Royals put no stock into regular season sweep of Giants  —  The Kansas City Royals swept the San Francisco Giants in a three-game interleague series in August.  —  That is quite fitting since sweep has been the operative word for the Royals during their first postseason appearance in since 1983.

Baseball's top prospect hits RBI double, scores run in win for Salt River  —  John Hart, Jim Callis and Bill Ripken discuss Twins outfielder Byron Buxton being ranked No. 1 on MLB.com's list of top prospects  —  Byron Buxton played only 30 games for Advanced A Fort Myers and one game for Double …

Hitting coaches blamed for lack of offense  —  Hitting coach jobs are available in Atlanta, Boston, New York (both teams), and Milwaukee, and the Cubs and Astros fired their hitting coaches then hired new ones (John Mallee in Chicago, Dave Hudgens in Houston).

Source: Red Sox hire Chili Davis to become hitting coach  —  According to multiple major league sources, the Red Sox have agreed to terms with Chili Davis to become their next hitting coach.  —  Davis, who worked as the hitting coach for the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox in 2011 …

Sporting News MLB awards 2014: Mets' Jacob deGrom voted top NL rookie  —  Sporting News has selected a Rookie of the Year since 1946, a year before MLB began its official award.  This year's winners, as voted on by fellow players in their leagues, are Jacob deGrom of the Mets (National League) …

Is Buster Posey the next Derek Jeter?  —  San Francisco Giants catcher chasing his third World Series title in five seasons  —  So ... do you think Derek Jeter is starting to get jealous of Buster Posey?  —  He probably should be.  Because if you just substitute wholesome family dude …

DeWitt expects ‘significant’ rise in payroll in coming years  —  • By Derrick Goold dgoold@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8285  —  As the Cardinals over the past decade have turned increasingly to an internal funnel of talent, one built to develop cost-controlled youth and groom core players …

This year's squad has lots in common with predecessors from 29 years ago  —  10/27/85: Legendary Royals broadcaster Denny Matthews calls the final out of the 1985 World Series as the Royals become champions  —  Twenty-nine years later, the Kansas City Royals have returned to the World Series.

After comeback campaign, veteran pitcher sure to draw interest this offseason  —  8/17/14: Chris Young fires six scoreless innings vs. the Tigers, fanning four batters and allowing just four hits to push his record to 12-6  —  SEATTLE — Chris Young's season with the Mariners didn't begin the way he hoped.

Could the Yankees ever be Royals?  Young and athletic K.C. is everything that Bombers are not  —  In this post-steroids era of declining offense, especially home runs, it's a greatly changing game, with the formula for winning having shifted to athleticism, defense and, most importantly, a shutdown, power-arm bullpen.

Josh Byrnes seen as a leading candidate for job below Friedman in LA  —  Josh Byrnes, the former general manager of the Diamondbacks and Padres, is seen as a leading candidate for the top executive job under new club president Andrew Friedman with the Dodgers, league sources said.