SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Willie Bloomquist starts at second base today. Yesterday it was Alberto Callaspo, so this is just another day where Mark Teahen is out of sight and his audition for the starting job is out of mind.
Teahen is in Florida training with team Canada in preparation for the World Baseball Classic, where he'll play third base. The Royals have asked Canada's coaching staff to please mix in some practice time for Teahen at second base when possible, but there's just no way that his decision to participate helps his chance of being a starter for the Royals.
This is a touchy subject, because we're talking about a personal choice that Teahen has made, one that impacts him and nobody else. Teahen's father played for a Canadian national team, so this is important to him.
Teahen wanted to play in the first WBC three years ago, but he was in the mix for the starting third base job that he eventually won and he was pressured into staying with the Royals. He didn't want to give that up again.
It's his choice, but it also needs to be pointed out that this tryout at second base was on tenuous ground to begin with. This isn't a video game. It's not fantasy. Learning to play the middle infield at a major league level during one spring training is hard enough. Doing it while taking a few weeks off in the middle to play third base makes it even more difficult.
Teahen's first spring game couldn't have gone much worse. Two errors and a couple other misplays cast even more doubt on this experiment. He would probably win the job if he could be even average defensively at second base. It's not impossible, but certainly not likely.
Teahen is a near-lock to make the opening day roster. Even without second base, he backs up four positions -- nearly half the diamond -- and there remains at least some hope about his bat developing.
Teahen has been nothing if not a take-one-for-the-team guy. He didn't complain when demoted to Omaha in 2006. Didn't complain when, as the team's reigning player of the year, they moved him to right field to make room for then-rookie Alex Gordon in 2007. And he didn't complain when they moved him to left because Jose Guillen essentially called dibs on right field.
The irony here is that when it would benefit Teahen personally to stick around and continue to learn second base, he decided to play his old position on the other side of the country.
Maybe we should look at that as honorable, that Teahen's again making a professional sacrifice, that he's willing to hurt his chances of being an everyday player this season (harming his earning potential in the process) to participate in something he believes in.
From a purely selfish-Royals point of view, though, it'd be nice to have him around.
Couple links:
* Not sure how many video gamers we have out there in Ball Star nation, but MLB '09: The Show sounds promising.
* If you ever want some news on the Rockies or even baseball in general, you'd do yourself good to check out Inside the Rockies, a new site from Tracy Ringolsby and Jack Etkin.
Full disclosure here: both are friends. But they're also accomplished baseball writers who covered the Rockies every day of the franchise's existence and did it better than anybody before the Rocky Mountain News shut down last week.
They have more than 60 years' experience between them, and Ringolsby is something of a legend in my business. He is in the writers' wing of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, and ws the first sports writer to win the Colorado Press Association Shining Star Award.
The conflict between Teahen's desire to play for Team Canada & his audition at 2nd base for the Royals is a good example of why the WBC should be scheduled at a different point in the season. Teahen played at 3rd, right field (where he made a nice catch) AND 2nd base for Canada today (against the Blue Jays) so apparently their coaches are trying to go along with the Royals' request. You could have mentioned that Tracy Ringolsby spent part of his career at the 'Star' covering the Royals, including their championship season, by the way.