Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... Jon Garland couldn't beat them. So he joined them. And then he beat the old them.
Traded from the fourth-place Diamondbacks to the first-place Dodgers earlier in the week, Garland on Friday faced Arizona in his first start for Los Angeles.
"It was fun. I grew up coming to games here, and getting a chance to pitch for this team is definitely a dream come true," Garland said. "It's kind of awkward the way it happened -- but nevertheless, it did -- and I was able to throw a good one up. I didn't leave too many tickets. I cut the phone off and told people if they want to come, they can pay for it and support the team."
Tony Pena already hits like a pitcher, so the Royals decided to see if he could throw like one too. That's actually not fair to pitchers, Pena hits like the kid picked last during gym who would prefer perfecting his cursive to do anything athletic.
He always flashed a fine glove at shortstop, but a career OPS+ of 44 (including a mind-boggling -32 OPS+ in 51 at bats this season) was way too much for any fielding excellence to overcome. Pena threw a bullpen session on Friday and will report to the team's Arizona facility to work as a pitcher.
Unless you're a pitcher in the American League, there's a lot of reason to like this move.
The 2009 season was supposed to be the one where the Kansas City Royals were able to compete in what was viewed as a weak AL Central division. Things started out nicely enough, with the Royals getting off to an 18-11 start and holding first place while Zack Greinke took the baseball world by storm. Since then, however, things haven't been going very well for the Royals.
In fact, they've gone pretty terrible, as the Royals are 19-42 since and are 11 1/2 games back in what's still a pretty mediocre division. So, as is normally the case when things like this happen, fans start to look for someone to blame. The popular target in Kansas City is Trey Hillman. So, will Hillman finish the year in Kansas City?
For the first two months of the season Royals pitcher Zack Greinke was a phenomenon. He seemed to be toying with hitters when he was on the mound, and as a result, he was getting a lot of attention for it. Of course when you start off your season with an 8-1 record and 0.84 ERA in ten starts, these things are going to happen.
Unfortunately for Greinke and the Royals, who are now mired in an eight-game losing streak and are 5-20 since May 8, he hasn't looked as immortal in his last couple of starts.
Many former players get courtesy titles in the organizations they played for, but few of them take those jobs quite as seriously as George Brett, the Vice President of Baseball Operations for the Royals. That's a nebulous title that could mean a lot of time playing golf and shaking hands, but Brett still takes his Royals baseball seriously.
Check out his takedown of those critical of Trey Hillman, and you might wonder if the team should think about giving him a job as team spokesman. The video is after the jump. There's some language unsafe for the workplace, but it all gets bleeped by Kansas City's NBC affiliate.
Last Wednesday, esteemed reader Craig pointed me to a statistical pile of manure:
You realize the Royals are 7-6, but 6-1 in games that Kyle Farnsworth has not appeared in?
Entering Saturday, the Royals are now 8-2 without him. The Royals haven't been 8-2 in any context since, like, 1207. As a Royals fan and unconditional Farnsworth apologist, this is difficult for me to accept. It doesn't make sense. My guess is that they only trot Farnsworth out there because he's insufferable to be around in the bullpen. At least, that's what I've learned from spying on his chat room conversations over the last five years or so.
They're only one game into the season, but Royals manager Trey Hillman is already feeling the heat that comes along with raised expectations. As I'm sure you've heard about or read about already, Hillman decided to leave Kyle Farnsworth in to face Jim Thome during the eighth inning of Tuesday's season opener with two runners on and a 2-1 lead, even though he had Juan Cruz and lefty Ron Mahay warming up in the bullpen.
Well, long story short, four pitches later Thome was launching a fastball into the left-center field bleachers and giving the White Sox a 4-2 lead and an Opening Day victory. As you'd expect, a lot of Royals fans and media were wondering what the heck Hillman was thinking, and I'm not even sure he knows.
There have been plenty of people, players and fans alike, who have expressed their displeasure with the World Baseball Classic this spring. Some people saw it as a distraction that only put their team's players at risk to injury, while some of the players in the WBC just thought it was a bit too boring for their taste. I'm guessing one player with no complaints about it is Sidney Ponson.
Ponson made two solid starts against the Dominican Republic while playing for the Netherlands and landed a minor-league deal with the Kansas City Royals. Now, after only a few weeks with the team and the recent demotion of Luke Hochevar, it looks as though Ponson has earned a job in the Royals rotation.
Now that the Yankees know they're going to be without Alex Rodriguez for at least six weeks thanks to hip surgery, they can focus on finding somebody to replace him at third base. Unfortunately for the Bombers, replacing somebody like A-Rod is a lot easier said than done, but there are some decent options out there.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
Tony Pena
The 2009 season was supposed to be the one where the 
For the first two months of the season Royals pitcher 
Many former players get courtesy titles in the organizations they played for, but few of them take those jobs quite as seriously as 
Last Wednesday, esteemed reader Craig pointed me to a statistical pile of manure:
They're only one game into the season, but Royals manager 
There have been plenty of people, players and fans alike, who have expressed their displeasure with the World Baseball Classic this spring. Some people saw it as a distraction that only put their team's players at risk to injury, while some of the players in the WBC just thought it 
Now that the Yankees know they're going to be without 
