A full outfield

Like most of the other moves Dayton Moore has made this off season, I’m neither overly excited nor overly critical of his decision to sign Rick Ankiel.

But I’m an confused.

If Ankiel was the outfielder he wanted for the 2010 season to fill the gap until a guy like Jordan Parraz or Jarrod Dyson is ready, then signing Ankiel makes sense if he hadn’t already signed Brian Anderson and Scott
Podsednik.

But he did sign them.

The Royals now have seven outfielders on the 40-man roster. Throw in the fact that Josh Fields and Willie Bloomquist are likely to play a little outfield as well and you have nine guys who could see time out there.

Mitch Maier and Jose Guillen may be the odd men out. That would make more sense, although I do wonder if parting ways with Maier so quickly might be a mistake – especially since the Royals don’t really seem to be in a position to content for 2010 and therefore have little to lose by giving him playing time.

I’m guessing that David DeJesus, Rick Ankiel and Scott Podsednik will be the starting outfielders to begin the 2010 season. Defensively that would seem to be an improvement over DeJesus, Maier and Guillen. But I don’t know what to expect offensively from Ankiel, who had a down year in 2009, and Podsednik who is about to turn 34.

I still say, however, that if this revamped roster is considerably better defensively than in 2009, I’m okay with less offense, even though it’s hard to imagine less offense.