A little fangraphs article which shows, among other things that the Royals had both the highest percentage of first pitches swung at and the lowest walk rate.

Can Seitzer change this? Does Hillman care? I think these are both open questions.

Mellinger's blog "Ball Hype" has this story from a fan:

A few days after we ran the story about Davies, an e-mail popped in from a proud father. He told this story of a baseball skills clinic put on this past summer with some Royals players serving as instructors.

So Kyle grabbed a glove and played catch with this kid for about 20 minutes, while everyone else was leaving.

I like that stuff. I don't much care if he does construction in the offseason (as long as he doesn't get injured), but this kind of thing impresses me. Famous people can really make people happy by doing some little things. By taking 20 minutes out of his day to play catch with this kid, he made the kid's year and gave him something he'll always remember. I think a lot of professional athletes just don't care about that. Apparently Kyle Davies does. I like him.

The Giants have signed Randy Johnson to a contract which reportedly includes $8M guaranteed with performance bonuses of $2.5M and award bonuses of $2.5M. For some team, that might make sense. For a Royals team which isn't particularly close to contention, it does not. Why the hell are the Giants doing this?

Perhaps the Yankees monopoly of elite FA signings this offseason is going to have a good side effect. At least one owner is talking about economic disparity and that a salary cap might be in order.

Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said Major League Baseball may need to impose a salary cap to preserve competition after the New York Yankees spent $424 million to sign three players.

"At some point it gets to be absurd when a team has a $200 million payroll," he said, adding that the Brewers won’t raise their $81 million payroll because of the recession."

Yeah, at some point it does get absurd. And that point was about eight years ago. At least someone visible is talking about it again. I don't think a salary cap will happen, but perhaps this will spur them on to improve revenue sharing.

The most recent edition of the "Reds Hot Stove League" radio show featured a contentious but one-sided exchange between a caller ("Kenneth from Dayton") and the Reds' long-time announcer Marty Brennaman.

Caller: People here don't realize that Pat Burrell and Adam Dunn don't get paid $12 million to hit .300. They get paid to hit home runs; that's it.
Marty: No, they get paid to drive in runs, is what they get paid to do.
Caller: And hit home runs.
Marty: No, unh-uh. Home runs are incidental. It's run production that they are going to get paid for. Adam Dunn hits 40 home runs and barely reaches a hundred RBI's.
Caller: But, if you're going to talk about potential run production, look at his on-base.
Marty: (angrily) I don't care about -- I don't care about his on-base! I get so blasted tired hearing some people talk to me about Adam Dunn's on-base percentage. Adam Dunn ain't paid to walk. Adam Dunn's paid to hit home runs and drive in runs for God's sake, and they can take off, uh, they can take off the walks, and you're out of here! (hangs up)
. . .
Marty: We are heading toward a break. Don't call and talk to me about Adam Dunn's on-base percentage--
Thom: You sure?
Marty: --because it pushes my hot button.
Thom: I would have never known.
Marty: I'm tired of hearing about how many times he walks. He was paid to hit home runs, paid to drive in runs. He homers; he doesn't drive in runs.
Thom: You know, you're too old to get worked up like this.

So bizarre. Not only does Marty not want to hear about something that is actually more important to a team scoring runs (OBP), but he fails to realize that Dunn actually has driven in a hell of a lot of runs. Radio sports talk guys get this way sometimes. "Don't talk to me about what is really important for a hitter. I know what's important for a hitter! Batting average! [or] RBI's! [or] How he hits with runners on base!"

Juan Rivera was mentioned many times on this site as a possible low cost corner OF option who might have a high reward. He ended up getting a 3-year, $12.75M contract. So the Royals are now that much closer to Adam Dunn.