The Kansas City Royals have left the warm desert of Surprise, Arizona and are now looking to play ball that counts. It's time to take a look at some late spring ball happenings and what the Royals are facing at the start of the 2008 regular season.
With just two exhibition games in Milwaukee remaining, first year manager Trey Hillman had his starting pitching rotation in place, but still had not locked in the 25-man roster. Better late than never, I suppose.
John Bale and Brett Tomko were given the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation, respectively. Bale and Tomko round out the All-Righty Club with Gil Meche as the number one, Brian Bannister, two, and Zack Greinke, three.
One guy who will not be on the final roster at the start of the season is catcher Miguel Olivo. Major League Baseball gave Olivo a five game suspension for an on-field fight last season as member of the Florida Marlins. The suspension was reduced to four games right before the regular season.
"It's still not fair," Olivo told the Kansas City Star. "The guy I fought [Mets shortstop Jose Reyes] didn’t get suspended. Everyone fought, and I was the only one suspended."
Anymore, it seems like baseball isn't baseball without mentioning steroids. Outfielder Jose Guillen was given a fifteen game suspension in December after testing positive for performance enhancers.
Despite Guillen's suspension, Hillman was optimistic when rumors started going around about the possibility of Major League Baseball lifting the suspension before the start of the season. MLB.com quoted Hillman as saying, "I'm excited about that possibility... [Guillen is] a guy we're planning on hitting fourth at the start of the season - that helps us."
The beginning of the baseball season tends to generate the most excitement among fans, probably because your favorite team has just as much of a legitimate chance of winning it all as any other team. Just FYI, though: A lot of baseball experts are still picking the Royals to finish around third or fourth in the American League East, and some local online media polls echo that sentiment.
Arizona sure is nice this time of year.
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