May 20 (Royals Newswire)—OF Clark Kent was called up from Omaha and started in right field over the weekend in place of Jeff Francoeur, who was hitting .209/.250/.295 as of May 19. Kent hit a Pacific Coast League-leading .908/.996/3.725 over two months in Omaha, winning eight consecutive PCL Player of the Week awards. However, Kent did not get a hit in his first three Major League games, as he bunted in his first 11 plate appearances against Oakland. “He has to learn to manufacture ...

Hey, try waiting around for Brian Trifiolis to blossom...uhh, be discovered.

This was supposed to be the year for the Kansas City Royals, the climax of all those of futile seasons, subsequent high draft pick selections, and constant rebuilding. In a perfect world the images of James Shields, Wade Davis, Ervin Santana and Jeremy Guthrie donning Kansas City uniforms would never exist.

After all, just two seasons prior to beginning the year with the four veteran right-handers in the rotation, ...

The Kansas City Royals have hired George Brett as their new hitting coach, the club announced Thursday.

Previous hitting coaches Jack Maloof and Andre David were reassigned to the minor leagues while Pedro Grifol will become a special assignment coach alongside Brett with the big-league club.

Wednesday, my colleague Danny Knobler wrote that manager Ned Yost’s job isn’t safe in the long-run, but it isn’t in immediate jeopardy. With that in mind and knowing how much Royals hitters have ...

The only person associated with the Royals to cheer for this summer.

A recent transplant to St. Louis, Hoffmann visited a new Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, which has an award for people in their UFO Club who drink 200 different beers from the menu.

The first person to complete the task receives a commemorative plate with their name on it to be placed in the establishment’s “Ring of Honor.”

Only Hoffman planned a twist.

The engraving would say Don Denkinger, whose name still evokes ...

Is anyone with the Maloof name a sane person?

“There is just no reward here (for us) to try and hit home runs,” Maloof said. “We try to stay down on the ball, be more line-drive oriented, and do more situational hitting at least through the first two or three rounds (at home) here. That’s why I’m not overly concerned because I think we’ll lead the league in fewest home runs again this year. We don’t have a 40-homer guy in the middle of the lineup.

“We’ve got kids. Billy ...

I just blue myself.

9) GOB smears Steve Holt (STEVE HOLT!) (Season 2, Ep. 14)

Afraid that George Michael is going to get blown out in the election for class president, Michael hires GOB to produce an attack ad targeting Steve Holt. When Steve Holt’s own campaign video winds up being about growing up without a father and embracing Jesus Christ, GOB realizes his video (which begins with calling Steve Holt a bastard who doesn’t even know who his real father is won’t go over well. This goes ...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Less than a year removed from his selection in the draft, celebrated prospect Michael Wacha will make his major-league debut Thursday at Busch Stadium against the Kansas City Royals.

While it’s not nearly as easy of debut as it would have once been, this has to be one of the easiest situations they could call him up for with half the pitchers on the team having their arms falling off.

Carving up Frenchy the clown. There’s enough for everybody!

The General Manager of your baseball team thinks Jeff Francoeur is worthy to don the Royal blue. The manager of your baseball team thinks he’s one of the best nine players at his disposal and dutifully fills out a lineup card with his name on it nearly every day.

I disagree.

Today I present to you the statistical case against Jeff Francoeur. (All numbers are through Sunday. After his 1-4 performance, it’s not like they ...

OK, well, I know what comes next. If you have been around the Kansas City Royals for any extended period of time, you do too. The Royals have lost 14 of their last 18 games. But more, much more, 11 of those 14 losses are by two runs or less. Oh yeah, we know what comes next.

Lots and lots and lots of talk about … the little things.

Get ready for it. There will be closed door meetings. There will be public proclamations. There will be quotes galore. People from the Royals organization will ...

While George Brett reached home safely 1583 times in his MLB career, those runs are not the subject of Craig Robinson’s recent analysis.

RIP Fred White

Fred White, a Royals radio voice for 25 years, died Wednesday due to complications from melanoma, a day after announcing his retirement following a 40-year relationship with the club.

White teamed with Denny Matthews on broadcasts from 1973-98, and since had served as the team’s director of broadcast services and the Royals Alumni.

His retirement was due to health issues, and he died in hospice care.

Ryan made the point that there are studies that seem to show that the stolen base is not as effective or important as people used to assume. Ryan will tell you he’s not especially a fan of some of these advanced statistics, but he’s also an open-minded guy and we have had some fun discussions and disagreements through the years. Anyway, I think he was simply making the fair point that while statistics may show that attempting steals is not necessarily a prudent play—and he concedes that ...

Damn pinkos everywhere!

By the way, it was Mother’s Day. I have to mention, it was Mother’s Day of course yesterday and it was Mother’s Day at the ballpark, and the players were all wearing pink something or other, pink shoes or pink sleeves. There was one guy with a pink bat.

I’m talking about this and George (Brett) said, “Have you seen the official ball for today?”

I said, “No.”

So he went and grabbed one.

The official Rawlings game ball yesterday was printed with pink ink.

So, anyway, ...

On Tuesday night against Atlanta, Royals second baseman Chris Getz did this for the first time since 2009, for the first time in 954 at-bats ...

That would be third home run of his career, which to date spans 1,350 plate appearances.

Getz’s rare clout calls to mind current notable homerless streaks—a list from which Getz has, of course, just removed himself. Here’s the rundown from FoxSports Kansas City’s Joel Goldberg:

Ben Revere it is! Revere, it should be noted, has no ...

There was a very real fear that one or both of the teams could relocate. The report cited the “progressive” city of Atlanta, that built a multi-purpose stadium and then attracted a baseball and football team. These new stadia were all the rage with the Astrodome leading the way. Kansas City and Jackson County wanted to stake their ground. This is what they proposed:

Kansas City was thinking big. Also included in the plans were secondary proposals for a smaller arena for hockey, ...

Now sponsored by Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index!

- Joe is a character in the new MLB: The Show video game.  (So is Aaron Gleeman, BTW.)  Since Joe isn’t a video game player, he doesn’t really know the details, but he’s happy.

- Playoff predictions:
Rany: TOR, DET, LAA, TB (wild card), TEX (wild card), WAS, CIN, ARI, ATL (wild card), STL (wild card); play-ins: TB d. TEX, ATL d. STL; World Series: WAS d. TOR
Joe: TB, DET, TEX, TOR (wild card), LAA (wild card), WAS, CIN, SD, SF (wild ...

For all of you dying to hear Dan Szymborki - with no pay wall restrictions and no annoying Fan Graphs formatting - explain to hopeful Royals fans why they will finish fourth in the AL Central this season. 

If I’m not mistaken…that was John Newland’s spooky intro for OSB’s “The Devil’s Laughter” episode.

Was it important for the Royals to win in the spring, to prove that the enthusiasm created among the young players by the veteran additions, translated to the field?

“Absolutely,” Moore said in our interview.

“The Royals haven’t been to the playoffs since 1985 (and have had only one winning season since ‘95), and so we’re consistently reminded of the need to create a winning culture.

“We know ...

People voted for Sanjaya too.

Apparently, a rogue element of jokesters has organized itself with the intent on getting longtime bad left-hander Jimmy Gobble elected to the Kansas City Royals’ Hall of Fame.
This year’s list of candidates includes Bo Jackson, Darrell Porter, Kevin Seitzer, John Wathan, Jermaine Dye and Al Cowens, and all except one — Bo — are running behind Gobble as of Tuesday night. Jimmy has been gobbling up online votes at a 20 percent-plus clip. Bo leads with over 40 ...

After he blew apart my “DiMythio’s Sphinct-O-Matic Nine” team? Why should I care now…

For the first list, I looked at players since 1969 who had at least 1,000 plate appearances through their age-22 season. The players clustered from a 97 OPS+ to 103 include Roberto Alomar, Lou Whitaker, Ruben Sierra, Chet Lemon, Adrian Beltre and Buddy Bell. Good players, although they all played key defensive positions. They also included Rick Manning, Wil Cordero and Chris Speier. Washington was actually at ...

Practice? We talkin’ about practice?

Now, let me make this clear: I believe this 10-game spring training winning streak means almost exactly nothing. It means about as much as an NBA player making 20 three-pointers in a row during warmups or an NFL kicker making a 68-yard field goal in pre-game. It might buoy the confidence a bit. It might sell a couple more early season tickets. It might help create a more positive atmosphere in the clubhouse. But that’s it. The Royals began last year by ...

I hate when a non-Kansas City Star newspaper can’t spell career.

Francoeur is vowing a big comeback year after sabermetricians - and fans - dubbed him the worst everyday player in baseball.

“The thing that keeps me positive is I know I’ve had good years,” he said. “I’ve hit 30 home runs. I’ve driven in 100 runs. I’ve hit .290. I know I can do it. It’s a matter, for me, of being able to be consistent.

“I’m at that age, 29, where I should be getting into my prime. Not going the other way. That ...

Anybody got some Lohse change?

Every signing that [the Indians] have made has surprised folks that they were willing and able to spend the money and come with the certainty that NOW the Indians must be tapped out. Maybe they aren’t… and Lohse is a definite fit for a team that basically pitched itself out of the division race last season. The draft pick wouldn’t matter a bit – if I’m not mistaken, all they would lose would be a fourth rounder. The Kansas City Royals are another team ...

They mean an actual horror movie, not a comeback with the current Royals.

Former Royals outfielder and Blue Springs High School graduate Brian McRae is set to appear in a horror movie called “Gravedigger.”

Couldn’t be that Brian McRae, right? The International Movie Database (imdb.com) cast list includes that McRae, who played for the Royals from 1990-94, before going to the Cubs, Mets, Rockies and Blue Jays.

McRae won’t be the only former major leaguer in the flick. Billy Sample, ...

Almost immediately after Melvin informed Greinke of his trade to the Angels, Greinke asked him, “Who did you get?” Melvin replied: Shortstop Jean Segura and right-handers John Hellweg and Ariel Pena.

Greinke said he didn’t know who those players were, but liked the deal for the Brewers after he heard more about them. He earlier had told Melvin that the team’s farm system was short on power arms, “guys who could throw 100 out of the bullpen.” And shortstops, he said, are the ...