Who Was the Most Pointless Royal of 2011?

it wasn’t like Escobar’s stock was plummeting. So why not give Navarro a shot to hone his skills at other positions in AAA instead of having him continue to learn in the big leagues?

for me, I guess, it’s just the fact that the whole thing felt like a chore… what’s his upside? a non-horrible reliever?

I can see the argument for keeping him around, especially since the Royals were going to be bad

And even halfway through the season his defense was propping up his bat – by the end, though, it became fully clear that he’s not really the solution at 2B.

But I also don’t think he gets on base at anything resembling acceptable at the major league level, so I’d rather he didn’t bat much anyway. If he came into any game with it tied or whatnot in the 7th or later, I wouldn’t mind him PRing and then sliding into CF for defensive purposes.

1.) I didn’t have to change my screen name, 2.) It really doesn’t get any better than letters from summer camp MITCH.

i’m just looking at it like you need a guy like that on the roster just in case. i wasn’t factoring in the fact that it appeared yost forgot mitch was on the roster for weeks on end at times this season.

As we all know far too well, the Royals have trotted out many, MORE pointless veteran catchers than Treanor in years past.

I think he’s ready and has been for a while now. He just isn’t that good. Was the consensus on this different a year ago? That’s not the way I remember it.

Anyway, I don’t know if Treanor improved Peña’s defense, but that falls into the broad category of “intangible benefits of having a veteran catcher.” I have already agreed that I’m not voting for Treanor for this very reason… so, to that extent we agree. It sounds like I’m just a little less happy about it than you are.

On March 28, when the Royals bought Treanor’s contract from the Rangers, Kendall was technically on the roster, although he would later be placed on the DL, retroactive to March 22. Of course, there was never any real chance he would play in 2011. But… both Peña and Piña were on the 40-man on the 28th, although Piña was optioned to Omaha earlier that week. So, technically, no, they weren’t down to one catcher when they signed Treanor. Peña and Piña were a viable if unimpressive catching tandem… or at least could have been except for the fact that neither of them is a veteran, and as I suggested above, you need a veteran catcher on every team. I don’t like it, but that’s the was it is, and someone had to go to Omaha. To fill the need for a veteran catcher, it was necessary to acquire Treanor. And that’s what happened.

We’ll see if it happens again this year. Peña or Piña could be Perez’s backup, but then we won’t have a veteran catcher. What do you think will happen?

Freel’s a good call. 2009 was really a good year for pointless Royals. Jacobs, Freel, Anderson, TPJ got some ABs, plus some great pitchers.