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Nearly all the Royals top prospects were on display in Kauffman Stadium on Saturday April 2nd when the Omaha Storm Chasers took on the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. I won’t go over all the names but they were almost all there. It was my first chance to see the likes of Mike Montgomery, Mike Moustakas, Christian Colon, Wil Myers and Eric Hosmer.

The teams came out shortly after the Royals defeated the Angels 5-4 by getting 2 eighth inning runs having Joakim Soria take care of the Angles on 6 pitches for his first save of the year. The futures came out in their Naturals and Storm Chasers uniforms. The Naturals were the home team but the Storm Chasers got the home dugout and bullpen. The first comment I really have about the game is that the crowd was very strange. These are essentially Royals vs. Royals so the crowd seemed unsure of who to cheer for and against which made for a strange environment. I think the crowd was also there simply to observe and take in what should be the future of the franchise.

The starting pitchers were Mike Montgomery for Omaha and John Lamb for NW Arkansas. In my opinion Mike Montgomery gave by far the most impressive performance in the 12 inning affair. Montgomery pitched four innings, striking out four and only allowing one baserunner, a walk. He simply looked dominant when he was out there. I don’t think there was really a hard hit ball against him. John Lamb didn’t make it as far into the game but looked strong as well, pitching 2.2 innings and allowing one run on three hits.

Mike Montgomery was relieved by another high prospect for the Royals, Danny Duffy. Duffy suffered one unearned run when both Irving Falu and Mike Moustakas mad errors in the same inning. Otherwise Duffy looked great, pitching three innings while allowing only one hit and getting strikeouts on five of the nine outs he recorded.

Danny Duffy of the Omaha Storm Chasers gets ready in the Royals bullpen during the futures game.

Other prospects that I wanted to see pitch that did are Chris Dwyer, Will Smith and Louis Coleman among others. The Storm Chasers would win the game by a score of 4-1 with Mike Montgomery getting the win. Offensively the game was a little flat, the Natural scattered five hits through 12 innings while the Storm Chasers were only able to muster eight. There were two home runs that went out; David Lough and Jamie Romak. Gregor Blanco added an inside the park home run when the left fielder missed a sliding catch and was injured so he couldn’t retrieve the ball fast enough to get Blanco. He would stay in the game so apparently it won’t be a long term injury.

Wil Myers had a nice double down the line into the left field corner for the Naturals. Also on the Naturals side, left fielder Tim Smith got credit for gunning down the Storm Chasers Johnny Giavotella at third base even though he appeared to be safe. The game was sloppy as there were 6 errors during the 12 innings. For the Storm Chasers the two biggest prospects, Moustakas and Hosmer, combined to go 1-12 with the one single belonging to Mike Moustakas. Eric Hosmer took an 0-6 and looked eager to hit one into the fountains, swinging at several first pitches. Hosmer did sparkle on defense making two great diving plays reinforcing the idea that he could be a gold glove first baseman at the major league level.

The Royals lost on opening day 4-2 to a very tough Jared Weaver and won 2-1 on April 1st on a Kila Ka’aihue walk-off home run. These games had several significant moments but I will choose a couple to talk about that may have been missed.

Opening Day had two events that I would like to briefly mention:

1. Jeff Francoeur throws out Jeff Mathis of the Angles in a close game at home. Everybody comments on Frenchy’s great throw, which it was, but the most impressive part to me was Royals newcomer Matt Treanor hanging on to the ball and absorbing a ferocious hit from Mathis. Treanor has been a Royal for less than a week and had a play on opening day that in my opinion was extremely important. I have seen several catchers have that ball knocked out and it was a huge play to keep the Royals in the game even though the game ended in a loss.

2. Pinch running will be a very important part of the 2011 Royals. I believe it was the 8th inning when Yost pinch ran Mitch Maier before Jarrod Dyson, I don’t know why Dyson wasn’t the first player off the bench. My issue is that Dyson pinch ran right behind Maier, which is great to have speed on the bases since he was the go-ahead run at the time. They didn’t score, any of them. In the 9th inning Matt Treanor singles and is on first as a very important runner with nobody but Brayan Pena to pinch run for him which isn’t a whole lot better. If Dyson or Maier is still available it could have been vitally important. It didn’t matter as things worked out but it easily could have been a factor.

The April 1st game will be remembered as the Kila Ka’aihue walk-off game. Rightfully so. The one thing I want to mention is the brilliant performance turned in but Jeff Francis, the Royals starting pitcher. His line: 7 innings, 1 Run, 5 hits, 1 walk. If he can pitch similar to this he will keep the Royals in a lot of games this year that other starters won’t.

I love Yost’s move of putting Soria in to pitch the top of the 9th to give Ka’aihue the chance to do what he did. Too many managers think “It could be a save situation tomorrow, I better keep him fresh.” YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME, right Herm Edwards?