Zion Rose Explains What He Took From This Year's World Series

Outfielder Zion Rose led off for the American League in Sunday night's Fall Stars Game, not a bad way to wrap up a year that started with him hitting at Louisville.

The Kansas City Royals took Rose with the No. 6 overall pick in this year's draft, and he has spent his first fall as a pro with the Surprise Saguaros in the Arizona Fall League.

Playing left field and batting first on Sunday, Rose walked, struck out twice and got picked off after his third-inning walk in the American League's 7-4 loss at Salt River Fields.

Outfielder Angeibel Gomez replaced him and went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts, while left-hander Justin Lamkin gave Royals fans a bright spot with a 1-2-3 inning on seven pitches.

One game does not change his fall, though, since he is hitting .328 with a .494 on-base percentage, two home runs, 16 RBIs and 14 stolen bases in 15 Fall League games, and he has drawn 16 walks against 16 strikeouts.

That comes after a short stop at High-A Quad Cities, where he stole 14 bases in 19 games, and it builds on a hot start that already had people talking in late October.

What stood out to me came before Sunday, when Rose told MLB.com's Jim Callis about the hitter he wants to be and why he is not chasing home runs.

"The game's changing a little bit to more just hit-tool guys, line-drive guys. I know the game was about power and power is great, but the two teams that were in the World Series were just about getting on base and causing havoc on the bases. So I'm just playing my game and progressing as I go," Rose said in the story from MLB.com.

Callis also reported that the Royals are not piling changes on Rose in his first year, and the only real tweak is helping him shift his weight forward a bit more in the box to get more pop, and Rose said he would rather make hard contact and let the home runs come on their own.

I like this approach because it fits what Kansas City needs.

The Royals finished 69-93 and last in the American League Central, and their outfield was a problem, with some of the worst production in the league coming from left field and center field.

A player who walks as much as he strikes out and keeps running is the type of outfielder this team has been missing.

Rose is not on the 40-man roster, and nobody should expect him to fix the outfield next spring.

Still, the Brewers beat the Rays in the World Series, and Rose took the right lesson from that series, a good sign at 21.

As this year's World Series showed the Royals, the bar in October keeps moving.

Surprise hosts Scottsdale on Tuesday, and as one of the top two seeds, it will be the home team in a Fall League semifinal on Friday.

The general managers meetings also start Tuesday in Las Vegas, so the front office will have its hands full while Rose finishes out his time in Arizona.