Today the St. Louis Cardinals signed 3B/2B-Ruben Gotay to a minor league contract and a spring training invite.  He will turn just 27 years old on Christmas Day and the fact that he just signed with the Cardinals reopens some wounds for me.

It’s time for the weekly update of the Royals playing in the Caribbean Winter Leagues.

Some quick Royals links to share while watching NFL football.

Never in my life have I paid attention to the 40-man roster of any team like I have this year.  Writing on a daily basis about a MLB team will do that to you I guess.  Ever vigilant in my quest to put the Royals in perspective relative to their AL Central rivals, I have made it a point to become as familiar with the 40-man rosters of the White Sox, Indians, Tigers, and Twins as my wife and kids would allow.  What follows is one of the results of my efforts.

A tab for the Royals 40-Man Roster has finally been added to the site.  If you look up, you will find it nestled between the Home and About tabs.

GM Ken Williams clearly has fond memories of days gone by.  This week, that fondness was exposed as the White Sox announced the signing of Andruw Jones to a 1 year contract for $500,000, and Omar Vizquel to a 1 year contract for $1.375 million.  Coco Crisp?  Yeah he’s on their radar as well.

I have been really bad about providing you links to content outside of the world of the AL Central.  My Thanksgiving resolution is to fix that post haste.  I submit to you a look at some recent MLB articles posted on the FanSided.com Sports Network.

If my “General Baseball” folder in Google Reader is an accurate representation, and I’d like to think that it is, the majority of the baseball world seems to be immersed in 2 stories.  The Roy Halladay trade market and the swiftly approaching Tim Lincecum arbitration saga.  

What follows is a summary of the 2009 AFL stats for the players from the other AL Central teams.

Remember Dan Reichert?  Well, I sure do, but I never thought I’d see his name in a current issue of Baseball America.

Hey Hey Kids!  It’s Monday and that means it is time for the weekly look at the Royals playing in the Caribbean Winter Leagues.

On Saturday the Arizona Fall League Championship was played and the 2009 AFL season officially came to an end.  Sadly that means this will be the final Rafters Report of the year.  Since this is the final one, I am including the typical fare from previous Sunday Rafters Reports plus some info on the final batting and pitching leaders in a few categories.  There will be one additional AFL related post in Central Processing fashion where I will provide AFL season stats for the participants from all the other AL Central teams in addition to the Kansas City Royals.