Royals Set First Lineup Of Spring

Spring Training officially "gets real" Wednesday when the games start for the Royals and lineups, apparently, have been set. The first one is a charity game vs. Surprise stadium-mates Texas. New manager Trey Hillman originally penciled in Brett Tomko to start, then switched to Jorge de la Rosa, and now has settled on John Bale to start the opener. Luke Hochevar and Brian Lawrence are supposed to pitch two innings each before Ron Mahay, Yasuhiko Yabuta and Carlos Rosa throw an inning each. Supposedly the first indecision on the starter had something to do with lefty/righty workload and when and how Hillman wanted it to work, then the switch from de la Rosa to Bale came because de la Rosa was under the weather a little bit.

The first game lineup has also been set at CF David DeJesus, 2B Esteban German, LF Mark Teahen, DH Shealy, 3B Gordon, 1B Butler, RF Shane Costa, C John Buck and SS Tony Peña. Jose Guillen and Mark Grudzielanek will be held out of action until March 8 according to the KC Star. The Star also made news out of the fact Gordon is gonna bat #5 instead of #7...personally I'd like to see him earn the #3 spot but time will tell.

As for Friday's game with the Padres.....Gil Meche is supposed to start that one with Hideo Nomo scheduled to work two innings followed by Jimmy Gobble, Joel Peralta, Joakim Soria and Brandon Duckworth. The Royals then get back with the Rangers for games Saturday and Sunday. Zack Greinke is supposed to start Sat. followed by Mike Maroth against Texas. Brian Bannister is set to start Sunday followed by Kyle Davies.

The Star has been reporting a few dings here and there on the roster, including a groin pull for IF Angel Sanchez as perhaps the most serious injury thus far. Other than that the most recent news has probably been that Justin Huber's gonna be a LF this year after allegedly bringing both his catcher's mitt and first baseman's glove to Surprise. There's too many guys in the mix at first. Personally, I'd like to see him beat out Shane Costa for an extra OF spot but he's gotta do the job this spring to earn it.

Ken covers the Royals on his blog The Pipeline.
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