By the way...

I now feel it safe to complete my Kansas City Royals 2005 Infield Preview (for the few of you who are actually interested), as the team has made some definitive moves over the last few days in regards to who exactly will be playing where.

I have the two way-too-lengthy parts of the outfield preview here and here, although that is already out-of-date with the news that Royals are going to keep Emil Brown, He of the Hot Spring, not only just on the team, but possibly as their everyday right fielder. I factored Brown in not at all, as I assumed incorrectly that he couldn't do enough to stay on the team. Well, apparently enough was running a .378 batting average with 5 home runs in 45 at-bats, so Emil will take his 30-year old self and play some Major League ball with the Royals this year. Matt Diaz played so horribly this Spring that he was assigned to AAA Omaha, where I hope he can get his stuff together, as Brown, at best, is going to be the 2005 version of Aaron Guiel. You can sponser either Brown or Diaz' web page on baseball-reference.com for $5 apiece, which probably is an indication that I've talked about this far too much already.

In regards to those infield moves, Ruben Gotay has been named the starting 2nd baseman over Tony Graffanino (who, by the way, is a $10 sponsership at baseball-reference), Mark Teahen will be the starting 3rd baseman on Opening Day (he ain't even on the site yet), and...

As announced by Kevin Agee, Calvin Pickering has been freed. All-Star Ken Harvey -- or, if you prefer, "All-Star" Ken Harvey -- has been sent to Omaha to work on his hitting approach, and Phat Calvin will be free to do some DH-ing, play a bit of 1B, and pinch-hit for the Royals in 2005. Here's to hoping he gets those 500 ab's to see what the man really can do.

So, with the infield set, I can now do some unnecessary analysis on what all this means for the Royals chances to go for 1st in the AL Central (still terrible), or better yet, see if these moves mean the Royals may actually run the Kansas City version of the Indianapolis .500 (record).

Take care, everyone.