The Sports Pages: Jake Peavy, Eric Hosmer, and Anthony Young?

“I always turn to the sports pages first, which records man’s accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures.” – Earl Warren

The big news in the past 24 hours is that Kansas City has brought top prospect Eric Hosmer up from the minor leagues. Of course, calling Hosmer a top prospect doesn’t really make him stand out all that much in the Royals’ system. After all, this is the most highly regarded farm system in recent memory.

Corye Ettinger gives his thoughts on the move here, and Michael Engel of Kings of Kauffman breaks out the way back machine to highlight Hosmer’s path to the big leagues. Both are excellent reads and should give us a better idea of what to expect as the first of the wave of Royals impact players reaches the major leagues.

Staying with the Royals, Lee Judge of the Kansas City Star wrote recently that Wilson Betemit should have been more willing to take a hit-by-pitch in a game where it would have benefited the club to do so. Betemit got out of the way, but Judge didn’t let it die there. But he didn’t lambaste the third baseman about it any longer, instead he decided to climb into the cage and put his back where his mouth was. The plan was to wear a slider, but he caught a fastball instead. There’s even a video of the incident.

The Indians continue to roll along after taking two of three in Oakland. At Deep Left Field, Marc Bigelow feels like he might owe Tribe manager Manny Acta an apology.

Maybe there really is something to this whole “Orlando Cabrera is just a winning player” thing. When the veteran signed late with Cleveland, I had figured he’d need a mid-season trade to get back to the playoffs yet again, but could it be that Cabrera’s presence has as much to do with his team’s successes as the rest of the roster combined? O-Cab has been a part of the post-season in six of the past seven years, and with five different clubs. Jordan Bastian took a look at Cabrera’s propensity for driving in clutch runs at Indians.com.

The White Sox are reeling and sit 10 games under .500. Their latest series with Minnesota saw them on the wrong end of a Francisco Liriano no-hitter, only to again be shut down by Nick Blackburn the next day. According to Travis Miller at Southside Showdown, the turning point in Wednesday’s loss might have been a mental lapse on defense. Not something you see very often from Omar Vizquel. But hey, at his age, the mind begins to slip.

In better news for Chicago, rehabbing ace Jake Peavy was perfect for six innings against the Toledo Mud Hens last night in his final tune-up start. Of course, those innings weren’t consecutive, there was that pesky five-run third that happened, highlighted by a two-run bomb from Ryan Stieby. John Wagner of the Toledo Blade was there.

Although the Twins have won their past two games, including Liriano’s no-no, it’s tough to forget the rocky start to the season that has put Minnesota 9.5 games out of first. Wally Fish and the staff at Puckett’s Pond take some time to relive the horror “bi-lateral leg weakness” and a broken fibula to their Japanese import. Those just two of the issues that have the Twins looking up from fourth place.

For years, we’ve heard about “five-tool” players. There are far fewer player who actually harness all five tools than those proclaimed by others to have them. That said, Seth Stohs of SethSpeaks has taken things a step further, or a tool further anyway, and breaks down the Twins roster to see which players are the biggest tool sheds. As always with Seth, you also get a great look at the minor league system.

One last link, but this one comes from our neighbors to the North. Jo-Jo Reyes is scheduled to take the hill against the Tigers on Sunday and when he does, he’ll have a dubious streak on the line. One that congers up memories of former Mets and Cubs righthander Anthony Young. That’s never a good sign. Mat Germain gives the details at Jays Journal.

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