I’ve sort of abandoned the countdown to Opening Day series, because…well, I’m not sure why. Probably because it wasn’t my most brilliant idea ever*, and I kept getting “The Final Countdown” stuck in my head.
*My post at Ladies… from this morning holds that title.
This week is a stressful one for me, as the Royals sort out all of their roster situations and I can only pray they make the right moves. It’s an intriguing week every year, but I’m more stressed about it this year than ever before.
Some of that stress, however, was lifted when I rolled out of bed this afternoon to read that Ross Gload had been traded. The very same Ross Gload who embarrassed us all by being trotted out as our everyday first baseman last season, while Ryan Shealy was hitting like a Ted Williams/Babe Ruth hybrid in Omaha. And the same Ross Gload who cut down Mark Grudzielanek at the ankles, ending Grudz’s season and possibly his career.*
*If Grudz doesn’t catch on anywhere, we don’t get a sandwich pick, which we kind of need in order to further cement the Juan Cruz signing as a good one. The sandwich we’d get for Grud would basically make up for the pick we have to give up for Cruz, and if we don’t get one, well…I blame Gload for causing that injury.
I’m not going to congratulate Dayton Moore for making this move, though. Yay, sir, you’re shedding a guy who had no business getting a guaranteed 2-year deal! Good job! Oh, wait, I could have done that, only I would have skipped the part where I guaranteed 2 years at ANY amount to a bench player. And I don’t think any of us here would have made him our everyday first baseman. That’s just sick.
It would be nice to get a substantial PTBNL in return, but I’m guessing it will end up being some paltry sum of cash. Still, I’m glad Gload is gone. It’s one more step away from Laughingstocksville.
With the first base question answered a little bit more fully*, I want to raise a question I haven’t seen discussed in the last few weeks: How did it end up that Kyle Davies is our #3 starter?
*Although part of me still kind of thinks every major baseball news outlet
actually banded together to pull a prank on us, and Gload is still a
Royal.
Please, correct me if I’ve missed something, but I really haven’t seen anyone question this. The discussion has kind of been, “OK, we have Meche, Greinke, Davies, and then….someone at 4 and 5.” Everyone seems sure that Davies is our #3 guy.
……Really? I know how spectacularly he pitched in September. I was there. And it was amazing to see, because I do love Kyle Davies. What’s not to love? But it was one month of excellence, and that month was Septbember. I never heard anyone think of him as a #3 starter before that, so I’m just curious as to why no one is nervous about putting so much stock into Davies’ September/ST performances.
Then again, who else would we put there? This IS the team that considers Horacio Ramirez to be an able starter, and who is planning on pitching Sidney Ponson fourth. Hopefully Davies really IS that wonderful pitcher (with a wicked curve!) we saw last fall.
Lastly, the Hochevar demotion. I’m not too torn up about it, especially if the Royals can get another year of service time out of him by putting him in Omaha for a short while. The team isn’t exactly sending Zack Greinke down – Hochevar is a good pitcher, but he hasn’t really dominated at any point. Anyone could make a believable argument that he still has things he could work on in the Minors while we wait for the Ponson Experiment to come to its only logical conclusion.
Unrelatedly, please wish me luck in surviving this April Fool’s Day. I live on a floor full of engineering students who love pranks. There isn’t anything they couldn’t do.
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