Yesterday, I took my 13-year old son to Cooperstown for a long-promised treat. I haven't been to the town since 1999 for George Brett's induction ceremony, and not in the museum itself since...I don't know when.

One of the exhibits in the Hall is called "Baseball Today" and it has a "locker" containing a current uniform and various recent memorabilia for every current major league team. Obviously, I spent a lot of time drinking in the Royals' locker (especially as it was one of the very few Royals-related displays in the entire museum), and I'd love to see what the faithful fans at RR think is the answer to this question (I'll reveal the answer after tonight's Royals-Yankees game, or after the Sonic Slam inning, if there's a winner):

Poll

Which recent Royal does NOT have an image or artifact displayed in the Royals "locker" in the Baseball Hall of Fame?

22%

Justin Huber

21 votes

38%

Mike Sweeney

36 votes

30%

Wilson Betemit

28 votes

8%

Reggie Sanders

8 votes

93 votes | Poll has closed

As Mike Moustakas's batting average approaches the Mendoza line, I am not panicking. I am well familiar with his history of needing time to adjust to each new level as he's promoted, but then, after a certain period, he figures it out and works great on his new level. What I'd like to know from any of you who have more hands-on knowledge of our prospects' development than I do: when he's been in the adjustment phase in previous years, is there anything particular that he does that indicates that he's learning? Any adjustments of his stance, or a change in GB/FB ratio, or something like that? Or maybe once he's been around the league and sees pitchers a second time, he's figured out how to read them properly? Basically, beyond simply getting off to a bad start, does his time in the majors show any similarities to his minor league "adjustment periods" that should give us the hope that a "figuring it out" will eventually follow?

With the Atlanta Thrashers moving to Winnipeg, the AHL's Manitoba Moose will be looking for a new home. Would KC support an AHL team in the Sprint Center? (Perhaps they'd change the name to Missouri Moose, to keep the alliteration?) Or would Kansas Citians support only the NHL (to whatever degree they'll support hockey at all), watching Nassau County drag its feet on a new Islanders arena, and counting the days until their lease runs out in 2015?

So, it's taken me a while to realize that the guy in Toronto who's been tearing the cover off the ball for the last two seasons is the same Jose Bautista to whom the Royals gave a cup of coffee seven years ago.

Of course, the Royals were hardly alone in not knowing what a gem they had. He also passed through the hands of the Orioled and (Devil) Rays and spent a few years with the Pirates before breaking out in the Land of Maple Leaf.

So...assuming that he's not taking some new, undetectable form of PEDs, what has happened to the guy? How does a man add 250 points to his OPS after six years of MLB play? Do the Blue Jays have a miraculous hitting coach? How did we - and the other teams - fail to discover and tap into this wellspring of talent that could have made Emil Brown and Reggie Sanders and Jose Guillen never wear Royals blue?

Due to automotive issues, a trip my family had planned for this weekend must be postponed. We were going to visit relatives in South Bend, Indiana. Since we are postponing it, I am considering trying to time the re-schedule to take in a game in which the Royals are visiting either the White Sox (2 hours drive from South Bend) or Indians (further from South Bend, but en route home to New York).

So....does anyone have any advice as to which I should choose? I'd like to hear comparative stadium experiences between U.S. Cellular Field and Progressive (formerly Jacobs) Field. Any factors I should consider - parking availability, parking costs, ticket prices, friendliness of opposing fans, accessibility of first base coaches for pummelling - would be appreciated. Just don't bother regarding the concessions; as Kosher-observant Jews, we would not be able to eat stadium food anywhere (except for New York and Baltimore - at least as far as I know).

Thanks to all!

A thought on the Grienke trade which I have not seen amongst the thousands of comments on here already: is it likely that we chose these Milwaukee players on the basis of recommendation from Ned Yost? Would he have been reasonably familiar with them during his days in Milwaukee? Or were they too far from his notice at the time?

Another question I want to explore, who in this trade would you say came over for the value of Yuni? I'm curious because when evaluating GMDM's trading ability we tend to examine an entire chain of trades if one player was flipped for another. So until last week, the return for Mike Macdougal was just Yuni. Now we packaged Yuni with Grienke and got these four guys in return, so what would we say we now have to show for Mac the Ninth?

Is there any manner in baseball of stopping play when it's clear that a player has gotten injured? Im thinking of Friday night when Jeter hit the ball that DDJ hurt himself jumping up to field it. So, the player closest to the ball clearly goes down hurt and Jeter just happily rounds the bases, and the umpires are powerless to say "ball is dead" or some such?

That "inside-the-park home run" felt way cheap to me (and it's not like the Yankees have so little talent they need to use cheap shots to win). On the other hand, if the ball is still in play, Jeter has an obligation to hustle himself as far around the bases as he can. But could/should the umps have stopped play due to injury?

I'd like to start the new year on a positive-thinking note.

Many here have ridiculed the idea of Jason Kendall serving as a mentor for young catchers in the system, speaking of his "magical teleportation abilities" and the like. Cute enough - obviously, he can't mentor minor leaguers if he's catching in Kansas City. But what if we carry three catchers on the roster like we did all of last year? Surely Brayan Pena can use some veteran guidance, and Manny Pina (our pseudo-Pena) might benefit more from spending time with Kendall than with spending the year in Omaha.

If Wil Myers does well enough this season to end up in Northwest Arkansas by August, then the second year of Kendall's contract may see our best catching prospect in years benefiting from his presence.

So maybe the mentoring idea isn't so off the wall. Sure, he has no power (perhaps a strange segue for a team whose leaders in home runs for two of the last three years played behind the plate) but the Royals, even in the best of years, have never been a power team. Let's say that Dayton Moore learned his lesson from the Guillen, Olivo and Jacobs acquisitions, and won't overrate the importance of raw power anymore.

I saw a link to <a href=http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/ten-greatest-pirate-moments-in-their-recent-history/>this article</a> in Sports Illustrated, and I was wondering if we could come up with a decent "10 Greatest Moments in Recent Royals History".

 

Some possibilities:

• Win # 82 in 2003
• Opening Day come-from-behind victory in 2004
• Opening Day come-from-behind victory in 2008
• Series of walk-off victories in April 2000 <a href=http://royalsretro.blogspot.com/2008/08/2000-in-box-record-77-85-4th-place-18.html>(see here)</a>
• Zack's 1-hitter
• Zack's 15-strikeout game
• Pair of 17-run games in June 2007
• 26-run victory over Tigers in September of 2004

That's just off the top of my head, though I'm sure you guys can come up with a bunch of others. No sarcasm, no off-field moments, no full seasons. Only single game or sets of games close together are to be considered "moments."

I imagine I'm not the only one on this message board who's on the Royals' mailing list. Well, I found the opening line of the latest e-mail, which I received yesterday, interesting:

 

There is something for everyone at The K during the last homestand of the 2009 regular season!

I'm so glad they specified that this is the last "regular season" homestand of 2009. I eagerly await the post-season homestands of 2009 that will no doubt follow. Meet me at the Plaza, anyone?

I haven't seen this idea floated yet, but I think it would have some merit:

Can we get Mark Grudzielanek back? It was a nice idea of Dayton Moore's to not re-sign him in order to try and snag an extra draft pick (and make up for the one we lost signing Juan Cruz), but clearly no one else seems to want to sign him and give us the pick, so...let's take him back. Unless it can be proven that his skills have declined, he's definitely both better on both defense and on offense than any middle infielder currently on our roster.

What do the rest of you think? 

Is there any way, by internet and word-of-mouth, to get noticeable masses of Royals fans to exit the K whenever Kyle Farnsworth enters a game? Trey and Dayton can't possibly be stubborn enough to keep pitching the guy in the face of a full fan revolt, can they?

It's a shame that Dayton has committed 9 million dollars to this man, but enough's enough. He needs to be forced to admit he made a mistake and not make the fan base suffer for it any further.

OK, I'm no happier with yesterday's blown game, with Hillman, with Farnsworth, maybe with Moore (remember, he's also responsible for Meche, so he might deserve more credit for yesterday's game than blame). But here's a way to look at things to cheer us up:

After yesterday, the Royals have the same record as the Yankees, and the White Sox have the same record as the Orioles.

If we can say that again at the end of the season, I think we'll all be a bunch of happy campers.

In today's Newsday, one of the sports columnists discusses the Mets' need for a closer, and suggests Joakim Soria as a possible trade target. We all know it would take a heck of a lot to get Soria from the Royals. Do the Mets have it? I'd think they're depleted after trading for Johan Santana, but who knows...maybe they have something great the Royals would be willing to trade even the Mexicutioner for?

Well, I reported backin February that I had a big trip planned, and I bought my tickets to the Royals vs Rockies game on June 25 as soon as they came available. I'm back from the trip now, and it was ultra-fantastic! The Royals-specific highlights:

• The Royals continue to have a perfect record (2-0, now) when I'm in attendance, beating the Rox 4-2. The game was pretty messy, with the Rockies taking an early lead and the Royals coming back mainly by taking advantage of errors, but hey, a win's a win!
• Luke Hochevar recovered impressively from a rocky (pun semi-intended) first two innings
• Every time Ross Gload came to bat, I yelled, "Gload will explode!!" and hoped I'd see someone turn around in recognition. No one did, but it was still fun, especially since he did - two doubles.
• The roar of the crowd when Joakim Soria came in to close the game was an awesome thing to behold. Also, I saw him referred to as the "Mexecutioner" in the following day's KC Star, so I guess that's now an official nickname for him - did we originate that here?
• My wife, who is far more awesome than I deserve, had the Royals put "Welcome Mattis Keller, our most loyal fan" (no offense, loyal2) on the scoreboard.
• Even more amazing than that, I actually appeared (with my 10-year-old son and my 5-month-old baby daughter) on the scoreboard during one of the random "fan-cam shots" around the 4th inning. (The rest of my family was either sitting out of range or was on a bathroom break.) Just the thing to make the evening perfect - the image in my mind kept me energetic for the whole drive to Branson that night.
• The Royals drove us from the stadium entrance back to our van in one of their courtesy golf carts. I think this was the highlight of the evening for my children who are not yet capable of truly appreciating baseball.

Only two things I'd criticize: I was quite disappointed at the long line to claim my "will-call" tickets, and I'm pretty sure it's because that was also a ticket SALES line, I don't think there was a dedicated line for picking up already-purchased tickets. I expected that pre-buying my tickets would guarantee speedy entry to the stadium. Instead, I was still on line when the national anthem was sung, and I was practically in a panic that after having driven 25 hours to get to the K, I was going to miss some of the game (fortunately, I didn't, just barely). Also, the general parking is a HUGE walk from the stadium. I'm sure I passed at least two completely empty lots on my way from where we were directed to park to the stadium (though the aforementioned golf-cart ride later made up for this.

All in all, it was great to be there in the flesh again! Now, I'm back in New York, rooting from afar - go Royals!

With the Royals having so much trouble getting runs on the board, one of the things I hear most is "sit Pena in favor of Callaspo." True, TPJ can't hit well, and who wants a black hole in their lineup? But the Royals' recent woes can't be pinned on him. Check out the difference in these Royals hitter before and after the west coast trip that had started on April 14:

April 13 and earlier:

Royals W/L: 7-5

Mark Grudzeilanek: .308/.333/.386

Mark Teahen: .286/.452/.400

Alex Gordon: .333/.604/.360

Billy Butler: .386/.477/.449

Tony Pena: .033/.033/.064

After April 13:

Royals W/L: 7-13

Mark Grudzeilanek: .241/.310/.379

Mark Teahen: .236/.306/.304

Alex Gordon: .246/.287/.337

Billy Butler: .222/.292/.291

Tony Pena: .220/.254/.233

The Royals were not expecting major offense out of Tony Pena. He is what he is, a light-hitting shortstop with great defensive skill. As it is, his hitting during the team's down period is light-years better than it was when the team was doing well, so how could he be held responsible for the problems the Royals have had lately?

The problems here are Gordon, Butler and Teahen, and to a lesser extent (only because he's not big in the future plans), Grudz. And of course, Guillen, but he was bad in both the before and after periods. What could have caused these guys to collapse like this? It's not just regression to a mean from an early small sample size, it's an en masse slump. If the guys we're really counting on as hitters don't hit, what can we possibly do? Callaspo replacing Pena is a band-aid, not a cure.