First a couple of things I found interesting in the new Bill James Handbook:  He has the Royals as #5 in terms of young talent-behind only the Twins, Dbacks, Rays and Marlins.  And this was before we obtained Jacobs, who by the way was one of the six good young players on the Marlins.  From 06-08 +/- for first base, Ryan Shealy was tenth best with a +14, during this same time Jacobs was a -49 good for dead last. 

I also found some stats from this past year interesting.  Did anyone else notice Butler's platoon splits?  He hit almost 100 points highter against lefties than righties, .340 to .244.  He slugged nearly 600 against lefties ( 590)!  Does anyone at this point think he should be platooned with Jacobs at DH or 1st?  Or is he too young still to come to that conclusion?  I would like to see what Shealy could do for a full year if he could manage to stay healthy. 

Finally, I was wondering what everyone thought our starting outfield would be this coming year, just using the players we currently have.  Would we stay with Guillen in lf, DDJ in center and Tbag in rf?  Do we move Tbag out from starter to the bench?  Do we put Gator in CF and move DDJ to LF with Guillen shifting to RF?  Did Maier show enough that he could be in CF with DDJ in LF?  Discuss.