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Right-hander Nate Field is ticketed for duty as the Royals' backup closer while Curtis Leskanic works through the shoulder soreness that has limited his effectiveness.
"He's aggressive and he throws strikes," manager Tony Peña
said of Field. "He keeps the ball down for the most part."
Field bailed out an ineffective Mike MacDougal, who remains the front-line closer, in the ninth inning Monday against Toronto and got credit for the 3-2 victory when the Royals scored on Aaron Guiel's homer in the 10th.
"Right now, I'm getting ahead of hitters," Field said. "I'm putting
them on the defensive right away. I've been really good at throwing first-pitch
strikes. That's a big key for me. I have really good stuff as long as I get
ahead of the hitters."
Field, 28, has allowed just one earned run and seven hits in 9 2/3 innings over
his 10 appearances. He has nine strikeouts and two walks.
"He's got a lot of confidence right now," pitching coach John Cumberland
said. "He's throwing 94-95 (mph) with a really good slider. He's locating
his fastball well, which complements his slider.
"And he's getting ahead in the count. You get ahead in the count and good
things happen to you — in most cases."
If nothing else, Field appears to have pitched himself off the bubble —
at least for the time being. He was recalled four times last season from Class
AAA Omaha, Neb., and was among the last players to make this year's club in
spring training.
"I've learned that you really can't control that," Field said. "You
go out and do what you can, do your job, and whatever happens, happens. You
have no control over whether you're going to go up or down. You can't worry
about that."
Field has been a closer on occasion in the minors. He had 19 saves in 2001 at
Class AA Wichita, seven in 18 games at Omaha in 2002 and seven last year while
splitting time between Omaha and Wichita.
"I'm going to go after guys," he said. "I'm not going to worry
about who they are. Honestly, when I'm pitching, I know who's up there, but
I don't care. In the past, I probably worked myself into a star-struck situation.
I was like, ‘Oh, this is so-and-so.'
"Now, I've had enough appearances that I have confidence in what I'm doing,
and I know that even the good hitters fail seven out of 10 times. So what's
the point in trying to get cute with them?
"I'm going to rear back and say, ‘Here it is.' If you hit it, good
for you, but I'm going to take my chances."
Draft order announced
Major League Baseball confirmed the Royals will have six of the first 85 picks
in the annual first-year player draft, which will be conducted June 7-9 by teleconference
from New York.
"That's a lot of guys," general manager Allard Baird said. "We
lost some guys to free agency but got compensation. What's good is when we acquired
our free agents, we didn't give up prospects or draft picks."
The Royals' own pick is the 14th overall selection, but they also gained San
Francisco's first-round pick, No. 29 overall, as compensation for the loss of
free-agent outfielder Michael Tucker. The Royals get two picks for losing free-agent
outfielder Raul Ibañez to Seattle, Nos. 31 and 63 overall.
The 31st pick is a sandwich pick, which the Royals got because Ibañez
wasn't the highest-rated Type A free agent signed last winter by the Mariners.
The Twins got Seattle's first-round pick for losing reliever Eddie Guardado.
The 63rd pick is Seattle's second-round selection.
The Royals' second-round pick is No. 55; their third-round pick is No. 85. The
draft lasts 50 rounds or until every team passes in a particular round.
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