The Other Bannister, Hamfighters, and Links

The string of curious moves continues for Dayton Moore and the Royals.  Today they claimed 25 year old RHP-John Bannister off of waivers from the Texas Rangers.

In 499.2 innings pitched in the minors, Bannister has a 4.74 ERA, 1.519 WHIP, and 1.87 SO/BB.  He hasn’t had a sub-4 ERA since he was a 20 year old in 2004 and I don’t expect him to reach that “milestone” anytime soon.  John, no relation to Brian, has been assigned to pitch for the Double-A NW Arkansas Naturals.  This is another move that confuses and puzzles me.  The Royals need bullpen help at the ML level and instead they claim a guy that couldn’t help the Double-A or Triple-A affiliates of the Texas Rangers this season.  Considering that just today the Angels released RHP-Justin Speier (35) and the Phillies released RHP-Tom Gordon (41) it stands to reason there are better short and long term answers available.

On a positive note, Billy Butler was named the AL Player of the Week after hitting 0.538/.563/.962.

Now back to the negative news.  The KC Hamfighters softball team, men’s edition, lost by 15 runs for the second straight week tonight.  After getting shutout in our first game, we managed to plate 2 runs and played 4 innings before being spread 17-2.  We are now 0-2 and have been outscored 34-2 on the season.  We have trouble hitting and we have trouble playing defense.  Why does that sound familiar?  Tonight I broke out the battle-cry “What would Trey Do?” but not even invoking the name of the mighty Trey Hillman could change our fortunes on this night.  Ironically our softball ineptitude came on the same night that the Royals offense broke out for a boatload of runs and 18 hits en route to a 14-6 win.

In closing I wanted to share a few links with you that I came across today:

• Click here to enjoy Tough times for small market teams such as Marlins, A’s, and Royals written by Joe Posnanski.
• Then click here to read a well crafted review of the Royals Hall of Fame written by Craig Brown over at Royals Authority.