Emil Brown signed a one-year contract with the A's this week. He's headed back to the team that drafted him in 1994. He hit .317 against lefties last season which made him attractive to Oakland. Let's hope his lack of hustle and puffed up view of himself are a better fit in Oakland than they were in KC. I can't see how they could be though.
Luke Hudson signed a one-year $500,000+ contract with the Royals this week, which helped him and the Royals avoid arbitration. Hudson had shoulder surgery in June, and, while he isn't expected to be 100% during Spring Training, he is expected to compete for a starting job at the bottom of the rotation.
Speaking of arbitration, Sam Mellinger recently reported in the Star that the Royals still have seven players facing arbitration: John Buck, Jorge De La Rosa, Esteban German, Ross Gload, Jimmy Gobble, Zack Greinke and Mark Teahen.
How about rather bizarre situation involving Jacob Rodriguez? He's the 19 year-old right handed power pitcher that the Royals drafted in the 22nd round in 2007 who was suspended for 50 games for failing to take a drug test. In Dick Kaegel's article on MLB.com about the incident, he added this piece of information: "J.J. Picollo, the Royals' director of player development, said Rodriguez was summoned for random testing this winter and reported as requested but had to leave before completing the required test." What exactly does that mean?
Jason Smith cleared waivers this week and was outrighted him to Omaha. He has until Thursday to decide if he'll accept the assignment. Given his .188 average last season, I'm thinking he ought to be jumping for joy to play for Omaha.
We now know the broadcast lineups for the 2008 season:
- Denny Matthews and Bob Davis will be in the radio booth. Most games will originate on 610 Sports with Sunday games being broadcast on News Radio 980. Steve Stewart will fill-in for Matthews or Davis on occasion. Stewart is coming over from Cincinnati. Ryan Lefebvre may do a little work on radio when the Royals are not on TV. With so many games being shown on television in recent years, I don't listen to the radio broadcast nearly as often as I used to, but I'm still going to miss the Matthews-Lefebvre team. I loved listening to their banter and they had a certain chemistry that just seemed to work well.
- Ryan Lefebvre and Paul Splittorff will be in the television booth. FSN is taking over the Royals television broadcasts this season and they'll be showing 140 regular season games plus two Spring Training games. At the point, FSN hasn't named possible fill-ins for Splittorff who is expected to decrease his schedule this year. Lefebvre and Splittorff will be a good combination. They worked together quite a bit last season.
- The one guy who is missing from all this is Brian McRae who brings great insight whenever he's in the booth. I hope that he'll be considered for the available television fill-in spot.
2 comments:
McRae stinks. All we get from him is "when I played..." Yeah, when you played the Royals were a good team and were terrible.
I don't know what McRae would be like on TV but I heard him last season a few times on the radio and he was not very good. It seemed like he didn't really want to be there and spoke mostly only when spoken to or asked a question. He should venture forth more opinions on the game being played and not wait to be asked to interact where it tends to become more of a “when I played." I do think Ryan’s move to TV will be great. I enjoyed watching Ryan and Paul as a team last season their interactions made the game fun.
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