The Cactus Defense

Nobody said defending the Cactus league would be easy, but let's catch-up on what's happening down there in Surprise, AZ.

Chen and Sanchez have sucked: I had wanted to kill the subject of Dayton Moore's offseason starting pitcher aquisitions, but I just can't let it go. I realize that spring training stats are to be taken with a huge grain of salt, but these two have had really bad stat lines thus far and I'm starting to worry this won't stop once the season rolls around. If both of these experiments go wrong, we've got some serious problems. Don't forget that these were two of the three "locks" to make the rotation, per Yosty. I'm not sure if this is really something to panic about yet, but we might have to readjust our upside hopes for Jonathan Sanchez.

No, you're not dreaming: This was some breaking news that has sent hard core Royals bloggers tail-spinning through the three stages of grief. We started to see it happening, and we denied it. Then it was confirmed, and we spun into depression. Now we must simply cope with the fact that YUNI might get more at-bats than we had originally hoped. But lets face it, this is due to the fact that for all of the Royals' prospects, they simply do not have one at 2B. Most teams would have chosen EITHER Chris Getz or Yuniesky Betancourt before spring training, but not the Royals. We needed to have both of these guys in camp in order to cloud the fact that Giavotella should be given the chance to lose the job for at least a half season. Getzie and Yuni have already lost their respective jobs at least once, but the charitable Dayton Moore is giving one last chance to the guy who hasn't hit a home run in two years and the guy who hasn't had an OBP of .300 since 2008. I have to believe that the $3 mil going to those two could have netted you something more useful.

The Duffman impresses: For three innings Danny Duffy looked like the pitcher the Royals desperately need him to be. Forget the fact that he followed it up with a less impressive stat line, Duffy might be the most important starting pitcher on the staff. If the Royals have a potential #1 starter, it's Duffy. Here is a much, much more detailed analysis of the start and potential Duffy possesses. That the Royals need a front end starter is no surprise, but Duffy becoming Cole Hamels could be the difference between battling for 3rd place with the Indians or 1st place with the Tigers.

The hitters are hitting (mostly): Hosmer, Butler, Gordon and even Cain have all been hitting well this spring. Moose, Frenchy and Giavotella not so much. However, I would argue that those first four are much more important the others. We know that scoring runs wasn't the Royals' problem last year and hopefully we can expect more of the same this year. It will be interesting to see who are the Royals' fourth and fifth best hitters this year, but if the top three aren't Butler, Hosmer and Gordon in some order, something probably went wrong.

Dayton's ink: I think Dayton Moore got so tired of negotiating with Alex Gordon and his agent that he went straight to the two people most likely to sign long-term team friendly contracts. Enter Sal Perez and Acides Escobar and their multi-year deals. These deals have been roundly praised and have such little down side that they might be the two best contracts signed in the history of the organization. If you can lock up a SS and catcher for several years to come and part with less money than you'll be paying your closer next year, there isn't much for even your biggest critics to say. Unfortunately, it took about one week for the Royals to see the only thing that could possibly go wrong. This sucks, a lot!

The wild card: Luis Mendoza just won't go away. From bullpen failure to possible rotation candidate, I have no idea where to come down on this situation. Barring an injury, I'm not sure where he fits in, other than long relief. But then again, I wouldn't mind seeing the guy get a few starts on the off chance he's unlocked some potential which was hidden deep down in the depths of that right arm. Most likely this is nothing more than a nice spring training redemption story, but you just never know. The fact that something has to go wrong for another pitcher is the only thing keeping me from getting on the Mendoza band wagon.

More bad news: This is just plain sad. We thought he was our Mariano, but now the future of the closer formerly know as the Mexicutioner is in serious trouble. Even though we have some good replacement options, Joakim's injury is a real downer to start the season.

Ah, the ups and downs of spring training. Lets hope the Royals are getting the bad luck out of the way early because we're one more big injury away from really having to hit the panic button.