The homestretch part II

The hits just keep on comin' for the Royals. First we have confirmation of the Ponson-Horacio rotation spots, now we have Ryan Shealy getting cut and sent to Omaha, leaving this as our opening day offense, likely:

CF Crisp
LF DeJesus
2B Teahen
RF Guillen
1B Jacobs
DH Butler
3B Gordon
C Olivo
SS Aviles

with this murderer's row on the bench: C Buck, UT Bloomquist, SS TPJ, IF Callaspo, and I guess C Brayan Pena?

That leaves Brayan Pena as the only one of those 5 I'd be optimistic could get the ball out of the infield more than 20 percent of the time as a pinch-hitter. And he's no power hitter, so that's what the Royals are trying to sell the fans as improvement going into the '09 season? As "depth"? Fat Sidney Washup Ponson starting the home opener of your newly renovated (with a lot of taxpayer money, no less) stadium, which by the way will mean Brayan loses his roster spot most likely when FSWP comes up as the 12th pitcher, and trying to sell Tony Pena Jr. as one of the top 25 in the organization? We as Royals fans had better hope nobody gets injured. Although that's one of the only ways the Royals give players a shot, unless an odd player really isn't performing. Aviles only got his shot in 2008 because Butler wasn't hacking it, but TPJ got to have a historically horrible season at the plate and is back for more in 2009. When the time comes we'll probably have to hope Jacobs goes down with some injury to give Kila Ka'aihue a shot. Otherwise Dayton will sign the newest Atlanta 1B castoff, whoever that may be at the time, and give him wasted playing time a la Ross Gload. It's the same stuff every year. Crappy decisions in the last 5 or 6 spots in the 25-man, leaving us with the Scott Elartons and Brett Tomkos and Sidney Ponsons and Tony Pena Jr.s and John Bucks of this baseball world.