GO ROYALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mean]

Your solution to build a winning team is to trade away the one consistent starting pitcher?

[dublin]

Oh, he's building.  The problem is that the parts he ordered are still several years away.   And the temporary materials he's got off the scrapheap aren't any better than what was here previously.

[KC-wildcat]

Amen!  The team went through seven years with no owner whatsoever, and you could make a compelling case that miserable as those years were, during this period the team was better run and more competitive than it has been during the ten years Glass has owned the team.  What bigger indictment is there than that? - the team was better off broke with no owner than it has been having Glass as an owner.   :(

The Royals have a payroll of $72,267,710.00.  Higher payroll than 10 major league teams.  Notably, our payroll is 20mil higer than the A's (1st place in Division, 10mil higher than the Blue Jays (19-16), and 1mil higher than the Rays (best record in baseball).  

I'd say that our current failures are an indicment of Dayton Moore's ineptitude.  The guy consistently mismanages Glass' money.  And consistently fails to develop ANY talent through our farm system.  Arguably, Glass' biggest failure has been not firing Moore.  

I'm not saying Glass is a saint.  He could spend more money.  He could be more active.  But, to say our failures have been an indictment of Glass' wallet it silly, considering we are far from the bottom in terms of $$$ spent.    

[beautyfromashes]

The Royals lost their chance to turn it around when they decided to remake the K instead of building downtown.  The excitement and change of scenery would have shaken the rust of appathy off of this team.  Look at the Twins to see what some new digs can mean to a team.

[LenexatoKCMO]

Podsednik, Ankiel, Kendall, Yuni, Farnsworth, Cruz, Pods, Guillen and Meche make up over $40m of our total payroll. So, yes - I think all of those moves are DMs. If he has confidence in Kila, Maier and Aviles -and keeps Leo and RamRam - we don't have to waste half that money.

Meche, Guillen, and Farnsworth were all well over twelve months ago.  Everything he has done over the last year has been cheap "tinkering" as you put it - no moves that would create any real expectation of remotely significant improvement in the ball club.  The man has clearly had his leash yanked in - or at the very least maxed out his authorized payroll/owner profit ratio.  

If Moore had any stones and was serious about making this team a success long-term, he'd trade Greinke now. But, he's spent the last four years tinkering and not building.

What makes you so confident DM still has the authority to make such a deal?  Keeping Grienke around for bobble head nights is clearly key to the Glass  agenda of milking cash out of his investment.  Suckers will keep showing up and tuning in to watch Grienke no matter how much ownership lets the rest of the team rot.  

[dublin]

I'd say that our current failures are an indicment of Dayton Moore's ineptitude.  The guy consistently mismanages Glass' money.  And consistently fails to develop ANY talent through our farm system.  Arguably, Glass' biggest failure has been not firing Moore.  

Who has Moore drafted since he's been running the team that you expect to be up here contributing?  

[KC-wildcat]

The Royals lost their chance to turn it around when they decided to remake the K instead of building downtown.  The excitement and change of scenery would have shaken the rust of appathy off of this team.  Look at the Twins to see what some new digs can mean to a team.

...except the Twins consistently competed for the division before the new ball park. 

Perhaps the Pirates and Reds would be better examples.  New park, same shitty team.   

[LenexatoKCMO]

The Royals have a payroll of $72,267,710.00.  Higher payroll than 10 major league teams.  Notably, our payroll is 20mil higer than the A's (1st place in Division, 10mil higher than the Blue Jays (19-16), and 1mil higher than the Rays (best record in baseball).  

Even more notably it is between ~$30-50 million lighter than any of the three legitimate contendors for our division.  Sure payroll's got nothing to do with it.  &&&&

[KC-wildcat]

Who has Moore drafted since he's been running the team that you expect to be up here contributing?  

I'm not sure if drafting is the only way to look at it.  All the players he's drafted are young.  Moore's hasn't been here that long. 

As we all know, a farm system is comprised of a lot more players than merely draft picks. 

I'd say that an outfield of Teahen, Meier, and DeJesus would be as equally effective as an outfield with Guillen and Crisp.  And a whole lot less expensive.  I'd wager that we could have farmed up a new short stop instead of signing Betancourt.  I'd argue that Callaspo should have played third all of last season and Gordon should have been traded when he was still worth something.  I probably would have farmed up Kila at some point. 

I don't know.  I'm not the manager.  I'm just a fan that is all too familiar with 100 loss seasons.  Especially when teams with smaller payrolls consistently outperform us...

[KC-wildcat]

Even more notably it is between ~$30-50 million lighter than any of the three legitimate contendors for our division.  Sure payroll's got nothing to do with it.  &&&&

I didn't say that.  Don't put words in my mouth. 

I don't expect to win the Division with our payroll.  Unfortunately, my expectations will probably never - in my entire life - be that high.  I'd be ecstatic with .500 ball. 

tell me that we don't have the payroll to play .500 ball...  to be mildly relevant in September 

[aknowledgeableperson]

The Royals lost their chance to turn it around when they decided to remake the K instead of building downtown.  The excitement and change of scenery would have shaken the rust of appathy off of this team.  Look at the Twins to see what some new digs can mean to a team.

So I guess a new stadium is required every 8 to 10 years or so.

[LenexatoKCMO]

I didn't say that.  Don't put words in my mouth. 

I don't expect to win the Division with our payroll.  Unfortunately, my expectations will probably never - in my entire life - be that high.  I'd be ecstatic with .500 ball. 

tell me that we don't have the payroll to play .500 ball...  to be mildly relevant in September 

So lets run the manager and maybe the general manager because they might have held us back from being "mildly relevant" (but still not really competitive) rather than focus on the one member of the organization that has consistently kept us from being truly relevant for the last ten years?  Fine, bring in the next two chumps at manager and GM so we can sit around in three years and quibble about whether a few more shrewd moves on their parts might have netted us closer to eighty losses than a hundred loses.   

[KCMax]

The damage Glass did from 2000-2006 are being felt today for we have very little to show in the upper levels of our minor leagues because of Glass' penny-wise pound foolish strategy of not offering amateurs any money. What homegrown Latin American players are part of our future? None, because Glass wouldn't allow us to invest in them.

Now, since hiring Dayton Moore, he has given him as many resources as one could expect him to give. We were among the top spenders in the amateur draft in both 2008 and 2009. We have been much more aggressive in Latin American spending hundreds of thousands on guys like Cheslor Cuthbert, Paul Carlixte and Noel Arguelles, highly touted Latin American free agents. He has also upped payroll to about as high as you can expect the second smallest market in baseball to field. He has given this team resources.

But that lack of minor league depth hurts. Dayton is still replenishing a barren system and it will take time. I do believe he is doing some good things in minor league development.

I also think he is completely and utterly inept at handling Major League talent. He has shown no ability to construct a 25 man roster. He seems to have no grasp of the player performance curve - that players peak at age 28, and generally decline afterwards. He does not seem to understand replacement level - paying millions to old players who are not better than freely available young talent. He does not seem to understand how to maximize offensive potential - find guys that don't make outs, not guys that can steal and bunt. He does not seem to understand defensive metrics at all, insisting Yuniesky Betancourt is an awesome defender when every advanced statistics shows he is awful.

I think Dayton could be a great scouting director. But I think he is in way over his head as a GM. And I think at this point, he is the biggest problem for the Royals. Even if his star pupils in the minors become studs (and even if we're lucky, about half of them will bust....prospects are just that - prospects), by the time they are ready to become big-time contributors, we will no longer have the good players we have today - Greinke, Soria, DeJesus, possibly Butler. And I don't have much faith in Dayton being able to field a competitive team around these good young players.

[WSPanic]

So lets run the manager and maybe the general manager because they might have held us back from being "mildly relevant" (but still not really competitive) rather than focus on the one member of the organization that has consistently kept us from being truly relevant for the last ten years?  Fine, bring in the next two chumps at manager and GM so we can sit around in three years and quibble about whether a few more shrewd moves on their parts might have netted us closer to eighty losses than a hundred loses.   

Don't get me wrong - I hate Glass for keeping those two around. I just think "might" have held us back is a ridiculous understatement. The Royals were a mess when DM and Trey took over - no doubt. And they've had a very short time to turnaround what has been a pathetic franchise for two decades. However, there is no doubt in my mind that better men - given the same tools and conditions - could have garnered significantly better results. The product on the field is absolutely, 100% inexcusable.

And I say this as someone who still goes out and watches on a semi-regular basis. It's still ML ball and I still want to go watch. It should just be better by now.

[dublin]

I'm not sure if drafting is the only way to look at it.  All the players he's drafted are young.  Moore's hasn't been here that long. 

As we all know, a farm system is comprised of a lot more players than merely draft picks. 

Well sure, but other than international signings and trades, it's the only way to get talented minor leaguers in your system.  With the exception of the big money guys that the Royals have no shot at getting, all the international players tend to be in their teens when they sign.  The Royals are finally active in the international market but it's still years away from paying off.  And as for trading for minor league talent, it takes talent to get talent.  Some GMs can turn shit into gold but Moore doesn't seem to be one of those guys.  Beyond that it's all minor league free agents.  Minor league free agents are another "turn shit into gold" scenario.  If they were any good, they would never be free agents in the first place.   

I have no problem with how Moore has run the farm system to this point.  The only reason I have not shut down my interest in the Royals until next year is b/c the dominance of some of our A and AA players.  What worries me is what Moore will do when we finally have a team of young, homegrown talent ready to play .500 ball and beyone and he needs to tweak the roster to take it to the next level.  Short of Meche, I can't think of one major league free agent signing that hasn't blown up in his face.  And other than the Bannister and Callaspo deals, has he really made any good trades?

[KC-wildcat]

So lets run the manager and maybe the general manager because they might have held us back from being "mildly relevant" (but still not really competitive) rather than focus on the one member of the organization that has consistently kept us from being truly relevant for the last ten years?  Fine, bring in the next two chumps at manager and GM so we can sit around in three years and quibble about whether a few more shrewd moves on their parts might have netted us closer to eighty losses than a hundred loses.   

Glass needs to spend more money to win the Division.  Bottom line.  I don't dispute that.  

But, with 70mil+ we should be competing in the division.  I don't hink there's much debate on that point.

[LenexatoKCMO]

However, there is no doubt in my mind that better men - given the same tools and conditions - could have garnered significantly better results. The product on the field is absolutely, 100% inexcusable.

You could say the exact same thing about every manager and general manager we have had over the last 17 years.  Its the same cycle over and over again.  At some point you have to say, maybe its not the dudes we are hiring but maybe its the shitty jobs themselves that manage to make anyone sitting at those desks look like inept clowns.  At this point I am pretty convinced that you could have Brian Cashman and Joe Torre (insert any successful GM/managerial combination) in those two jobs, working for david glass, and three years later have them looking like total buffoons.  But shit, the fans buy into it every time and let ownership off the hook.  The only way ANY manager or GM is going to have any success working for that man is if they get profoundly lucky - that could just as well happen for Hillman/Moore as it can for whatever chumps we replace them with.  

[LenexatoKCMO]

But, with 70mil+ we should be competing in the division.  I don't hink there's much debate on that point.

By payroll we should be a far distant fourth - thats not really competing now is it?  So it's Hillman and Moore's faults we are in fifth place instead of fourth? - ok I might buy that.  whoop dee do. 

[WSPanic]

You could say the exact same thing about every manager and general manager we have had over the last 17 years.  Its the same cycle over and over again.  At some point you have to say, maybe its not the dudes we are hiring but maybe its the shitty jobs themselves that manage to make anyone sitting at those desks look like inept clowns.

No argument there. And Glass deserves blame for that - sure. But, it's not like anyone's seen Tony Pena, Tony Muser, Herk Robinson, Buddy Bell, Allard Baird, Bob Boone or any of our chumps go on to succeed at the manager/GM level anywhere else. It ain't the desk when it comes to those guys. Baird's a fine scouting director - not a GM. Those men were all promoted beyond their abilities - much like Hillman and Moore.

[LenexatoKCMO]

No argument there. And Glass deserves blame for that - sure. But, it's not like anyone's seen Tony Pena, Tony Muser, Herk Robinson, Buddy Bell, Allard Baird, Bob Boone or any of our chumps go on to succeed at the manager/GM level anywhere else. It ain't the desk when it comes to those guys. Baird's a fine scouting director - not a GM. Those men were all promoted beyond their abilities - much like Hillman and Moore.

Who know if they were or not.  Usually a flame out as Royals' manager/GM is plenty enough to sink your career to the point where you aren't ever going to get a top job anywhere else.  Who is going to hire some dude who racked up hundred loss seasons for the Royals?  Try explaining that one to your fans.  God only knows what might have happened for most of those guys if they hadn't had the bad luck to get hired by the Royals and instead got their big break for some team with a real owner and a real organization.  Every GM/manager makes some bad moves - on teams that can compete you get to keep your job despite that.