Mizzou Baseball in the Minors & Majors

■ Former Yukon star happy to have another chance at the Big leagues (NewsOK.com)

He was claimed off waivers by the Milwaukee Brewers last November and optioned to Nashville late in spring training. Nashville is in Oklahoma City for a four-game series at Bricktown Ballpark.

James, who is 0-1 with a 2.70 ERA in seven appearances so far this season, couldn’t be happier.

“Sometimes, you’ve got to hit rock bottom to realize what’s going on,” James said. “I’m grateful to have another chance.”

■ Rookie reliever has more to Crow about (Kansas City Star)

It’s hard to pick the most impressive part of Aaron Crow’s first month in the majors for the Royals, but he was chosen Sunday as the club’s pitcher of the month for April.

Crow, a 24-year-old rookie right-hander from Topeka who pitched at Missouri, was 2-0 in a setup role with 11 strikeouts in 12 1/3 scoreless innings for the month.

■ Rangers give fatigued-looking Ian Kinsler a day off (Dallas News)

His approach at the plate and his play in the field, however, have both been a bit ragged lately. Though he has 16 walks this season, he's taken only four of them in his last 12 games. He took 12 in the Rangers' first 16 games. He's also made three errors in the Rangers' last three games. He had only one error entering the series. Perhaps the most egregious of those mistakes was a dropped foul pop on which Kinsler dropped his glove below his eye while making the attempted catch. It looked sloppy.