Jose Guillen News

For years we have been hearing about the promise of Billy Butler, though he had never quite lived up to the hype.

If the Mets have to deal for a moody, banged-up slugger whose current team can't wait to be rid of him, perhaps KC's Jose Guillen , is a better option than Milton Bradley?A For starters, the former can play the outfield.

It's baseball awards time, which means it's also time for my own 2009 awards, starting with the Least Valuable Player Following those are the Anti Cy Young Award and the not-so-great Manager of the Year Award .

Happy Greinke Day, last one of the year, and please, on behalf of the voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, trust our process.

The Royals continued to tweak their 40-man roster Tuesday by sending pitchers Lenny DiNardo and Yasuhiko Yabuta to Class AAA Omaha on outright assignments after they cleared waivers.

The Royals created an additional space on their 40-man roster Monday afternoon by sending right-handed pitcher John Bannister to Class AAA Omaha on an outright assignment after he cleared waivers.

Jack says the Royals have said all they need to with the trade of Mark Teahen to the White Sox.

Well, this is a good start. The Royals have many holes, and many fans who've long soured on general manager Dayton Moore.

Matt Hoffman has done everything he can for his son. The boy has a Zack Greinke jersey, Royals batting gloves, and even a little brother named Gordon.

YAHOO! If Willie Bloomquist had his way, nobody would know that he had surgery on both of his knees the day after the Kansas City Royals' regular season ended.

Kansas City -- The rotation was strong, the bullpen even better. The cache of young hitters would knock balls all over the spectacularly renovated stadium, the bench multitalented and deep.

The 2009 Kansas City Royals season ended in a most appropriate way Sunday afternoon, with Luke Hochevar puking up seven runs in three innings to help the boys in blue get absolutely pounded, 13-4. Final record is 65-97, just short of yet another 100-loss season.

It's probably premature to expect right-hander Aaron Crow to be pitching along with Zack Greinke and Gil Meche next summer at Kauffman Stadium but, no doubt about it, the Royals have big hopes for Crow.

Aaron Crow is a lifelong Royals fan. And why not? He grew up in Topeka, then starred at Missouri, and has been to games at Kauffman Stadium since before he can remember.Here comes the slap of reality.'I'm too young to remember George Brett,' he says.Instead, Crow was drawn to his home team by Carlos Beltran, Johnny Damon and Jermaine Dye.

" The Kansas City Royals will complete their 2009 home schedule with games against the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins .

Royals starter Gil Meche is probably done for the year with a shoulder problem, and fellow right-hander Brian Bannister is flying to New York for a second opinion on his shoulder.

Chone Figgins is hoping 9-9-09 is kind to the man inside No. 9 for the Angels. "Maybe the numbers are lined up right for me," the third baseman and leadoff man said, grinning.

Manager Mike Scioscia asked the Kauffman Stadium official scorer after Saturday night's 2-1 victory over the Royals to reconsider his eighth-inning decision to rule Chone Figgins' one-hop smash, which took an in-between hop and went off the glove of second baseman Willie Bloomquist, an error instead of a single.

Royals outfielder Jose Guillen will miss the rest of the season because of a right knee injury.

Yesterday, the Royals traded one of their top prospects, Danny Gutierrez, to the Texas Rangers.