FtFP: Zack questions defensive commitment and more

Let’s open this edition of From the Fish Pond with a Greinke quote about the team’s defense that appeared in one of Dick Kaegel’s latest MLB.com articles.

"There are still guys on our team that make the same fundamental mistakes as they always do because they don’t value it,” Greinke said. “If someone thinks it’s important, they’ll do it better, but there’s still a couple people that don’t truly feel it’s that important to their game."

I truly enjoy Zack Greinke quotes because they are far more unfiltered than most players and his voice is always a refreshing jolt in the land of delusional spin that is the Kansas City Royals organization.  Outside of that, his quotes don’t exactly fill me with confidence as we cruise toward opening day.  I’ll just leave it at that.

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David Pinto has covered a few more Royals in his Players A to Z series; Chris Getz, Alex Gordon, and Zack Greinke.  He also profiled the Royals in his Team Offense series last week.

Over on 14 for 77, Clint takes a look at few Royals minor leaguers that he considers to be breakout candidates for the 2010 season.

Speaking of breakout candidates, over the weekend Keith Law posted his list.  Unfortunately it is an ESPN Insider-only article and I am not an insider.  I want to be an insider but a 1 or 2 year membership comes with a subscription to ESPN The Magazine and I have zero interest in that part of the pack.  I have enough to read as it is and think I should be offered the option to to opt out of that aspect of the deal, but no luck.  I’m probably going to suck it up, subscribe, sign up for the electronic version of the magazine and just hit delete when it hits my inbox but until then ESPN is missing out on my money and I’m missing out on information.  Getting back on topic, all is not lost because over at Beyond the Boxscore, Satchel Price takes Law’s list and checks it against the Chone and ZiPS projection systems to see if they are on the same page.

Want to see what Albert Pujols would look like in Royals blue?  Well Craig Calcaterra wondered that very thing aloud and magically it happened.

A week ago, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy profiled seven players who are out of options and either have to make the major league roster or be placed on waivers before they can be sent down.  Two Royals, Josh Fields and Mitch Maier, are on the list, but I was more focused on the other names.  Unfortunately I don’t see any of the remaining five as ideal fits for Dayton to make a move on.  Don’t get me wrong, all 5 would help the talent level of the organization if they were made available and subsequently claimed by the team, they just don’t fit into the puzzle right now.

Alberto Callaspo was recently featured in MiLB.com’s Path to the Pros series.

Last week Baseball Beginnings published a scouting video on a local player, Lawrence (KS) HS LHP-Albert Minnis.

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In the world of former Royals:

25-year old 2B/SS-Andres Blanco has made the Texas Rangers opening day roster after being acquired from the Cubs on March 27th.  He was signed by the Royals out of Venezuela back in 2000 and made his major league debut with the team in 2004 at the tender age of 20.  From 2004 to 2006 he played in 78 games and hit 0.252/.290/.314 but his real value came with the glove.  Blanco made it back the majors last year with the Chicago Cubs and played in 53 games.  He also hit his first, and only, major league home run in 2009.

LHP-Brian Shouse (41) was released by the Boston Red Sox on March 26th.  In 2002, his only season as a part of the Royals organization, he appeared in 23 games and pitched his way to a 6.14 ERA, 1.64 WHIP, 1.22 SO/BB, and ERA+ of 82 in 14.2 IP.  The following season, with the Rangers in 2003, he finished the year with an ERA+ of 163 and followed that up with a 228 ERA+ in 2004.  In fact his 2003 season kicked off a stretch where he his ERA+ was over 100 in 6 of the next 7 years.  Would the Royals have held on to win the AL Central if they had retained Shouse instead of searching for LH bullpen innings from the likes of Graeme Lloyd, Les Walrond, Scott Mullen, and Rick DeHart?  Of course, we will never know, but an effective Jeremy Affeldt paired with Shouse could have made for a quality LHP bullpen duo.  Then again, if Brian had remained with the Royals he may have missed out on the success he found after he left.

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(Wally Fish is the lead writer for Kings of Kauffman and Call to the Pen.  He is also FanSided’s MLB Director.  Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)