The fun starts now.

Oh to be an ex-jock or an Ivy Leaguer and in the employ of a baseball team this weekend. The rumors, the cell phones, the random player and second wife appearances, the hotel bar, whispers in the lobby, the vague internet rumors, and on and on. Ah, Nashville! Oh, Nashville!

Of course, we'll be here all December long on Royals Review, leeching of the coverage of the professionals and providing knee-jerk reaction to the moves as they come in. As you did last year, I hope you make RR one of your regular internet stops during the Winter Meetings.

Last year, we were all caught unawares by the Gil Meche signing, which quickly became one of the stories of the winter. The Meche signing was quickly followed with a string of lesser deals, including the snagging of Dotel, who for almost a full month was the living embodiment of Royal Pride. Meanwhile, some guy named Soria became the steal of the Rule 5, I'm sorry, the "Rule V Draft".

• Unlike the Meche blindside, I believe we've entered Year Two of the Guillen-to-KC rumors, or perhaps it just seems that way. For an excellent post on the strangeness of baseball morality and the Guillen situation, check out Lookout Landing.
• Two Royals mentions (or is it "Royal mentions"?) over at Baseball Prospectus today. Will Carroll (did we ever figure out what the Carroll-Sterger connection was exactly? thats got to go down as one of the most random name drops ever) mentions in his first "Will's Mill" post that the Royals are surprise players. Great. Because we all found the rumors that Dayton wanted Toriiiiiiiiiiii Hunter and Andruw Jones so intellectually reassuring. Meanwhile, John Perrotto mentions       that the Royals are looking for a power bat, and may be shopping DeJesus and Gobble. Now let us pause and try to name our favorite offensive move made by Dayton... Shealy! LaRue! Gathright!
• JQ's already done a gentlemanly job breaking down the Dutton story in Sunday's Star on the Royals' finances. Congrats to the Royals on making "$1 million" in profits last year. I guess its a sign of progress that bonus cries of losing money aren't acceptable anymore, instead, bonus cries of incredibly small profits are. Of the wonders of the human mind, there is no limit to our praise.
• The sister piece to the financial story is another Dutton story on Moore's approach to free agents. According to Dutton, the Royals head to the Winter Meetings, with "$25 million in spendable cash". What the story fails to mention is that they'll also be bringing with them $7 trillion in un-spendable cash.
• According to Dick Kaegel, Royals fans are hoping this year's Winter Meetings are an encore of the last.
• Kaegel also offers a Winter Meetings Checklist, that sums up all the off-season transactions thus far.