Saturday Studmuffins: Kansas City Royals Hitting Coach Kevin Seitzer

I've heard a few mutterings of the Royals' somewhat-realistic chances to be in contention for the Central this season. I'd like to get onboard that bandwagon, but I'm still a bit unsure. One thing's for certain, though: Their hitting through spring training has been nothing shy of impressive.

The focus of Royals' Hitting Coach Kevin Seitzer seems to be centered on good plate appearances. He wants guys to battle pitchers, be patient, have good swings, and generate more walks. I realize this isn't rocket surgery, but it seems to be paying off, and I'll look at everyone's favorite baseball statistic -- the home run -- as evidence. We all will take a moment to remember that it's spring training and that some stats might be skewed due to guys missing from rosters because they're still playing in the WBC.

Naturally, I'm too lazy to look at stats for every team, so I'll just examine the long balls from the top three teams -- based on today's standings -- in each league. It looks a little something like this:

6) L.A. Angels: First place in the AL standings with 10 jacks.
5) St. Louis: Second place in the NL standings with 13 homers.
4) Atlanta Braves: First place in the NL standings with 19 long balls.
3) N.Y. Yankees: Third place in the AL standings with 22 profundos.
2) Milwaukee Brewers: Third place in the NL standings, having gone yard 28 times.
1) Kansas City Royals: Second place in the AL standings with 33 home runs.

Like I said, I only looked at stats for these six teams, but based on what's listed above, it would appear that the Royals are leading the league in homers. And that's all I have to say about that.