http://sportsworld.nbcsports.com/royals-play-small-moneyball/

4. Scout joyfully. Dayton Moore and J.J. Picollo have the hearts of scouts. Moneyball — especially the movie — made baseball scouts look like out-of-touch witch doctors who eat badly and believe in the power of their guts. Clint Eastwood’s “The Trouble With The Curve,” tried to celebrate scouting — and instead, even more than Moneyball, made them look like out-of-touch witch doctors who eat badly and believe in the power of their guts. But scouting, when it’s done right, is not about sitting behind home plate with a radar gun and a stopwatch and determining which player has a “good face” or grading their tools on a scale from 20 to 80. Those are obvious things. But more than that, scouting is about investing in a player, learning about him, trying to imagine how he will handle the bus rides of the minor leagues, how he will deal with the slumps, how he will be changed by the attention. This kind of scouting requires thinking about how well the player will fit into a diverse clubhouse with several languages being spoken all at once, Will he shrink under the bright lights? Will he lead? Will he follow? Will he rebel? Will that hole in his swing fill with time? Does he love the game? Does he play only for the money? Will he work through the low moments? Does he have the talent and willpower to overcome when the league adjusts to him? Moore and Picollo and the other Royals came up with a simple philosophy on scouting for the Royals: They wanted to acquire players they enjoyed watching play. In this analytical time with all the big data available, that can sound kind of ridiculous — but is it? When the Royals traded Zack Greinke to Milwaukee for Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain, the doubts howled throughout baseball. Several general managers told me at the time that the Royals had much better offers on the table. They also thought Escobar would never hit and Cain was at best a fourth outfielder. But the Royals loved Escobar and Cain, not so much because of their tools but because of the joyful way they played baseball. The Royals loved watching Escobar go into the hole to make plays. They loved the smooth way Cain outran fly balls in the outfield. They bet that both players would get the most out of their abilities because of their attitudes, and they were right. The Royals signed Salvador Perez at age 16, largely because the exuberant way he played. The Royals signed Yordano Ventura for $28,000 out of the Dominican Republic and they targeted him early, not only because of his electric arm but because of the fierce way he pitched. The Royals brought in Kendrys Morales coming off a disastrous season because they were impressed by the consistent professionalism he showed even when things were going terribly. These aren’t “gut” decisions, exactly. The Royals run through all the information they have. They give a powerful voice to the scouts and to the analytics team. But the underlying principle is that they want to bring in players they think will be fun to watch at Kauffman Stadium. And that, as Robert Frost wrote, has made all the difference.