Getting to First Base

[Ed. note: This was going to go up on my Royals blog, Royal Blues, but an extended string of technical difficulties prevented that. If you're not a regular consumer of Royals roster speculation, that's fine - you could skip over this one. But if you want to stick with me here, here's the Cliffs Notes version of what's going on.

Alex Gordon was drafted by the Royals in 2005, and was hyped up as "the next George Brett" - a Hall of Fame 3rd baseman who played his entire career with Kansas City. Gordon skipped Triple-A and began the 2007 season at the Major League level. He has had a lot of struggles, but the team has stuck with him, and never demoted him until now - he was sent down to Triple-A Omaha on Tuesday afternoon. That should be enough background to make the rest of this make some sense, maybe?]

Alex Gordon will join Omaha Wednesday night in Tacoma, which means the already-crowded Omaha infield might see some changes.

The O-Royals’ current bunch of middle-infielders includes Luis Hernandez, Tug Hulett, Mario Lisson, Travis Metcalf, and Irving Falu - although Falu also plays outfield.

Luis Hernandez has played shortstop exclusively since being demoted from the big club. He has a good, albeit powerless, line so far, batting .316/.368/.409. His defense is passable, I guess, especially for Triple-A. He’s a switch-hitter, and can bunt better than your average Royal, for whatever that’s worth.

Tug Hulett, with the exception of the last handful of games, has hit extremely well since his most recent demotion. His overall line for Omaha is .300/.391/.491. He’s also one of the more diverse defenders of the group, playing in right field, at shortstop, third base and second base this year.

Mario Lisson, of whom I’m a big fan for some reason, has been used at third base fairly often lately, but the vast majority of his games at AAA have been at shortstop. He really hasn’t hit well since his promotion from NWArk (.225/.273/.378), but then again, he really wasn’t THAT great a hitter at AA, either - .206/.287/.279. I feel like he might be the odd man out when Gordon arrives, and get moved back down to double-A.

Travis Metcalf should perhaps thank his lucky stars that Ryan Shealy has been hurt all season. His ability to occasionally fill in at first might save him from being bumped from the roster tonight. His defense at third is not inspiring, nor is his bat - unless you are inspired by watching a batter swing at everything.

Lastly, we have Irving Falu. I think that his spot on the Omaha roster is safe because he has played 22 games in the outfield, and the team is more in need of outfielders than usual now that Jordan Parraz* is on the DL and Chris Lubanski hasn’t played since August 11.

*I’m a HUGE fan of Parraz. I cannot believe we got him for Tyler Lumsden. Even if Parraz never reaches the Majors, this appears to be quite a steal.

The Gordon demotion surprised me, and I don’t know how much good 3 weeks in the minors can really do him at this point. But it sure is a convenient coincidence that his arb clock could be delayed until 2013 now, isn’t it? So VERY convenient.

Sorry I still haven’t been posting as much. Things have been pretty crazy with job training and whatnot, but classes start Monday so hopefully I’ll settle into some kind of “normal” routine again.