Oakland Athletics vs. Kansas City Royals Preview

By Bandon Decker
Royals Spring Training
James Guillory – USA Today Sports

The Kansas City Royals will have the second of their unusually many three off days on Monday, 11 March. But the day after that they will be back at work travelling to Phoenix Municipal Stadium to play the Oakland Athletics. Due to Arizona (or at least not the Phoenix area of Arizona where all the Spring Training camps are) not instituting Daylight Saving Time, the match will start an hour late from the perspective of those tuning in from Kansas City. It, and most of the subsequent matches, will start at 15:05 rather than the 14:05 seen for the first few weeks.

Those who do turn in will get a look (or listen, more likely) at the Royals’ Opening Day battery of James Shields and Salvador Perez. Shields has been easing himself into the Spring fixtures and should continue to add innings after starting strongly in his first two outings. Perez will be returning to the Royals’ camp after his Venezuela crashed out of the World Baseball Classic at the first hurdle. Royals fans can also expect to see Everett Teaford for the first time after he missed the first fortnight of fixtures through a sore shoulder and Greg Holland should also get some work as he prepares to be the regular closer for the full season in 2013.

The Royals, in addition to looking to improve upon their 13-1-1 record so far this spring, will also be largely hoping to see more from their second base battle as few of the pitchers scheduled to go are really in doubt as to where they will end up. There may be a bit of a question about Teaford and Louis Coleman, but neither are in pitcher battles and the management can focus on the other position battles.

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