No deal! And RC is cool with that...

The trading deadline came and went, and the Royals -- like nearly every other team in baseball -- stood pat. In what has to be the most boring deadline of all time, only five trades were completed, none of which terribly significant. The best player moved today was probably Kyle Farnsworth, who went to the Braves. Upon learning that he had been traded, Farnsworth reportedly attempted to body slam Detroit's trainer. Nobody was sure why, but Farnsworth insisted he overheard the poor guy "talking smack."

So, why didn't Allard Baird pull the string on any trades today? Where is our corner outfielder?

RC doesn't know, nor do we care. As far as we're concerned, one of our corner outfielders is 4-for-5 tonight in High Desert, and the other is on a couch somewhere in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Could improvements have been made to this team by making some trades?

We don't know, and neither do you. Trade rumors always have a funny way of exciting people, and when that anticipation turns into disappointment, people get upset and say stupid things. If you don't believe us, check out the KC Royals discussion board. "Start the clock on Baird" is the title of one stupid post. "Baird's reign, third worst in MLB" is the title of another. But the fact is that none of the idiots who are complaining about the Royals' inaction today have the slightest idea of what had actually been offered for Terrence Long or Jose Lima or Matt Stairs. And seeing how nearly every other team in baseball also did nothing, RC suspects it probably wasn't a whole lot, if anything at all.

Besides, as we pointed out yesterday, today's deadline wasn't all that important for the Royals. Guys like T-Long and Lima will have no problem clearing waivers, so Baird still has a month to get something done. And if he doesn't, who cares? Do we really expect the Royals to get anything significant in return for Long, Lima, or even Stairs? The only thing RC hopes to see is a serious decline in Long's playing time, so we can get a better look at Chip Ambres. So for us, this trading deadline was pretty meaningless anyway.

Also rankling the fans a bit today was the fact that the Royals this afternoon were swept by the D-Rays. RC watched the game, and we don't have much to say. The D-Rays are hot right now, and the Royals aren't. Unfortunately, things don't look to get any easier, as the Royals now head to Boston for a three game series. Maybe tomorrow's off-day will help them get back on track.

Finally, some good news from Omaha! J.P. Howell tonight pitched six beautiful shutout innings, allowing four hits and three walks, and striking out five. But even better was that his groundball to flyball ratio on the evening was 13-0. That's right...All of Howell's outs tonight were either strikeouts or groundouts. That's an excellent formula for success for a lefty who doesn't throw all that hard, and it's great to see the Royals' best pitching prospect get back on track.

That's about it for tonight's post. As we alluded to above, Billy Butler is in the midst of another huge game at High Desert (4-for-5, two doubles, two RBIs), and California League All-Star John Gragg is pitching a shutout through eight innings. We'll be monitoring a few things throughout the evening.