Middle infielders? Who needs them? No Escobar and no Infante tonight as Pedro Ciriaco and Danny Valencia man the middle infield against the Reds. I wonder how Jeremy Guthrie, a premier pitch to contact guy, feels about that?
The lineup:
- Aoki - RF
- Valencia - 2B
- Hosmer - 1B
- Butler - DH
- Gordon - LF
- Perez - C
- Moustakas - 3B
- Cain - CF
- Ciriaco - SS
You can catch the game in the Kansas City are on 610 or via MLB audio with first pitch set for 8:05 Central Time.
Guthrie has been tagged for five earned runs in his five innings of major league work this spring, but also has six strikeouts. Listen, if Jeremy Guthrie strikes out a batter per inning (he won't) this year, we will all be very happy.
The Alcides Escobar to the disabled list over/under is hereby set at March 25th. There is no line yet on the Omar Infante watch, but one might well be coming.
Our own Jeff Zimmerman, along with Pine Tar Presser Clint Scoles, are both reportedly trolling about the back fields of Surprise as we speak. I cannot substantiate a report that indicated the pair cornered Dayton Moore in the restroom near Field No. 7 and beat him with wet paper towels as they chanted 'you have to have a utility infielder' over and over.
Using the 'increase a pitcher's workload by no more than 20% year to year' rule, Yordano Ventura could conceivably throw 170 to 180 innings this season. Wouldn't it be delightful if bumping into that innings limit because Ventura was that effective became an issue? And yeah, I used the word 'delightful'.
This is going up early because I'm going out late.
For fun and discussion, after George Brett, tell me who the SECOND best Royals' position player was and, to make it interesting, don't base it on length of career, but on their performance during the time with the team (be it three seasons for fifteen seasons). My 'gut' reaction is Carlos Beltran.