Keep Alberto Callaspo!!

I know, I know, I know, IT IS STILL SPRING TRAINING and nothing we can see means much of anything. I think a lot of fans, and maybe the top brass were looking forward to seeing Alex Gordon show signs of being healthy and improving at the plate. Unfortunately, Alex Gordon is injured... again. Three to four weeks isn't that bad, and really he was trying to hustle and play hard...it's hard to get down a player who is giving it his all. Props to you Alex Gordon, and I sincerely hope to see you on the field soon...putting up numbers we have long been waiting to see. In the meantime, the Royals may not have a chance to screw something up.
Working for a small market team, offers a general manager multiple opportunities to worsen a franchise for the future. Because the Royals cannot put up the payroll dollars to "buy themselves better", trades, the amateur draft, and development of young talent become paramount. The Royals have had many trades (usually involving the trading away of good players) that haven't worked out as they might have hoped. This off-season and Spring Training, there have been many questions surrounding the future of Alberto Callaspo with the Kansas City Royals. Speculation has led fans to believe that they had been looking to deal the recent hitting talent who, as of late, doesn't appear to have a clear position on the team.
In 2008, the somewhat unknown Callaspo managed a .305 BA average and a .361 OBP in 231 at bats. It was the first time in his career he managed to hit over .240 with any amount of at bats. I think for most fans, it was more of a pleasant surprise than an indication of Callaspo potentially being a good hitter. Then 2009 rolled around and Callaspo saw more playing time for his positive production. In 576 at bats, he was arguably the Royals best all around hitter with a .300 BA and a .356 OBP with only 51 strikeouts. Say all you want about other offensive numbers and how other players did better here or there; what I liked about Callaspo was his plate discipline. Discipline is something the Royals have struggled with as a team for quite some time. His defense at second base, however, left a lot to be desired. The Royals then traded Mark Teahen, and in came Chris Getz and by all assessments, he should be a defensive upgrade from Callaspo. It is hard to argue with wanting the Royals to get better defensively, and if Getz does that...then he should play 2B over Callaspo. So what would the Royals do with Alberto??
 Suddenly, the Royals most disciplined hitter appeared "position-less". Getz at 2B, Betancourt/Aviles at SS, Gordon/Fields(and maybe Callaspo) at 3B and Guillen assumed the DH role. Trey HIllman insisted that he would work to find Callaspo the at bats, but it is hard to imagine Hillman's love affair with Bloomquist dying down anytime soon and I was struggling to see 400 plus at bats for Callaspo.
Spring Training started and Callaspo remained on the team, begging the question: "Is there not any interest or adequate trade options for Callaspo, or, do the Royals really want to keep this guy around?". I don't know, and it doesn't matter.The injury to Alex Gordon seemed to be enough to warrant keeping Callaspo, and it might give even the Royals enough time to realize the potential value of having him around.
I didn't really give much thought to Callaspo manning third until the return of Alex Gordon...until today (many of you probably entertained this thought before, so bear with my slow processing speed).

Why shouldn't Callaspo be the regular third baseman for the Royals??

Initially, this was just a passing thought in mind my mind. Then, of course, I had to do some digging to satisfy myself. What did I find? Well, the move might make more sense than not.

(Looks like a legit third baseman. I mean, just look at him!)

In 2009, Callaspo played some third base for the Royals to help fill in for the injured Alex Gordon. He spent a mere 99.0 innings there over 14 games. It is not an adequate enough sample to really place much value on the defensive numbers that resulted. However, he could have been downright bad for those 99.0 innings and HE WASN'T (I am not going into the details. Check them out on fangraphs.com if you like). The point is this: When compared to Alex Gordon, Callaspo seems like a pretty good option at third. Let's Compare:
                  
                                              GORDON                             CALLASPO
Age for most of 2010:                  26                                            27
Career at bats:                           1200                                         975
Career BA:                                .250                                         .286
Career OBP:                              .331                                         .341
Career SLG:                              .415                                         .404
Career OPS:                              .746                                         .746

Callaspo is not overwhelmingly better than Gordon offensively. Consider this, however. In staring Gordon, you gain whatever power he has and the potential power he might have...but, you take on his love of the strikeout. With Callaspo you lose power, but as shown with the OPS...he makes up for it and then some. Callaspo is not a strikeout kind of guy and he can hit for average (something that can be said of few players on the Royals). With so many things being equal, and Callaspo arguably having the edge...why not take the next 4-5 weeks and figure out if Callaspo could potentially be a regular at third. According to baseball history, he should be at his peak for the next three years (give or take) and his offensive numbers warrant finding him an everyday position.

The Many Looks of Hillman

I have been wanting to post this for quite some time, it is just never the right time. Other than Eric Clapton, I cannot think of another individual in the public eye who alters their appearance so dramatically, so often.
                

  
As usual, I'm sure that I am putting way too much thought into this...but it should be of little surprise that the lineup changes as often as it does.

Sometimes, All You Can Do is Laugh

Alex Gordon...you know what's coming next... right? He is injured, out for three to four weeks and will likely miss the season opener. When I first read the headline, I laughed out loud. Of course he is injured! He plays for the Kansas City Royals. The baseball gods have been hard on the Royals ever since the passing of their late owner, Ewing Kauffman. Bad things happen to you when you are a fan of the Royals, when you play for the Royals, when you work for the Royals, even if you merely read things about the Royals. You can suffer from a detached retina, simply because you were near the Royals.

I have worked in hospitals for years and maybe their is more connection than I ever imagined between my career choice and my favorite sports team. People come to hospitals for basically three reasons: for their birth, for their ailments and for their death. A lot of the same can be said for those who come to the Kansas City Royals. Many good players are "born" in Kansas City: David Cone (even literally born in Kansas City), Jeff Conine, Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, you get the idea and if you're a fan you are all too aware of this phenomenon. Players come to the Royals during times of "illness". These are basically times when players are coming off of sub-pars seasons, or when they are not drawing much interest from other teams (Jose Guillen fits the bill). Finally, players come here to die: Felix Jose, Chile Davis, Terry Pendleton, Greg Gagne, Gary Gaetti, Vince Coleman, Chuck Knoblauch, Mark Grudzielanek, etc. 

(Gary is easy on the eyes)


There is always the smell of the "sick" and often times a sense of sadness you when walk the halls of a hospital. When you work there, you are constantly aware that something could go very wrong. I wonder if those same smells and feelings fill the locker room and front office of Kauffman Stadium. I wonder if Gordon's injury was even surprising to Trey Hillman and Dayton Moore. Injuries happen to every team, but doom seems to surround the Royals. 

It All Comes Down To Pitching

Pitching is everything in baseball. With PERFECT pitching, you might not win a game...but you certainly won't lose. The Royals haven't had the type of pitching staff that attracts any sort of respect or attention in a long time. This year COULD be different. Zack Greinke is coming off of a Cy-Young winning year, Gil Meche IS healthy by all accounts, Brian Bannister is also healthy, Aaron Crow did exactly what he needed to do Saturday, Noel Arguelles has the attention of club officials, Joakim Soria is still on the roster...the Royals have some very promising pitching in there organization this year.
Overall, I don't know if Dayton Moore is the right man for the Royals. A case can certainly be made that he has done his job thus far, however. Remember what kind of pitching this team had when he arrived in the summer of 2006 (from http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teamstats/roster.php?y=2006&t=KCA):

48	Jeremy Affeldt	6-04	185	Left	Left	1979-06-06
39	Steve Andrade	6-01	220	Right	Right	1978-02-06
27	Denny Bautista	6-05	170	Right	Right	1980-08-23
58	Adam Bernero	6-04	205	Right	Right	1976-11-28
38	Chris Booker	6-03	235	Right	Right	1976-12-09
47	Ryan Braun	6-01	215	Right	Right	1980-07-29
50	Ambiorix Burgos	6-03	225	Right	Right	1984-04-19
36	Jorge de la Rosa	6-01	190	Left	Left	1981-04-05
47	Elmer Dessens	6-00	190	Right	Right	1971-01-13
53	Jose Diaz	6-00	240	Right	Right	1980-04-13
52	Scott Dohmann	6-01	180	Right	Right	1978-02-13
38	Brandon Duckworth	6-02	185	Right	Both	1976-01-23
37	Scott Elarton	6-07	240	Right	Right	1976-02-23
36	Seth Etherton	6-01	200	Right	Right	1976-10-17
41	Jimmy Gobble	6-03	190	Left	Left	1981-07-19
23	Zack Greinke	6-02	200	Right	Right	1983-10-21
40	Runelvys Hernandez	6-01	205	Right	Right	1978-04-27
34	Luke Hudson	6-03	195	Right	Right	1977-05-02
22	Bobby Keppel	6-05	205	Right	Right	1982-06-11
54	Mike MacDougal	6-04	195	Right	Both	1977-03-05
22	Joe Mays	6-01	185	Right	Both	1975-12-10
55	Joe Nelson	6-01	210	Right	Right	1974-10-25
43	Leo Nunez	6-01	160	Right	Right	1983-08-14
57	Joel Peralta	5-11	170	Right	Right	1976-03-23
45	Odalis Perez	6-00	225	Left	Left	1977-06-11
21	Mark Redman	6-05	220	Left	Left	1974-01-05
51	Andrew Sisco	6-10	270	Left	Left	1983-01-13
39	Kyle Snyder	6-08	220	Right	Both	1977-09-09
36, 63	Steve Stemle	6-04	200	Right	Right	1977-05-20
56	Todd Wellemeyer	6-03	205	Right	Right	1978-08-30
46	Mike Wood	6-03	180	Right	Right	1980-04-26

What remains? Zack Greinke. And remember, it wasn't an easy decision to keep Greinke that year. I think if most fans and other GMs are being honest, that cannot easily say that they would have been patient with Zack. Moore's patience paid off and then some. He is responsible for Greinke's contract extension and his patience resulted in keeping around a Cy-Young Award winner. They don't teach that stuff in GM school.
The rest of Moore's positive pitching moves are:
-Traded Tony Graffanino for Jorge de la Rosa (hey, he showed SOME flashes)
-Traded Ambiorix Burgos for Brian Bannister (one of his best trades to date, in my opinion)
-Traded Daniel Christensen for Ramon Colon
-Traded Octavio Dotel for Kyle Davies
-Traded Future Considerations for Ramon Ramirez
- Signed Gil Meche (and signed him for "too much" at the time. A somewhat ballsy move that paid off)
-Picked up Robinson Tejeda
-Drafted Joakim Soria (who?? at the time) in the Rule 5 Draft
-2007, his first Amateur Draft with the Royals, he selected pitchers Sam Runion, Daniel Duffy, and Mitch Hodge (Runion...oops. Duffy is promising, ranked as the organization's #8 prospect, and I haven't heard much about Hodge, other than he is in the Rookie league)
-2008, he drafted pitchers Mike Montgomery, Tyler Sample, Tim Melville and John Lamb (Montgomery appears to be a good prospect, maybe Sample as well).
-2009, Aaron Crow, Chris Dwyer, and Louis Coleman (Aaron Crow looks as good as you could hope for thus far, and honestly I don't know enough about Dwyer or Coleman to make an educated statement).

There have been many bad signings and trades along the way, but look at the 2010 roster of pitchers:

	Pitchers	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
	45 Noel Arguelles	L/L	6-3	220	01/12/90
	19 Brian Bannister	R/R	6-1	215	02/28/81
	56 Roman Colon	R/R	6-5	245	08/13/79
	43 Aaron Crow	R/R	6-3	190	11/11/86
	37 Juan Cruz	R/R	6-1	165	10/15/78
	34 Kyle Davies	R/R	6-1	210	09/09/83
	40 Kyle Farnsworth	R/R	6-4	230	04/14/76
	23 Zack Greinke	R/R	6-2	190	10/21/83
	80 Gaby Hernandez	R/R	6-3	215	05/21/86
	44 Luke Hochevar	R/R	6-5	220	09/15/83
	31 Dusty Hughes	L/L	5-10	185	06/29/82
	54 Anthony Lerew	L/R	6-4	225	10/28/82
	47 Victor Marte	R/R	6-2	255	11/08/80
	55 Gil Meche	R/R	6-3	220	09/08/78
	49 Edgar Osuna	L/L	6-1	185	11/25/87
	53 Carlos Rosa	R/R	6-1	210	09/21/84
	48 Joakim Soria	R/R	6-3	200	05/18/84
	51 Robinson Tejeda	R/R	6-2	245	03/24/82
	38 Blake Wood	R/R	6-5	230	08/08/85

I don't know about you, but it looks a lot better to me. The potential rotations that have been thrown out lately would be the best since Moore took over. The Royals have legitimate 1 and 2 starters now in Zack Greinke and Gil Meche...looks pretty good compared to Mark Redman and Scott Elarton. In my opinion, there is real competition for the rest of the spots in the rotation...competition is a very welcomed and foreign idea in Royals Spring Training.