The Royals completed a three-game sweep of the Tigers, who have the second-highest payroll in Major League Baseball. The Tigers are still last in the AL Central Division. Meanwhile, the once-lowly-but-now-leading-the-AL-East Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Yankees, who sunk to last place in that division. The Florida Marlins currently lead the NL East with baseball's lowest payroll.

Even if the big payrolls win out later, we'll always have this day to look back on. And this one, when the Royals last had a winning record. If they sweep the series this weekend, they would have a winning record again, too...

The Royals improved to 13-16 as they beat Cleveland 4-2 on the road. Luke Hochevar picked up his second win in his second quality start of the year. Mark Teahen had three of the team's twelve hits. Let's hope there will be more games like this one.

The Royals are a losing team for the first time this season.

The Royals had only eight baserunners in this game. Alberto Callaspo and his .350+ batting average was stuck in the nine-hole for some poor bit of reasoning.

Luke Hochevar seemed to live up to his hype in the early innings of his first major league start, but he struggled mightily the second time through the Oakland lineup. He should get at least two more starts to prove himself. Hopefully, he can turn in a quality start in one of those opportunities (or at least something better than John Bale's results in three starts).

Frank Thomas was released by the Toronto Blue Jays today. I wonder if the Royals will try to sign him. He could be the answer to the lack of run production, and he would almost certainly out-produce Ross Gload. Billy Butler could move to first base, Gload would move to the bench (where he belongs), and the Royals could move up in the standings again.

The Royals are 9-7 after a 5-3 loss to Los Angeles of Anaheim. The Royals are now 2nd in the AL Central, out by a half game. Brett Tomko pitched seven innings, a good amount for a fifth starter. Six of them were strong innings, and he limited the Angels to seven baserunners (for a 1.00 WHIP). He got in trouble in the third when he loaded the bases with two out.

I'm amazed that I can still say that the Royals have owned a winning record all year in the third week of the season. Especially if they continue to score so few runs.

The Royals are 9-6 after defeating Los Angeles of Anaheim 3-2! Joey Gathright and Mark Teahen each had three hits, and Gathright had stolen second base to set up the go-ahead run in the second inning. Gil Meche earned his first win of 2008 with his first quality start of the year.

The Royals are 3-2 after winning the first game of a series, and they can build on that over the next three games.

The Royals are 8-6 after a 6-11 loss to the Mariners. At least they still have a winning record overall. John Bale failed to last five innings today and has not turned in a quality start in 2008.

Ryan Lefebvre defended one or both of Bale's first starts as something which should be considered a quality start in his opinion during an earlier broadcast. A quality start reqires 6+ innings pitched, an ERA of 4.50 or less, and a WHIP of 1.50 or less. In each of Bale's first two starts, he gave up four earned runs for an ERA of almost 6.00 and had allowed 20 hits and walks in his first two starts for a WHIP of 1.62. It's not like Bale was close to a quality start in either case. Bale's 4.05 ERA and 1.55 WHIP as a reliever last year or his 4.60 ERA and 1.46 WHIP in his MLB career would represent a considerable improvement over his results in the rotation so far this season. Were the other options really that bad, or does someone in the Royals' management have a man crush on John Bale? Almost every pitcher improves his numbers out of the bullpen vs. starting, so I wonder what the Royals were expecting from Bale in the rotation this year. Were they banking on a psychological boost to his ERA and WHIP because he preferred to start? Leo Nunez enjoyed better results as a starter last season, and maybe the Royals will give him a chance again in '08.

The Royals are now leading the American League Central Division with an 8-5 record after defeating the Mariners 5-1 on the road! Zack Greinke pitched a complete game, and Billy Butler and Miguel Olivo homered for the Royals.

The Royals are 7-5 after defeating the Twins 5-1! Brian Bannister pitched a complete game, and Alex Gordon hit his third home run of the season.

The AL Central Division teams are generally not performing as predicted in general. The ChiSox are only leading the division by a half game. The Royals are second with a 7-5 record. The Twins are third with a .500 record. Cleveland is fourth with a 5-7 record despite being a favorite to finish first or second while Detroit owns MLB's second-highest payroll and worst win-loss record (2-10).

It's still only 1/13 of a baseball season, but I think the Royals could possibly be competitive this year. The Tigers and Indians have a long way to go in order to come back, and the Royals have the same amount of time to go a shorter distance in the standings.

The Royals are 6-5 after being shut out by the Twins for the second night in a row. The new powder blue uniforms were on display tonight for the first time in decades...sorta. The pants were white. I had thought the new blue tradition would have included the pants, but apparently not. Aside from the lack of offense and the light snow flurries, it was a good time at the new old ballpark. The Crown Vision scoreboard -- the largest HD display in the world right now -- is really impressive. I had seen it on TV, but that did it no justice compared to seeing it in person. Brett Tomko was effective and kept the Royals in the game for six quality innings, but he only struck out one Twin. The bullpen was strong again with three shutout innings. Alberto Callaspo started at SS again. Seeing him and Joey Gathright in the same lineup along with all of the major hitters (Butler, Gordon, Guillen, Teahen) made me happy. Callaspo and Gathright were among the few Royals with hits tonight, too. I had hoped that Hillman would pinch hit for the struggling Miguel Olivo in the bottom of the ninth with Alex Gordon on base, but instead he was allowed to ground into a game-ending double play. That did not make me happy. The game was sold out, and that almost never happens after Opening Day in Kansas City.

At least my dad is enjoying it along with the Minnesota-based relatives in my family.

The Royals are 6-2 after shutting out the Yankees 4-0! In doing so, the Royals also won the series with the Yankees. Zack Greinke pitched eight efficient shutout innings tonight despite rain and cold weather. John Buck hit a solo home run. Etc.

The Royals are now 5-2 after defeating the New York Yankees 5-2!

Joey Gathright had two hits and stole three bases.

Go, Royals! Win at least one of the next two games! And play well Saturday when I'm at the K!

Good times, sports wise.

Just thought I'd post a Royals update now, when they are 3-2, in case they never have a winning record again this year. I'm optimistic that they will have a winning record again, but not enough to bet on it. But hey, for almost a whole week, the Royals have been a winning team. That hasn't happened for quite some time.

The Royals are undefeated and leading the American League Central Division with a 3-0 record after a 4-1 beatdown of toothless Tigers! It's still early, but last time the Royals started the season 3-0, they had a winning season (in 2003).

The Royals are 2-0 after shutting out the Tigers, 4-0!

This means that the Royals are also undefeated when Joey Gathright plays or starts. He had two hits today as the starting CF and leadoff hitter, including a double.

The Tigers were the most popular preseason favorite to win the division.

The Royals are 1-0 after beating Detroit 5-4 in 11 innings!

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In other news, I'm still an INTP, this time according to the Jung Typology Test:

INTP a.k.a. "The Architect"
Introverted Intuitive Thinking Perceiving
Strength of the preferences %
44 38 25 56

This time, I scored as "moderately expressed" for each component.

I was told that this is the rarest type when I tested at JoCoCoCo. I'm still looking for other INTP's, and I've yet to find another one.

At least Desmond is still interesting.

Sprint's future darkens with writeoff and customer defections. Given that Sprint on credit rating 'watch lists' and that Sprint's woes [are] getting worse, perhaps now is a good time to adopt one of their new unlimited service plans.

Billy Butler [is] eager to show what he can do in the field, and I definitely want to see him play first base at least half of the time in 2008. When he was drafted out of high school, Butler was also his team's closer. His fastball was in the nineties, and he could locate it well. It's too bad that all of his talents weren't developed more fully, because Soria has the potential to help out more in the rotation eventually.