Every few days, I am going to give a brief breakdown of a certain position for the Royals. This breakdown will include who is competing for big league spots, major league ready guys who can fill-in in a pinch, and the guys to be most excited about down on the farm. Today I am going to start with catchers.

Fighting for a Big League Spot:

There are nine catchers in big league camp this spring, but realistically there are only three who are fighting for spots on the major league roster: Miguel Olivo, John Buck, and Brayan Pena, all three of which are on the 40 man roster. (Other Spring invitees include Cody Clark, J.R. House, Jeff Howell, John Suomi, Keil Thibault, and Matt Tupman.)

In exercising Miguel Olivo’s mutual option, it seems as if both sides expect Olivo to be the primary catcher going into the season. At times this past season Olivo appeared to be displeased with his role as backup catcher heading into the season and one would assume that only by assuring Olivo the majority of the starts behind the plate the Royals would be able to lure him back for another season. Olivo had a dreadful .278 OBP last season, but with a decent power showing (12 homers and a .444 Slug) the Royals will give him a shot as the starting catcher.

John Buck is entering his sixth season as a member of the Kansas CIty Royals, and is coming off of what is arguably most dissappointing season, where he experienced career lows in home runs, and slugging percentage, while at the same time experiencing a career high in strikeouts. I expect Olivo and Buck to switch roles this season, which would mean that Buck would still get his fair share of at bats. I expect Buck to finish the season with numbers better than last season, but nothing extraordinary.

Finally, there is Brayan Pena, a catcher from the Braves organization who was snatched off waivers by Dayton Moore last season. Going into the offseason I fully expected Pena to make the team as the backup catcher, and even after the Royals and Olivo exercised their mutual option, I half expected Buck to be non tendered to save a few million and open up a spot for Pena. However, both Buck and Olivo are back meaning that unless, a move is made during spring training Pena will start the season in AAA and serve as an option if either Buck or Olivo go down with an injury.

Pinch Fillers:

Because Pena will most likely be sent to AAA and because he is the only other catcher on the 40 man roster, he will probably be the first option for the major league club. But there are also a few other guys who could get the call if they are sparkling in Omaha. These include former Pirate top prospect J.R. House, minor league rule 5 draftee John Suomi, or Matt Tupman.

Keep Your Eye On:

Salvador Perez: Perez is ranked as the top catching prospect and the 19th best overall prospect in the Royals organization by Baseball America. Last season between Rookie League Burlington and Idaho Falls the 18-year-old Perez went .361/.409/.482

Jose Bonilla: Bonilla is ranked as the second best catching prospect and 26th best prospect overall in the Royals Organization by Baseball America. Bonilla is a 20-year-old signee from the Dominican Republic who has a little bit of power (5 homers and a .625 SLUG in 112 ABs for the AZL Royals) and has more of a prototypical catcher’s build than Perez. Bonilla is 5-10, 180 while Perez is 6-3, 175.

The Kansas City Royals like most teams have had a busy week as the salary arbitration deadline came and gone Tuesday morning. The Royals were able to lock in contracts for John Buck, Joel Peralta and Jimmy Gobble before the deadline.

However they were unable to come to terms with Brian Bannister, Zack Greinke, Mike Jacobs, and Mark Teahen. The four players and the Royals will now head to a salary arbitration court next month and work out a contract in front of a judge.

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The Kansas City Royals finished up a three game sweep of the Detroit Tigers with a 10-4 blowout on Wednesday night. Hell of a series for the Royals as they wind down the season.

The bottom of the order provided a lot of offense for the Royals as Mitch Maier had three rbi and he was followed by John Buck and Tony Pena Jr. who both had two rbi. Jose Guillen, Alex Gordon, and Joey Gathright provided the other three rbi for the Royals as they had a great game at the plate.

On the mound it was Brian Bannister who picked up the win after throwing six innings. Bannister gave up seven hits but did not allow a run. The only run that the Tigers scored was charged to Kip Wells. Jimmy Gobble and Ron Mahay tossed an inning of relief each as well. Mahay did have problems as he gave up a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Good thing the offense scored so many runs!

The Royals will now be off on Thursday and then take on the Minnesota Twins for the final series of the weekend.

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Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Gil Meche had a night that does not want to remember. Meche pitched into the seventh inning but was charged with 14 hits and five runs including one home run. The Royals went on to lose to the Texas Rangers 9-4 in the game.

Meche of course took the loss and is now 10-10 on the season. One Meche left the game, Joel Peralta gave up two hits and three runs while Robinson Tejeda also gave up a run out of the bullpen. Those three pitchers simply did not get the job done on Monday night.

The four Royals runs were scored on three singles and a groundout fielders choice as the Royals played small ball and never really had a huge inning. Alberto Callaspo, David DeJesus, and Ross Gload had the rbi singles while John Buck had the rbi on the groundout.

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The Kansas City Royals scored three runs in the seventh inning and went onto defeat the Oakland Athletics 5-2 on Tuesday night.  John Buck provided the three runs on a three run home run.  Without Buck’s homerun, I don’t think the Royals would have won this game.  However, the Royals will now be going for the three game sweep on the A’s on Wednesday!

Besides Buck going deep in the seventh inning to provide three rbi, Mike Aviles and Mark Grudzielanek both had a rbi to help out.  Grudzielanek had a rbi sac fly in the fourth inning while Aviles hit a solo home run in the sixth.

Gil Meche picked up the win on the mound and is now 9-9 on the season.  Meche pitched seven innings and only allowed five hits and two runs.  It was about time that the Royals offense scored more then a few runs so Meche could pick up another victory.  Ron Mahay pitched a scoreless eighth inning before Joakim Soria finished things up to record his 29th save.

So will the Royals get the sweep on Wednesday?  Come back and find out!  Royals Baseball

Well I sure didn’t expect this result that is for sure.  The Kansas City Royals defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 on Thursday night as the two teams opened up a four game series in Kansas City.  The Royals were ahead 4-0 before the Rays came back with single runs in the 8th and 9th innings but that was all they would get in the game.

Gil Meche picked up his 8th win of the season and is now 8-9.  Meche tossed seven shutout innings while only giving up five hits.  Meche threw a great game and was the MVP of the game if you ask me.  Ron Mahay and Joakim Soria both gave up single runs out of the bullpen but Soria was still able to notch his 27th save of the season.

John Buck had a two run double in the 4th inning to lead the team at the plate with two rbi.  Mark Grudzielanek had a rbi sac fly while Ross Gload had a rbi single before the Buck two run double.  It wasn’t much offense, but it was enough to get the victory.

Good job by the Royals of coming out and taking game one of the series.  Will they win game 2?  Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!  Royals Baseball Blog

The Kansas City Royals were up 5-0 to the Chicago White but then the White Sox came back to beat the Royals by the score of 7-6 on Wednesday evening.  These are the type of games that the Royals need to win if they want to ever be competitive.  Good teams find a way to win, not a way to lose…

Brian Bannister tossed 6 2/3 innings while giving up four hits and five runs to get a no decision in the game.  Bannister was hurt by the home run ball as he served up two of them in the game.  Robinson Tejeda gave up two runs while only recording two outs to take the loss in the game.  Tejeda is now 0-2 on the season.

John Buck had a rbi sac fly and a solo home run in the game to have two rbi.  Ross Gload also had a two run single to finish with two rbi in the game.  Alex Gordon had the other rbi which game in the first inning on a rbi single.  The Royals also scored one run in a Jose Guillen double play in the first inning.

The Royals will now have to win on Thursay to avoid the sweep by the White Sox.   I don’t think they will get the job done however.  Royals Blog

Man, where were all these runs in yesterday’s game. After being shutout yesterday in a 10 inning game the Royals were able to put up some big numbers today against Randy Johnson and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Royals won 12-3 tonight in what may have been the best performance of the year for the Royals.

The Royals hit 3 home runs in this game with two of them being back-to-back to start off the 6th inning from David Dejesus and then Mike Aviles. The other home run came from the bat of John Buck for his 3rd home run of the season in the 5th inning. It is great to see the Royals hitting well during the last week or so considering how bad the hitting was early in the season. Jose Guillen also came through with 2 RBI’s to put him at 52 for the season. That is good enough for 3rd in the American League in RBI’s and it looks like he could break last year’s RBI leader Emil Brown’s 62 before the All-Star break.

It was an all around well played game for KC. Pitcher Luke Hochevar pitched 7 innings with 2 earned runs and 6 strikeouts. It was also good for Luke to get some run support, which he hasn’t gotten any of this year. Carlos Rosa made his major league debut tonight and got his first strikeout after being called up from AAA Omaha earlier this week in place of Brett Tomko.

The Kansas City Royals offense once again struggled but atleast they were not out hit lol.  The Royals lost to the Boston Red Sox by the score of 2-1 on Tuesday night as they were able to come up with five hits after being no hit on Monday night.

Gil Meche tossed seven innings and only gave up five hits and two runs against the great Red Sox offense.  Meche pitched pretty good but took home the loss which dropped his record to 3-6 on the season.  Ramon Ramirez pitched the eighth inning and did not allow a run.

The one run the Royals were able to come up with came in the seventh inning when John Buck singled in Mark Teahen.  Alex Gordon did got 3-3 and had a walk in the game as he is starting to swing the bat better.

The Royals will try to get a win against the Red Sox on Wednesday as they play the third game of a four game series.  Royals Blog

Zack Greinke pitched seven strong innings to pitch the Kansas City Royals past the Los Angeles Angels by the score of 9-4.  Greinke picked up his fourth win as he improved to 4-1 on the season.

David DeJesus led the Royals with three RBI as he hit a three run home run in the second inning.  Alex Gordon had two RBI in the game as he hit a two run home run in the fourth inning as well.  Billy Butler, Ross Gload, John Buck, and Tony Pena Jr. all had one RBI in the game.

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