FanPost

Line-up and Starters Reults

Here are the results for Royals Review line-up and starters survey after 28 responses (if it gets to 40+ by Friday I will update it this weekend). I will give the results followed by some observations and comment on each sections. Overall I am not terribly surprised but the line-up is different than what Hillman seems to have planned. The starting five and the 6 in the bullpen had a pretty clear drop-off after the spots were filled. The formatting got a little messed up in the transfer from word, sorry.

                Position votes    Overall votes
1.    David DeJesus         (21)        (28)
2.    Mark Grudzielanek     (12)         (25)
3.    Billy Butler         (9)         (28)
4.    Jose Guilen         (14)         (26)
5.    Alex Gordon         (8)         (28)
6.    Mark Teahan         (8)         (28)
7.    Ryan Shealy         (11)        (16)
8.    John Buck         (15)        (27)
9.    Tony Pena JR        (21)        (22)
Mark Teahan Had 8 votes in three different spots (2, 3, and 6) which probably reflects what people's views on his power potential is for the year and how they view his speed. One person went with 4 outfielders and no catcher. To me the most surprising was Shealy who had more votes for the 7 spot (11) than Gload the Exploder did overall (10). Joey Gathright received  3 votes (all for the leadoff spot) we should also try him at catcher because he was the apparent replacement for Buck on the one ballot that didn't have a catcher. Olivo received no votes which is a little surprising to me since he is essentially the same player as Buck. Gordon was in the most spots (7 of 9 , 1,2,3,4,5,6,9) with no other player being in more than 6.
On to the starters    (same format as above)
1.    Gil Meche        (25)        (28)
2.    Zack Greinke        (13)        (28)
3.    Brian Bannister        (14)        (28)
4.    Brett Tomko        (9)        (14)
5.    Luck Hocheaver    (11)        (16)
I considered doing the starting five by total votes after the top three but decided against it because 6th place  (De La Rosa) only had 8 total votes. I was surprised that both Tomko and Hocheaver made it because the overall view seemed to be that they would be in direct competition for that 5th spot. The Soria for starter campaign was also weaker than I thought it would be (1 vote). John Bale and Kyle Davies were also not as popular as I thought 3 and 5 votes respectively). Also Hideo Nomo and Roman Colon each got a vote.
The relievers
1.    Joakim Soria         (24)        (26)    (Closer)
2.    Yasuhiko Yabuta    (17)        (24)    (Set-up)
3.    Jimmy Gobble        (16)        (27)    (LOOGY)
4.    Leo Nunez        (7)        (12)     (Long Relief)
5.    Joel Peralta        (6)        (19)
6.    John Bale        (5)        (12)
The only real surprise reliever wise to me is that Mahay didn't make the 6 person bullpen, perhaps a reason to justify a 7 man pen? I was shocked that one person didn't vote for Soria in any capacity. No one latched onto the Tomko as closer idea floated by MLBTR.
Overall it was interesting to see how some guys had definite spots and others were all over the map. I would be ok with the roles that the voters put them in. On the line-up it would be great if Shealy could earn that 7 spot and to have Gordon hit well enough to justify the 5 hole rather than Hillman's view that he should be in the 7.
If anyone wants to see the full results email me and I will sent them to you. (Please make sure you can open exel files before you email me)

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.