Minnesota’s Joe Mauer came to town batting .295 with just five homers in his first 333 at-bats this season. He leaves town today batting .310 after going nine for 13 with a homer, four doubles and nine RBIs in the Twins' three-game sweep. Here are some leftovers from Mauer’s three days in Kansas City.

Start with this: Imagine Zack Greinke.

Imagine the way he pitched in 2009, and the way the city rallied around him.

The following story ran in Wednesday's newspaper, but we'll post it here for people out of the area that might have missed it. And we'll have one final thought on Mauer, who just recorded his 37th extra-base hit of the last three days, by the end of today. 

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Well, sometimes the numbers tell the story better than any writer/reporter/blogger could do. And it appears that Monday and Tuesday were two of those nights.

The Royals lost 11-2 to the Twins at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday night, one day after falling 19-1 — and nearly setting a list forgettable records in the process.

Mike Moustakas entered Monday batting .218 with two homers in 55 at-bats over 14 games at Class AAA Omaha.

Eric Hosmer continues to drop line drives on Class AA opponents at Northwest Arkansas — five homers, three doubles and a 1.153 OPS in 11 games.

Good night for the Royals. Good night for Rick Ankiel. Great night for Kyle Davies.

You probably saw that Davies allowed four runs in 5 1/3 innings in the Royals’ 7-4 victory over the Yankees on Saturday in New York. Guy picked up his first victory since May 28 — almost 60 days ago if you’re adding at home.

Update (3:34 p.m.): David DeJesus is done for the season with a complete ligament tear in his right thumb, Bob Dutton reports from New York.

So, the Royals didn’t take much time finding a roster replacement for David DeJesus.

Before we get back to sifting through baseball's never-ending trade rumors, we offer some morning viewing to go with your coffee and iPad.

So all those people that say American kids don’t get enough exercise have never been to a Baltimore Orioles game.

Now, we’ve seen all sorts of fan incidents at major-league baseball games.

On a night the Royals lost 10-4 to the Yankees in New York, the Royals' decision-makers pulled the trigger on one trade — and may have lost the opportunity to make a future deal.

Mike Aviles wants you to know how much he loves New York.

And, yes, this view might not make him a popular guy among a certain contingent of Royals fans. But that’s OK.

Guy can’t help it. He was born there. Raised there. Just miles from old Yankee Stadium.

This weekend’s four-game series against the Yankees means something more to Aviles — and, well, it's tough for him to explain.

Major League Baseball has the loosest salary structure in American team sports. So you’d think this would lead to baseball players being the richest guys in the room.

Well, maybe not. Sports Illustrated released its annual Fortunate 50 — a list of the 50 highest-paid American athletes — on Wednesday, and there are plenty of interesting trends and storylines* to take away.

You probably heard the news by now.

You probably heard the Royals released a minor-league pitcher named Chris Hayes on Monday.

And if you’ve followed the Royals for the past few years, you probably know this story. The story of a non-drafted position player from Northwestern. The kid with the submarine style, and the degree in Computer Science. The player who began his career with the Windy City Thunderbolts, playing baseball in a league so far off the grid that it’s called the Frontier League. The minor-league pitcher who gained cult status by authoring one of the most entertaining blogs in baseball.

Heard this line on Monday night from someone who has followed the Royals for decades.

You know, it used to be easy to keep track of all the former Royals. You remembered them because they were in Kansas City for more than a few minutes.

Now, the explanation: The line came after one-time Royal Donnie Murphy hit a pinch-hit, two-run walk-off homer against Colorado’s Huston Street in the Marlins’ dramatic 9-8 victory on Monday night.

The names are surely going to be lumped together for years now, mentioned in consecutive breaths and in the same conversations.

That’s how these sort of things work.

Like it or not, Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer are in this together.

Like Butler and Gordon or Dos Carlos, Moustakas and Hosmer are now Moose and Hoz.

You know the story. Both were first-round draft picks, the first No. 1 selections of the Dayton Moore era, high school hitters with powerful pedigrees.

You know, sometimes I wonder if modern-day baseball players really hate the Internet.

For instance, the baseball blogosphere exploded this morning as word spread that Seattle’s Russell Branyan and San Diego’s Mat Latos (AP Photo, above) had both suffered patently ridiculous injuries.

If you were paying close attention to the All-Star Game on Tuesday, you might have seen Billy Butler get some face time in another Pepsi commercial.

This time, Butler didn’t get compared to Joe DiMaggio — remember that? — but he did share the screen with heavyweights like CC Sabathia, Evan Longoria, Prince Fielder, Torii Hunter and Felix Hernandez.