Friday, May 05, 2006

Teahen, Mays Demoted

First, for the personnel changes. Mark Teahen was sent to Omaha today. I didn't see that coming. He's a light-hitting third baseman (.195, 2 HR, 9 RBI) who still doesn't have the greatest footwork in the field, but judging by the way he started turning on the ball during the final six weeks of last season, I thought he had a longer leash. But with Esteban German playing so well, it makes sense. German is hitting .458, he can run like the wind, and he was originally thought to be good enough to be our everyday second baseman. Then we signed Grudzielanek. But with Teahen heading to Omaha, German will get a shot at playing third every day. According to Baird, the Royals have no plans to bring Alex Gordon to the bigs for now.

Next up was the inevitable demotion of Joe Mays. Well, actually he's been asked to accept an option to Omaha and he has three days to decide if he'll accept it. Joe better accept it because I'm guessing that his 10.27 ERA isn't going to attract any other major league team. The truth is, Joe Mays has had one good season in his major league career, and he doesn't appear to be anywhere close to turning things around here in Kansas City. We cannot continue to give him the ball every five days when he's giving up more than 10 runs for every nine innings he pitches. I'd love to see him figure things out, but it's not going to happen at the major league level.

So Aaron Guiel finally got the call to join the roster and he started in right field tonight. With Sanders, DeJesus, and Costa out, Guiel will get a lot of playing time in the coming days. He was all class when asked before the game if he was bitter about being passed over for other players. He said that the Royals gave him his shot in baseball and he feels loyal to them. How rare is that in sports today?

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