Add in $65k for Sal and that's quite a haul.

Good article in the star. Sorry if q...
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb...e61548887.html

I'll be out at that game as well with the kids as well.

Link?

My old employers' website is a pile of shit that makes it impossible to find anything.

I read the magazine today at Wal-Mart. That's their prediction.

Seriously?

You can't say "pussy" in the newspaper?

It's so sad. I grew up in the 70s and 80s reading TSN, with Peter Gammons, Bill Conlin, Dick Young, etc. it was soooo good.

No way we lose to Boston in the ALCS.

Judging by the Panda's "Spring Training" belly, he will have eaten himself to death by then.

That's where I saw it too! (Fist-bumps you)

Rany's top 218 plays are starting to get really boner-inducing: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?bl...=1456110200160

2003 Chiefspants (the birth of my fandom) would love a 3 game ALDS sweep of the White Sox.

2004-2012 Disillusioned Chiefspants could go for a 7 game ALCS victory over the Yankees.

2014 Chiefspants would like to follow that up with a four game WS sweep of the Giants.

#Redemption2016 #DaretoDream

Basically said no doubting us anymore, but it was a bit weak in that they didn't have Gordon on the roster. Guess that really says a lot about what SN thinks of us

I'm watching You Don't Know Bo again. I refuse to believe Bo hit the scoreboard crown. I'm not even sure anyone's ever hit the base of the scoreboard. The crown is at least 100' higher.

Ok this says he hit the base, which is believable: http://joeposnanski.com/joevault/?p=60

Has anyone ever hit the scoreboard in center in a game? I feel like Amos Otis hit the base one time.

Bo is such an awesome person. He could have been the ultimate prima donna. Yet all he wants to do is to bow hunt.

I'm drinking and watching ALDS game 4. Pissed off all over again about the Gore tag.

1) He was shoved off the base
2) The glove never touched him
3) The freaking call was safe so you need overwhelming evidence of 1) and 2), when instead you almost have enough evidence to overturn the other way.

Argh. Good thing we pull this shit out.

All off season the Red Sox said Pablo Sandoval was in best shape in years and had lost 25 lbs.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Life of Pablo is filled with pastries and fried foods, it appears. <a href="https://t.co/IffoD7ID26">https://t.co/IffoD7ID26</a> <a href="https://t.co/a2gmcFIFPt">pic.twitter.com/a2gmcFIFPt</a></p>&mdash; NBC Sports (@NBCSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCSports/status/701588508763299840">February 22, 2016</a></blockquote>
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What say you? I say looks like a diet regiman of banana cream pies.

You can see the stretch marks so maybe he had a baby and just hasn't kicked the baby weight yet.

Banana's are healthy right?

You have a point I must say.

Blue Jay's about to land Jay Bruce. Moar Power

Did you hear about the Blue Jays run differential during the regular season last year?

Just wow.

Is he as fat as Bartolo Colon? He just might be

Makes sense given our buddy Jose Bautista's comments today. Basically said he gave the Jays his price, if they don't meet it, then that's that. He's not going to negotiate.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Blue Jays attempted to negotiate with Bautista&#39;s terms but he told them not to waste their time</p>&mdash; Arden Zwelling (@ArdenZwelling) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArdenZwelling/status/701858223305916416">February 22, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bautista: &quot;There&#39;s no negotiation. I told them what I wanted. They either meet it or it is what it is.&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a></p>&mdash; Arden Zwelling (@ArdenZwelling) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArdenZwelling/status/701859145763463169">February 22, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bautista on hometown discount: &quot;Doesn’t exist. Not in my world. In my eyes, I’ve given this organization a 5-year hometown discount already&quot;</p>&mdash; Arden Zwelling (@ArdenZwelling) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArdenZwelling/status/701859725454000128">February 22, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Jose Bitchtista at it again.

Is there a whinier player in MLB?

Guy is a total bitch. Even to his own team. I may hate the BJ's as much as I do the Tigers at this point.

Bruce in Toronto is interesting. Guess he'd play LF? That turf could really beat him up.

These guys do need to learn to stay on the base though. Replay is going to be unforgiving if there's any daylight between them and the base.

Nothing wrong with Bautistas comments. It's a business. If he sucked, he'd have been cut long ago, in fact I know a few teams (cough cough) that did give up on him

I cannot stand Bautista but both sides could have been in negotiations and playing hardball. We usually only get the player and his agents side in the press. The team usually takes the high road and only makes vague comments to press and public.

Jays are going to let Bautista walk, then leak steroid evidence.

Bautista is going to be 36 years old at the end of this season. I'd be curious to see what he thinks he's going to get. Now that their GM is Shapiro I can't imagine they'd give him a huge 4 or 5 year deal.

Awesome job, Lew!

Any other way?

Some things never change.

God, he makes it easy to hate him, and I have no love lost for Toronto hearing good news.

Wonder if he was this much of a db when he was a nobody

Yeah, he has to stay in the AL. Who is going to pay huge money for his age 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 seasons?

I guess maybe he thinks the Red Sox will slide him into that Big Papi role and DH him, but finding an AL team that will spend on him won't be easy.

Yankees: probably out as they load up for the 2018 class, when they will spend all the moneys.

Angels: Up against the salary cap and already have the DH slot filled for the next several years.

Rangers: Up against their spending limits.

Orioles: just committed to Chris Davis - out.

Tigers: With Cabrera and Martinez, no room at 1B or DH. Also have the corner spots filled.

It'll be the Red Sox, if they're even interested (and honestly, I think they're better off building around Bogaerts, Betts, Castillo, Moncada, etc) and the Jays. And no one else.

Looks like the Blue Jays are close to acquiring Jay Bruce from the Reds.

@Buster_ESPN: Sources: There is doubt among those involved in the Jay Bruce talks that the deal will be completed.

Sweet redemption! An unforeseen criticism as a result of supporting a world champion.

My son wore his Hosmer t-shirt to middle school yesterday (north Texas). Some classmates accused him of being a bandwagon fan.

Delicious!

Welcome to my life. I was in a grocery store in Jefferson City proudly wearing my Crown Town hoodie & the sacker(teenager) asked how long I've been a Royals fan. I told him longer than you've been alive & told him my first game I attended was in 1970 & my favorites were Amos Otis, Paul Schaal & Cookie Rojas. He just said he's noticed a lot more Royals stuff since they won. I told him I've always wore my KC hat but as a Royals fan we hadn't had much to cheer about until the last few years. He said I wasn't a bandwagon fan then. He said most Royals fans are bandwagon. I told him I hope the Cards would still have fans after 20 years of misery. He laughed & said the Cards will never suck like the Royals.

It's brutal down here.

Yeah. I've had to shut the same fellow Mizzou fan up at football games each of the past two years. Talking about "shiny new Royals cap"... Pointed out that when you want one that has the World Series badge on it, you kind need to buy a new one. And that I have two shiny new ones that sit next to a pretty beat up that is identical.

I'm old enough to remember when buying gear wasn't a mandatory requirement for going to the games. I actually think a grown man wearing a jersey of someone else is kind of silly. But that's the times we live in, so I do it.

Just buy a generic jersey. That's what I have. Even then, it's not like you have to wear it to the games. You can always wear a Royals shirt.

I'm not sure the word "mandatory" means what you think it does.

Does anyone have MLB.tv? I've had Extra Innings from DirectTV for years but I received a Roku for Christmas, so I was thinking about going that route this year.

Also, MLB.tv apparently shows Spring Training games. Are those fun to watch, at all?

This will be my 4th season as an mlb.tv subscriber. Thanks to a class-action lawsuit, this year's subs are quite a bit cheaper than last season. Plus, for the first time they are offering a single team pkg, where you can watch all the games of one particular team so,long as that team is not playing in your local cable market. That package runs about $85 for the season, which is around $40 less than what I paid last year.

ST games are not terrible interesting unless you want to see minor league invites and prospects play.

I had hoped that the Royals would work out a deal to keep Holland -

MLBtv is fantastic

Ive had it the past 6 of 7 years.
This year you can go the 'single team' route for a little cheaper price.

So funny you say that... Most of my life the only interesting baseball was Spring Training (prospects baby prospects) up until the end of May and then September call ups.

Man it feels good to be Royal.

Quick thoughts re: prospects as they relate to this season...

I know a lot of local media is saying that the Royals don't have any trade bullets left, but that is a "now only" view.

KC only has a few guys who would be great trade chips tomorrow, but there are a lot of prospects who could become valuable trade chips as the season goes.

Consider that the key piece for Cueto was Cody Reed, who was a nothing prospect this time a year ago (looked like a major bust).

Guys to keep an eye on... Who could become valuable trade chips as the season goes on:

Pedro Fernandez
Scott Blewett
Foster Griffin (probably has the most potential to explode like Reed did)
Garrett Davila

Watching Spring Training games is like watching grass grow. It's fun for the first hour and then you realize there are much better things you could be doing, like flossing your teeth.

I've been to several ST games....believe me this

The great thing about baseball gear is you can buy jerseys without a name on the back of it.

Spring training games suck! They are worse than preseason NFL games.

My thoughts as well.

Maybe on TV. There great live. Kick back, stretch out on the lawn and watch baseball for $5. All while ditching work. Yes please.

Spring Training games are only a bit more relaxed than one of 162.

Hey guys, thanks for the MLB.tv input!

One more question: Can I be logged in to multiple TV's, whether it's Roku or X Box One simultaneously?

Has anyone has any issue with blackouts of the Royals games?

Thanks again!

In my experience, you may sign in to as many different devices simultaneously as you want. I live outside of KC so the only time they're getting blacked out is against a Chicago team.

Cool! That means the only time they're probably blacked out in LA is when they're playing the Dodgers (and I'm SOL there, due to the Time Warner deal) and Angles, which are broadcast on Fox Sports West.

Thanks, Dude!

That bad, eh?

I'm going to the first game on Wednesday. Love ST games. Just relax and enjoy a taste of what's about to come full throttle, that being summer and more baseball. I used to call it the calm before the Yosted lol.

I swear, I'm heading to AZ one of these years for Spring Training.

I'd like to hang out and watch some "low pressure" baseball because I think it would be a blast.

Then afterwards, Uber to some good restaurants and eventually end up at the same strip clubs as the players.

:evil:

Lol it's fun man. It's like a hangout. Like a big get together or community picnic really. You just enjoy the game and the atmosphere and worry about who is batting in what hole once opening day gets here. At least that's how I look at it.

Should go to your son school and tell them about the shitty royals team you had to watch.

the only way I could see that ending is with law enforcement on the scene

It is definitely worth the trip. My only complaint is I really wish Surprise wasn't at least 45 minutes from anywhere. If you make it let me know and I can steer your towards the restaurants. Strip clubs where players hang might need trial and error!

Awesome!

Yep. The Surprise is how long it takes to get there. Still worth it once a year but damn, it's far.

Better offseason?

Orioles: Davis/Gallardo/Fowler = 12/216 (18 per)
Royals: Gordon/Kennedy/Soria = 12/169 (14)


(Orioles deferred 1/4 of Davis' deal and claim it's only 127 present value. This would take the Os AAV above from 18M to 16 per year)

For KC fans, the vast majority of the last 3 decades has been "low pressure" baseball.

Rany's list is so much fun. Just checked out his latest update.
Posted via Mobile Device

Davis vs Gordon is a wash.

Gallardo vs Kennedy to the Orioles but I would put it as a lean towards Gallardo because he's always been up and down. Kennedy gets to work with the Royals D now as well along with his K rate.

Fowler vs Soria to the Orioles too, however they are both filling separate needs there. The Orioles OF would have been Adam Jones and 2 JAGs, at best, and Fowler helps a lot there. The Royals wanted another arm to replace Greg Holland, Soria doesn't replace Holland's production, who does really?, but Fowler is the better player.

I'll say Orioles win but if Gallardo goes back to being terrible and Soria steps into the Royals bullpen monster and produces then that can swing the other way.

Let's carpool.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sources: There will be a timed 30-second clock for pitcher mound visits from managers/coaches that starts immediately when they exit dugout.</p>&mdash; Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/702897437233569792">February 25, 2016</a></blockquote>
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I like this

MLB and MLBPA have agreed on a new slide rule into second base. The baserunner going to 2nd must follow these 4 rules:

1) You have to slide before reaching the base

2) You have to slide in a way that you are able to, and attempt to reach the base

3) You have to slide in a way that you are able to, and attempt to stay on the base

4) You can't alter your path to the base

As long as the runner does those 4 things, he can legally take out the 2nd baseman, but obviously this rule makes it easier for the 2nd baseman to avoid the takeout slide.

edit: this play will also be reviewable.

Looking at the contracts, it appears you could have both Fowler + Gallardo for Gordon. I'm not sure which is better. Last year they produced 5.7 WAR vs Gordon 2.8 (obv due to injury). Steamer projects 3.4 vs 3.8 for Gordon.

How about instead of having to throw four pitches for an intentional walk, the fielding team's manager takes a step out of the the dugout and gives a hand signal to the home plate umpire?

Don't forget to subtract the WAR for whoever Gallardo would be pitching instead of in the rotation.