Link-O-Rama: Bloomquist is proving it all night

* Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star is the latest in a long line of mainstream media members to inexplicably fawn over Willie Bloomquist. Here’s my favorite excerpt: Bloomquist, 31, has already set career highs this season in virtually every offensive category. His 342 at-bats through Wednesday put him on pace to finish with 440 after never getting more than 251 in Seattle. And he finds satisfaction in proving, finally, that he only needed a chance to prove he can be a regular player. Bloomquist is hitting .257 with four homers and 25 RBIs, so this stuff about “setting career-highs in virtually every offensive category” and “proving finally that he only needed a chance to prove he can be a regular player” is laughable. He came into this season with a lifetime .263 average and .645 OPS. This season he has a .257 average and .654 OPS. The only thing he’s really “proving” is that newspaper writers take care of friendly players who provide them with good quotes. Dutton, incidentally, is president of the Baseball Writers Association of America. * San Francisco is reportedly the team that claimed Trevor Hoffman off waivers, but the odds of a trade taking place seem slim. Instead the Giants likely just wanted to make sure that he doesn’t win up with the Dodgers or Rockies. * His dad finally seems to be out of the spotlight, but 22-year-old catcher/outfielder Koby Clemens is making a name for himself by hitting .346 with 20 homers and 65 total extra-base hits in 106 games at high Single-A. * According to Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com the Twins are close to acquiring veteran left-handed reliever Ron Mahay from the Royals. Mahay was designated for assignment earlier this week after posting a 4.79 ERA and 34/19 K/BB ratio in 41.1 innings, but prior to struggling this season he had ERAs of 3.95, 2.55, and 3.48 with solid K/BB ratios in the previous three years.