Another New Guy
Long ago when the Kansas City Royals were less than half the organization they are today, Tony Muser was running the show (albeit straight into the ground without any stops) and had a very weird affection for "scrappy" and "gritty" ballplayers, no matter how awful at baseball they actually were. Royals fans are too familiar with the list, which included Scott Pose, Hal Morris, Jeff Reboulet, and Luis Alicea among others. Additionally Muser, like many others, took notice of the Minnesota Twins when they started to grow into a respectable and then a contending ballclub. Not surprisingly, the Gunnery Sergeant thought the Twins were winning not because of their solid pitching staff, team speed, and defensive abilities, but because of their heart, hustle, and desire. No Twin fit that mold better than Denny Hocking, an untalented utility player who has to get his uniform dirty every night if he wants to continue playing somewhere. Muser loved that guy so much that he once said he’d rather field a team of eight Denny Hockings than a team of eight All-Stars. That team would probably score the fewest runs of any team in baseball history, but hey, at least they'd be trying!
Anyway, Tony (wherever he is) is probably smiling right now, because Denny Hocking has fulfilled his destiny and is a Royal.
This is another Allard Baird minor-league-contract signing that carries absolutely no risk, unless some sort of a plague strikes the entire infield and Hocking makes the team. Then – and only then – would the guy have any opportunity to play even sparingly. I think it’s pretty clear that the Royals still (correctly) view Chris Clapinski and even Luis Ugueto as better options to be the utility infielder, especially after Baird called Denny an insurance policy who understands the team’s rebuilding program. All of which is jargon for "He’s a nice guy, so we decided to let him hang out in Arizona for a few weeks." There’s no reason to get excited about this in either direction. He’ll either toil away at Omaha for the rest of the season or ask for and be given his release at the conclusion of camp
Two other things ...
- I have a confession to make: I love American Idol. I love everything about it, from the early stages that feature some of the cockiest bad singers anybody’s ever seen to the latter stages of the show, when I get to pick out my favorite performer of the final 12 contestants. As many of you know, season four of Idol started up the past couple of night with shows featuring auditions from Washington, D.C. on Tuesday and St. Louis on Wednesday, so naturally, I was glued to my TV for three hours of the last two days.
The story of the first two stops wasn’t really the people who are horrifyingly bad at singing; those people are plentiful and you probably know one or two. To me, the story is the people who’ve convinced themselves that they’re good singers and "sound like Brian McKnight" as one man said last night before squeaking and squawking his way into Idol oblivion. After they’re told to leave, some of them stick around and make fools out of themselves for a few extra minutes, pleading for another chance because their "friends and family told me that I can sing!" Here’s a wake-up call: That’s called being nice and not wanting to hurt your close friend’s feelings. The show has drama. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Ordinary people doing not-so-extraordinary things and being chastised for even showing up. I can’t get enough of this stuff.
An interesting bit of trivia: Of all the people put through to the round of 100 contestants so far (and there’ve been some extremely talented singers), one is Ozzie Smith’s son, who auditioned and was approved in St. Louis.
- Esteban Loaiza signed with the Washington Nationals for a year and $2.9 million, or roughly what I thought he’d get. It’s kind of depressing, because I really wish the Royals had gone for E-Lo at $3 million rather than Lima Time! at $2.5 million. Even a 1995-2002 Loaiza’s clearly the superior pitcher, beating Lima in ERA, ERA+, K/9, K/BB, and H/9. Lima wins in excitement factor, but keeping the other players happy doesn’t win baseball games. Loaiza’s going to have a much better year than Jose will. Good signing by the Nats.