FanHouse DavidDeJesus

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

About eight years ago, the hardest part of Lee Banks' job as coach of a youth travel team based in southeast Virginia was picking a shortstop.

"It was a lot of fun," Banks recalled to FanHouse last week. "You just sat back and let 'em play and try not to mess it up."

Back then, the team (now known as the Tidewater Orioles) had on its roster B.J. Upton, David Wright, Ryan Zimmerman and Mark Reynolds.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the ...
Team who finished above the hype-machine Tigers last season. In fact, finishing only 12 games below .500 in a division that was expected to be very strong had to have exceeded expectations in the first year of Trey Hillman's managerial stint. After all, it was the first year since '03 the Royals didn't finish in last. They still have holes, but they also have a good group of young, talented players.

Ah, the annual rites of spring. The snow starts melting, trees start finding themselves populated by leaves and singing birds, and Mark Teahen gets ready for a position change. I tell you, you can set your watch to it. In 2007 Teahen moved from third base to right field to make room for Alex Gordon before moving from right field to left field last season to accomodate Jose Guillen. Of course, now that the Royals have Coco Crisp in centerfield that probably means David DeJesus is going to start seeing more time in left field.

So if Teahen wants to keep getting at bats this season, that means he's probably going to have to change positions again, and he's planning on doing just that. Get ready to become acquainted with Mark Teahen, second baseman.

Dayton Moore's busy offseason continued on Wednesday as he made another trade, acquiring outfielder Coco Crisp from the Red Sox in exchange for reliever Ramon Ramirez.

Crisp had been on the trading block for awhile, ever since the emergence of Jacoby Ellsbury in the Boston outfield. He's a career .280 hitter, who draws a decent amount of walks, doesn't have much power, and is a threat to run, with 20 or more stolen bases in each of the last three seasons. He had a brilliant year defensively in 2007, but was just in the years before and after; overall, it looks like he's a slightly above average center fielder.

Crisp goes from one crowded outfield to another, as the Royals already have Mark Teahen, David DeJesus, and Jose Guillen. This move, which comes three weeks after Kansas City picked up Mike Jacobs from the Marlins, suggests that Moore has yet another transaction in mind, and that Teahen, or even DeJesus, could be traded to free up an outfield spot.

The Red Sox dealt from a strength -- they still have an excellent starting outfield of Jason Bay, Jacoby Ellsbury, and J.D. Drew -- and received an asset you can really never have enough of, in a quality bullpen arm. The 28-year old Ramirez has an excellent season in 2008, with a 2.84 ERA in 71.2 innings. Some of that success won't continue though, as he allowed just two home runs despite allowing an average number of fly balls.

He was very good in other areas, notching 70 strikeouts, a rate of 8.8 per nine innings. Ramirez joins an increasingly strong Boston bullpen; Jonathan Papelbon is one of the best closers in baseball, and they now have four above average relievers to bridge the gap to him, with Ramirez, Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen, and Justin Masterson.

The Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians may both call the AL Central home, but apparently that isn't going to stop them from trying to work out a trade that would help both teams.

You see, the Royals feel like they need to improve their offense, and while they're at it, they'd like to move David DeJesus to left field, where he's a better defensive option.

The Indians, meanwhile, have a surplus of young outfield talent and have an opening at third base after sending Casey Blake to the Dodgers in July. They were hoping Andy Marte would grow into that third baseman, but it's starting to look like Marte will never reach the potential the Tribe originally saw in him.

Which is why this prospective trade between the two teams makes so much sense.

Joba Chamberlain certainly did a better job against the Royals on Sunday than in his first start against Toronto. He cut his walks to one, struck out five and made only one big mistake. He hung a slider to Jose Guillen who deposited it into the seats but, otherwise, he did a pretty nice job.

Nothing to make you renounce your god and worship at the altar of Joba, perhaps, but pretty good stuff and it must make the Yankees breathe a bit easier. Don't expect to hear any praise coming from the opposition, though. The Royals, who know a thing or two about being shut down by good or even mediocre pitching, were not impressed.

David DeJesus : "Nothing like we haven't faced before, Just a guy throwing hard."

Mark Teahen: "More or less the same as he was as a reliever...Nothing special."

Hard to know what to make of this news. On the one hand, the Royals have been shut down by the likes of Kevin Slowey, Sidney Ponson and Steve Trachsel this season so if Chamberlain doesn't impress them, it's hard to feel too chuffed about his future.

While you might like to hear "I contemplated retirement rather than getting back into the box against that guy," it's important to remember that Chamberlain is still putting it all together as a starter. Rushes to judgment are a New York specialty but some restraint is well-advised for Joba's near future.

Prerequisite: BlackDraft™ Part 1

The ESPN ticker for the mock Negro Leagues draft as it stands:

Round 1

1. New York Yankees - Cool Papa Bell (CF)
2. Washington Nationals - a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, which are pretty much the worst kind of Dorito
3. Chicago White Sox - Buck O'Neil (1B)
4. Boston Red Sox - David Ortiz (DH)
5. New York Yankees - Manny Ramirez (LF)

Upcoming picks

6. Cincinnati Reds
7. Detroit Tigers
8. Kansas City Royals
9. New York Yankees
10. New York Yankees again

Round 1 continues, after the jump.

Alex Gordon was supposed to be the second coming of George Brett for the Royals, but he hasn't exactly lived up to any of the hype this season. He's currently mired in an 0-for-19 slump, and got Tuesday off against C.C. Sabathia and the Cleveland Indians.

The slump has dropped his average to .172 on the season, but when you consider it's never been higher than .195, it's not saying much.

So the debate has begun. Should the Royals send Alex Gordon back down to Omaha to get his act together? Buddy Bell doesn't think so.

"I still feel the same way about him," manager Buddy Bell said. "I'm really not interested in his numbers. I just want to see him get better. There was a stretch for about three weeks when he was hitting the ball hard and not getting much reward for it

"I saw a lot of progress. The last week, he's kind of reverted to the way he was early in the year. I'm hoping that doesn't continue for very long."

Arguments can be made for both sides. In the last few years, the Royals have sent Mark Teahen and David DeJesus down to Omaha when they struggled, and both came back better than ever. The downside of sending Gordon down, is that the Royals don't have many options at third base.

Mark Teahen is a full-time first baseman right-fielder now, so asking him to switch back to third wouldn't be very fair. That means Esteban German would have to move to third base full time. That's not a bad thing, but it would result in something horrific.

If German moves to third base, Angel Berroa would get more time at shortstop, and nobody wants that. I don't even think Berroa thinks that's a good idea.

Previously at The Fanhouse:
George Brett Likes Alex Gordon
Angel Berroa Is Back