You know, between the Trey-bashing, and Dayton-questioning, pitch counts, and now the Rany drama*, it's pretty hard to find any non-Zack positives from this current edition of the Royals.

* Might have more thoughts on this tomorrow, after some fact finding.

But here's one: Billy Butler, barely 23 years old, is showing some real signs of turning into the first legitimate middle-of-the-order hitter the Royals have developed since, what, Sweeney?

(UPDATE: This story about Scott Boras' car probably doesn't deserve its own post, but it's too funny not to pass along.)

Well, jeez, you can say the Royals are playing terrible*, but you certainly can't say that following them is boring.

* Remember that whole, this-is-not-2004 moment I had? Can we, you know, just pretend that never happened?

The last thing Tony Pena Jr. needs is one more guy behind a keyboard pointing out how bad he is at hitting, but here goes, quickly, I hope, followed by something that may or may not resemble a point:

Pena is now hitting .100. This is preposterously bad, and has inspired more than one of you to e-mail in and say that if the Mendoza line is hitting .200, then the Pena line should be .100.

His full numbers are .100/.143/.125, which is bad enough for a .268 OPS and -28 OPS+. Kobe Bryant hit 85.6 percent of his free throws last season, meaning he's as good a bet to hit a free throw as Pena is to make an out.

(UPDATE: Trey didn't do himself any favors by putting his $55 million pitcher out for the 6th inning when he's coming off a dead arm with 99 pitches.)

OK, one more quick try on the Trey thing, because I'm clearly not articulating myself well, then we're going Trey-less for a while, because this is getting tired.

Some think citing the long list of injuries is an excuse. I think putting it all on the manager is an excuse.

Aside from a rainout between the Cubs and White Sox that needs to be made up, interleague play is done, and again the attendance was up from "regular games," as pointed out here by Maury Brown at The Biz of Baseball.

My man -- and former Kansas City Star sports writer -- Mike Vaccaro provides the human side of the benefits of interleague play here.

Aside from a rainout between the Cubs and White Sox that needs to be made up, interleague play is done, and again the attendance was up from "regular games," as pointed out here by Maury Brown at The Biz of Baseball.

My man -- and former Kansas City Star sports writer -- Mike Vaccaro provides the human side of the benefits of interleague play here.

...OK, not really.

But check out this post on Hardball Times by Peter Jensen. Interesting stuff, including some math that says Greinke got relatively lucky on what balls hit into plays turned into outs.

But, regardless, I hope we can get past the Greinke stuff and think about this honestly.

If I'm understanding it correctly -- you and I both know that's a capital letters IF -- it's an attempt to quantify the luck that goes into getting or giving up base hits.

When a throwaway line in yesterday's post that has nothing to do with the main point -- Zack Greinke -- generates the bulk of the comments, it's probably best to address what's on your mind.

A lot of you are frustrated, and that's fine, you should be. These were real hopes you had in spring training, fanned by an 18-11 start that had people in Kansas City dreaming in the clouds.

Bob Dutton points this one out. Remember when Bo Jackson threw out Harold Reynolds at the plate? You can see the video here, at least eventually.

It was June 5, 1989, and along with him running over Brian Bosworth, is one of the most memorable moments of a ridiculously entertaining career.

Your 2009 Royals are on pace to go 70-92 this season, based on their current win percentage.

If you play with the math a little bit, and assume the Royals will continue to win/lose at the pace they've set after that 18-11 start, you're looking at -- cover your eyes, children -- a 59-103 team.

That would almost certainly put manager Trey Hillman's job in jeapordy, but more to today's point, it would put Zack Greinke in a fairly unique place in baseball history.

Programming note: lots of Royals fans upset about recent pitch counts, particularly with Gil Meche and Zack Greinke. Check out Sunday's paper for a deeper look at this, one that goes beyond the reactionary. You might be surprised at what one of the sport's leading experts on the subject says about the Royals.

John Bale now has a brother in silly, vent-it-out injuries.

Braves reliever Jeff Bennett is on the disabled list after breaking his non-pitching hand punching a door near the dugout during Wednesday's loss to the Yankees.

The Royals' first four draft picks remain unsigned, and at least the first three figure to receive bonuses well above baseball's silly "recommendations."

Aaron Crow will be the richest of the draft picks, and as soon as he was selected 12th overall, there were people in Kansas City crushing the guy for turning down $3.5 million the year before. Something must be wrong with him, they say. What kind of kid turns down that money?

Well, I was all set for some words about another embarrassing loss for the Royals.

Three errors, some other misplays, totaling three earned runs, handed to the Royals like a get-well-soon gift, and returned to the Astros like a bad fruitcake.

The Royals still won the series, and besides, it's not like THIS is the game that's gonna keep them from winning the division. But still, bad. very bad. The kind of thing that gets bloggers and baseball fans and newspaper people all fired up.

Well, at some point, long ago by now, athletes' personal lives turned into fair game for the gossip sites and shows. That's fine. You'll hear no beef about that here.

Athletes make a lot of money, many of them are incredibly famous, and that's a combination that -- right or wrong -- puts most everything they do up for public consumption.

Fair enough.

There's just something about all this A-Rod-and-Kate-Hudson thing that's a little uncomfortable. Before Hudson, it was Madonna, and before Madonna, it was that homely stripper in Toronto.

Wow. Anybody heard this story before?

I know this is two plugs* in one week for Jeff Pearlman's blog, but this is just too good.

* I'm sure he appreciates the several extra hits.

Apparently, Elvis Grbac was named People Magazine's sexiest athlete in 1998. I guess I forgot.

And apparently, it was all a mistake, which figures, but the way it played out is worth a click.