1st Week Recap of Spring Training

A week of Spring Training baseball has come and gone. Your 2013 Cactus League Champions (KC Royals) are currently at 5-2 following a tie at home against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday March 6th. Although Kelvin Herrera gave up 2 runs (1 earned) in the top of the 9th, what matters the most is newly acquired Jason Vargas pitched three shutout innings, giving up 5 H and getting 1 K.  25 of his 34 pitches were strikes as he used his great defense behind him for 3 groundouts and 3 flyouts. James Shields has been James Shields during Spring Training so far. In 2 Spring starts, he is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA. He's only pitched 4 innings while giving up only 2 hits with opposing batters hitting .083 against him and his WHIP is .025. 

Game by Game Recap:
February 27th - Loss vs. Rangers (7-11)
February 28th - Win @ Rangers (11-1)
March 1st - Win vs. Padres (7-3)
March 2nd - Win @ Cubs (5-3)
March 3rd - Loss @ White Sox (7-9)
March 4th - Win vs. Reds (9-5)
March 5th - Win @ D-backs (6-5)
March 6th - Tie vs. Split-Squad White Sox (6-6)

As you can tell by the final scores, the Royals offense has been clicking on all cylinders. The Royals, as a team, have the highest BA so far in Spring Training (.332). They also have the highest OBP, SLG, and OPS, respectively with .386, .523, .909. Yes it's only Spring Training but it's a good sight to see. Team chemistry going into the regular season is big as it can help this team avoid another dreadful May. The Royals also lost Luke Hochevar, who was competing for the final rotation spot, to a sprained UCL. He will be rested and evaluated to find out if he needs Tommy John Surgery or not. The injury occurred on his second to last pitch against the White Sox on March 3rd.

Individual Stats Ranked by BA:

Player	Team	Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG▼	OBP	SLG	OPS
1	Ciriaco, P	SS	6	15	1	8	3	0	1	3	0	3	0	0	0.533	0.533	0.933	1.467
1	Perez, S	C	7	15	3	8	1	0	1	5	0	1	0	0	0.533	0.471	0.800	1.271
3	Donald, J	2B	8	15	3	7	0	0	0	1	2	2	1	0	0.467	0.529	0.467	0.996
3	Gordon, A	LF	6	15	5	7	2	2	0	5	1	2	0	0	0.467	0.500	0.867	1.367
5	Moustakas, M	3B	7	16	4	7	2	0	3	10	3	4	0	0	0.438	0.550	1.125	1.675
6	Cain, L	CF	6	15	2	6	1	0	0	3	2	1	0	0	0.400	0.444	0.467	0.911
6	Maxwell, J	RF	5	15	4	6	2	0	1	2	0	2	0	0	0.400	0.400	0.733	1.133
6	Moore, A	C	2	5	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0.400	0.400	0.400	0.800
9	Dyson, J	CF	5	11	4	4	1	0	0	2	3	2	1	0	0.364	0.500	0.455	0.955
10	Hosmer, E	1B	7	20	5	7	3	0	1	4	1	5	0	0	0.350	0.381	0.650	1.031
11	Butler, B	DH	6	18	4	6	0	1	0	2	1	5	0	0	0.333	0.368	0.444	0.813
11	Giavotella, J	2B	7	15	3	5	2	1	0	3	1	2	0	0	0.333	0.375	0.600	0.975
11	Infante, O	2B	2	6	2	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.333	0.429	0.500	0.929
14	Laird, B	3B	6	10	2	3	1	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	0.300	0.364	0.400	0.764
14	Peguero, C	RF	5	10	1	3	1	0	0	3	0	4	0	0	0.300	0.300	0.400	0.700
16	Bonifacio, J	RF	5	7	2	2	0	0	1	3	1	1	0	0	0.286	0.375	0.714	1.089
17	Colon, C	2B	7	15	1	4	1	0	0	3	0	2	0	0	0.267	0.267	0.333	0.600
18	Hayes, B	C	4	8	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0.250	0.333	0.250	0.583
18	Hernandez, G	CF	5	8	2	2	0	0	0	1	1	2	0	0	0.250	0.300	0.250	0.550
18	Pena, F	C	3	4	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.500
21	Aoki, N	RF	5	14	2	3	1	0	0	1	1	2	1	0	0.214	0.250	0.286	0.536
22	Adams, L	RF	4	5	2	1	0	0	0	0	2	1	1	0	0.200	0.429	0.200	0.629
23	Valencia, D	3B	8	16	4	3	0	0	1	1	1	5	0	0	0.188	0.235	0.375	0.610
24	Cuthbert, C	3B	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0.000	0.400	0.000	0.400
24	Graterol, J	C	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
24	Mesa, M	CF	4	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0.000	0.143	0.000	0.143
24	Orlando, P	LF	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.000	0.333	0.000	0.333
24	Paredes, J	RF	5	7	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	0	0.000	0.125	0.000	0.125

*All statistics can be found on baseball-reference.com*

-Nick Brown (@DSEnick_brown32)