With the high amount of picks that the Royals possess in this year’s MLB Draft, remember to be following along with all of our draft coverage.

And with that, our own Jake Miller profiles Oklahoma Wesleyean outfielder Chris Acosta-Tapia, a target for the Royals in the later rounds of the draft.

Tapia had a stellar year last year starting 62 game for the Eagles hitting a .441 average in 238 AB’s, 105 hits, 89 runs, 27 doubles, 24 HR’s, 85 RBI’s, 208 TB, .874 SLG%, 28 BB, 41 SO, and 12 SB in 16 attempts. He led the NAIA D1 in doubles, total bases, runs scored and was second in the NAIA D1 hits, slugging percentage and total bases per game.

It seems as if Danny Duffy does not like the MLB’s plan to shorten games.

We interview the Royals 2017 18th round selection, Marlin Willis Jr.

MW:  After completing my first professional season, I felt things went fairly well . Getting a chance to play baseball at a professional level for the first time felt unreal! I was alongside great coaching, great players and great competition. I feel during the season, the ups were honestly just being able to go out there everyday and do what I love to do. The game of baseball is so inconsistent, you can have bad days and you can have good days, but the only thing that stays consistent is the love for the game; so being able to do that everyday was a blessing. In 2018 my goals are to simply get better and develop as much as possible. Of course you want to play good, but I feel that if you lock in on getting a little better every single day, the performance takes care of itself.

Max Rieper at Royals Review breaks down the rebuild that the Royals are about to dive into.

Tanking, rebuilding, trusting the process, call it what you will, but the Royals are not going to be doing all they can to field a competitive team in 2018. And that’s okay. Perhaps it is bad that baseball has taught fans to accept losing, to keep their eyes fixed on the horizon towards a championship trophy that may just be a mirage. But in Kansas City, with memories of a championship still fresh in our minds, we can accept “tanking” for a few seasons if it gets us back a Blue October.

Minda Haas Kuhlmann looks ahead to what the Royals AAA affiliate Omaha Storm Chasers have in store for 2018.

Jordan Foote at Kings of Kauffman has some fun predicting the Royals Spring Training stat leaders.

Clint Scoles of BP Kansas City takes an early look at Stanford right-handed pitcher Tristan Beck.

The Royals at present don’t have a lot of quality pitching in their system, but the addition of Beck could give them a pitcher who is able to work to the front of a rotation in the future, becoming a possible #2 or #3 starter in relatively short order. Drafted twice previously, if he’s able to stay healthy for the entire season while showing his arsenal then the pitcher will be drafted for the third time in his baseball career, but finally with enough financial weight to join the professional baseball ranks.

Travis Sawchik thinks the Diamondbacks got a good value deal with Jarrod Dyson.

At this modest price — and for a club that will benefit from greater outfield defense in a home environment that should better suppress runs — it’s going to be hard for Arizona to lose on this deal. And if they can gain a win or two out of it, it could be crucial for a club that might find itself in a tight Wild Card race. FanGraphs projects the Diamondbacks to finish roughly .500 this coming season as presently constituted. The addition of Dyson should bump up that figure slightly.

Ben Badler of Baseball America has notes on day one of the MLB International Showcase.