FanPost

January Talking Points

January, to me, is like suffering through an annual purgatory between the gossip feast of the winter meetings and ST reporting date for pitchers and catchers.  Quite frankly, it is the worst calendar month to be a baseball fan.  News is sparse. Nourishment via juicy signings are few and far between. As a baseball fan, January is my Stalingrad. Or perhaps Napoloeon's Russian campaign. Or whatever dismal and dreary Eastern European war I can pretentiously think of and list and reference on a baseball blogging site.  In my mind, I hunker down in my bunker, hoarding any bit of news or discussion or fanfare I can get my hands on.  

Frankly, without RR I would not survive.  We let our beacons of obsessive fandom shine in the face of the frigid and stale January days.  We use discussions of arbitration signings as chapstick, and the rehashing of Scott Pose's exploits as a space heater. January be damned.

Here's the recent news:

The Royals have announced their non-roster ST invites

Pitchers - Roman Colon, John Foster, Roberto Giron, Ben Hendrickson, Hideo Nomo, Matt Peterson, Chin-hui Tsao and Matt Wright.  

Catchers - Adam Donachie, Damason Espino, Ken Huckaby, Kiel Thibault.

Infielders - Mike Aviles, Angel Berroa, Jason Smith, Mike Stodolka

Outfielders - Chris Lubanski, Damon Hollins

Non-roster invites are always interesting to me.  The players themselves are underwhelming, but the randomness of this motley crew of day laborers fighting for a job appeals to my human nature.  For the dreamers, there is the allure of younger, unknown, potential-filled commodities who could miraculously put it all together (see Lubanski, Stodolka, Tsao).  For the grizzled veteran in us, there is the dogged stubborness of the hangers-on who just can't bring themselves to hang up the cleats (see Nomo, Hollins, Huckaby).  For the tragic, there is the has been who was once on top of the world only to lose it all so quickly (Berroa).  And for Will, there is Jason Smith. Bow to him.

Realistically, I can't see any of these guys breaking the 25-man out of camp, except for possibly Nomo and Tsao.

Nomo has a fighting chance if he pitches well and someone else guaranteed of a roster spot on the pitching staff goes down with an injury. He is also aided by the fact that it seems like he's mainly in camp to provide some comfort to Yabuta, who is like that foreign exchange student from your high school who thought it would be romantic to come to rural America only to realize after he arrives that he has no one to hang out with.  I can't see him smriking his way through the Westport clubs with Alex Gordon, for example, or jumping over cars with Joey Gathright in the K parking lot.  Hopefully, Hideo can make him feel comfortable.  

Tsao has a shot because, by all reports, his stuff is incredible when harnessed and healthy.  He's kind of like a Jorge De La Rosa part 2.  Great stuff, poor track record, volatile or incredible at any moment - the gambling man's stock buy. If he pitches lights out in ST, he could find himself in the pen on Opening Day.

Everyone else, I think, can beginning looking at renting condos in Omaha or exporing options with another club.  

Jimmy Gobble settles prior to arbitration

...to the tune of $1,312,500.  That's a bit more than I expected (no more than $1.1 million) but in today's bling bling-awash with cash- Seligized-MLB spending culture, that's peanuts for a LOOGY who posted an 3.02 ERA and 11.87 K/9 against LH batters in 2007.  In other words, Gobble's value in his role is limited but important, and I don't mind the Royals slightly overspending for that.  That's right, GMDM and Jimmy Gobble, make it rain.

In the immortal words of Randy Moss after settling with that parking enforcement officer that he ran over in Minneapolis, "ain't nothin but 20 grand."

Octavio Dotel signs with the White Sox

Reportedly, O-man fleeced two years and $11 million from rotisserie league owner...i mean, excuse me, White Sox General Manager and President of Operations Kenny Williams.

Kenny Williams baffles me, and quite frankly he is beginning to remind me more and more of Herk Robinson, which is a good thing for the Royals.  Williams is guided by the stale aftertaste of success in his mouth instead of the rational thought process one would need to fix his roster personnel problems.  He seems to have convinced himself that the Sox can win the AL Central now at the expense of selling the farm, literally, for Nick Swisher.  He has not drafted well in recent years.  His sluggers are aging more quickly than I think he is willing to accept.  After Mark Buehrle and the always-dependably league average Javier Vazquez, his rotation is a series of question marks due to age; Contreras - too old and perhaps older than his reported age.  Danks and Floyd -  too young and perhaps rushed to the MLB.  

Most alarmingly, KW has done what almost always signals, at least to me, that a team is in decline.  That is, he is buying a bullpen with reckless abandon, spending a collective 6 guaranteed years and $30 MILLION on two aging relievers (Linebrink and Dotel) who have shown signs of breaking down at any moment.   Other than a premier closer, bullpens can and should be built on cheap and low-risk options, perhaps not with the Andy Siscos of the world, but smart GM's build them and spend their money elsewhere.

After the Garland for Orlando Cabrera trade, I predicted that the White Sox would finish last in the AL Central in 2008, and I'm sticking to my guns.

Sound off please!      

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.