Yost confident staff has things under control

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Ned Yost was sitting in his office with three reporters when coach Rusty Kuntz poked his head in and wondered if the Royals' manager wanted to conduct his daily staff meeting.

"Just have the two-minute meeting without me," Yost said. "You don't need me in there anyway. ... You're in charge."

"See, you don't even have to be here," a reporter told Yost.

"You know what? To be honest with you, I really don't," Yost said. "This staff is phenomenal."

Yost then proceeded to sing the praises of his coaching staff which includes Don Wakamatsu, Pedro Grifol, David Eiland, Kuntz, Dale Sveum, Doug Henry and Mike Jirschele.

Now in his 11th season as manager and fifth with the Royals, Yost has learned a few things.

"I learned to delegate, I learned to sit back and let them do their jobs instead of sticking your nose into every dadgummed thing," he said. "I used to print every schedule, I used to do it all. I wouldn't let anybody touch the schedules, I wouldn't let anybody do anything. Except: 'Here's the schedules, you guys go out and implement them.' But when you've got good people, you trust them. Just oversee everything and make sure it's running the way you want it to run. And go."

Before long, Kuntz was back.

"Sixteen seconds, a new record," Kuntz reported. "Everything went well."

Yost just smiled.

"That's how long our staff meetings take, 16 seconds," he said, "because they're on it."