Soria's Unibrow

Just for grins, I fired up OOTP 13 and took control of the Rays to see if virtual Dayton is smarter than real Dayton. The answer will absolutely not surprise you.

According to Josh Looney, Pioli rejected not one but two offers to join the trade down bonanza in the first round. I think this speaks volumes about just how highly our war room had Poe rated going into today. He must have really impressed them in his interview or something. EDIT: Looks like I'm not the only one staying up late and looking up Chiefs news. Feel free to delete mine, I think Chief Willie Wildcat got his in a few seconds before I did.

I just noticed this story buried halfway down the page on royals.com. This ought to put to bed all the worry that we're going to waste his potential by leaving him in the bullpen. I'm not sure why we're waiting to try the change until next season... if the plan is Crow-as-starter next year, why not get a few starts under his belt this year when we know for sure there's no chance of contention? I'm not complaining too much, though. I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Now let's just hope he retains his effectiveness when stretched out to 6+ innings. It would be huge for us if he could fill one of the holes in the rotation next year and beyond.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Right-hander Robinson Tejeda, with his fastball velocity down, will be eased out of the setup role in the Royals' bullpen for now. "I'll back him off some until he gets his velocity back," manager Ned Yost said. ... For now, Yost plans to use his young pitchers, including right-handers Aaron Crow, Jeremy Jeffress and Kanekoa Texeira, and left-hander Tim Collins in late-inning situations. This is exactly the right move. I'm not convinced Tejeda is toast, and I don't even mind him taking up a roster spot, but he should not be used in high leverage situations right now at all. Hopefully they figure out the injury or flaw in his delivery or whatever is causing his velocity drop and he can be useful again, but let the kids handle the heavy lifting for now.

So I was killing time on Stumbleupon just now before bed, and it linked me to a little web series on My Damn Channel called "Back on Topps." It stars the Sklar brothers (voice actors, hosts of Cheap Seats on ESPN Classic, etc.) as the twin heirs to the Topps Card Company. When their father dies, their uncle sells the company instead of letting them run things because they are, of course, idiots. The show deals with the brothers trying to get control of the company back while wacky hijinks and sports references ensue. Midway through the first season, there is an episode centered around getting Steve Balboni to sign off on endorsing an exercise machine--the Balboner--that gives you obscenely giant forearms like ol' Bye Bye. The brothers call in Steve's little brother Sal, played by Ed Helms from The Office, to pitch him the idea. If you don't want to watch it by now, there's no hope for you. Follow the link and laugh.

A nice little mention about our new big three... Duffy, Montgomery, and Melville. You guys can't get here fast enough, and could you bring Moustakas, Hosmer, and Kila with you?