This story appears in the April 4 edition of ESPN The Magazine.

YOU STARTED HEARING THE MUSIC carrying through the night air a few years ago. It sounded rough and discordant, sure, but something in those stops and starts caught your attention. There was a certain beat, or the lilt of a voice, or an inspired drum solo. It kept getting better, to the point where, after pulling into the driveway, you'd stop and listen for a minute or two before going inside. Roll down the windows, turn off the car, tilt your head back and think, Not bad.

Then you started seeing fliers for local gigs. Hey, look, those are the kids down the block. Eventually they left town, cut a record and went platinum. Pretty soon everybody knew the kids down the block. You were left with the story of those moments nodding to yourself in the car and a line you use every chance you get: I feel like I discovered them. The Kansas City Royals are baseball's version of a garage band with promise. The music started emanating from minor league towns four years ago. It bounced from Idaho Falls, Idaho, to Burlington, N.C., to Wilmington, Del., to Springdale, Ark., to Omaha, Neb. Disgruntled fans of the big league club, weary of 90-plus-loss seasons, began following the farm system instead. Independent Royals websites started getting requests to live-blog minor league playoff games. There was something happening out there: The music produced by all those ultrahigh draft picks began to sound like something you could dance to.

The group is strictly a boy band right now, with probable maturation dates ranging from this season for third baseman Mike Moustakas to next season for first baseman Eric Hosmer and pitchers Mike Montgomery, John Lamb, Chris Dwyer and Danny Duffy, to 2013 for outfielder Wil Myers.

Really nice article here…posted the intro above, but a very interesting look at Dayton Moore and his building of this farm system/organization.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/…..id=6260867