Archive for July, 2010

In a move announced just after the trading deadline passed this afternoon, the Royals traded outfielder Rick Ankiel, reliever Kyle Farnsworth and cash to the Braves for outfielder Gregor Blanco, reliever Jesse Chavez and minor league left-handed reliever Tim Collins.

Dayton Moore has been busy today as in between trade discussions, he also managed to extend manager Ned Yost through the 2012 season.  Yost took over in May after the firing of Trey Hillman and since, he’s managed the Royals to a 31-37 record. The second half of July has been rough, but for the most part, Yost has done a serviceable job with the level of talent on the team.  He has a reputation for handling young players well, and with many minor leaguers taking big strides towards the major leagues, he’ll likely get to see a handful of [...]

To make room for Danny Duffy on the Double A Northwest Arkansas Naturals roster, 2009 first round pick Aaron Crow was demoted to High A Wilmington.  Duffy, you’ll remember, took a hiatus before the season began due to personal issues, but posted a 2.38 ERA in two rookie league tune up starts and a start for Wilmington.

The Kansas City Royals ended a five game losing skid in grand fashion on Friday night. His team behind by a score of 5-4 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Alex Gordon hit a three run homer into the right field bullpen off Orioles closer Alfredo Simon to win the game in come from behind walk-off fashion. Prior to coming through in the ninth, Alex had previously failed to deliver with runners in scoring position on three separate occasions. But all was forgiven as

The Baltimore Orioles came into Kauffman Stadium Thursday night to begin a four game series, providing quite a stark contrast from the Royals previous series opponents, the Twins. This was a game between two bad teams, one riding a four game losing streak, the other on a five game skid. But somebody had to win, and unfortunately for Royals fans it was the Orioles, 6-5, in eleven innings.

The Royals purchased the contract of Greg Holland from Omaha today to fill the vacancy left by the newly departed Scott Podsednik.  A strikeout pitcher, the right handed Holland has an average fastball and a decent breaking ball.  He tends to induce more groundballs than flyballs, as well (46.5/36.8 split in 2010).

Scott Podsednik has been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for two minor leaguers: catcher Luke May and right handed pitcher Elisaul Pimentel. Rumors had been picking up in the last week that Podsednik was garnering heavy interest from National League Western Division teams and those whispers turned out to be true.

As a result of John Lamb’s promotion to Double A Northwest Arkansas, the Naturals needed to clear a roster space.  The solution: lefty Rule V pick Edgar Osuna gets to move up to Triple A Omaha.

With his recent poor performance, Victor Marte was optioned to Triple A Omaha before today’s game against Minnesota.  To take his place, Bryan Bullington returned to Kansas City to pitch in long relief. On June 28, Marte had a 2.95 ERA.  One month later, his ERA had ballooned to 9.76.  In eight of his ten July appearances, Marte gave up 2 or more runs, surrendering 24 earned runs over 9.1 innings in that stretch.  That July ERA of 23.14 earned him a trip back down to Omaha.  He gave up five homers in July and while he was unlucky to [...]

In other news, water continues to be wet, the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, and Jay Leno will continue to not be funny. News is going around that Gil Meche will require surgery on his shoulder and miss the rest of 2010.  He was on the 60-day DL and appearing in two rehab starts in the minor leagues, including a start on Monday in Omaha where he got rocked in four innings, giving up seven runs.

Despite last night’s monstrosity of a game, the Royals minor leagues are providing a steady stream of good news.  In what is becoming a feature here at Kings of Kauffman, another Royals prospect is taking the next step.  In fact, it’s the second next step for this player. We’re just past two weeks past his 20th birthday, and John Lamb has been promoted from High A Wilmington to Double A Northwest Arkansas.  This follows an earlier midseason promotion, as he was advanced from Low A Burlington to Wilmington back in May.

The Royals got the chance to face the AL East, with a three game series against Toronto and a four game trip to New York.  As the trade deadline approached, the Royals made one move, sending Alberto Callaspo to the Angels, while many other players were linked to rumored deals (though the best trade chip, David DeJesus, was lost to a season-ending thumb injury). All that drama almost overshadowed the returns of Rick Ankiel off the disabled list and Alex Gordon from Triple A purgatory.