With the Royals not hitting the ball at all as a team, Ryan Shealy is blowing his big chance to get back to the majors. He has played in 38 games this season in AAA and he is 33 for 144 (.229 avg, .755 OPS) with 18 runs scored, 8 homers and 19 RBIs. With Shealy now 28 years old he’s starting to lose his prospect status so he needs to get his act together before he winds up out of baseball.

The Kansas City Royals are having problems scoring runs which means that they can’t afford to have a no-hit, all field shortstop as their starter. Tony Pena is off to a terrible start to the 2008 season and the Royals need to only only bench him but also send him to the minors to rebuild his confidence. Pena has played in 45 games this season for the Royals and he is 23 for 142 (.162 avg, .388 OPS) with 11 runs scored, 7 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. The problem for the Royals is that Alberto Callaspo doesn’t appear ready to replace him. Callaspo has played in 27 games this season for the Royals and he is 17 for 64 (.266 avg, .660 OPS)with 2 runs scored and 3 RBIs. With that in mind, it makes perfect sense for the Royals to recall 30-year old righty swinging Angel Berroa from the minors and give him another chance. Berroa has played in 44 games in AAA ball this season and he is 50 for 166 (.301 avg, .834 OPS) with 29 runs scored, 8 homers, 21 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. He has played in 627 games in his major league career and he is 606 for 2,300 (.263 avg, .689 OPS) with 293 runs scored, 45 homers, 245 RBIs and 50 stolen bases. The Royals just can’t go on getting absolutely nothing from the shortstop position offensively so they need to make this change for the betterment of the team.

19-year old lefty swinging shortstop Mike Moustakas was the first round pick of the Royals who see him as their shortstop of the future. He has played in 26 games in A-Ball this season and he is 23 for 104 (.221 avg, .623 OPS) with 12 runs scored, 4 homers, 8 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. The bright thing so far about Moustakas is that he has only whiffed 13 times in 104 at bats.

26 year old lefty Neal Musser has unhittable in AAA ball this season.  In 23 games there he was 3-1 with 5 saves, a 0.00 ERA and a 0.79 WHIP.  In 40.1 innings Musser allowed 22 hits, walked 10 batters, whiffed 33 and allowed 0 EARNED RUNS!  He hasn’t been as good for the Royals as he is 0-0 with a 4.87 ERA and a 1.67 WHIP in 13 games this season.  But his outstanding AAA numbers warranted recognition.

23 year old righty starter Luke Hochevar is the #1 prospect in the Royals system according to Baseball America but he’s off to a tough start this season.  In 10 starts this season in AA ball, Hochevar is 3-5 with a 5.47 ERA and a 1.52 WHIP so far.  In 52.2 innings, he has allowed 63 hits, 7 homers and he’s walked 17 batters.  He has whiffed 57 batters so far this season, so the stuff is there….he’s just needs to execute a little better.  Look for the Royals to take their time in bringing up Hochevar because they can’t afford to hurt his confidence.