso and Matt Carpenter will battle for the second base job. Otherwise, not much of what takes place during the 32-game schedule will have much of an effect on the Cardinals’ 2013 season.

And that’s OK. The Cardinals will be playing actual baseball games.

While temperatures in St. Louis remain in the 30s and 40s, that is good enough for now.

The St. Louis baseball season got off to its unofficial start on Saturday with an annual high mark. The club began the Cardinals Winter Warm Up down the street from Busch Stadium at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, a three day festival of all things Cardinal baseball. From autograph signings from players both past, present and future, to an impressive showing of team related merchandise, the Winter Warm is the absolute best way to get primed for the upcoming summer of baseball.

During the event, both players and club management take time to stop and discuss the state of the team as well. And there is no better place to start than at the top. On Saturday morning General Manager John Mozeliak took some time to speak on the state of team for the upcoming season, including how the team is managing to come around from 2012’s ending, as well as the status on both the health (and contracts) of some of the club’s biggest contributors.

On team structure: He shares the optimism that many do on the homegrown future of the ballclub. “There should be more minor league impact expected this year on the roster”, stated Mozeliak. While not going into specifics on who or when, he was very encouraged by the group of young pitchers with Major League experience, including Trevor Rosenthal, Shelby Miller, Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly. All will work as starters early in camp, and compete for the fifth starter slot. However, Lynn will enter with a slight edge on the group. “He shouldn’t show up and be completely comfortable” said Mo, “but based on what he did last year, he has the inside track.”

Regarding the competition at second base, he feels Daniel Descalso will enter camp as the owner of the position, but there are some conditions as well. Matt Carpenter, who has worked at the position this winter, will get a look but he cannot accurately assess his place in the competition until he sees him in action.

Concerning any further moves in the middle infield, the availability and heatlth of Rafael Furcal is the most critical factor to any further activity. “We have not ruled out any additions in the middle infield”, Mozeliak said, “but it all depends on the health of Furcal.” He went on to say that all early signs are positive for the Furcal entering into the spring.

On Mike Matheny: All signs were positive on where he stands on Matheny entering into his second season at the wheel. “He exceeded expectations in year one” he explained, going on to say that he did not meet with him over the winter in any advisory capacity, only to touch base. He expects there will be the most growth in his area of player usage. “I expect he may not ride the hot hand as much” he commented.

On team health: He admitted that breaking free of camp at full strength is a concern, especially with some of the lingering conditions that are already in place. They are taking a “wait and see” approach concerning Jaime Garcia and Chris Carpenter, but more so for Garcia. Carpenter could see a decreased training program, but it’s not unusual for him at this point in his career. “The expectation for 200 innings for Carp is probably at 50/50”, but he has high confidence in his health status.

On big name prospects: There is an expectation that top prospect Oscar Taveras will get “plenty of opportunities” in the spring, to see what he can do. Second baseman Kolten Wong will also get some opportunities in big league camp, but the goal is not for him to share time in St. Louis currently, and to be an everyday contributor in the minors again.

On contract negotiations: The Adam Wainwright contract extension matter will carry into the season, and potentially into the season, but shouldn’t be compared to past high profile dealings. He feels this matter is “more open ended than other negotiations we’ve seen before” and that “there are no lines drawn in the sand this time around.”

He also elaborated that the organization has “moved on” from Kyle Lohse, but won’t close the door on anything either.

Whenever the World Baseball Classic rolls around, questions abound about who will participate in the tournament and whether or not that compromises their preparation, and later success, in the regular Major League Baseball season.

The St. Louis Cardinals will have those questions about their four players who were selected to World Baseball Classic rosters, which were announced Thursday, but the biggest news came from the Cardinals player who isn’t on a WBC roster.

Mitchell Boggs will pitch for Team USA, and Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina will both play for Team Puerto Rico. Fernando Salas will pitch for Team Mexico, but his Cardinals teammate Jaime Garcia won’t join him.

Garcia had been on a preliminary roster for Mexico earlier in the offseason, but his participation was contingent on the health of his injured left shoulder that caused him to miss much of the second half of the 2012 season.

It would be unfair to jump off a ledge and say Garcia won’t pitch for Mexico because his shoulder isn’t healing fast enough. We don’t know that. Garcia and the Cardinals could simply be playing it safe to make sure he is as prepared as possible for the upcoming season. Hopefully that’s the case.

Garcia reportedly wanted to pitch for his native country pretty bad, and the Cardinals were playing a role similar to a parent who doesn’t let their child play on the monkey bars because it is dangerous. Sure, it limits the amount of fun, and pitching in the WBC would’ve undoubtedly been fun for Garcia. However, the smart move for the Cardinals is to keep him on his normal rehabilitation schedule.

Garcia is going to be an important part of the Cardinals’ starting rotation this season. If Garcia can pitch well as the No. 3 or No. 4 starter, the Cardinals can use more of their young pitchers in the bullpen instead of having to push them into the rotation and face the uncertainty that comes when a young pitcher is regularly exposed to full lineups rather than three or four hitters each night.

Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly did a great job filling in for injured starters in 2012, and they are big reasons the Cardinals were even in contention for a wild-card spot late in the season. But a full season from Garcia could play a large role in if the Cardinals can compete with the Cincinnati Reds for a division title, not just a wild-card spot.

With Garcia healthy and pitching well, the Cardinals could feature a rotation with Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Garcia, Jake Westbrook and either Kelly or Lynn. The loser of that fifth-spot battle would move to the bullpen and provide strong middle relief, along with Shelby Miller and Trevor Rosenthal, for what could be a very good bullpen.

If Garcia continues to have shoulder issues, the Cardinals would be OK because they have available pitchers who can fill a rotation spot, but his presence would put the Cardinals in a real position of strength in terms of their pitching staff.

Now even if Garcia is healthy, that doesn’t guarantee success. Garcia has some of the filthiest stuff of any pitcher on the Cardinals roster and is one of the most likely candidates to someday throw a no-hitter. But he has been frustratingly inconsistent in his three seasons with the Cardinals. He owns a 3.43 career earned-run average, and his ERA has climbed from 2.70 in 2010 to 3.92 last season.

The Cardinals would likely be satisfied with an ERA in the neighborhood of 3.43 from Garcia this season, but the key is consistency, which could be as much of a mental issue as any physical problem. For example, Garcia has always struggled on the road when he doesn’t have the normal routine of a home game. His career road ERA is 5.02 compared to 2.82 at home.

Hopefully Garcia is fully on board with the decision to not pitch in the WBC, and that disappointment doesn’t affect his performance for the Cardinals in 2013.

But those types of questions are what always make the World Baseball Classic a conundrum in the world of Major League Baseball.

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The season is finally here.  No more what ifs, no more predictions, just statistics and results.  All the fans can do now is sit and watch what happens on the field.  Many predictions have been made over the last six months about the Kansas City Royals yet like everything else in life all the assumptions account for nothing just the results. All the excitement about the Royals in 2012 can continue with the team having a good productive start to the season or the excitement could taper off like seasons in the past.  Kansas City has not been this excited about their hometown team for a long time, the 1970s and 1980s to be exact.  But this time it is different.  This team wants to win not only for themselves but for the city itself.  Also, not only do they want to win but they want to do it here in Kansas City.  The future is still the future but the present is now and nothing feels greater than to have our team playing in our town right now.

In years past, the city has always been excited about the fact that baseball season has started but that was because they had another option for a night out on the town that started at Kauffman Stadium.  Now, fans have the excitement on the field drawing them in.  They are not just going for Garth Brooks in the sixth inning or hot dogs or over priced cold beverages. Now for the first time in years they are going to watch the likes of first basemen Eric Hosmer, 2011 Gold Glove winner Alex Gordon out in left field, a young gun pitching staff along with the whole cast of Royals.  The team is finally the attraction and they want nothing more than to be the talk of the town.  In years past teams that the Royals organization put out of the field were there to make their money and get on to the next thing.  But this time it is different.  Winning is now the only thing.  Not many people outside of Kansas City are truly giving this team a chance.  Reasons like they are young, they won’t spend the money needed to field a winner, they are breeding the next big New York Yankee or Oakland A, but that is exactly what some of the players on this team want the outside media to say.  The underdog mentality will fuel this young ball club to do what I believe to be great things not only in years to come but this season as well.

The clubhouse has never looked as tight nit as they do now.  This team of young guys who have grown up differently, gotten their shot in the Major Leagues in many ways, have come together to join as a team.  Talent only can get a team so far but if these guys can stick together and be the family that a team needs to be success will come.  All of this aside, what do we do now?  All we can do is sit, wait, and hope that the team the Royals are putting out on the field is what we all think it can be.  Royals teams of the past had their time but for now, like the season slogan states, this is the 2012 Royals time to shine.  And shine they will.

If the Royals were a football team, they would be in a pretty good spot right now. They have a solid “two-deep” that features depth and competition at nearly every position.

Photo Courtesy of Minda Haas

Too bad the Royals don’t play football.

Considering they are gearing up for baseball season, the Royals have a mess on their hands when it comes to infield depth.

They made the inexplicable decision to bring back Yuniesky Betancourt as their “utility infielder” completing a spiral of confusing moves in which they discarded first Mike Aviles, then Yamaico Navarro         .

Much as everyone seems to hate Betancourt, you could make an argument that he’s not a terrible shortstop. But the Royals tried to convince us that he could play second and third too.

If that’s so, then the Royals should be planning to send either Johnny Giavotella or Chris Getz back to the minors, right? But you certainly don’t hear that about the position battle at second. At least to this point, it looks like the Royals plan to carry both second basemen.

If that happens, it eats a roster spot. And that shifts the spotlight to third base, where one would assume the Royals would like a safety valve for Mike Moustakas. Will that be Betancourt, who’s never played a game at third in the big leagues? Or will the Royals try to figure out a way to keep Kevin Kouzmanoff, a veteran third baseman who was once highly thought of.

Keeping a second-stringer at either second or third will most likely deny the Royals a fifth outfielder. They will have to break camp with Mitch Maier because of his versatility, instead of Jarrod Dyson. Dyson was a silver bullet in manager Ned Yost’s holster early last season, and certainly Yost would like the luxury of having a run-scoring machine on the bench.

The Royals’ two-deep quandary seems to lack any effective solution. If one of the participants in the mix should falter during the spring, or if one should get injured, then the Royals will look smart for having given themselves options. But if the problem doesn’t solve itself, then they will be stuck making a decision that didn’t need to be made.

A legitimate option at the utility player position would have made the mess avoidable.