Already drifting through the bizarre and inexplicable Greinke exodus, the Royals took another step towards another nightmare today with the first semi-injury scare of the spring. KCRoyals.com reports:
SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Mark Redman was scheduled to start on Monday against the Padres, but instead he will be in Kansas City having his sore left knee checked.The Royals sent Redman back to Kansas City to have team physician Dr. Steve Joyce examine the knee.
"For some reason after the start, he got swelling in there," trainer Nick Swartz said on Sunday.
Redman threw two innings, allowing one run and one hit, on Thursday against the Rangers.
"It showed up the next day," Swartz said.
Redman, a 32-year-old left-hander, was acquired in a December trade with the Pirates for Minor Leaguers Jonah Bayliss and Chad Blackwell. Redman was 5-15 with a 4.90 ERA in 30 starts last season and has a 53-66 career record with a 4.47 ERA.
Manager Buddy Bell had said Redman and Scott Elarton, who signed as a free agent with the Royals, were the leading candidates to be the Opening Day starter entering Spring Training.
This isn't gonna cost us the pennant, and it might not even cost us a single Mark Redman start, but its still not the best news on a cold March evening.
In Other News...
Joe McEwing: is hitting .333/.500/.667 this spring in 4 games. Amazingly, "1B" is now his offical designation. Super Joe's about as close to a real bondafide "1B" as this blog is to ESPN.com. Watch this closely, hate to root against this guy, but is another season of McEwing truly the best we can do??
Hell, Benji F'ing Gil who hasn't played in the Majors since 2003 is hitting .667/.750/1.667. (pause... through 4 ABs).
Kerry Robinson has jumped out to a .400/.400/.533 line in 15 ABs. Good to see he's not walking. I know the positions don't really match up, but at least Robinson's sorta fast, which makes him preferable to McEwing.
Through 9 ABs newly resigned John Buck is .000/.100/.000 thus far... Sheesh.