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• Austin Jackson scored a run in each of the Tigers' first six games this season. That was the longest streak by a Detroit batter to start a season since Darrell Evans crossed the plate in each of the first eight contests in 1986. And it's the longest streak by a Tigers leadoff hitter since 1939, when one of Jackson's center field predecessors, Barney McCosky, also scored in the first eight games of the season. In game seven on Friday, however, Jackson was on base only once (he walked in the eighth) and was stranded at third.
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  Duane Burleson/AP PhotoAustin Jackson is having a solid season for the Tigers early on.
  The Red Sox managed to blow a three-run lead in the ninth and a two-run lead in the 11th in losing a wild one to Detroit on Sunday, 13-12. It was the first time Boston had scored a dozen runs and lost since May 31, 1970, when they were on the wrong end of a 22-13 slugfest with the White Sox at Fenway.
• Alfredo Aceves gave up all three ninth-inning runs in Sunday’s game without retiring a batter, making him just the second Red Sox pitcher in the live-ball era to work zero innings pitched in each of his first two appearances of the year. Guido Grilli faced one batter each in the first two games of the 1966 season, and didn't get either of them out.
• The Tigers used eight pitchers in that 13-12, come-from-behind win over the Red Sox. It marked just the second time in 70 years that Detroit had come back to win a game in which their starter surrendered seven-plus runs without getting through the third inning. Omar Olivares was the starter in 1997 when the Tigers rallied to beat Baltimore 11-8.
• On Sunday, the Yankees managed just three hits -- all doubles. That same day, the Twins had just two hits as Jason Hammel posted the longest no-hit bid of the year so far. Both Minnesota knocks were doubles. It's the first time in almost three years that two teams have done that on the same day. But then … the Royals did it against Oakland (three hits, three doubles) on Monday … and the Athletics did it against Kansas City (one hit) on Tuesday.It's the first time since at least 1917 that there have been three straight days where a team had every hit be a double.
• On Sunday, Jeff Samardzija (making just his sixth career start) was afforded the chance at a complete game. He had to be pulled after giving up a two-out homer that pulled the Nationals to within a run. Four days later, Matt Garza was en route to a shutout against Milwaukee, but was pulled after committing a two-out error that allowed the inning to continue. So the Cubs had two pitchers this week leave the game after 8.2 innings pitched.The Cubs hadn't had two pitchers work exactly 8.2 innings in the same season since 1995 (Jaime Navarro and Frank Castillo).
• In Sunday's Cardinals-Brewers game, you could say the teams spread it around. In the 9-3 Milwaukee victory, the 12 runs were charged to eight different pitchers. In fact, every hurler who appeared in the game ended up with at least one earned run on his record.It's the first game in eight seasons where the teams combined to use eight or more pitchers, and every single one of them got charged with at least one earned run. The last time that happened was on Sept. 9, 2004, when the Royals erupted for a 26-5 victory over the Tigers in the first game of a doubleheader.
• James Shields got called for a balk Wednesday on an illegal pickoff throw to third. That was in the bottom of the fifth -- after Justin Verlander had been called for his own balk in the top of the fifth.It was the first MLB game to feature balks by both teams in the same inning since Aug. 16, 2004, when the Rangers' Mickey Callaway and then-Indian CC Sabathia committed them in the fourth inning of a 5-2 Texas win.
• In that same game, Verlander threw eight shutout innings before getting tagged for four runs and the loss in the top of the ninth. He became the first pitcher to throw eight scoreless innings, then surrender four (or more) runs in the ninth to take a loss since Tim Hudson did it for the Braves on Sept. 22, 2005. Hudson allowed a three-run homer to Shane Victorino of the Phillies for most of that damage before Macay McBride had to come in and get the final out.
• In Monday's Yankees-Orioles game, Derek Jeter went a perfect 4-for-4 for the visitors, while Matt Wieters went a perfect 4-for-4 in the home dugout. It was the first game this year to feature two players with four-hit games.Since the start of 2010, there's been only one other MLB game where a player for each team went a perfect 4-for-4 or better -- and it was between the Orioles and Yankees. On July 30, 2011, Vladimir Guerrero’s 4-for-4 was the bright spot for Baltimore as the Yankees -- led by Robinson Cano's 5-for-5 -- demolished them 17-3.
• In Yu Darvish's much-anticipated major league debut on Monday, he allowed five earned runs, four walks, hit a batter, threw one wild pitch -- and won the game because the Rangers spotted him eight runs.He's the first pitcher in the live-ball era to win his major league debut while giving up all of those stats (or worse). Even take away the wild pitch, and only one other hurler has hit five earned runs, four walks, one HBP and a win in his debut. That was the Blue Jays' Matt Williams on Aug. 2, 1983.
• Jeff Gray of the Twins earned the first one-pitch victory of the season on Wednesday. Gray threw his one and only pitch to Peter Bourjos to end the top of the seventh, after which the Twins took the lead in the bottom of the inning. The Twins, conveniently, recorded the last one-pitch win last season, by Matt Capps on Sept. 23.
• Speaking of pitching oddities, the Royals-Athletics game was finally called in the top of the eighth inning on Tuesday after its second rain delay. Aaron Crow, who had pitched the seventh for the Royals, was credited with his first career save. Technically, he does meet the save criteria set forth in the rule book, notably that of being the "finishing pitcher" in a game his team won.The last player to be credited with a save prior to the ninth inning was Tony Sipp of the Indians, who received one in a rain-shortened affair with Tampa Bay on July 23, 2010. That also remains Sipp's only career save.
• On Tuesday, Freddy Garcia of the Yankees famously threw five wild pitches to tie the single-game American League record for such a thing. He was also the first pitcher to throw five-plus wild pitches in an outing of less than five innings. But two of those wild pitches scored runs for Baltimore. Another run scored on an error. That made the Orioles the first team in two years to score four-plus runs with one or fewer RBI. (The one RBI they did get came on a home run.)For the Orioles, it was just the second time since moving to Baltimore that they scored four runs on one or zero RBI. The other was in their inaugural year: On June 27, 1954, they scored three times on errors by the Athletics before finally walking off on an RBI single in the bottom of the 11th.
• Oakland "walked off" in unusual fashion on Wednesday when Jonathan Broxton plunked Yoenis Cespedes and Jonny Gomes to force in the winning run in the bottom of the 12th. It was the first game to end with back-to-back hit batters since Sept. 2, 1966, when Stu Miller of the Orioles hit Al Weis and Tommie Agee of the White Sox in the bottom of the 11th. (I admit that Elias found this a lot quicker than I would have.) However, Gomes became the first Athletics batter to get hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in extra innings since at least 1947. (It had never happened in the Baseball Reference "play index" era.) It's also noteworthy that Oakland scored its two runs in the 12th without a base hit. The three runners ahead of Cespedes reached on two walks and an error.
• Before Friday, there had been 36 double-digit strikeout games by teams this week (including seven games where both teams did it) but not one by a single pitcher. Max Scherzer's 11-strikeout outing on Friday afternoon broke that string.
• In Wednesday's 17-8 eruption between the Giants and Rockies, there were four pitchers (Tim Lincecum, Jeremy Guthrie, Guillermo Mota, Jeremy Affeldt)who all gave up at least six hits and at least five runs. It's the first time that that has happened since July 17, 1998, when Seattle dropped an 18-5 score on the Royals at the Kingdome.(It is also very intriguing that, in that game, both teams posted a seven-run inning. Except I don't know of a good way to search line scores.)
  
  By the way, on their next two games on Thursday and Friday, the Giants promptly had two pitchers (Madison Bumgarner and Matt Cain)carry no-hit bids into the sixth inning. The only team to have bids in consecutive games last season was also the Giants. That happened on May 8 and 10 by Ryan Vogelsong and Lincecum.
• The Orioles and Blue Jays combined to hit seven home runs in Baltimore's 7-5 victory on Friday. All were solo shots. It's the first game with seven-plus home runs that were all solo since a July 20, 2010 game at Camden Yards between the Rays and Orioles.
• There's always one guy left out.In the 10-9 "pitchers’ duel" between the Twins and Angels on Thursday, 17 of the 18 starters recorded at least one base hit. Howard Kendrick was the lone collar, going 0-for-4 plus a walk.
  
  It's the first nine-inning game this season to have 17 different starters record a base hit. There were three games last season where all 18 did.
• Minnesota got a four-hit game from Denard Span and three-hit games from Joe Mauer, Josh Willingham and Danny Valencia. It's the first time the Twins have had four players with three hits, including at least one with four, since they dropped a 20-1 score on the White Sox on May 21, 2009.

Alex Gordon had a breakout season in 2011, the kind that had been expected of him since his recall from the minor leagues. He starred for the Kansas City Royals both at bat (.303 BA, 23 HR, 87 RBIs) and in the field (winning a Gold Glove, largely because of his 20 outfield assists).

The biggest jump Gordon made was his performance against left-handed pitching. Gordon entered 2011 as a .215 career hitter against southpaws, but hit a solid .278 with 19 extra-base hits, including eight home runs.

One of Gordon’s primary weaknesses in dealing with lefties was how he handled soft stuff (curves, sliders, changeups) away. He eliminated that as an issue in 2011 in a big way.

Gordon was able to nearly double the rate at which he made contact on swings against those pitches, and the results increased exponentially, as noted in the chart on the right.

There aren’t many left-handed hitters who can hit that type of pitch from a left-handed pitcher. Gordon’s new AL Central-mate, Prince Fielder, struggles with it. So did Josh Hamilton, Joey Votto, and Curtis Granderson last season, among others.

Eliminating that issue added a significant number of hits to Gordon’s ledger and made him a much more viable threat at the plate.

But is that sort of success sustainable? Gordon’s batting average of balls on play against lefties took a big jump, even though his rate of hitting the ball hard didn’t.

You tell us if you think Gordon is legit. Share your thoughts in the comments section.

Last year, You Can't Predict Baseball came up with bold predictions for the year. We had a lot of fun coming up with them, and then laughing at how hilariously wrong they were at the end of the year. This year, we're bringing these predictions to SweetSpot, along with explanations for some of them. Keep in mind, these predictions are supposed to be bold, but not insane -- even we know the Orioles aren't going to the playoffs in 2012.

Los Angeles Angels: Kendrys Morales stays healthy all year.

Houston Astros: Bud Norris is top five in K/9 in the NL. We figured something good had to happen to the Astros, right? Norris actually has a pretty nice career K/9.

Oakland Athletics: Yoenis Cespedes is their starting center fielder by Memorial Day.

Toronto Blue Jays: Brandon Morrow makes the jump to elite starting pitcher. He's struck out more than 10 batters per 9 innings two years running, though his ERAs have remained ugly. We think this is the year his results finally match the stuff, especially considering his declining walk rate.

Atlanta Braves: Julio Teheran has more wins than Tim Hudson.

Milwaukee Brewers: Rickie Weeks leads the team in home runs. He was fourth on the team last year, with 20. In front of him were Corey Hart with 26, Ryan Braun with 33, and Prince Fielder with 38. Fielder is gone, and for this prediction we'll assume Braun will miss a third of the year due to a suspension. It's not too bold to think Weeks could pass Hart in 2012.

St. Louis Cardinals: Carlos Beltran outproduces Albert Pujols from last year. Albert Pujols was great last year, but not quite best-player-of-his-generation Albert Pujols. If healthy, it's not absurd to think of Beltran outproducing Pujols' 5.1 WAR in 2011.

Chicago Cubs: Matt Garza isn't their best pitcher. It'll be Ryan Dempster, who had great peripherals but bad results last year.

Arizona Diamondbacks: Aaron Hill will be good again. He was great with them in limited time, and Arizona's park is quite hitter-friendly.

Los Angeles Dodgers: James Loney will be a top-three first baseman in the National League. Many thanks to Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness for somewhat alerting us to this one. We just decided to take it semi-absurdly far.

San Francisco Giants: Madison Bumgarner is their best pitcher. In terms of ERA, he already wasn't very far behind Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum, and his K/BB ratio eclipsed theirs by quite a bit.

Cleveland Indians: They'll have the best pitching in the American League Central. We're banking on Ubaldo Jimenez, making a major comeback to something closer to what he was in 2010, and the rest of the staff displaying the good that they did in 2011. We're also counting on the Tigers' starters not being very impressive behind Justin Verlander, which is bold but not quite insane, and the pitching of the White Sox, Twins and Royals not being able to keep up with Cleveland's.

Seattle Mariners: Jesus Montero catches 100-plus games. The Mariners probably aren't going to compete, so why not try and play him where he'll accrue the most value?

Miami Marlins: Despite all their new acquisitions and the hype, they still finish fourth in the NL East. When you think about it, this one isn't so crazy. If Josh Johnson isn't healthy and maybe even if he is their pitching still trails that of Philadelphia, Washington, and Atlanta; even with Heath Bell, we don't think their bullpen is as good, either. Their offense might be better than some of those teams', but the Marlins were quite a bit below league average offensively last year and we're not sure how much Jose Reyes is going to make up for that.

New York Mets: Mike Pelfrey is the worst starter in the NL. Pelfrey's been pretty terrible two of the past three years, and now they're moving the fences in at Citi Field. He was far better in his huge home stadium, but we're guessing with the moved-in walls he'll be significantly worse at Citi. Here at YCPB, we actually don't think the Mets are going to be quite as dire as many are saying, even if they do come in last place in the NL East - but Pelfrey won't be a bright spot.

Washington Nationals: Stephen Strasburg has a 17-strikeout game.

Baltimore Orioles: Matt Wieters is the best catcher in the AL. A lot of people are so obsessed with Wieters not matching the hype that they didn't notice he became a plus offensive performer last year, to go along with very good defense. His taking the next step isn't that bold as predictions go, especially if Joe Mauer has to move off catcher.

San Diego Padres: Luke Gregerson is a top-three closer in the NL.

Philadelphia Phillies: Cole Hamels is their best starter. And this isn't meant to be a slight to Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee, but considering their ages and the fact that Hamels is pretty darn good himself, plus a possible boost from a contract year...

Pittsburgh Pirates: Charlie Morton is their All-Star.

Texas Rangers: Yu Darvish isn't their best starter -- but he's still good. And we think he'll be pretty good, we just think Derek Holland will become more consistently good, or Matt Harrison will put up numbers like his 2011.

Tampa Bay Rays: James Shields will have no complete games. Predicting someone to have no complete games might not seem bold, but it is when it's a guy who was known as "Complete Game James" last season. Shields did have 11 complete games in 2011, an almost unheard-of number these days, but he had no complete games in 2009 or 2010.

Boston Red Sox: No one hits 30 home runs. This might seem crazy when you consider their great offensive numbers last year, but only one player on their team hit 30 home runs and it was Jacoby Ellsbury with 32.

Cincinnati Reds: Brandon Phillips is the best second baseman in the NL.

Colorado Rockies: Jamie Moyer will have the best HR/9 on the staff.

Kansas City Royals: They reach .500. While their pitching won't be great, their offense will take a big step forward this year. Combined with the rest of their division being the Tigers and some dumpster fires, it's not that difficult to see it happening.

Detroit Tigers: They score fewer runs than they did in 2011. Yes, that’s even with Fielder. It's not improbable that Jhonny Peralta, Alex Avila and Delmon Young regress quite a bit from their numbers with Detroit last year, and that Prince Fielder's production "only" makes up for the offensive loss of Victor Martinez in 2012. They'll still have a very good offense, though.

Minnesota Twins: Joe Mauer hits 15 home runs.

Chicago White Sox: Robin Ventura gets ejected more times than Ozzie Guillen. Look at the state of the White Sox. We'd get ejected too.

New York Yankees: Hiroki Kuroda leads the team in ERA.

You Can't Predict Baseball is an affiliate of the SweetSpot network.

As you know, I've been writing about the Wing of Amazing (italicized because it's just that awesome), with three nominations so far: Omar Vizquel, Jamie Moyer, and Jim Abbott. Additionally, a blogger nominated Billy Wagner (I'm sympathetic, but not convinced).

Sometimes you're too close to something to remember it, and that's what happened with me and Bo Jackson.

When Bo ... for a few years, "Bo" was all you needed to say ... when Bo debuted in 1986, there might not have been a more passionate Royals fan in Kansas than yours truly. And while I was smart enough to separate the hype from the performance, it was impossible to not be utterly captivated by the things that he did.

Bo Jackson was the Babe Ruth of our time. Bo didn't know enough to know you weren't supposed to do those things ... so he did them. He didn't know you weren't supposed to run up the outfield wall, so he did it. He didn't know you weren't supposed to routinely snap baseball bats like toothpicks, so he did it. He didn't know you weren't supposed to throw out speedy runners like Harold Reynolds from the warning track, so he did it. He didn't know you weren't supposed to excel at the highest levels of both baseball and football, so he did it. He didn't know you weren't supposed to hit a bunch of home runs with an artificial hip, so he did it.

There were so many things. As a fan, though, there will always be one game for me. In Bo's first two full seasons, 1987 and '88, he did plenty of amazing things but wasn't much of a baseball player. In 1989, though, he broke through: 32 home runs -- plus another to lead off the All-Star Game -- and 105 RBI, even got a few points in the MVP balloting. He might have been the most famous American athlete before, but now it looked like he might become a superstar by the numbers, too.

Would he improve again in 1990?

He would. And there was one particular game in 1990 that captured everything that Bo was about. It was the 17th of July, and the Royals were visiting Yankee Stadium. Bo was in center field for the Royals. Deion Sanders was in center field for the Yankees. Bo had been the first player to try his hand at the NFL and Major League Baseball; Sanders was the second. Bo didn't like to talk much; you couldn't get "Neon Deion" to shut up.

In the first inning, Bo hit a home run over Deion's head.

In the third inning, Bo hit a home run over Deion's head.

In the fifth inning, Bo went the other way with a home run in the right-field stands.

The Royals were up 8-4 after five innings, and Bo had knocked in seven runs. Deion had batted three times. The first two times, he'd been out on fly balls to Bo in center field. His third time up, he gave up on trying to get one past Bo and dragged a bunt single.

In the bottom of the sixth, Deion came up with two outs and a runner on third base. He wasn't bunting this time. Mel Stottlemyre (Jr.) got too much of the plate, and Deion laced a line drive toward the gap in right-center field. Bo didn't know you weren't supposed to fly, so he did it. The problem was the landing. Bo couldn't reach Sanders' drive, and he couldn't stick the landing. Instead, he separated his shoulder, Deion circled the bases, and Bo spent the next six weeks on the DL.

And his first at-bat upon returning to the lineup? A fourth straight home run. And two more in the next three games. Bo actually hit better after the injury than he had before. I won't suggest that Bo was heading for the Hall of Fame, but then again I don't know that I would have bet against him. The more he figured out the things you were supposed to do in baseball, the better he got.

Of course, that didn't happen. Football killed Bo's baseball career, as it's killed so many football careers (including his). We'll never know what he might have done.

Last week, I sort of wondered to myself if Jim Abbott should have been the first nominee for the Wing of Amazing, but now I'm wondering if it should have been Bo Jackson. Vizquel's amazing for his longevity, and Moyer too. Abbott's amazing because he was able to thrive for a few years despite having just the one hand. In a sense, each of those players is sort of singularly amazing. But Bo Jackson was all-around amazing, to the point where his amazing-ness seemed almost normal.

It wasn't. It wasn't normal at all. We'd never seen anyone like him before, we haven't seen anyone like him since, and I suspect we'll never see anyone like him again. And if you didn't get to see him, I feel sorry for you. Because you would have been amazed, again and again.

Postscript: Oh, right. This is the YouTube Era. Here. Be amazed. You're welcome.

******

A Quick Programming Note ...

Fifteen years ago, I moved to Seattle to work for a company called Starwave. The company did a lot of things, but I was hired -- and this might surprise you -- mostly to edit fantasy-related content for a website called ESPNet.SportsZone.com; a few years later, we became the ESPN.com that everyone knows and loves so well.

Frankly, it's a minor miracle that I've been here ever since. I was the new guy, didn't know how I was supposed to behave, and somewhat routinely ran afoul of my bosses and their bosses. I owe a great deal to their good graces, and I'm sorry I can't thank everyone who's allowed me to do what I love for so long. I will toss extra hosannas to Geoff Reiss, David Schoenfield, and David Kull, for reasons they know only too well. Collectively, they're No. 2 on the all-time list.

You're No. 1.

Whether you've been reading my ramblings since 1996 or just since last week, you have my profound, impossible-to-express-in-words gratitude. There is not a working writer on Earth who's more grateful than I for his readers. Without you, I would have nothing.

Today, I hand off this space to whoever's next. I don't know yet who is next, but I'm highly confident that this blog and the SweetSpot Network will soon be in excellent hands.

Meanwhile, I'll be around. The kids tell me it's all about search these days. You won't have to search real hard to find me, if you want.

Happy trails, until we meet again.

This is a good time to be a Royals fan.

Well, a patient Royals fan, anyway. The Royals might lose 100 games this year. Might lose 105. Fans who don't believe in crystal balls might not suffer 100 losses gladly.

Me, though? I'm patient. I just don't know if I'm still a Royals fan.

Without the Royals, I wouldn't be Rob Neyer, Baseball Writer. I don't know what I would be. Rob Neyer, High School History Teacher. Rob Neyer, Small Time Lawyer. Rob Neyer, Pizza Hut Manager. Something. Before my family moved to Kansas City in 1976, baseball was just another sport. Before I became infatuated with the American League West-winning Kansas City Royals that summer and fall, the Royals were just another team that occasionally showed up on the radio playing the White Sox (the team I'd sort of half-followed before).

Everything changed in 1976. I cried that October, then again the next October. I rejoiced in 1980 when the Royals finally beat the Yankees, was despondent just days later when the Phillies beat the Royals. My affections somehow grew stronger in the fall of 1984, when the Royals improbably hung on to reach the playoffs with a patchwork roster and an 84-78 record. In 1985, Nirvana.

But it wasn't just the pennant races and the postseason runs. Beginning in 1976, I followed the Royals obsessively, from spring training through 162 games, good or bad. In the summer of 1980, I was involved in a fairly serious auto accident, was unconscious for a number of hours. When I finally came to, my first words to my mother were, Did the Royals win last night?

Through junior high and high school, the car wreck and my parents' divorce, those awkward teenage years and my miserable attempt at a college education, and ... Hey, if you're reading this you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. Your team was probably always there for you, too. For seven or eight months every year, no matter what was happening in your life you always had your Royals or your Twins or your Yankees or your Dodgers or your Padres or your Diamondbacks or your Cubs or your Reds or your Mets or your Phillies or your Marlins or your White Sox or your Red Sox or your Angels or your Giants or your Mariners or your Astros or your Rangers or your Brewers or your Pirates or your Rays or your Cardinals or your Indians or your Athletics or your Rockies or your Braves or your Blue Jays or your Tigers. Or, until 2005, your Expos.

You know what I mean.

I stuck with the Royals after leaving the Midwest in 1996. A few years later, Extra Innings made it easy, and for a number of years I wrote about the Royals, just for fun. My partner in crime was Rany Jazayerli. We called it "Rob & Rany on the Royals." Today I guess you might call it a "blog."

Admittedly, the only time "Rob & Rany on the Royals" was actually enjoyable for me -- rather than a sort of sick compulsion -- was the first four months of the 2003 season. The Royals, having lost exactly 100 games in 2002, took the American League Central by storm in 2003. At the All-Star break, they somehow were in first place ... with a seven-game lead. Teams with seven-game leads in the middle of July nearly always finish the season in first place.

Well, the Royals finished the season seven games out of first place. They simply found their level, as teams usually will if you give them enough time. But I was right there with them, throughout. Even though it had been nearly 20 years since they'd been to the playoffs and I'd moved from Kansas to Chicago to Seattle to Boston to Seattle and finally to Portland, I'd been with them, throughout, watching their games on TV far more often than was healthy for me, professionally or emotionally. I had never learned (or forced myself) to do anything else.

It was the next five years or so that changed me. I suppose you might accuse me of being a fair-weather fan, but I was a fan through more than 20 years of foul weather. On the heels of that exciting-for-five-months 2003 campaign, the Royals lost 310 games in three seasons. The managers were lousy. The front office was a mess, celebrating ignorance. Ownership was meddling, occasionally reprehensible. I found myself drifting away, without even thinking about it. I stopped writing about the Royals regularly, because I found unattractive the negativity in myself that the Royals' performance demanded.

In 2009, I watched most of Zack Greinke's starts but little else. In 2010, I watched the Royals hardly at all.

Is my love for my Royals gone, or merely dormant? I don't know. I will be checking the minor-league stats for all those prospects Dayton Moore has assembled. Maybe that means I'm already there. But checking stats for a few minutes every week is one thing; investing three hours of baseball time every night is quite another.

When the Royals' hot prospects begin joining the big club, I suspect that I'll tune in, for curiosity's sake. Will I stick with them through 2012, when they're fighting to avoid 90 losses?

That will be the real test, and I don't have the slightest idea. For most of my life, I was a Royals fan, that particular shade of blue coursing through every vein in my body. Today, I don't know what I am.

Gil Meche is retiring?

"After a lot of thinking and prioritizing of issues in my life, I have decided to retire from baseball. As a competitor my entire life this is the hardest decision that I’ve ever faced, but it’s not fair to me, my family or the Kansas City Royals that I attempt to pitch anymore.

"I came into this game as a starting pitcher and unfortunately my health, more accurately, my shoulder, has deteriorated to the point where surgery would be the only option and at this stage of my life I would prefer to call it a career rather than to attempt to pitch in relief for the final year of my contract.

"I can’t thank the Kansas City Royals and their fans enough for my four seasons there, and if I have any regret, it’s that we weren’t able to accomplish on the field what the goal was when I signed there.”

Until today, Meche was the highest-paid Royal. By a LOT. He was slated to earn $12 million in 2011; next on the list is Joakim Soria, at $4 million. Jason Kendall ($3.75 million) and Jeff Francoeur ($2.5 million) are the only other Royals making more than $2 million in 2011.

To which I can only say, it's about damn time.

The Gil Meche contract was ridiculous the moment the Royals offered it, and only became more ridiculous the moment he signed it. There's just no sense in spending $55 million on any player if you're not going to contend, and when Meche signed that contract in December 2006 there was no reason to think the Royals were going to contend for anything but fourth place.

It's since been argued that Meche actually did OK. He pitched well in 2007 and 2008, gave the Royals some innings in 2009, and with a decent 2011 -- even just pitching out of the bullpen -- he could essentially give the Royals their $55 millions' worth.

Please.

The Royals threw $55 million into a giant sinkhole, $55 million that could have been better spent elsewhere. Exactly where, I don't know. But you'll have an awful hard time convincing me that 617 innings and a 4.27 ERA was the best way to spend $55 million. Or even a good way. And yes, hindsight it 20/20 but it's not like Meche had some brilliant history of success when the Royals signed him. It looked (to me) like a stupid move then, and it looks like a stupid move now.

Granted, theoretically the Royals don't owe him that $12 million this year, which would make the deal look quite a bit better. But I suspect that they'll pay him some chunk of that money, as a sort of settlement. It's just hard to see Meche leaving $12 million on the table, when to earn it all he'd have to do is throw 50 innings of relief or something this summer.

Either way, the Royals will have a tiny payroll this season, which should allow them to invest heavily in the draft, again. Which, considering their drafting success over the last three or four years, seems like a mighty good thing.

Minor League Ball's dougdirt has taken all of John Sickels' preseason prospect grades and combined them into a beautiful chart. There are a few striking things about this chart, and they're almost all about the Royals.

John has always been stingy about handing out A grades, and this time around he's identified only seven Grade A hitting prospects. The Yankees, Angels, Phillies, and Nationals have one apiece ... and the Royals have three.

That's astounding.

And there's the money. Thanks to work done by various bright, young fellows, we can assign dollar values to prospects, and by this measure the Royals' top 28 prospects -- everyone given a C+ grade or better -- are worth a whopping $245 million. The Rays are No. 2 on the list, at $184 million. Twenty-one of the 30 teams don't have prospects worth half the Royals'.

The Royals' hitting prospects -- mostly in the person of those three Grade A guys -- are valued at $132.5 million. The Reds are No. 2 on that list, at $99 million. The Royals' pitching prospects -- no Grade A's, but five B+ guys -- are valued at $113 million, No. 2 on the list, just slightly behind the Rays ($120 million) and well ahead of almost everyone else.

As I've written before, the Royals have done brilliantly in recent years at both identifying talent and paying for it. Development seems to have gone well, too. At the very least, things should start to get pretty interesting in 2012, as the trickle of prospects becomes a flood. Will the pitchers avoid surgery, though? Will the front office mix in a smart free-agent signing and a couple of canny trades? The answer to all those questions must be yes if the Royals are really going to break through.

These quotes -- Dayton Moore about signing immortals Jeff Francoeur and Melky Cabrera -- are, as one wag noted, comedy gold:

"We feel really, really good about what we did to improve our outfield situation. Melky Cabrera broke into the major leagues at 21. I think he played 101 games in center field in 2009 and if memory serves me right, he was on the field playing center field when the Yankees won the championship in 2009."

"We targeted Jeff and Melky months ago as players we felt were not even at the prime of their careers yet, haven't peaked. There's upside there. Guys who were going to play with energy, guys who were going to be enthusiastic."

"We'll probably have more homegrown players in spring training than anybody in baseball. I'm anticipating we will. So this fits with what we're trying to do. One-year contracts that fit the salary structure of our organization. They're the perfect type of guys for us vs. someone who's 29 to 33 who's on the downside of their career."

"[Cabrera] just wasn't as productive as the year before. He's motivated. He's very capable of having a bounceback year, as is Jeff Francoeur."

Dayton. Moore. Does. Not. Get. It.

I thought maybe, just maybe, Moore's plan was to platoon Cabrera and Francoeur in right field, with speedy on-base man Gregor Blanco manning center.

Apparently not. Because it's just so terribly important to get Cabrera's and Francoeur's "bats" into the lineup every day.

The only positive here is that they're just one-year contracts. Among the negatives -- and please don't make me count them -- is that the Royals really don't have any hot young outfielders in their farm system. So if Cabrera or Francoeur do anything at all next season, Moore will probably lock them up for another year. Or two. Or three.

I'm too old to cry, but it hurts too much to laugh.

In the space of 24 lovely hours, the Royals have signed both Jeff Francoeur and Melky Cabrera.

This year, the American League's on-base percentage was .327. That figure is actually a little misleading, because it includes pitchers hitting in interleague road games. But we'll stick with .327 because it's close enough for our purposes.

By my count, before this week Dayton Moore had acquired 15 players who were expected to play significant roles for the Royals and had significant track records as major leaguers.

Here are their career on-base percentages before joining the Royals: .343, .304, .325, .275, .272, .302, .318, .322, .331, .369, .340, .324, .323, .361, .311.

This is generous. That .369 is Jason Kendall's, most of which was gained when he could still hit. His OBP was .320 in the three seasons before Moore signed him to a two-year contract. With the exception of Gregor Blanco -- like Francoeur and Cabrera, an ex-Brave -- not a single one of Moore's favored hitters had demonstrated any particular ability to reach base.

Jeff Francoeur's career on-base percentage?

.310

Melky Cabrera's?

.328 (.319 over the last three seasons)

Dayton Moore seems to get amateur baseball players. The Royals have so many outstanding prospects in their farm system right now, you almost have to think that they actually know what they're doing.

It's not at all clear that Moore gets anything else. He certainly doesn't seem to get that the first necessary step in scoring runs is having runners.

After years of flailing among the league's OBP trailers, the Royals actually posted the league's eighth-best OBP last season. But that improvement was driven largely by Billy Butler and David DeJesus, both of whom were in the organization before Moore arrived. All Moore did was wind them up and let them play. Today, DeJesus is an Athletic and Butler's going to start getting expensive in a year or two.

Again, the farm system is stocked. But as the Rays have demonstrated, even with a well-stocked farm system you've still got to make a few canny trades and free-agent signings if you're going to reach the next level. And with the exception of Joakim Soria, along with (arguably) Alberto Callaspo and Bruce Chen, there simply aren't any examples of Dayton Moore knowing which professional players can help his club.

If you're a Royals fan, this (from Posnanski's latest for SI.com) should be frightening:

Matt over at Fangraphs pointed this out, but it’s worth pointing out again. The three least valuable players by FanGraphs WAR from 2008 through 2010 are Jose Guillen, Yuniesky Betancourt and Jeff Francoeur. Dayton Moore signed the first to the richest everyday player contract in Royals history, traded for the second when the Mariners were at their wits’ end and just signed the third to a $2.5 million contract.* The man knows how to acquire ludicrously bad hitters.

*Interesting, I think, that the three worst in Baseball Reference WAR are Jeff Francoeur, Mark Teahen and Jose Guillen — also three Royals, though it’s not quite the same because Moore inherited Teahen. Francoeur is actually sixth on the worst list, ahead of Ryan Spilborghs and Wes Helms.

Moore just doesn't get it. He's built a fantastic farm system, deserves a great deal of credit for doing that, and has a long career in baseball ahead of him. But he's probably never going to run a team that wins 90 games, because he lacks a fundamental understanding of how baseball games are actually won.

Hey, at least somebody still to wants to pitch for Kansas City. Bob Dutton on the Royals' Pitcher of the Year:

“I’m still young,” Soria said, “and I think I’m a piece of what they want to do with this team. I think it’s a good idea to rebuild the team, and they’ve been doing great work with the minor-league system.”

Greinke voiced frustration at times this season at the prospect of working through a rebuilding plan that is only now starting to bear fruit. That stemmed, perhaps in part to his contract status: Greinke is bound to the Royals only through the 2012 season.

In contrast, Soria’s long-term deal, signed in May 2008, contains club-friendly options that extend through 2014. And club officials make it clear: Soria is the closest things the Royals have to an “untouchable” in trade talks.

“I think it’s going to be good,” Soria said. “I’m part of the Royals’ family. I’m glad to be here, and I’m proud to be here.”

As most of you know, I used to love the Kansas City Royals, and be obsessed with them. There's probably still some love, deep within my dark heart. But the obsession ended some years ago. To this day, though, if I'm monitoring the scoreboard and I see the Royals have a small lead heading into the ninth inning, I'll flip to that game just because it's such a pleasure to watch Soria work.

He's also really, really, really good.

With 115 saves over the last three seasons, Soria's one of only seven major leaguers with at least 100. He and Mariano Rivera are the only two with more than 100 saves and an ERA below 2 (Jonathan Papelbon's No. 3 on the ERA list, and he's closer to 3 than 2). Soria's also second in strikeout-to-walk ratio (behind Rivera, who's in a class by himself) and essentially tied with everyone else in terms of home runs allowed.

I think you could make a pretty good chase that Joakim Soria has been the second-best reliever in the majors over the last three seasons. And further, that he might move to No. 1 over the next three seasons, given the possibility that Rivera will actually turn into a normal human being at some point.

Having said all that, I also think it's foolish to not at least explore the possibility of trading him for a young shortstop. Or a second baseman or an outfielder. Soria's fantastic, but he's good for two or three extra wins per season. Meanwhile, there are some hitters in the pipeline but maybe not enough. There are pitchers in the pipeline, too ... and I'll bet at least one of them is fine closer material.

Anyway, the Royals aren't going to trade Soria. And that's fine, too. It's nice to have someone who's almost a sure thing, and who actually wants to be there. Which makes me wonder if starters tend to take losing harder than reliefers. Sabermetrics or no, the Royals' lousiness makes Zack Greinke look bad; despite a 3.82 career ERA, Greinke's got a losing record. Last year, despite posting one of the more impressive ERAs in recent memory, Greinke won only 16 of his 33 starts.

The closer, though? Soria's saved almost exactly as many games as Rivera and Papelbon. The thing that he's famous for doing, he can do exactly as well with the Royals as he could with any other team, however excellent.

I'm sure that Soria would love to pitch for a great team. I just doubt if the losses rankle him quite so much as they would if he were pitching the first inning instead of the ninth.

Just waiting to see what Redleg Nation has to say about this one:

The Reds acquired Willie Bloomquist from the Royals, according to a team press release. Kansas City will obtain a player to be named later or cash in return for the 32-year-old utility man. Bloomquist has played all three outfield positions and all four infield positions this year, so the Reds are getting one of the more versatile players in the game. He hasn't hit much, however, and his season line now sits at .265/.296/.388.

Congratulations to Willie Bloomquist, who gets to spend a few weeks playing for a good team.

Congratulations to Ned Yost, who will no longer be tempted to write Willie Bloomquist's name into the lineup (granted, Yost has given into that self-destructive temptation substantially less often than Trey Hillman did).

And finally, congratulations to the Cincinnati Reds, who ... Hmmm. I might have to think about this one for a few days. Bloomquist wasn't on the 40-man roster on August 31, which means he wouldn't be eligible for the postseason roster even if the Reds suddenly developed the need for a super-utility player in October.

Maybe they're just desperate to lay claim to Bloomquist now, to get a head start on putting together their 2011 roster? Except Bloomquist can become a free agent after this season. Were the Reds really so desperate to get a jump on locking up Willie Bloomquist that they could justify sending the Royals a few thousand dollars or a warm body?

There's a story here, friends. And it almost has to be a strange one.

Well, at least this shouldn't terribly impact Project 2012:

Royals catcher Jason Kendall is scheduled to undergo season-ending surgery Friday on his right shoulder after an examination earlier this week revealed extensive tearing in his rotator cuff.

--snip--

Kendall, 36, is in the first season of a two-year, $6 million deal signed last December as a free agent. He finishes the season with a .256 average in 118 games. He had 18 doubles but no triples or homers while driving in 37 runs.

Yost said Kendall suffered the injury July 17 against Oakland on a slide while stealing second base. Kendall responded, initially, to receiving a cortisone shot before aggravating the injury in early August on a check swing in Oakland.

“He got to the point where he couldn’t even raise his arm,” Yost said. “He got to the point where he had to take his glove and push his arm back into a throwing position -- and he was still throwing runners out.

“It just shows you the mentality and the mental makeup of Jason Kendall. He would have played the rest of this year if the training staff hadn’t hog-tied him and made him have an MRI.”

The more things change ...

Have you noticed lately that the best organizations don't encourage their players to play hurt? That the best organizations understand that injured players cost you wins today because they're not playing well and in the future because they'll wind up on the DL?

After suffering the shoulder injury on July 17, Kendall started 33 of the Royals' next 41 games. After aggravating the injury in early August, Kendall started 19 of the Royals' 24 games.

Now, this might have made sense if the Royals didn't have any reasonable option.

They did, in Brayan Pena.

This might have made sense if Kendall wasn't signed for 2011.

He is. The Royals owe Kendall $3.75 million next season.

This might have made sense if Kendall was indispensable in 2010.

He hasn't been. The Royals' pitchers have struggled all season, Kendall's throwing arm is just fair, and of course he can't hit. At all.

The Royals were foolish to sign Kendall for two years in the first place. But once they had him signed, they had every reason to keep him healthy for as long as possible.

They didn't. At all.

Yeah, the Royals have some serious prospects in the minors. But will they be good soon enough to help Zack Greinke play for a winning team. As Bob Dutton writes, Greinke has serious doubts ...

“Every system has something,” he said. “The biggest problem is I have two more years on my contract. Are those guys supposed to make it up by the beginning of next year?”

Tell him, yes, some are projected to reach the majors next year, and Greinke just shakes his head. He seems a resigned skeptic dulled by the hard reality of too many losses over too many years.

“Very rarely,” he argued, “do guys come straight into the big leagues and make an impact, especially hitters. Just look at the top prospects in baseball. Delmon Young was one five years ago, and he’s finally starting to play well.

“Alex Gordon was one four years ago, and he might be starting to play well now. So the problem (with the Royals’ prospects) is that it’s not like as soon as they get here that it’s going to be instant (success). Maybe by 2014.”If you're the Royals, you probably wish your best pitcher was a) more circumspect, or b) less intelligent.

But Greinke's exactly right. If Mission 2012 is successful, the Royals are decentin the last season of Greinke's contract but they're not likely to compete for a postseason berth. Of course, crazy things can happen, but you can certainly understand Greinke's skepticism.

You can also wish he'd accept a little responsibility. He's pitching quite well this season, but not as well as he pitched last season (granted, few men have followed up a season like last season with another as brilliant). And nobody forced him to sign his current contract. If he hadn't, he could have been a free agent after this season, and signed with a good team for a truly massive amount of money.

Greinke's obviously a pretty sharp guy. Maybe he's sharp enough to get traded. Maybe he's sharp enough to pitch so well over the next couple of seasons that he'll essentially be presented with a blank contract after the 2012 season.

Meanwhile, the Royals probably should trade Greinke. Not because he's honest and intelligent, but because he won't be around in 2013 or '14, and they might as well start collecting players who will be.

Hey, better late than never. Sam Mellinger:

This is day three of the new-look Royals, the look that so many of you cried for, and now we begin to find out a little about this team and a lot about you fans, too.

In the next few days -- give it a week -- José Guillen will be off the team or on the bench and the Royals will have solved the Kila Conundrum, allowing Kila Ka’aihue to play regularly and giving Mission 2012 some action to back the words of management.

This is the team you wanted. In the last two weeks, general manager Dayton Moore traded away three dead-end veterans plus Alberto Callaspo. An old and boring team is now at least young: 13 of the 25 active players are 26 or younger.

This is what you asked for with e-mails to newspaper reporters, calls to radio shows and rants on message boards.

It’s the right approach, but this could be a very, very bad team.

--snip--

The reality is that the Royals’ future — and, by extension, their present — is better served with Ka’aihue getting four plate appearances every night instead of Guillen.

The front office appears more convinced of that now than ever before, which means if a trade doesn’t happen, Ka’aihue’s time will come with Guillen in the outfield, on the bench or perhaps even released.

It’s the last step this season to fully commit to Mission 2012. When it happens, the fans will need to accept their share in this, too.

Because it could get worse before it gets better.

Well, of course it could get worse. But how much worse, really? It's not like the Royals traded any great players, and there's a pretty good chance that Ka'aihue is going to produce roughly as many runs as Jose Guillen would.

Let's say it does get worse. What does that mean? They finish this season with 100 losses rather than 95? Fifth place rather than fourth? Will anybody really notice? Yes, some of the fans who asked for this might be disappointed by 100 losses. But it's the fans who don't know enough to want a good solid housecleaning who are more likely to be disappointed, because they won't understand that sometimes you have to lose before you can win. Which is, it should be said, something that the Royals' management doesn't seem to have understood for some time now.

Once you make the leap, though? Things can turn around in a hurry. Prospects pan out, you catch a few breaks, your ace remembers what made him a Cy Young Award winner ... I don't see the Royals catching the Twins anytime soon. But if Mission 2012 is reaching .500, it's far from impossible.

Bob Dutton and Tereza Paylor with the utterly shocking news:

Royals pitcher Gil Meche believes he made every effort to avoid shoulder surgery – and it just didn’t work. So season-ending surgery now looms as a likely next step.

“I’ve done everything possible I could do to be on that mound,” he said. “I know that, (the Royals) know that. It’s not like I’m sitting here not wanting to pitch.”

All that work failed to resolve the problem.

--snip--

Meche’s shoulder problems, previously identified as bursitis, surfaced late in spring training and forced him to open the season on the disabled list. He returned April 11 but went 0-4 with a 6.66 ERA in nine starts before returning to the disabled list.

“He worked really hard to do everything he could to get back without having this happen,” Yost said. “We’ll get it taken care of now, get it done as soon as we can, and hopefully have him ready to go (by the start of) next year.”

Surgery would cap a second straight injury-filled year for Meche, who made just 23 starts last season because of back and shoulder problems. He finished 6-10 with a 5.09 ERA.

Meche is in the fourth season of a five-year, $55 million deal signed Dec. 8, 2006, after spending the previous 11 seasons in the Seattle organization. He went 23-24 with a 3.82 ERA in 2007-08 with the Royals while making 68 straight scheduled starts.

“When I signed this contract here,” he said, “it was to pitch. The first 2½ years, I did that. But since then, it’s been crazy and disappointing.”

Hmmm. This might be my last chance in a while to say I told you so, so ...

Man, I told you so.

When the Royals signed Meche, I said:

1) He probably isn't talented enough to earn $55 million;

2) Even if he's talented enough, he probably won't be healthy enough to earn $55 million;

and

3) Even if he's talented enough and healthy enough to earn $55 million, the Royals won't be good enough over the life of his contract to justify spending that sort of money.

I might have been wrong about the talent. Despite having just come off a string of impressive seasons, Meche posted a solid 3.82 and led the major leagues with 68 starts in his first two years with the Royals. Kudos to Dayton Moore and his scouts, who seemed (for a brief moment in geological time) to have hit the bullseye with their $55 million man.

Then he got hurt. Maybe those 68 starts (and 426 innings) took their toll; before joining the Royals, Meche had never managed to pitch 200 innings in a season. Maybe staying healthy just isn't his thing.

The critics -- Rany Jazayerli, Joe Posnanski, every half-rational observer, me -- will point to a start last July in which Meche was allowed/ordered to throw 121 pitches after complaining of a "dead arm."

That's a problem. As Posnanski points out, since that start Meche has a 7.18 ERA with more walks than strikeouts. Meche had been struggling earlier, though. I suspect his shoulder would have exploded eventually, regardless.

Good points all. My point is that the Royals wouldn't be contenders even if Trey Hillman hadn't played chicken with Meche's right arm. If he wasn't hurt last year, they would have finished 14 or 15 games out of first place rather than 22. If he wasn't hurt this year, they might be eight games out of first place rather than 13.

Big deal.

Management might have tried to justify spending $55 million on Meche in a couple of ways. One, claiming that they were almost ready to win, and he would put them over the top. Clearly not the case. Or two, claiming that spending $55 million on Meche would give the franchise credibility.

Well, you be the judge. When's the last time one of your half-rational friends mentioned the Royals without a smirk or (if he's a Royals fan) a scowl? You don't gain credibility by overspending on injury-prone starting pitchers (are you listening, Mr. Beane?). You gain credibility by drafting well, making smart trades, and finding bargains on the free-agent market.

You gain credibility by doing what Tampa Bay has done.

You gain credibility by winning.

Oh, and one more thing in case you skipped to the end ... You gain credibility by NOT FLUSHING FIFTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS DOWN THE TOILET.