Remember, with the recent hot streak we've went all the way from .2% playoff odds to 2.4% odds. The mantis did its best, we made it fun, but we won't make it. Just keep saying it out loud, we won't make it, we can't make it.
I don't believe it yet I still check the standings every day. We can catch Detroit today. Can't believe it's been this long since this has happened for the Royals.
I was pissed when the broadcast opened the eighth with a shot of the fountain and saying it's hard to hit one out here with soria pitching. Thought for sure one was going out with that jinx.
Rany Jazayerli@jazayerli Thank God we won, because it's Dillon Gee vs Jose Fernandez tomorrow, aka the House Money Game. If we win that, we might just finish 102-60.
I bet that comes to an end once Gee goes 3.2 IP tonight and Young/Wang have to combine to finish out the game.
fangraphs The Royals Are Having the Most Royals Month Ever Spoiler The Royals Are Having the Most Royals Month Ever by Dave Cameron - August 24, 2016 On July 31st, the Royals were basically dead in the water. On the day before the team had to make a final buy, sold, or hold decision, KC stood at 49-55, 12 games out of first place in the AL Central. They’d been outscored by 59 runs. And to top it off, Wade Davis had to go back on the DL with a flexor strain, signaling that he hadn’t been able to get past the arm problems that had already cost him part of the season. The Royals hadn’t been very good with him in 2016, and now were looking at likely spending the rest of the season without one of the main reasons they’ve been able to win the last few years. And yet, despite four months of struggles and Davis’ absence, since the calendar flipped over to August, the Royals have been almost unbeatable. They’ve reeled off 16 wins in 21 games, including their last nine, and have breathed some life back into a season that looked to be dead and buried. The graph of their end-of-season expected record tells the story pretty well. In a season of ups and downs, August has been the biggest up so far, and unsurprisingly, the Royals have been winning games with the same kind of crazy formula that allowed them to make a couple of postseason runs the last two years. During the team’s 21 games this month, the Royals have scored just a rather pedestrian 92 runs; that ranks 19th in MLB this month. At 4.4 runs per game, the Royals offense has still been below average relative to the rest of the league, as MLB teams overall are scoring 4.6 runs per game in August. But the fact that they’ve managed even 4.4 runs per game this month is pretty remarkable, given how badly they’ve hit overall. This month, the Royals have put up a .258/.305/.402 batting line, good for an 85 wRC+, third-worst in baseball. They’ve actually hit worse this month than they have the rest of the year, as they had a 90 wRC+ from April through July, but were only able to score 3.9 runs per game during the first four months of the season. In classic Royals fashion, they have managed to score an extra half-run per game this month despite hitting worse. Some of that is just regression to the mean, though. They were scoring fewer runs earlier in the season than we’d have expected, based on their batting line, so it’s not like they’ve suddenly become monster clutch hitters. By Weighted Runs Created, we’d have expected them to score 84 runs this month, only eight fewer than they actually scored, so while there’s some elements of clutch hitting here, it’s not the major factor in the story. The real story, of course, is the run prevention. In those 21 August games, the Royals have allowed a grand total of 55 runs. The next lowest total belongs to the Cubs, at 62 runs allowed, and they play in the league where pitchers have to hit. The second-lowest total belonging to an AL team is Toronto’s 64 runs allowed, but they’ve only played 20 games. Despite not having Davis to anchor their bullpen, the August version of the Royals have basically been impossible to score runs against. The big change has been the performance of the starting pitchers. Up through July, the Royals starters were allowing 5.2 runs per nine innings, and were pushing the Reds and Braves for the title of worst rotation in baseball. In August, the Royals starters are allowing 2.9 runs per game, and have prevented runs at a rate better than any non-Cubs team in baseball. Danny Duffy, of course, has been excellent, but he was excellent earlier in the year too, so that hasn’t been the big change. No, the big turnarounds have come from Yordano Ventura and Ian Kennedy. Back in June, Ventura was mostly in the news for starting fights and being a big disappointment, and pieces about him were being concluded with lines like “It’s time for Yordano Ventura to grow up.” I don’t know much about his maturity level at this point, but after a terrible April and May, Ventura has been pretty decent the last three months, and has been at his best in August, holding opposing batters to just a .282 wOBA. So getting him back as a reliable innings eater has stabilized a rotation that needed another solid arm. But the real boost has come from Kennedy. Back in July, the Royals were apparently considering Kennedy as a salary dump; on the 28th, I wrote a piece trying to determine the amount of negative trade value he’d have if the Royals wanted to move him. Davis’ injury squashed any thought of tying the two together in a big trade, so the Royals just ended up hanging onto Kennedy, and have seen him put together a pretty remarkable run since. In four August starts, Kennedy has allowed just two runs, both coming on solo homers. He’s allowed 14 other hits, walked seven guys, and hit a batter, but every single one of those 22 baserunners has failed to score. Yes, Kennedy is running a 100% LOB% in August. And that’s how you put up a 0.67 ERA against a 3.37 FIP. Of course, as a flyball guy in front of an excellent defense, something like this is what the Royals were betting on when they signed him over the winter, and now — less than a month after we were talking about whether a team would take his contract to get Wade Davis — Kennedy is sitting there at +3.6 RA9-WAR, 12th-best in the American League. There’s no question that some of that success has to be attributed to Lorenzo Cain, Jarrod Dyson, and Alex Gordon, but the Royals intentionally signed Kennedy because of their belief that his value would be maximized because of the players they already have. Will Kennedy keep stranding every runner who reaches base against him? Of course not. The fact that the team struggled to make this formula work for the first four months is more instructive than the fact that they’ve had a three week run of beating teams by scoring just enough to provide a small edge while their defense destroys opposing offenses. And they probably dug too big a hole early in the year to dig out of; this August run should help them finish with a respectable record, but the playoffs remain a long shot. But for the last three weeks, the Royals of 2016 have looked like the Royals of 2014-2015. The offense still isn’t good, but with a crazy great defense and pitchers who have finally started throwing strikes and keeping the ball in the park, Royals magic has made a dramatic comeback. If they can keep this up for another month or so and get back into the postseason, this might be an even more remarkable accomplishment than what they did the past couple of years.
Need to get Orlando out of the lead off. The lead off curse has gotten in his head and he looks lost.
Crazy fucking thing. That catch was the best play of the night. But RMJs play 2 outs before was amazing. AND the RMJ-Esky non out was amazing as well. I watch 1 team every night but get to see the three best defensive plays of the day. Crazy.
Couple observations: 1. Gordo busting his ass down the line to force that throwing error and give us the advantage for the game. So fucking husk. 2. Matt Strahm. Da Gawd. Saw that he'll start spring training in the rotation next year. Perfect. Start him in AA, move him to Omaha if he's dominating. Bring him up in Sept then let him take a spot in the rotation in 2017. 3. Jack. Serious brah. Just get the first three batters out. You don't need to let 2 of them get in base. Srsly it's cool, just get out the first 3. 4. RMJ. Da kid. Walk plus steal plus steal plus wild throw equals insurance runs. Good on you kid. And that leads to.... 5. So, pretty soon we will have at our disposal: Gore Dyson Mondesi Fuentes Orlando Holy shit. There are very few MLB teams that have 1 player that has the speed to crack that top 5.
http://m.mlb.com/news/article/197672524/royals-jarrod-dyson-robs-christian-yelich/ Don't think I've ever seen anyone make a throw like that. http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/512314...kes-throw-to-first-across-body/?query=mondesi
Anybody have insider? http://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/sto...tools-mlb-ranking-best-worst-intangible-tools
Thanks angus for teaching an e-gnorant dog a new trick. Spoiler I don't know how to spoiler, I apologize. Stats are great for reporting events, but when it comes to the raw tools and skills that drive those events, things quickly get trickier. When things that don't have a one-to-one relationship with a particular event, we need to use numbers in a more indirect fashion. The good news is that baseball is a data-rich game, so there are lot of numbers to work with when gauging tools or things on the major league level that border on the intangibles. SPEED Jarrod Dyson, Royals 2. Socrates Brito, Diamondbacks 3. Raul Mondesi Jr., Royals 4. Trea Turner, Nationals 5. David Dahl, Rockies 6. Billy Hamilton, Reds 7. Mallex Smith, Braves 8. Dee Gordon, Marlins 9. Orlando Arcia, Brewers 10. Jemile Weeks, Padres BOTTOM 10 (min. 50 MLB PA in 2016) 1. Peter O'Brien, Diamondbacks 2. Justin Bour, Marlins 3. Kevin Plawecki, Mets 4. Rene Rivera, Mets 5. Dae-Ho Lee, Mariners 6. Ryon Healy, A's 7. Prince Fielder, Rangers 8. Martin Maldonado, Brewers 9. Jett Bandy, Angels 10. David Ortiz, Red Sox BASERUNNING SKILL Kris Bryant, Cubs 3. Ian Desmond, Rangers 4. Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox 5. Brett Lawrie, White Sox 6. Brian Dozier, Twins 7. Adrian Beltre, Rangers 8. Adam Jones, Orioles 9. Greg Garcia, Cardinals 10. Colby Rasmus, Astros BOTTOM 10 1. Yasiel Puig, Dodgers 2. Billy Butler, A's 3. Ryan Braun, Brewers 4. Yunel Escobar, Angels 5. Peter Bourjos, Phillies 6. Matt Kemp, Braves 7. Melvin Upton, Jr., Toronto Blue Jays 8. Jay Bruce, Mets 9. Nelson Cruz, Mariners 10. Anthony Gose, Tigers POWER Giancarlo Stanton, Marlins 2. Chris Carter, Brewers 3. Miguel Sano, Twins 4. Chris Davis, Orioles 5. Nelson Cruz, Mariners 6. Yoenis Cespedes, Mets 7. Mark Trumbo, Orioles 8. Brandon Moss, Cardinals 9. J.D. Martinez, Tigers 10. Kris Bryant, Cubs BOTTOM 10 1. Ben Revere, Nationals 2. Billy Burns, Royals 3. Daniel Castro, Braves 4. Andrew Romine, Tigers 5. Mikie Mahtook, Rays 6. Mike Aviles, Tigers 7. Jarrod Dyson, Royals 8. Tyler Holt, Reds 9. Kolten Wong, Cardinals 10. Alcides Escobar, Royals PLATE DISCIPLINE In baseball, I like to separate good plate discipline from bad plate discipline. While a guy who walks 100 times a year is almost certainly a better judge at the plate than the player who walks 10 times a year, sometimes players fall into a trap in which they become too passive at the plate. Players such as Ben Grieveand Jeremy Hermida were long-term disappointments in part because plate discipline is more a means to an end -- getting better quality hits -- than an end in itself. Conversely, when projecting Kris Bryant from minor league play, people told me he would underperform his projections because of his high strikeout rate in the minors. But Bryant's high strikeout rate wasn't really a problem for the simple fact that, when a player is hitting .325 and slugging .661, his hits are so valuable, the benefits of making contact encourage an aggressive approach. So as a pure measure of pitch evaluation, I like looking at a player's Zone Swing Percentage minus his Out-of-Zone Swing Percentage. Note that this isn't a measure of a player's ability to actually make contact, but to recognize strikes versus non-strikes. It also actually has predictive value for future positive changes in strikeout rate. TOP 10 in 2016 1. Brandon Belt, Giants 2. Chris Iannetta, Mariners 3. Miguel Montero, Cubs 4. Nick Hundley, Rockies 5. Brandon Crawford, Giants 6. Alex Avila, White Sox 7. Matt Joyce, Pirates 8. Freddie Freeman, Braves 9. Ryan Schimpf, Padres 10. Kris Bryant, Cubs BOTTOM 10 in 2016 1. Jose Iglesias, Tigers 2. Ryon Healy, A's 3. Jorge Polanco, Twins 4. Daniel Castro, Braves 5. Jimmy Paredes, Phillies 6. Javier Baez, Cubs 7. Chris Gimenez, Indians 8. Chase d'Arnaud, Braves 9. Phil Gosselin, Diamondbacks 10. Adam Lind, Mariners INDUCING WEAK CONTACT Tom Glavine. Looking at the last decade, we can make a reasonable estimation of which pitchers should be expected to beat their FIP by the most, based on the difference between their FIP and actual ERA, the performances of their historical defense, and the total batters faced. So looking at only the pitchers still active in 2016, I estimated which ones are the best and worst at maintaining a low BABIP with these data. TOP 10 1. Chris Young, Royals 2. Hector Santiago, Twins 3. Brad Ziegler, Red Sox 4. Darren O'Day 5. R.A. Dickey, Blue Jays 6. Tyler Clippard, Yankees 7. Miguel Gonzalez, White Sox 8. Bryan Morris, Marlins 9. Javier Lopez, Giants 10. Johnny Cueto, Giants BOTTOM 10 1. Ricky Nolasco, Angels 2. Luke Hochevar, Royals 3. Francisco Liriano, Blue Jays 4. Edwin Jackson, Padres 5. Shane Greene, Tigers 6. Michael Pineda, Yankees 7. Tim Lincecum, Angels 8. Collin McHugh, Astros 9. Phil Hughes, Twins 10. Ubaldo Jimenez, Orioles
[spoiler ] [/spoiler ] without the space after the r. Was expecting way more out of that article than just a list. Thanks though.
BP article Q&A with Rusty. Spoiler August 29, 2016 Prospectus Q&A Rusty Kuntz by Tim Britton Printer-friendly Few men embody the ethos of the defending champion Kansas City Royals better than first-base coach Rusty Kuntz. The long-time coach is the maestro behind Kansas City's running game and its outfield defense—previously overlooked qualities that have helped propel the Royals to consecutive pennants and a World Series title. Prior to a series-opening tilt between Kuntz's Royals and the Red Sox at Fenway Park, we sat down with the ever-enthusiastic coach to discuss his preparation, the grind of 162 when you're 60 years old and what a shin guard means as a scouting report. Tim Britton: What is the daily routine like for a first-base coach, especially on the first game of a series? Rusty Kuntz: Well, it's a little easier because we already played these guys at our place for three games, so we've got an idea of where they hit the ball and all that stuff. I do the baserunning, basestealing and outfield play. For instance, we just played Miami. You only play them for three days and you're in and out. It takes you about four solid days. I've got to go through 13 pitchers and then I usually add on two or three more that Topper [video coordinator Mark Topping] gets me. You try to break them down, what their tendencies are, what they like to do, what counts they like to throw breaking-ball stuff in, when they like to pick over. You get an idea of pick counts, pitch counts. You've got to go through all that information. Basically, every three days we get a phone book. And you've got to rolodex through all of it to see what we need as far as information goes, and you've got to do it about 16 times. You've got to pick and choose and find all the information you can on these pitchers. It probably takes you an hour to an hour and 15 minutes to do one guy. Like right now I'm doing the Yankees, who we don't play for another three days. It's just so time-consuming. You'll have 10 to 12 hours on one pitching staff, and you've got to find time to do it prior to playing them. Plus you've got to keep up with the speed of what's actually going on right now with Boston. Some of our pitchers that have faced a majority of their hitters right now, you can go back and look at Ian Kennedy facing Boston May 18 at our place. You go through the game, see what kind of pitches he throws, what their approach to him is and try to match that up. Then you go back and look at what these guys have done in their last maybe three or four games against Tampa and try to match up an Ian Kennedy with a Jake Odorizzi—a similar kind of package right there—and see how they approached [Odorizzi] and how they hit him. Obviously a hitter is going to change from May to now. So you want to get what they've done in the past, because a lot of times if they've had success, they'll go back there. It's just video, video, video, video. Every day you're behind the video for about 4.5 hours. Every day. I get up about nine in the morning, and the first thing I do is turn on the video and see if I can get about three hours knocked out in the hotel. Then I come here and do another hour or hour and a half, and then by that time Topper's giving me more information on more stuff. That's the grind of what it's like at the big leagues. Now, does everybody do it? No. A lot of guys, the brainiacs upstairs give you a printout of what their projected lineup is going to be and how it matches up with Kennedy, and they give you their idea of where to play defensively. A lot of guys just take that and run with it. Me, I've been doing it too long. I don't trust a lot of things. I'm not just going to take a piece of paper from upstairs and go, 'Okay, this is where we're going to play them.' The one ingredient they don't have is what that guy on the mound brings. If he brings his A-game, that piece of paper works. But if he's struggling and he can't locate and he can't find the strike zone, I know defensively in the outfield we go straight up on everybody. You can't cheat if he can't locate. The last time out Ian against Boston, he was able to locate into all four quadrants with at least two pitches. So he was dealing. So now, I can move the oppo corner in, I can move the pull-side closer to the line, because he's hitting his spots. If he can hit the spots, that's where the hitters are going to hit the ball. So you can cheat. TB: You've been doing this a long time. How have you refined that process over time as video has become more prevalent? RK: The same charts I had 35 years ago are the same ones I use now, because I trust what's on those sheets. I'll make some little notes on there—if a guy's struggling, if a guy can't locate, if a guy's spot-on—so that I can go back and look at those notes the next time we face that team. Video is just a godsend as far as a tool goes. That's why I think it's a shame when guys don't use a lot of different avenues that are available. It's like anything else: If you have information, you have knowledge. You know how baseball is: It comes and goes in patterns. If a guy's hot, what is he doing? He's jerking everything. If he's cold, now is he trying to go the other way more? Those are things you have to adjust to, and that's why video is so important. If I didn't have video and just went off those charts, I might be two days behind. What they do tonight is going to determine what I'm going to do with Duffy tomorrow or Ventura on Sunday. TB: You have that phone book of data. How do you narrow it down to a single sheet of paper for a guy to look at? RK: That's the time-consuming part of it. At any given time, we've got four pro scouts that have seen these clubs, and all their information goes into a computer to spit it all out. Actually that's what my son does: He takes that information and condenses it into folders and ships it out to us. To go back to how it's progressed, I'm learning more what to look for. When I first started, I was overwhelmed. 'Oh my God, where do you start with this?' When you first start, you just try to take the most obvious things, and you try to use those as maybe a little tool for yourself as far as giving a little edge. When this guy's ahead in the count, he really likes to turn. But as soon as he gets to two strikes, he just tries to flick it that way. Like Pedroia will do that at times, and you can tell how comfortable he is with the pitcher by probably the second or third pitch. You'll see that front hip turn and that front elbow explode out of there — well, he's seeing this ball really good and is trying to go up top. A guy like Herrera comes in and he's tougher to find and he's got 98 to 100, he's probably not going to fly out as much. He'll let it travel a little more and maybe close down his stance and try to shoot it to right field. He's a professional hitter. You try to keep up with those kinds of matchups. Then you've got the game situation. If they've got a couple guys on and they're down by three, I don't care what you are, he's trying to turn and burn. He knows he has to do that at the plate. They might be down by one, Herrera's in to close out the game, he goes to that two-strike approach to try to shoot it through that four-hole to get a base hit. You have to know the game situations too. In those phone books, you find out all that info — ahead in the count, behind in the count, tie score, starters and closers — how all that stuff matches up. That's what the analytical guys have. TB: You were just in Miami. How different is your outfield defense when you're preparing for a park like that compared to Fenway? RK: Well that was okay because that ballpark is like ours. Another point along those lines, I've never seen those guys swing a bat. I couldn't tell you who this guy is compared to that. Hechavarria or Yelich—you go back and watch as many games as you can cram in and try to match that pitcher up with someone you might have during that series. So I've got to match somebody up with Ventura and Volquez. If I can't find that on whoever they just played, I've got to go back even more. You go back and try to find, who matches up with Ventura? How'd they approach him? But you still haven't really ever seen him hit. Those three-and-dones are almost impossible. Now that we're playing interleague and you're playing National League teams like that, it's a cram session for three games. And you go, 'Is it worth it for three games?' Especially if you lose all three. 'I spent about 27 hours going through material and we lost them anyway.' But if you win two out of three like we did and you're trying to get back into that wild card, it makes it all worthwhile. Like I tell these guys, what else would you do? You're getting paid to do this. This is your job. TB: As a guy with a passion for outfield defense, how validating is it to see the way that is valued now maybe compared to earlier in your coaching career? RK: Well, you still see a lot of teams that still play straight up. And that's great, but if that one ball you could have been over and in a little bit because you knew that's where he would hit it, that's what gives me the ass. You trust what you see, but you've got to go with your gut. 'The way he's swinging, the way he's pitching, move him in.' He makes that catch, yes. If you don't move him in and the next pitch is a single, now you feel like crap. You try to engage in the game, how it's flowing, how they're swinging. It's August; that's totally different from May. April is totally different from June because of the temperature. The wind is blowing out, that creates depth problems. August—what's his bat look like now? Does it have a five-pound weight on it? Did they get in at 4:00 in the morning and are just going through the motions in BP, dead-ass tired? There's all kinds of things you look for as far as setting up your defense—not only just what the pitcher/hitter matchup is. All those other different things like the weather, wind, time of game, time of year — this ball is going to fly a lot more today than in April. I tell young coaches, when you're looking at a guy for the first time—like, I looked at Ozuna for the very first time. There's a couple of things you want to look for right off the bat if you've never seen the guy and want to know where to play this guy. Obviously my pitcher's velo is going to play in. Ventura's throwing 101, I'm going to play you oppo. I don't give a shit if you're dead-pull. Once I get past a pitcher's velo, now I look at the player. The first thing is if he's got an elbow or shin guard on. The elbow means he's close to the plate, and the shin is he likes to pull. If I don't see either one of those, that means he's off the plate and likes to go the other way. Why would you have a shin guard on if you stay inside the ball and go that way, and why would you have an elbow guard on if you're not on the dish? Those are the first two things I look at. If I see those two things, he's a pull guy. The next thing I look at is, where is that third-base coach or first-base coach? If Big Papi gets up, where is Ruben Amaro, Jr.? If he's back [on the dirt], this guy's a pull guy. That isn't going to lie. If he's not comfortable here [in the coach's box], he's back there—probably because [the hitter] pulls. You look at the guards and where that base coach is standing, and that gives you an idea. If I've got a coach back that far, what does that do to my oppo guy? I bring him in. If he's trying to turn and burn, if he pulls off that pitch away, it's going to be a lot more [flare] than [line drive]. Those are the little things you go through when you're trying to position him for the first time. And then you just read what he does. TB: And sometimes you have Jarrod to go make a catch in center field over the wall, like you taught him. RK: Well we did do that earlier. I told him to run like hell, jump by that wall and I'll flip one, and we'll do it 20 times until you get it right—because you never know. And then the third hitter… No, I'm kidding. TB: It's nice to have those guys out there. RK: My God. People say I'm a pretty good outfield coach. I've got Platinum [Alex Gordon] in left, I've got Dyson who other than Gore is the fastest guy in baseball, and then I've got LoCain, whose range in center is No. 1, playing right field. And oh by the way, they're giving me a Brazilian track star as my other outfielder. I'm pretty good. Yeah. If these guys are diving and sliding, I've got them in the wrong spot. With that kind of speed and those kinds of jumps, if I've got them in the right spot, they're standing there. TB: You were talking about the grind earlier. We talk about the grind on players all the time. What's the grind on coaches, not just going through 162 but all of spring? RK: These guys come to spring training to get in shape, and we come to spring training to get the regular season going. From a coaching standpoint, you're walking in there from Day One of spring training—if not even before, because these guys come to Arizona in January so you've got to go down in January to work them out and get them going. You're not 20 years old anymore. I'm 60 now. By this time of the season, I'm out of gas. I'm trying to keep up with 20-year-olds and try to keep them going and keep their energy levels up and all that stuff, when I've got none in the tank. But it's hard. We get here at 11 or 11:30 in the morning, because you've got to use those video machines before the players come in at about two to get your work done off the information you need. And then you sit in front of your locker for two more hours on your iPad to get all the video information out of it. And then when the players get done playing, then you go home and you start the next series and then all of a sudden, it starts snowballing. By eight months, now you're in the postseason and you're adding the pressure of the postseason on top of the grind. Which is a great thing, because that's what you've been preparing for since February, to play for October. It seems like a blink of an eye. The last two times we've gotten to play in the postseason in October, it's by far the fastest month that you have. You're either winning it or losing it in the blink of an eye, and the loser goes home. It's very stressful, and it's a hell of a grind. TB: You're pretty well known for your positivity. How are you able to maintain that attitude through eight months? RK: I don't know. I don't know. I'm out of gas now, and sometimes I get real grumpy. I don't know. These guys, when you're working with 20-year-olds, you understand two things as a coach and as long as you keep that in perspective and don't lose that sight, you're going to be okay with it. One, you have to remember how hard this game is to learn. It's almost impossible. And the second thing, it's a hard game to play. As long as you keep those two things in perspective, how hard it is to learn and how hard it is to play, when you come out and you see one mistake after another, you just call timeout, 'OK, come here,' without blowing a gasket or just having a cow because this guy didn't catch this ball or didn't make that play. But then you also have that fine line where you've got to make sure these guys understand the importance of what's going on — that not every mistake is OK. I tell them all the time, if it's a mental mistake, it's not acceptable. Physical mistakes are going to happen, but mental mistakes? No. Not being in the right spot at the right time, that's preventable. Those are all effort plays. If you're not backing up first base as a right fielder and the ball goes over his head, that's on you. That's just effort. That E2 turned into a triple, and it's on you. First base is on the catcher, third base is on you. Those are the ones that give you the ass and those are the ones you have to bring him in and say that's not going to work. You've got to be better than that. You need to make sure that doesn't happen again. And after a while, they get it. As long as you bring the energy, we'll try to fill up the head with information. TB: You've been part of a few different organizations. When you were with the Marlins in '93, you're trying to start a culture from scratch. How different is that from your other stops where that's more established? RK: Yeah, it's a lot harder. I was watching Cliff Floyd today on why baseball chemistry is so important. Most of your guys upstairs, it's about numbers and analytics. Cliffy is absolutely right: It is all about chemistry. These guys live, breathe, eat, sleep — for eight months, they're together more than they're with their families. If you don't have a locker room that bonds together and can stand one another, it's not going to work. That's been proven in the past over and over and over again. When you talk about starting off the Florida Marlins, some of the chips like Conine and Orestes Destrade, they click and work really good. But then there are also five or six duds you pick up and have to quickly get rid of because they don't mesh with what the organization and team is trying to do. Unfortunately, some of those duds stick around a little bit too long and they create a cancer in the locker room. When that happens, from a coaching perspective—especially in the minor leagues, when you have control of the personnel and the personalities of the players — if you don't buy in, if you don't want to be a part of this, see ya. As a coach, as an instructor, as a front-office person, when you go into a minor-league clubhouse, you want to feel wanted, you want to see smiling faces, you want to see guys happy. They work hard and play harder. Everything is cohesive. If you've got a couple knuckleheads in there that don't want to buy into it, you get rid of them quick because you don't want that to be what you're all about. Like they say, one bad apple can spoil everything, and it does. In a locker room in baseball, it does. If that guy doesn't blend or doesn't fit in, out. Position players, you only need 13 of them. That's all you need — 13 guys that believe in one another, that will fight for one another, that will do whatever it takes just like you would for your own brother. Until you find those 12 or 13 right guys, it doesn't work. You can only have one bad one and then the rest of them are infected by it. TB: You've got a lot of homegrown players here. What's it been like seeing them come up through and really evolve as a team and a clubhouse? RK: It's really cool. In 2012, I got to go back and be a rover, and it was so neat to see Hosmer, Moustakas, Salvador Perez, Lorenzo Cain, Jarrod Dyson, Alex Gordon was coming back down to Triple-A to learn how to be a left fielder and I got to help him. That group of guys, once they hit Double-A, they won. Triple-A, they won. Big leagues, now they've won a World Series. That's what makes it so much fun to come to the ballpark every day. Those personalities have survived all those different levels. Those personalities have won championships at every level they've played together. That doesn't happen every day. That just doesn't happen. If you're waiting for the next wave to roll in and do that same thing, you might be here a while. It gives you goosebumps when you think about where they started and how they formed together as one and still love one another to this day. It's just such a great situation to be in. Every day I come to work I can't wait to get here because they're so much fun to be around. TB: You've got a World Series ring as a player, and you've got one from last year as a coach. Do they mean the same thing? Do they represent different accomplishments in your mind? RK: I think the player one is more special, because as a coach, you're at the mercy of their performance. You give them all the information, you work them out, you get them ready, and then you push them out there and hope they can do it. When you're a player, you're in control of that stuff. If you don't work hard, if you don't prepare, if you don't come through in certain situations, then it's all on you. If you do do all that kind of stuff, then it's a little more rewarding than sitting over here and hoping and praying it works. But they're both great. You can't beat it. The first thing I think about when I win a World Series is all the players who played the game for so many years who never won it, who never experienced that. Last year we had Alex Rios who'd played 14 years and not one postseason game. He came over here and won a World Series ring. He had that one postseason experience and he won it. That doesn't happen. It's like they say, everybody loves it when you win. The hardest part about winning is the grind — every day what you have to put into it with no assurance, with no guarantee that at the end there's going to be a prize. You come to work and you grind through it every day with the hopes that that's what happens, that you do get to stand up on that stage one day and get that ring. And it's pretty cool.