Kevin's Royals Blog

The 2005 season is going to be a make-or-break one for a lot of Royals players, and for that reason, Spring Training 05 is going to be an open competition for jobs. Royals GM Allard Baird has made sure that everybody on the team knows that there won’t be any roster spots given away just because a player spent all of last season with the team. We can safely assume, of course, that anybody named Donald Zackary Greinke or anyone with a guaranteed contract would have to totally stink up the joint every time they take the field to be sent down, waived, or just plain released. The exercise is most likely directed at Ken Harvey, Chris George, Mike MacDougal, Jeremy Affeldt, and a host of others whom the organization may be running out of patience with.

Roster spots that carry very little importance in relation to winning baseball games are also up for grabs, most notably who’ll play once or twice a week as the backup to (probable) starting catcher John Buck. Unless the Royals do the unexpected and sign another catcher to a minor-league deal with an invitation to camp, that battle will be between the grizzled veteran (Alberto Castillo) and the not-so-grizzled veteran (Paul Phillips). Castillo spent time with the club last year when both Benito Santiago and Kelly Stinnett suffered season-ending injuries, and actually did a pretty nice job in the limited time he got to play. In 89 at-bats, he hit .270/.365/.371 and displayed a much-improved knowledge of the strike zone, drawing 14 walks while striking out only 10 times.

The improved plate discipline is why he even got a shot with the Royals in the first place. His defensive skills and ability to work well with pitchers are known throughout baseball; he’s thrown out 41 percent of the 250 guys who’ve tried to steal a base on him. Castillo’s problem is that he’s been so inept offensively, that he’s never been able to hold down a steady job even as a backup. Before Baird agreed to sign him last winter, Castillo had to agree to work himself into good hitters’ counts with greater frequency, and he did that at Omaha with 20 walks in 161 at-bats.

His competition, Phillips, is a guy who fans can’t help but root for because he’s persevered through a lot of bad luck to say the least. After being taken in the 9th round of the 1998 draft by the Royals, Phillips’ career got off to a darned good start, being named a Northwest League All-Star and being placed on the Short-Season All-Star team by Baseball America. However, his luck turned when he severely injured his elbow, had to have Tommy John surgery, and missed the 2001 and 2002 seasons during his recovery and rehab. However, he came back with a vengeance in 2004 following a sub-par 46 at-bat stretch with Single-A Wilmington in 2003. Calvin Pickering’s nightly demolition of Pacific Coast League pitchers must’ve slightly rubbed off on Phillips, as he posted a career-best .312/.358/.431 line as Triple-A Omaha’s starting catcher.

Choosing one guy to serve as Buck’s caddy isn’t the most important decision the Royals have to make by the time April rolls around, but it’s one they have to make nevertheless. What matters most to me isn’t what Castillo did last year, because although his improved plate discipline was nice, he still didn’t hit for any power, and his .736 OPS is likely just a good 89 at-bat stretch. In all probability, he’s going to revert back to his .600 OPS form of years past. 34-year-old catchers with 795 at-bats of downright terrible production at the plate don’t suddenly become decent hitters. The Royals should know what Castillo can do, so I think it’s time for Phillips to get his opportunity. He’s seven years younger, has done an okay job at the plate in the minor leagues, and was heralded as a solid defensive player coming out of Alabama in the late-90s. As a best-case scenario, Phillips probably isn’t going to have anything more than a decade-long career bouncing around as another Stinnett, but there’s a potential for him to be slightly better than that. The time has come for Phillips to show everybody what he can do, and he won’t get that opportunity if the Royals break camp with Castillo just to have an established veteran presence riding the pine five games a week.

Two thoughts from the weekend ...

My dream is to work in a baseball front office someday, and I started working my way up the long road on Friday. That afternoon, I went with a friend of mine to the Springfield Cardinals job fair, only to find out the atmosphere was way more like a test-taking classroom than the boisterous event I expected, complete with booths, PowerPoint presentations, and party favors. At any rate, we both filled out applications to work as ushers at Hammons Field and were interviewed in a very non-formal, getting-to-know-you kind of setting. One funny thing happened: During my sit-down with my interviewer Shannon, she asked if I had any sort of a problem working Friday and Saturday nights, seeing as I’m 20 and "probably like to hang out with [my] friends on the weekends," as she put it. I do enjoy going to movies and drinking cappuccino with all the great people I know, but my response was that I could think of far worse ways to spend weekend evenings than at a baseball stadium, even if I was working.

I was darned sure the SMS men would find a way to lose to the Creighton Blue Jays, but they held ‘em off, winning 80-73 and moving into a sixth-place tie in the Valley with Bradley. Additionally, it was way cool to see Anthony Tolliver, a friend of mine since grade school and the current starting center for Dana Altman’s team. Oh yeah, and then there was the shock of the night, 6-2" 3-point specialist Blake Ahearn’s breakaway two-handed slam:



This season might not be over after all if the Bears’ vertically challenged players start throwing ‘em down with some regularity.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 31, 2005 at 1/31/2005 12:00:00 AM. |