Off-day thoughts

I'm still numb from the notion that Tony Pena Jr.'s batting average as a designated hitter is 1.000.

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Mark Nassar just reported on 1420 KOTK that the Omaha Royals are no longer last in the PCL in drawing walks; that honor now belongs to Round Rock. Sounds revolutionary.

Meanwhile, Omaha is ahead of Nashville 2-1. Do you want to guess where Omaha's runs came from? Go on, guess. You're probably right.

Yep. Another Kaaihue home run. I really hope he's for real.

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Speaking of the ORoyals game experience (watching Kaaihue hit is an experience, but don't take my word for it - if you have the chance, come out to a game!), the team has put a fan survey on their website. Those who take it can get some free tickets or $5 to the Royal Treasures Gift Shop. You can take the survey here, but be warned that it doesn't seem to work in Firefox. Maybe try it in Internet Explorer?

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My honest-to-God first reaction when I read this headline is that this is good news for the "Aviles for Rookie of the Year" dream. It seems that Evan Longoria is headed to the DL with a broken wrist.

A few thoughts:
1) I am clearly a bad person for reacting that way.
2) It really doesn't matter whether Aviles wins the RoY award. It would be really cool, but the fact that he's even in the discussion is a good enough story. He's one of the good guys, and seeing him mentioned on SportsCenter and figuring out the league's pitchers (who thought they had already figured him out) makes me very happy.
3) Obviously, bad news for Tampa Bay. A lot of folks have predicted that the Rays would collapse because that's what young teams do. That may have been the case, but right now they're missing the chance to prove those people wrong. If they are indeed going to falter, I'd like it to happen with everyone in the lineup. That would seem to be more conclusive than all the what-ifs that crop up when a team suffers key injuries late in the season.

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Joey Gathright has yet to collect a hit in his rehab assignment with Omaha, nor get on base any other way. (Through 6 innings tonight)
I don't think that means much of anything, but it's hard to see how healthy a guy looks in a game situations if he doesn't give himself any opportunities to run any bases.