Kansas City Star: Royals

Royals set winter 40-man roster

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:15 CST

The Royals made their winter 40-man roster final on Friday, adding infielder Jeff Bianchi, outfielders Jarrod Dyson and Jordan Parraz, catcher Manuel Pina and pitcher Blake Wood. To make room on the roster, the Royals outrighted pitchers Devon Lowery and Doug Waechter, designated infielder Tug Hulett for assignment and requested unconditional release waivers on pitcher Julio Pimentel.

Zack Greinke's 2009, game by game

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:44 CST

Zack Greinke, age 2 until now

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:25 CDT

Royals set winter 40-man roster

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:17 CST

The Royals finalized their winter 40-man roster on Friday, adding infielder Jeff Bianchi, outfielders Jarrod Dyson and Jordan Parraz, catcher Manuel Pina and pitcher Blake Wood.

Royals 2010 Spring Training Schedule

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:15 CST

Royals 2010 spring reporting dates

Royals sign right-hander

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:15 CST

The Royals began work on their bullpen with the signing of right-hander Brad Thompson to a minor-league contract on Thursday. Thompson, 27, was 2-6 with a 4.84 ERA in 32 games including eight starts for the Cardinals last year. His fastball is in the upper 80s, with a slider, curveball and change-up mixed in. Advanced analysis indicates his fastball and slider were both strong pitches when he went 4-0 with a 2.95 ERA in 40 relief outings as a rookie in 2005, but the quality of each has since dropped.

Royals sign pitcher Brad Thompson

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:23 CST

The Royals began work on their bullpen with the signing of right-hander Brad Thompson to a minor-league contract on Thursday.

Royals to bring out powder blue hats in 2010

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:31 CST

The Royals announced Thursday that next year's team will wear a new powder blue hat with their powder blue jerseys, which have been worn every home day game since the 2008 season.

For Greinke and Royals, the clock is ticking

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:15 CST

Pardon this blog if the relief and pride of seeing Zack Greinke win baseball’s highest pitching honor hasn’t yet faded, but there is a fast-approaching reality that the Royals will have to face. They now have anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years to build a contender around the game’s best pitcher, or risk losing the franchise’s greatest asset since George Brett.

Henry will be pitching coach for Omaha Royals

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:15 CST

Doug Henry will be the new pitching coach for Class AAA Omaha after spending one season as the Royals’ roving pitching coach. Henry replaces Tom Burgmeier. The rest of the coaching staffs for the Royals’ top four affiliates will return intact, the organization announced on Wednesday.

Greinke proves he's the best in the league

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:15 CST

Around here, among Royals fans in Kansas City, there’s been a persistent buzz about whether Zack Greinke would win the Cy Young Award as the American League’s best pitcher. Out there, in Zack Greinke’s offseason in Orlando, not so much.

Royals firm up minor-league coaching staffs

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:13 CST

Doug Henry will be the new pitching coach for Class AAA Omaha after spending one season as the Royals' roving pitching coach. Henry replaces Tom Burgmeier. The rest of the coaching staffs for the Royals' top four affiliates will return intact, the organization announced on Wednesday.

Greinke gets almost unanimous support for Cy Young

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:15 CST

The headline on the announcement that Zack Greinke was the American League Cy Young winner called the voting a “landslide.” It figures, then, that most of the opinions among voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America followed. “I voted for Greinke and for me, it was an easy thing to do,” said Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times.

Not to worry, Baltimore project not trying to compete with KC's Negro Leagues Museum

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:50 CST

So, it turns out the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum won't have new competition from Baltimore after all. A story in the Baltimore Sun this week detailing "the first East Coast museum devoted to Negro League baseball teams and players" caused concern around Kansas City from some about how much the project would compete with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum here. read more

Royals to bring out powder blue hats in 2010

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:43 CST

Score one for Royals marketing. The team announced Thursday that next year's team will wear a new powder blue hat with their powder blue jerseys, which have been worn every home day game since the 2008 season. The hat -- shown above here -- will go on sale for $38 at the team store at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday. The store will also be open before the Kansas-Missouri football game -- remember when that game mattered? -- and a week from tomorrow, Willie Wilson, Kevin Seitzer and Willie Aikens will be signing autographs at the store from noon to 2 p.m. read more

New York celebrates, then gets hungry, makes sandwich

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:18 CST

The $200 million Yankees screamed and hugged and waved championship flags on the field of the $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium, the celebration spilling out to the streets, and this is going to sound weird, but it's the absolute truth: The whole thing was a little unimpressive. I don't mean the Yankees, who made their case as one of the very best teams in a generation, or the new stadium, which is amazing, but the celebration, which was, eh. read more

NY vs Philly and wow

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:12 CDT

So, close readers of this blog may remember my occasional point about Kansas City having a bit of an inferiority complex in relation to St. Louis and, well, lots of other stuff. It bugs me at times. Kansas City is a terrific place, for a lot of reasons, and sometimes I wish we as a whole were just a little more secure about that. But I do have to point out that I hope we never swing the other way, and develop a jaw-dropping superiority complex. read more

This is gonna hurt, but the Royals should at least look at trading Joakim Soria

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:51 CDT

Aside from a barstool, there may be no more emotional position in baseball than closer. This is certainly true for Jonathan Papelbon and K-Rod, but more, it's true for the people watching. So long as it doesn't get watered down from blowouts, the best moment at Kauffman Stadium is when the video boards set fire and Slash starts playing "Welcome to the Jungle" and Joakim Soria comes out from the bullpen to throw fastballs at the knees and 67-mph curveballs through bats. read more

The one about Bret Saberhagen's fake job on the Dennis Miller show

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:03 CST

My cell phone buzzes and the two-time Cy Young winner's number lights up on caller ID."Hey," he says, "it's Bret with one 'T'."There's a pause."But I'm Saberhagen, not that other guy."He laughs, a minor mystery solved. A few months ago, a friend of mine passed along this link and it seemed like a great story.One of the best pitchers in Royals history is now the technical director for a nationally syndicated radio show? Sweet!So I called Saberhagen, and after asking him a few questions about Zack Greinke, I mentioned that I'd like to write something about his work on Dennis Miller's radio show.Silence."I don't work on that show," he says, "but you're like the fifth person who's asked me that."I considered the possibility that Sabes just didn't want to talk about it, which would be fine. But logically, the bio does seem a little strange, and doesn't have a picture, and besides, if he didn't want people to know then why he want his name on the website at all?So I dropped an e-mail to the producer of the show, who explained that a guy who works there is named Bret, one 'T,' so they started calling him Sabes, it caught on, and they just ran with it."If you get the sense that the real Sabes was upset about it, just let me know," the producer wrote back.He's not."I don't need them to take it down," the real Sabes says. "I guess it's flattering if people remember you, right?"For sure.Because if the technical director's name was "Jose," and they called him "Lima-Time," it wouldn't be a compliment.

KU Basketball: That's more like it!

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:54 CST

66.4% Effective FG%After the Memphis game, I complained that KU didn’t shoot the trey often enough and that they didn’t press. Believe it or not, I actually saw a full court press against Central Arkansas. Ok, it was only once or twice, but that’s still infinitely more than normal. Maybe… just maybe… Self will employ it in the future. And, instead of only five three-pointers against Memphis, the Hawks shot 19 Thursday night, hitting 11. Obviously, my opinion had nothing to do with it, but it’s always good when I don’t have to complain.read more

Wilcats vs Huskers: For All The Marbles

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:33 CST

KSU FootballSnyder: "I have never been involved in a ballgame in which bowl eligibility and a division championship were on the line at the same time. I'm gratified on how much progress we make from week to week, but this past week, we didn't make much progress. So that wasn't very gratifying at all. We have to play better than they (Nebraska) do. That's the bottom line anywhere. It is going to a big challenge to play in a very large stadium with a bunch of red-clad fans cheering against you, but that's part of this game."read more

Mangino and KU football are headed for divorce because only one side worked on its faults

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:37 CST

Mark Mangino and Kansas football was a flawed marriage from the beginning. Each side knew what it was getting into, but accepted the other's faults because the partnership was their best shot at happiness -- for better or worse.The marriage is now ending because too many of those flaws remain. They enjoyed a nice enough honeymoon, and were the envy of the neighborhood two years ago, but only one side worked on its faults.It takes two.Eight years ago, Mangino and the program he joined each brought baggage. Mangino was extremely fat, with an ugly temper. Kansas football had outdated facilities, with weak financial and fan support.Kansas football worked on its end, first under Al Bohl and then Lew Perkins.Bohl had plenty of his own faults -- including poor analogies -- but he did help Kansas football work on its weaknesses. He hired Mangino, opened tailgating on the hill, and was an enthusiastic fundraiser who helped build attendance at Memorial Stadium.Perkins has faults, too -- including a legal battle with a small Lawrence business that some thought turned vindictive -- but continued and improved upon Bohl's effort to better the football program.Kansas recently completed more than $30 million of renovations and construction, centerpieced by an 80,000 square-foot football facility. There's been talk of a stadium expansion, work that would mean nearly $100 million spent on football facilities since 1999.The fans aren't as passionate as they are for basketball, of course, but they are setting attendance records, and making the football team at least co-stars on campus.Kansas football held up its end, and whenever this marriage with Mangino finally ends, Perkins will search for a new partner with the track record of identifying and improving his side's weaknesses.That's a good position, and one that Mangino won't have.He was a bully from the beginning, and as Whitlock has pointed out the last two days, an abusive one.It's fine to be a jerk, but you better win.read more

How does the Big 12 rate in Basketball?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:09 CST

Big 12 vs SEC, Ken Johnson of Hoopszone sent me an email and made this comment. “My general take is that all conferences wax and wane from year to year, and if you take a long enough period (say a decade or more), they probably all average out to be about the same. There's a lot of parity in recent years. For example, all the preseason mags this fall say that the SEC is way down and the Big 12 is way up. It wasn't that long ago that the reverse was true, was it?” I’ll try to answer that question and more.read more