Jeff Passan

to yourself, yeah, each of these guys has a chance to be a part of a championship-caliber team.

Everything else, that's up for grabs.

And how the Royals go about that, I think, is going to indicate what quality of a front office we're dealing with here.

I think they've made a lot of good moves.

I think organizationally they are in a far, far better place under J.J.

Piccolo than they were before, just in terms of being a modern baseball team.

But

Having all that infrastructure in place doesn't mean anything if it's not translating into wins.

And that needs to be the ultimate goal.

I just thought it was really cool for not just the kids, but Eric Horner, the head coach, for...

a school that's really placed a priority.

It's only got a few athletic programs, but all of them are good.

And, uh, more than that, I think there's just some pride in the, in the Kansas city metropolitan area.

And there's, there should have been like, this was a team that, uh, was made up almost half of local kids and, uh,

for them to play as big of a role as they did, whether it's Victor Crystal, who went to Bishop Miege, getting the final outs, or Liam Roche, who, you know, pitched a vital game in the World Series.

A couple, actually, but one particular.

Lamp Alexander, who...

You know, he was Lance Alexander was on a summer ball team with with Michael Winter, who's at the University of Texas right now.

And for Lance Alexander to go out there in the final game, pitch the way that he did when he wasn't, you know, the one of the headliners in the rotation and all three of whom, by the way, Ashton Nance, Liam Roach and Victor Crystal.

All Kansas City kids.