Three Minor League Rosters Revealed

Three Minor League rosters have been officially revealed. the team will likely wait until after the waiver process and final cuts are made to organize the Omaha Royals roster. Nonetheless, here are the AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals, A+ Wilmington Blue Rocks, and A Burlington Bees' rosters:

Catchers: Cody Clark, Adam Donachie, Kiel Thibault

Infielders: Irving Falu, Kila Kaaihue, Mario Lisson, Edward Lucas, Marc Maddox, Juan Richardson, Angel Sanchez

Outfielders: Jose Duarte, Brian McFall, Ovandy Suero, Geraldo Valentin

Pitchers: Roman Colon, Daniel Cortes, Kyle Crist, Julio De La Cruz, Patrick Green, Rowdy Hardy, Dusty Hughes, Blake Johnson, Devon Lowery, Paul Mildren, Matt Peterson, Julio Pimentel, Carlos Rosa

Catchers: Jeff Howell, Matt Morizio

Infielders: Jeff Bianchi, Josh Johnson, Chris McConnell, Kurt Mertins, Wilver Perez, Miguel Vega, David Wood

Outfielders: Brett Bigler, Joe Dickerson, Jarrod Dyson, Derrick Robinson

Pitchers: Henry Barrera, Tyler Chambliss, Gilbert De La Vara, Jason Godin, Russ Haltiwanger, Aaron Hartsock, Chris Hayes, Greg Holland, Matt Kniginyzky, Chris Nicoll, Mario Santiago, Everett Teaford, Blake Wood

Catchers: Todd Balduf, Nick Doscher, Jeff Eigsti

Infielders: Zach Evangelho, Shawn Hayes, Antonio Jimenez, Mike Moustakas, Alwin Perez, Clint Robinson, Jason Taylor

Outfielders: David Lough, Adrian Ortiz, Wilson Tucker, Jamar Walton

Pitchers: Juan Abreu, Henry Arias, Joe Augustine, Anthony Bradley, Alex Caldera, Ed Cegarra, Daniel Gutierrez, Yensi Lopez, Matt Mitchell, Eduardo Paulino, Zach Peterson, Ben Swaggerty

Opening Day Roster?

Here is my prediction for the 25-man, Opening Day roster:

C John Buck

C Miguel Olivo

C Matt Tupman

1B Ross Gload

1B Billy Butler

1B Ryan Shealy

2B Alberto Callaspo

2B Mark Grudzielanek

3B Alex Gordon

SS Tony Pena

LF Joey Gathright

LF Mark Teahen

CF David DeJesus

*Jose Guillen suspended 15 days

*Esteban German traded

*Matt Tupman called in for Olivo's 5 game absence

*Justin Huber DFA'ed - either traded, released, or sent outright to Omaha - I'd say there's an equal chance any could happen

SP Brett Tomko

SP John Bale

SP Gil Meche

SP Brian Bannister

SP Zack Greinke

RP Hideo Nomo (Wild Card)

RP Ron Mahay

RP Jimmy Gobble

RP Yazuhiko Yabuta

RP Joakim Soria

RP Leo Nunez

RP Joel Peralta

*De La Rosa DFA'ed, clears waivers, and heads back to AAA Omaha

*Hideo Nomo makes the 'pen, barely.

*Chin-hui Tsao, Duckworth, Musser, et al sent to Omaha.

Opening Day Lineup:

CF - DeJesus

2B - Grudzielanek

3B - Gordon

DH - Butler

1B - Gload

RF - Teahen

C - Buck

LF - Gathright

SS - Pena

SP - Meche

Is this rational? Any thoughts?

Some more 2008 predictions

Attached are my predictions given in a Royals Review contest.

Record: 75-87
Runs scored: 736
Runs allowed: 794
Batting average: .265
OPS: .724
HR: 139 (huge leap from last year)
ERA: 4.59

Predict who will lead the Royals in the following stat categories (give a name):
Runs: David DeJesus
Doubles: Billy Butler
Triples: David DeJesus
Home Runs: Alex Gordon
RBI: Jose Guillen
Walks: David DeJesus
Strikeouts: Alex Gordon
Stolen bases: Joey Gathright
Batting average (min 150 AB): Alberto Callaspo
OBP (min 125 AB): Esteban German
SLG (min 125 AB): Alex Gordon
OPS (min 125 AB): Alex Gordon

Wins: Zack Greinke
Saves: Joakim Soria
Quality starts: Gil Meche
Holds: Jimmy Gobble
IP: Zack Greinke
SO: Zack Greinke
K/9 (min 40 ip): Yazuhiko Yabuta
BB/9 (min 40 ip): Brett Tomko (I know...)
ERA (min 40 ip): Joakim Soria

How many games out will the R's finish?: 20

Spring Training Pictures & Summaries

To view my Spring Training summaries in its entirety, here it is.

Also available at the link are over 100 pictures I captured at Surprise, AZ.

It was an ultra-exciting trip, and I hope to document something similar in my Minor League excursion this summer.

In addition, I have the following planned and hope to have it posted soon:

- Interview with K.C.-area pitching legend Tom Urquhart
- Royals Insider: Brian Bannister
- Some more Royals predictions

Much more can be found at Royals Nation Message Board!

The Royal Treatment: Live From Spring Training, Part IV

Unfortunately, we faced a late check-out and didn't arrive to the field until about the second inning. As we entered, we were greeted by Zack Greinke getting knocked for a run-scoring single, or in the general scheme of things: another Royals pitcher getting knocked around, which had almost become routine for us in this Spring Training 2008 experience.

However, after allowing a walk and a couple singles, Greinke settled down and pitched three more nice, scoreless innings. He wasn't overwhelmingly dominant like he was in his mid-to-late 2007 pseudo-closers role. However, he was hitting 92-94 on the radar gun, and hitting 70-74 consistently with a slow curve ball.

- It was vintage Zack Greinke: a nice combination of finesse and speed, fine spot-hitting, a good job of keeping the ball down, with a healthy amount of strikeouts.

- Offensively, I'm still underwhelmed by Tony Pena's approach at the plate. From a baserunning standpoint, he almost got picked off first again. His instincts on the basepaths were slow, it appeared.

- Mike Maroth struggled mightily with control and command early, as evidenced by his four walks in one inning. Quite simply, he must throw strikes and keep the ball down with his 87-89mph. fastball, which was exactly the velocity he displayed Sunday. The organization has announced that Maroth's injury has set him back to the extent that he will not make the 25-man cut out of camp. Hopefully, at age 30, he can find some remnants of the success he had for a brief period in the early-to-mid '00s as a #3/#4-level starter.

- Joey Gathright continues to race down the baselines. He should easily steal 40+ bases if given everyday playing time, and 25+ in his current projected role (slightly more than a fourth outfielder would be the consensus, at this point, IMO).

Unfortunately, I was unable to a) watch the Minor League games, b) capture the plethora of pictures I snapped on Thursday and Saturday, and c) stay for the entire game, to get a glimpse of the offensive and pitching substitutions.

Oh, well.

Overall, this trip was exciting, not just because of the baseball, but because of the "experience": in-depth political and Royals conversations, the swimming, the fine dining (and I do mean fine dining), and the Night Vision/safari-like desert expedition, which I will explain later.