Everett Teaford

Teaford managed to impress the Royals' brass during a strong spring campaign and was actually considered for the rotation at one point, but the team felt that it would be equally useful to have a lefty work in middle relief with the potential for spot starts and Teaford opened the season in the bullpen. He shuttled back and forth between Kansas City and Triple-A Omaha relatively often, but still managed to make 18 appearances (five starts) for the big club and had a 4.99 ERA with a 1.7 K/BB over 61.1 innings. Teaford has average strikeout potential, as evidenced by his 5.2 K/9, but he still has difficulty commanding the strike zone and keeping the ball in the park at times. He does not blow hitters away as his fastball tops out at 91 mph, but he does a great job of mixing in his cutter, his curve and his change-up to keep batters guessing. Still, he is expected to fill a similar role for the Royals again this season.

Teaford bounced between Triple-A Omaha and the big leagues as predominately a relief pitcher in 2011. While not able to miss bats like he did in the minors, he was able to strike out 28 batters with 14 walks and a 3.27 ERA over 44 innings with the Royals. Of course this came with a .226 BABIP helping him as well. One area of concern for Teaford is his battle with the long ball as his HR/9IP has been at or above 1.29 at four different stops since reaching Double-A Wilmington in 2009. The Royals are expected to allow him to compete for a starting job in their rotation for 2012.