Hello and welcome to week two of Spring Training. I was going to write up a separate “perfectly reasonable reactions” post as I usually do at this time of Spring Training but there’s just too much going on this year, so I’m going to hit you with some bullet points here, instead:
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Josh Rojas has already socked a couple of dingers, and while it seems unlikely he’ll make the roster, if he keeps it up, he positions himself to get an early chance somewhere this year.
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Helcris Olivárez seems to be making a case to join the roster as a left-handed reliever. He’s already appeared three times after signing as a minor league free agent, and the book on him was that he had big stuff, but he couldn’t get it near the strike zone; he’s been keeping it near the strike zone so far this spring. He might not make the Opening Day roster but he figures to be among the guys rotating between Omaha and KC if he can keep this up.
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Jac Caglianone continues to terrorize the Cactus League. launching a mammoth home run one day and a 120.2 MPH double yesterday. Once again, he seems to have little to prove anywhere except at the big league regular season level and he seems destined to get another shot, this year. Let’s hope it goes better the second time.
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Carter Jensen is holding up his end of the Carter and Cags duo with a 1.222 OPS so far including a two-run bomb yesterday. Yesterday was really fun for fans of the non-existent western mystery series that the two seem to have come from, as there were two separate innings where they each collected a solid hit and an RBI.
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Finally, Michael Massey entered the spring battling for a roster spot but as good as he has looked early, he might now be fighting for India’s starting job at second base. We’ve talked a lot about how India might bounce back this year, but it’s worth remembering that Massey isn’t without his prior big league success, either.
Anyway, here is today’s lineup:
I’m probably wrong, but this is the first time I remember EVER seeing Bobby hitting leadoff. Maybe Quatraro wasn’t blowing smoke when he suggested the shortstop might be leading off for the team this year. It may only be a trial to see how Bobby feels about doing it in practice and he may decide that, no, he really does hate it. But it’s interesting to at least consider it. Batting Isaac Collins fourth probably means nothing, but it’s also very interesting as a lot of the discussions around the Royals have been about how Maikel Garcia can’t lead off because Collins and India, the other two primarily considered candidates, can’t hit in the middle, and he can.
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Bailey Falter is getting the start for today, but here are the other pitchers the Royals have included in their game roster and could pitch:
Rayo, Pérez, and Patteson are probably the guys who only pitch if someone can’t get out of their inning before they hit a limit. Everyone will be keeping a close eye on Estévez’s velocity as it was way down in his first Spring appearance, but that’s hardly the first time that’s been true of the closer, including last year when he ended up doing just fine for himself.
Today’s game can be heard online at royals.com or through the At Bat app. It’s also available on the radio on 1660 AM in Kansas City.
