Left handed reliever Neal Musser whom had been placed on waivers on Feb 19, was given his release today.

Last season Musser pitched one scoreless inning of relief and in 2007 pitched in 24.2 innings with and ERA of 4.38.

While this may hurt the organizational depth of Left Handed relievers, assistant General Manager Dean Taylor said on 610 today that the organization felt there were plenty of other left handers who could fill the same role and that they felt it best to allow Musser to pursue other opportunities.

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.

Zack Greinke just received a huge pay raise from the Kansas City Royals. The Royals have signed the starting pitcher to a four-year deal that is worth $38 million. I’m surprised the Royals committed that much money to one player, especially a starting pitcher. It is a good sign however because it shows that they are finally interestedin keeping one of their promising young players.

Greinke will get $3.75 million this year, $7.25 million in 2010, and $13.5 million in each of the final two seasons. He only earned $1.475 million in 2008 so you can really see how big of a pay raise he is getting!

The Royals do still have three other players that they would like to get signed before arbitration hearings. Mark Teahen, Mike Jacobs and Brian Bannister are all without deals for 2009.

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 needed some pitching help and they hope to have solved that in the last week has they have brought back Horacio Ramirez and also signed free agent Kyle Farnsworth.

Ramirez will start out in the starting rotation while Farnsworth will be slated for the bullpen. Ramirez made 15 relief appearances for the Royals, with a 2.59 ERA and a 1-1 record. Then, on Aug. 9, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox for Minor League outfielder Paulo Orlando

Farnsworth will be signing a two-year deal worth $9.25 million ESPN analyst Steve Phillips is saying. The only thing that is left for Fransworth to do is take a physical. He will be a dominate right hander out of the bullpen, something the team really keyed in on to get this off season.

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The Kansas City Royals have traded for speedy outfielder Coco Crisp. The trade happened Wednesday morning between the Royals and Red Sox. The Royals will be sending relief pitcher Ramon Ramirez to the Red Sox in exchange for Crisp.

This is a good trade for the Royals who could really use some more offense and speed in their lineup. If David DeJesus stays with the team through next season, expect him to move over to left field while Crisp takes over in center.

Crisp batted .283 in 118 games with seven home runs, 41 RBIs and 20 stolen bases for the Red Sox last year even thought he split time with Jacoby Ellsbury.

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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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It was a great series for the Kansas City Royals as they swept the Seattle Mariners in a four game series. They finished up the sweep with a 12-0 victory on Thursday afternoon. It was a dominating performance out of the pitching staff as well as the offense.

Left-hander Zack Greinke tossed the first seven innings of the game and only allowed two hits while improving his record to 12-10. Greinke now has a 3.59 ERA for the season. Jimmy Gobble and Joel Peralta each pitched an inning of relief after Greinke was taken out of the game.

Mike Aviles led the team at the plate with a three-run home run and three rbi’s. He was then followed by Alex Gordon and Mitch Maier with two rbi each. Up next was David DeJesus, Joey Gathright, Ryan Shealy, and Mark Teahen with one rbi each.

Great series for the Royals who will now play the Chicago White Sox in a weekend series. The Royals can spoiler as the White Sox are in a battle with the Twins for the division.

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Kyle Davies threw eight strong innings and the Kansas City Royals shut out the visiting Seattle Mariners on Monday night by the score of 3-0. Davies only gave up four hits and then Joakim Soria came in for the ninth inning and picked up his 38th save of the season.

It was awesome watching Davies and Soria on the mound as they just made the Mariners hitters look silly at the plate. It’s too bad we didn’t see much of this during the season.

Mike Aviles scored the first run for the Royals on a wild pitch by Carlos Silva in the first inning. The second Royals run came in the fourth inning when Mark Teahen singled to score Jose Guillen. The Royals picked up an insurance run in the seventh inning when Tony Pena Jr.scored on a infield single by David DeJesus.

Good win for the Royals! Royals Blog

The Kansas City Royals avoided a three game sweep the Minnesota Twins on Thursday afternoon as they won in extra innings by the score of 3-2. David DeJesus provided the winning rbi on a single to right field that scored Mark Teahen. It was a nice way to close out a rather dissappointing series for the Royals.

Esteban German got the Royals on the scoreboard in the second inning with a rbi double that plated Miguel Olivo. German’s rbi double tied the game up at 1-1. With the twins up 2-1, Jose Guillen doubled to deep left center to score the Royals run. The game would stay tied until the 10th inning when DeJesus eventually won it.

Ramon Ramirez who pitched the ninth inning ended up with the victory and is now 3-2 on the season. Joakim Soria nothced his 36th save of the season as he finished the Twins off in the bottom of the tenth.

Brandon Duckworth was the starting pitcher for the Royals and he gave up seven hits and two runs in just finve innings of action. Wasn’t that good of a start for Duckworth as he had to work out of multiple jams in his five innings.

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