Not so fast

The Kool Aid Drinker was ready for a quick write up on what should be the most stable part of the Royals in 2008, the bullpen. Read that again "What should be the most stable part of the Royals in 2008, the bullpen." Yeah, and I meant it. Joakim "The Warria" Soria closing out games, being set up by the import Yasuhiko "Smooth Like" Yabuta, "The First Joel" Peralta and Himmy Hobble. Sure, we'd fill in a couple places, Ron Mahay would be another lefty, maybe John Bale would too...Luke Hudson and Leo Nunez my fill out the bullpen...and then this article...Luke Hochevar in the bullpen? Brilliant! Okay, maybe not that brilliant, but this quote from Trey Hillman was:
"What we want to do for our Major League club now is provide it with the best 12 pitchers that we can -- period. It's as simple as that -- period."

That's exactly what we need to do, in fact I'd say it should just be the plan to put Hochevar in the bullpen, at least until the All Star Break. For one thing it keeps his innings down, something that's always a concern with young arms. For another, it keeps him getting exposed too early. It's much harder for teams to develop a book on a young reliever who's throwing roughly 1/3rd as many innings as he would be as a starter. Yes, I love the Hochevar to the pen idea. That being said, if he earns it we're left with 6 spots in the pen...

- Soria will be our closer barring catastrophe
- Yabuta and Mahay are probably as guaranteed as anyone in the discussion
- Hard to see Peralta and Gobble not breaking camp with the team

That's leaves one spot for a ridiculous amount of candidates....
Ryan Braun, Bale, Hudson, Nunez, no to mention guys like Jorge De La Rosa, Brian Lawrence, Hideo Nomo that are vying for the rotation but expected (by the Kool Aid Drinker at least) to fall short. My vote goes to Nunez as long as he stays healthy, it's hard to imagine he will with that frame. No matter who wins the spot you have to praise Dayton Moore for the job he's done putting together this stable of arms. We've never had a competition like this with so many seasoned veterans and young arms vying for so few spots. It's hard to imagine that Trey Hillman wouldn't put together one of the best bullpens in all of baseball with many choices...now read that again.