Spring Training is upon us!

Pitchers, catchers, and players who were injured last season have reported to Spring Training sites all over the country. Hooray!

Some Royals pitching news:
Scott Elarton is ahead of schedule. The surgery Elarton had last season was his *gasp* third labrum surgery. Same type of surgery I just had 6 weeks ago. I wouldn't recommend having it even once, but he's had three of them? That's hardcore. I hope he has a good season this year; I really like him.


Gil Meche is ridiculously confident. Not sure how I feel about this one. This seems to be some big talk for an up-and-down pitcher who's never been in the spotlight before. For $11m a year, he'd better live up to some of that talk. For the moment, I'm still "meh" on him, and that's sad. I want to put all my trust in Dayton Moore, but something about Meche's acquisition and giant contract seems...off. Time will tell.

In another royals.com article (which I can't seem to locate right now), they said that outfielder Joey Gathright reported to the Surprise, AZ training facility a few weeks early to get accustomed to the sun. I just gained some respect for Mr. Gathright, whom I normally don't like.* It's good to see a pro athlete actually making extra effort to overcome a perceived obstacle, rather than being all whiny about it.


*I really have a lot of contempt for Gathright as a player. Here's why:
He was brought in because of his tremendous speed. So in theory, he should have stolen a ton of bases, all the time, right? Nope. He's also just average defensively, yet he took over center field, displacing my main man, David DeJesus. DeJesus has much better command of center field, gets better jumps on every ball, and is a much better leader and communicator. To me, Gathright doesn't cut it and DeJesus should have stayed in center. I'm still waiting for Gathright to be the superstar baserunner he was brought to KC to be, but honestly I'm not holding my breath.