Kansas City Baseball Vault, presented by Kelly's Westport Inn

This week, we talked about the Royals' success against St. Louis and New York and swapped some Cardinals fan stories in the process. We also talked about the upcoming set of games against AL Central teams and the importance to keeping the Royals in the hunt. With that in mind, we hinted at some thoughts on the trade deadline (but it's still a bit early to really look at that). We took a brief look at a possible reason for James Shields' struggles over the past few weeks, too.

Then we came back from break to talk about the batting order and Ned Yost's stubbornness with keeping Eric Hosmer in the 3 spot while alternatives exist. Along with that, we talked about some other players who could probably be shifted down the lineup in favor of hitters who have been more productive.