Soria's sore shoulder

Joakim Soria's shoulder woes won't go away. The Royals closer continues to feel stiffness in his throwing shoulder despite medical work showing no actual injury.

"We probably don't have Jack [Soria]," manager Trey Hillman said before Saturday night's game against the Angels. "He was a little sore yesterday -- too sore for my liking to feel real comfortable. We'll probably go day-to-day."

Other than Soria's right shoulder being stiff, Hillman said he had no further information and that all medical tests had checked out OK.

"It's kind of new territory for me," Hillman said. "I felt he was a little bit behind to start [the season] and I'm still hopeful that that's what it is. I just don't know. Anything beyond that would be speculation on my part."

Fantasy Impact: This situation sounds similar to Brandon Webb's non-injury that turned into a two-month DL stay. Anytime a pitcher suffers shoulder troubles it's a big deal. Soria logged a lot of innings the past two seasons as a young pitcher, logging 69 and 67 1/3 innings at the ages of 23 and 24. It would be unfortunate that all the early success in his career begins to derail him.

It's hard to recommend a stop-gap option as Trey Hillman prefers a closer-by-committee approach if Soria is not available. Soria is not yet headed to the disabled list, so there is no reason to jump to the conclusion that he'll be unavailable for an extended period. You'll have to ride this one out.