Royals roster clears up

Bob Dutton has a projected roster for the Royals:

Rotation (5): Gil Meche, Odalis Perez, Zack Greinke, Jorge De La Rosa and Brandon Duckworth*

Bullpen (7): Octavio Dotel, David Riske, Jimmy Gobble, Joel Peralta, Joakim Soria, Todd Wellemeyer and Ryan Braun

Catcher (2): John Buck and Jason LaRue

Infield (6): Esteban German, Alex Gordon*, Mark Grudzielanek, Tony Peña Jr., Ryan Shealy and Mike Sweeney

Outfield (6**): Emil Brown, David DeJesus, Joey Gathright, Ross Gload, Reggie Sanders and Mark Teahen

15-day disabled list (4): John Bale, Scott Elarton, Luke Hudson and Leo Nuñez

60-day disabled list (2): Joe Nelson and Angel Sanchez

* must be added to the 40-man roster before 3 p.m. Sunday

** will likely keep just five outfielders. Gathright appears to be the odd-man out if club is unsuccessful in efforts to trade Sanders

I think that bullpen is much improved over last year. I think if Dotel can stay healthy and Soria can stay productive, it’s a slightly-below-AL average bullpen. And that, friends, is progress.

The catcher situation is what it is. Unless Buck pulls a Teahen, the organization needs help here desperately, in the form of prospects or free agents. This may be the place where the Royals actually spend some major money in the future to bring in a big FA.

The infield looks sharp. Hopefully, Bell will be able to find ways for German to get even more plate appearances than last year. AG (Can anyone think of a good abbreviation/nickname for Gordon?) can be very exciting if he does even half of what he’s supposed to. Hopefully Grudzielanek and Pena can give us some good D and, hopefully, some OBP (although at drastically different spots in the lineup, their shared primary goal should be to avoid making outs). I expect (hope for?) a big step up from Shealy. In terms of Shealy, this news is very exciting, but more on that later. And I hope, above all hope, that Sweeney can play in 130 games this year at his full capacity. Say what you will, Sweeney was just about the only reason to come to the K for several years and was one of the first Royals I could ever get excited about as a fan. He’s a genuinely nice guy and deserves a few great years to go out on.

Now about the Gload/Brown news.

A murky outfield picture cleared somewhat Tuesday when Royals manager Buddy Bell announced his intention to platoon Emil Brown and Ross Gload in left field and shift veteran Reggie Sanders to backup duty if unable to trade him.

Here are the splits of the players in question, from SI.com. I used Gload’s career numbers and Brown’s 2006 numbers because Brown has only been the batter he is for the last two years (and I don’t have the time to put together the splits for both 2005 and 2006).

VS. LHP:
Ross Gload .323/.357/.484/.841
Emil Brown .236/.316 /.465/.781

VS. RHP:
Ross Gload .292/.340/.426/.767
Emil Brown .308/.375/.454/.829

With Gload against LHP and Brown against the righties, that is a left-fielder with an OPS of 835. That, friends, would be good for 10th overall for an MLB left fielder last year. (Brown was 12th by himself.) I like this use of Gload because it stabilizes Brown’s weak side, and it gets him off of Ryan Shealy’s back. Plus, if Sweeney goes down, Gload can stand in as a fine substitute and Brown can hold LF by himself.

In other outfielder news, Mark Teahen needs to sustain or build on his improvement from last year. If he does, I’ll be an extremely happy camper. Also, as always, another good year from David DeJesus would be nice. DeJesus is coming into his prime. If he stays free of injury, he could start to make a name for himself outside of Kansas City.

It really looks like a great year for Kansas City baseball.

But, as is always nice to be re-assured of, this is still the Royals. Proof, you ask?

The Royals had toyed with the idea of shifting David DeJesus from center field to left field in order to put Mark Teahen in center field on a full-time basis. Instead, Teahen will be the right fielder.