The work took place in blocks, long before the first pitch of a Cactus League ballgame here was ever played this spring.
Before the demotion to Class AAA Omaha, Royals instructor and former first-base coach Rusty Kuntz would set up drills in the Kauffman Stadium outfield last summer and work closely with Jorge Soler.
Sometimes he would take a slow first step on a 45-degree turn to the outfield corner. Sometimes he would nail the quick turn but was too slow chasing down the fly ball that Kuntz skied in his direction.
The bag of results was always mixed.