A Hair Off Square   custom cards

This is the final card of my 2011 Topps spring training Royals set. Patrick Keating is just another great arm in the Royals organization. I believe he is currently in AA Northwest Arkansas. He is a rarity in the Royals organization in the fact that he is right handed. The system is full of left handed pitchers and a couple righties will have to be in the rotation as well. This could mean a future spot for guys like Hochevar, Aaron Crow and Patrick Keating.

This set is now done and I am moving on to my next project; my first original custom set. I will start posting the cards soon.

I really like Matt Treanor after watching him play a few games for the Royals. Would I want him to catch every day for the Royals? Probably not. He does appear to be a great guy to have on the club. I really wanted to see Lucas May get a shot to platoon with Brayan Pena to start the year though. Instead May is at AAA Omaha and the Royals had to risk losing him in order to add Treanor.

Treanor is a light hitting defensive catcher. He was drafted way back in 1994, by the Royals ironically enough. He spent ten seasons in the minor leagues before ever getting to the show. The Royals wanted a veteran catcher to catch the younger starters in the rotation so they purchased Treanor’s contract. He was in spring training camp in a Royals uniform for two games before starting on opening day. I was extrememly glad to add him to my spring training set and he is the entire reason for my “update” set. The update set is almost over, there will be no more, I promise, after tomorrow. I will post the last card then.

Jamie Romak can hit. He is a typical first baseman. He’s got pop and isn’t a great defender. I saw him take one out of the park in the futures game on April 2nd at Kauffman Stadium. Romak is in an unfortunate position however. He appears to have four high quality players/prospects ahead of him in the same organization.

The Royals have Billy Butler and Kila Ka’aihue and the Omaha Storm Chasers at AAA have Eric Hosmer and Clint Robinson who are both great hitting prospects. Romak is at AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals and looks to be fifth in line to play first base in the near future in Kansas City. Who knows what could happen, injuries, trades, players moving positions but there appears to be a ton of road blocks in front of Jamie Romak.

Derrick Robinson is fast. He is a speedy guy and from what I have seen, which isn’t very much, he seems to be similar to Jarrod Dyson. Dyson has been great so far for the Royals as a pinch runner. I really like having the speed element on a team. The only upside for Robinson over Dyson may be that he might be a better pure base stealer and hopefully develops into a better hitter than Dyson projects to be.

Jesse Chavez is a relief pitcher that is currently with the Omaha Storm Chasers. Chavez is young but is no longer a rookie. He had a good season for Pittsburgh a couple years ago in the majors but hasn’t been able to match his success with the Royals. Chavez is not a pitcher that I am excited to see come out of the bullpen for the Royals. I think there is a strong likelihood he will fill in and could even be the first call up for a short relief role but I would rather see Blake Wood or one of the rookies come up instead.

This Chavez card is a great picture. It is reminiscent of Greinke’s Sports Illustrated cover. The picture doesn’t really fit with my spring training set but the Chavez card is nice addition to the set in itself.