Pitchers and catchers have reported, but there’s still a lot of time between now and Opening Day. I’ll be counting down the days with a collection of random Royals-related numbers. Most of them
mean nothing – this isn’t supposed to be a groundbreaking series of research –
but they’ll hopefully make the days go faster until April 5.
I got my Baseball Prospectus 2010 today, so our number is drawn from that.
47 days = 47 projected strikeouts by Alberto Callaspo
Alberto Callaspo is a hell of a hitter, especially for a Royal. But because he does play for the Royals, there’s a good chance he’ll be on the bench in 2010 while Chris Getz plays most of the season at 2nd base.
Callaspo is one of the hardest hitters in the American League to strike out – his 8.9% K rate was 3rd-best in the league, behind Dustin Pedroia and Placido Polanco. He walks at a slightly-below average rate, but his lack of strikeouts pretty much negates that.
The team insists that Callaspo will get plenty of playing time, but with all the bodies in the middle infield, I’d be surprised. The 47 Ks in Callaspo’s PECOTA projection goes along with the assumption that he’d get 523 plate appearances – fewer than last year, but still a good number.
Will he get that many?
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