Joe Gordon, Grudzielanek, Bill James and Zack Greinke's wife

As Winter Meetings commence...

• MLB.com: "Second baseman Mark Grudzielanek, as promised, officially declined the Royals' offer of salary arbitration on Sunday night."
  
  As promised indeed. Nice work, Dayton (and Mark).
  
  
• Same site: "Joe Gordon, the first member of the Baseball Hall of Fame's 2009 class, was the first manager in Royals franchise history."
  
  Congrats.
  
  
• Mrs. Zach (sic) Greinke. (Scroll down.)
  
  This while reports indicate Dayton Moore's asking for five players for Greinke -- three starters and two prospects, according to Jayson Stark.
  
  

  And, oh-by-the-way, there's not even any indication they want to deal David DeJesus or Mark Teahen, either. So who's the most available Royal by far? Jose Guillen.

  
  
• Via Royals Authority, Most Valuable Network's Red Sox blog interviews Bill James:
  
  

  You've said that Bret Saberhagen is the closest you've come to seeing a pitcher achieve perfection. Which active pitcher would you say comes the closest?
  
  Another Royal. . .Zack Greinke. At the end of the season he had that same look that Saberhagen did in the 1980s and Catfish Hunter did in the 1970s--that he was doing effortlessly the things that everybody else struggles to do.