Liveblogging: Indians @ Royals, 4/27/13

MLB.tv's free game of the day is an AL Central matchup between the Cleveland Indians and the Kansas City Royals. Fresh off a Salvador Perez home run in the second inning (which at least helps one of my fantasy teams), here are some stray thoughts about this matchup. According to the Sports Illustrated baseball preview, my personal gold standard of projections, the Royals were supposed to finish second in the division with the Indians in fourth, but those two positions were swapped according to ESPN's preview. SI is proving to be closer to the truth, as Kansas City currently leads the AL Central so far (11-8) with Cleveland occupying the basement (8-11).

A big part of KC's success has been the health of its players. The Royals have a pair of starting pitchers on the DL - Felipe Paulino on the 60-day and Danny Duffy on the 15-day - but neither figured to play into their revamped rotation; they were ranked #367 and #590 respectively by MLB. By contrast, the Indians have two of its four free agent acquisitions cooling their heels on the 15-day DL - speedy leadoff hitter Michael Bourn (#47 and the featured player on Cleveland's SI preview article) and starting pitcher Brett Myers (#266) - with three more marginal pitchers on the 60-day. Plus, today's starter Scott Kazmir, who won the fifth starter spot out of spring training after not having pitched in the majors since 2011, had his comeback delayed when he started the season on the DL. Having to scramble to replace those key players so early can really take a toll on a team's lineup.

As one pre-Moneyball Oakland Athletic Miguel Tejada throws out his former teammate Jason Giambi to start the top of the fourth, let's go back to the other differences between the SI and ESPN previews. If you'll recall my 2013 preview of the central divisions, they were at odds about who would be Kansas City's utility infield, but we're seeing both choices in this game: Tejada is at third and Elliot Johnson (acquired from the Rays) is at second (he was just involved in the final two outs of the inning). They also disagreed in the fifth starter department, but this time it was ESPN who came out on top: Luis Mendoza has made two starts (and one relief appearance) while Bruce Chen has pitched exclusively out of the bullpen. On the Cleveland side, the two publications also had fifth starter questions (which I've outlined above) but they also disagreed about who would be the Tribe's primary setup man behind Chris Perez. So far ESPN has this one right as well, as Vinnie Pestano has a 1.29 ERA in 7 appearances with Matt Albers sitting on a 5.40 ERA in 4 games (however he also spent some time on the restricted list to deal with a family emergency).

Going back to the differences between these teams' performances, not only are the Royals pitchers noticeably more healthy than their opponents' today, they've also done a lot more work to improve the rotation in the offseason. It cost them Baseball America's #4 ranked prospect (Wil Myers), but they acquired two rotation mainstays from the Rays in James Shields (their featured player in SI) and Wade Davis (who spent all of last year in the bullpen, which gives you an idea of the Tampa Bay's pitching depth). They also traded with the Angels for today's starter, Ervin Santana, who is working on a very nice April in his contract year. I just learned an interesting story about this pitcher, nicknamed "Magic" by his teammates, thanks to Rex Hudler's always insightful broadcasting: Apparently when the young Santana was working his way up to the big leagues, he was known not as Ervin, but as Johan. Seeing as there was already a Johan Santana playing in the majors, he decided to take the name of one of his idols growing up: Earvin "Magic" Johnson. He's certainly pitching like magic this year, with a 5.20 K/BB ratio (26/5) heading into today's game.

I would like to close these stray observations with another call back to the Sports Illustrated preview issue. In addition to a featured player, each article includes a short blurb known as "A Modest Proposal" where the writer - Albert Chen in both of these cases - gives a humble opinion on an aspect of how he thinks the team should be managed. For the Indians, the suggestion was to play Nick Swisher at right field instead of first base in order to make sure his production comes from a position with less depth. I understand the decision to keep him at first (he played 8 of his first 10 games there) since the acquisition of Bourn gave the Indians three center field caliber defenders in the outfield (he joined Michael Brantley and Drew Stubbs, acquired from the Reds in the Shin-Soo Choo deal). But since Bourn's injury, Swisher has for the most part migrated to the outfield to fill in. The Royals were cautioned to play projected bench jockey Jarrod Dyson in right field instead of Jeff Francoeur, the rationale being that Dyson's superior speed and defense can contribute more than Francoeur's waning power output. I did hear Jeff Montgomery (Hud's broadcast partner in the booth) mention how much Ned Yost likes to have Dyson available as a pinch runner late in the game, so that's not likely to change any time soon.

As Scott Kazmir gives way to hard throwing rookie Cody Allen in the bottom of the sixth, Kansas City's Sonic Slam Inning, I'll draw these observations to a close. Stay tuned tomorrow for ongoing thoughts from MLB.tv's Free Preview Sunday, mostly from the A's/O's game as Oakland tries to avoid the sweep. Then keep your eyes open on Monday for big news regarding 2013's edition of Astrology Fantasy Baseball.