Hochevar and Bannister

I'm going to go ahead and assume Horacio Ramirez is handed wins the  #4 spot in the rotation despite already giving up 12 hits and 9 runs in just 3 innings (yeah I know 6 are unearned, I don't care!) so that leaves Luke Hochevar and Brian Bannister battling for the final spot. Some nice draft pedigree going on there. Hochevar was the 1st pick in the 2006 draft and Bannister's dad was the first pick in the 1976 draft. And unlike Ramirez (also Willie Bloomquist and Bert Callaspo and the 2B job) they are actually trying to earn their spot. They have both pitched pretty well and it will probably go down to the wire to see who pitches fifth for Kansas City and first for Omaha.

Player	IP	H	R	ER	BB/K
Hochevar	5	4	2	2	1/3
Bannister	5	3	2	2	1/2

I know they are extremely small sample sizes but they are still nice to see. This is typical for one and the opposite of typical for the other (as a Royal). Last season Hochevar who was really not given a fair shot at making the team had a 2.25 ERA in 8 innings. Bannister whose spot was assured had a 8.48 ERA in 11.2 innings.

In 2007 Hochevar pitched 2 scoreless while Bannister got hammered (10.03 ERA in 11.2 IP) and started the season in AAA. Of course he would go on and have a great rookie season.

Bannister won a spot in the Mets rotation in 2006 putting together a fantastic spring (0.95 ERA in 19 innings). He of course got hurt and the Mets traded him for a pyschopath.

I know they both had rough seasons last season but I think they will both rebound and whoever loses the spring battle will of course be called up when the HoRam experiment goes seriously awry (much like the Tomko experiment and the Albie Lopez bullpen experiment, yes Royals fans that really happened. It wasn't just a bad dream, though it was a nightmare).