Jesse mentioned this in his bullet points in todays post, but I thought I'd try to get some more specific thoughts from the knowledge base here.  

In his 1 1/3 innings last night, I saw Neshek hit 90 on the radar gun exactly once.  I recall thinking that he routinely hit 91 or 92 on his fastball and upper 80's on his slider, but most of his deliveries last night were falling between 82 and 87.  Any ideas as to what might be wrong?

I left late Monday morning with my buddies Fud and Spielo to catch the Twins in KC with a stop in Des Moines to see the Iowa Cubs.  Here are some thoughts from the trip:

1. The Cubbies were playing the Albuquerque 51s.  The 51s started the game by pummeling the Iowa pitching, the glaring exception being Andy LaRoche, who struck out twice before being removed from the game.  Any word on an injury with him?
2. Felix Pie has some mad wheels.  He set a record with 12 putouts, running down balls in the gaps and in front of him, while showing an excellent arm.  Not sure why they didn't call him up right away when Soriano went down, although I notice that they have since rectified that.
3.  The High Life Lounge  just outside the ball park is a really cool place.  You can actually get Hamms on tap!
4. We stayed at the same hotel in KC as the Twins.  My only sightings of the Twins were  Nick Punto in a bar after Tuesday's game, Wayne Hattaway dressed heat to toe in black on a 100 degree day, and Scott Baker getting off an elevator with his family.  Baker's wife is great with child.  I wouldn't be surprised to see him missing a start soon.  Supposedly, Rondell's wife is ready to pop soon too, though I don't see that as having as big an impact on the lineup.
5. Joe Mauer collected a few hits, but I didn't see him hit a ball hard the whole weekend.
6. Cuddyer apparently made a deal with the devil on Wednesday.  His homer was listed at 440 or something, but it cleared the fence at about the 400 mark and landed well above the fountains.  An absolute bomb that had to have approached 500 feet.  After that, he grounded into two double plays,  and then looked absolutely abysmal in striking out 4 times Thursday.
7.  Gawd I love BBQ.  My favorite was Big T's, a little joint along Blue Pkwy between the Plaza district and the ballpark.  My buddies preferred the traditional Gates BBQ.  My body has some recovering to do this weekend.
8.  Kaufman is a great stadium.  Perhaps the greatest thing about it is the attitudes of everyone there.  Ushers were very mellow and pretty much let people saunter wherever they wanted.  The KC fans were very welcoming to us, and put up with some slightly belligerent Twins fans by either ignoring them, or starting up a "Let's go Royals" chant.  They were positive and enthusiastic regardless of whether they were winning comfortably or being blown out.  Very refreshing.
9.  The scoreboard promos for the team were weird.  Their highlight of George Brett was of him sliding  into home, colliding with the catcher, then getting into a brawl with him.  This is a highlight?  Just about everyone from the late 70's era Royals is in their hall of fame, including Freddie Patek (lifetime .230 hitter) and John Mayberry (only played for 6 years, admitted to playing under the influence).  At first I figured that the Mayberry thing was something they regretted when those events came to light, but they still played highlights of his career on the scoreboard.  
10.  Hunter was fooled badly in CF by 3 balls over the weekend.  It occurred each time when he was positioned towards left field and the ball was hit slightly to the right of center.  He ran over slowly, then had to speed up to try to cut if off.  Twice he cut it off but had his momentum carry him far off line and caused a relatively weak and inaccurate throw.  Once it skipped past him altogether.  
11.  Casilla looked really good, especially Thursday.  It occurred to us on the trip that perhaps he could be the replacement for Hunter in CF.  Good wheels and definitely an above average arm.  Not sure who would take over at 2nd, but perhaps that would be easier to replace?  Certainly he wouldn't be the first middle infielder to make that transition.

In spite of the ass-bats Tuesday and Thursday, and the sweltering heat, we had a great time.  I hope to get back there again.