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It's mostly quiet on the Royals front, unless you consider this breaking news:
#Angels claim JC Gutierrez off waivers from the #Royals
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) July 24, 2013
I'm also less than motivated to write about a team that continues to tread in a sea of mediocrity, and shows no signs of making any moves to change that trend. So let's see how everyone else is coping.
Royals
Kings of Kauffman - Royals Supporting Cast Needs Help
Michael Engel looks at how the Royals are effectively punting three innings a game with the bottom half of the lineup, and it doesn't appear to be getting better anytime soon.
Pine Tar Press - State of the Royals
Paul York is officially ready to declare the Royals season dead, and has given up on the current regime.
Royal Revival - Making it Worth It: Ervin Santana
Landon Adams does a nice job attaching a dollar figure to Santana's trade value.
Kansas City Star - Santana is too valuable a commodity for Royals to miss opportunity
Sam Mellinger's opinion on the Royals seems to be drifting to the one held by most at RR. Santana really needs to be traded.
If you haven't seen this video that Santana tweeted out yesterday, you should probably watch it:
Baseball
Baseball Nation - On the roid rage of fans and columnists
Grant Brisbee doing his usual good work over at BN:
I can understand losing respect for players. I can understand feeling deceived as a fan. I can really, really, really understand wanting all this to go away. But I don't understand the abject rage of columnists and fans.
SB Nation - Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and MLB relevancy in 2013
Steven Goldman is ready to move on from two players who haven't contributed in 2013, and talk more about the younger generation of baseball players.
The Classical - Bryce Harper, Human Mormon
Evan Hall examines how Harper doesn't fit the usual stereotype of a Mormon-athlete, and why that's a positive.
Sports on Earth - A ranking of MLB ballparks
Will Leitch has never been to Kauffman Stadium, so the K doesn't make his list. He lists Wrigley as his favorite ballpark that he's traveled too.
Grab bag
SB Nation - Greg Oden's attempted comeback
What can I say, I'm a company man. But Satchel Price does a nice job looking at why NBA teams are still going after Oden even though he hasn't played professional basketball in nearly four years.
The Guardian - In praise of cynicism
Julian Baggini argues that cynicism helps people question what is wrong with the world and strive to make it a better place.
Polygon - The ending of The Last of Us
Danielle Riendeau and Chris Plante discuss the ending of the latest Naughty Dog game, so obvious spoilers if you haven't finished the game (you should have finished the game by now, it's great).
Al Jazeera - The sky darkens for American journalism
Chase Madar looks how American journalism could suffer a serious blow depending on the fallout of the Bradley Manning Wikileaks case.