Redman Injured

I tuned in yesterday online to hear my first Royals broadcast of the spring. After waiting all winter to hear Denny and Ryan call a Royals game, I'm always instantly relieved when I hear them behind the microphone for the first time of the year. When I tuned in, Denny was already trying to stump Ryan with a trivia question (something about naming the two oldest spring training facilities), and he did a pretty good job of it.

But as quickly as the optimism that always reigns this time of year (no matter how ridiculous it might be) was settling into my psyche, I learned that Mark Redman (who started the game last Thursday) has a knee injury and he's already left camp to come back to Kansas City to have his left knee examined. They'll be looking for a possible cartilage tear and according to this article, he's already expected to miss at least four weeks.

The other new starter the Royals added this year, Scott Elarton, didn't look real sharp in his first outing. He gave up 8 H and 5 R in 3 IP. Let's hope that Affeldt can fare better this afternoon against the Padres in his first start of the spring. I'm planning to listen to the broadcast on XPRS on the MLB website. It doesn't look like the Royals radio network is carrying this one.

On the upside of the game yesterday, Ryan noted Mark Teahen's new batting stance. I haven't had a chance to see it yet, but it's obviously given him the ability to finally turn on a pitch. After slapping the ball to the left side most of last season in Tom Goodwin-like fashion, he did finally start to plug the gap in right-center on occasion near the end of the season. But yesterday he was 3-for-3 and had little problem turning on the ball.

The Royals pounded Rockies pitching, amassing 23 hits en route to a 13-8 victory. Of course, the Rockies had little problem with our pitching—ending up with 16 hits themselves. But at least we're 2-1 in Cactus League play so far and that looks a little better than the 0-6 start the White Sox are off to.