Race for the "Kotsay spot" down to two?

As spring training winds down, the only question right now seems to be who will win the "Kotsay spot" on the roster.

Although there are allegedly three candidates still in the running--Wilkerson, Carter, and Bailey--it seems less and less likely with every passing day that Wilkerson will actually win the job, opening up the (admittedly temporary) spot for one of our AAAA players.

If Wilkerson were under serious consideration for the bench spot, we'd expect him to be playing in as many games as Carter and Bailey. However, in the last ten days or so, most of the playing time has gone to Carter and Bailey; Wilkerson has played just two games in the last week. So, you can probably scratch him off the list of contenders.

Carter's offense has been solid and his outfield performance has been acceptable, but there have been flashes of first base fielding incompetence (running into MDC during the game with the MFYs, for instance). Surprisingly, though, Carter only has one fielding error (committed on the aforementioned play). Bailey has been less impressive offensively, with not as much power as Carter, but has handled the IF duties more smoothly.

Ultimately, though, I suspect that Bailey is slightly "ahead" in the race, since whoever will fill in for Kotsay will need to have the ability to field first base, particularly with Lugo out. Right now, that appears to be Jeff Bailey, not Chris Carter. Options don't appear to be an issue, so it will be whichever player the team feels will help them best that will get the job.