Johnny Giavotella Easing Into Majors In First Few Weeks With Royals

The Kansas City Royals youth movement has went into full gear this season, so fans are more hopeful than ever in KC for the future of the franchise. Eric Hosmer landed first and was soon followed by Mike Moustakas and Danny Duffy to form a heralded trio of youngsters that will hopefully anchor the infield and pitching staff respectively for years to come. Just a few weeks ago, second baseman Johnny Giavotella joined them.

Thus far, it's been a decent showing by Giavotella, albeit not with the spark that many hoped for after such dazzling numbers in the minor leagues. Giavotella is hitting .267 in his first 16 games with 1 homer and 4 RBI. He's struggling to adjust at times, as evidence by his 11 strikeouts to 3 walks, and this goes against his minor league trends. Still his overall line isn't bad at all for a rookie adjusting to the ML level.

Through most of this season, Giavotella tore up AAA pitching at Omaha with a .338 average to go with a .390 on base percentage. He also had 34 doubles to go with 9 home runs and displayed good gap power for a still developing player. Since the stellar year in Omaha came after an equally impressive turn at AA last season, it seemed the Royals struck gold with the former second round choice.

Giavotella will no doubt earn the starting position through the end of the year, giving the Royals roughly a third of a season to see what they have in Giavotella heading into a fresh slate in 2012. It's likely he'll stick not only for now but years to come given the inherent tools and his ability to adjust to every level thus far. Given enough time, the Royals should finally have their answer at second base they've been searching for.