Day 5 – Does Anyone Want a Pitching Job

March 30, 2012

Today, I was at Tempe Diablo Stadium to watch the Royals face their season opening opponent, the Angels. Because neither team wanted to give anything away with next week’s starters, we instead got Teaford for KC and Hurley (a minor league free agent) for LA.

This was Teaford’s big chance to lock down a bullpen spot and maybe even a starting spot if Duffy choked this weekend. Sadly, Teaford was the one that failed, giving up a home run trifecta in a 5-run second that also included a near brawl between the homeplate umpire and Mike Scioscia.

This wonderful piece of entertainment came when Teaford plunked Bourges following the three cannon shots. OK, plunked is not quite accurate. Bourges got tapped on his leading elbow pad and it almost looked like he stuck the pad out to get hit. But that didn’t stop Mike from jawing at the ump until he got a warned to stop. Scioscia jumped from his chair, stormed to home plate and jammed his nose into the umpire’s all the while spouting expletives that we could clearly hear in the stands behind 3rd base. Think Mike forgot that a spring training stadium is much smaller and closer than Anaheim. Even after Mike went back and sat down, they still traded barbs for the rest of the inning.

Teaford did hold the Angels to no runs in the 3rd but I would not characterise it as a clean inning. So long Everett, Hope you like the atmosphere in Omaha.

Even with the 5-run second, the Royals still had a 2 run lead after three innings thanks to beating up Hurley even more than the Angels feasted on Teaford. Solid blasts by Yuni, Hosmer and Frenchie plus help from the bright sun and Angels shady defense allowed the Royals to score 7 times in the first two innings. Sadly, they could only muster one run after that and continued to show last year’s trend of getting people on but not being able to score them.

Bueno came next for KC in the 4th and sealed his fate in the minors by also pitching batting practice to Angels’ hitters. Coleman showed up for the fifth and just as he had done the previous two outings I saw this week; looked great for the first two batters then gave up two hits, a walk, and a run. Maybe Louis and Everett will be roomates at Omaha.

Hottovy again proved the one bright spot on the staff although he too finally gave up a run, his first in 9 plus innings this spring. However, he also had the easiest inning of all pitchers the last two days and still is my pick to make the staff of all the pitchers I have seen bar Mendoza.

Okay, not quite true. I watched Jon Sanchez pitch 6 innings against the AAA team this morning at Surprise and he was all business giving up just 3 hits and no runs. Guess my prediction of him starting on the DL was ludicrous because he is ready. By the way two of the hits came from Kousmanoff who again batted 3rd every inning to try and recover from his back injury and also show the Royals he is ready as well. And he did it in front of a crowd that included Yost, Moore, and most of the coaching staff.

I really do feel for Kevin K. You can see it in his face how desperate he is to prove he can be of benefit to the Royals and how much a simple injury from bending over to catch a ball has hurt his chances. I just hope he gets an opportunity at Omaha to continue improving his timing and hitting because he could be a solid backup if Moose struggles or gets injured.

Arguelles pitched against Sanchez in the AA versus AAA game this morning and he also threw up a string of zeroes until I left to go to the big league game. Both were getting a lot of praise from the scouts and players standing around behind the fence.

The other game was High A against Low A with Starling the feature attraction. But it was Eibner, Fletcher and the other High A players stealing the show while I was watching. It appears Bubba will start in Class A this year and will just have to watch his progress.

The other open spots on the 25 man roster really got no closer to being finalised from my point of view. Maier DH’d today but went 0-2 with a sac fly and really did not look comfortable at the plate. Ramirez struck out in his only appearance. Yuni hit another home run but also misplayed a couple of hits and/or throws in the infield. I did not stay around to watch Getz play as a late inning replacement. Wanted to find my way back to my car and get out of there before the traffic jamb started.

One word of advice for anyone coming to spring training. Stay away from Tempe Diablo Stadium. To start with, parking is an experience in itself. There is very little parking at the stadium and even though I arrived an hour before game time, I still got directed through several backstreets to a small business lot where I got charged $5 for the pleasure (Surprise lot is next door and free). And the seats have less leg room than a cheap airline seat. Not to mention there are not enough aisles and you are constantly up and down trying to let people through to their seats. It made the experience very average to say the least. I much prefer Surprise or even Maryvale (considered on the low end of the scale by experienced STers) over Diablo.

The funniest moment of the day…The great Pujols slapped a single to right and took a big turn around 1st as he usually does. Apparently, he didn’t realise that Jeff Francour is not one of his loyal subjects. Jeff scooped the ball off the grass on the dead run and launched a rifle shot to Hosmer forcing Albert to dive back into the base and get his nice clean uniform all dusty.

Albert and Jeff spent the next couple of minutes trading barbs until the next batter stepped in. They were still pointing fingers at each other with accompanied shouts a few innings later when Pujols exited the game and walked down the right field line to the clubhouse. I would say it was probably all in fun but I am sure Jeff had a good laugh over it. Even kings have their hecklers. Will be fun to see how they get along in Anaheim next week before the first game.

Tomorrow is another night game and televised in KC according to Mr. Goldberg, who I saw yesterday and reminded that his buddy 1yankhtr was looking for him when he gets back to the K. Anyway, that means tomorrow morning I will be back at the practice fields watching the kids play their hearts out and gathering more research for my final book in The Young Rebel trilogy.

Hopefully, will have some more useful tidbits to pass onto you then. And who knows, maybe Steve and company will invite me up to the booth tomorrow night to regale them on the wonders of Australia and getting up in the middle of the night to watch Royals baseball. Until then, may all your dreams be baseball dreams.

 

Written by DownUnderFan Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with baseball, downunderfan, Joel Goldberg, Kansas City Royals, Major League, Pujols, Scioscia, Spring Training, Teaford