Some thoughts and stats on Tony Pena Jr.

I think your talking about Mike Aviles.  His Omaha stats are incredible, especially 14 dbls, 6 hr's and 26 rbi's in 121 at bats.

There's that #3 or #4 bat in the order that the Royals so desperately need.   Those are numbers none of  the Royals are close to approaching.    The pitching has been good enough to keep us in most of the games this year.  It was so good to see Meche have such a dominant start and Leo Gomez showed signs that he's back on track yesterday.  And how about Soria?  Over a month into the season and still with a 0.00 ERA.  Hochever looked really solid Saturday night.  If we can get an outing similar to that 2 out of every 3 starts, then I'd have to say the Royals rotation is solid 1 through 4 which most all major league teams can't say they have.  

If you compare where the Royals are though from the 2006 version things look so much better.  Dayton Moore inheritied a team that couldn't hit, pitch or field.  We're now nearing the 1/4 mark into 2008 and the Royals have one of the better defenses in the league, we're in the top half of the league in team pitching and the hitting still sucks.  But to look at things realistically the improvement in defense and pitching have made us strong enough to keep pace with the big boys in the division, and if the bats get going before the Royals fall 6-8 games out of first, who knows...we may be able to watch some games with meaning  in late August and September THIS season. 

Frank White, who coached Aviles at double and triple A was speaking about him on a radio show this weekend.  White mentioned that the Royals organization has never viewed Mike Aviles as a regular, everyday player... particularly at short.   He made the comparison to Esteban German. 

Shortstop is a serious position of need in our system at every level.   At the majors we have a completely overpowered Tony Pena Jr who is unable to do the "little" things at the plate, makes exceptional plays in the field but has made mistakes on some routine plays.... in the minors  we have the afore mentioned Aviles, Angel Berroa (who we know a lot about already), Sanchez who has not developed  and first round draft pick Mike Moustakas who is struggling at low A to stay above the Mendoza line and who's future is more than likely not at shortstop. 

How using the DH for TJ when Grienke starts, or most of the pitchers for that matter. At least the pichers can get a bunt down from time to time. They may end up with about the same avg., but the pitchers will hit for a lot more power. Seems pretty extreme, and the baseball purists will frown upon it, but the Royals have decided they need TJ's glove in the field, so why not give it a try?