Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead."Let's not get euphoric about it," manager Lou Piniella said.
It seems that Gil Meche is loving the role of poster boy for irresponsible spending in baseball this offseason. Meche's 5-year $55 million deal has had fans and general managers screaming bloody murder all across the country since it was announced.
Well, Meche has already found something to spend all that money on, his new number. Meche bought number 55 off of Royals reliever Joe Nelson for a couple suits, a set of golf clubs, "all kinds of other junk." So now, if you forget how much money the Meche man is making, you can always just wait until he turns around.
There is karma at work though, because it appears that much like his own services, Meche could have gotten his number a lot cheaper.
Now that Nelson has sold the number to Meche, he's going to be on the shelf for about two to three months. Nelson needs surgery to repair the labrum in his throwing shoulder, something he's accustomed to. Nelson missed time in 2002 and all of 2003 after having two surgeries on his labrum. Of course Nelson thinks that his newest labrum problems are unrelated, which just makes a whole lot of sense. Maybe this time he hurt it playing with his new golf clubs?
Either way you look at it, Nelson is the second member of the Royals who has had to undergo surgery this spring. Mark Grudzielanek will start the season on the disabled list after arthroscopic surgery on his knee.
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