Joe Girardi is the manager of a team that won 103 games, so that's what matters, and who is this little blog to challenge that?

Except that Girardi is apparently set to go with a three-man rotation in the ALCS, despite evidence that suggests modern big league pitchers just aren't effective on three days rest.

We should pause for a quick moment here and point out that Girardi knows his team, um, better than some idiot newspaper guy wearing sweats at his kitchen table. The Yankees are paying CC Sabathia $160 million, so, you know, get your money's worth.

(Thanks for sticking with us here at Ball Star. I'll have some Chiefs and/or Big 12 football thoughts on UFR soon, but wanted to get this up first.)

There are any number of ways to point out just how bad the Royals are. Their season was disappointing enough that everyone's performance can be criticized*, everyone's security questioned.

* Zack Greinke, Billy Butler, David DeJesus and Joakim Soria are the exceptions. And Alberto Callaspo's hitting.

Well, so, here are those changes we mentioned yesterday.

Ball Star isn't going anywhere, and in fact, I'm planning on keeping it more active than last offseason. But Brad Doolittle -- the KC Star's spork -- has moved on and away from Upon Further Review, and the powers that be asked me to help out over there, at least for a while.

(Some changes are coming to this blog, with the merciful end of the Royals season. We'll have an explanation later today or early tomorrow. You won't be rid of my bad humor and rambling blog posts, it'll just be different, and, well, check back later today or tomorrow. In the meantime, (at least) one more Royals thought. Also, this link has nothing to do with the Royals or baseball, but if you're a man, you will be jealous of John Madden.)

CC Sabathia starts for the Yankees tonight, Zack Greinke for the Royals tomorrow, and Felix Hernandez for the Mariners on Sunday.

At this point, Sabathia and Hernandez could each throw perfect games, and anything short of Zack missing the team bus won't keep him from winning the Cy Young Award and, probably, winning it by a bunch.

Originally, this was going to be a post about the 10 things that needed to happen for Zack to not win the Cy, but I got stuck after this:

Billy Butler comes from a family of cowboy boots and southern accents. His father is a self-described redneck. There is an image building in your head right now. It's incomplete.

Billy Butler also likes to read James Patterson. Did you know that? He's a bit of an amateur baseball historian, and that "redneck" father of his is actually an engineer who at one time was manager of an international missile project.

The beauty, of course, is that the line is unrehearsed. Has to be.

Because if Zack Greinke gave any thought to what questions the New York reporters would ask and how he would answer them, it would go against the M.O. he's established since arriving in Kansas City five years ago.

"I don't want to pitch for New York in the playoffs," he told the people there. "I want to pitch for Kansas City in the playoffs."

The Royals lost at Yankee Stadium last night, Luke Hochevar getting bombed in another big inning, which brings the thought that on the list of players who should be happy they don't play in New York, Hochevar is at the top.

This time the ax fell in the sixth, when Hoch didn't retire any of the five batters he faced, a grand slam by Robinson Cano punctuating what's become a trademark killer inning from Hoch.

Totally stole this idea from Ball Don't Lie, the terrific NBA blog on Yahoo sports.

Lists like this are made for conversation, made for disagreements, so don't be shy.

I struggled a bit with how to look at these things, the steroids issue obviously being the biggest. As you can see, I mostly took the numbers at face value, vaguely trying to put them in context for that particular season, which has the benefit of probably being both unfair and impossible. But how else can you do it?

(UPDATE: the Royals are printing stickers to put over the error before the giveaway Saturday night)

The above picture is the side of the box of the George Brett figurine the Royals are giving out at Saturday's game.

Brett, in case you've forgotten, never played second base in his 21-year career.

Also, Mark Teahen is now driving a camouflage Hummer around town, but he wants to make it clear that it's not his.