to all who care, and that may just be us few, proud , and brave....The delusion of competing for the pennant this year is long passed.  Thus the only thing left to compete for is the future.  So, who on this team is our future---Gordon, Butler, DeJesus, Grienke, Hoch, Kila, Callaspo?  Maybe Teahen; maybe not. But is Meche or Soria in our plans for 2012?  Soria is useless to a team who is never in a game in the ninth and he may yet be the solid gold chip that we could get true value for.  WTF.  Trade deadline:  Trade Meche and Soria for solid CF, SS, and RF prospects who can  actually play defense and have an offensive upside.  The Bourbon may be talking, but is there some merit in this line of thinking?   

After watching games and practices for a few days this past week here are a few humble, and quite possibly wrong, observations:

-Buck looks good at the plate.  Selective, strong, confident, quick.  Shorter swing.

-B. Pena, although a 'wide body' seems to move very athletically.  Looks pretty good at the plate and runs well.  I think he is a legitimate backup C if there is a market for Buck or Olivo.  I would prefer to deal Olivo.  (My bias.)

-Gordon looked lost at the plate.  Always behind in the count, timing off, unbalanced, uncomfortable.  Looks much better in the field than last summer.  Wednesday night he made a great diving play to his left in the 7th.

-TPJ is playing like a guy who knows he will not be on this team.  No confidence, enthusiasm, or inspiration.  Actually made 2 errors Wed. though only credited for one.  Still has the long swing at the plate.  Sad.

-Callaspo in profile is not a pretty sight:  big butt, huge thighs, bit of a gut.  No wonder he's slow.  And this after he supposedly lost 6-8 lbs.  But, as Billy Beane said "we're not sellin jeans."  I still think he's the best choice at 2B.  His hitting will come around IMHO.

-Teahen is looking great at the plate.  Aggressive, confident, and in command.  Hitting the ball hard.  This would be the wrong time to deal him.  Pray for an injury (or incarceration) for Guillen and put him in RF everyday.  It's obvious to everyone that he's no second baseman and I don't think he'll become one.

-Bloomy makes Gload look like a smart signing.  But he's a DM/Trey kinda guy......

-Billy seems like the idiot savant of hitting.  For some reason he was blessed with the specific skills/talent to be a MLB hitter even though he has none of the other usual attendant capabilities.  He fields like a slowpitch softball first baseman and runs like a 40 yr. old CPA.  That being said, he looks thinner and moves much better than last year.  He seems to be more comfortable in the field.  He should be the opening day 1B.

-Jacobs can hit the ball hard, when he hits it. With enough AB's he may just hit 30 HR's at Kaufman but there's a lot of outs in that swing.  He's a DH, not a 1B...duh.

-Didn't see much of Shealy.  Find that telling?

-Outfield:  Jose was back for the Wed. night game and K'd three straight times. Maier looks really strong at the plate.  He hit a HR in Monday's game at Camelback 420' to RC.  Coco looks like he's taking the leadoff job seriously:  selective, working the count, hitting behind runners, etc.  DDJ will be ready.

This is getting too long so I'll not comment on the pitching.

The comments above are made with the recognition of the meaninglessness of ST stats and the small sample size of a 4 day visit but I thought some of you might enjoy. 

In conclusion, Ms. Hovley and myself had a great time.  I got some great tips from some of the posts here at RR before the trip.  Thanks.                                                         - P.S.- Buddyball, I looked for a man with a RR t-shirt on and dozens of beautiful women fawning over him but alas...... 

       So I'm Christmas shopping in PV and stop in the Kansas City Store and Denny Matthews is signing his Tales from the Royals Dugout  so I decide to pick up a copy for my Dad.  I strike up some small talk with him while he's signing the book and decide to ask him about the Farnsworth signing.  The look on his face and roll of his eyes told me what he really thought, but he was quite diplomatic and only said that a red flag should go up when a player's resume shows a number of teams in succession and numerous quick deals involving the player occurs (Guillen anyone?).                                                           He cited the one exception as being Reggie Sanders.  He said that Reggie was a true gentleman and a great clubhouse presence, always helpful and thoughtful to those around him ( a true mancrush?)                                                                                                           Thought some of you would find this interesting, I did.  Denny was a class act and very candid-----of course, I was buying his book.......