Kansas City is a baseball town.

The saying sounded pretty ridiculous during the Royals’ 30 years of futility between the 1985 championship and the one earned in 2015. And it sounds silly now as the current edition of the Royals barrels toward its worst record in history. Yet it was often repeated during those bleak years, as though a reminder that if the product at Kauffman Stadium was ever good, the city would demonstrate uncommon passion.

The city’s reputation dates back at least to the birth of the minor league Kansas City Blues in 1888. In the days before TV, when fans eagerly supported local baseball, the Blues were joined in Kansas City by strong black baseball teams, which developed into the Kansas City Monarchs in 1920.

In 1955, major league baseball finally moved west of the Mississippi River when the Philadelphia A’s relocated to Kansas City. The dreadful A’s were replaced in Kansas City by the Royals in 1969, and the city soon had a winner at the highest level.

So the bleak years of the Royals have dampened, but not quenched, the spirit of the city. And one native son is working hard to bring winning back to Kansas City once again.

Rookie Jason Adam, a product of Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park, is one of a host of rookies the Royals are experimenting with in this rebuilding season.

Adam took a circuitous path to the major league stadium he grew up going to as a child. Drafted by the Royals out of high school in 2010, Adam seemed destined to pitch in Kauffman Stadium. But trades and injuries delayed that destiny for nearly a decade.

“I loved the Royals growing up,” Adam said. “This stadium was special to me, and I always loved to come to the games, even when they would struggle.”

And struggle they did. From the time Adam was born in 1991 until he graduated high school, the Royals lost nearly 60 percent of their games, lost 90 or more games 11 times, and never once reached the playoffs. Yet Adam remained loyal.

“I always had faith,” the right-handed reliever said. “I understood that is kind of how it works in a small market. You kind of go through ups and downs. So it was really fun seeing when this team finally won the World Series. I wish I could have been a part of it. But it was so much fun just being from Kansas City.”

Ironically, Adam not being “part of it” actually helped bring a pennant to his city. Adam was in the low minors when Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez, Danny Duffy and other products of the farm system began matriculating to the big leagues. A starting pitcher making his mark in the minors, Adam had to feel he was going to be a part of that much-anticipated core group in Kansas City.

But in 2014, with a playoff berth finally within reach, the Royals traded Adam for major league first baseman/designated hitter Josh Willingham. The late season acquisition of Willingham helped the Royals earn a wild card slot, and eventually reach the World Series. So, in a sense, Adam played a part.

Once with Minnesota, injuries derailed his progress. Numerous surgeries kept him from pitching in 2015 and 2016. The Twins finally gave up on him. The San Diego Padres gave him a brief look in 2017, but cut him loose before the season was up.

The Royals never stopped following their former draft pick, and they brought him into their system. And in May of 2018, the years of rehab ultimately paid off. Adam finally pitched in the stadium he’d come to so many times to watch his beloved Royals.

Being a member of the Royals makes reaching the majors all the more special, Adam said. And he believes it is making the experience more fun for his family and friends as well.

“It definitely adds another element to the excitement of playing for the Royals,” said the 27-year-old. “I always say that I’m playing for an audience of one, and that’s Jesus. But it’s fun to know that I’ve got my family and my friends here every night, and they can enjoy it even more than they used to enjoy it.”

Adam laughed when asked if he notices familiar faces in the crowd during a game at Kauffman Stadium

“I don’t really see people in the stands while I’m on the field. But when I’m down in the bullpen, guys I know will come down and heckle me a little, and it’s really fun to see people down there. But before and after games, for sure, I try to see the people that I know. Sometimes after a game I’ll hear someone yell my name, and I’m like ‘Is that someone I know?’ That’s really fun.”

Out of uniform, Adam frequently bumps into old friends, schoolmates and high school rivals around Kansas City. Those friendships remain unchanged, he said.

“It’s still the same old, same old. They still treat me just like they did before. I’ve got awesome friends here in Kansas City, and I’m thankful for that.”

Polls of major league players often reveal opponents’ appreciation for Kansas City as one of their favorite places to visit. That fact comes as no surprise to the Overland Park native.

“I’m glad to see Kansas City get that recognition,” Adam said. “Growing up in Kansas I was always like ‘I can’t wait to get out and see everything.’ But once I got out I was like ‘I kinda like it back home.’

“Where visiting teams stay, down by The Plaza, is beautiful. There is tons of good shopping, good restaurants. It’s great for visiting teams. But a lot of guys who play here end up staying here because it’s a great community and a great place to raise a family.”

And so Kansas City remains a baseball town. From the minor league Blues and Negro League Monarchs to the Kansas City A’s and Royals, it’s always been a great place to play, according to one native son.

“We have got awesome fans here,” Adam said. “They have been patient through this year, even though it hasn’t gone how anybody wanted it to go. But they are still coming out, still cheering for us. It makes it a lot of fun to play for them. It gives us even more incentive to keep pushing and get back to winning.”

The Kansas City Royals’ ongoing rebuilding process may have recently turned up another building block in starting pitcher Heath Fillmyer.

A virtual unknown just a few weeks ago, Fillmyer is quickly proving what he can do when given an opportunity.

And that is after he made a name for himself before even setting foot on a big league field.

Fillmyer put together a new career best Wednesday by shutting out the National League’s best team for seven innings. A few more outings like that victory over the Chicago Cubs will endear him to Royals fans in the same way he handled his call to the major leagues back in June.

Fillmyer made news for the way he informed his parents of his promotion to the big leagues. In Reno for a game with the Omaha Storm Chasers, Fillmyer was informed he would be promoted to the Royals late in the evening. Calling from the Pacific Time Zone to his parents in the Eastern Time Zone, however, was a problem. When he couldn’t awaken them in New Jersey to give them the good news, and to tell them to start making travel arrangements to see his debut, he sought help.

He called his girlfriend and had her go to his parents’ home, in the middle of the night, to wake them up. Apparently it wasn’t easy. The story of the young woman pounding on the door in the middle of the night brought Fillmyer a degree of notoriety before he put on a Royals’ uniform.

“When I went home for the All-Star break I saw a lot friends and family, people I grew up with, and they all got a kick out of it,” Fillmyer said. “They just said it’s typical of my family not to pick up the phone. It was funny and made it memorable for sure. It was something I’ll never forget.”

Fillmyer is making some more memories he’ll cherish, the best being the win over the Cubs. Injuries opened the door for him to step into the Royals starting rotation, and he’s making the most of the opportunity.

His four previous starts consisted of: 3 earned runs over 4.1 innings, 3 earned runs versus Boston on July 8; 1 earned run over 6.2 innings against Detroit on July 23; 3 earned runs over 5 innings at Yankee Stadium on July 28; a rain-shortened start at Minnesota in which he gave up 3 earned runs in 3 innings.

Each resulted in losses for the Royals. Until Wednesday, that is, when he throttled the National League’s best offense and picked up his first big league victory.

Having logged 37.1 innings in the major leagues, Fillmyer boasts an ERA of 3.13, a 1-1 record, and an impressive 1.286 combination of walks plus hits per innings pitched (WHIP).

“I’m grateful to get the opportunity to make those starts, and I just want to make the most of them. This is obviously the point that you want to be. You want to get these opportunities and you work for them. And when they come, you want to capitalize on them.”

Royals General Manager Dayton Moore has made numerous moves this year to convert veterans into prospects. Much has been made of the in-season trades of Kelvin Herrera and Mike Moustakas. Less attention was paid in January when Moore swapped veterans Ryan Buchter and Brandon Moss for Fillmyer and fellow pitcher Jesse Hahn of the Oakland A’s. Hahn had some big league experience in Oakland, so Fillmyer was the least-regarded of the four.

So no one expected the A’s fifth round pick in 2014 out of Mercer County Community College to dent the Royals rotation this year. His 5.75 ERA in a half season at Omaha didn’t help.

Yet here he is, throwing his hat in the ring for the Royals rotation of 2019 and beyond. Fillmyer joins Brad Keller, Burch Smith and the injured Eric Skoglund as rookies to start at least five games for Kansas City this year.

“It’s been a dream come true to be able to play the game you grew up admiring and to be at this level,” Fillmyer said. “It’s been humbling, but it’s also been great. I’ve been able to play against a lot of great players, and visit a lot of great ballparks. And hopefully the ride keeps going.”

The pitching-hungry Royals are kicking the tires on not just Fillmyer, Keller, Smith and Skoglund. The list of rookies trying to establish themselves in Kansas City includes Tim Hill, Jason Adam, Scott Barlow, Trevor Oaks, Glenn Sparkman and Eric Stout. One would expect the competition to be tense. But Fillmyer said the culture inside the clubhouse is uplifting.

“There’s just a lot of encouragement among us. There are a lot of great guys in here, and everybody is just rooting for each other. Everybody wants to have a piece of the success when it happens. When you have bad days, we try to pick each other up as best you can. It’s nice to be around guys like that.”

With hardly any of the fanfare of the annual NFL and NBA drafts, the major league baseball draft, which will begin Monday, will have a long lasting affect on the fortunes of the Royals, a franchise desperate for an infusion of new talent.

Not only will a lot of young amateurs become rich men tomorrow, but the futures of franchises will be largely determined by the selections made. The baseball draft is much more of a crapshoot than are the drafts of the other major sports. A surprisingly small percentage of the young players drafted will ever reach the major leagues, much less make a significant impact on the franchises that invested millions of dollars in them.

With a farm system widely viewed as the worst in baseball, the Royals need to build upon the work they did in the draft a year ago. Fans have their hopes pinned on a crop of 2017 draftees who are currently honing their skills at the A-ball level. The Royals selected high school first baseman Nick Pratto in the first round, then added a couple of other highly thought-of prospects. Based on rankings from this spring, the Royals added their second, third and fourth best prospects in the most recent draft.

They have an excellent opportunity in 2018 to stockpile even more talent. Thanks to compensatory picks awarded for the loss of free agents, the Royals possess four of the top 40 picks in this draft.

It won’t be for several years, however, before we know if the Royals drafted well or not.

Even taking into account slow development, generally you expect a high round draft pick taken out of college to reach the majors in 2 to 3 years, and one from the high school ranks pick to reach within about 5 years. In each case, that puts the player arriving at the big league level at about 23 years of age.

Using this criteria, high school players drafted between 2008 and 2013, and college players drafted between 2010 and 2015 should make up at least a portion of the Royals roster. Some advance a little quicker, some develop a little slower.

With this in mind, the Royals current problems can be blamed in large part upon unproductive drafting in the first round the past several years.

Considering that baseball drafting is very hit and miss, the Royals were considerably effective with their top picks in the 2000s, which led directly to their success in 2014 and 2015. Zach Greinke (drafted in 2002 and flipped for key pieces in 2010), Billy Butler (2004), Alex Gordon (2005), Luke Hochevar (2006), Mike Moustakas (2007) and Eric Hosmer (2008) were all taken while the Royals drafted in enviably high positions each year, due to their dreadful performance at the big league level.

Sadly, time marches on, and the Royals needed to continue their run of success in the first round of the draft to backfill as those players aged and their big league contracts ran out. For a variety of reasons, that hasn’t happened.

Imagine if, in the five years following the drafting of Hosmer in 2008, the Royals had used first round draft picks on two front-line starting pitchers, a legitimate shortstop, third baseman and centerfielder. Those players would all be relatively new to the big leagues and under club control for the next several years. With pieces like that in place, the current rebuild would be more like a reload.

Unfortunately the players described above are not to be found in Kansas City.

In 2009, the Royals drafted Washburn Rural’s own Aaron Crow, a college pitcher who contributed to the Royals rebuild, but was derailed by injuries. In 2010, they took college shortstop Christian Colon, who was with the Royals during their World Series runs, but contributed little and is now unwanted by any team.

Then the really bad luck started. In 2011, the Royals felt compelled to draft Bubba Starling a local stud with limited baseball exposure. In 2012, they selected a coveted college pitcher named Kyle Zimmer. Injuries and poor performance have knocked these two completely off course, and it’s doubtful either will ever produce anything.

In 2013, the Royals drafted Hunter Dozier, who may still contribute something to the big league club, but certainly hasn’t set any worlds on fire.

If you want to make yourself ill, take a few minutes to look over the list of players drafted shortly AFTER the Royals made those selections. You’ll find names like Mike Trout, Chris Sale, Francisco Lindor and George Springer.

The Royals did do one thing for which they deserve credit: they drafted a couple of pitchers in 2013 and 2014 that they traded for key pieces in their World Series run. Pitchers being the commodity that they are, the Royals wisely dealt Sean Manaea and Brandon Finnegan to ensure a championship.

The bad luck continued in 2015 when the Royals used two first round picks on high school pitchers who have thus far been huge disappointments. In 2016, the Royals did not have a first round selection, having forfeited it to sign free agent Ian Kennedy.

So it’s easy to see why the top picks from 2017, and those who will be drafted this week, are so crucial to the Royals rebuild.

Now obviously, just as not all first round picks are sure-fire stars, first rounders aren’t the only ones who make it to the majors. Fortunately, the current Royals include some diamonds plucked from the rough, namely Danny Duffy and Eric Skoglund (3^rd round), Jason Adam (5^th round), Whit Merrifield (9^th round), Kevin McCarthy (16^th round), Jakob Junis (29^th round) and Tim Hill (32^nd round). The Royals need to continue to scour solid big leaguers from the lower rounds. But it’s in the first round they must turn the tide.

The Royals will make some young men very wealthy Monday. Will those draft picks restore the fortunes of the Royals in turn? Kansas City is the only team with four picks in the first round. Draft history shows that not all four of those picks will reach the major leagues, much less turn into stars. But the addition of several quality prospects, combined with the solid class taken in 2017, could go a long ways toward shaping a brighter future for the franchise.

Fans eager for a rebuild of the Kansas City Royals have questioned why management filled the lineup with veterans. With each signing of a stopgap – Alcides Escobar, Lucas Duda, Mike Moustakas and Jon Jay – observers wondered why the Royals would delay the anticipated youth movement. The team was expected to be bad anyway, so why not give the prospects on-the-job training.

Those fans may still wonder what’s going on, but a youth movement is taking place in an area they may not have noticed.

While the veterans take the field each night, take a peek into the bullpen and you’ll see plenty of fresh faces – guys cutting their teeth one inning at a time, without fanfare or even much notice by the casual fan.

A few years ago, the Royals employed a unique combination of average starting pitching and historically dominant relief pitching to reach two World Series, winning one. The tactic was revolutionary.

Aside from current closer Kelvin Herrera, that crew has since moved on. But perhaps the pieces are coming together to form another effective bullpen for the Royals to build upon.

Lefthander Tim Hill is leading the rebuild, slinging biting darts from a three-quarters angle that are nearly unhittable by left-handed hitters.

At 28, Hill is somewhat old by rookie standards. Three years ago, Hill’s path to the big leagues was slowed by a life-threatening bout with colon cancer. But having been drafted out of college at 24 years of age, he didn’t spend much time in the minors. Hill has been designated a reliever from day one and advanced quickly through the farm system.

Still, Hill didn’t have a lot of assurance he would break spring camp with the Royals in March. The Royals added veterans to the bullpen mix over the winter, and it looked like Hill would start the season in Triple A at Omaha. But Hill so impressed Yost during spring training, not only did he promote him to the big league roster, but called on him in pressure situations from the get-go.

“It was pretty special finding out that I was going to be on the opening day roster,” said the product of Bacone College in Muskogee, Okla. “It was something you’ve been working for years, basically your whole life, to get to have that moment.”

Hill started out red hot. He didn’t allow a hit in his first six appearances, and at that point his ERA was a dazzling 1.35. He has since cooled off, but remains one of Yost’s trusted assets.

The Royals broke camp with veterans Brandon Maurer, Justin Grimm and Blaine Boyer looking to set the table for Herrera. But quickly that formula was scrapped as Yost turned more and more to a collection of rookies in the bullpen, including Burch Smith and Brad Keller. Also making their debuts out of the bullpen have been Scott Barlow, Eric Stout and Overland Park native Jason Adam.

“Timing has a lot to do with it,” Hill said of the opportunity the rookies are being given. “You have to be pitching well, obviously, and then there has to be that opportunity. Those two things don’t always go hand in hand.

“There are lot of guys out there, in different organizations, who have the ability but just aren’t getting the opportunity. Or the opening is there, but they aren’t pitching well at the right time.”

Yost has yet to solidify a 7^th and 8^th inning tandem to set up Herrera, but Hill said time will sort out the roles in the bullpen.

“Everybody’s out there just cheering each other on,” Hill said “As the season goes on, roles kind of get established. But that kind of takes care of itself. I don’t think we (the relievers) should worry about what our role is. We should just focus on going out there when they give you a job to do, and just do that job that day. If everybody can just do their job well, we’ll be pretty good.”