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 ...

“The lesson to learn might be that we screwed this thing up.”

Less than a year after leaving Sports Illustrated for the MLB/USA Today startup Sports on Earth, columnist Joe Posnanski is on the move again: He just agreed to a contract with NBC Sports.

Joe Posnanski speculates:

Nobody is getting into the Hall of Fame through the Baseball Writers door this year. I mean, yes, it’s possible—POSSIBLE—that Craig Biggio will slip into the Hall by a few votes. But I don’t think so. Not this year. Not on this crazy ballot…

I don’t know if this year’s ballot blackout will cause… administrative changes—looking ahead, I sort of doubt it. As weird as this year is, it’s really something of a one-year aberration… I think if any rule ...

Don’t see any Hall of Fame votes for players who normally went by the first name “Cliff”.  Fiscal Clifford Earl Torgeson got 0.7% of the vote, and Fiscal Clifford Carlton Cravath peaked at 1.2%.

Hall of Fame voting, and the subsequent discussion, is becoming something that’s grueling to witness. It’s becoming not fun anymore. Everybody loves a good sports debate—and by “debate,” I mean “ a meaningful exchange of considered, reasoned ideas,” and it’s sort of sad that “First ...