The road to the deep 2014-2015 Kansas City Royals playoff runs began on June 7, 2007, when the Royals selected Mike Moustakas with the second overall pick. Moustakas was symbolically the first of the core members of the New Golden Age Royals and represented one category of players on those teams, that of the Dayton Moore-selected homegrown stars. This category also included players like Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez, Greg Holland, Jarrod Dyson, and Danny Duffy, and by extension included James Shields, Ben Zobrist, Wade Davis, and Johnny Cueto, who were acquired in exchange for other talent from Moore’s expansive minor league war chest.
The young Royals on the team now aren’t the next core, but they are still important
