The Royals have signed righthander Bryan Bullington to a minor league contract, according to The KC Star's Bob Dutton.

The 29-year-old Bullington was the first overall pick of the 2002 draft, but he's appeared in just 13 big league games during his career. He's allowed 24 runs and 63 baserunners in 39 career innings, bouncing around from the Pirates to the Indians to the Blue Jays.

Good thread here as well.

Who do you like?

Our old friend, devil_fin... Matt, compares the two seasons and fans reactions to those two seasons. Interesting stuff.

First time a Royals player has received MVP votes since Carlos Beltran finished 9th in 2003.

Oh, and the voters overlooked the awesomeness of Jetah in favor of some no-name catcher that plays for a team in a flyover state.

Rumor has it that Gullen plus cash may be traded to the Mets for Angel Pagan. Looks like Angel is about a 1 WAR player to me. He looks to be slightly above average with his glove, slightly above average with his bat (in the NL). Was worth 2.8 WAR last year which was his best year.

Out: Devon Lowery, Doug Waechter, Tug Hulett and Julio Pimentel

In: Jeff Bianchi, Jarrod Dyson, Jordan Parraz, Manuel Pina and Blake Wood.

Good news that we protected Bianchi and Parraz... but I guess we still kept Luis Hernandez... why, again?

Another Braves player? Is that the only place we can find talent since we drained the Mariner's 'stock' already?

Interesting post at Bleed Cubbie Blue. It's really interesting how attending sports games has become so much more popular in the last 20 years. Case in point: the emergence of Wrigely Field as a fan mecca.

Steve Kornacki defends his Cy Young pick. The brief article provides, in pertinent part:

"Verlander received my first-place vote because nobody was tougher on the mound with the season on the line for his team."

This seems like sound reasoning. I have always heard the Cy Young described as the award that goes to the toughest pitcher on the mound down the stretch with the season on the line.