I know yesterday was the trading deadline and there were a bazillion trades, none involving the Royals, but I want to start the morning off with this picture of the top of the 7th inning from the Burlington Royals game last night.

What’s so amazing about this picture you ask? B-Royals RHP Malcolm Van Buren struck out FIVE batters in the inning. FIVE BATTERS IN THE INNING. I’ve never seen it done professionally before and it has never happened in the Major Leagues. According to the B-Royals, it has happened in the minors before although they couldn’t come up with a concrete number of occurrences. The B-Royals won, by the way.

Eric wrote a Prospect Watch on Jonathan Bowlan. Earlier this season Bowlan threw a no-hitter for Wilmington. He was drafted last of the Big Five in the Royals’ college pitcher heavy 2018 draft, but is making a name for himself and is a name you need to know.

I wrote a Film Study on Jonathan Bowlan back in late April if you want to get some more info on him. Like I stated above, you need to know who he is.

The score of the Storm Chasers game was 9-9 after the 3rd inning. The final was a Storm Chasers win 14-11. I saw a tweet from one of the BA writers (I think, couldn’t find it) a few weeks ago saying that home runs in AAA were up over 167% from the previous year, and they’d already surpassed the home run totals from the previous year. But that ball isn’t juiced, says the Commish. Anyway, grand slams for the Chasers from Erick Mejia and Jorge Bonifacio.

The Naturals had the day off, but Brady Singer was named Texas League Pitcher of the Week.

The Blue Rocks lost 1-0. They’ve been shut out back-to-back times and scored 1 run in their last three games. They haven’t scored in 23 innings.

The Legends got beat 8-3. Carlos Hernandez made his first start for Lexington after working his way back from injury. Rubendy Jaquez stole his 25th base of the season.

The Chukars lost 6-2.

Now for the trades. Greinke and $24M in cash to the Astros. The rotation is now Verlander, Cole, and Greinke. Wow. Oh, and by the way, they also traded for Aaron Sanchez. That’ll be interesting to see how he improves.

Mike Leake replaces Greinke in Arizona.

The A’s got Tanner Roark for Jameson Hannah, a name rumored to the Royals.

Martin Maldonado back to Houston.

There were also some interesting DFA’s to make room on rosters. Cubs RHP Oscar De La Cruz is interesting. So is the A’s releasing Andrew Triggs. Braves sent LHP Luiz Gohara packing.

LHP Joey Wentz and RHP Alex Lange were both traded to the Tigers. Both are from KC high schools and have a strong local following. They may both pitch at the K one day, albeit against the Royals.

There were a bunch of other trades. Like 25 I think. So obviously I can’t put them all down, but I’ll leave you with one thought:

Billy Hamilton is still a Royal.