Posts from the Royals Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

A few days ago, our Baseball is Boring Buddy Tom Fornelli (Dugout SN: StLunaticsRapFornelli) reported on Alberto Callaspo's collapse-o in Kansas City. It turns out he was busted for DUI and put on the disabled list for "evaluation and treatment of an undisclosed medical condition," the Major League Baseball equivalent of Hollywood's "severe exhaustion," which basically just means that he's an adult acting like a stupid idiot and is an eff-up. The worst thing is that it happens as the Royals climb out of the cellar for the first time since... well God, are any of us old enough to remember that?

What we bring you today is the police report of the DUI bust, which, as you may have guessed, did not go as planned. It didn't involve Alberto Callaspo going over to, say, Bono's house and getting busted for gay drug bongo sex and having his wife leave him for, oh, let's say Matthew Sweet or anything, but I mean I guess it's fairly interesting.

After the jump, the dark story behind Alberto's Last Gasp-o... and a look at the sinister forces that could be lurking in the shadows to keep the Royals down.

The Royals are playing their best baseball of the season right now, as they feasted on National League competition, and had won 11 of 12 before dropping their last two games against the Cardinals. So there's plenty of reason to celebrate in Kansas City right now, because for the first time in years, Royals fans have been able to watch a team that actually resembles a Major League team.

Unfortunately, the celebration made it's way to members of the team this last weekend when second baseman Alberto Callaspo was busted for a DUI on Friday night after the Royals sixth straight win. On Saturday, Callaspo was placed on the disabled list for undisclosed reasons.

"Alberto is going on the disabled list for evaluation and treatment of an undisclosed medical condition," manager Trey Hillman said. He declined to elaborate.

"I've already given the statement," he said.

Yeah, I can't read minds or anything, but I'd be willing to wager that the undisclosed medical condition that Hillman was referring to was Alberto's DUI. In the interest of being purely speculative, maybe this incident isn't anything new for Callaspo, it's just the first time he's been caught and the Royals want to help him out.

I mean, there have been plenty of baseball players and managers (Hello, Mr. LaRussa!) who have been pulled over for DUI's, yet I don't know many of them who've been placed on the disabled list.

Of course, it's also entirely possible that this is an isolated occurrence for Callaspo and the Royals are just sending a message to the rest of the team to keep this from happening. We don't need any more Josh Hancock incidents. Whatever it is, this is the right move by the Royals, and one that other teams could learn from.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

L.A. Angels of Anaheim (48-33) at L.A. Dodgers of L.A. (38-42) - 4:10 PM ET

The final day of interleague play, or as ESPN has needlessly re-branded it: "AL/NL SHOWDOWN!" (like it's a western gunfight or something) will feature a good pitching matchup between John Lackey (5-1, 1.65) and Derek Lowe (5-7, 4.05). Of course, it can't be better than the one between Chad Billingsley and Jered Weaver last night, where Weaver combined with Jose Arredondo for eight innings of no-hit baseball, but lost. After coming back from an early season injury, Lackey really hasn't had a bad outing all season. So if anyone can continue the no-hit parade for the Dodgers, it's Lackey.

We've heard that Barry Bonds doesn't want to play for an independent league team but would he be willing to sign with the Kansas City Royals? The difference may seem negligible at times but these Royals are a little different. It's been under just about everyone's radar but they've won 10 of 11 games and are kinda, sorta still breathing in the AL Central race.

Their pitching staff has shown surprising friskiness through the good stretch but they don't score enough runs. Signing Bonds would make a huge impact says Joe Posnanski.

If you plug in fairly conservative Barry numbers in the Royals lineup - say .450 and .550, which is still down from last year - the Royals lineup that was scoring 4.91 runs per game is suddenly scoring 5.34 runs. As many readers pointed out, that really is a huge, huge difference.

Indeed it is a big difference. Posnanski's entire argument is long but well worth reading. He mentions all the negatives about signing Bonds, including the circus that would result but comes down firmly in support. As the signing of Jose Guillen makes clear, the Royals aren't adverse to players with baggage and the Royals could benefit from a bit of a circus. More fans, more money and more pressure to find out about the mettle of their young players.

One of the complaints about interleague baseball is that, with a few exceptions, the games are between teams with no historical rivalry which means less games between teams that do have such background to their meetings. On the surface this week's series between the Royals and the Rockies would fit the bill unless the thought of Clint Hurdle managing against the team he played against boils your potatoes.

Leave it to those two rapscallions, Ramon Ramirez and Yorvit Torrealba, to gin up some controversy where none existed. The Denver Post reports that the two players had a conversation before Ramirez walked Torrealba on four pitches in the ninth inning, a couple of which appeared to be in the general direction of the catcher's head and back.

Ramirez insisted afterward that the ball was wet from perspiration, saying "it slipped." Torrealba wasn't buying it. He said he was prepared for Ramirez to throw at him, though he wouldn't reveal why. "Ask him. It's all good," Torrealba said. "Every time I talk about stuff, I get fined or suspended."

Ramirez was traded by Colorado before the season and some Rockies said that he told them he was going to do some drilling when the two teams met. He pitched Monday and in the eighth inning on Tuesday without incident, however. We'll see if the two teams continue bucking for inclusion in our next edition of Old Boss, New Boss this evening.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Kansas City Royals (35-43) vs. Colorado Rockies (32-46) - 8:10PM Est.

Remember earlier this season when the Diamondbacks started out the season something ridiculous like 20-1, Chase Utley had around 14 home runs in the first week of April, and everyone was saying that the National League had finally caught up to, and passed, the American League as the class of baseball?

You aren't hearing much about that anymore now that interleague play has started are you? That's because the AL is kicking the NL's butt so far this season. Only three teams in the American League have a losing record against the senior circuit right now (Toronto, Cleveland, Cincinnati) while only four National League teams (New York, Atlanta, Colorado, Cincinnati) have a winning record against the AL.

The biggest kick in the stomach for the National League? The Royals are 11-3 against them so far this season. The same Royals team that's 24-40 against it's own league. All of which means that if the Royals haven't contacted Bud Selig and asked about switching leagues yet, they should seriously consider it.

On Tuesday afternoon, after a meeting of a player-management safety committee, Major League Baseball announced they will start testing maple bats. The bats, popular with hitters, have a propensity to shatter and create an injury risk. Tom Fornelli addressed the concerns yesterday and I agree with his closing words, "It's better that baseball do it now and force it's players to deal with it rather than waiting for someone to get seriously hurt first."

Especially since we no longer have to wait for someone to get hurt. Last night in Kansas City, home plate umpire Brian O'Nora got hit in the head by a piece of Miguel Olivo's maple bat. Blood poured out and O'Nora had to leave the game and head to the hospital. Royals manager Trey Hillman sounds like he's ready to see maple go the way of the spitball.

"They are very, very dangerous. I'm surprised that this is the first incident we've seen. It could have been worse, a lot worse. It looked a lot worse than it was. There was a lot of blood. My understanding is that he is OK."

O'Nora does seem to be OK but if anti-maple enthusiasts were looking for a smoking gun, they've got one. Olivo might be willing to testify on their behalf. He switched to an ash bat after the second inning incident and singled home a run in his next at-bat.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

New York Yankees (39-33) vs. San Diego Padres (31-42) - 1:05PM Est.

When Hank Steinbrenner came out earlier this season and basically demanded that Joba Chamberlain stopped being used out of the bullpen, and placed into the starting rotation, his general manager and manager kind of just ignored him. Hank was just doing anything in his power to try to be like his dad, and after dealing with George for all those years, Brian Cashman had become pretty adept at tuning his boss out.

Besides, the Yankees starters were just off to a rough start to the 2008 season, and things would turn around soon enough. Only they never did, as Phil Hughes struggled, Ian Kennedy got sent down, and Mike Mussina looked like a shell of a shell of his former self. So eventually Cashman and Joe Girardi had to cave, and move Joba into the starting rotation (and now that Chien-Ming Wang is out they're lucky they did).

His first start didn't go very well, but in the two starts since, Joba has improved each time out. This afternoon he'll be making his fourth start of the season, but will he finally pick up his first victory as a starter?

You may recall there is already some beef between the Rangers and the Royals when it comes to play-by-play announcing. So, anytime the two teams play, there is some weird media-ballplayer tension type stuff going on.

Which may be the reason why Milton Bradley, whose reputation clearly precedes him, got upset enough to leave the clubhouse and go looking for Texas Rangers play-by-play man Ryan Lefebvre after the game.

General manager Jon Daniels said Bradley was acting cordially and wanted to set the record straight for what Daniels called a mischaracterization of the Rangers' outfielder by Lefebvre.

'I don't want to get in details,' Daniels said. 'He was upset that somebody that doesn't know him was passing judgment on TV. The guy's been a tremendous teammate for us, and it's obvious he was hurt by those comments.'

Now, personally, I would not want Milton Bradley looking for me to set the record straight. Unless he had happened to have an argument with an umpire immediately beforehand. The source of Bradley's supposed anger is that the announcers were comparing him to Josh Hamilton -- who has "turned his life around and taken responsibility for his mistakes" -- and pointed out that Bradley had not done the same thing.

Kansas City Royals starter Gil Meche hasn't exactly been living up to that $11 million price tag of his this season. Meche is 3-8 with an ERA of 5.54, a WHIP of 1.47, and nearly halfway to matching last season's walk total of 62 already.

So when a pitcher costs a lot, is struggling, and plays for a small budget team who is in last place, the rumors start to swirl that he may soon be on the move. This is the case for Meche as teams like the Cubs are interested in his services, but Gil and Dayton Moore want you to know that it's not going to happen.

Right-hander Gil Meche just laughs at those rumors circulating regarding a possible trade sending him to the Chicago Cubs.

"How's that going to happen?" he asked.

Meche has a no-trade clause in his contract and said he hasn't been asked to waive it. Furthermore, he has no interest in doing so.

General manager Dayton Moore declined to comment on the rumor, but club officials privately dismissed it. One said, "If we're going to make a run at this thing in 2010, how are we going to do it without Gil Meche?"

Meche had a chance to be a member of the Cubs before joining the Royals, as they were one of the teams bidding for his services before last season, but he chose Kansas City. It doesn't look like a year and a half of losing has done anything to help change his mind.

Still, if you ever thought you'd hear a general manager question how a team could win without Gil Meche, well, you must be his mother or something.