All is Quiet

So far, this off-season has been remarkably quiet on the Royals front. It sounds like the front office panicked as they saw the market for pitchers skyrocketing, so they signed two guys to minor league contracts:

Seth Etherton (age 29) who was 7-7 with a 2.72 ERA with Sacramento last season. And Adam Bernero (age 29) who was 4-3 with a 6.51 ERA while pitching out of Atlanta's bullpen last season. He also started in Richmond and was 5-5 with a 3.40 ERA.

Baird said that both will be invited to camp and both will come in as starters. Our rotation could certainly use a boost, but I'm hoping we do better than this. Paul Byrd would be a nice addition, but he's going to come with a hefty price.

In other news, it sounds like the Royals are considering a position change for Alex Gordon—possibly to first base or to the outfield. I'm still a little irritated over Gordon's contract demands, so he's going to have to produce at a pretty high level before I get too excited about him. And he's going to need to lose the attitude he brought with him to the negotiation process.

Today is the last day to nominate Denny Matthews for the Ford C. Frick Award that is presented annually to a broadcaster for "major contributions" to the game. If Denny doesn't deserve to be nominated, then nobody does. Click here to do so.