SURPRISE, Ariz. -- One of the questions you always hear during spring training is, "As a sports writer, how do you deal with all the groupies who just see your notepad and voice recorder and get dollar signs in their eyes?"*
One of the other questions you always hear is, "Who is the surprise of camp?"
* OK, not really. Although I think my wife used to be convinced that there was such thing as writer groupies. Either that or she was really convincing. Either way, it's very early on Monday morning as I type this, without coffee, so I can't be held accountable.
The Royals, for the longest time, didn't have a really good answer to this question. Tommy Murphy stuck out to me, he'd be a very capable utility guy for a lot of teams. Roman Colon was the other, but neither of those guys were really the kind of answer that you like to give or hear.
That may be changing. Turns out the two surprises of camp aren't Double-A guys looking to make a big league debut, or young pups looking to make an impression.
Turns out they're Mark Teahen and Sidney Ponson, two guys with 15 years of big league experience between them.
We've written plenty about Ponson already, but there are very real reasons to think he'll be on the Royals' opening day roster, and here's the crazy part:
It may not be a crazy idea.
Ponson has been adequate, and if he's the guy, it allows the Royals to put both Brian Bannister and Luke Hochevar in Omaha to develop a little more. Bannister has had a very rough spring, and could use it. Hoch is ready for a big league job, I think, but maybe this is one of those instances where it doesn't hurt to give the guy more minor league time and serves as one more small reminder about the Royals' progress.
Teahen's stalking of the second base job has been stealth for most of the spring until maybe the last week or so. He's really hitting the snot out of the ball, and you'll never confuse him with Frank White in the field, but he's getting better all the time and has made a couple nice plays. The other day in Peoria, he started a very tough double play.
I think most of us probably wrote off Teahen's chances at the second base job early, and he had a terrible beginning with a couple errors and misplays within the first few innings he played there.
But the mistakes are becoming more rare and less obvious, and hitting coach Kevin Seitzer really thinks he's found something in Teahen, that we may see more of the guy from the second half of 2006, when Teahen was the Royals' player of the year.
It's natural to be skeptical here, and say the Royals have been waiting for that guy two years now. But the Royals really don't have a lot to lose here.
If they think Teahen can be OK defensively, and especially if he's hitting well enough to win the job, he's by far the best lineup option. Neither Bloomquist or Callaspo have virtually any power, and Callaspo brings defensive limitations and no speed.
Teahen winning the job would really be a great story, a heck of an accomplishment that nobody expected.
I would worry about what it does to the Royals' defensive infield, which is already weak. But the good thing is that between Teahen and Bloomquist, the Royals have adequate replacements at every defensive position in the field, so they have some flexibility with roster spots.
They don't need to decide by opening day who their second baseman is, or make any roster decisions based on whether Teahen or Bloomquist or Callaspo will be the regular.
On virtually any other team, Callaspo would hold no value on the roster if he's not the starting 2B because he can't play any other position. But the Royals have plenty of flexibility and can carry Callaspo, giving him some pinch hit chances when he's not starting.
It's a heck of a thing. Seven weeks ago, when spring training began, I don't think many of us thought Teahen had a realistic shot at being the regular 2B, and I know none of us thought Ponson would be on the team.
Now, it looks like both of those things might happen.
And the craziest part is neither is alarming.
Bonus Link: Marc Topkin writes here that the Rays aren't likely to increase from their $60 million payroll this season, and are facing some tough decisions next year with options coming up on Carl Crawford and Akinori Iwamura and a load of arbitration eligible guys, including B.J. Upton.
But the most interesting part of this: Topkin writes that when the Rays lost Game 5 of the ALCS in Boston -- just an excruciating, blown-seven-run-lead choke -- it actually had a positive impact because it allowed two more playoff games at the Trop, which produced enough revenue to sign Pat Burrell and others.
That both of Missouri's professional baseball teams decided prior to spring training to try moving someone into the second baseman's job from another position. And then apparently both players won the job.
I think both experiments were very risky and certainly, if you read the Post Dispatch boards, you will find a lot of Cards fans who are all ready to ride TLR out of town on a rail if Skip Schumaker screws up a couple DPs in the first week (of course, there are a lot of Cards fans who would find any excuse to ride TLR out of town on a rail anyway because he is not St. Whitey of Herzog).
So it will be interesting to me to see if one, both or neither experiment works out in the long run.