Herrold’s Hearings: Baseball Is Here, Football Is Near

By Seth Herrold (@HerroldTimes) R-T Sports Editor
It’s a beautiful day.
Not really. Its cold, there are showers in the area and its pretty windy. But today is Opening Day for the Kansas City Royals and baseball is back so for me, today is a beautiful day.
The thing about opening day – especially when the Royals open the season at home instead of spending a week on the road before the home opener – is that the weather is usually pretty bad. In a 10-year span, you are probably going to get two nice weather opening days. last year was nice, 2010 was nice… and that’s about it for opening days that I remember wearing t-shirts to.
Speaking of forecasting, lets get into this week’s Herrold Hearings, where the first question asks me to go on record with a win prediction for this year’s Kansas City Club. Remember to give me a follow on Twitter at @HerroldTimes and as always, thanks for reading.

I’m feeling more positive about the Royals win total these days – which might not be a good thing. Before the team went out and signed Lucas Duda, John Jay and Mike Moustakas, I was thinking the team would end up around 69 wins and get a premium draft pick next year.
Then the Royals decided they didn’t want to lose a year developing prospects at the major league level. I feel like they have definitely improved their lineup, though, it’s hardly a playoff lineup. I heard former Royals’ pitcher Mike Boddicker on the radio predict 83 wins for the Royals. That would put them in the hunt for a wildcard spot and that is insane. I think a .500 season is the high end of possibility for this team, which puts them right where they have been each of the past two seasons.
I think a selloff of Moose, Herrera and possibly even Merrifield and Duffy is possible near the midway point and that should drop the Royals off of .500 a bit. By the way, I am in no way okay with the Royals trading Danny Duffy.
So in the end, I am going to say the Royals go 77-85. That’s my official, on-the-record prediction. Just remember, I did say .500 was the high end of probability for this team. I am definitely taking the over on the Las Vegas line of 71.5 total wins in 2018, though.

My expectations for Missouri jumped quite a bit when Drew Lock announced he would return for his senior season. Glad he did, too. Quarterbacks should always try to emulate Chase Daniels’ career, not Blaine Gabbert’s.
With Lock back, I like the Tigers to be in contention in the SEC East. I don’t think they can beat out Georgia for a spot in the SEC Championship, though, and the schedule isn’t exactly laid out very favorably.
Missouri has Georgia at home, but its the first conference game of the year. If Missouri wins that they are in the driver’s seat, but a road trip to Alabama on Oct. 13 makes the Tigers’ margin for error razor thin. Road games against Florida and South Carolina won’t be easy either. I still like the Tigers to be the runner-up in the SEC East, though, and that would put them in a pretty big bowl game – a great way to close the Drew Lock era at Missouri.
For the spring game, what I would look for is how the receivers perform. I think the Tigers have a pretty good ground game to take pressure off Lock, but I want to see what his receiving options look like. Lock is the type of QB who can make average receivers look good. But with good options out there, Lock is the type of player who could have a record-setting season.

Anyone in the KCI hiring?
Croy was somewhat of an assistant coach last season, coming out to practice and helping out with certain position groups. As far as actually being an official assistant coach on the sidelines with his trademark visor on? I don’t see it happening, but nothing would surprise me. You could ask him, but you wouldn’t get a straight answer one way or another.
Wes Croy loves a good ribbing and a lot of times it has come at my expense. This is the man who called me to the school for a makeshift “press conference” to announce he was taking the Hamilton job when it came open a few years back. After a good 15 minutes of genuine Q and A, Croy revealed that it was in fact April 1. He made an April Fool out of me that day.
I seriously don’t think he has coached his last game, however. When he stepped aside five years ago, it made sense. He was able to take in all of his kids’ athletic events as a father and fan and I think he has enjoyed that. I also know he loves coaching football, though. His son Lathan graduates this spring and his daughter Salem will walk across that stage a year later. I could see him getting back into coaching in some capacity after that, be it as an assistant on Coach Brandon Boswell’s staff, or at a small school within driving distance of Trenton.
Like I said, with Wes, nothing would surprise me.