SURPRISE, Ariz. | Royals reliever Jimmy Gobble started last spring by walking into a low-lying cactus while playing golf and jamming the needle deep under his toenail.</p><p>The rest of the year never got much better.</p><p>&#8220;Describe it?&#8221; Gobble said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think I can put it into words that you could put into the paper. Just say it wasn&#8217;t very good.&#8221;</p><p>That doesn&#8217;t begin to describe it.</p><p>Gobble compiled an 8.81 earned-run average in 39 games &#8212; the worst by any pitcher in either league who made at least 15 appearances. The nightmare peaked July 21, when he allowed 10 runs in one inning against Detroit.</p><p>He also suffered back spasms, perhaps as a result of changing his delivery to ease the pain in his foot. The result was six weeks on the disabled list that included eight rehab outings in the minors.</p><p>That&#8217;s a lot to forget in a few months.</p><p>&#8220;You go into the winter,&#8221; Gobble admitted, &#8220;and you don&#8217;t know what to expect. Truly, I wanted to be part of this organization, but after what happened, I didn&#8217;t know. That&#8217;s nothing personal. That&#8217;s business. I looked at it that way.&#8221;</p><p>The Royals chose to view last year as an aberration and envision the 2007 Gobble &#8212; the guy who posted a 3.02 ERA in a club-leading 74 outings while seeming to establish himself as one of the league&#8217;s better left-handed situational relievers.</p><p>Manager Trey Hillman blames himself, in part, for Gobble&#8217;s rough 2008. Hillman cites two occasions, including that game against the Tigers, when a tired bullpen led him to allow an ineffective Gobble to take a pounding.</p><p>&#8220;I also forced the issue of wanting him to be better against right-handed hitters when he wasn&#8217;t ready for that,&#8221; Hillman said. &#8220;Having said that, the objective this year will be to primarily utilize him (against left-handed hitters).&#8221;</p><p>The Royals have that luxury since their projected bullpen includes two other left-handers in Ron Mahay and John Bale. And Gobble, even when everything else last year turned sour, remained effective against lefties &#8212; limiting them to 13 hits in 65 at-bats.</p><p>&#8220;In a bad season,&#8221; pitching coach Bob McClure said, &#8220;if your left-hander is keeping left-handers to .200, that&#8217;s pretty good. Overall, he didn&#8217;t do well, but I think a lot of it was because of the injuries.&#8221;</p><p>Gobble, 27, turns mulish at the mention of those ailments. He doesn&#8217;t deny them, but he rejects any suggestion that seems to use them as an excuse.</p><p>&#8220;When I&#8217;m on the mound,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I&#8217;m 100 percent. There are no excuses. If I&#8217;m out there, I can pitch. And if I can pitch, there are no excuses. It&#8217;s mind over matter. You block it out and get your job done.&#8221;</p><p>Rather than injuries, Gobble points to irregular use. He worked at least 11 times in each month in 2007; last year, he pitched 10 times in May and fewer in every other month.</p><p>Gobble understood it was the classic bullpen conundrum: He pitched too seldom to find a groove, and he pitched too poorly to pitch more often.</p><p>That didn&#8217;t make it any easier to handle.</p><p>&#8220;I lost command,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and I lost confidence. Then, shoot, I just &#8230; I mean I was trying and trying, but I was mad because I was pitching so poorly, and when I&#8217;m mad, I can&#8217;t learn. When you can&#8217;t learn, you can&#8217;t overcome. You can&#8217;t get any better.</p><p>&#8220;And I was mad for like four months.&#8221;